Mistral点评

• Chinese coastguard set to get new ship modelled on advanced Type 052D destroyer
• Baltic pipe probe: Finnish leader happy China is cooperating but says ‘case is not closed’
• Chinese tile manufacturer in Mexico accused of illegal water use during drought
• South China Sea: US Navy’s newest air-to-air missile could erase China’s aerial advantage
• Mainland China’s provinces seek overseas capital, with Hong Kong as go-between
• With ouster of Bangladesh’s Sheikh Hasina, is India losing its South Asia allies to China?
• China sows seeds of self-reliance with ‘historic breakthrough’ in agricultural autonomy
• China netizens accuse ‘two-faced’ skier Eileen Gu over links to ‘arrogant’ French swimmer
• China’s US$1.3 billion of ‘dim sum’ bond sale overbought as appetite grows for yuan debt
• Hong Kong tech festival to offer HK$1 entry for mainland Chinese visitors in limited deal
• Custody ruling in same-sex case hailed as LGBT milestone in China
• EU subsidy raids on Chinese company Nuctech were legal, court rules
• Bian Mei, China’s first elite woman bodyguard protected royalty, world leaders wearing 4kg steel vest
• China hits 100 billion deliveries as couriers grow part and parcel with e-commerce
• China to hold air force drills with Thailand as it bolsters Southeast Asia defence ties
• [Sport] US soldier pleads guilty to selling secrets to China
• Chinese robotaxi firm WeRide gets California approval to test with passengers
• Fiji leader’s visit gives China chance to restore trust after ‘biggest failure’ in Pacific
• Kiribati’s pro-China government faces test as election begins
• Why China’s risky bond rally has put PBOC on the offensive to optimise yields
• Heytea snaps up Mong Kok space as mainland Chinese brands step up Hong Kong expansion
• Disbelief as China’s ‘most handsome Shaolin monk’ Qiu Feng killed in car crash at 21
• US soldier Korbein Schultz pleads guilty to selling military secrets to China
• Can China’s ‘city of the future’ Xiongan really convince people to swap Beijing life?
• Chinese Rocket Breaks Up in Space, Releasing Hundreds of Debris Pieces
• Post-coup Myanmar has not turned into a Chinese vassal state

Chinese coastguard set to get new ship modelled on advanced Type 052D destroyer

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3274494/chinese-coastguard-set-get-new-ship-modelled-advanced-type-052d-destroyer?utm_source=rss_feed

China is building a coastguard vessel based on an advanced destroyer and equipped with hi-tech surveillance equipment, according to media reports.

The ship is expected to be used in the East and South China Seas, where the country is embroiled in a series of long-running territorial disputes, most notably with the Philippines.

In June satellite images captured the ship at Shanghai’s Jiangnan Shipyard and on Monday the local media outlet Guancha.cn reported that it had already been painted with the coastguard’s livery and will be joining the force.

Its design is based on the Type 052D guided-missile destroyer but has been modified to better suit coastguard operations, according to the report.

It said the destroyer’s vertical launch system has been removed and it has a 76mm main gun as opposed to the 130mm gun found on the warship.

Notably, the new vessel is equipped with Type 382 air search radars, a model also found on some Chinese frigates, which Guancha said will “enhance the air surveillance capability” of the vessel.

When it entered service in 2014, the Type 052D was a significant milestone in the Chinese navy’s development, being equipped with advanced radar and missile systems.

Although China has two of the world’s biggest coastguard ships, with a displacement of more than 10,000 tonnes, the article said the new ship fills a gap in the 6,000 to 7,000-tonne displacement range and can be compared with Japan’s larger coastguard ships.

The ship has a range of over 6,000 nautical miles, allowing it to operate freely in the South China Sea without the need for frequent resupplies, according to Guancha, which added the vessel can be used for offshore law enforcement.

Chen Xiangmiao, an assistant research fellow at the China National Institute for South China Sea Studies, said: “The vessel could be used to meet patrol needs in the East China Sea. There is also a need to increase the number of vessels in the South China Sea.”

