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• Brazilian vice-president visiting China for week of meetings on trade, infrastructure, climate change
• Some Taiwanese worry that their lawmakers may sell them out to China | Asia
• Canada’s jade mines boomed on Chinese demand. Now that’s over | The Americas
• Could China’s new export controls on military-related tech and materials backfire?
• Respect international law in South China Sea, Philippine leader says after series of clashes
• US ‘taking steps’ to impose visa restrictions on Hong Kong, mainland Chinese officials over national security law implementation
• ‘Long game’: US urged to avoid ‘confrontational’ China strategy as policy experts call for competition, not ‘cold war’
• Hong Kong welcomes Turkish warship on first visit to city to ‘pay tribute to strong friendship’ between Turkey and China
• South China Sea: Philippines set to file case over reef damages against Beijing within weeks
• China’s top executives suffer first average pay cut in 2 decades as sluggish economy weighs on listed firms
• Chinese scientists create world’s fastest vision chip for autonomous cars, defence
• ‘China’s London’? Hong Kong’s finance hub status will be cemented by mainland’s economic development, summit told
• ‘Room re-sale’ row: VVIP guest at posh China hotel fined US$415 after surveillance footage reveals no overnight stay
• Israel-Gaza war: China and Arab states condemn ‘continued aggression’ in Gaza, urge support for Palestinian statehood
• China-Japan-South Korea summit fails to cover key security issues despite having ‘right optics’
• Ukraine war: West is unfair for making Beijing responsible for resolving conflict, senior Chinese envoy says
• Hong Kong police arrest 26 people in 2 crackdowns on vice syndicate bringing in mainland Chinese sex workers
• Chinese hacker Wang Yunhe’s arrest brings fresh scrutiny of Singapore wealth flows
• Chinese scientists bring ‘shark skin’ tech to the next-generation jet engine race that US Air Force plans to quit
• U.S. and Chinese defense chiefs hold first meeting since 2022
• China to extend visa-free travel for Malaysians to 30 days
• Passenger drones in Hong Kong? Expert says laws ‘very limiting’ amid calls to follow mainland China’s lead on commercial use to boost tourism
• China-Australia relations: Premier Li’s planned Perth trip, with big business delegation in tow, reflects commitment to warmer ties
• China-US relations: defence ministers Dong Jun and Lloyd Austin meet for first time at Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore
• South China Sea: how Marcos Jnr’s pushback against Beijing turned him into ‘most sought after leader’ in US
• Chinese-American ‘comedy queen’ Jiaoying Summers born and raised in rural China, reveals childhood taunts about weight
• US delays AI chip exports to Middle East by Nvidia, AMD over concern that China can access the tech via data centres
• EU members split sharply over measures to de-risk China economic ties
• Asia sees more military drills, but China lags US in scale and complexity: study
• Mainland China suspends tariff arrangements on 134 items under Taiwan trade deal
• China’s factory activity shrinks in May amid uneven economic recovery
• South China Sea: Manila, Beijing tap backchannel efforts to resolve disputes
• Electric vehicles: China’s GAC Aion shifts up a gear in Hong Kong with ambitious sales target, new models in pipeline
• US-returned Chinese physicist Duan Luming and team build world’s most powerful ion-based quantum computing machine
• Meet the Chinese army’s latest weapon: the gun-toting dog
• China’s easing of solar, wind installation curbs to boost renewable energy, aid sector struggling with oversupply

Brazilian vice-president visiting China for week of meetings on trade, infrastructure, climate change

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3264981/brazilian-vice-president-visiting-china-week-meetings-trade-infrastructure-climate-change?utm_source=rss_feed

Brazilian Vice-President Geraldo Alckmin will arrive in Beijing on Saturday for week-long meetings with his Chinese counterpart Han Zheng, focusing on joint projects between the two countries addressing trade, infrastructure and climate-change strategies.

Alckmin’s visit until June 7 for the Sino-Brazilian High-Level Commission for Consultation and Cooperation, also known as Cosban, is meant to revive the primary forum for ministerial dialogue between China and Brazil.

The meeting, coming little more than a year after Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s last state visit to China and amid elevated tensions Beijing seeks to manage with Washington and Brussels, will focus on projects that could draw Brazil and its neighbours closer to China economically.

The gathering will mark the first in-person Cosban meeting in five years and the first since Lula’s return as Brazil’s president in 2023.

Established in 2004, Cosban is co-chaired by the two countries’ vice-presidents and convenes every two years.

Alckmin will be accompanied by a delegation of officials and academics including the ministers of planning and agricultural development as well as the president of the state-owned Brazilian Development Bank, according to Brazil’s foreign ministry.

Larissa Wachholz of the Brazilian Centre for International Relations, a think tank, said Brasilia hoped to boost cooperation in trade and infrastructure, with climate-change mitigation forming “a big part of the agenda”.

Wachholz said climate strategies have grown more urgent following devastating floods in Brazil in early May. At least 160 people died and more than 629,000 people were left homeless in what has been called the country’s worst climate disaster in history.

Brazilian officials estimated at least US$3.6 billion is needed to rebuild the destroyed infrastructure.

China could “share relevant technical information with the Brazilian side based on its experience with flood disasters”, said Wachholz, who will travel to Beijing with the delegation to attend events at the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

The Brazilian delegation also hoped to obtain funding for climate finance and the implementation of projects, such as for low-carbon agriculture, she added.

Brazil seeks to find out “what we can do together with China and what we can learn in terms of the resilience of cities to climate change”, said Wachholz. “But all of this requires long-term resources for sustainable infrastructure.”

Another objective is to entice Chinese financing for the “South American Integration Plan” – a project promoted by Simone Tebet, Brazil’s planning minister, to connect the country with its neighbours via multiple transnational motorways.

The initiative is part of the Brasilia Consensus, a document signed by heads of state and government from twelve countries in the Brazilian capital in May 2023.

Priority would be given to the section of the plan connecting roads from northern and midwestern Brazil to Peru, according to sources with knowledge of the agenda in Beijing.

If built, the roads could help exporters sell their goods to China through Chancay, Peru’s deep water mega-port built with Chinese funding and scheduled to open in November.

“The link with the port of Chancay will help connect large soya bean-producing states in Brazil, but this must be done in a coordinated way,” Wachholz said. “That’s why it is a crucial topic for the discussions.”

“A port like that requires good connections and good infrastructure to transport goods there, otherwise it makes no sense.”

Alckmin must not only attract investment but also find a functional framework for Cosban, experts have said.

Despite Cosban being one of Brazil’s most comprehensive intergovernmental mechanisms, its role has largely been symbolic in recent years.

Michelle Ratton of Fundação Getúlio Vargas, a Brazilian higher education institution and think tank, examined the impact of Cosban negotiations on key areas of Sino-Brazilian economic cooperation, such as agriculture, energy and mining.

While the dialogue was important in guiding government action, it had rarely been viewed as relevant by a significant segment of the private market, Ratton said.

The commission held great potential to deepen relations and consolidate public and private agreements between the two countries, she added.

The professor also said Brazil should use the meetings to address sensitive issues in the bilateral relationship, including disagreements about unfair commercial practices.

One example would be the impact of subsidies and artificial price reductions observed in Chinese steel exports.

In April, Brazil decided to impose a 25 per cent tax on Chinese steel after a six-month investigation found that Chinese exporters were engaging in dumping.

The exporters were deemed to have used irregular subsidies and disguised the composition of cold-rolled steel sheets with chromium to circumvent countervailing measures in place since 2013.

The tax aligned with a regional trend. Several other Latin American countries have struggled with an influx of Chinese steel that allegedly benefits from dumping practices, offered at prices far below local alternatives.

In the last two decades, China has seen its share of the global steel market skyrocket from 15 to 54 per cent, according to the Latin American Steel Association.

In 2023, for example, China exported about 10 million tonnes of steel to Latin American countries, compared to 85,000 tonnes 20 years ago.

The discrepancy prompted Chile and Mexico to also impose tariffs, while Colombia is considering a similar move.

In announcing Brasilia’s decision, Alckmin, who also serves as minister of industry and trade, said taxing Chinese steel was necessary to “preserve jobs and encourage new investment and modernisation”.

“This is a type of confrontation that should be handled through Cosban because countervailing duties are a financial tool and an important component for trade negotiations and bargaining,” Ratton said.

Disputes over aluminium have featured on the agenda of past commission meetings, she added.

However, Giorgio Romano Schutte of Brazil’s Federal University of ABC said the tariff increases on Chinese exports, even if they displease Beijing, should not affect any favourable momentum in the bilateral relationship.

Unlike the sanctions and tariffs imposed on China by the United States, Australia and Europe, those assessed by Latin America “are not perceived by policymakers in Beijing as attempts to curb Chinese growth”, Schutte said.

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Some Taiwanese worry that their lawmakers may sell them out to China | Asia

https://www.economist.com/asia/2024/05/30/some-taiwanese-worry-that-their-lawmakers-may-sell-them-out-to-china

THOUSANDS of people converged on the Legislative Yuan, Taiwan’s parliament, on May 28th. Their placards read “Taiwan for the Taiwanese” and “Tyranny of the majority is not democracy”. They tied white ribbons to police barricades that had been put up around the building. One claimed that democracy was “dead”.

The target of the protests, which had been bubbling for days, was not Taiwan’s government, but its legislature. In January Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was elected Taiwan’s president. Yet in parliamentary elections that were held simultaneously, his DPP lost control of the Legislative Yuan to China-friendly parties. These parties have since been backing amendments that give the legislature much greater governmental oversight, including sweeping investigative powers. As the protesters marched on parliament, the legislature passed the amendments into law.

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Canada’s jade mines boomed on Chinese demand. Now that’s over | The Americas

https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2024/05/30/canadas-jade-mines-boomed-on-chinese-demand-now-thats-over

In 2008 Jade West, a small Canadian mining company, was selling nephrite jade for $20 per kilo. Then the Chinese market woke up. The Chinese government ran a campaign to promote nephrite jade during the Beijing Olympics, sparking interest in the gemstone from Chinese consumers. The price surged to between $200 and $2,000 a kilo, depending on quality.

Now jade prices have crashed back down to earth. In May the government of British Columbia ordered all jade mining in the north-west part of the province to cease within five years. The Tahltan Nation, an indigenous group whose territory covers rich seams of mineral deposits in British Columbia, had long lobbied for this due to environmental concerns. Softening demand and meagre tax revenues made the decision an easy one. Miners are upset. “My legacy has certainly been tarnished at this moment by this decision,” says Jade West’s founder, Kirk Makepeace.

Could China’s new export controls on military-related tech and materials backfire?

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3264957/could-chinas-new-export-controls-military-related-tech-and-materials-backfire?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s move to tighten export controls on military-related equipment was intended to counter growing US tech curbs, but may also speed up the decoupling of the defence industries of the two countries, analysts said.

Beijing announced on Thursday that it would impose export controls on aerospace equipment, engines and key materials used to produce bulletproof vests from July 1, accounting for about US$8 billion worth of exports in the first four months, according to customs data.

The rules mean that components covered by the ban will not be exported without authorisation, according to a statement jointly released by the Ministry of Commerce, General Administration of Customs and Central Military Commission’s Equipment Development Department.

The restrictions affect several countries, including major export destinations the United States, France, Germany and Brazil.

The move, which analysts said was not a surprise, was primarily aimed at the US and its allies, given China’s foreign trade dynamics since last year, according to Zhou Chao, a research fellow for the geopolitical strategy programme at Anbound, an international think tank.

“It is evident that this move targets the United States and other Western countries. Many products under export controls involve Europe and the United States,” Zhou said.

“The decoupling of the defence industry from China is a very firm demand of the US. China’s latest export control measures will also accelerate the decoupling process of the military industries.”

But the impact would be limited as the US and its allies have already taken measures to reduce reliance on China’s supply chain, even at the cost of higher inflation, he added.

Since last year, the Biden administration has announced nearly 1,000 sanctions and trade restrictions against Chinese companies, citing concerns over national security, Xinjiang, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Tao Jingzhou, an international arbitrator with Arbitration Chambers in Beijing and Paris, said decoupling between the US and China is a “two-way street.”

“The US and its allies are imposing more export controls regarding China, and China is acting in the same way,” he said.

“Although the impacted products are rather limited, it shows that the Chinese government will resort to such practices to restrict exports of sensitive products.”

Last July, Beijing imposed export controls on some drones and drone-related equipment.

China has been under intense pressure from the US and the European Union to stop supplying dual-use products that supply the Russian forces in Ukraine. Beijing has denied the accusations and has insisted it has maintained normal trade relations with Moscow.

Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University, said the export controls could help to reduce concerns about China’s sales of dual-use products to Russia.

“[They may be aimed] at reducing suspicion and forestalling US sanctions, and perhaps also aimed at some [Chinese] companies at home, warning them not to spoil their country for their dirty profits,” he said.

Beijing said on Thursday that its latest controls showed China’s responsible approach to prevent proliferation.

Song Zhongping, a Chinese military commentator and former People’s Liberation Army instructor, said China has maintained real-time control over the exports of sensitive technologies, particularly in the fields of aerospace and shipbuilding, since they were often sensitive military or dual-use items.

“China has always pursued peace and does not wish to see conflicts continually spread. This has been our fundamental intention, so this move is not surprising at all,” he said.

Zhu Feng, executive dean of Nanjing University’s School of International Studies, said the restrictions primarily reflected the current state of technological competition between Beijing and Washington.

“This is expected as we see the US has intensified its crackdown on China’s high-end technology and [in return] China has to increasingly guard its own technologies,” he said.

Cutting-edge technologies have become the frontline in a US-China rivalry that has seen increased US-led sanctions.

In response, China has raised security awareness in key product areas – those with military applications or other military value – and it may reciprocate with restrictions on the US, Zhu said.

However, experts warned that the measures could backfire on China as tensions escalated with the US and the EU.

Alicia Garcia-Herrero, chief economist for Asia-Pacific at French investment bank Natixis, said the US had “many more chop points” on China, including possible restrictions against China’s access to US aviation products.

