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• Why China takes young Tibetans from their families | China
• Foreign judges are fed up with Hong Kong’s political environment | China
• Li Qiang and China look to make up with Australia | China
• Why China’s economic model still appeals overseas | Podcasts
• China’s markets watchdog aims to enhance funds recognition scheme with Hong Kong to boost flows
• China’s foreign ministry arm in Hong Kong derides ‘farce’ of European Commission report
• China unveils new fair-competition regulations in ongoing push to unify domestic market
• Chinese team says new storage chip material has a near-infinite lifespan
• Hong Kong woman in critical condition after receiving Botox injections in mainland China
• G7 vows to counter China’s ‘unfair’ business practices, puts financial institutions on notice
• China stands with delivery riders: 17-point plan aims to boost Communist Party outreach
• China actor Hu Ge tells young Taiwan filmmakers ‘have a good script, come to me’
• Senior Chinese official to visit EU days after electric vehicle tariffs raise trade war risk
• Grieving China boy, 10, transfers love to aunt who looks like late mother killed in car accident
• China’s ‘hidden debt’ seen shrinking, but scaling that mountain remains a daunting challenge
• Ukraine war: Japan mulls sanctions on Chinese firms but is it ‘step in right direction’?
• Small plates rule at two new Chinese restaurants from Peter Chang
• Katie Ledecky on China doping scandal: ‘There’s supposed to be consequences’
• China’s aviation leader puts cargo drone to test in Beijing’s push for strategic industry
• South China Sea: Ming dynasty shipwreck treasures offer new clues to ancient trade route
• South China Sea: Philippine fishermen protest against new rule for coastguard arrest
• [Sport] Chinese #MeToo journalist jailed for five years
• China man upset as sales platform refuses to transfer his name to dead sister’s concert ticket despite proof
• Prominent Chinese activists sentenced to up to 5 years on charges of ‘inciting subversion’
• Prominent China #MeToo journalist sentenced to five years in jail, supporters say
• Bitcoin mining rigs pop up in Southeast Asia’s abandoned malls, factories after China crackdown
• Chinese #metoo journalist, activist jailed in crackdown on civil society
• South China Sea: why Beijing may not rush to act on new rules for Chinese coastguard
• China’s oil refiners are slowing down after decades of growth, in a blow to global supply
• Machine intelligence reignites China’s century-old dream ‘to seek a continent’
• Tech war: China’s top memory chip maker YMTC sees rising domestic demand, defying US curbs
• Philippines increases South China Sea patrols as Beijing set to roll out new trespass laws
• CEOs ‘cautiously optimistic’ about China’s economy amid ‘new competitive reality’
• Shanghai Technology Exchange to open Hong Kong branch as China boosts digital economy
• Top China tourist spot installs timers in women’s restrooms. Critics ask why
• China’s security focus may indicate Taiwan invasion planning, analysts say
• Exports between US and China could see sharp declines from AI-powered cyberattacks: study
• Microsoft president testifies before House panel over security lapses after China-linked hack

Why China takes young Tibetans from their families | China

https://www.economist.com/china/2024/06/13/why-china-takes-young-tibetans-from-their-families

AN AIR OF quiet piety hangs over Rongwo Monastery in the western province of Qinghai. The streets near this ancient complex draw pilgrims and Tibetan Buddhist monks in dark red robes. Local believers make circuits around the monastery’s yellow walls, turning a line of wooden prayer-wheels as they walk.

On a recent Monday afternoon, though, chattering schoolchildren thronged this sacred neighbourhood in the heart of Tongren, a small mountain city known to Tibetans as Rebkong. Youngsters in red scarves and uniform tracksuits bought fruit and snacks from market stalls, most without a parent in sight. Teenage high-schoolers and pupils half their age hauled small suitcases or sat in weary groups beside piles of schoolbags, bringing the bustle of a railway station to streets around the monastery.

Foreign judges are fed up with Hong Kong’s political environment | China

https://www.economist.com/china/2024/06/13/foreign-judges-are-fed-up-with-hong-kongs-political-environment

IT IS AN unusual arrangement, to be sure. Since its establishment in 1997, the Court of Final Appeal in Hong Kong has had both local and foreign judges on its bench. The set-up was part of the deal that handed the territory from Britain to China that year. The foreigners, who hold non-permanent seats, tend to have impressive legal backgrounds and come from other common-law jurisdictions, such as Britain, Australia and Canada. So they are accustomed to exercising judicial power “independently and free from any interference”, as laid out in the territory’s mini-constitution, called the Basic Law.

The court still operates largely as envisioned. But Hong Kong’s leaders are growing more oppressive, forcing the foreign judges to make a tough choice. Three out of ten on the Court of Final Appeal have resigned this month. Two British judges, Jonathan Sumption (pictured) and Lawrence Collins, jumped first, noting the deteriorating political situation. Days later a Canadian judge, Beverley McLachlin, said she would also depart, citing personal reasons. Lord Sumption, hitherto a defender of the role of foreign judges on the court, explained his thinking in the Financial Times. Most of Hong Kong’s judges are “honourable people with all the liberal instincts of the common law”, he wrote. “But they have to operate in an impossible political environment created by China.”

Li Qiang and China look to make up with Australia | China

https://www.economist.com/china/2024/06/13/li-qiang-and-china-look-to-make-up-with-australia

“My government is pro-panda,” said Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, as he prepared to host the highest-ranking Chinese visitor to his country in seven years. Mr Albanese was simply referring to the bears that China has lent to Australia’s Adelaide Zoo. Still, such sound-bites had long been rare before he was elected in 2022. Relations between China and Australia had suffered years of acrimony. The mood is now much changed. During his four-day trip to Australia, beginning on June 15th, China’s prime minister, Li Qiang, will be keen to show that even with one of America’s closest allies, cordial ties are possible.

In China’s political hierarchy, Mr Li is a distant number two to the president, Xi Jinping, who last visited Australia a decade ago. But his trip has much symbolic importance. Under Australia’s previous governments, China hawks held sway. Relations turned particularly sour in 2017 when the prime minister at the time, Malcolm Turnbull, tried to clamp down on Chinese attempts to exert covert influence in Australia. He introduced laws aimed at curbing this. In 2018 he also took the lead among Western powers by banning Chinese involvement in the building of advanced 5G communications networks. His successor, Scott Morrison, infuriated China by calling for an international investigation into the origins of covid-19. China responded with sweeping restrictions on Australian exports to China. Mr Li’s visit is a clear sign that both countries want to move on.

Why China’s economic model still appeals overseas | Podcasts

https://www.economist.com/podcasts/2024/06/13/why-chinas-economic-model-still-appeals-overseas

China’s model for economic development holds serious appeal for countries looking for an alternative to the Washington consensus of economic and political liberalisation. But what exactly is the “China Model”? And should America and its allies be worried about China’s growing confidence in exporting it?

Hosts: Mike Bird and Tom Lee-Devlin. Guests: Elizabeth Economy, Hargrove senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University; and Yasheng Huang, Professor of Global Economic and Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

China’s markets watchdog aims to enhance funds recognition scheme with Hong Kong to boost flows

https://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/3266707/chinas-markets-watchdog-aims-enhance-funds-recognition-scheme-hong-kong-boost-flows?utm_source=rss_feed

Mainland China’s top securities watchdog has proposed amending a funds recognition scheme with Hong Kong in the latest move to boost cross-border trading and capital flow between the two markets.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) published a consultation paper on Friday on enhancing the mainland-Hong Kong mutual recognition of funds (MRF) scheme to provide investors with more choice. The mechanism was originally unveiled by the regulator on April 19 as one of five measures aimed at strengthening ties between the two, and to boost Hong Kong’s status as a global financial hub.

The paper is open to public consultation until July 14, according to the CSRC.

“[The proposed amendments] would address a long-standing wish of asset managers in Hong Kong for the scheme to be more flexible and to provide more diversified product choices to mainland investors as well as injecting new impetus into the continuous development of the MRF scheme,” said Julia Leung, chief executive officer of Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC).

“The SFC will continue to work closely with the CSRC to formulate and implement the measures,” the city’s market watchdog said in a separate announcement on Friday.

Geared towards promoting the coordinated development of mainland China and Hong Kong’s capital markets, the five measures also included a plan to relax the eligibility criteria for exchange-traded fund (ETF) products in the Stock Connect mechanism that allows investors in the two regions to invest in each other’s markets.

The Hong Kong stock exchange said on Friday that the new eligibility requirements for ETFs will take effect on July 22.

“[The ETF] expansion will further enhance the investment choices for Stock Connect investors, enabling them to diversify their assets across both Hong Kong and mainland China markets in an efficient and cost-effective manner,” the HKEX said on Friday.

The Stock Connect scheme was first launched in November of 2014 to link the Shanghai and Hong Kong exchanges, and later expanded to include Shenzhen. It allows investors in mainland China to buy select companies listed in Hong Kong – known as the southbound channel – and foreigners to buy mainland-listed A shares in what is called northbound trade.

An updated list of eligible ETFs for northbound and southbound trading under the Stock Connect scheme will be unveiled on July 12, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, which operates the bourse, said.

In another unprecedented move to open up its capital market and offer mainland investors more options, the CSRC on Friday approved the country’s ETFs to track top firms in Saudi Arabia.

The two funds, managed by China’s Huatai-Pinebridge Investments and Southern Asset Management separately under the Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor (QDII) programme, will track Hong Kong-listed CSOP Saudi Arabia ETF, which listed in Hong Kong last November.

The CSOP Saudi Arabia ETF tracks the performance of the FTSE Saudi Arabia Index, which had a market capitalisation of US$303.5 billion as of the end of May.

China’s foreign ministry arm in Hong Kong derides ‘farce’ of European Commission report

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3266687/chinas-foreign-ministry-arm-hong-kong-derides-farce-european-commission-report?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s foreign ministry arm in Hong Kong has urged the European Commission to “abandon the absurd farce” over an annual report on the city, accusing it of blatantly supporting anti-China forces in the city.

The statement by the commissioner’s office of China’s Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong on Friday came a day after the European Commission published an annual report that said the Hong Kong national security law was being used to stifle dissent and erode residents’ rights and freedoms.

A spokesman for the foreign ministry urged the commission to “abandon the absurd farce”, saying the report was a “malicious attack” on the “one country, two systems” governing principle.

He said the report smeared Hong Kong’s rule of law and expressed sympathy for anti-China forces including Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, who was charged under the Beijing-imposed law and is on trial for allegedly colluding with foreign forces and publishing seditious materials.

“The European side blatantly supports the anti-China forces who incited social confrontation in Hong Kong, split the country and subverted the regime,” the spokesman said.

He added that “external forces” such as the European Commission should “give up the farce” of publishing such reports, and called for it to “immediately stop interfering in China’s internal affairs and stop meddling in Hong Kong affairs.”

The foreign ministry said both the Beijing-imposed law and Hong Kong’s Article 23 domestic national security law provided “the most effective safeguard” to ensure the city’s development.

“Facts have proven that today’s Hong Kong is peaceful and prosperous, having entered the best period for competing economically and pursuing development,” the spokesman said.

Earlier on Thursday, the commission, the EU’s executive arm, issued a 27-page report outlining the political and economic developments in the city in 2023, saying the one country, two systems principle was being dismantled.

“The 2023 annual report illustrates in great detail the continuous erosion of the rights and freedoms of the people of Hong Kong and the dismantling of the one country, two systems principle,” commission vice-president and foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.

Roughly half of the report was on the city’s political situation, its implementation of the Beijing-imposed law and related court cases, and what the Europeans saw as curtailment of freedoms under the legislation.

The national security law was promulgated by central authorities in June 2020 after months of often violent anti-government protests in Hong Kong.

The city government passed its own domestic national security law earlier this year outlawing five types of offences.

The Hong Kong government on Thursday said it “strongly disapproved of and rejected the unfounded and biased content” of the European Commission’s report.

The government also defended the Beijing-imposed national security legislation, saying the scope of its application was fully aligned with the principles of international law and common practice adopted in various countries and regions.

China unveils new fair-competition regulations in ongoing push to unify domestic market

https://www.scmp.com/economy/economic-indicators/article/3266677/china-unveils-new-fair-competition-regulations-ongoing-push-unify-domestic-market?utm_source=rss_feed

China has revised its fair-competition review system that aims to curb monopolies and widen market access, in another attempt to shore up investor confidence at a time when the nation is struggling to grease the wheels of domestic demand.

The updated version of China’s fair-competition regulations, to take effect on August 1, stipulates that there should be no restrictions to market entry nor exit, nor on the free flow of goods or business operations, according to a State Council announcement on Thursday night.

However, exemptions from the amendments could be made in specific situations that “defend national security and development; boost science and technology advancement; strengthen innovation; help with environmental protection and energy efficiency; or are for disaster relief and in the public interest”.

The regulations must be taken into account when any future policy measures are proposed, and the change underpins Beijing’s efforts to cultivate a “unified domestic market” – a strategy proposed in April 2022 to promote more efficient production, distribution, circulation and consumption, while making China an even bigger magnet for global companies and investment.

The new standards will be part of the fair-competition-review system, first introduced in 2016, and local governments have also been newly given the authority to conduct self-reviews and make amendments under the latest announcement.

“It is necessary to introduce regulations for fair-competition reviews to implement details of fair competition and anti-monopoly laws and systems,” said the official statement, attributed to an unnamed spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice and the State Administration for Market Regulation.

China has taken a range of steps regarding anticompetitive market behaviour against the backdrop of slowing economic growth and intensifying economic tensions with the West. Meanwhile, private and foreign investors have for years been voicing concerns over unfair competition from state-owned enterprises.

“The fair-competition-review system has faced certain challenges during its implementation. Some policies have not taken into account the requirements of the system in areas such as market access, government procurements, and subsidy allocation,” the statement said. “Problems regarding discriminatory market practices for private enterprises, local protectionism, and restrictions on certain industries still exist.”

The upcoming third plenum, which traditionally lays out China’s reform and economic strategy for the next five to 10 years, is expected to further underpin the building of such a business environment. Premier Li Qiang has repeatedly said that the “marketisation, legislation and internationalisation” of the business environment should be put in “a core position” for China’s post-pandemic economic recovery.

China’s previous efforts to shore up anti-monopoly efforts included setting up the State Administration for Market Regulation in 2018 and introducing an update to the Anti-Monopoly Law in 2022. The revision in 2022, however, was seen by critics as tightening Beijing’s grip on China’s fast-growing tech sector, as it came at a time when central authorities had kicked off an antitrust investigation and fined some of its biggest tech companies for violations of the law.

And just over a year ago, Chinese authorities pledged to refine regulations under the fair-competition-review system. The draft was introduced in May 2023 and passed by the State Council last month, according to the announcement on Thursday night.

However, there have been no updates on removing market-access barriers in relation to a so-called negative list that prohibits or restricts foreign and private investment in China, despite authorities saying last June that more items on the list would be removed in a “reasonable manner”.

Meanwhile, private and foreign investors continue to voice concerns over unfair competition while calling for the removal of market barriers, including the ratio of foreign shares permitted in sectors such as the automobile industry.