Chen also said the coastguard had to be able to deal with United States ships as well as those from its rival claimants in the region.

The addition of the new vessel comes at a time when China is involved in more low-intensity but high-frequency conflicts with other claimants in the South China Sea, as well as in the East China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.

Chinese and Philippine coastguard ships have been involved in a series of confrontations in disputed areas of the South China Sea this year, especially near the Second Thomas Shoal.

Chinese vessels have also staged regular patrols in the East China Sea around the disputed Diaoyu Islands, known as the Senkakus in Japan.

They have also intensified patrols near Taiwan following the death of two fishermen from the mainland province of Fujian in February in a chase with the Taiwanese coastguard.

Beijing regards Taiwan as part of China that must be reunified with the mainland – by force if necessary. Most countries, including the United States, Taiwan’s main international supporter, do not recognise it as independent, but Washington opposes any attempt to seize it by force.

China’s coastguards play a crucial role in addressing tensions across these regions, which is driving Beijing’s efforts to strengthen the fleet, which is already believed to be the world’s largest. As well newer, more advanced ships it is also repurposing old warships for coastguard operations.

“Vessels like the Type 052D, equipped with naval radar systems, are essential for enhancing the coastguard’s reconnaissance capabilities in the complex maritime environment of the South China Sea,” Chen said.

But other countries are also building up their fleets. In June, Japan News reported that the country is building its largest-ever multipurpose patrol vessel to better respond to Chinese activities.

The Philippines is also reportedly adding five vessels to its own fleet with help from Tokyo.

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Baltic pipe probe: Finnish leader happy China is cooperating but says ‘case is not closed’

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3274505/baltic-pipe-probe-finnish-leader-happy-china-cooperating-says-case-not-closed?utm_source=rss_feed

Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said on Wednesday he is happy China is cooperating into an investigation into a destroyed Baltic pipeline, but warned it was too soon to say what had happened.

He was responding to a question about the admission that a Chinese-owned ship had accidentally destroyed the Balticconnector gas pipe running between Finland and Estonia last October, first reported by the South China Morning Post on Monday.

“Finnish and Estonian authorities are working in cooperation with Chinese authorities on this matter,” Orpo said, but added that he could not offer more detail because the “investigation is not closed”.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Estonian counterpart Kristen Michal in Helsinki on Wednesday, he also said: “I’m also happy that China and Chinese authorities have been cooperating, but we cannot do any conclusions before we have the investigation. But I promise that when the investigation is ready, we will tell all.”

China recently sent the two countries the results of an internal investigation, which said the NewNew Polar Bear cargo ship had damaged the pipeline but it was an accident that happened during a storm.

While the Chinese-language account was shared with the two countries, but is not admissible as evidence in an ongoing criminal probe led by the Finnish authorities.

The joint criminal inquiry is centred on the container ship, which was flying the Hong Kong flag at the time. Its registered owner is the Chinese mainland firm NewNew Shipping Line.

The ship is believed to have dragged its 6,000kg (1,300lbs) anchor across the seabed and sliced through the cables. It was found metres from the site.

“Estonia and Finland have made official requests to China for different documentations on the case, so we have certain acknowledgements. But as Petteri [Orpo] said, until the case is closed and until the investigation has closed, we cannot give the final conclusions about that,” Estonia’s Michal said.

The Estonian leader – who was on his maiden foreign trip after becoming prime minister last month – added “hopefully these kind of developments will clear up who will pick up the bill, but we will see – the investigation is still ongoing”.

In response to media questions about the Post’s report, the Chinese foreign ministry said it was “advancing the investigation based on facts and laws, and maintaining close communication with relevant countries”.

“China has always advocated that the international community should strengthen cooperation and jointly safeguard the safety of submarine infrastructure,” Lin Jian, a spokesman for the ministry, told a regular press conference in Beijing on Tuesday.

“We hope that all parties will continue to advance the investigation with a professional, objective and cooperative attitude, and jointly ensure that the incident is properly handled.”