The move is “only going to accelerate the decoupling, and the more China shows it is going to retaliate, then more countries will worry and the US can decouple. And they would decouple [from China],” she said.

Additional reporting by Orange Wang

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Respect international law in South China Sea, Philippine leader says after series of clashes

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3264966/respect-international-law-south-china-sea-philippine-leader-says-after-series-clashes?utm_source=rss_feed

Efforts to resolve disputes in the South China Sea must be “anchored in international law”, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr said on Friday.

Marcos was speaking at the opening event of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore amid rising tensions with China following a series of confrontations in the disputed waters around the Scarborough Shoal and Second Thomas Shoal.

Recently there have been collisions between coastguard vessels from the two countries while China has used water cannon against Philippine vessels.

In his speech, Marcos stressed the importance of upholding international law in asserting Manila’s claims in the South China Sea and referred to a “binding” 2016 international tribunal ruling that rejected Beijing’s territorial claims.

He said Manila is on the “front lines of efforts to assert the integrity of the rules as a constitution of the oceans” in the South China Sea.

“We will find the strength to do whatever it takes to protect our sovereign home to the last square inch, to the last square millimetre,” he added.

“The life-giving waters of the West Philippine Sea flow in the blood of every Filipino. We cannot allow anyone to detach from the totality of the maritime domain that renders our nation’s home.”

He also said: “Any effort to resolve maritime differences in the East China Sea and the South China Sea must be anchored in international law, particularly we must … respect legally settled rights.

“We cannot afford any other future for the South China Sea other than the one envisioned by us on the sea of peace, stability, and prosperity. Unfortunately, this vision remains for now, a distant reality. Illegal coercive, aggressive and deceptive actions continue to violate our sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdictions.”

An international tribunal dismissed China’s territorial and maritime claims to the South China Sea in 2016 as having no legal basis, but Beijing rejected the ruling and continued to build outposts on islands and atolls that it controls.

Without specifically referring to China, Marcos also warned that countries that tried to apply their domestic laws outside their territorial jurisdiction, “violate international law, exacerbate tensions and undermine regional peace and security”.

He also said the Philippines had tried to resolve maritime disputes legally in “stark contrast” to attempts to “propagate excessive and baseless claims through force, intimidation, and deception”.

Responding to questions after his speech, Marcos alluded to the recent clashes with Chinese ships, warning that the death of any Philippine coastguards “will be very close to what we define as an act of war”.

“We already have suffered injuries, but thank God, we have not yet gotten to the point of any civilian … being killed, but once we get to that point, it certainly would cross the Rubicon River, is that a red line? Almost certainly it’s going to be a red line.”

Marcos has taken a tougher approach towards China in the South China Sea since taking office two years ago.

The country has moved to strengthen its military relations with the US by stepping up joint exercises and holding its first three-way drills with Japan and America.

He said Manila rejects “any attempt to deny strategic agencies, especially by force that seek to subordinate our interests to anyone else’s”.

China claims most of the South China Sea, a resource-rich waterway, but the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei have overlapping claims.

While the US does not have any territorial claims in the disputed waters, it is committed to upholding freedom of navigation in the South China Sea and supporting its southeast Asian allies, such as the Philippines.

Marcos said the “stabilising presence of the United States is crucial to regional peace” but rejected the idea that his country had to make a choice between America and China, adding that both countries had to “manage [their] rivalry in a responsible manner”.

The three-day conference in Singapore also included a meeting between Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun and his US counterpart Lloyd Austin, which Beijing described as “positive, practical and constructive”. The pair discussed major flashpoints including the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.

US ‘taking steps’ to impose visa restrictions on Hong Kong, mainland Chinese officials over national security law implementation

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3264959/us-taking-steps-impose-visa-restrictions-hong-kong-mainland-chinese-officials-over-national-security?utm_source=rss_feed

The US is taking steps to impose visa restrictions on Hong Kong and mainland Chinese officials involved in the implementation of the city’s national security law, the country’s Department of State has said.

“We are deeply concerned by the guilty verdicts from the national security law trial of pro-democracy organisers in Hong Kong,” the department’s spokesman, Matthew Miller, said on his official X account on Friday.

“In response, we are taking steps to impose visa restrictions on PRC and Hong Kong officials responsible for implementing the national security law,” he said.

Fourteen opposition figures were found guilty of subversion while two were acquitted over an election plot to topple the Hong Kong government, as verdicts were handed down in the city’s biggest and longest-running national security trial on Thursday.

The 16 were from a group of 47 politicians and activists prosecuted under the Beijing-imposed national security law when they held an unofficial “primary” election for opposition parties in 2020, which three High Court judges found was part of a wider plot to “undermine, destroy or overthrow” the government by creating a constitutional crisis after taking over the legislature.

More to follow ...

‘Long game’: US urged to avoid ‘confrontational’ China strategy as policy experts call for competition, not ‘cold war’

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3264956/long-game-us-urged-avoid-confrontational-china-strategy-policy-experts-call-competition-not-cold-war?utm_source=rss_feed

The United States should manage competition and communicate clearly with Beijing to prevent conflicts from escalating, American analysts argued as debate heated up over Washington’s China strategy.

In an article published by Foreign Affairs magazine on Thursday, US analysts said Washington should refrain from a confrontational strategy that seeks to decisively win in a “cold war waged by China”.

They were responding to an article that appeared in the same publication in April by Matt Pottinger, former US deputy national security adviser under the Trump administration, and former US congressman Mike Gallagher. The two criticised the Biden administration’s China policy, which they said prioritised short-term diplomatic thaws over a long-term strategic “victory” in countering China’s ambitions.

Rush Doshi, director of the initiative on China strategy at the Council on Foreign Relations, argued that “efforts to manage competition make the United States more competitive”.

“Such actions show the American public and US allies and partners that the United States is a responsible actor and that they can confidently buy into Washington’s strategy.”

Doshi noted that a confrontational position might isolate Washington, diminishing its strategic options.

He urged the US to focus more on “tactical reassurance” to address specific issues. He called for Washington to be clear about its actions on matters from technology to Taiwan to discourage “dangerously fatalistic thinking” from Beijing.

“Making clear that Washington’s goals are not limitless but tied to specific interests reduces the risk of runaway escalation,” Doshi added. “That requires face-to-face meetings so that misperceptions can be ironed out quickly, competitive steps by the United States can be explained directly, and both sides can find off-ramps.”

He pointed out that even if this approach cannot end their strategic rivalry, it could reduce the risk of escalated conflict and create space for competition.

Pottinger and Gallagher have criticised US President Joe Biden’s China strategy for lacking an end goal in its competition with Beijing. They proposed an alternative vision drawn from the Cold War: a China that can “chart its own course free from communist dictatorship”.

However, Doshi cautioned against comparisons between China and the Soviet Union, noting that Beijing is a far more formidable competitor.

“China is the first US competitor in a century to surpass 60 per cent of US GDP. The country boasts considerably greater industrial and technological strength than the Soviet Union did and is deeply enmeshed in the global economy,” he said.

Doshi also noted that a more explicit policy aimed at ending Communist Party rule would be unnecessary for protecting US interests and could escalate the rivalry to an existential conflict, prompting Beijing to take drastic actions.

“If Beijing concluded that the United States sought total victory, it would have little reason to exercise restraint.”

Doshi’s views were echoed by Jessica Chen Weiss, professor of China and Asia-Pacific studies at Cornell University, and James Steinberg, who served as US deputy secretary of state under former president Barack Obama.

In a response to Pottinger and Gallagher, they argued that adopting an overtly confrontational cold war stance towards Beijing would likely strengthen the Chinese leadership’s commitment to tough, authoritarian measures.

“Even when direct diplomacy fails to resolve key issues, Washington’s openness to engage demonstrates to the world that the United States is acting responsibly,” Weiss and Steinberg wrote, adding that such interactions were a chance to urge the Chinese government to alter its policies.

“Washington needs to play a long game, one that favours its natural strengths.”

They contended that a confrontational approach could lead to the worst possible scenario: a Chinese leadership that is both unwilling to collaborate and bolstered domestically by nationalist rhetoric against a perceived enemy.

An aggressive strategy could also estrange crucial US allies who are not interested in a binary “us versus them” approach, they argued.

In response to their critics, Pottinger and Gallagher said that Beijing was at the heart of escalating tensions in Europe, the Middle East and the South China Sea, and Beijing’s actions showed that diplomacy had failed to mitigate the risk of escalation between the US and China.

They argued that if the Biden administration had initially implemented a firmer and more resolute policy towards US adversaries, including a significant boost in defence spending, it might have forestalled the deterioration of the geopolitical environment over the past three years.

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Hong Kong welcomes Turkish warship on first visit to city to ‘pay tribute to strong friendship’ between Turkey and China

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3264947/hong-kong-welcomes-turkish-warship-first-visit-city-pay-tribute-strong-friendship-between-turkey-and?utm_source=rss_feed

Hong Kong welcomed Turkish warship TCG Kinaliada on Friday for its first visit to the city to celebrate ties between Turkey and China.

Kerim Evcin, Turkey’s consul general in the city, said the ship’s visit underscored the friendship enjoyed by the two countries.

“It is a great pleasure to receive our corvette in Hong Kong, which is also an international hub for maritime. This important visit is paying special tribute to the strong friendship between the Republic of Turkey and the People’s Republic of China,” he said at a welcoming ceremony.

“We firmly believe that a more secure, more stable and more promising new era in Hong Kong is definitely going to contribute to making Hong Kong stronger, more resilient and more prosperous.”

Turkish authorities said they aimed to capitalise on potential opportunities to cooperate with Asian countries and further deepen multidimensional relations with the region.

The warship, which docked at Kai Tak Cruise Terminal, will depart Hong Kong on Saturday and head to Busan, South Korea.

Designed by Turkish engineers and constructed in Istanbul, the Kinaliada corvette was launched in July 2017 and has been on sea missions under the command of the Turkish Naval Forces since 2019.

The multi-purpose ship is equipped with anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare capabilities.

TCG Kinaliada is also the first warship equipped with Turkey’s home-grown anti-ship guided missile, “ATMACA”, made by defence company Roketsan.

The missiles can hit targets up to 220km (137 miles) away.

The corvette measures 99.56 metres in length and weighs 2,465 tons. It has a range of 4,000 nautical miles.

South China Sea: Philippines set to file case over reef damages against Beijing within weeks

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3264948/south-china-sea-philippines-set-file-case-over-reef-damages-against-beijing-within-weeks?utm_source=rss_feed

The Philippines has said it plans to file a formal complaint against China over environmental damage to its territory in the South China Sea within “a few weeks”.

While analysts say such a move would have little chance of being heard in an international court, it could highlight China’s ecological irresponsibility.

Department of Justice spokesman Mico Clavano said on Thursday the agency was working with the Office of the Solicitor General to file the complaint backed by solid evidence showing the damaged coral reefs around the Sabina Shoal and other illegal acts such as Chinese fishermen harvesting endangered giant clams.

“But we are confident that in a few weeks, we will complete our complaint and the attached evidence,” Clavano told reporters. “So hopefully, with the help of the Office of the Solicitor General, we will be able to file an environmental case against China.”

The situation at the Sabina Shoal mirrors recent events at Sandy Cay near Pag-asa Island in the West Philippine Sea, where coral reefs were severely damaged due to the actions of Chinese fishermen and debris was strewn throughout the area, according to Philippine authorities.

The West Philippine Sea is Manila’s term for the section of the South China Sea that encompasses its maritime territory, including its exclusive economic zone.

The idea of filing a complaint against China started in September 2023 when Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla learned from the Philippine military about massive coral harvesting at the Rozul Reef seabed, another feature within the Philippines’ internationally recognised exclusive economic zone. Remulla said then that Manila might file legal action against Beijing in 2024.

The Rozul reefs are near the island of Palawan, a southwestern Philippine island bordering the disputed waters.

In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague ruled in favour of the Philippines on a case regarding territorial rights in the South China Sea, dismissing China’s claims to the disputed waters as delineated by its so-called nine-dash line.

China rejected the ruling as illegitimate and continues to assert its territorial claims, leading to numerous clashes with Philippine forces.

Attorney Aldrin Alba, a legal expert at the Political Economic Elemental Researchers and Strategists think tank, told This Week in Asia that China could have violated the Philippine law if it had used any fishing method that destroyed coral reefs and other marine life within Manila’s exclusive economic zone.

He said Beijing could also have violated a law prohibiting any party from gathering, selling or exporting white sand or other substances that make up any marine habitat.

Parties found guilty of violating these provisions face jail of between two and 10 years and fines ranging from 100,000 Philippine pesos (US$1,707) to 500,000 pesos.

Since the Philippines planned to file the case against another country, Alba said the complaint must be lodged before the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) or the International Court of Justice (ICJ), both in The Hague.

Filing such a complaint could worsen the already strained relationship between the Philippines and China, Alba said, noting that Beijing would perceive the case as an affront to its reputation and could retaliate against Manila with diplomatic pressure or other countermeasures involving trade and investment.

“The Philippines needs to be cautious to prevent any escalation of the tension with China. The filing of such a case would surely draw international attention, and countries with an interest in the West Philippine Sea would closely monitor the proceedings,” he added.

China will ignore complaint

Tran Thi Mong Tuyen, an analyst at National Cheng Kung University, told This Week in Asia that if the Philippines were to win, it could demand significant compensation for the damage.

Based on an estimate by the University of the Philippines’ Marine Science Institute, the country is losing around 33.1 billion Philippine pesos (US$565 million) annually from damaged reef ecosystems due to China’s reclamation activities.

In 2015, the US compensated the Philippines US$1.97 million for damage inflicted byits USS Guardian navy vessel on the Tubbataha Reef Natural Park in the Sulu Sea, a Unesco World Heritage Site.

“However, filing a lawsuit is not simple, and even if China is ordered to pay compensation, whether it would comply is another matter,” Tuyen said.

If Manila were to file a case before the ICJ against China, Beijing might not recognise the court’s jurisdiction, Tuyen said.