Chinese team says new storage chip material has a near-infinite lifespan

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3266689/chinese-team-says-new-storage-chip-material-has-near-infinite-lifespan?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese scientists say they have developed a groundbreaking material that could give storage chips an almost infinite lifespan.

This new type of ferroelectric material could potentially reduce data centre costs and have applications in deep-sea exploration or aerospace in the future.

Ferroelectric materials are commonly used to make chips for storage and sensing purposes that are critical to artificial intelligence and other hi-tech areas hit by US sanctions, as a tech war plays out between the United States and China.

In 2022, China’s leading memory chip producer, Yangtze Memory Technologies Co, was placed on the United States government trade blacklist, prohibiting it from buying US-made equipment for advanced storage chip production.

The move prompted China to invest heavily in technology to replace this equipment and develop new parts, and it has since achieved mass production of storage chips, breaking the monopoly held by foreign manufacturers in the industry.

As a result, the price of storage chips has fallen dramatically in the past year, in some cases by up to 90 per cent. These storage chips are used for computer memory, automotive chip memory, solid-state drives, USB drives and smartphone flash memory.

Ferroelectric materials are among the most ideal for making storage chips due to their low power consumption, lossless reading and fast writing capabilities.

Ferroelectricity allows these materials to rapidly switch states under an electric field – a process known as polarisation – which remains stable even after the field is removed. It can be likened to a form of permanent rapid memory.

These materials are already used in storage technology, sensors and energy-harvesting devices, and they could be used to build storage servers or to support large data centres in the future – potentially having an impact on the US-China rivalry over AI technologies.

But traditional ferroelectric materials that are widely used commercially – like lead zirconate titanate, or PZT – can experience what is known as ferroelectric fatigue during use, leading to performance degradation and eventual failure.

The Chinese team set out to tackle this problem by improving the structure of the material.

The research was led by Professor Zhong Zhicheng from the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in collaboration with Professor Liu Fucai from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China in Chengdu, Sichuan, and Professor Li Wenwu from Fudan University in Shanghai.

Their findings appeared in the peer-reviewed journal Science on June 7.

In a separate report on the CAS website, the researchers noted that ferroelectric fatigue was caused by defects in the materials.

“When charges flow during storage and read processes, those defects move and accumulate, eventually blocking the polarisation process and leading to device failure,” He Ri, an associate professor with the CAS institute and first author of the study, was quoted as saying.

“It’s like waves gathering small stones in the sea, gradually forming a large reef that blocks the flow of the waves.”

The team found the problem could be solved when ferroelectric materials were constructed in layers.

Using AI-assisted atomic-level simulations, they discovered that two-dimensional sliding ferroelectric materials shift as a whole during charge transfer when placed under an electric field. That prevents the movement and accumulation of charged defects, so fatigue is avoided.

The team came up with a nanometre-thick two-dimensional layered material that they called 3R-MoS2. A nanometre is about 100,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair.

“Laboratory tests showed that 3R-MoS2 exhibited zero performance degradation after millions of cycles, suggesting that storage devices made from this new two-dimensional sliding ferroelectric material have no read/write limitations,” the CAS report said.

“This means that while traditional ion-type ferroelectric materials, such as PZT, allow for tens of thousands of read/write cycles, storage devices made from the new two-dimensional layered sliding ferroelectric material have no such limitation,” He was quoted as saying.

With no read/write limits, storage chips made from this material would be extremely durable, and that, according to the scientists, would make them ideal for use in extreme environments such as aerospace and deep-sea exploration.

And given how tiny the material is, it would significantly increase the storage density in large-scale applications such as data centres.

In a previous study, the CAS institute developed a new material combining elasticity and ferroelectricity, which they found was resistant to both mechanical and ferroelectric fatigue. The aim was to use it in wearable electronic devices, but it was not as durable as the latest material.

Meanwhile, a new study from researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Cornell University looked at the potential of multilayered materials for storage chips, based on boron nitride. Their findings were also published in Science on June 7.

Hong Kong woman in critical condition after receiving Botox injections in mainland China

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3266702/hong-kong-woman-critical-condition-after-receiving-botox-injections-mainland-china?utm_source=rss_feed

A woman in Hong Kong is in critical condition after receiving Botox injections at a beauty parlour in mainland China twice, leaving her with speech and swallowing problems.

The Department of Health said on Friday the 57-year-old female patient started showing symptoms of slurred speech, swallowing difficulty and ptosis, or drooping eyelid, since May 18.

It added the woman’s records showed a clean bill of health previously.

The woman on May 22 sought help from the accident and emergency services at Queen Mary Hospital in Pok Fu Lam, but left on the same day against medical advice.

As her condition deteriorated, she was admitted to the same hospital the next day and discharged on May 25.

The woman once again sought help from public health services on June 2 and was admitted to Tseung Kwan O Hospital due to “shortness of breath, choking and limb weakness”. She was transferred to the intensive care unit three days later.

“She is now in critical condition. The clinical diagnosis was suspected iatrogenic botulism,” the department spokesman said.

It refers to a rare but serious condition which can develop when too much botulinum toxin is injected for cosmetic or medical reasons.

“Initial investigations revealed that the patient received botulinum toxin injections at a beauty parlour in Zhuhai on April 27 and May 15,” the spokesman added.

He said the department’s Centre for Health Protection had reported the case to mainland authorities, and that the epidemiological investigation was still ongoing.

Botulinum toxin injection, or Botox, is commonly used in cosmetic procedures to reduce the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines on the forehead, between the brows and around the eyes. It also serves other medical purposes, such as treatment of severe underarm sweating and overactive bladders.

The department said Botox injections should only be performed by a locally registered doctor in Hong Kong, and urged customers to check the doctor’s qualification and experience.

The spokesman added that residents seeking such treatment outside the city should try to ensure the provider was qualified or registered.

He also urged the public not to receive injections obtained from suspicious sources and seek medical health if feeling unwell.

G7 vows to counter China’s ‘unfair’ business practices, puts financial institutions on notice

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3266681/g7-vows-counter-chinas-unfair-business-practices-puts-financial-institutions-notice?utm_source=rss_feed

Leaders of the Group of 7 nations vowed on Friday to tackle what they called unfair business practices by China that were undermining their workers and industries.

According to a draft statement on the final day of their annual summit, the G7 also warned of action against Chinese financial institutions that helped Russia obtain weaponry for its war against Ukraine.

This came as the leaders of Italy, the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany and Japan discussed concerns surrounding China’s excess industrial capacity, which Western governments say is distorting local markets.

The draft statement, seen by Reuters, stressed that the G7 was not trying to harm China or thwart its economic development but would “continue to take actions to protect our businesses from unfair practices, to level the playing field and remedy ongoing harm”.

The US this week imposed fresh sanctions on China-based firms supplying semiconductors to Russia amid worries over Beijing’s increasingly aggressive stance against Taiwan and run-ins with the Philippines over rival maritime claims.

“China is not supplying weapons [to Russia] but the ability to produce those weapons and the technology available to do it, so it is in fact helping Russia,” US President Joe Biden said on Thursday after signing a bilateral security pact with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

On Thursday, the first day of their meeting in southern Italy, the G7 agreed on a deal to provide US$50 billion of loans for Ukraine backed by interest from frozen Russian assets – hailing the accord as a powerful signal of Western resolve.

In the draft, the seven leaders also promised sanctions against entities that helped Russia circumvent sanctions on its oil by transporting it fraudulently.

They were also due to discuss immigration, a crucial issue for their host, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. She is pushing Europe to help her curb illegal flows from Africa and has launched a flagship plan to boost development there to tackle the main cause of the departures.

Many of the leaders, including Biden, were due to leave Italy later on Friday. Meloni said they had already agreed on the summit’s conclusions, which were to be approved at the end of the day.

On Saturday, there will be room for bilateral meetings for those staying on, ahead of a final news conference from Meloni.

China stands with delivery riders: 17-point plan aims to boost Communist Party outreach

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3266522/china-stands-delivery-riders-17-point-plan-aims-boost-communist-party-outreach?utm_source=rss_feed

China has unveiled a detailed plan to boost the Communist Party’s reach among the country’s tens of millions of delivery riders as part of a continuing drive to expand the party’s grass-roots appeal.

The aim is to make sure the delivery workers are “grateful for the party’s care” and follow its lead, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said as it released a 17-point set of guidelines on its official WeChat account this week.

The drivers should also be inspired to report grass-roots problems, according to its list of priorities. The powerful watchdog was set up in 2018 following sweeping administrative reshuffles and mergers, to provide stronger market supervision as well as anti-monopoly and social management work with an eye on the greater public good.

In its drive to strengthen overall control of Chinese society, the party has in recent years increasingly focused on gig workers, such as hosts on live-streaming and short- video platforms, internet writers, and now delivery crews.

Those working for online delivery platforms are effectively all-weather freelancers not protected by traditional job contracts. They are facing declining pay and longer hours amid a job crisis as the Chinese economy faces challenges from within and without.

Recognising the delivery workers as “a new and important part” of China’s employment landscape, the SAMR pledged to double down on party-building work among them, so as to “enhance their sense of fulfilment, happiness and security”.

“[We must] carry out ideological and political work in-depth and in detail, combine solving ideological problems with solving practical problems, and guide the online delivery workers ‘to be grateful for the party’s care, listen to the party’s command, and follow the party’s lead’,” the first item on its memo released on Tuesday said, referencing a slogan that frequently appears in President Xi Jinping’s speeches.

First used by Xi in a February 2021 speech to celebrate the success of China’s poverty alleviation campaign, the slogan has since been often included in official statements from party and state agencies.

Party workers among the online delivery workers with a strong sense of responsibility would be hired as “part-time social supervisors”, the SAMR memo said.

They could help with grass-roots governance by taking photographs and making snap reports for the authorities as they go about their jobs, the SAMR said, though it did not specify how many such supervisors would be recruited in coming years.

These new social supervisors would keep an eye on “safety issues and hidden dangers” around them, like food and drugs quality problems, and report them in a timely manner. This will ensure “they can contribute to maintaining the bottom line of security”, the guidelines said.

Under the supervision of the local party organisation department and the newly formed social work department, the authorities should start to identify party members among the delivery crew to set up mobile party cells and branches “according to the circumstances”.

Beijing set up a Social Work Department reporting to its core policymaking Central Committee in March last year, in a move aimed at tightening control over non-public sectors and grass-roots organs.

The department also oversees government-led industrial federations and the governance of both urban and rural grass-roots communities. Beijing has ordered regional governments to set up similar bodies to make sure the party has a firm grasp on the situation on the ground.

The SAMR said these party branches and their members would become important channels to collect feedback on the difficulties faced by the delivery crews and protect their legitimate rights. They would also help to build a network of rest stations, canteens and convenience stores serving the crews and negotiate better access for delivery services to make their jobs easier.

Trade frictions with the West and uneven post-Covid domestic growth have made it difficult for China to create enough jobs, especially for young people just joining the workforce.

In March, the adjusted unemployment rate for the 16 to 24 age group remained at a high 15.3 per cent, while that for the recently introduced 25 to 29 age bracket edged up to 7.2 per cent.

More workers have no choice but to get into the gig economy, despite the market being increasingly saturated and offering poor labour protection.

The SAMR put the number of delivery crew members serving China’s gig economy at about 12 million.

A survey last year by the official All-China Federation of Trade Unions said 84 million Chinese were “workers under new type of employment”, employed mainly as couriers, truck drivers, drivers for ride-hailing platforms and food delivery workers.

Some official estimates say at least 200 million people are employed by China’s internet platform companies, including both full-time staff and gig workers.

China actor Hu Ge tells young Taiwan filmmakers ‘have a good script, come to me’

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/china-personalities/article/3266619/china-actor-hu-ge-tells-young-taiwan-filmmakers-have-good-script-come-me?utm_source=rss_feed

On a recent visit to Taiwan, mainland Chinese actor Hu Ge made headlines when he said that mainland people and those from the island “were no different from each other”.

He also described himself as a “cheap but good actor” who is keen to collaborate with Taiwan film directors, adding: “If you have a good script, come to me.”

The “no difference” comments resonated on the mainland where many people want to see strengthened relations between the two places and increasing cooperation in the entertainment industry.

During his June 12 visit, Hu interacted with young Taiwan filmmakers to promote his latest movie, Gold or S***, and to participate in the “Dialogue with the Youth” event.

It was his first visit to the island in six years and he expressed a warm sense of familiarity and nostalgia.

Earlier this year, Hu’s popularity surged thanks to the role he played in the Blossoms Shanghai TV series directed by Wong Kar-wai which was warmly received by audiences on the mainland and Taiwan.

In the highly successful drama series, Hu portrayed a character called “A Bao”, who leveraged China’s reform and opening-up period of the 1980s to become one of Shanghai’s most influential figures through his intelligence and bravery.

At the event, Hu humorously discussed his accented Mandarin, which some think makes him sound like he comes from Taiwan.

“We used Shanghainese dialect to film Blossoms Shanghai. However, many friends, after hearing my Mandarin, commented that it sounded like it had a Taiwanese accent.

“I need to verify, does my Mandarin really have a Taiwan accent? Does my hometown dialect have a Taiwanese accent?” he asked, causing laughter.

When the host of the event answered in the positive, Hu said: “That makes me even happier. It shows there is no difference between us.”

Hu also introduced his latest movie, Gold or S***, for which he collaborated with young director, Long Fei.

In the movie, Hu plays a young man based in Beijing whose personal and professional failures drive him back to his hometown.

However, his unexpected return disrupts the life of his family, compelling him to reconnect with them and reassess his future plans.

Following the success of Blossoms Shanghai, rumours circulated that Hu was paid 26 million yuan (US$3.6 million) for his services, which would have made him the highest paid member of the cast.

However, Hu reassured the audience at the event by saying: “I want to let Taiwan directors know that I am cheap but a good actor. If you have good scripts, come to me.”

Hu’s journey to stardom began with his role in the 2005 TV series Chinese Paladin.

A year later tragedy struck when, in 2006, he was involved in a near-fatal car accident that left a permanent scar on his right eye.

In 2019, he starred in The Wild Goose Lake, a film which was nominated for the main competition at the 72nd Cannes International Film Festival.

His dedication to his art has always played well with the public.

One online observer of his career said: “As a superstar, Hu Ge has always supported young screenwriters and directors, which is really admirable.”

“Hu Ge has high emotional and intellectual intelligence. His speeches are sincere and wise,” said another.

A third commenter said: “Sometimes Hu Ge likes to make critically acclaimed but not commercially successful films, which shows he has his own pursuits.

“You might think box office success is the most important, but it is clearly not his main goal. With his resources, he could have taken on big commercial projects long ago.”

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Senior Chinese official to visit EU days after electric vehicle tariffs raise trade war risk

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3266679/senior-chinese-official-visit-eu-days-after-electric-vehicle-tariffs-raise-trade-war-risk?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s first ranking Vice-Premier Ding Xuexiang will visit the European Union next week to “deepen” the “green partnership” with the bloc amid the growing threat of a trade war after Chinese electric vehicles were hit with higher tariffs.

Ding, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee who ranks as No. 6 in the Communist Party’s hierarchy, will visit Brussels and Luxembourg on a five-day visit starting on Monday, the Chinese foreign ministry said.