The report has sparked a frenzied debate in the Baltic Sea countries. On Tuesday, Estonia’s Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur voiced scepticism about the claim it was an accident.

“Personally, I find it very difficult to understand how a ship’s captain could fail to notice for such a long time that its anchor had been dragging along the seabed, but it is up to the prosecutor’s office to complete the investigation,” Pevkur told public broadcaster ERR.

Repair work on the pipeline finished in April at a cost of €35 million (US$38.3 million), but Pevkur said it was unlikely that Beijing would foot the bill.

“Given the practical realities, it is very hard to assume that China’s position here will change and when they maintain that this was an accident, then they are likely to stick to their stance that they have nothing to compensate for,” he said.

Chinese tile manufacturer in Mexico accused of illegal water use during drought

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3274519/chinese-tile-manufacturer-mexico-accused-illegal-water-use-during-drought?utm_source=rss_feed

A major Chinese tile manufacturer that arrived in Mexico last year offering a boost to the local economy now faces a possible shutdown after farmers there said the company has been illegally extracting water during a severe drought.

Time Ceramics, a multinational company originally from Fujian province, announced in 2023 it would build a plant in the small town of Emiliano Zapata in the central Mexican state of Hidalgo; the company said it was investing US$150 million in the plant, which spans nearly 81 hectares (200 acres), and expected to create more than 1,800 jobs.

Yet for months, local residents have accused Time of unlawfully exploiting natural resources and harming the region’s water supply, which is experiencing one of the worst droughts in its history.

On Tuesday, to draw international attention to the issue, a group of Mexican farmers held a news conference in Los Angeles in the United States, claiming that at least 100,000 people are affected by the company’s activities.

Gumaro Zamorano, leader of the farmer group, said that the company was using the water to manufacture tiles and ceramics.

He said that residents of Emiliano Zapata had discovered nearly 40 extraction pipes since last year.

“It’s worrying because with all the water extracted, the aquifers are not reaching their [normal] levels. The whole area is affected by the arrival of Time Ceramics,” Zamorano warned.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Time Ceramics does not possess a licence to extract water for industrial purposes and the company says its wells are intended solely for human consumption.

On Sunday, the Mexican Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) said it had dispatched a team of investigators to the area, who found evidence of violations of a law protecting natural resources.

Government officials are now considering revoking Time Ceramics’ business licence and halting its operations.

“We will hold another meeting with the population to determine whether the closure is justified,” Semarnat Secretary María Luisa Albores told the local newspaper El Universal.

If action is justified, she added, “we will order the closure”.

Time Ceramics did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The accusations against the Chinese company have been building for some time. In January, the Mexican attorney general’s office determined that Time Ceramics had drilled illegal water wells on a former farm in the region.

Several Chinese nationals were also found to be working without authorisation. According to a statement in January by the Mexican National Migration Institute, 148 Chinese nationals were working with tourist visas, while 39 were undocumented.

The undocumented workers were deported, yet the company continued to operate. Dissatisfied, a Mexican citizen filed a complaint in February with the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), an intergovernmental organisation established under the USMCA free trade agreement to investigate environmental violations by companies in the United States, Mexico and Canada.

According to the commission, the complainant contended that Mexico was “failing to address the environmental impacts of the [Time Ceramics] factory, including unauthorised forest land use change to build the factory, inadequate environmental impact assessment, the unauthorised development of water wells, and the alleged lack of water extraction concessions for the factory’s operations.”

The complaint was dismissed in June due to insufficient information on the environmental impact of the project and because the complainant had not contacted Mexican authorities first.

South China Sea: US Navy’s newest air-to-air missile could erase China’s aerial advantage

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3274493/south-china-sea-us-navys-newest-air-air-missile-could-erase-chinas-aerial-advantage?utm_source=rss_feed

The US Navy’s deployment of new extremely long-range air-to-air missiles in the Indo-Pacific could erase China’s advantage in aerial reach, experts say, part of an intensifying focus on projecting power amid high tensions in the region.