Tuyen suggested that instead of the ICJ, the Philippines could pursue another lawsuit against China through the PCA, focusing on environmental damage rather than disputed territories, as the outcome could be more enforceable.

Political analyst Sherwin Ona, an associate professor of political science at De La Salle University in Manila, said such a move before the PCA would align with the Philippine position of abiding by the the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos).

“I think this (the PCA) will be the venue where the Philippines would file the complaint. More importantly, Manila is right in highlighting this case not only as an issue of sovereignty” but also as a maritime economy issue, Ona said.

If Manila were to file the complaint, it would be a big blow to China in the court of public opinion, Ona said.

“This clearly shows that China is not only a maritime bully but an irresponsible environmental actor. Even as it claims the whole South China Sea, it does not possess the sense of stewardship since it does not respect the environment.”

China’s top executives suffer first average pay cut in 2 decades as sluggish economy weighs on listed firms

https://www.scmp.com/economy/economic-indicators/article/3264888/chinas-top-executives-suffer-first-average-pay-cut-2-decades-sluggish-economy-weighs-listed-firms?utm_source=rss_feed

The average annual salary of top executives at Chinese listed companies fell for the first time in two decades last year, according to a study of over 5,000 annual reports, as companies’ profitability was dented by the sluggish economy.

The average last year stood at 1.66 million yuan (US$229,000), representing a 3.27 per cent decrease from 2022, according to the study by Shanghai Rongzheng Enterprise Consulting Service Group released on Tuesday.

The study also showed the average annual pay for chairmen fell by 3.32 per cent from 2022 to 1.32 million yuan last year, while salaries for general managers, board secretaries and chief financial officers declined by 3.46 per cent, 1.12 per cent and 3.82 per cent, respectively.

The consulting firm has been tracking executive pay at Chinese listed companies since 1999. Its findings were drawn from the annual reports of 5,326 listed companies published as of April 30.

The highest-paid executive last year was Li Ge, chairman of biotech firm WuXi AppTec, who earned around 42 million yuan before tax, which was about the same amount he received in 2022.

His salary easily eclipsed the 26.63 million yuan earned by Li Xiting, the chairman of medical equipment manufacturer Mindray Bio-Medical, and the 26.28 million yuan for Li Bin, the vice-president of agricultural and technology firm Tongwei.

Li Bin was the best-paid executive in 2022 with a salary of 86.5 million yuan, but suffered a nearly 70 per cent pay cut last year.

Remuneration for executives at several other firms, including dairy giant Yili Group, pharmaceutical firm BeiGene and electrical appliance manufacturer Midea Group also topped the 10 million yuan threshold.

The overall dip in pay, though, mirrored broader patterns of stagnating or falling wages in China in the last year, as companies navigated the third year of an economic downturn and turbulent market conditions.

Overall, net profits for listed companies last year fell by 1.45 per cent from 2022, Rongzheng’s report said.

A survey released in March by professional services firm KPMG China of around 1,110 business executives and professionals based in mainland China and Hong Kong found that only about 53 per cent received a pay increase last year.

The survey also showed 40 per cent saw no change, while 7 per cent suffered pay cuts.

At the C-suite level, only 19 per cent received a salary increase of 10 per cent or more, compared with 23 per cent in 2022.

The decline has been particularly felt in the financial sector, which has been a primary target of Beijing’s crackdown on corruption and excess, with salaries at China’s 10 biggest brokerages all falling last year.

Pay was also slashed at struggling Chinese property giant Vanke, where eight senior executives voluntarily gave up their annual bonuses for 2023 in light of the company’s net profits having plunged by 46.4 per cent from the year before.

Three of its top executives, including chairman Yu Liang and president Zhu Jiusheng, also said they would voluntarily reduce their salaries this year to 10,000 yuan (US$1,379) per month before tax, according to Vanke’s annual report released in March.

Between 2017, when Yu became the chairman of the state-backed developer, and 2020, he received an annual salary of over 11 million yuan, peaking at 12.53 million yuan in 2018, according to financial data provider Wind.

In 2021, following the coronavirus pandemic and property market downturn, Yu gave up his annual bonus, taking home a salary of around 1.45 million yuan that year, according to Vanke’s annual report.

Overall, the use of equity incentive schemes at A-share firms – companies listed in Shanghai or Shenzhen – fell by around 14 per cent from 2022, encompassing the use of incentives as well as stock options and restricted stocks, according to Rongzheng’s report.

“The data also reflects that domestic market confidence has not been fully restored in 2023,” Rongzheng wrote on its official WeChat account, adding that it nonetheless believed the use of equity incentives would pick up again.

Chinese scientists create world’s fastest vision chip for autonomous cars, defence

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3264912/chinese-scientists-create-worlds-fastest-vision-chip-autonomous-cars-defence?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese scientists say they have developed the world’s first brain-inspired vision chip with two pathways that could have broad uses in autonomous vehicles and defence.

The team from Tsinghua University in Beijing say their chip, Tianmouc, has a record-breaking image processing speed. They said it had achieved high-speed sensing of up to 10,000 frames per second, a dynamic range of 130 decibels, and excellent spatial resolution.

Data flow is reduced by 90 per cent compared with traditional high-speed imaging chips and power consumption is low.

“This is a perception chip, not a computational one, based on our original technical route,” project leader Shi Luping, a professor with the university’s Centre for Brain-Inspired Computing Research, said in a statement on Tsinghua’s website on Thursday.

“Firstly, it balances speed and dynamic performance in vision chips and introduces a novel computational method that diverges from existing machine vision strategies,” Shi said.

“Secondly, this approach mimics the human visual system’s dual pathway, enabling decision-making without complete clarity,” he said.

“The chip provides new directions for advancements in autonomous driving and defence sectors. It is poised to tackle some of the most challenging issues faced today, paving the way for numerous novel applications.”

The team reported on the development in the journal Nature on Thursday, with Shi and Professor Zhao Rong the corresponding authors of the study.

The visual perception terminals in intelligent systems process vast volumes of data and must be able to handle extreme events like sudden driving hazards, significant light changes at tunnel entrances, and intense nighttime flash interference.

Traditional visual chips frequently fail or experience delays in these extreme scenarios due to limitations in power consumption and bandwidth.

The scientists said Tianmouc was inspired by the human visual system. It analyses visual information along two pathways: one for cognition and another for rapid response.

Explaining the difference between the chips, the scientists gave the example of flying objects, which humans – and Tianmouc – will subconsciously dodge even if they do not see them clearly. Traditional machine vision chips, however, often need to see clearly before making decisions.

Of all the information collected by the vision sensor, Tianmouc uses colour, absolute intensity, precision and resolution in a cognition-oriented pathway for accurate recognition.

Spatial difference, temporal difference and speed are meanwhile used in an action-oriented pathway for a fast response.

The team said it developed software and algorithms based on the chip, which were deployed on a Chevrolet for road testing, confirming its capabilities in various extreme scenarios.

A statement on the Tsinghua website said the chip had shown low latency and high performance in real-time perceptual reasoning across a range of challenging environments, showing significant potential for applications in unmanned systems.

Dr Wang Taoyi, a member of the research team, told state broadcaster CCTV on Friday that Tianmouc had achieved an 0.1 millisecond delay in autonomous driving. “This is just 1/300th of the 30ms delay experienced with traditional cameras,” Wang said.

The vision chip represents significant progress from another brain-inspired chip developed by the Tsinghua centre. A computing chip, Tianjic handled multiple AI algorithms in an energy-efficient way to control a riderless bicycle, executing tasks such as turning, accelerating and avoidance based on voice commands. The team reported their findings in Nature in 2019.

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‘China’s London’? Hong Kong’s finance hub status will be cemented by mainland’s economic development, summit told

https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3264923/chinas-london-hong-kongs-finance-hub-status-will-be-cemented-mainlands-economic-development-summit?utm_source=rss_feed

Hong Kong’s status as an international financial centre will be reinforced by yuan internationalisation and China’s economic transformations, according to top finance officials and industry players.

Despite facing “unprecedented changes”, Hong Kong’s connectivity with mainland China and potential to tap growing opportunities arising from the increased use of the mainland currency globally will consolidate and enhance the city’s unique status, deputy financial secretary Michael Wong Wai-lun told the Caixin Summer Summit in the city on Friday.

Hong Kong is already the world’s biggest market for the offshore yuan, processing nearly 80 per cent of settlements involving the currency worldwide, Wong said. It had 944.7 billion yuan (US$130.4 billion) in offshore yuan deposits as of March this year, according to Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) data.

“Hong Kong is working very hard to contribute to the further internationalisation of renminbi,” said Wong. “We will continue issuing international bonds denominated in renminbi.”

Last year, the city’s yuan loans jumped by 140 per cent, and offshore yuan bonds increased by over 60 per cent, Eddie Yue Wai-man, the HKMA’s chief executive, said at the same conference.

“Whether it’s financing or investment, we hope to continue developing the offshore renminbi market in Hong Kong, making the flow of funds smoother, especially strengthening our ties with major trading partners in the Middle East and Asean [the Association of Southeast Asian Nations],” he said.

Saudi Arabia and dozens of other countries have agreed to use the yuan for trade settlements, creating demand for more investment channels in the offshore market. The gradual opening of the mainland Chinese capital market also provides more yuan-denominated assets for international investors and cheaper funding costs in the yuan compared with the US dollar.

“The growth [of yuan] has been particularly fast in the past two years, especially in its use in the real economy in cross-border trades,” said Yue. He said the currency accounts for 30 per cent of China’s cross-border goods trade settlements, double the proportion two years ago.

The HKMA, Hong Kong’s de facto central bank, plans to help the government issue more long-term bonds, maturing in 10, 15 or 20 years, denominated in offshore yuan, to support infrastructure projects, leading to further development of the offshore market for the currency.

Wong would also like to encourage public and private institutions in mainland China to issue offshore yuan bonds, including green and social bonds, in Hong Kong.

Another growth point for Hong Kong is the suite of connect schemes covering stocks, bonds, exchange-traded funds and wealth-management products that give overseas investors access to mainland Chinese financial assets, Wong said.

“Over the past decade, we have clearly seen the huge opportunities brought by connectivity,” he said.

Last month, the China Securities Regulatory Commission announced five new measures to enhance the development of the capital markets in mainland China and Hong Kong. These include facilitating listings in Hong Kong by the mainland’s industry-leading companies and expanding the Stock Connect cross-border investment scheme.

“We hope that this mutually beneficial, win-win connectivity arrangement can cover more investment products and opportunities in the future,” Wong said.

As China transforms its economy, shifting its emphasis towards technology innovation, reform and opening-up policies following President Xi Jinping’s “new quality productive forces” initiative, Hong Kong’s financial sector will play an important role in helping Chinese companies go global.

“Our financial institutions should help propel the successful transformation of some Chinese enterprises into multinational corporations,” Zhang Yichen, chairman and CEO of Citic Capital Holdings, said during a panel discussion at Friday’s summit.

“During this process, Hong Kong, as an international financial centre … particularly with the advantage of ‘one-country-two systems’, should undoubtedly leverage its strengths and play an important role as a hub and superconnector.

“Hong Kong’s status as an international financial centre is irreplaceable by any other cities in China.”

Laurence Li Lu-jen, chairman of the Financial Services Development Council, an industry advisory body to the Hong Kong government, said on the same panel that the city will become “China’s London” as long as China is on track to become the world’s largest economy one day.

“We hope to work together with everyone to tell the Hong Kong story well, driving Hong Kong’s economy to a higher level and contributing our part to the country’s high-quality development,” Wong said.

‘Room re-sale’ row: VVIP guest at posh China hotel fined US$415 after surveillance footage reveals no overnight stay

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3264866/room-re-sale-row-vvip-guest-posh-china-hotel-fined-us415-after-surveillance-footage-reveals-no?utm_source=rss_feed

A guest who checked into a Hilton Hotel in China’s capital has been fined 3,000 yuan (US$415) after surveillance cameras showed that he did not actually stay on the premises overnight.

The fine was imposed because hotel staff suspect he was a “room reseller”, who sought to profit by giving the room, and the benefits it came with, to another person.

The guest, surnamed Tang, a VVIP member, booked two rooms for three nights starting from May 9 at the Hilton Beijing Wangfujing for himself and his family.

During check-in, he signed a “commitment letter”, promising not to transfer member benefits during their stay.

The commitment letter said: “If your reservation involves the unauthorised transfer of member benefits during your stay, the hotel will charge you an additional 500 yuan per night. This fee includes breakfast, room upgrades, executive benefits, and member welcome amenities.”

Tang, who is a frequent Hilton guest, said: “When they presented the commitment letter, I didn’t suspect anything, I just signed it.”

However, after checking out, he received a call from the hotel manager who claimed that surveillance footage showed that he had not stayed in his room overnight.

This resulted in an additional charge of 3,000 yuan, 500 yuan per room per night for three nights, which was deducted from his deposit.

Tang was astonished and explained that he had not returned to his room at night because he was adjusting to the time difference and spent his nights out, only returning during the daytime to rest.

“It is unreasonable to assume that I transferred my member benefits just because I did not stay overnight,” he told Hangzhou Daily.

He also blasted the hotel’s 24-hour video surveillance of guests as ridiculous and questioned the fairness of the commitment letter, which he had not encountered at other Hilton hotels.

“The content of this commitment letter unilaterally restricts consumer behaviour. Does the Hilton Beijing Wangfujing’s practice of monitoring overnight stays and charging an extra 500 yuan per room per night violate consumers’ privacy rights and the Consumer Protection Law?” he asked in an interview with The Paper.

On May 30, the hotel told the Post that the case was currently under investigation and an official response would be provided soon.

A representative from the Hilton Global Membership Center gave a similar response.

The story has triggered an online backlash, even earning the hotel the nickname “Hilton police station”.

One online observer said: “Is this hotel being run like a university dorm or a high school dorm? Are the reception staff acting as dormitory supervisors?”

The controversy has also highlighted the issue of the unauthorised transfer of member benefits and rooms.

“Opportunists” exploit these benefits to book rooms and resell them for profit.