“China stands ready to work with the EU … to broaden the areas of cooperation, explore new collaboration models. We hope to deepen and solidify our green partnership and make green the most distinctive colour of China-EU cooperation,” the ministry’s spokesman Lin Jian said on Friday.

“China and the EU share extensive common interests and a broad space for cooperation in green development and have maintained good dialogue and cooperation.”

Beijing vowed to hit back after the European Commission said on Wednesday it would impose extra duties ranging from 17.4 per cent to 38.1 per cent on imported EVs made in China from July 4.

The EU is also conducting anti-subsidy investigations into Chinese solar panel and wind turbine manufacturers.

In an article published on Thursday via its social media channel, China’s National Development and Reform Commission hinted that its retaliation may target fuel-powered “large-displacement” vehicles from the EU.

The commission, China’s top economic planning agency, said imports of these vehicles from the EU and other countries account for around 80 per cent of domestic sales.

“If the EU is bent on abusing protectionist measures and insisting on creating and escalating trade frictions, China will never stand idly by and will take all necessary measures to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests,” the article said.

Yuyuan Tantian, a social media channel affiliated with state broadcaster CCTV, said firms such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz would be the first to be hit by the move.

The channel also said China is expected to announce a preliminary ruling on an anti-dumping investigation on imported European brandy by the end of August.

The investigation, launched by the commerce ministry in January, would primarily hit French cognac exports.

The ministry also said on Thursday that it reserves the right to raise the EU’s “illegal and protectionist” tariffs on Chinese EVs at the World Trade Organization.

Chinese firms have also applied for an anti-dumping probe into pork imports from the EU, according to Global Times, a newspaper owned by the party mouthpiece People’s Daily.

The commerce ministry said domestic industries have the right to file such applications, but did not confirm whether it had received one.

Ding’s visit will include talks with Maros Sefcovic, the European Commission vice-president responsible for the EU’s environmental policy.

Grieving China boy, 10, transfers love to aunt who looks like late mother killed in car accident

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3263953/grieving-china-boy-10-transfers-love-aunt-who-looks-late-mother-killed-car-accident?utm_source=rss_feed

A 10-year-old boy in China who lost his mother in a car accident 18 months ago has transferred his love to his aunt who closely resembles his beloved mum, moving many to tears on mainland social media.

The aunt, surnamed Liu, said her nephew, Weiwei, had been constantly video-calling her, because she looks so much like his dead mother.

“I want to see you. You look like my mum,” the grieving child told her.

Liu, 37, said her sister, who was five years younger, died in a car crash on her way to pick up her son from school in November 2022.

The boy from central China’s Hubei province attends boarding school, and when he goes home every three weeks, he uses his father’s phone to call Liu, who is married and lives in the neighbouring province of Hunan.

Liu said whenever Weiwei sees her in person, he overwhelms her with many hugs and kisses because that is what he used to do with his mother.

Weiwei was sent to boarding school because his father was busy with work and caring for his unwell mother.

Liu said Weiwei pretended to be strong in front of adults and seldom expressed his grief, but he once told her he had “cried under the quilt at school”.

Liu and Weiwei’s mother have another sister and the three remain close despite living in different provinces.

In the summer before the youngest sister’s death, the family reunited in their hometown. The siblings had a photo taken of them together while wearing wedding dresses.

Liu said she and her younger sister looked very much alike, and Weiwei had grown particularly fond of his aunt, partly because of that.

After her sister’s death, Liu made the decision to spend summer holidays with Weiwei and celebrate his birthday with him every year.

“Weiwei said he saw his mum in me, and I saw my sister in him,” Liu said.

Liu, who is the mother of a 14-year-old boy herself, said she and her older sister will treat Weiwei as their own son from now on.

Their story was shared on Douyin, bringing tears to many online observers in China.

“We miss our loved ones no matter how old we are, and that is why family matters,” one person said.

China’s ‘hidden debt’ seen shrinking, but scaling that mountain remains a daunting challenge

https://www.scmp.com/economy/economic-indicators/article/3266653/chinas-hidden-debt-seen-shrinking-scaling-mountain-remains-daunting-challenge?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s local governments appear to be chipping away at their massive “hidden debt” piles. But with a fresh estimate putting the total around 32.2 trillion yuan (US$4.44 trillion), those piles still equate to a perilous mountain that Beijing has taken greater steps to conquer since last year to stave off an avalanche of risks.

“The expansion rate of interest-bearing debt of local government financing vehicles (LGFVs) has slowed down significantly, and the momentum of disorderly expansion of hidden debts has been curbed,” Luo Zhiheng, chief economist at Guangzhou-based Yuekai Securities, said in a research note on Thursday.

Luo, who was among a select group of economists in attendance at Premier Li Qiang’s round-table discussion about China’s economic outlook on July 6, came up with the estimate after an examination of interest-bearing debts and their related income from 3,300 LGFVs in China as of the end of 2023.

LGFVs are hybrid entities that are both public and corporate, created to skirt restrictions on local government borrowing. And they have proliferated since the global financial crisis in 2008 as a way of funding China’s infrastructure-building spree, with few generating returns. The debt raised is kept off the balance sheets of local authorities, yet carries an implicit government guarantee of repayment.

There are no official figures on China’s hidden-debt pile, but various estimates in recent years have suggested it could be somewhere between 30 trillion and 50 trillion yuan. And much of the debt stems from informal channels of borrowing that involve LGFVs. In comparison, China’s gross domestic product (GDP) for all of 2023 was about 126 trillion yuan.

Japanese investment bank Nomura estimated that China’s local government hidden debts – comprising mainly LGFV debts, including loans and bonds – had reached 45 trillion yuan by the end of 2020.

On Thursday, the National Financial Regulatory Administration said that it would step up supervision of new debt accrued from LGFVs, as well as monitor the banking sector to prevent the growth of such debt.

Beijing has sought to curb unchecked borrowing by local governments, but the progress of cleaning up those hidden debts has faced significant hurdles. Some local government authorities have decried their plights online, hoping to get help from the central government, only to see their posts removed.

And in February, a Chinese businesswoman went viral online after it was revealed she had been arrested for trying to recoup US$30 million in back payments from an indebted local government that could not afford to pay her.

In 2018, the Ministry of Finance asked local governments to clean up such hidden debt within five to 10 years. And at the end of 2022, former finance minister Liu Kun disclosed that those hidden debts had shrunk by more than one-third in the span of five years.

Meanwhile, risks of default for LGFV debt have risen significantly, mainly resulting from a fall in land sales – a key source of revenue for local governments.

LGFV’s primary function of funding infrastructure projects often fails to generate sufficient returns to cover debt payments, leaving many reliant on refinancing or government support to stay afloat.

Fitch Ratings estimated LGFV exposure at rated Chinese commercial banks – mainly state banks and joint-stock banks – account for up to 15 per cent of their assets at the end of 2023.

But banks in economically weaker regions, mainly city and rural commercial banks as well as rural cooperatives, face more imminent pressure from rising LGFV debt risks, Fitch Ratings said in a research note on May 14.

China’s Politburo, the highest policymaking body, said last year that it would formulate “a basket of plans” to resolve risks stemming from local government debt. Regional authorities were allowed to shift high-interest, short-term, off-budget LGFV debt to their balance sheets as longer-term and lower-cost bonds.

So, while the cost of borrowing, on average, for LGFVs has declined since last year, Luo at Yuekai Securities said that it was mostly the economically strong regions, and those with relatively high credit ratings, that have benefited so far.

Weaker regions such as Yunnan and Guizhou provinces still were not able to take full advantage of lower borrowing costs in the capital market and still struggled from funding shortfalls, Luo said.

US rating agency S&P Global Ratings estimated in a note on Thursday that local Chinese governments swapped 1.4 trillion worth of high-interest debt at the end of 2023.

“We assume the finances of local governments will stabilise as the Chinese property sector eventually bottoms, and governments stay disciplined on spending,” S&P predicted. “That said, immediate revenue pressures and continued spending intensity could delay China’s local and regional governments’ fiscal consolidation by another year.”

Ukraine war: Japan mulls sanctions on Chinese firms but is it ‘step in right direction’?

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3266672/ukraine-war-japan-mulls-sanctions-chinese-firms-it-step-right-direction?utm_source=rss_feed

Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is about to announce sanctions on Chinese companies suspected of assisting Russia’s war in Ukraine, government sources say, even with Kishida yet to unveil the plan at the G7 summit in Italy.

Analysts say such sanctions would be unprecedented for Japan and warn they could provoke a significant response from China, which has already hinted at retaliatory action that could impact Japan’s economy.

“China would feel obliged to respond,” said James Brown, a professor of international relations specialising in Russian affairs at the Tokyo campus of Temple University.

“It might not be in the form of sanctions on Japanese companies, but they could react asymmetrically. A few years ago, for example, Beijing halted exports of rare earths to Japan and they could do the same again.”

National broadcaster NHK quoted “sources close to the government” on Wednesday as saying that Tokyo is considering sanctions on foreign firms and organisations that are providing material to Russia that could be converted to military use. The sanctions could include a ban on exports from Japanese firms.

Earlier this year, the United States expressed concern about Chinese exports of nitrocellulose – used in the manufacturing of ammunition – to Russia.

The NHK report said Kishida would present his decision to G7 leaders during this week’s summit. Kishida said at the summit on Thursday that Japan continued to mull such sanctions, not just on China but also India, Kazakhstan, the United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan.

“Japan has not done anything like this before, at any level, so this would be setting a massive precedent that hawks could seize on in the future to put pressure on other companies and governments,” Brown said.

And while NHK quoted “observers” as saying that the move “would encourage China to act responsibly for global peace and stability”, Brown fears it would result in retaliatory economic measures.

China has already indicated it would not sit idly should Japan impose sanctions, urging Japan to “adopt a rational attitude” in a Wednesday opinion piece in Global Times, a daily tabloid that is an arm of People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s mouthpiece.

The commentary accused Japan of bending to the United States and concluded with a warning that sanctions will weigh on Japan’s economy and the “development of China-Japan economic ties will suffer”.

“If [the government] goes ahead with sanctions, it is a step in the right direction. But my impression is that they are reluctant to go that far, even under pressure from the US,” said Yoichi Shimada, a professor of international relations at Fukui Prefectural University.

It is also critical that Japan provides evidence of inappropriate action by any Chinese firms that are the target of sanctions, he said, as it is “inevitable” that Beijing will issue a blanket denial of improper deals.

“Escalation is also inevitable so it will be important to act in coordination with the US and the G7 nations.”

Temple University’s Brown believes that Tokyo is closely monitoring Beijing’s reaction and might settle for limited restrictions on a limited number of companies that can clearly be shown to have been assisting Russia.

“If it’s a small number, if they are not state companies and if it’s clear they are a bit dodgy, then it is possible that China will be willing to shrug it off,” he said.

Small plates rule at two new Chinese restaurants from Peter Chang

https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2024/06/14/peter-chang-restaurant-review-chinese-arlington-gaithersburg/2024-05-28T16:33:45.485Z

It’s been a minute — well, a month — since I last wrote about a Peter Chang restaurant. Rest assured, the onetime Chinese Embassy chef doesn’t have me on retainer. It’s just that he opens places to eat like the rest of us open email. Or so it seems. The reality is, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t give you a taste of his latest efforts — this time, two restaurants in Gaithersburg and Arlington. The former, Peter Chang Gaithersburg, launched in April. The latter, NiHao in Crystal City, set sail in May.

Each member of the Chang chain differs, sometimes slightly, from the others. Some are grand. See: Q by Peter Chang in Bethesda, the chef’s headquarters. Some promote a different style of cooking. Witness the homey fare at Mama Chang in Fairfax. And some, like the oh-so-blue Peter Chang McLean, come in different colors. The latest additions to the pack expand the variety. The Arlington branch focuses on the Sichuan fire Chang fell for when he moved from his home in Wuhan to Chengdu to study classical Chinese cooking. Gaithersburg is the first restaurant to feature Chinese-flavored “tapas.” What links the two are consistent quality, one of the most challenging aspects for any restaurant — and one of the reasons diners become regulars.

NiHao

Your first glimpse may be the bartender. One of the many attractive details about the restaurant — NiHao, which also has a branch in Baltimore, translates to “hello” and is frequently followed by “Have you eaten yet?” — is the bar, which opens to the sidewalk and captures a view of the Water Park outdoor food court across the street. Visitors who might not commit to a meal pull up to the exterior counter for some liquid refreshment chased back with people-watching.

The last time I dropped by, I sat at the inside bar, where I ordered a Barbie Negroni, pink with rosé vermouth, and barely put my chopsticks down. Ivory folds of chicken tossed with red bell peppers, asparagus and snow peas in a light garlic sauce, and chile-massaged pork ribs with leeks, slivers of garlic and crinkled fried potatoes were so good, I felt like sharing them with the strangers who were merely drinking NiHao’s assets. I easily could have. The small plates are enough food for two to split, although some dishes might test your ability to share.

That’s my biggest problem with NiHao: so many choices, so little time. We’re talking nearly 50 dishes on the all-day menu. You’d miss the point of the place if you skipped something that numbs the tongue. Cold sliced tendon and tripe, scattered with crushed peanuts and earthy cilantro and painted with chile oil, amounts to an offal good time. The meat salad is billed “husband and wife,” a reference to a Chengdu street food vendor who became known for his rendition of the snack in the 1930s and reportedly enjoyed a harmonious marriage with his wife and business partner. Other selections — the blimp-like scallion pancake, the dry-fried eggplant — borrow from previous Chang establishments.

NiHao also offers good versions of Chinese standards. Here’s the place to get kung pao chicken, colorful with bell peppers, crisp with peanuts and punchy with dark vinegar and soy sauce. Unwrapping a lotus leaf feels like opening a gift: Inside, sticky rice is filled with a little treasure of steamed chicken, pork, shrimp and other goodies. You may wait 15 minutes for the soup dumplings, but patience pays off when you bite off the top of the bauble and drink in a hot stream of restorative pork broth.

Vegetarians will have a field day at NiHao, whose meatless marvels include a salad of wood ear mushrooms, pleasantly gelatinous and teasing with vinegar and pickled vegetables, and a heap of chewy ribbons of housemade tofu skin mixed with cilantro stems and slices of red onion. (The latter is best ordered “spicy.”) Dry-fried green beans — crisp, bright, onion-sweetened and wrinkled from their time in the wok — and a stir-fry of eggs, Chinese celery, green peppers and silken tofu skin represent the kitchen’s homier, equally delicious, efforts.

The menu invites everyone to the party, deploying symbols to flag vegan options and alert diners to dishes with nuts and gluten-free possibilities.

Service isn’t always as breezy and efficient as at other Chang properties. While the hosts are good ambassadors, some of the attendants are unfortunately good at not making eye contact or seeing to the needs of diners. My patience was tested one lunch when it took a village and 30 minutes to get an order of scallop dumplings. The wait was so long, I paid my bill and strolled outside, sans seafood. As I was about to drive off, a young manager rushed out with the missing dish. Nice save, but it would have been better to eat the pearly bites inside, from their steamer basket.

The high-ceilinged space is undeniably handsome, dressed with shiny tiled walls and banquettes in different shades of green, and chairs in powder blue. The most attractive feature of all, though, may be the prices. NiHao’s small plates, big on flavor, average about $9 each.