The AIM-174B, developed from the readily available Raytheon SM-6 air defence missile, is the longest-range such missile the United States has ever fielded and was officially acknowledged in July.

It has three key advantages: it can fly several times farther than the next-best US option, the AIM-120 AMRAAM; it does not require new production lines; and it is compatible with the aircraft of at least one ally, Australia.

Crucially, a weapon such as the AIM-174B, which can attack aerial targets as far away as 400km (250 miles), outranges China’s PL-15 missile, allowing US jets to keep threats farther from aircraft carriers, and safely strike “high-value” Chinese targets, such as command-and-control planes.

“The United States can ensure the safety of their important assets, such as carrier groups, and launch long-range strikes on PLA targets,” said Chieh Chung, a researcher at a Taipei-based think tank, the Association of Strategic Foresight, using an abbreviation for the People’s Liberation Army.

The West has not easily been able to do that until now.

The AIM-120, the standard long-range missile for US aircraft, has a maximum range of about 150km (93 miles), which requires the launching aircraft to fly deeper into contested territory, exposing aircraft carriers to greater danger of anti-ship attacks.

Any type of South China Sea conflict, within the so-called First Island Chain, which runs roughly from Indonesia northeast to the Japanese mainland, means the US Navy would operate within a few hundred kilometres of its Chinese adversary.

Supporting Taiwan in an invasion would pull the Navy in even closer.

The AIM-174B changes that equation, keeping PLA carrier-hunting aircraft out of firing range and even endangering their planes attacking Taiwan, Cheih said. That increased the likelihood the United States would get involved in a major conflict in the region, he added.

“The big thing is that it lets the United States push in a little bit further” into the South China Sea during a conflict, said a senior US defence technical analyst, who declined to be identified because the matter is a sensitive one.

“And it’s going to potentially change Chinese behaviour because it’s going to hold large, slow, unmanoeuvrable aircraft at greater risk.”

For decades, the United States’ advantage in stealth fighters, first with the F-117 and then with the F-22 and F-35, meant that missiles such as the AIM-120 were all that was needed.

The US military also leaned into developing the AMRAAM as a cheaper alternative to a new missile, drastically improving its performance over decades, said Justin Bronk, an air power and technology expert at London’s Royal United Services Institute.

The SM-6 is estimated to cost about US$4 million each, says the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, while an AMRAAM costs about US$1 million.

European nations, which lacked access to stealth technology until recent years, developed the ramjet-powered Meteor missile, with a range of 200km (124 miles), produced by MBDA.

MBDA did not respond to a request for comment.

The advent of Chinese stealth aircraft such as the J-20, and more important, the PL-15 missile it can carry internally – with a range of 250km (155 miles) or more – eroded the US edge, said Kelly Grieco, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center.

Now a stealthy Chinese aircraft could theoretically spot non-stealthy US aircraft and shoot them down well outside the range where they could even fight back, she said.

Even US stealth aircraft might be forced to fly dangerously close to fire their missiles.

“If a Chinese fighter can outrange an American fighter, it means they can get the first shot,” she said. “It’s hard to outrun something that’s travelling at Mach 4.”

The AIM-174B was developed to quickly address that need.

The secretive Lockheed Martin AIM-260, a separate US Air Force programme to develop an extremely long-range air-to-air missile small enough for stealth aircraft to carry internally, has been in development for at least seven years.

Lockheed Martin declined to comment on the project.

China is developing missiles with longer range than the PL-15, Bronk said, but the radar of launching aircraft may be unable to spot targets at such distances.

“If you go too big and too heavy with the missiles, you end up trading off fuel” for the aircraft, he added.

Using Raytheon’s SM-6, originally designed for a ship-launched air defence role, means production lines are already available. Funding has already been earmarked for more than 100 SM-6 missiles a year.

Raytheon declined to comment on how many AIM-174Bs would be produced or if existing SM-6s would be converted.