Some people online, while suspecting Tang might have been such a “room reseller”, have suggested measures to combat the problem.

One person said: “Such reselling activity harms the hotel, creating security vulnerabilities due to mismatched guest and booking information. If something happens, the hotel is liable.”

Another said: “If Tang resells the room, the real guest might not have registered, and the hotel does not want to say it outright because it could lead to police involvement.

“Otherwise, it’s unlikely they would charge for not staying overnight.”

Tang has received a full refund of 3,000 yuan from the hotel after filing a complaint to the hotel’s headquarters.

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Israel-Gaza war: China and Arab states condemn ‘continued aggression’ in Gaza, urge support for Palestinian statehood

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3264883/israel-gaza-war-china-and-arab-states-condemn-continued-aggression-gaza-urge-support-palestinian?utm_source=rss_feed

China and Arab states have slammed Israel’s “continued aggression” against Palestine, including its attack on Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, while urging more countries to formally recognise Palestinian statehood.

In a 21-point statement issued during meetings in Beijing, the two sides called for greater efforts to promote an “early ceasefire” and a “comprehensive, just and lasting” solution to the Palestine issue.

“The Palestinian people in the Gaza strip are forced to suffer deadly famine and blockades, cutting off all livelihoods,” the statement, published by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said.

It added that thousands of Palestinians have been “detained and abused” and “both sides condemn Israel’s continued aggression against the Palestinian people”.

The invasion of Rafah also drew condemnation from China and Arab countries.

Earlier this week, Israeli air strikes on a camp housing displaced Palestinians killed at least 45 people, drawing sharp criticism from countries and human rights organisations. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the air strike a “tragic mistake”.

The statement was published following the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum in Beijing, where senior officials met Arab leaders including Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

China has sought to play a bigger role in the Middle East crisis, but its mediation efforts have made little progress.

In the statement, China and Arab countries said Israel – as the “occupying power” – was “responsible for the dire humanitarian conditions” in the Gaza strip.

They also urged the United Nations Security Council to issue a binding resolution to push for an immediate ceasefire while condemning the United States for using its veto powers to prevent Palestine from becoming a full member of the organisation.

China, which has supported Palestine’s accession to the UN as a full member, earlier criticised Washington’s move to block a UN resolution backing Palestinian membership in April as “disappointing”.

Beijing has long called for coexisting Israeli and Palestinian states and the two-state solution was described as the “only realistic way out” by China and Arab states in the statement.

To that end, the statement called for the international community to adopt “irreversible measures” to promote the establishment of an independent Palestinian state so that its people could exercise their “inalienable legitimate rights”.

“Both sides call for the convening of a larger, more authoritative, and more effective international peace conference as soon as possible to launch an authoritative peace process based on recognised international principles,” the statement added.

Chinese President Xi Jinping made the same suggestion when he addressed Arab leaders at the forum on Thursday, where he also warned that “the war cannot continue indefinitely [and] justice cannot be permanently absent”.

China and Arab states also welcomed recent moves by countries including Ireland, Norway, Spain and Slovenia to formally recognise an independent Palestinian state, and called on more countries to follow suit.

The development – which angered Israel – was described in the statement as a “driving force for the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and international and regional peace, security, and stability”.

China-Japan-South Korea summit fails to cover key security issues despite having ‘right optics’

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3264885/china-japan-south-korea-summit-fail-cover-key-security-issues-despite-having-right-optics?utm_source=rss_feed

A leaders’ summit between China, Japan and South Korea, the first in 4 1/2 years, “superficially had the right optics” despite not addressing key security issues, according to observers.

Officials from the three countries earlier this week held talks in Seoul amid low expectations for an outcome, given closer strategic cooperation between Japan and South Korea as well as their growing ties with the United States and its allies against Beijing’s rising influence.

In the joint declaration issued after the Monday summit, the three countries called for wide-ranging cooperation, including resuming negotiations on a free-trade agreement as well as expanding people-to-people exchanges.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol also reaffirmed their goal of a denuclearised Korean peninsula.

Andrew Yeo, a senior fellow and the SK-Korea Foundation chair of Korea studies at the Brookings Institution’s Centre for Asia Policy Studies, said the joint statement expressed the desire to “institutionalise”, or to hold the event on a regular basis.

“Although the China-Japan-South Korea trilateral may be seen as somewhat superficial, it will promote lower level dialogue among senior officials, and also encourage important people-to-people exchanges”.

“Those lower level ties are still important even if larger diplomatic relations are broken”, Yeo said, noting that the summit provided an opportunity for the three leaders to hold dialogues both in a bilateral and trilateral format.

“The trilateral summit traditionally covered soft, non-political issues so there was never high expectations that thornier issues related to security, or conflict would make it to the agenda,” Yeo said.

It was a positive sign that China agreed to mention the denuclearisation and the abduction issues on North Korea, he said.

“I was struck though that the statement referred to settlement on the Korean peninsula rather than unification – probably since North Korea no longer seeks reunification and China would not support South Korea’s formulation of unification.”

Responding to calls on it to denuclearise, Pyongyang said on Monday such a goal has “already died out theoretically, practically, and physically”, calling it a “grave political provocation” that would speed up a military confrontation.

Stephen Nagy, a professor of politics and international studies at the International Christian University in Tokyo, said given the intensification of the US-China strategic competition, the summit “superficially had the right optics”.

“Any meeting is better than no meeting,” Nagy said, adding that the summit’s primary goal was to return to some level of dialogue between the participants, with Beijing hoping to encourage Japan and South Korea to distance themselves from the US.

“Japan and South Korea are engaging to avoid the perception that they are not engaging with China … future summits will continue along those lines with little progress,” he said.

Nagy said China appeared to be reluctant in addressing more contentious issues such as the Ukraine war, UN sanctions on North Korea and stability in the Taiwan Strait.

South Korea and Japan would only affirm a commitment to open markets and supply chain cooperation, in response to China’s concerns about US economic security policies.

Earlier this month, to encourage China to eliminate its unfair trade practices on technology transfer, intellectual property and innovation, the US raised tariffs across strategic sectors such as steel and aluminium, semiconductors, electric vehicles, batteries, and critical minerals, solar cells.

“[South Korea] and Japan have committed to selective diversification away from China in technology and other key areas,” Nagy said, adding that China’s position on Ukraine remained unchanged.

“Unsaid but of deep concern in Beijing are anxieties about a Russian defeat and what that means for its security.

“Beijing fears that a defeated Russia would leave it stranded in the international order with no close friends,” Nagy said, noting that if Russian President Vladimir Putin was deposed through a defeat, coup or assassination, China would be concerned that the next leader would be “even more nationalistic, unstable and conflict oriented”.

“It is a nightmare scenario for China”, he said.

He noted that Beijing had shown a “great power autism” by telling Seoul and Tokyo that their security anxieties about China were misunderstood or that they were being “lied to” by the US.

“This kind of comment is insulting for both Tokyo and Seoul as it sends the message that they do not have autonomy in foreign policy which is completely false,” Nagy said.

China has often accused South Korea and Japan of tilting towards the US. Last year, Chinese ambassador Xing Haiming accused Seoul of leaning excessively towards the US and damaging its relations with China, its largest trading partner.

In a report on Tuesday, China nationalistic tabloid The Global Times taunted Seoul’s eagerness to report the outcome of this week’s trilateral summit to the US, saying it reflected “diplomatic immaturity”.

Seoul on Monday said Japan, South Korea and the US would hold a trilateral vice foreign ministerial meeting in Virginia on Friday.

Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, said China, Japan, and South Korea share interests in increasing exchanges beneficial for the environment, public health, and economic growth.

“However, China’s assertive foreign policies made it difficult just to schedule the summit, so deliverables were limited”, he said, adding that the leaders’ green light to various working-level officials was a positive development.

“Yet, the sustainability, institutionalisation, and effectiveness of trilateral cooperation in Northeast Asia depend on concrete progress in the coming year and holding the next summit in Japan on schedule”, Easley said.

Since the Camp David summit in the US last August, South Korea and Japan have significantly aligned their foreign policies with the US, Easley said, noting that “Washington can trust its allies in their diplomatic efforts with Beijing”.

The trilateral summit underperformed in coordinating approaches to restarting negotiations with Pyongyang over its growing nuclear and missile threats, he said.

“For geopolitical reasons, China was unwilling to join South Korea and Japan in condemning North Korea’s impending military satellite launch that would clearly violate UN Security Council resolutions.”

Ukraine war: West is unfair for making Beijing responsible for resolving conflict, senior Chinese envoy says

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3264738/ukraine-war-west-unfair-making-beijing-responsible-resolving-conflict-says-senior-chinese-envoy?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s envoy for European affairs, in defending robust Sino-Russian ties, said it was “unfair” for the West to make his country responsible for resolving the Ukraine war, which was neither fuelled nor exploited by Beijing.

In an interview with The Paper, a state-owned news outlet in Shanghai, Beijing’s special representative and former United Nations deputy secretary general Wu Hongbo criticised protectionism, while lauding the European Union’s commitment to “strategic independence” amid pressure to pick sides.

“China’s relations with the European Union and its member states are compatible, and [both sides] can develop in a balanced way and promote each other,” Wu said in the question and answer interview published on Thursday morning.

Wu said the bloc’s autonomy could be seen through its insistence and strong desire to advance ties with China “without targeting, relying on or being controlled by a third party”, adding that the “vast majority” of European states valued China.

“A world of turbulence and change requires Europe to strengthen its strategic autonomy,” Wu said.

France and Germany’s opposition to the “illegal invasion” of Iraq in 2003, as well as Spain, Ireland and (non-EU member) Norway’s recent recognition of a Palestinian state, were “manifestations” of the continent’s strategic independence, Wu said in a seeming jab at the United States.

Following the “China responsibility theory” – which would demand Beijing act in accordance with Western expectations over the Ukraine war – would affect the “stable development” of China-EU relations, Wu said.

“China is not the creator or party to the Ukraine crisis. It has not added fuel to the fire or taken advantage of the situation,” he said. “It is unfair to place the responsibility of resolving the crisis on China.”

Wu pointed to Beijing’s communications with both Moscow and Kyiv, exemplified by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s trip to China earlier this month and the Chinese special envoy’s three rounds of shuttle diplomacy on Ukraine.

He said China was “committed to promoting peace and talks, and promoting a political solution to the crisis” and had not supplied arms to any warring party. He also said it strictly controlled the export of dual-use items – those that can be used for both civilian and military applications.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the Russian state-owned RIA news agency on Thursday that China could arrange a peace conference in which Russia and Ukraine could take part, which he said would continue China’s efforts to resolve the conflict.

On trade, Wu further addressed complaints of Chinese “overcapacity”, which the US and EU have used to justify subsidies and trade barriers, calling it a “false proposition”.

“Those who complain about China’s ‘overcapacity’ are not concerned about China’s production capacity, but rather their own market share,” Wu said.

The export and production proportions of US chips and agricultural products, German and Japanese cars and French wine are all higher than those from China, yet they are not classified as “overcapacity”, Wu argued.

He added that the pursuit of protectionism would thwart the cultivation of “outstanding companies with international competitiveness” and lead to the loss of an economy’s friends, market, credibility and future.

“Protectionism sends an extremely negative signal to the vast number of developing countries, [saying] ‘you must not develop more than me, otherwise you will be severely sanctioned’,” Wu said, adding that Beijing would use all means to defend the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises.

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Hong Kong police arrest 26 people in 2 crackdowns on vice syndicate bringing in mainland Chinese sex workers

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3264860/hong-kong-police-arrest-26-people-2-crackdowns-vice-syndicate-bringing-mainland-chinese-sex-workers?utm_source=rss_feed

Hong Kong police have arrested 26 people in two crackdowns on a vice syndicate that brought in sex workers from mainland China to sell their services in Kwun Tong.

The suspects, aged between 30 and 75, were arrested in raids over the past two weeks.

Inspector Keung Pei-ying of the Kwun Tong district special duties unit said on Friday the group comprised 17 Hongkongers and 9 mainlanders holding two-way exit permits, a travel document used to enter the city.

Police charged the suspects over allowing their premises to be used as vice establishments and breaching their conditions of stay.

The force and the Immigration Department conducted two operations between May 20 and 30, with a focus on Kwun Tong district in East Kowloon after police earlier found evidence of sex workers operating in the area.

An investigation found the syndicate imported women from the mainland as sex workers to offer services in subdivided flats.

“Police have sent warning letters to those flat owners numerous times to ask them not to rent out their flats to the syndicate, but the owners neglected them,” Keung said.

The lack of follow-up prompted police to start the operations by targeting the flat owners, she added.

“We urge flat owners not to lease their flats to prostitution syndicates, as it might result in imprisonment,” Keung said.

In a separate case last month, police arrested 51 people in connection with bringing in sex workers from the mainland and Thailand to work in Yau Ma Tei.

In Hong Kong, operating as a sex worker is legal but it is against the law to solicit clients, run a brothel of two or more people, live off the earnings of a sex worker or control a woman for vice purposes.

Anyone who keeps or manages a premises as a vice establishment also faces up to 10 years in jail.

Chinese hacker Wang Yunhe’s arrest brings fresh scrutiny of Singapore wealth flows

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3264861/chinese-hacker-wang-yunhes-arrest-brings-fresh-scrutiny-singapore-wealth-flows?utm_source=rss_feed

Before he was arrested this month for allegedly running what’s likely the world’s largest cybercrime computer network, Wang Yunhe enjoyed a lavish lifestyle in Singapore.

He held a bank account in the city state, was a director of several local companies and lived in a multimillion-dollar apartment overlooking a premier shopping district, according to an indictment and local filings. All the while, the 35-year-old Chinese national was amassing riches by offering cybercriminals access to millions of infected devices for a fee, the US Justice Department said.

The case is putting a fresh spotlight on the challenges of policing the influx of foreign wealth into Singapore, less than a year after 10 people of Chinese origin were charged in the nation’s biggest money-laundering scandal.