Peter Chang Gaithersburg

This restaurant distinguishes itself with a sense of intimacy. Before diners turn into the airy dining room, they pass a wall of family photographs. One captures the famous chef at the 2016 James Beard awards in Chicago, where he was a finalist for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic. Another finds him hoisting his granddaughter, London, now 19 months old. There are framed magazine and newspaper covers splashed with his mug and a snapshot of Chang with an Amish farmer in a field in the Finger Lakes in Upstate New York.

The man gets around.

So should you. In more cases than not, wherever Chang opens a restaurant, it automatically becomes the best place for Chinese in the vicinity. This is true in Gaithersburg, home to a dining room outfitted with big windows and red walls whose depictions of birds, butterflies and gold clouds are meant to evoke a sky familiar to Chinese villagers, says Lydia Chang, the chef’s daughter and business partner.

“Have you been here before?” a server asks before telling me the new branch specializes in “smaller” plates. The portions are a bit bigger than traditional appetizers; two or three dishes seem sufficient for most diners. Like it hot? Tuck into a cold dish of “Chengdu spicy mouthwatering” sliced steamed chicken that delivers on the menu’s description and is jazzier for notes of crushed peanuts and diced scallions. Only slightly less fiery is a swirl of thin dan dan noodles festooned with crumbled pork and crushed nuts.

As at NiHao, the list makes me wish I had an army of companions to sample its breadth. Basics including walnut shrimp — creamy with mayonnaise and seasoned so neither honey nor lemon dominate — are executed well. “Mama’s” long, slightly chewy handmade wheat noodles, slick with chile oil, remind diners that Chang has been greatly helped on his journey by the women in his life, in this case, his wife, co-chef Lisa Chang.

The modest elegance of the restaurant surfaces in accommodating service, a fringe of greenery over the windows and the background music. I remember being greeted by the theme song to “Grease” at NiHao — and tinkling piano music at Peter Chang Gaithersburg.

The lone dish I wouldn’t eagerly eat again is wedges of eggplant that go down like caramelized apples, too sweet for my taste. Sweetness also throws the fried popcorn chicken, speckled with onions and green peppers, off balance.

The kitchen offers a handful of “party” dishes designed for groups (which have the option of two round tables in a separate space, big enough for 30). The larger selections include Peking duck, offered half or whole, and a sputtering soup presented in a big metal bowl over a gentle flame. The animated spectacle finds soft fish balls the size of marbles and flat, yolk-edged fish cakes in a pale golden chicken broth, thick with fermented cabbage and torched with jalapeños. Tart goji berries finish the picture. Even for two, it’s a big gulp.

For the full Chang experience, wash back lunch or dinner with a crisp and refreshing beer custom-brewed in Baltimore for a handful of the chef’s restaurants. The flecks suspended in the lager reveal the featured ingredient: rice, wouldn’t you know.

Gentle prices and made-to-order cooking translate to lots of return company. Jin Cai, who helps Peter Chang open new restaurants, says she sees at least 10 of the same faces eat here up to three times a week. Membership has its privileges. One of the regulars, “Mr. Jack,” is about to be recognized with a drink in his name, Cai says.

I’m not done. Because neither is Peter Chang. He tells me he’s opening his next restaurant in Herndon later this summer.

Ready, set, chopsticks.

NiHao

1550 Crystal City Dr., Arlington. 703-512-4109. nihaoarlington.com. Open for indoor dining, delivery and takeout 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday. Prices: small plates $4 to $15. Sound check: 79 decibels/Must speak with raised voice. Accessibility: No barriers to entrance; ADA-compliant restrooms.

Peter Chang Gaithersburg

637 N. Frederick Ave., Gaithersburg. 240-912-4962. peterchanggaithersburg.com. Open for indoor dining, delivery and takeout 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday. Prices: small plates $3 to $18, party dishes $19 to $78 (for whole Peking duck). Sound check. 74 decibels/Must speak with raised voice. Accessibility: No barriers to entry; ADA-compliant restrooms

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Katie Ledecky on China doping scandal: ‘There’s supposed to be consequences’

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2024/06/14/katie-ledecky-china-doping-swimming/2024-06-05T16:59:43.127Z

On July 29, 2021, Katie Ledecky swam a blistering anchor leg for Team USA in the final of the women’s 800-meter freestyle relay at the Tokyo Olympics, stopping the clock with a time that would have given the Americans a world record in the event — except for the quartet of Chinese swimmers two lanes over, who out-touched them by four-tenths of a second, taking both the gold medal and the world record.

So when Ledecky, a seven-time Olympic gold medalist, speaks about the Chinese doping scandal that burst into view this spring — calling into question some of the results from Tokyo and hijacking much of the discourse around the sport as the U.S. Olympic swimming trials get set to begin this weekend in Indianapolis — she does so not only as a swimming legend, a clean-sport advocate and an athlete who has been drug-tested hundreds of times over her career.

She also does so as someone with a large chunk of history on the line, at least theoretically: Though Ledecky is proud of her silver medal, one of three in her storied Olympic career, an eighth gold would have equaled the most in history by a female swimmer and put her behind only Michael Phelps (23) and Mark Spitz (nine) among all swimmers.

“Clean play is supposed to be at forefront of the Olympics, and I think it’s really disappointing we’re in this situation three years after this all happened,” Ledecky, 27, said during a recent interview. “… It’s tough to accept as an athlete, and now also to feel what it’s like to be an athlete who won a [silver] medal behind some athletes who tested positive — I now know what that feels like. I’ve seen it before with other athletes and always felt for those athletes.”

In April, the New York Times and German public broadcaster ARD revealed that 23 top Chinese swimmers had tested positive for a banned substance before the Tokyo Olympics but were cleared to compete after the World Anti-Doping Agency, following an investigation, accepted China’s explanation of an “environmental” tainting originating in the kitchen where swimmers’ meals were prepared. The positive tests were not revealed publicly at the time.

Thirteen of the 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive in January 2021 for trimetazidine (TMZ) — a heart-disease medication that is on the banned list because it can increase stamina and reduce recovery time — went on to compete in Tokyo seven months later, with four of them winning medals.

Among them: then-23-year-old Zhang Yufei, who won gold with a world record time in the women’s 200-meter butterfly, with Americans Regan Smith and Hali Flickinger taking silver and bronze, then about an hour later swam the third leg for China’s gold medal-winning and world record-setting 4x200 free relay squad. Zhang also won silver in the women’s 100 fly earlier in the meet, with American Torri Huske edged out of the bronze by one one-hundredths of a second.

At the time, no one within the larger swimming community was aware that Zhang and many of her teammates had tested positive seven months earlier. Since the story broke this spring, WADA has defended its actions, or lack thereof, saying it investigated extensively and had no basis to challenge China’s explanation of an accidental contamination.

With WADA considering the case to be closed, there is no official discussion of taking away any of China’s medals from Tokyo — or any other sanction — and some of the swimmers in question, including Zhang, are expected to compete at the Paris Olympics next month.

“Of course our athletes are thinking about it,” said Shana Ferguson, chief commercial officer for USA Swimming. “ … Naturally, our athletes are varying levels of disappointed in the perception they aren’t necessarily playing on a fair playing field across the world.”

For Ledecky and other Olympic-level swimmers, the frustration and disappointment primarily stem from WADA’s apparent deviation from its standard protocols. Typically, under “strict liability” rules — which say athletes are ultimately responsible for what goes into their bodies — a positive test would trigger a provisional suspension while an investigation takes place, with the suspension made public.

Some have speculated political and financial considerations came into play in the case of the Chinese swimmers; the revelation of the positive tests in January 2021 would have caused an uproar in China a little more than a year before the 2022 Beijing Winter Games.

“From an athlete’s perspective, not even speaking as an athlete who was quote-unquote affected medal-wise from this, I think all [of us] are disappointed and discouraged and lacking some trust in the systems — in WADA — and how this was handled,” Ledecky said. “There are still a lot of questions that haven’t been answered. … We get drug-tested a lot, and we all know the rules. There’s supposed to be strict liability. If you test positive, there’s supposed to be consequences.”

Stanford women’s swimming coach Greg Meehan, who coached Ledecky from 2016 to 2021 and served as the women’s coach for Team USA at the Tokyo Olympics, decried the “complete lack of transparency” on the part of WADA. In a post on X, he said the case confirmed the swimming community’s fears that doping could be rampant during the pandemic because of the complicated logistics of testing athletes in different countries with different quarantine protocols.

“Most elite athletes will have one Olympic cycle in their primes, two if they are lucky,” Meehan wrote. “[T]hey deserve better.”

The silver medal in the 800 free relay was one of two Ledecky won in Tokyo, to go along with golds in the individual 800- and 1,500-meter freestyles. Considered the most dominant female swimmer in history, she is targeting four events in Paris, the fourth Olympics of her career, which still affords her the opportunity to catch and pass American legend Jenny Thompson, whose eight Olympic golds are the most in history by a female swimmer.

Asked about having been potentially robbed of an additional gold in Tokyo, Ledecky instead spoke of two teammates from that relay, Allison Schmidt and Brooke Forde, who joined her on the medal stand that day as the Chinese national anthem played, then retired from the sport following those Olympics. They won’t have the same opportunity to redeem themselves in Paris that Ledecky will.

“This would’ve been their only gold medal from Tokyo,” Ledecky said of Schmidt and Forde. “We were proud of that relay performance. We broke the world record. Allison would’ve had her second world record [of her career]. There are a lot of questions that need to be answered.”

In an Instagram post following news of the Chinese positive tests, Schmidt recalled being drug-tested following that relay and wrote, “It saddens me that … the purity of competition [was] pushed aside for money and politics.”

In American swimming circles, the recent suspension of distance swimmer Kensey McMahon for a positive doping test has been held up as proof Team USA holds itself to a higher standard than some other countries. McMahon, a former NCAA champion and world championship medalist, was suspended for four years by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency last month after testing positive in 2023 for vadadustat, a medication typically used to treat anemia in patients with chronic kidney disease.

McMahon, 24, has said she did not take the substance intentionally but has been unable to prove an accidental contamination, despite hiring her own investigators in an attempt to unravel a mystery she says she can’t explain. Still, because she could not prove her innocence, her four-year suspension was upheld.

“It’s frustrating [to see] the contrast,” 12-time Olympic medalist Natalie Coughlin said. “When you see that 13 [Chinese] swimmers tested positive and it was never disclosed, essentially swept under the rug, and then read about [McMahon] — that’s a tough pill to swallow.”

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China’s aviation leader puts cargo drone to test in Beijing’s push for strategic industry

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3266611/chinas-aviation-leader-puts-cargo-drone-test-beijings-push-strategic-industry?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s leading aircraft manufacturer said it successfully conducted the maiden flight of a new commercial aerial freight drone in northwestern China, as Beijing moves to strengthen the uncrewed vehicle market and boost its potential.

The HH-100 prototype took off on Wednesday from Lantian general aviation airport in Xian, capital of Shaanxi province, said the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), an aerospace conglomerate.

During the flight, the HH-100 performed normally and completed all test requirements, according to AVIC.

It described the transport drone as “high payload and low cost”.

The unmanned freight aircraft has a designed maximum take-off weight of 2,000kg (4,410lbs), a payload of 700kg (1,540lbs) and a full-weight range of 520km (323 miles). It can achieve a maximum cruise speed of 300km/h and a maximum operating altitude of 5,000 metres.

With the capacity to carry around 4 cubic metres of cargo, the main application for the drone is branch-line logistics, or short-range delivery. However, its role could be extended to firefighting in forest and grassland, delivering relief materials, emergency relay communication and weather modification, AVIC said.

China’s civil drone industry reached 117.4 billion yuan (US$16.2 billion) last year, a year-on-year growth of 32 per cent, according to the China Centre for Information Industry Development, a research institute under the industry and IT ministry.

The research centre said in the report released in December that by the end of 2023, in addition to DJI, a global leader in drone technologies, China had more than 2,300 civil drone companies and more than 1,000 mass-produced drone products.

Well established but inexpensive materials in China would help further develop the drone industry, analysts said.

China has a complete electronics industry chain where drone firms can source good electronic components at lower prices, according to a report published in March by AskCI, a consulting agency in Shenzhen.

“Besides, commercial drones are basically all assembled with lithium batteries. China’s lithium batteries are at the international forefront in performance and price. The cost advantage is favourable to the development of the industry,” AskCI said.

The drone industry is an essential part of China’s low-altitude economy, referring to businesses operating aerial vehicles below 3,000 metres in altitude.

Since 2021, China has been bolstering its low-altitude economy and the central government has successively introduced relevant policies and regulations.

According to CCID, China’s low-altitude market was valued at more than 500 billion yuan in 2023, with a growth rate of 33.8 per cent. It was hoped that by 2026, it would exceed 1 trillion yuan.

AVIC said the successful maiden flight of the HH-100 prototype was in response to China’s push to build a strategic emerging industry in the low-altitude economy.

To catch that wave, a series of 2-tonne, 5-tonne, and 10-tonne commercial uncrewed aerial transport systems were under research and development, AVIC said.

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South China Sea: Ming dynasty shipwreck treasures offer new clues to ancient trade route

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3266629/south-china-sea-ming-dynasty-shipwreck-treasures-offer-new-clues-ancient-trade-route?utm_source=rss_feed

A team of Chinese archaeologists have hauled up more than 900 artefacts from two ancient shipwrecks in the South China Sea, the National Cultural Heritage Administration (NCHA) of China said on Thursday.

The researchers used deep-sea technologies to investigate the Ming dynasty sites on the northwest continental slope at a depth of 1.5km (0.9 miles) in three phases over the last year.

The archaeologists said they believed the shipwrecks – both merchant vessels, referred to as No. 1 and No. 2 – were from different periods in the Ming dynasty (1368-1644).

The two sites – 22km apart – lie 150km southeast of Sanya, on the island province of Hainan. They were discovered in October 2022 by the crew of a manned submersible research vessel.

At the No. 1 shipwreck, 890 objects were recovered – including porcelain, pottery and copper coins – out of a total of more than 10,000 items identified at this site, the NCHA told a press conference on Thursday.

The researchers said the vessel’s cargo originated from the porcelain capital of Jingdezhen and was intended for export.

A total of 38 artefacts were recovered from the No. 2 shipwreck, including ebony logs from the Indian Ocean region, porcelain, pottery, shells and antlers.

That vessel had been returning to China when it sank, according to an October 2023 article in the Guangming Daily, written by Song Jianzhong, a researcher with the National Centre for Archaeology.

“The discoveries of two shipwrecks are important evidence of trade and cultural exchanges along the ancient Maritime Silk Road,” NCHA Deputy Director Guan Qiang said.

The two sites were jointly investigated by the National Centre for Archaeology, the Chinese Academy of Science, and a local museum in Hainan using both manned and unmanned submersibles.

The scientists used flexible manipulator arms attached to the submersibles to retrieve the artefacts and collect seabed sediments, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

A 3D laser scanner and high-definition cameras were also used to record the distribution of the shipwreck areas.

The NCHA said the discoveries were a milestone in China’s underwater archaeology, from coastal areas to the deep sea.