So far, it has only been shown on US Navy F/A-18E/F Super Hornet aircraft, which are operated by the US and Australian militaries.

The United States sees Australia as a crucial ally and location for projecting power into the South China Sea, and is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in military infrastructure there.

Australia’s defence ministry said it “works closely with the US to understand capability options available for Australian consideration”.

The US Defense Department referred questions about the AIM-174B to the US Navy.

The Navy said the missile was “operationally deployed” but declined to comment on whether it would be supplied to allies, whether it would be integrated onto other aircraft, and how many AIM-174Bs it wanted each year.

The versatility of the SM-6, which has also been used to hit ships, land targets and missiles, opens up possibilities beyond the AIM-174B, said Peter Layton, a defence and aviation expert at the Griffith Asia Institute.

For instance, if fitted with an anti-radar seeker, it could attack and disrupt surface-to-air missile batteries from extremely long range.

For now, though, adding the AIM-174B to the US Navy’s arsenal, even if not yet in large numbers, changes the calculus of a regional conflict, the senior technical analyst said.

“If this is enough to push [China’s high-value] aircraft way back, then you don’t need many,” the analyst added.

“Because the threat has caused the adversary to change their behaviour … It makes a South China Sea scenario easier.”

Mainland China’s provinces seek overseas capital, with Hong Kong as go-between

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3274479/mainland-chinas-provinces-seek-overseas-capital-hong-kong-go-between?utm_source=rss_feed

Some localities in mainland China are taking active steps to woo overseas capital via Hong Kong as foreign direct investment (FDI) continues to decline, a move seen by analysts as an attempt to hit economic growth targets under internal and external pressure.

Organisers of the China International Fair for Trade and Investment, scheduled for September in Xiamen – capital of the southeastern province of Fujian – promoted the expo at an event in Hong Kong late last month, with foreign chambers of commerce and consulates present.

Data from InvestHK showed the visit was not unique to Fujian, as numerous mainland provinces and cities have already come to Hong Kong to drum up investment after the pandemic.

“Current economic pressures are pretty high,” said Peng Peng, executive chairman of provincial think tank the Guangdong Society of Reform. “The country has to meet the yearly growth target, and the [the outlook for] foreign investment is also not optimistic.”

Figures from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange released on Friday showed a net FDI outflow of US$14.8 billion for the second quarter.

“Local governments have shown momentum in attracting foreign investors,” Peng said. “They are overcoming stress by doing actual work.”

Financial company Nomura said in a note that the net outflow was larger than that of the third quarter in 2023, and the trend could signal “continued earning repatriations from multinational corporations in China.”

Dong Jinyue, principal economist at BBVA Research, noted that investors in Hong Kong were still “willing to invest” on the mainland even with the adverse economic situation, because real industry investors looked at long-term returns instead of short-term adjustment.

“[Mainland] China is still attractive for Hong Kong investors due to its diversified industries and tech advancement,” she added. “New industries such as electric vehicles, photovoltaics, wind energy and hi-tech should be rising sectors, together with a series of traditional sectors.”

China’s gross domestic product grew 4.7 per cent in the second quarter compared to a year earlier – missing the official annual target of “around 5 per cent” – after recording 5.3 per cent growth in the first quarter.

Jiang Jiang, a researcher at the Xinhua Institute think tank, said China is “further deepening reforms” to “advance modernisation”, including building a unified national market and fostering a “first-rate” business environment.

“These measures provide positive policy signals for investors,” he said.

Wing Chu, principal economist at the Hong Kong Trade and Development Council, said the region is a one-stop platform for a variety of foreign investors, citing figures that show around 70 per cent of mainland-bound FDI passes through it.

“Hong Kong is an in-and-out channel for local governments to grab investors who have stopped by to avoid [mainland] China’s foreign exchange restrictions,” he said.

“The city provides flexibility to foreign companies that need to plan ahead for their arrangements regarding legal services, financing and fundraising, as well as tax planning and corporate structure.”