While Wang is accused of a different set of crimes to the remote-gambling ring that was taken down last year, the alleged modus operandi is similar. He set up companies in Singapore that had local citizens serving as directors or corporate secretaries. Besides properties accumulated in the city state, Thailand, Dubai and the US, authorities are also seeking to seize cryptocurrency, watches and luxury cars.

The revelations are a reminder of the difficult balancing act faced by Singapore and other financial hubs as they push to attract the world’s ultra rich. That drive has helped turn Singapore into a premier wealth management centre, yet it has also been accompanied by a string of scandals in recent years – along with vows from authorities to step up oversight.

Wang was arrested in Singapore at his home on May 24. He is charged among other things with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering, according to the DOJ. If convicted on all counts, Wang faces a maximum penalty of 65 years in prison.

The charges against Wang are for allegedly deploying malware, and creating and operating a residential proxy service known as “911 S5”, a botnet that facilitated cyberattacks, large-scale fraud, child exploitation, harassment, bomb threats, and export violations, according to the DOJ.

The Singapore police and attorney general’s chambers have been working with the DOJ and Federal Bureau of Investigation since August 2022, according to a statement from the city state’s police. The police launched an operation to arrest Wang, following an extradition request from the US. The multi-agency effort also included law enforcement in Thailand and Germany, according to the DOJ.

Wang, who is also a citizen of St Kitts and Nevis, has a Singapore work visa, according to local filings obtained by Bloomberg. His 2,314 sq ft flat in the Orchard Road district was bought in his name in 2021 for S$9.36 million (US$6.9 million), other local filings show.

Security at Wang’s condo said no one was home on the evening of May 30 in Singapore. The Singapore police said it is unable to disclose further information on the status of Wang’s assets as the matter is now before court.

“The conduct alleged here reads like it’s ripped from a screenplay,” said Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement Matthew S. Axelrod of the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security in the statement on Wednesday, adding that Wang splurged from nearly US$100 million in gains from the criminal enterprise. Now, the US is going after these assets.

In Singapore, US authorities are seeking possession of the Orchard Road apartment as well as his locally-registered 2022 Ferrari F8 Spider.

Wang held a bank account with Citigroup Inc. in Singapore under his name, according to the indictment. In addition, there were accounts with Malaysia’s CIMB Group Holdings Bhd. denominated in US dollars and Singapore dollars, as well as multiple bank accounts in Thailand and with a US lender, held either under his name or other entities and associates.

Citi declined to comment on the case via a spokesperson. The lender “is committed to the fight against any activity that undermines the financial system, and we will extend our cooperation to the authorities,” the spokesperson added. CIMB did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Wang operated under multiple aliases including Jack Wan, Jack Wang and Tom Long, according to the indictment.

One of his now-defunct companies, Eternal Code Pte., was a wholesaler of computer software, according to Singapore’s company registry. It hired directors who held roles in dozens of other companies. None of these company officials has been accused of any wrongdoing.

He also directed two other firms, with addresses listed at a prime office complex in the central business district. Its premises was occupied by another company, Leeden Capital Pte., during a recent visit. Two employees affiliated with Leeden said they were not associated to Wang and do not know his whereabouts.

Singapore faced a test to its reputation as a premier financial hub last year after the arrest of Chinese-born individuals who were accused of using ill-gotten gains from remote gambling businesses to fund extravagant lifestyles. The Monetary Authority of Singapore said in July it will boost surveillance and safeguards against laundering risks in the family office space.

Before this case, Singapore was also rocked by scandals involving huge money flows from Malaysia’s state fund 1MDB and German firm Wirecard AG. The blow-ups have led to financiers being banned, people jailed and banks slapped with fines for poor internal controls.

Chinese scientists bring ‘shark skin’ tech to the next-generation jet engine race that US Air Force plans to quit

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3264659/chinese-scientists-bring-shark-skin-tech-next-generation-jet-engine-race-us-air-force-plans-quit?utm_source=rss_feed

A revolutionary shark skin structure inside a turbofan engine, which reduces drag by 10 per cent and significantly increases engine efficiency, has been created by a group of researchers in western China.

The high-strength, large-scale, titanium alloy, precision 3D printing technology behind this breakthrough is set to help China “catch up to, and even surpass” the United States and its allies in the race to develop next-generation aviation engines, project lead scientist Zhang Shaoping with the AECC Sichuan Gas Turbine Establishment said in a peer-reviewed paper published in April in the journal Acta Aeronautica et Astronautica Sinica.

The new generation of engines demands lower fuel consumption for greater thrust, but the path forward has been fraught with challenges. The US Air Force, for instance, said last year it was planning to abandon the Adaptive Engine Transition Programme (AETP) for developing a new next-generation fighter engine, as it instead focused on upgrading existing engines.

However, they fear China may seize this opportunity to catch up.

“Beijing is heavily investing in developing and producing effective propulsion technologies, and these investments are significantly greater than ours from a propulsion perspective, allowing them to close the gap,” John R. Sneden, propulsion director for the US Air Force’s Life Cycle Management Centre, said in an interview with Air & Space Forces Magazine in August 2023.

“We are losing our propulsion lead to China,” he added.

On Thursday, China implemented export restrictions on sophisticated jet engine components, manufacturing equipment and technology with potential military applications. According to China’s customs data, the US was the top buyer of Chinese aerospace products in the first four months of the year.

China has long lagged behind the US in aviation engine technology – up to 30 years by some estimates. It was only recently that the PLA Air Force initiated the service of the WS-15 engine on the J-20 stealth aircraft – while its American counterpart, the F119 engine on the F-22 fighter, began production in the 1990s.

But as engine manufacturing shifts from traditional methods to 3D printing, the gap is disappearing quickly.

In December 2022, GE announced a turbine centre frame made with laser 3D printing. Just one year later, Zhang’s team submitted its paper, presenting a component larger and more complex than GE’s.

With collaborators from Northwestern Polytechnical University, a top Chinese defence research institute sanctioned by the US, Zhang’s team achieved this feat in a giant component called the intermediate casing. Over a metre in diameter, it features bionic grooves just 15 to 35 micrometers deep – thinner than a human hair.

It was previously considered impossible to manufacture such a large hard alloy component using a 3D printer while maintaining precision at such a fine scale.

The intermediate casing is the most important and complex load-bearing structural component of an aviation engine. It not only connects the engine’s front intake fan and the compressor but also serves as the connection between the engine and the aircraft fuselage.

The intermediate casing needs to withstand the impact of high-pressure and high-temperature gases while transmitting the engine’s thrust and torque to the aircraft. Despite being just 3mm (0.11 inch) at its thinnest point, it can bear over 10 tonnes of load, posing significant design and manufacturing challenges.

Using mainstream 3D printing technology and commercial software, Zhang’s team created a prototype that is 25 per cent lighter than traditional castings, yet strong enough to withstand impacts like bird strikes.

Laboratory tests confirm it “meets the requirements of mechanical properties, weight reduction and manufacturability”, Zhang and his colleagues wrote.

But the researchers noted that the 3D printing technology still faces considerable challenges to achieve mass production.

Although the current ultra-fast laser melting additive manufacturing technology has achieved a precision of 3 micrometers, the stress and deformation caused by rapid heating and cooling during the material’s melting and solidification process still pose headaches for factories.

Despite this, the researchers believe this technology will revolutionise the aviation industry in the near future.

“Hollow fan blades will no longer be confined to traditional honeycomb or truss structures but can adopt topologically optimised internal skeletons combined with lattice structures or even metamaterials. The hollowness rate can be increased to over 45 per cent, and it is expected to have better impact resistance,” wrote Zhang’s team in the paper.

By integrating design and additive manufacturing technology, pipelines and cooling channels can also be embedded into the casing to improve cooling performance, the scientists said.

“Using shape memory alloys, we can also design and manufacture smart exhaust nozzles with adaptive adjustment functions, eliminating complex mechanical structures and achieving significant structural weight reduction,” they added.

U.S. and Chinese defense chiefs hold first meeting since 2022

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/05/31/united-states-china-defense-meeting-singapore/2024-05-31T03:20:05.098Z

SINGAPORE — U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin and Chinese defense minister Dong Jun met on Friday, their first face-to-face meeting, as Washington and Beijing seek to stabilize military relations and avert a crisis in Asia.

The United States has been pushing China to work together to prevent miscommunication and to reestablish military hotlines to prevent an accident spiraling into crisis. This is particularly important in the South China Sea, where Beijing is engaged in standoffs with American allies like the Philippines, and amid escalating Chinese military activity around Taiwan, the island democracy Beijing claims as its territory.

The pair met on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, a regional security summit, the first time such a meeting has taken place since Austin met his Chinese counterpart in 2022.

Since then, Beijing has twice replaced its defense minister, and also cut off high-level military-to-military dialogue for 15 months in protest over a visit to Taiwan by then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Beijing only agreed to reopen those communication channels in November when President Biden met Chinese leader Xi Jinping in California. Dong and Austin spoke by phone last month.

Dong, a 62-year-old former head of the Chinese navy, was appointed in December, replacing Li Shangfu four months after Li abruptly disappeared from public view.

The reshuffle is part of broader campaign by Chinese leader Xi Jinping seeks to root out corruption and streamline the command structure to turn the People’s Liberation Army into a “world-class” fighting force able to go toe-to-toe with the United States.

As defense minister, Dong’s role is primarily about military diplomacy. Operations and strategy are set by Xi and senior members of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Military Commission. Dong, unlike his predecessor, is not even a member of the commission.

Navigating China’s rise and its increased frustration at the American presence in areas Beijing considers its backyard — including the South China Sea — has become a top priority for countries in Southeast and East Asia, especially among those countries that want to strengthen trade and economic ties with China while relying on the United States for defense.

China’s “economic, diplomatic and security coercion has been uneasily felt” by its neighbors, said the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the London-based think tank that organizes the Shangri-La Dialogue, in its annual assessment of regional security priorities released on Friday.

“Managing the anxiety over China’s coercion while being bullish over its economic prospects is now a constant preoccupation for many policymakers” in the region, the report said.

While Beijing’s aggression has created growing push back from the Philippines and other claimants in the South China Sea, it has succeeded in deepening its economic and security relationship with countries like Cambodia.

U.S. officials say China has secretly built a new naval base in northern Cambodia, though both countries deny it. “China never says no to us,” said a Cambodian security analyst based in Phnom Penh who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Ninety percent of what we ask for, they give.”

China has invested billions of dollars in Cambodia to upgrade military facilities and build new infrastructure, though it’s not clear, said the analyst, what they want in return. “They want something. But what is it they want? It’s a fair question. We don’t know,” he said.

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China to extend visa-free travel for Malaysians to 30 days

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3264849/china-extend-visa-free-travel-malaysians-30-days?utm_source=rss_feed

China is set to extend visa-free travel for Malaysian tourists from 15 to 30 days, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said on Friday.

Ahmad Zahid, who is on his first official visit to China, made the announcement during a lunch hosted by Chinese vice-premier Ding Xuexiang in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of Malaysia-China diplomatic relations at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on Friday.

“I would like to announce that both countries have agreed to extend the visa-free travel to 30 days. The implementation will be signed at a later date,” he said in his speech.

Ahmad Zahid on Wednesday raised the matter during a courtesy call with Chinese Premier Li Qiang.

The meeting on Friday was in conjunction with the deputy prime minister’s first official visit to China from May 22 to June 1 at the invitation of Xuexiang.

Ahmad Zahid, who is also the minister of rural and regional development, arrived at 10am to hold a discussion with his counterpart for about an hour.

In their welcome speeches, Bernama reported, he and Xuexiang expressed their appreciation of the diplomatic relations established between Malaysia and China since May 31, 1974.

After the discussion session, Ahmad Zahid is scheduled to attend the celebration ceremony of the 50th anniversary of Malaysia-China diplomatic relations co-hosted by the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC) and the Malaysian embassy in Beijing.

Ahmad Zahid, who is also the National Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) committee chairman, was accompanied by Deputy Foreign Minister Mohamad Alamin and Malaysian ambassador to China Norman Muhamad.

Apart from that, he is scheduled to pay a courtesy call on State Councillor and Public Security Minister Wang Xiaohong in the Chinese capital on Friday.

Ahmad Zahid will also host the gala reception for the 50th anniversary of Malaysia-China diplomatic relations in the evening.

Earlier, a Malaysian foreign ministry statement said Ahmad Zahid’s official visit was to strengthen bilateral relations and is expected to explore opportunities for cooperation, especially in the field of education focusing on TVET, halal industry development as well as people-to-people exchanges.

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Passenger drones in Hong Kong? Expert says laws ‘very limiting’ amid calls to follow mainland China’s lead on commercial use to boost tourism

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3264850/passenger-drones-hong-kong-expert-says-laws-very-limiting-amid-calls-follow-mainland-chinas-lead?utm_source=rss_feed

The legislation governing drones in Hong Kong restricts opportunities for wider commercial use, an industry leader has said, amid calls from lawmakers to further develop the market for the devices to help boost tourism and the economy.

Andy Yeung King-sheung, chairman of the DNT FPV Drone Association Hong Kong, China, outlined the restrictions on Friday after lawmakers urged the city to take reference from mainland China in using uncrewed aircraft for delivering goods and even carrying passengers.

Yeung agreed that the potential for such drone services was huge but the city’s related legislation was “very limiting”.

He highlighted the ban on operating drones beyond the sight of their pilot. Yeung said the relaxation of such rules was crucial if the city wanted to operate autonomous drones, which were already being used on the mainland.

“If everything needs to be controlled manually and surveilled by a person, it would not be cost effective,” Yeung told a radio show.

“If the city’s law doesn’t allow [full autonomous use, then] when we use drones for logistics purposes it is not possible to get a person to monitor the device all the way and have a visual observer for continuous observation,” he said.

Yeung added it would be difficult to expand the current use of drones in the city if the government did not update the law.

He said the city’s development of drone usage was quite slow compared with other jurisdictions, noting it was difficult to find a location to conduct tests and trials for new technology.

Drone shows have become more popular in recent months as the city seeks to reinject some vibrancy for visitors and residents alike amid a sagging economy.