South China Sea: Philippine fishermen protest against new rule for coastguard arrest

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3266597/south-china-sea-philippine-fishermen-protest-against-new-rule-coastguard-arrest?utm_source=rss_feed

Opposition and fishermen groups in the Philippines destroyed a cardboard effigy of Chinese President Xi Jinping outside Beijing’s consulate in Manila on Friday in a protest on the eve of a new regulation allowing the Chinese coastguard to detain foreigners over trespassing in the South China Sea.

Mong Palatino, secretary general of opposition party-list group Bayan Muna, said protesters were condemning what they saw as China’s baseless action in the West Philippine Sea, Manila’s name for waters within the South China Sea that lie within its exclusive economic zone.

“Fishermen and the Filipino people will defy the order. It is China which should be held accountable as trespassers,” Palatino said.

Outside the Chinese consulate office in Makati, former Bayan representative Teddy Casiño said demonstrators were urging China to reconsider its coastguard policy.

“We are here to condemn China’s latest new level of grabbing our territory,” Casiño told reporters minutes after police officers blocked their further advance on the consulate building.

Under the regulation set to take effect on Saturday, the China Coast Guard is authorised to detain foreign nationals for up to 60 days if they are caught trespassing in what is considered Beijing’s territorial waters.

Leonardo Cuaresma, leader of the New Masinloc Fishermen’s Association in the town of Masinloc in Zambales, a province near Scarborough Shoal, told This Week in Asia in a phone interview that his community would continue to operate in their traditional fishing ground.

He reiterated a warning to abduct 10 Chinese nationals for every local hurt or detained by China. “There are many Chinese here in the country if that’s what they want,” he warned.

“We will continue to fish. We don’t care about that rule because we believe we are not violating any law,” Cuaresma said. “It’s like an ordinary day for us. They have been doing that before. They imposed a fishing ban and now they have added a new regulation. We are already immune to that.”

In 2012, China gained control of the Scarborough Shoal, a traditional fishing ground, after a stand-off with the Philippines, and the area has seen bouts of high-tension encounters over sovereignty and fishing rights for years.

Claimants such as the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam, among other Asean countries, hold that all maritime claims must be based on the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos).

China – which is a party to Unclos – has rejected the ruling, insisting it has jurisdiction over the waterways as indicated by its so-called nine-dash line.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr earlier called Beijing’s policy “completely unacceptable”, with the Department of Foreign Affairs arguing the order was inconsistent with Unclos.

Cuaresma said the central government should take strong action against China’s aggression in the West Philippine Sea by banning its products in the country.

“We noticed that every time our government is taking actions like increasing patrols in the West Philippine Sea, the Chinese also are tripling their presence. I think it’s time for our government to take action because it looks like nothing is happening,” he said.

China’s new rules came amid heightened tensions with the Philippines in the disputed waters.

Earlier this month, the People’s Liberation Army’s Southern Theatre Command, which oversees the South China Sea, deployed three of its most advanced Type 055 guided-missile destroyers – the Xianyang, Zunyi and Yanan – for military drills focusing on maritime assault, anti-submarine operations and single-ship air defence.

Manila’s foreign affairs said Thursday it would study steps to take regarding the reported military drills allegedly within the country’s exclusive economic zone.

“As we’ve always said, we want to manage the situation peacefully and that if there is any incident that raises tension, that certainly is something that we would like to avoid,” Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo told reporters Thursday.

On the implications for bilateral relations, lawyer Aldrin Alba, a legal expert at the Political Economic Elemental Researchers and Strategists think tank, told This Week in Asia that, from the perspective of Manila and its allies, the China Coast Guard rule was a violation of the Philippines’ sovereign rights under international law and also contradicts the 2016 arbitral award.

“Allies and other nations may exert diplomatic pressure on China to adhere to international norms and respect maritime boundaries as the situation will surely impact regional stability and security,” he said.

Alba said such a rule would have huge implications for regional security and international relations as it underscored the need for diplomatic efforts and adherence to the established legal frameworks to address territorial disputes in the West Philippine Sea.

“The fear of arrest may deter fishermen from venturing into the West Philippine Sea and the uncertainty of their safety on their traditional fishing grounds will affect not only their income and sustenance but also the marine supply in the market will surely be affected.

“The foreign vessels and maritime activities can be disrupted as normal maritime activities within the area as fishing boats, ships, and other vessels may need to alter routes or avoid some areas in the West Philippine Sea to prevent the risk of detention by the Chinese Coast Guard.”

According to Alba, a measured and strategic approach was necessary to prevent further conflict while safeguarding the country’s interests.

“To ensure the safety of Filipino fishermen, the government must strengthen the Philippine Coast Guard, coordinate with other claimant nations and other allied nations to enhance regional security and present a unified stance on maritime security on the said disputed territorial waters.”

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[Sport] Chinese #MeToo journalist jailed for five years

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9007v0n05yo

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China man upset as sales platform refuses to transfer his name to dead sister’s concert ticket despite proof

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3263913/china-man-upset-sales-platform-refuses-transfer-his-name-dead-sisters-concert-ticket-despite-proof?utm_source=rss_feed

A leading ticket sales platform in China has triggered a public backlash after it refused to transfer a concert ticket to a dead woman’s brother, even after he showed them proof of her death.

The man, surnamed Wang, revealed on mainland social media that his sister had bought a ticket to see Taiwanese pop king Jay Chou on June 1 in Changsha, Hunan province, central China.

She was involved in an accident and died on May 10, Bailu Video reported.

Wang said he wanted to attend the concert in his sister’s memory because seeing Jay Chou perform live was a long-held wish of hers.

He contacted the Damai app where his sister had bought the ticket to change her name on it to his, but the company refused to allow the transfer.

At the company’s request, Wang submitted official documents that showed the date of her death, as well as proof that her residential registry had been cancelled by the police authority in Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou province in southwestern China.

“Sorry, we cannot support your appeal,” Damai’s customer service section told Wang.

Later, the concert organiser, Hunan Zhixin Media Company, agreed they would refund Wang as long as he returned the paper ticket to them.

“We cannot change a spectator’s identity in our ticket system,” a manager from Zhixin said, pointing out that real-name registration is a requirement when buying a ticket. “We can only assist him to buy a new ticket when there is a vacant seat.”

Wang said he would have preferred to be his sister’s replacement while watching the concert.

“How dearly I wished my sister could go there to see Jay Chou,” he said.

After the incident was viewed 240 million times on Weibo, Damai issued a statement on May 21 to apologise to Wang for its after-sale service.

“We did not correctly understand the brother’s intention, nor did we show empathy with his desire to fulfil his late sister’s wish. Our process is rigid and non-flexible,” Damai admitted.

The company said that after further communication, it went ahead and issued a refund and was trying its best to arrange another ticket for Wang.

“How ridiculous these companies are. The rules are dead, but people are alive. Can’t they be flexible and humane?” one online observer said on Weibo.

“Their arrangements made me speechless,” said another person.

It’s not the first time Damai has come under fire for its controversial ticket policies.

In March, a woman in southern China’s Guangdong province complained that the company refused to refund a ticket bought by her father before he died – for a concert by Singaporean singer JJ Lin – even after she showed proof of death.

Prominent Chinese activists sentenced to up to 5 years on charges of ‘inciting subversion’

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3266600/prominent-chinese-activists-sentenced-5-years-charges-inciting-subversion?utm_source=rss_feed

Journalist and feminist activist Sophia Huang Xueqin was sentenced to five years in prison by a court in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou on Friday in a case that feminists fear will have a chilling effect. Her friend, labour activist Wang Jianbing, who was charged in the same case, received a 3½ year sentence.

Both Huang and Wang were found guilty of “inciting subversion of state power”, according to a part of the verdict obtained by the Post.

The verdicts were handed down at the Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court after a closed door trial.

The two, who were arrested in September 2021, have served two years and nine months in prison, which will be deducted from their sentences. Huang is expected to be released in September 2026, while Wang will be freed in March next year.

Huang said she would appeal, according to people familiar with the matter.

“Using national security as a reason to suppress civil society activists is a bad signal that denies the value of social justice and rejects the moderate voices of civil society,” said a friend of both Huang and Wang’s.

The activists stood trial in Guangzhou last September, when American diplomats tried to attend but were denied access.

Several human rights groups have issued joint letters calling on Beijing to release them.

The Post reported last year that the case had raised concerns among Chinese feminists about a wider chilling effect.

Huang, 36, has been a journalist for more than a decade. In early 2018, she launched an investigation into a prominent professor, which led to what is believed to be China’s first #MeToo case and attracted significant public attention

Huang went on to focus on reporting on feminism, and became a leading figure in China’s #MeToo movement.

Then, in August 2019, before she was to begin a master’s programme in human rights law at the University of Hong Kong, Huang was detained by Guangzhou police on charges of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”.

She was detained for three months, according to her friends, but was not brought to trial.

In September 2021, she and Wang were detained again, and this time was prosecuted.

Wang, 41, has long worked for NGOs that support vulnerable groups, including advocating for the rights of workers with occupational diseases.

According to an indictment posted on an account set up on X, formerly Twitter, by friends of the pair last year, the official charges appeared to focus on gatherings hosted by the two since late 2020.

People who were at those gatherings said they discussed social issues, including women’s and LGBT rights. They also watched films and played board games together.

The indictment also alleged that Huang “propagated the ideology of subverting state power” by publishing articles online from 2019.

It also stated that Huang provided online training that “used major events and social movements at home and abroad to incite participants’ dissatisfaction with state power”

Another notable subversion case in China this year was the sentencing of rights activist Li Qiaochu to three years and eight months in prison in February.

Li was accused of helping her partner Xu Zhiyong, who is serving a 14-year sentence for subversion, to post a large number of “subversive articles” online.

Prominent China #MeToo journalist sentenced to five years in jail, supporters say

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/14/sophia-huang-xueqin-prominent-china-metoo-journalist-sentenced-jail-five-years-supporters-say

A Chinese court has sentenced prominent #MeToo journalist Sophia Huang Xueqin to five years in jail and labour activist Wang Jianbing to three and a half years, almost 1,000 days after they were detained on allegations of inciting state subversion, according to supporters.

On Friday, supporters of the pair said the court had found them guilty and delivered Huang the maximum sentence. A copy of the verdict seen by Reuters corroborated their claim. Huang told the court she intended to appeal, the supporters said.

“[The sentence] was longer than we expected,” said a spokesperson for the campaign group Free Huang Xueqin and Wang Jianbing, asking to remain anonymous for safety concerns. “I don’t think it should have been this severe, and it is completely unnecessary. So we support Huang Xueqin’s intention to appeal.”

Just one day’s notice was given of Friday’s hearing, and the public and media were kept away by a heavy police presence of both uniformed and plain clothed officers, as well as court workers and large barriers. The closed-door trial began in September last year, two years after their arrest.

Huang, a well-known feminist activist and journalist who reported on China’s #MeToo movement and the Hong Kong pro-democracy protests, and Wang were arrested in September 2021, one day before Huang was due to fly to the UK to study at the University of Sussex.

The two friends were held in Guangzhou number one detention centre, where advocates claim they were subjected to secret interrogations, torture and ill treatment. The US-based NGO, Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD), said police also interrogated as many as 70 of their friends, some of whom were forced to leave Guangzhou.

Huang and Wang were charged with inciting subversion of state power through the regular gatherings they organised for like-minded progressives, to discuss issues such as feminism, LGBTQ+ rights and labour issues. They were accused of publishing distorted and inflammatory articles to attack the government, smearing Chinese authorities at a foreign virtual media conference, and organising online courses that incite dissatisfaction with the country, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

In a December 2021 video posted to X, Wang’s father said he had “no idea what mistakes he has made”.

“My son is not a bad guy. He was enthusiastic about public welfare after graduation. He did nothing wrong. His arrest is such a serious shock to me.” He asked that the authorities allow his family to hire a lawyer and to meet Wang, and hoped the case would be handled according to law.

Huang had previously been detained by authorities in 2019, after reporting on the Hong Kong protests. She was released in early 2020, and prevented from taking up a place on a postgraduate programme at the University of Hong Kong.

In June 2021, the British Foreign Office awarded Huang a Chevening scholarship, through a scheme which supports “outstanding emerging leaders from all over the world”. Huang was due to start her master’s degree in at the University of Sussex a few months later.

With Reuters

Bitcoin mining rigs pop up in Southeast Asia’s abandoned malls, factories after China crackdown

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3266570/bitcoin-mining-rigs-pop-southeast-asias-abandoned-malls-factories-after-china-crackdown?utm_source=rss_feed

The 6.87-hectare (17-acre) cement slab in the middle of a Borneo industrial area once belonged to a logging company. Long ago that business abandoned the site to the elements, leaving just rudimentary structures and a four-storey-tall concrete birdhouse made to lure swiftlets whose nests, built with saliva, fetch high prices in China.

But in 2023, another industry moved in: bitcoin miners. Sheltered by a vast, sheet-metal roof, over 1,000 machines now roar away, while hundreds more sit nearby in cardboard boxes waiting to be unpacked.

The site in Tanjung Manis, Sarawak, is the largest of four operations in the area run by miner Bityou. Owner Peter Lim chose the location after he was forced to close a larger 10,000 rig, 20-megawatt operation in China, following a ban on bitcoin miners in 2021. “Most of the companies already left this industrial park,” said Lim. “We decided, why don’t we make use of these abandoned resources?”

He’s one of many miners popping up in Southeast Asia – not all of them entirely legal, although Lim says Bityou’s operations are above board – after China’s crackdown. China was once the dominant country for bitcoin mining, the process of using computing power to solve encryption puzzles in return for new tokens. In 2019, it accounted for about three-quarters of global activity, according to data collected by Cambridge University.

But when the Chinese authorities declared that any cryptocurrency-related transactions would be considered illicit financial activity, the industry was decimated.

“Back then, some of the state governments, they just seize your property,” said Alex Loh, Lim’s colleague at Bityou, in an interview.

Loh said some 3,000 of his machines were seized at a mine he used to run in Inner Mongolia. He was also a stakeholder in a 120-megawatt site in Sichuan province that suffered a similar fate. “We spent about three months to build that place,” Loh said. “But once we started our operation, less than a month, we have to stop.”

Despite China’s clampdown, bitcoin has more than quadrupled since the start of last year to trade around US$67,000 at lunchtime in Singapore on June 13, helped in part by the US launch of spot bitcoin ETFs in January.

Renewed institutional interest has been a boon for miners, who earned revenue of US$960 million in May, according to data tracked by The Block Research. Bitcoin’s strong performance partially offsets the impact of April’s “halving,” a quadrennial event that slashes the rewards earned by miners for maintaining the network.

The US had become the global leader in terms of hashrate – a measure of the computational power used to process transactions on the bitcoin network – by January 2022, according to Cambridge University data.

Now Southeast Asian nations are also climbing the ranks. Malaysia contributed 2.5 per cent of the global hashrate, the Cambridge data show, ranking it among the top 10 nations. Preliminary results from more recent mining research suggest activity in Indonesia “markedly rose” in 2022 to between “lower and mid-single digit percentages,” said Alexander Neumüller, a research lead at Cambridge.

The availability of competitively priced power, skilled labour and, crucially, existing infrastructure add to the region’s allure for miners, Lim said.