With ouster of Bangladesh’s Sheikh Hasina, is India losing its South Asia allies to China?

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3274417/ouster-bangladeshs-sheikh-hasina-india-losing-its-south-asia-allies-china?utm_source=rss_feed

The recent resignation of Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, a key ally of India, has raised concerns about the future of New Delhi’s “Neighbourhood First” foreign policy and a possible shift in the balance of influence in South Asia towards China.

Nilanthi Samaranayake, an adjunct fellow at the East-West Center in Washington, told This Week in Asia that Hasina’s resignation last week complicated India’s relations with smaller South Asian countries.

“She [Hasina] had arguably the closest and most enduring ties with New Delhi of all neighbouring leaders,” Samaranayake said, noting that Hasina’s departure could signal a turn for the worse in regional ties.

“Bangladesh is now going through a reform process that will take a significant amount of time to conclude before elections can take place, so the interim government will need India’s support.”

India’s “Neighbourhood First” foreign policy initiative, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, aims to strengthen ties with regional countries in South Asia.

Bangladesh’s main opposition parties, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Jamaat-e-Islami, have traditionally favoured closer ties with China and Pakistan over India.

China’s influence in Bangladesh has been particularly strong in defence cooperation. In May, the People’s Liberation Army said it would conduct a joint military exercise with the Bangladesh Armed Forces, while from 2019 to 2023 Bangladesh was the second-largest recipient of Chinese arms exports after Pakistan with 11 per cent, according to official data.

The situation in Bangladesh adds to a series of setbacks for India in its regional diplomacy.

After aiding Sri Lanka’s economic crisis in 2022, India blocked a Chinese renewable energy project and objected to Chinese research vessels there, citing security concerns. Tensions, however, flared when Modi reignited a political row before India’s recent general election by claiming rights over Katchatheeevu Island, which India’s Congress party ceded to Sri Lanka in 1974.

In the Maldives, President Mohamed Muizzu, who campaigned on an anti-India platform, expelled Indian troops managing an aircraft – gifted by Delhi to Malé – and has forged stronger ties with China.

In Nepal, K.P. Sharma Oli, who is considered to have a pro-China stance and previously clashed with India over territorial disputes, has returned as prime minister. India’s relationship with Afghanistan has also been strained since the Taliban retook power in 2021.

Samaranayake said despite these challenges, India’s relations with other smaller South Asian countries were not entirely bleak.

“Bhutan continues to be the most aligned with India. While many have criticised the Maldives’ policy to end the hosting of foreign military presence and build its internal capacity for defence operations, the new government was willing to accept a civilian presence by India in a revised aerial security cooperation programme,” she said.

Samaranayake noted that Sri Lanka, like other smaller South Asian countries, confronted an asymmetry of power with India and often found itself on the weaker end of the equation.

“For example, despite its preference to host as many ships as possible at its ports and generate revenue, Sri Lanka was willing to impose a 12-month moratorium on visiting research vessels due to India’s concern about visits by Chinese ships,” she said.

“Sri Lanka’s presidential election in September represents the next wild card for India’s Neighbourhood First interests. A possible victory by the leftist NPP [National People’s Power alliance] would bring considerable uncertainty about its foreign policy orientation towards India, China, and the United States.”

According to the State of Southeast Asia 2024 survey published by Singapore’s ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, India is one of the least strategically relevant partners to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations while China was seen as the region’s most influential economic, political and strategic power.

Of the 1,994 respondents from 10 Southeast Asian countries who took part in the survey from January to February, only 0.6 per cent said India was the most influential economic power in Southeast Asia, in a list led by China with 59.5 per cent.

Natasha Agarwal, an independent research economist based in India, argued that Delhi’s approach to its neighbours had been marked by arrogance, especially in its interactions with rising global powers like China. She suggested that India might need to adjust its Neighbourhood First policy to accommodate China’s presence in the region.

“Given the economic influence of India and China, independently and collectively, maybe it is time for India to redefine its Neighbourhood First policy,” she said.