A new show on June 10 in Victoria Harbour will add some colour to celebrations for the Dragon Boat Festival as part of a bigger event which is expected to attract 130,000 locals and tourists.

On May 11, tens of thousands of people gathered along the waterfront of the harbour to watch the first drone show themed on the Cheung Chau Bun Festival to celebrate Buddha’s Birthday taking place a few days later. The show involved 1,000 drones displaying a bun tower, dancing lion and flower board with waving flags, among other well-known images from Hong Kong culture.

Last week, another thousand of the flying devices took to the skies in the world’s first Doraemon drone show.

Speaking on the same radio programme, lawmaker Elizabeth Quat, from the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, urged the government to boost the development of the so-called low-altitude economy.

Authorities could consider making use of drones to further boost tourism, such as by carrying people to visit Hong Kong’s geopark located in remote eastern parts of the city, and other outlying islands, Quat said.

She said the mainland was expected to launch a commercial drone passenger service as early as late June, which costs about 200 to 300 yuan (US$28 to US$41) for a 10-minute journey.

The use of drones to deliver medical items and takeaway had also been implemented across the border, and Quat said Hong Kong could follow suit.

“In terms of commercial application, apart from drone performance, Hong Kong is rather slow in development,” she said.

China-Australia relations: Premier Li’s planned Perth trip, with big business delegation in tow, reflects commitment to warmer ties

https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3264840/china-australia-relations-premier-lis-planned-perth-trip-big-business-delegation-tow-reflects?utm_source=rss_feed

Accompanied by the biggest Chinese business delegation that China has taken down under in seven years, Premier Li Qiang will head to Australia next month amid warming ties between the countries, according to sources.

China’s No 2 political figure will be in Perth, a Western Australian city with strong business connections to China, on June 18 to participate in a round-table discussion with company representatives.

The dialogue is expected to comprise 15 delegates from various industries and sectors on both sides, including companies dealing in energy; mining and resources; as well as green technology and transitioning.

The round-table meeting, which was agreed to by President Xi Jinping and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Beijing in November, will be hosted by the Business Council of Australia.

The last such high-level bilateral trade and investment round-table meeting occurred in March 2017, in Sydney.

“Australian business leaders value the opportunity to meet with Premier Li,” said David Olsson, national president of the Australia China Business Council.

“As a neutral platform, the round table creates an opportunity for frank dialogue around some of the challenging issues we face, as well as areas of future cooperation,” he added, noting it remains the cornerstone for addressing collective challenges like climate change, and for supporting sustainable growth.

The Post reported in April that Li’s trip was planned for the third week of June – a visit that looks to consolidate improving economic relations between Beijing and Canberra.

The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet of Australia; the Business Council of Australia; and China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately reply to the Post’s requests for comments.

Information from China’s consulate in Perth showed that China has been Western Australia’s largest trading partner for 17 consecutive years.

The Western state of Australia’s total exports to China reached A$144.6 billion in the 2022-23 fiscal year, the consulate said. In total, 85 per cent of the state’s iron ore went to China, as did 99 per cent of its lithium.

“It will be an exceptional opportunity for Australian businesses to press their commercial interests and to emphasise that they remain reliable suppliers to Chinese customers,” said James Laurenceson, director at the Australia-China Relations Institute with the University of Technology in Sydney.

“The round table in Perth with Premier Li makes clear that both Canberra and Beijing see value in lending their high-level political imprimatur to deep and ongoing private-sector interactions, even [as] relations between Washington and Beijing have largely become zero-sum.”

As a hub for companies such as BHP, Rio Tinto, Fortescue and Tianqi Lithium, Perth is an export-oriented state that accounted for 47.1 per cent of national exports in the year to March 2024, according to figures from the Western Australia government.

“Australian businesses will want Premier Li to understand that they are enthusiastic supporters of stabilised political relations … given the challenges that Beijing is facing in managing economic relations with Washington and Brussels,” Laurenceson said.

China-US relations: defence ministers Dong Jun and Lloyd Austin meet for first time at Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3264822/china-us-relations-defence-ministers-dong-jun-and-lloyd-austin-meet-shangri-la-dialogue-singapore?utm_source=rss_feed

The Chinese and US defence ministers are holding a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Friday, the first in-person meeting between ministers since 2022.

The meeting, between China’s defence minister Dong Jun and his US counterpart Lloyd Austin, started about 12.50pm and is expected to last an hour, according to Senior Colonel Du Wei, who is with the Chinese delegation.

Each side brought 10 officials to the talks, officials said.

It marks the first in-person summit between the pair and comes after a phone call between them in April.

During that call they discussed various issues regarding the increasing military tensions between the two countries over major flashpoints, such as the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.

Relations have remained bitter since Beijing severed the military communication channel with Washington after Nancy Pelosi, who was US House speaker at the time, visited Taiwan in August 2022.

The bilateral meeting on Friday follows Beijing and Washington’s attempt to restore military communication channels after Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden met in San Francisco in November.

It marks the first time in two years the two countries’ defence ministers have met in person after Austin met then Chinese defence minister Wei Fenghe in November 2022 in Cambodia.

No China-US bilateral meeting took place at last year’s Shangri-La Dialogue after Beijing refused because the US had imposed sanctions on Li Shangfu, who became defence minister in March last year and was ousted a few months later.

He was replaced by Dong in December.

More to follow...

South China Sea: how Marcos Jnr’s pushback against Beijing turned him into ‘most sought after leader’ in US

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3264826/south-china-sea-how-marcos-jnrs-pushback-against-beijing-turned-him-most-sought-after-leader-us?utm_source=rss_feed

As soon as it became clear that Ferdinand Marcos Jnr had won the Philippine presidential election in May 2022, the nation’s ambassador to the US was asked by the White House when President Joe Biden should give him a congratulatory call.

“The sooner you make the call, the better for our relationship,” ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez, a cousin of Marcos recalled in an interview. Biden called from Air Force One two days after the election, holding a friendly 10-minute exchange with Marcos that “really set the tone for our relationship with the United States,” Romualdez said.

The tone, from the US perspective, desperately needed changing. Rodrigo Duterte, who preceded Marcos had tilted away from Washington and repeatedly questioned the Southeast Asian nation’s decades-old alliance with the US.

Yet even American officials have been surprised by just how much Marcos has shifted the Philippines back towards the US since he took office roughly two years ago. While Marcos in no way wants to be seen as a US pawn, one official said, he was disillusioned by China’s actions in the South China Sea and is fully on board with strengthening ties with Washington.

“Many expected Marcos to shift back towards the Philippines’ traditional close ties with the US,” said Gregory Poling, director of the Southeast Asia Programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington DC think tank. “But he has gone much farther, undertaking a generational modernisation of the alliance to defend against Chinese aggression.”

Marcos’ outspoken pushback on China, highlighted by his efforts to publicise confrontations between the two countries in the South China Sea, has turned him into somewhat of a star among the US and its allies.

He had the rare honour of addressing the Australian parliament, and on Friday, he’ll deliver the keynote speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual security conference in Singapore that brings together defence chiefs from the US, China and other nations.

“I can feel it in DC, you know,” Romualdez said, where he is based. “He’s really the most sought after leader now, worldwide and in the United States,” the envoy said.

The West’s embrace of Marcos is a remarkable shift from his family’s pariah status after his father was ousted from power almost four decades ago. Some observers initially thought he would hold a grudge against the Americans for prompting his family’s exile to Hawaii after the 1986 revolt that ended his father’s dictatorship.

Biden’s phone call to Marcos in May 2022 was soon followed by high-profile visits from the US secretaries of state and defence, as his administration made it a priority to revive long-standing alliances in a bid to compete with China. Biden met Marcos on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September of that year, and two months later his vice-president was in Manila.

Within six months of his inauguration, Marcos had completed an almost total overhaul of Manila’s policy towards the US – and by extension, China. Shortly afterwards, he handed Washington’s military planners something they greatly coveted: access to four additional bases in the Philippines, three close to Taiwan.

Duterte had largely ignored a 2016 ruling by a UN-backed tribunal that had declared China’s expansive claims illegal, aiming instead for better relations with Beijing – a position Marcos appeared to back on the campaign trail.

But Marcos shifted course once in office, repeatedly citing the 2016 ruling and putting the blame on Beijing for boosting tensions. China claims much of the South China Sea for itself, has built military facilities over reclaimed disputed areas and has conducted large military exercises near Taiwan.

“We have not instigated any kind of conflict. We have not instigated any kind of confrontation,” Marcos said in March. Since the threat from China has grown, he said, “we must do more to defend our territory.”

Early into his term, Marcos appeared to want to balance ties as much as possible. He met Chinese President Xi Jinping in January 2023 on a state visit to Beijing, where the two leaders amicably discussed maritime differences and restarted talks on oil and gas exploration.

But everything changed a few weeks later. During a visit by Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, the Pentagon announced it had secured access to four additional bases in the Philippines, reinvigorating their decades-old military ties.

“It was seen by Beijing as positioning the US to interfere in the Taiwan contingency because of the location,” said Ngeow Chow Bing, director of the Institute of China Studies at the University of Malaya. “It was very hard for Beijing to feel that the Marcos government had any good intention.”

Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary. While many nations, including the US, do not officially acknowledge Taiwan as an independent state, they oppose any use of force to alter the existing status quo.

Two weeks after the expanded military deal was announced, the gloves came off. On February 14, 2023, the Philippines protested China’s flaring of a military-grade laser on a coastguard vessel, temporarily blinding the crew and forcing it to retreat.

Since then, dangerous encounters in the South China Sea have become increasingly routine. Beijing’s armada of fishing boats and coastguard vessels have often blocked Philippine ships and even collided with them, raising the risk of a conflict with China that could potentially draw in the US.

China has repeatedly warned the Philippines about involving “external forces” into their dispute, while maintaining that its maritime actions are reasonable and professional.

The US and its allies have given the Philippines steadfast diplomatic support, while providing it with real-time intelligence. US planes routinely circle overhead on Philippine resupply missions to a dilapidated World War II-era ship that serves as a military outpost in the Second Thomas Shoal.

The US recently assembled a grouping privately called the “Squad” with the Philippines, Australia and Japan to conduct maritime drills and provide greater security assistance to Manila. The Philippines is also working on troop visits with France, in addition to deals with Japan and Australia. In recent weeks, it conducted one of the largest joint exercises ever with the US.

Manila is hoping to leverage the enhanced military relationship to win more US investment and diversify from China, its top trading partner.

The US recently promised US$1 billion in tech and energy investments, and a deal to boost the Philippines’ role in the nickel supply chain to cut China’s dominance is also under discussion. The US and Japan have also committed to build rails, ports and factors in a so-called “economic corridor” on the Philippines’ main island.

“Our alliance with the United States has become stronger, bolstered by our economic engagements,” Marcos said last month during his fourth trip to the US in two years.

Marcos has sought to use the clashes in the South China Sea to his advantage, inviting media from across the world to view China’s actions. And that strategy is showing some signs of paying off, according to Chong Ja Ian, an associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore.

“Some of the PRC’s behaviour at sea may have become more careful and restrained as a result of the Philippines’ efforts,” he said, using an acronym for China. “This suggests that amid the friction and intensifying differences, even Beijing wishes to be able to manage escalation and is acting more carefully than it otherwise could.”

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Chinese-American ‘comedy queen’ Jiaoying Summers born and raised in rural China, reveals childhood taunts about weight

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/gender-diversity/article/3262871/chinese-american-comedy-queen-jiaoying-summers-born-and-raised-rural-china-reveals-childhood-taunts?utm_source=rss_feed

A famous Chinese-American stand-up comedian known as the “comedy queen” on social media has revealed she was taunted by her mother who called her “ugly and fat” when she was a child.

Jiaoying Summers, 34, whose Chinese name is Liang Jiaoying, was inducted into the Asian Hall of Fame in 2021.

The comedian and actress, who regularly appears on talk shows, has starred in a Netflix show and owns two comedy clubs in Los Angeles, The Hollywood Comedy and The Pasadena Comedy.

Summers has 1.3 million followers on TikTok, receiving more than one billion views for her videos which focus on combating Asian racism and representing Asians.

She was born and raised in a village in China’s central province of Henan, where she was criticised by her mother because of her appearance, the Chinese news outlet myzaker.com reported.

“Occasionally there was someone who complimented my looks. My mum would shake her head and say, ‘How could it be possible? You are just a little black girl. Your mouth is like that of a pig,’” Summers recalled.

“Since you are so black and so ugly, you’d better work hard on your studies,” her mother, Li Shuyun, often said.

Yet when she achieved high scores, she still did not receive praise from her mother.

When she shared her dream of becoming an actress, she said she was cruelly mocked by the person who was supposed to love her most.

“Your mouth is large and your face is square. Even if you become an actress, you would only be able to play buffoons,” Summers’ mother told her.

The star recalled how she made the decision to study overseas at the age of 18 after she noticed that actresses in foreign films, with tanned complexions and generous mouths, were regarded as beautiful.

Her mother would not allow her to go abroad unless she could raise 120,000 yuan (US$17,000) by herself. Fortunately, a family friend lent her the money.

Just before she jetted off to the United States, she was surprised to discover that her mother had secretly put US$7,000 in her pocket to support her studies.

Summers went to the University of Kentucky, where she majored in finance as her mother had instructed. However, she learned acting in her spare time.

After graduating, Summers found a few acting small roles. Then, at the suggestion of a Hollywood producer, she tried her luck in comedy, making her first appearance at an open mic night in 2019.

Summers is a mother of two who divorced in 2022.

She said when she quarrelled with her husband just before they separated, her mother sided with her.

“My daughter is the most beautiful and most outstanding. You do not deserve her,” Li told her then son-in-law.

Summers’ experiences of growing up in China, including her interaction with her hypercritical mother, feature heavily in her comedy routines, which frequently reference East Asian family life.

She said any misunderstandings were addressed when she realised her mother was well-intentioned.

“Underneath my mother’s criticism and disappointing comments is her deep and subtle love for me,” Summers said.