Rigs are popping up all over Southeast Asia in abandoned shopping malls, former steel factories and on the side of hydroelectric power projects, as miners try to find sites where they can access the ample electricity they need. That’s because the region doesn’t have the option of exploiting “gluts of power” like miners in the US, who can dial up their activity in periods of lower power demand for preferential prices, according to Fred Thiel, CEO and chairman of Marathon Digital Holdings, one of the world’s largest bitcoin miners.

Manufacturers of mining rigs have followed the miners to Southeast Asia, shifting some operations to the region as they seek to meet burgeoning demand and, like many other industries, to avoid US tariffs on China.

Until 2018, when former president Donald Trump imposed a 25 per cent duty on a range of electronic goods from China, bitcoin rig production was “almost entirely” based in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, according to Ben Gagnon, chief mining officer at Bitfarms, which is currently the target of a US$950 million takeover bid.

“The vast majority of miners now are produced in Malaysia. There are manufacturing locations also in Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan, the US also to some extent,” said Gagnon, who has visited manufacturing facilities in Penang and Indonesia to run quality control checks for the Toronto-based miner. Some of sites belong to Bitmain, others to its closest rival MicroBT. Bitmain declined to comment while MicroBT said, in emailed comments, it had manufacturing in the region and facilities in both Thailand and the US.

Setting up shop is not always straightforward for miners. Like Lim, many are taking root in unexpected places, often leading a precarious existence thanks to frequent shifts in the stance of regulators as well as conditions that tend to favour smaller-scale outfits.

Mining in Laos, which has a burgeoning hydropower industry, was derailed by an extreme drought this year, which meant the state-run power company withdrew electrical supply from miners. Today, cryptocurrency mining accounts for more than a third of all power demand in the country, Somboun Sangxayarath, an adviser at Electricite Du Laos, recently told Reuters.

Police raids on bitcoin miners illegally siphoning energy are a regular occurrence in Malaysia, Indonesia and Laos. Electricity theft by bitcoin miners had cost Malaysia an estimated 2.3 billion ringgit (US$550 million) and rising as of early 2022, according to Takiyuddin Hassan, at that time Malaysia’s energy and natural resources minister.

Nearby Lim’s Sarawak operation, in Kuching, another miner is looking to set up in the shells of former steel plants and plastics factories, according to a pitch deck seen by Bloomberg.

A partnership between Sovereign Sengalang and Sprint Capital Management kicked off operations in the region earlier this year and is now seeking investment to develop “new brownfield sites.” The investment comes as state authorities last year unveiled plans for Sarawak to transition from a resource-based economy to an “environmentally sustainable technology-based economy” by 2030.

Despite the challenges, significant growth is expected in both mining and manufacturing. “Southeast Asia is poised to take off in the next few years,” said Taras Kulyk, founder and CEO of SunnySide Digital, a distributor of data centre hardware.

Surrounded by his boxed-up machines, Bityou’s Lim said Southeast Asia’s miners “have to find some kind of unique set-up, whether it be in terms of the price of power or lack of local competition, some sort of incentive, something to give them a bit of an edge.”

Chinese #metoo journalist, activist jailed in crackdown on civil society

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/06/14/china-me-too-trial-huang-xueqin/2024-06-13T02:58:51.251Z

A Chinese court on Friday found activists Sophia Huang Xueqin, an independent journalist known for her role in China’s #metoo movement, and Wang Jianbing, a labor activist, guilty on charges of “inciting subversion of state power,” according to supporters.

Huang was sentenced to five years in jail and Wang to three and a half years at the Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court after a closed door trial. They have already been held in custody for almost three years and this time served will count towards their sentence.

The convictions are the latest blow against civil society in China, where budding social movements are crushed before they have a chance to flourish.

The crime of “subversion of state power” is widely seen by human rights groups as a tool for suppressing dissent in China, a catchall term that can be used against perceived critics of the state. Under Xi Jinping’s leadership, the Chinese Communist Party has become increasingly intolerant of organized groups that it deems question its authority, from those promoting LGBTQ+ awareness to proponents of greater rights for women and people with disabilities.

Security was tight ahead of the verdict, and reporters were not allowed into the court. Supporters said both denied wrongdoing, and that Huang plans to appeal against the verdict.

“Everything I do is not to incite subversion of state power but to hope that social conditions can be improved, and the country can become better,” Huang said at the end of her trial last September.

Who are Huang Xueqin and Wang Jianbing?

Huang, 35, is an independent journalist who played a key role in launching China’s #metoo movement in 2018, when she wrote about her experience with sexual harassment and encouraged others to come forward. She conducted a survey of female journalists and found that more than 80 percent of the 255 who responded had also been sexually harassed. Huang later helped a graduate student go public against with accusations against her PhD supervisor. She had been arrested once before after participating in and writing about the huge anti-government protests in Hong Kong in 2019.

Wang, 40, is a friend of Huang’s and was also a prominent supporter of the #MeToo movement in China. Supporters refer to them as “xuebing” — an amalgamation of their given names.

Wang was primarily known for his labor activism and work defending people with disabilities. He has worked for years to empower people living with disabilities and advocates for the rights of workers with occupational diseases.

Ahead of their arrests, the two had gathered friends and acquaintances together to talk about issues frowned upon by Chinese censors — like being LGBTQ, working in the nonprofit sector or looking after the mental health.

What was the government’s case against them?

Huang and Wang were detained in September 2021, and formally arrested and charged a month later. The two were held for 47 days without access to lawyers, according to Chinese Human Rights Defenders, and were then required to use attorneys appointed by the court.

Chinese authorities accused Huang and Wang of public writing and private activism that incited the “overthrow of the socialist system by spreading rumors and slander.” Prosecutorscast Huang as a leading figure in unnamed “overseas organizations” and said she supported a “nonviolent movement” that challenged state authority.

Wang was accused of joining online groups including the “June 4 Massacre Memorial Museum,” which seeks to commemorate the bloody military crackdown on student-led protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989. The pair’s private gatherings were alleged to have “incited participants’ dissatisfaction with China’s state power.”

Friends say the charges against the pair have been a misrepresentation and fabrication of what the two were trying to achieve in their advocacy.

One friend, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions, said the indictment exaggerated certain actions. For example, Wang was accused of joining organizations he had simply “liked” on Facebook.

“Anyone can like a public group, but they claimed his actions had the intent to incite subversion of state power,” the person said. “If you are involved in organizing and nurturing potential social networks that are critical of the government, then you become a target for suppression.”

Supporters say that Huang’s health in particular has deteriorated while in custody. Human rights groups including Amnesty International said Huang’s sleep has often been disrupted by interrogations in the middle of the night, and that she has lost a significant amount of weight.

What do the sentences say about civil society in China?

Beijing has moved beyond quashing groups long deemed problematic, like human rights lawyers and pro-democracy activists, to those advocating for causes that on the surface would seem less threatening to state power.

The case of Huang and Wang show how China’s powerful security apparatus is policing a broad range of socially active people, advocates for greater freedoms say, and interfering even in their private lives. It has been part of a growing crackdown against religious freedom, artists, journalists, environmental activists and other groups.

The convictions show Chinese leader’s “unstinting hostility toward any kind of peaceful activism and community building,” said Yaqiu Wang, research director for China, Hong Kong and Taiwan at Freedom House, a Washington think tank that monitors the health of democracies.

“The ultimate goal of sham prosecutions as such is to decimate any remaining civil society space, so Chinese people only exist as isolated individuals that have no agency, no thinking of their own and no power to resist state control,” Wang said.

The feminism embodied by Huang is also something Beijing has tried to quash in recent years, including by persecuting other feminist activists, censoring feminist content online and shutting down feminist groups.

“Feminism itself will continue to be viewed as subversive because one of its core demands is that women be free to control their own bodies and lives,” said Leta Hong Fincher, author of “Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China.”

Given Huang was one of the most prominent activists in kick-starting China’s #MeToo campaign, “a harsh verdict seems likely to be designed as a warning to other activists,” she added.

Christian Shepherd and Pei-Lin Wu contributed to this report.

South China Sea: why Beijing may not rush to act on new rules for Chinese coastguard

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3266495/south-china-sea-why-beijing-may-not-rush-act-new-rules-chinese-coastguard?utm_source=rss_feed

The world is looking on with heightened caution as Beijing prepares to roll out new rules for coastguard operations amid rising tensions in the contested South China Sea.

Taking effect on Saturday, the “administrative law enforcement procedures” give sweeping powers to the Chinese coastguard, including the authority to detain foreign ships suspected of illegally entering China’s territorial waters, and detain suspected trespassers without trial for 30 to 60 days.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr of the Philippines, a rival claimant in the South China Sea, has described the rules as particularly worrisome and “an escalation of the situation”, after repeated run-ins between Philippine vessels and the Chinese coastguard over the past year.

The US Indo-Pacific Command has also raised concerns, saying the latest regulations had the potential to “escalate regional tensions, infringe on coastal state sovereign rights, and impede high-seas freedoms”.

Maritime observers, however, expect Beijing to show some restraint on actively implementing the guidelines.

“Given how tense the situation in the South China Sea is, and how potentially it can be very escalatory, I doubt whether China will want to be the first to trigger a response from the others,” said Collin Koh, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies under Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.

“The guidelines could be a legal instrument, but whether it’s going to be implemented or not is expedient on political factors rather than legal factors.”

Koh’s views were echoed by Zheng Zhihua, a research associate professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University specialising in maritime affairs.

“Even though it is possible for Beijing to apply domestic laws in these disputed areas, doing so would potentially lead to diplomatic incidents and deterioration of bilateral relations,” he said.

“Therefore, I do not think China will enthusiastically apply the newly adopted guidelines in the disputed areas.”

Koh said going ahead with strictly implementing the guidelines – which could result in the detention of Southeast Asian fishermen within their national exclusive economic zones – was likely to work against Beijing’s interests.

The Philippines could follow its strategy of “assertive transparency” to publicise those incidents, and even lodge legal challenges against China, and such detentions may prompt other Southeast Asian countries to band together when facing Chinese actions, he said.

He also referred to Article 11 of the guidelines, which stipulates that the Chinese coastguard has jurisdiction over administrative cases in “waters under China’s jurisdiction”.

This is vague language in terms of geographical application, Koh said, adding that the active implementation of the new coastguard rules could “become the vehicle to bring in more extra-regional presence” in South China Sea disputes.

This is because frequent enforcement could “amplify the threat posed by China”, which would be “detrimental to Chinese interests”.

Beijing has always resisted the involvement of non-regional countries in the decades-old territorial disputes in the South China Sea, which it claims almost in its entirety under what it calls its historical “nine-dash line”.

It argues that such interventions heighten tensions and hinder resolution efforts. It instead advocates for direct negotiations and regional dialogue among the claimant states to address complex maritime sovereignty issues.

The Philippines’ 1951 mutual defence treaty (MDT) with the United States is seen to boost its bargaining position as it seeks to counterbalance China’s growing assertiveness in the vast, resource-rich and economically and strategically significant waterway.

Washington has repeatedly asserted its commitment to the MDT, with high-ranking officials declaring that an armed attack on Philippine armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft – including those of its coastguard in the South China Sea – would trigger mutual defence obligations.

Hence, Koh said there was less likelihood of coastguard enforcement around the contested Second Thomas Shoal, Renai Jiao in Chinese, as the Philippines’ outpost here is a grounded navy ship and could “potentially provoke the invocation of MDT”.

The new measures were more likely to be applied to Scarborough Shoal, a traditional fishing ground and another potential flashpoint in the China-Philippines maritime dispute, Koh noted.

Known as Huangyan Dao in China and Panatag Shoal in the Philippines, the chain of reefs and rocks about 220km (138 miles) west of the Philippine island of Luzon has been under Beijing’s effective control since a stand-off with Manila in 2012.

The dispute saw the Philippines seek international arbitration, with a tribunal at The Hague ruling in its favour in 2016.

Beijing rejects the ruling but says “temporary special arrangements by the Chinese side in 2016” allow small Philippine fishing boats to operate around “specific waters” of Scarborough Shoal, with military and police ships and official vessels to keep off the 12-nautical-mile (22km) territorial waters and airspace of the shoal.

However, “the current Philippine government has unilaterally undermined the arrangement” and “crossed the red line on the issue of Scarborough Shoal”, the Chinese embassy said last month amid continued maritime stand-offs in the area.

Manila has also rejected Beijing’s claims to a “gentleman’s agreement” on Philippine supply missions to the grounded warship on the Second Thomas Shoal – part of the Spratly Islands also claimed by China as the Nansha Islands – with Marcos denying knowledge of any such agreement between Beijing and his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte.

The release of China’s new coastguard guidelines a month ago also coincided with a Filipino civilian mission to Scarborough Shoal in a show of defiance to assert Manila’s claims.

Zheng said that the possibility of Beijing implementing the guidelines could not be ruled out if a similar mission were to take place again.

“To Beijing’s eyes, if the Philippines or other parties do not provoke in advance, it would not easily apply these regulations to disputed areas, as this may make Beijing look like it is behaving unreasonably.

“However, if their actions are provocative and unacceptable from Beijing’s perspective, it might feel the need to flex its muscles,” Zheng said.

Koh said Beijing faces a “tough balancing act” on implementing the guidelines.

“If there are instances where Beijing needs to invoke the guidelines but it does not, then its credibility will be undermined, making it look like a paper tiger. On the other hand, if Beijing implements [the rules] actively, then it would trigger certain unwanted or undesirable consequences.”

China’s oil refiners are slowing down after decades of growth, in a blow to global supply

https://www.scmp.com/business/commodities/article/3266562/chinas-oil-refiners-are-slowing-down-after-decades-growth-blow-global-supply?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s decades-long boom in oil processing could falter this year in a blow to global demand and the aspirations of Opec producers seeking to return supply to the market.

Oil refining in the world’s top crude importer is expected to be flat or fall for the first time in data that extends back to 2004 – excluding a Covid-hit 2022 – according to most market watchers surveyed by Bloomberg. The IEA this week also reduced its processing forecast, but still sees a gain.

A prolonged property crisis has weighed on China’s economy this year, while the steady uptake of new-energy vehicles and trucks powered by gas are flashing bearish signs for future oil demand. The nation’s refiners are extending maintenance schedules to account for lower consumption.

China refined a record 14.76 million barrels a day last year – known as crude throughput – as demand rebounded after the pandemic, but the recovery is showing signs of faltering. The International Energy Agency said in a report Wednesday that the nation’s refinery runs slumped to Covid-era levels in April.

Of the six analysts and industry consultants surveyed by Bloomberg, three forecast a year-on-year decline in processing, while two predicted refining would remain flat. One projected a gain.

Jianan Sun, a London-based analyst with Energy Aspects, is in the camp that sees a decrease, along with industry consultants Mysteel OilChem and GL Consulting. Sun only recently flipped his estimate from an increase of 100,000 barrels a day this year to a loss of the same magnitude.

The prospect of lower Chinese demand presents Opec with a dilemma when it comes to raising output this year, especially given supply from outside the group is swelling. The alliance has said it can adjust or reverse production changes if needed, and some analysts think a boost is unlikely.

Benchmark oil prices have trended lower since early April on concerns about robust supply and soft demand, particularly from China.

Industry consultants FGE and JLC are predicting China’s refining will remain flat in 2024. Rystad Energy sees a gain, but has lowered its estimate to 150,000 barrels a day from 250,000 barrels a day made at the start of the year.

The start of mega-refineries such as Shandong Yulong Petrochemical Co., the expansion of China Petroleum & Chemical Corp.’s Zhenhai refinery and Cnooc’s Daxie plant will help to underpin an increase in processing, according to Lin Ye, a senior analyst for oil trading & downstream at Rystad.

China’s independent refiners – dubbed “teapot” refiners – have struggled with lower margins for making fuels, despite access to cheaper barrels from nations such as Iran and Russia. That has led to more maintenance, while OilChem predicts diesel yields are on track to fall to a historic low this month.

Refiners will ramp up slowly from maintenance, but they are expected to have at least 1 million barrels a day of spare processing capacity that they will not use due to poor demand, according to Mia Geng, an analyst with FGE. The consultant had predicted growth of 200,000 barrels a day earlier this year.

Machine intelligence reignites China’s century-old dream ‘to seek a continent’

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3263973/machine-intelligence-reignites-chinas-century-old-dream-seek-continent?utm_source=rss_feed

In the labyrinth of tunnels beneath the vast expanse of desert in Junggar Basin, northwest China, traffic jams have been a persistent pain.

Over 20 tunnel-boring machines have been operating around the clock in this sparsely populated area, racing against an undisclosed deadline to complete an underground water supply system spanning nearly 1,000km (621 miles). Long queues of transport vehicles, laden with rubble and building materials, trail these colossal machines.

Traffic control in the tunnel construction site has traditionally rested entirely on human shoulders, allowing only one vehicle at a time within a given section. However, since April last year, this critical task has been gradually handed over to artificial intelligence (AI).

Now, the underground traffic flow has doubled, the average speed has increased by 10 per cent, and the likelihood of mishaps has diminished significantly.

“The next step will focus on obstacle recognition for moving vehicles and autonomous driving,” wrote the project team led by scientist Wang Liming with the China Railway Tunnel Group (CRTG), in a peer-reviewed paper published in the Chinese academic journal Tunnel Construction in April.

As global warming takes effect, the arid northwest of China, especially Xinjiang, is increasingly turning lush.

Around 2018, the Chinese government quietly launched one of the most ambitious environment-engineering plans in human history: it constructed a series of large-scale reservoirs and water pipelines, storing snowmelt and seasonal floods, and transporting them deep into deserts and gobis. The plan aims to transform Xinjiang into an oasis capable of accommodating 200 million people, elevating China’s national strength to a new level.

Thanks to intelligent machines, this century-old aspiration is materialising at an unprecedented speed.

Back in 1918, Sun Yat-sen, one of modern China’s founders, envisioned establishing the nation’s capital in Yili, a northwest Xinjiang city. His portrait, erected annually in Tiananmen Square during National Day celebrations, faces Chairman Mao Zedong’s across the expanse.

Although Sun lived during a period of extreme weakness for China, he foresaw that China would have the capability to transform Xinjiang into a global political centre. Geographically speaking, Yili stands at the heart of Eurasia, equidistant from Kyiv and Shanghai.

“To seek a continent, look to Yili,” Sun wrote in his book, The Programme of National Reconstruction.

“I believe in its feasibility. Even with the challenges of moving mountains and filling seas, we will eventually succeed,” he said.

Since Sun’s death, the Chinese Communist Party, claiming to be “the most loyal successor to his revolutionary cause”, has fulfilled much of his vision, including once-deemed-impossible infrastructure projects such as the Three Gorges Dam and high-speed railways.

In Chinese, the character for seek – or mou – suggests planning, not waging war or conquering territory. The Belt and Road Initiative, for example, has been taken as a kind of grand scheme for the continent with fresh infrastructure including roads, bridges and railways to join up the entire Eurasian landmass.

Last year, a government-funded research team made public a proposal to establish a second capital in Xinjiang. All powerful and prosperous periods in Chinese history had enjoyed two capitals, the proposal argues. As China’s political, economic and military strength gradually returns to its peak, the researchers believe that it is now time to return to this tradition.

Since the 1980s, precipitation in Xinjiang has steadily climbed, with a marked acceleration after 2010, approaching the rainfall witnessed during the Tang dynasty, according to some studies.

Nonetheless, the distribution of these freshwater resources across space and time remains profoundly uneven, leading to a paradoxical coexistence of record floods and severe droughts.

The most viable solution to this predicament lies in large-scale water conservancy installations capable of storing and dispersing water evenly throughout various regions. Given Xinjiang’s size, surpassing the entire land mass of Iran, the need for colossal infrastructure becomes inevitable. Traditional methods of construction fall short of meeting the government’s urgent timelines.

Consider, for instance, the excavation of underground water tunnels, where the longest section exceeds 280km. It requires multiple tunnel boring machines to operate simultaneously and the construction of many auxiliary tunnels to facilitate material transport. The transport tools include not only trucks but also rail freight cars.

According to Wang’s team, there’s currently no research or application globally addressing intelligent vehicle scheduling and management in such an expansive and intricate underground project.

Using low-cost sensors and communication systems, Wang and his colleagues have built an “intelligent” underground traffic control system that can reliably operate in harsh environments.

This machine intelligence guides drivers via voice commands to enter and exit designated areas, offers evasion advice when oncoming traffic is sensed and sounds safety warnings when speeds exceed safe limits.

From monitoring stations both on the ground and underground, human safety personnel oversee the machines and can swiftly intervene in the case of an emergency.

Throughout a year of rigorous testing and practical application, the smart system has proven its worth, solving world-class engineering obstacles such as “elevated safety hazards during ultra-long tunnel excavations, complex multi-vehicle scheduling and inefficient material transport,” the scientists said.

Many other large-scale water management projects currently under way in Xinjiang also use AI technology to speed up the construction progress.

Take, for example, the Dashixia reservoir project launched in 2020. It involves building a dam with a volume almost eight times that of the Hoover Dam in the United States.

Faced with a tight 2026 deadline for full operation, state-of-the-art technologies like self-driving trucks and unstaffed rollers have been deployed, according to state media reports.

The entire construction process is controlled by AI. Once completed, this dam will become the largest 3D-printed building on Earth.

Tech war: China’s top memory chip maker YMTC sees rising domestic demand, defying US curbs

https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-war/article/3266486/tech-war-chinas-top-memory-chip-maker-ymtc-sees-rising-domestic-demand-defying-us-curbs?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s top memory chip maker, Yangtze Memory Technologies Corporation (YMTC), is seeing a surge in demand for its flash memory chips, which have become a top choice for local clients, particularly those working in government and military-related projects, as Beijing strives to cut reliance on foreign semiconductor products.

Demand for locally manufactured components, from graphics processing units to flash memory chips, has been surging, as China embarks on an ambitious drive to expand computing infrastructure to support generative artificial intelligence development.

Leading industry players from YMTC to Huawei Technologies have become some of the biggest beneficiaries of this national endeavour. YMTC’s growing business momentum defied expectations that it might have to quit the 3D NAND flash memory market after being added to a US trade blacklist in late 2022.

As the Wuhan-based company continued to achieve breakthroughs in cutting-edge products, it has become a favourite supplier for government-related projects in the country, according to two people involved in the domestic chip industry, who requested anonymity to share private information.

Prices of YMTC’s enterprise-level NAND flash memory chips have risen over the past months on strong local demand, which exceeds the firm’s current production capacity, said one of the sources, adding that government-related entities have prioritised YMTC over its foreign rivals such as US-based Micron Technology and South Korean giant Samsung Electronics.

YMTC did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday. The firm, which remains privately owned, does not disclose business operation and financial information.

While YMTC received a US$7 billion capital boost from state-backed investors last year, the US-sanctioned company is facing production challenges, as it is not only barred from purchasing the latest chip-manufacturing equipment from foreign suppliers, but also denied access to some maintenance services.

YMTC’s Wuhan plant earlier this year halted production because of a machine failure, forcing the company to borrow machines from another local fab, according to one of the sources, and a third person familiar with the matter.

Founded in 2016, YMTC was a latecomer to the global flash memory industry, but it has quickly narrowed its gap with peers and at one point was reportedly being considered by Apple as a potential supplier.

YMTC shocked the industry in 2022, when Canadian research firm TechInsights said the Chinese company had produced a “232-layer NAND flash”, an advancement that put it ahead of global giants such as Micron, Samsung and SK Hynix at the time. Two weeks after that report came out, Washington added YMTC to its export blacklist, despite the company’s efforts to comply with US on-site inspections.

Chinese semiconductor experts have called on the government to favour locally-made products when building computing systems.

One of them, self-sufficiency advocate Ni Guangnan, said during the Nanjing World Semiconductor Conference last year that the government should mandate the use of domestically-produced solid-state drives in its procurement policy and tender documents instead of choosing the lowest-priced tender price by default.

Micron and Samsung both saw revenue drop in China last year. The US firm recorded a revenue fall of 34 per cent in mainland China and 80 per cent in Hong Kong for its financial year ending August, while the South Korean company said its revenue in China was down 21 per cent.

Globally, NAND flash sales sank last year as demand collapsed, according to a report by research firm IDC, prompting Samsung and SK Hynix to cut production. But the market has shown early signs of a pickup this year, according to Taiwan-based researcher TrendForce.

Philippines increases South China Sea patrols as Beijing set to roll out new trespass laws

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/14/philippines-south-china-sea-patrols-beijing-tresspass-laws

The Philippines has stepped up patrols in the disputed South China Sea ahead of the rollout of a new Chinese regulation that empowers its coast guard to detain foreigners accused of trespassing.

The regulation, which is effective from Saturday, marks a further escalation in tensions in the fiercely contested waterway, which is one of the world’s most economically important and busiest trading routes

Under the updated legislation, foreigners accused of illegally entering Chinese waters can be detained for up to 60 days without trial.

The Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has previously described new Chinese regulations as worrisome and an “escalation of the situation”.

He has also said that if any Filipino citizen is killed “by a wilful act” this would be very close to “an act of war”.

China claims almost 90% of the South China Sea – though an international tribunal in The Hague has rejected this. The Philippines, as well as Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have overlapping claims.

There are growing concerns that as maritime confrontations in the waters increase, so too does the risk of a miscalculation that could inadvertently provoke conflict.

The Philippines has repeatedly accused China of dangerous behaviour, including firing water cannon and ramming its boats to disrupt Philippine Coast Guard missions. Such incidents have drawn warnings from the US, which has said it would defend the Philippines, a treaty ally, in the event of an armed attack on its public vessels, aircraft, and armed forces or its Coast Guard in the South China Sea.

Representatives of fishing groups have told Philippine media this week they are fearful about being detained at sea, but have no option but to continue as their livelihoods depend upon it.

China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning, has said the regulations are intended “to standardise the administrative law-enforcement procedures of Coast Guard agencies and better uphold order at sea,” and that “individuals and entities have no need for concern as long as they have not done anything illicit.”

The Philippines has increased its patrols ahead of the rules, according to Roy Vincent Trinidad, Philippine navy spokesperson for West Philippine Sea, who said the Philippines was working also with partners and allies in responding to the matter.

“We are not the only ones concerned, even other countries are concerned about that,” Trinidad told local media this week.

He said agencies were working to ensure Filipino fishing communities, who have long complained of harassment by Chinese vessels, will not be arrested. “Nothing will happen. The actions right now of the Philippine navy, the armed forces, the Coast Guard, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources and all other maritime players of the Philippine government are preventing such a situation,” he said.

Collin Koh, Senior Fellow at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said the new regulations were a form of “lawfare”.

“It is meant to intimidate, it is meant to threaten,” he said, adding that it was intended to remind countries such as the Philippines that China has a bigger navy and Coast Guard.

However, the wording of the law remained vague, said Koh. China’s Coast Guard Law, which was first introduced in 2021, applies to “maritime areas under Chinese jurisdiction”, but does not clearly define this. Were China to actually arrest Filipinos at sea, this would carry significant risks for Beijing, he added.

“What if in the process of trying to apprehend trespassers under the new guidelines, you clash with Philippine maritime forces, [and] somebody dies,” said Koh, adding this could then lead to the invocation of the Philippines’ mutual defence treaty with the US.

“This is a serious risk because when you start to apply the guidelines actively, then the risk of getting into an armed conflict becomes much higher.”

Applying the new law could also push the Philippines to advance its own legal challenges against China, said Koh.

The Philippines has previously said it is considering filing a new legal challenge against China in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, accusing it of environmental damage within the Philippine’s exclusive economic zone – the waters that stretch for 200 nautical miles (370km) from a state’s coastline, and where a country has special rights to exploit resources and build.

China’s embassy in Manila did not respond to a request for comment.

CEOs ‘cautiously optimistic’ about China’s economy amid ‘new competitive reality’

https://www.scmp.com/news/article/3266520/ceos-cautiously-optimistic-about-chinas-economy-amid-new-competitive-reality?utm_source=rss_feed

CEOs of multinationals remain “cautiously optimistic” about China’s economy in the face of downgraded consumption, tough competition from local firms, regulatory disruption, harder-to-win profits and geopolitical uncertainty, according to a new survey.

CEO confidence in China inched up marginally to 56, from 54 six months ago, on a scale from 0 to 100, with a reading below 50 points reflecting more negative than positive responses.

The survey, conducted by The Conference Board, was carried out between April 9 and 24, with a response rate of 72 per cent of 43 members of the non-profit business research group invited to participate.

“The combined effect of market, economic, policy and geopolitical factors are leading to the emergence of a new competitive reality that is putting business resilience to the test like never before, and which is challenging old notions about the China opportunity that were generated over the previous decades of high, rapid, and inclusive growth,” said Alfredo Montufar-Helu, head of the China Centre for Economics and Business at The Conference Board.

According to the survey, 35 per cent of CEOs said that current conditions are better than six months ago – up from 31 per cent in the second half of last year, but the figure is still significantly lower than 88 per cent in the first half of 2023.

Regarding long-term potential, 51 per cent of CEOs said that Chinese demand would be at least above average globally five years from now, and 26 per cent said that it would be on par with other major markets.

CEOs said that strong alignment with headquarters on China strategy, planning, and risk management, with sufficient authority to make independent decisions, is vital to success in a more complicated Chinese market.

“A recalibration of strategies is needed to defend market share by strengthening core competencies and improving risk management, all while maintaining robust alignment between global headquarters and China operations,” Montufar-Helu said.

The survey also showed that 35 per cent of CEOs said China’s ties with the European Union would get worse over the next three years, while 55 per cent said the China-US relationship would decline in the coming years.

According to the survey, 71 per cent of CEOs said they were expanding their “in China for China” localisation, investments, and operational activities.

Twenty-nine per cent of respondents said their companies are establishing second sources and production capabilities in other regions, such as India, Southeast Asia and North America, to diversify their investments.

The non-profit organisation measures the sentiment of CEOs in China and Europe biannually. The latest survey showed that business leaders’ confidence in Europe returned to positive territory, rising to 58 in the first half of this year from 42 six months ago.

In the US, where the survey is run quarterly, CEO confidence also rebounded to above 54 for the second quarter of this year, up from 46 two quarters ago.