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US delays AI chip exports to Middle East by Nvidia, AMD over concern that China can access the tech via data centres

https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-war/article/3264818/us-delays-ai-chip-exports-middle-east-nvidia-amd-over-concern-china-can-access-tech-data-centres?utm_source=rss_feed

US officials have slowed the issuing of licences to chip makers such as Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices for large-scale artificial intelligence (AI) accelerator shipments to the Middle East, according to people familiar with the matter, while officials conduct a national security review of AI development in the region.

It is unclear how long the review will take, nor is there a concrete definition of what constitutes a large shipment, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private.

Officials are particularly focused on high-volume sales, the people said, as countries including the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia look to import massive quantities of the chips used in AI data centres.

AI accelerators – a category pioneered by Nvidia – help data centres process the flood of information needed to develop AI chatbots and other tools. They have become essential equipment for companies and governments seeking to build an AI infrastructure.

In October, the Commerce Department added much of the Middle East to chip export restrictions that originally focused on China and a handful of other foreign adversaries. That meant companies needed a special US government licence to ship cutting-edge semiconductors and chip-making tools to countries such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

US officials have delayed or not responded to licence applications submitted under that rule in the past several weeks, some of the people said. That includes attempts to sell to customers in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, according to one of the people.

In addition to Nvidia and AMD, Intel and start-up Cerebras Systems also make accelerator chips. The four companies declined to comment.

The goal is to give Washington time to develop a comprehensive strategy around how the advanced chips will be deployed overseas, according to the people. That includes negotiating who manages and secures the facilities used to train AI models, some of the people said.

Shares of Nvidia slipped to a low for the day after Bloomberg reported on the licence reviews. At the close in New York, the stock was down 3.8 per cent to US$1,105. AMD, meanwhile, pared earlier gains. It was up less than 1 per cent to US$166.75.

In a statement, the Commerce Department said its highest priority was “protecting national security.”

“With regards to the most cutting edge technologies, we conduct extensive due diligence through an inter-agency process, thoroughly reviewing licence applications from applicants who intend to ship these advanced technologies around the world,” a representative for the department said.

“As always, we remain committed to working with our partners in the Middle East and around the world to safeguard our technological ecosystem.”

Thea Kendler, who leads export administration at the Commerce Department, visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait earlier this month as part of those ongoing discussions. In the UAE, she indicated that there was progress in collaboration on semiconductor export controls, another person familiar with the matter said.

Part of the concern is that Chinese companies, which are largely cut off from cutting-edge American technology themselves, could access those chips through data centres in the Middle East. The Biden administration has been waging a broader campaign to keep advanced semiconductors and manufacturing equipment out of China’s hands, for fear that the technology will be used to bolster its military.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia have been jockeying for regional leadership in AI, aiming to reduce their economies’ dependence on oil. Both countries see the US as a key partner in that effort, and top officials and companies have said they will fulfil US requests to keep Chinese supply chains separate – or divest from Chinese technology entirely.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia just forged a deal with China’s Lenovo Group that involves the computer maker building a research and development centre in Riyadh.

The ability to secure export licences is a major part of negotiations surrounding Microsoft’s US$1.5 billion investment in Abu Dhabi AI firm G42 – a partnership that followed months of talks with US officials.

EU members split sharply over measures to de-risk China economic ties

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3264810/eu-members-split-sharply-over-measures-de-risk-china-economic-ties?utm_source=rss_feed

Battle lines are being drawn in Brussels on trade, with the EU’s plans to securitise its economic ties with China thrilling some of its members and enraging others.

On one side of the divide: a group of countries led by France, which champion hardcore industrial policy and robust tools to protect their industries from unfair competition, and equip them with the tools and money to compete.

On the other: a group of free-traders led by Germany, who prefer to let the market set the rules of competition with China and other powers – even if not everyone is playing by the same terms.

Ground zero is an EU investigation into subsidies in China’s electric vehicle sector, a lightning rod for some of the bloc’s deepest cleavages over the nature of the EU economy, and by extension its relationship with Beijing.

Paris has championed the probe, which it views as part of an effort to build a third and European pillar between the US and China, one that fights fire with fire in a multipolar world.

“China is our economic partner, but China has industrial overcapacity. And the G7 must present a united front to protect its industrial interests,” French finance minister Bruno Le Maire said this week, in a rallying call for Group of 7 nations to steel their joint economic defences against Beijing.

Speaking in Brussels on Thursday, Finland’s trade minister, Ville Tavio, threw his support behind the investigation.

“We naturally want a level playing field for all the actors. So I think it’s very necessary to look how they are subsidising their own industries and whether that’s too much from them,” he said.

Throughout the week, though, ministers from other countries were queuing up to take potshots at the inquiry, which is likely to see stiffer import duties imposed on electric cars made in China starting in July.

“We’re a bit sceptical, we don’t want to engage in any kind of trade wars,” said Johan Forssell, the trade minister of Sweden – another champion of open markets – upon arriving at the ministerial meeting on Thursday.

“Obviously it’s a problem what is happening in China, but there are also risks when it comes to having these kinds of tariffs – opening up the risks for future trade wars,” he added.

Malta’s energy minister, Miriam Dalli, said that her island nation wanted “no tariffs that would not help us achieve our decarbonisation targets”.

On Wednesday, Germany’s transport minister, Volker Wissing, compared the probe to something Communist East Germany might once have come up with.

“This has nothing to do with a market economy … Global competition is an incentive for German manufacturers to build better and cheaper cars,” Wissing told the Euractiv news site. “I’m not worried that the German vehicle industry won’t survive this competition.”

In a sign of how sensitive the inquiry has become, a decision is now likely to come after European Parliament elections, which conclude on June 9. It had initially been expected that the commission would notify China-based exporters of new duties on Wednesday, four weeks before a public announcement in July.

The official line in Brussels is that there is no legal deadline for pre-notification. The German magazine Der Spiegel reported, however, that the move was to “keep the issue out of a heated election campaign”.

A rumour mill churned in the Belgian capital on Thursday, with many noting a steady drumbeat of threats from Beijing to retaliate for the probe, including targeting European farmers ahead of an election in which agriculture has been a huge issue.

The debate is not limited to electric vehicles.

Ambassadors from the EU’s member states chewed over its proposed economic security strategy last week. They were briefed by the commission on progress towards a European-wide export controls regime, an upgrade to the EU’s inbound investment screening mechanism and nascent steps on an outbound screening tool.

France, once again, led calls for the EU to go harder and faster on the plans, lobbying for more technologies to be added to Brussels’ de-risking agenda, including those in the energy and clean technology sectors, according to people present.

Free traders, on the other hand, called for caution, particularly about the imposition of outbound screening.

“We don’t particularly see a need for it. If you have functioning controls on the export of sensitive technology to China, it would be unlikely that companies would go around those to build a factory there making the same stuff,” said a diplomat from a capital known to oppose the plans.

Businesses are weighing in too, and are unsurprisingly reluctant to endorse curbs on where private enterprises can put their money.

“We call for caution on outbound investment, where a clear identification of the problem is necessary, followed by a careful risk-benefit analysis before taking further action,” read a position paper released on Thursday by BusinessEurope, a powerful lobby group.

As with politicians, though, there is divergence between businesses on the issues challenging EU-China trade relations.

A separate report on Thursday found that European executives in China were much more likely to be concerned by Beijing’s economic policies than their counterparts in Europe.

A survey by the European Round Table for Industry found that 77 per cent of China-based chief executives from Western multinationals think that China’s industrial overcapacity will damage its relationship with Europe, compared to 54 per cent of those based in Europe.

Nor was the disconnect limited to de-risking. While Russia remains the single most prominent issue on the EU agenda, just 34 per cent of European chief executives thought Beijing’s relations with Moscow would damage its ties with Brussels, compared with 80 per cent of China-based executives.

“A likely reason behind China-based CEOs’ more heightened concerns is their vulnerability to a unified policy response by the EU and the US that could be sparked by a tightening of China-Russia ties,” the report read.

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Asia sees more military drills, but China lags US in scale and complexity: study

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/3264786/asia-sees-more-military-drills-china-lags-us-scale-and-complexity-study?utm_source=rss_feed

The United States and China have significantly increased the volume of military exercises across Asia amid roiling regional tensions in recent years, though Beijing’s drills still lag in scale and complexity, a new study has found.

In a survey of military exercises in Asia between 2003 and 2022, the London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies said drills are expanding at an increasing rate, driven in part by US and Chinese efforts to test capabilities and boost strategic diplomacy.

The IISS study “Scripted Order”, released on Friday, charted some 1,113 US exercises involving Asian countries, compared with 130 run by China.

Noting that the US military may eventually lose its edge over China in the region, the study says China is challenged by a lack of combat experience and that its exercises “remain underdeveloped and over scripted for a regional contingency”.

“The US will seek to maintain its lead via plethora of military exercises with almost all regional countries,” the study notes. “China will try to narrow the gap by deepening its exercise ties with a small number of regional partners.”

More broadly, military deployments across the region have been rising for several years amid tensions over Taiwan and territorial disputes in the vital trade waterways of the East and South China Seas.

Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary. While many nations, including the US, do not officially acknowledge Taiwan as an independent state, they oppose any use of force to alter the existing status quo.

Diplomats and analysts say they are watching the trend closely, with some noting that drills serve many purposes: promoting freedom of navigation in disputed waters, signalling deterrence and reassurance, and improving diplomacy.

The drills also create opportunities to probe rivals’ capabilities and communications, with both US and Chinese ships and planes frequently shadowing each other, said three military attaches, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

China, North Korea and Russia have all complained that the increasing tempo of US drills, with and without its allies, is driving up tensions in the region and triggering arms build-ups. The US says the exercises are needed to build confidence and improve interoperability.

Chinese defence ministry spokesperson Wu Qian said on Thursday that Beijing’s goal was to strengthen its defence capability against “aggression” and enhance regional trust.

Chinese drills with other forces often involve parallel operations rather than interoperability, which the US promotes with its allies and partners.

The IISS noted China’s growing focus on the Indian Ocean, where some analysts have warned it would struggle to defend its vital energy supplies in an East Asian conflict.

It noted the complexity of naval drills with Pakistan in the Arabian Sea in November 2023 involving China’s most advanced Type-052D destroyers.

Washington’s focus on competition with China since the mid-to-late 2010s sparked changes, the report says, and its operations with allies Japan, the Philippines and Australia are more important.

“The shift towards more frequent and larger exercises with more partners followed prior trends but along a much steeper trajectory that is set to continue beyond 2024,” the report says.

“Washington did not pursue this shift independently; it could not have occurred absent the rising threat perceptions of some Asia-Pacific states that had been clashing for years with an increasingly assertive China.”

Singapore-based scholar Ian Storey, who has carried out his own survey of China’s interactions with Southeast Asian militaries, says Beijing’s involvement spiked in 2023 and is expected to continue to rise.

“While the increased tempo of China’s defence engagements with Southeast Asia looks impressive, they should be viewed in perspective,” said Storey, of the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, referring to the relatively small number of Beijing’s exercises compared with the US.

More broadly, the exercise trend’s effects on regional security depend on who is doing them and why, said Euan Graham, a senior analyst with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

As a result, he said, risk “is in the eye of the beholder”.

Some Southeast Asian countries, he noted, do not see allied exercises as reassuring, but rather as spurring the other side – China in this case – to hold more exercises of their own.

But some of its regional allies had made “a very strong demand for reassurance” from the US, he said.

Mainland China suspends tariff arrangements on 134 items under Taiwan trade deal

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3264787/mainland-china-suspends-tariff-arrangements-134-items-under-taiwan-trade-deal?utm_source=rss_feed

Mainland China announced on Friday a suspension of some preferential tariff arrangements under the Cross-Strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with Taiwan.

The decision would take effect on 134 items from June 15, according to an online statement by the Customs Tariff Commission under the State Council in Beijing.

“Taiwan authorities failed to take any actions to remove its trade restrictions [on mainland China products],” the statement said.

More to follow …

China’s factory activity shrinks in May amid uneven economic recovery

https://www.scmp.com/economy/economic-indicators/article/3264791/chinas-factory-activity-shrinks-may-amid-uneven-economic-recovery?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s factory activity shrank in May despite strong exports and a slew of supportive policies aimed at boosting domestic demand, indicating an uneven economic recovery for the world’s second-largest economy.

The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) – a survey of sentiment among factory owners – stood at 49.5, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Friday.

The figure fell from 50.4 in April, and fell short of expectations, with Chinese financial service provider Wind having predicted a reading of 50.1.

A reading above 50 typically indicates expansion of activity, while a reading below suggests contraction

The new manufacturing export order subindex, meanwhile, fell to 47.2 in May from 50.6 in April.

Elsewhere, China’s non-manufacturing PMI – a measurement of sentiment in the service and construction sectors – fell to 51.1 in May from 51.2 in April but remained in expansion territory for the fifth straight month.

Within the non-manufacturing PMI, the new order subindex within the construction sector fell to 44.1 in May from 45.3 in April, while the service sector business activity subindex fell to 47.4 from 50.3.

“The contribution of property policy to the recent PMI expansion is limited due to the modest scale of the policy. Currently, the bright spot in China’s economy remains the exports,” said Larry Hu, chief China economist at Macquarie Capital.

“Activity in China’s industrial sector this year will largely depend on how long demand in overseas economies can be sustained, particularly economic growth in the US market.”

Beijing has been pinning its hopes on export-led growth thanks to the fast rebound in overseas demand, and in the face of prolonged sluggish domestic demand, it has introduced various property and trade-in policies to ensure China can meet its around 5 per cent annual target.

China has made a vigorous attempt to reverse the ongoing property downturn by further cutting mortgage rates, encouraging destocking and offering 300 billion yuan (US$41.4 billion) of central bank funds to help local governments buy inventories from developers.

Three of China’s four top-tier cities have also launched stimulus measures to revive the housing market, and about 10 provincial cities, including Nanjing, Tianjin and Chengdu, have adjusted their property policies, with measures such as lowering down-payment ratios and subsidies for trade-in homes.