Shanghai Technology Exchange to open Hong Kong branch as China boosts digital economy

https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3266507/shanghai-technology-exchange-open-hong-kong-branch-china-boosts-digital-economy?utm_source=rss_feed

Shanghai Technology Exchange (STEX), China’s first permanent market for trading intellectual property rights to technologies, plans to open a Hong Kong branch, as the nation searches for ways to help domestic companies access global knowledge.

The outpost is expected to open next year, enabling Chinese firms to buy technologies from overseas entities and raise funds, STEX chairman Xie Jihua told the South China Morning Post during a media briefing in Shanghai on Thursday.

It marks the latest effort by China to facilitate cross-border technology transfer, as part of its ambitious blueprint to develop and transform its digital economy.

Established by China’s Ministry of Science and Technology and the Shanghai municipal government, STEX allows mainland companies to buy technology-related intellectual property rights and those tied to scientific and technological achievements, from owners such as universities and research institutes.

The exchange officially launched its technology trading services in October 2020, after receiving approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the market regulator.

It is currently one of three national-level exchanges in the country that provide technology trading services, along with Beijing-based China Technology Exchange and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

So far this year, STEX recorded transactions worth 7.1 billion yuan (US$980 million), raising its accumulative transaction value to 39.6 billion yuan, according to official data.

As part of preparations for the Hong Kong branch, STEX in December signed a collaboration deal with the Hong Kong Digital Asset Exchange (HKbitEX), a cryptocurrency exchange, according to Xie.

The cooperation is intended to provide start-ups and other innovative businesses with easier access to technology trading and financing, through an open, transparent and efficient platform, HKbitEX said in a statement at the time.

STEX is also planning to open a branch in Singapore under its broader initiative to expand overseas, Xie said, without giving a timeline.

Based in Shanghai’s northeastern Yangpu district, STEX is located close to some of the country’s top tertiary institutions, including Fudan University and Tongji University, as well as Big Tech firms including food delivery giant Meituan and video-sharing platform Bilibili.

Shanghai, a Chinese financial and technology hub, has been doubling down on efforts to turn its digital economy into a new growth engine – a goal laid out by the local government in its 2023-25 digital economy master plan last August.

The city is also home to the Shanghai Data Exchange, which started trading data products in November 2021.

The exchange will be transformed into a larger “national-level data exchange” capable of covering transactions nationwide by next year, when some 5,000 data products are expected to be listed on the bourse, according to the municipal government.

Top China tourist spot installs timers in women’s restrooms. Critics ask why

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3266284/top-china-tourist-spot-installs-timers-womens-restrooms-critics-ask-why?utm_source=rss_feed

A major tourist attraction in China has come under fire for installing timers on the doors of its women’s toilets in an effort to cut restroom queueing times.

The Yungang Grottoes cave complex in Shanxi province in northern China was created more than 1,600 years ago.

It features 45 major caves and more than 59,000 stone sculptures in Central and West Asian and European styles.

The site attracted more than three million visitors last year, generating an income of 200 million yuan (US$28 million), according to Yungang Grottoes Academe.

In June, a video went viral showing timers installed in the site’s women’s toilets.

The video shows that each door in the restroom is fitted with a timer. When occupied, the timer turns red and starts counting, when unoccupied, it turns green.

A member of staff at the grottoes said that increasing visitor numbers coupled with insufficient restrooms had led to long queues, adding that the timers were installed to address the problem.

The timers do not impose a time limit but only indicate whether the toilet is occupied.

The move sparked a heated debate on mainland social media.

A tourist who visited the grottoes told the Xiaoxiang Morning Herald: “At first, I thought the timers were advanced as they could stop people from monopolising public resources and spending too much time in the restroom playing on their phones or making calls. But I also felt slightly embarrassed, like I was being watched.”

One supporter of the timers said: “I think this is good. Some elderly people might faint in the restroom and can’t call for help. The timer can also indicate unusual situations.”

“Using the restroom is a very private matter. The timer makes me feel disrespected as a female tourist,” said a critic of the move.

“If there are insufficient restrooms more should be built,” said a third person.

Toilets facilities at tourist spots in China often provoke debate on mainland social media.

While travelling in the northwest of the country, tourists often have to use non-flushing dry toilets which do not have cleaning facilities, and in some cases even partitions and walls.

China’s security focus may indicate Taiwan invasion planning, analysts say

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3266543/chinas-security-focus-may-preview-taiwan-invasion-planning-analysts-say?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s intense focus on security, “all of society” campaigns against foreign spies and stockpiling of food and energy may be rooted in domestic concerns but could eventually double as forward indicators of an imminent attack on Taiwan, witnesses told a US congressional commission on Thursday.

“It is of supreme importance that we develop a deep understanding of China’s preparations for conflict and can discern when they are preparing to make a move,” said Clifton Sims, a former deputy director of national intelligence during the Donald Trump administration.

“We do not want war,” Sims, a member of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, which held the hearing, added. “But in the event that China makes an unprovoked, unjust and ill-advised decision to break the peace, we must be able to win.”

The hearing follows growing tension in the Indo-Pacific, US moves to reduce dependence on Chinese supply chains and Washington concerns that exports of high-end US semiconductor exports to China are being increasingly diverted for military purposes.

Beijing’s domestic messaging about the need for “struggle” and maintaining “vigilance” against foreign forces currently appears more directed at stemming domestic tensions given the Chinese economy’s difficulties – which include a meltdown in the real estate sector and chronic unemployment – rather than signs of any imminent plan to invade Taiwan.

But they added that future indications of a possible military campaign might include a shift in social messaging to demonise Taiwanese residents as well as mass education campaigns warning of tougher times ahead.

Other indications could include a rapid build-up in already significant food, energy and strategic mineral reserves; a focus on first aid, sheltering and other civilian defence measures – particularly in Fujian, Guangdong and other areas around Taiwan – and a shift in propaganda messaging.

“What is its tone? What is the content?” said Lauri Paltemaa, a professor at the University of Turku in Finland. “Maybe even who is allowed to be talking. Is it the Global Times trashing America or they’ve been silenced? There are very, very many indicators that you should follow.”

Assessing Beijing’s intentions has been complicated by growing restrictions on foreign companies, cross-data flows, access to Chinese databases and academic exchange. Witnesses said that Beijing has become convinced that the US is intent on blocking its development and is working to encircle it.

“There is a fundamental shift that’s taking place, which is much more pronounced in the last three-four years, where security has been prioritised over development,” Manoj Kewalramani, chairman of the Indo-Pacific Research Programme and a China fellow at Takshashila Institution in India.

“While there is this talk about the need to have a balance between the two of them, security has clearly won out.”

The extent of China’s stockpiling of grain and oil – which could presage a Taiwan conflict– is a state secret, for example. But Beijing has credible concerns as farmland is lost to urbanisation, farm labour declines, water becomes more scares and global warming intensifies.

Gustavo Ferreira, a US Department of Agriculture economist, noted that “for millennia, the ruling class in this country has been extremely sensitive about ensuring food security for its population.

“It’s the precedence of famines and food crisis that trigger political stability and regime collapse,” he added.

“The bottom line is, it is very difficult for outsiders to discern whether [China’s] actions to improve its food security are just a government reaction to this structural challenge, or another step in the preparation for conflict.”

The commission monitors and investigates the national security implications of the trade and economic relationship between the US and China. While it does not have direct lawmaking authority, it advises and make recommendations to Congress on actions and policies.

Witnesses told the commission that China’s expanding emphasis on comprehensive national security under President Xi Jinping – which increasingly colors the economy, finance, technology, foreign affairs, ocean and space exploration – has driven legal, structural and civilian-military reforms.

Those reforms certainly could address legitimate domestic concerns, witnesses testified, but they might also serve dual purposes.

For example, Beijing’s enhanced emergency management system developed after the devastating Sichuan earthquake in 2008 aims to respond to natural disasters. But the system’s inclusion of air raid shelters and supply depots also serves a parallel function of preparing for any clash, they said.

“Many of the things we touched upon today, like disaster preparedness, like all the internal feel-good messages around national security and business struggle, they can serve very different functions,” said Katja Drinhausen, a programme head with Germany’s Mercator Institute for China Studies.

“They can just be there to be repaired, they can be there for a case of domestic crisis, they can be there for international conflict.”

China has paid a price for its security-first response to domestic problems and the US policy of building regional alliances and restricting tech exports, witnesses said.

Beijing’s zero-tolerance strategy to choke off the pandemic has left its economy still struggling to recover, with consumer confidence swooning at home.

That’s matched by a growing suspicion abroad, notably in Europe, which is troubled by Beijing’s attempt at economic coercion and its embrace of Russia as a counterweight to the West, they added.

But witnesses also offered advice on how the US might reduce tension and avoid conflict.

Steps include encouraging a more nuanced understanding among Western allies of China’s risk calculations in using force. The US could also expand educational exchanges, tourism and other people-to-people interactions to undercut a demonised view of foreigners.

Other suggestions included building ties with China’s emergency management systems – by, for example, providing satellite weather data and aid during a natural disaster – and avoiding a tit-for-tat security response that mirrors Beijing’s “over-securitisation” focus.

“The Chinese Communist Party, which sounds like a big, scary and a very ambiguous entity, ultimately, it’s also made up of leaders who are shaped by their worldviews,” Drinhausen said. “But it is also made of people that want to have a certain sense of predictability.”

“It is really important to stay in communication and explain to the Chinese side what the goals are,” she added.

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Exports between US and China could see sharp declines from AI-powered cyberattacks: study

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3266537/exports-between-us-and-china-could-see-sharp-declines-ai-powered-cyberattacks-study?utm_source=rss_feed

Cyberattacks powered by artificial intelligence could deal a consequential blow to global trade, driving downswings in exports between China and the United States, a recent study has found.

China’s exports could plunge 8.2 per cent, economics and cybersecurity researchers projected, while the US could see a reduction of 5.6 per cent in a simulation scenario with a large number of cybersecurity breaches.

“The disparity stems from China’s heavy reliance on the American market, which absorbs about 20 per cent of its total exports,” the researchers said.

“In contrast, the US benefits from more diversified export markets, which helps cushion the blow from such attacks.”

Researchers from the Oxford Brookes Business School in Britain and the School of Information Technology and Computer Science at Nile University in Egypt published their findings in the peer-reviewed journal Risk Analysis last week.

Looking at the impacts of AI-driven cyberattacks on global trade, the researchers said such incursions use algorithms to scan systems for vulnerabilities faster and at a larger scale than manual attacks.

What is more, AI-driven malware can mutate its code to evade detection and removal, rendering existing cybersecurity measures less effective, said Rehab Osman of Oxford Brookes University and Sherif Elgendy, a cybersecurity engineer.

“These sophisticated attacks can autonomously learn and evolve tactics based on real-time feedback and environmental changes, making them highly adaptive and difficult to counter,” the researchers said.

Such attacks could paralyse payment systems, load stock predictions with errors and delay deliveries, halting transactions and eroding consumer confidence in digital platforms, they added.

In an intense cyberthreat scenario in which Chinese exports to the US were projected to plummet by almost a quarter, exports to South Korea would grow by 4.5 per cent. Those to Japan would rise by 5.2 per cent, with those to the rest of Asia up 6.4 per cent.

“This suggests that some Chinese exports find their way to the US through these intermediary nations,” they said.

Similarly, when US exports to China dropped by more than 20 per cent in a high-level threat scenario, upticks would be seen in countries like India and Japan as well as in North and Latin America, pointing to a complex re-routing of trade flows.

The high-level cyberthreat projections also found that China’s real GDP (nominal GDP adjusted for inflation) would decrease by 2.2 per cent. The real GDP of the US would retreat by 1.4 per cent and the European Union’s by 1.35 per cent.

The researchers said the significant decline in China illustrated the key role of digital technologies and interconnected supply chains in its economy.

They also warned that such disruptions in the world’s two largest economies would extend to other parts of the world via the global supply chain.

“The decline in China’s exports, which account for more than one-fifth of its GDP, has a ripple effect on the global economy. As key components of the supply chain are disrupted, industries worldwide experience delays, increased costs and inefficiencies.”

To counter the evolving cyberthreats attempted by state-sponsored actors, criminals, terrorists or hackers driven by different motives, governments and businesses should invest in cybersecurity technologies, the researchers said.

These include AI-driven defence systems that can detect and respond to threats as they are launched.

“By investing in advanced technologies, fostering international cooperation and promoting cybersecurity awareness, economies can enhance their resilience and mitigate the risks posed by AI-driven cyberthreats,” they said.

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Microsoft president testifies before House panel over security lapses after China-linked hack

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3266538/microsoft-president-testifies-house-panel-over-security-lapses-after-china-linked-hack?utm_source=rss_feed

Microsoft President Brad Smith testified before a House panel on homeland security on Thursday, fielding questions about its security practices and ties to China a year after Chinese hackers spied on federal emails by hacking into the tech giant.

China-linked hackers stole 60,000 US State Department emails by breaking into the tech giant’s systems last summer, while a Russian group separately spied on Microsoft’s senior staff emails this year, according to the company’s disclosures.

Lawmakers grilled Smith for Microsoft’s inability to prevent both those hacks that they said did not use sophisticated means and repeatedly put federal networks at risk.

The Microsoft emails Russian hackers accessed also “included correspondence with government officials”, Democratic congressman Bennie Thompson said.

“Microsoft is one of the federal government’s most important technology and security partners, but we cannot afford to allow the importance of that relationship to enable complacency or interfere with our oversight,” he added.

The hearing drew on the findings of a scathing report in April by the Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB) – formed by US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas – which slammed Microsoft for its lack of transparency over the Chinese hack that it said was preventable.

“We accept responsibility for each and every finding in the CSRB report,” Smith said in his opening statement, adding that the company had already begun working on a majority of the report’s recommendations.

He said cyberattacks had increased and become sophisticated over time, and public-private partnerships were critical in defending against them.

“We’re dealing with formidable foes in China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, and they’re getting better,” said Smith. “They’re getting more aggressive … They’re waging attacks at an extraordinary rate.”

When questioned about why Microsoft could not discover the Chinese intrusion and it was the State Department that did, Smith said: “That’s the way it should work. No one entity in the ecosystem can see everything.”

But Thompson was not convinced.

“It’s not our job to find the culprits. That’s what we’re paying you for,” Thompson told Smith.

Lawmakers also pushed Smith for details on Microsoft’s business and presence in China.

“Over the years, Microsoft has invested heavily in China setting up research incentives, including the Microsoft Research Asia centre in Beijing,” said congressman Mark Green from Mississippi, chairman of the homeland security panel.

“Microsoft’s presence in China creates a mix of complex challenges and risks. We have to talk about that today.”

Smith said around 1.5 per cent of the company’s revenue came from China, and that it was working on reducing its engineering presence there.

The world’s biggest software-maker and a major vendor to the US government and national security establishment, Microsoft has faced heightened criticism from its security industry peers over the past year over the breaches and lack of transparency.

Following the board’s criticisms, Microsoft had said it was working on improving its processes and enforce security benchmarks. In November it launched a new cybersecurity initiative and said it was making security the company’s top priority “above all else – over all other features”.