The new policy is expected to boost China’s gross domestic product growth to around 5.5 per cent, according to Xun Yugen, chief economist at Haitong Securities.

He said last week that before Beijing rolled out the policies, the real estate sector had dragged down GDP by about 0.38 percentage points in the first quarter.

More to follow …

South China Sea: Manila, Beijing tap backchannel efforts to resolve disputes

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3264762/south-china-sea-manila-beijing-tap-backchannel-efforts-resolve-disputes?utm_source=rss_feed

Backchannel efforts are under way between Manila and Beijing to find a way to resolve the territorial dispute in the South China Sea, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr has said ahead of his keynote speech at Asia’s top defence summit held in Singapore.

“You should try everything. You don’t know what effort is going to be successful,” he said on Wednesday in Brunei, en route to Singapore where he is expected to speak at the Shangri-La Dialogue about the Philippines’ efforts to resolve the maritime gridlock with China.

In Singapore, Marcos Jnr and Philippine defence officials will be in close physical proximity to Chinese military officials, who ordered blockades and the use of water cannons against Philippine vessels in a months-long row in the contested waterway.

“Any point of contact that I can establish, I will use it, and at every level, as long as it brings us progress in terms of resolving these [issues],” Marcos Jnr said.

The Philippines and China have been engaged in a war of words in recent weeks, with Beijing accusing Manila of reneging on a “new model” for handling resupply missions to the now-infamous Philippine naval vessel BRP Sierra Madre that was intentionally run aground at Second Thomas Shoal in the disputed South China Sea.

Under the supposed model, Manila would only deploy one coastguard vessel and a resupply boat to the shoal, while China would only launch one coastguard ship and a fishing boat.

Marcos Jnr and Philippine defence and military officials have denied agreeing to such an arrangement.

Marcos said in Brunei that he was open to negotiating with China on putting an end to “aggressive actions” such as water cannons and lasers and allowing Filipino fishermen to fish safely again.

China’s recent imposition of a four-month unilateral fishing ban in the South China Sea, which encroached on the Philippines’ maritime territory, was “very worrisome” and an “escalation of the situation”, Marcos Jnr said.

He also noted the summit’s focus on the West Philippine Sea and its importance to global trade, saying his invitation to give the keynote speech was a “recognition of challenges facing the Philippines”.

See Seng Tan, a research adviser at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said the summit is likely to address global security issues such the Israel-Gaza war, the Ukraine war and South China Sea issues.

“Any reference on the part of Marcos Jnr [about] … the simmering tensions over the Second Thomas Shoal, and his rejection of Beijing’s claim about a 2016 agreement allegedly struck with Manila over access to the South China Sea islands, is likely to invite pushback from the Chinese, who have accused Manila and Washington of joining forces against Beijing.”

He pointed out that China’s new defence minister Dong Jun, a former navy chief with leadership experience in the Southern Theatre Command that oversees the South China Sea, will make his debut with an international audience during the summit and is expected to meet US defence chief Lloyd Austin.

The dialogue will continue until Sunday and cover topics such as China’s approach to global security, the US’ partnerships in the Indo-Pacific, maritime law enforcement, crisis management and cooperative security in the Asia-Pacific.

Electric vehicles: China’s GAC Aion shifts up a gear in Hong Kong with ambitious sales target, new models in pipeline

https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/3264752/electric-vehicles-chinas-gac-aion-shifts-gear-hong-kong-ambitious-sales-target-new-models-pipeline?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese state-owned carmaker Guangzhou Automobile Group (GAC) said it plans to intensify its push into Hong Kong’s electric vehicle market by setting itself an ambitious target of 4,000 sales in the city by the end of this year.

GAC Aion, the electric vehicle (EV) unit of GAC, the Chinese partner of Toyota and Honda, aims to meet this target by introducing more new-energy car models to the city’s drivers later in the year, according to Coleman Cheung, general manager of Harmony Motor Aion in Hong Kong.

“We can only hit this sales target with a diverse range of car models. We will not be able to sell 4,000 vehicles with just one model,” said Cheung at the launch of GAC Aion’s showroom in Wan Chai on Thursday afternoon.

“Together with the quality of the GAC brand and car models that can match the demands of the Hong Kong market, there is a definite possibility that we can meet this target.”

He said GAC Aion’s plan to bring more electric car models to Hong Kong was in line with the government’s decarbonisation road map for the city to attain zero vehicular emissions by 2050.

The government outlined plans three years ago to encourage the uptake of EVs, with a target to stop registering new petrol and petrol-electric hybrid vehicles by 2035.

Hong Kong had 91,633 registered plug-in EVs as of April, a 68 per cent increase from a year ago, according to data from the Transport Department. EVs account for 14 per cent of the city’s private cars.

GAC Aion first entered the Hong Kong market with the launch of its first vehicle, the Aion Y Plus, in the city at the end of January.

More than 100 of the 5-seat pure-electric sport-utility vehicle have been sold in the city so far, according to Cheung.

The Aion Y Plus can be purchased for HK$229,800 (US$29,393) under the government’s “one-for-one replacement” scheme, which grants concessions to car owners if they scrap and deregister petrol-powered cars and replace them with electric vehicles.

The EV maker unveiled its first showroom in Kowloon Bay in January, and aims to open four more by the end of the year, Cheung said.

GAC has two new models planned for Hong Kong this year. It hopes to offer the Hyper HT, a luxury five-seat SUV with gull-wing door design, to the city’s motorists in the third quarter.

And in the three months after that, it plans to introduce its seven-seat plug-in hybrid, the Trumpchi E9.

“This year, we will set up Hong Kong as our window to overseas markets,” said Wayne Wei, general manager of GAC International at the launch event. He said the carmaker would bring in more talent and resources to consolidate its business in the city.

“We will holistically increase the quality of our products, brands, sales and service in the Hong Kong market,” said Wei.

US-returned Chinese physicist Duan Luming and team build world’s most powerful ion-based quantum computing machine

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3264742/us-returned-chinese-physicist-duan-luming-and-team-build-worlds-most-powerful-ion-based-quantum?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese scientists are one step closer to a future large-scale quantum computer – after building the world’s largest quantum simulation machine based on the “trapped-ion” technique, praised by one academic journal reviewer as “a milestone to be recognised”.

The breakthrough was achieved under the leadership of Duan Luming, a quantum physicist renowned for his pioneering research, who returned to China in 2018 after 15 years of teaching in the United States.

Duan received his doctorate in 1998 from the University of Science and Technology of China, the country’s premier institute for quantum research, before joining the University of Michigan in the early 2000s.

Since his return, he has been a full-time professor at Tsinghua University’s Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences.

Duan and his colleagues, along with several research groups at universities and hi-tech companies around the world, have been chasing the trapped-ion approach to qubits.

Quantum bits, or qubits, are the building blocks of quantum computers, just as “bits” are in regular computers.

However, qubits are extremely difficult to harness in a controlled and repeatable way because of what is called their hazy nature.

Regular bits can be described as switches that are either on or off. But because uncertainty and probability hold sway in quantum physics, qubits can be both on and off at the same time, and also exist in a variety of in-between states.

Ions, or charged atomic particles, can be trapped and suspended in free space using electromagnetic fields. The qubits are stored in stable electronic states of each ion, and quantum information can be transferred through the collective motion of the ions in a shared trap.

But scalability remains a key challenge for this system.

This is where the trapped-ion approach comes in, as it offers one of the most promising architectures for a scalable, universal quantum computer.

Researchers earlier achieved quantum simulations with up to 61 ions in a one-dimensional crystal. Ion crystals are solids made up of ions bound together in a regular “lattice” – the symmetrical three-dimensional structural arrangements of atoms, ions or molecules inside a solid.

But Duan and his team’s quantum simulator was able to achieve the stable trapping and cooling of a two-dimensional crystal of up to 512 ions, in a first for science.

The feat holds great significance for the future of quantum computing, given that scalability is a major hurdle. The team’s scaling up of the ions in a stable simulation system is seen as likely to pave the way to building more powerful quantum computers.

The findings of their study were published on Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal Nature.

This is “the largest quantum simulation or computation performed to date in a trapped-ion system”, commented one reviewer.

Quantum simulators are devices that actively use quantum effects to answer questions about model systems and, through them, real systems. They are increasingly popular tools in the world of quantum computing for their role in advancing scientific knowledge and developing technologies.

Duan and his team also managed to perform a quantum simulation calculation using 300-ion qubits. They found the computational complexity of 300-ion quantum bits working simultaneously to be astronomical, far exceeding the direct simulation capability of classical computers.

Meet the Chinese army’s latest weapon: the gun-toting dog

https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/may/30/chinese-armys-latest-weapon-gun-toting-dog

The Chinese army has debuted its latest weapon – a gun-toting robotic dog.

The mechanical canine, which has an automatic rifle on its back, was front and centre of recent joint military drills with Cambodia, according to footage from state broadcaster CCTV.

The dog was backed up by a similarly-armed quadcopter in the drills, which saw the machines paired with human soldiers in dry runs for urban assaults. “It can serve as a new member in our urban combat operations, replacing our human members to conduct reconnaissance and identify enemy and strike the target,” Chen Wei, a Chinese soldier, said in the video.

While they may be technologically advanced, the killer robots are hardly sleek pieces of military hardware; both dog and drone appear to be off-the-shelf pieces of consumer technology with a conventional rifle literally bolted on top. The dog has the brandname of the Chinese company that built it, Unitree Robotics, clearly visible on the side.

Prices for the company’s Go2 robot dog start at $1,600 (£1,300), according to Unitree’s website. The company denied selling products to the Chinese military. It is unclear how the army procured the dog.

The robot dog archetype was initially developed and made famous by Boston Dynamics, at one point a Google subsidiary. It has long had connections with the US military, with the initial version of its “robotic quadruped”, BigDog, being developed as a potential mechanical pack animal for the army. But the company, which was sold by Google to Softbank in 2017, and then on to Hyundai in 2020, has always steered clear of actively weaponising its technology.

According to Boston Dynamics founder Marc Raibert, who spoke at the AI Seoul Summit last week, there are “around 1,500” of the company’s “Spot” dogs around the world. “But recently there’s just been a springing out of other robot companies building quite incredible robots,” Raibert said. “It’s very exciting to go from the research lab into commercialisation.”

That “springing out” also means that Boston Dynamics’ refusal to weaponise its technology is no longer preventing militaries and law enforcement from obtaining their own armed robots. In 2021, Ghost Robotics demonstrated a Vision 60 robot dog armed with a custom gun built by Sword International, and by 2023 the US Army confirmed it was actively exploring how to use such a system in the field. In 2022, China demonstrated another weapon-wearing robot – being carried and deposited in a training centre by a drone.

But while the systems are robotic, they are not yet typically autonomous. The CCTV video shows the Go2 dog being controlled by a soldier with a handheld device. The concern for many observers is what happens if and when that human link is diminished, with AI systems able to act quicker and with lower latency than a human operator could.

China’s easing of solar, wind installation curbs to boost renewable energy, aid sector struggling with oversupply

https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3264734/chinas-easing-solar-wind-installation-curbs-boost-renewable-energy-aid-sector-struggling-oversupply?utm_source=rss_feed

China has eased curbs on solar and wind installations to cut use of fossil fuel, a positive sign for the country’s renewable energy sector, which has been struggling with oversupply.

The action plan released by the State Council, China’s cabinet, on Wednesday, aims to improve energy conservation and reduce carbon dioxide emissions for the next two years.

The action plan comes with a “curtailment” caveat for solar and wind power. These plants can operate at a utilisation rate of 90 per cent compared with 95 per cent previously, “if economics prevail”, according to the plan, meaning more renewable energy installations will be allowed but with a lower rate of utilisation.

Investors reacted positively to the development. China’s leading solar company JinkoSolar Holding rose as much as 6.3 per cent in New York on Thursday, while Shanghai-listed Tongwei gained 2.4 per cent.

“We expect some investors to interpret the [easing of the curbs] as a positive for the future of solar and wind installations,” said Leo Ho, an analyst at Daiwa Capital Markets.

China, the world’s largest wind turbine and solar panel manufacturer, has been struggling with oversupply this year because of restrictions imposed by the US and the European Union. The clean energy sector accounted for around a fifth of China’s 5.2 per cent gross domestic product growth in 2023. Beijing has identified solar panels, electric vehicles and lithium batteries as the three new pillars of the country’s economic growth.

The oversupply issue in China’s solar industry is likely to persist until the late-2020s even without new capital expenditure, according to a report from Daiwa.

“Unless solar companies adopt Opec-like supply curbs, solar industry profits will continue to fluctuate around cost levels,” Dennis Ip, an analyst at Daiwa said in the report, adding that such a scenario was highly unlikely.

While some of the targets in the action plan had been announced earlier, the goals for this year are generally more ambitious compared with those achieved a year ago, according to a Citi report on Thursday.

“We regard clean energy targets as having been taken as higher priority by [the Chinese] government,” the report said.

The US bank expects more clean energy capacity addition from large-scale wind power and photovoltaic plants with a focus on deserts in China and from offshore wind power, as well as from large-scale hydropower plants, biomass energy and hydrogen energy.

Fuelled by China’s clean energy initiatives and the country’s dual-carbon goals to reach peak nationwide emissions by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2060, the country’s energy consumption and carbon emissions are falling, analysts said.

China’s carbon emissions fell by 3 per cent in March, ending a 14-month increase that followed the lifting of zero-Covid controls, said Lauri Myllyvirta, a senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute, in a report.

Meanwhile, the world’s largest consumer of coal could see the use of the polluting fossil fuel peak next year, followed by oil in 2027 and natural gas by 2040, according to a report by Sinopec, China’s largest oil refiner and petrochemicals producer, on Wednesday.

Non-fossil energy is projected to dominate China’s total energy supply by around 2045, and China’s hydrogen energy consumption will reach 86 million tons by 2060, creating an industry worth 4.6 trillion yuan, the report said.

Non-fossil fuel as an energy source for making hydrogen will jump to 93 per cent by 2026, with solar and wind energy contributing to two-thirds of hydrogen production, it added.

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