While India’s neighbourhood policy had run into a bit of bad weather given the recent upheaval in Bangladesh, “things are always dynamic, they are likely to change and improve with time”, said Professor Sreeradha Datta from Jindal School of International Affairs at OP Jindal Global University.

Datta urged Delhi to continue to prioritise its national interests to maintain good relationships in the region.

“India has not lost sight of the neighbouring [Neighbourhood First] policy, which it will always uphold under whatever circumstances, even during the difficult phases India has to see how best it can work with the neighbours,” she said, adding that Delhi should still remain aware of the challenges China could bring even during good times.

Former diplomat Anil Trigunayat said the Neighbourhood First policy was non-reciprocal in terms of its content and application, aiming at the growth, development and capacity building of India’s neighbours.

“India believes that a strong neighbourhood is in our interest. The only expectation for India is that its territories will not be used for anti-Indian security projects like cross border militancy and terrorism. It has been a win-win partnership,” he said.

Trigunayat, who previously served as first secretary in Bangladesh from 1986 to 1990, said bilateral ties with Dhaka were based on people-to-people, historic and cultural connection and any blips would be temporary.

“In the short-run, there might be some setbacks due to the preconceived notions among the current and possibly the next leadership in Bangladesh which usually entertained negative stance towards India,” he said.

Scott Lucas, a professor emeritus at the University of Birmingham, emphasised that India’s regional position ultimately depended on its own stability and progress.

“Despite changes outside, provided India has a stable government and a country that is continuing to progress politically, socially and economically, then as the region changes your finest opportunities will come back,” Lucas said.

Michael Kugelman, director of the Wilson Centre’s South Asia Institute, said regional countries were still keen to work with India because of economic and trade imperatives.

“If you look around the region, even with China’s increasing influence and presence, you still have governments that are keen to at least balance their relations with China and India, and in many cases work closely with India,” Kugelman said.

He cited the case of the Maldives, which had in recent months adopted a more accommodating stance towards Delhi’s concerns, and over the weekend welcomed a visit from India’s Foreign Minister S Jaishankar to “deepen” bilateral ties.

Kugelman said while developments in Bangladesh could still pose significant geopolitical challenges for India, practical considerations, such as trade and water security, would eventually lead to a workable relationship between the two.

China sows seeds of self-reliance with ‘historic breakthrough’ in agricultural autonomy

https://www.scmp.com/economy/economic-indicators/article/3274457/china-sows-seeds-self-reliance-historic-breakthrough-agricultural-autonomy?utm_source=rss_feed

China says it has made big strides in revitalising a seed industry that has come under heavy scrutiny in recent years while remaining reliant on more advanced Western sources, amid a nationwide push to boost self-reliance in the sector.

With 1.4 billion mouths to feed, China has ramped up food-security measures against the backdrop of tensions with trading partners such as the United States.

Agricultural authorities now say scientists are cataloguing samples – collected from a three-year nationwide survey on agricultural germplasm – and storing them in multiple seed banks that are believed to be adequate for utilisation for at least three decades, state mouthpiece CCTV reported on Monday, quoting officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

Calling it a “historic breakthrough”, CCTV said China was “gradually getting rid of its dependence on imported seed sources”.

The report came six months after a candid assessment by the ministry’s China Seed Association warned that China’s seed industry was at least a generation behind Western giants in terms of technology. The industry has also been accused by agricultural experts of lacking competition while being uncreative and fragmented, impeding the push to reduce reliance on imported seeds.

Accelerating innovation in the seed industry was also among the stated goals at a national rural work conference in December, when the ministry said China’s self-reliance rate in seeds had increased from 70 to 75 per cent since a seed-industry-revitalisation plan was launched in 2021.

It was unclear how much the rate has improved this year, but CCTV said there had been an acceleration in planting a series of new soybean and corn varieties, which China has depended on the global market for. It also pointed to rising market shares of domestically developed chicken and shrimp as evidence of agricultural advancements.

During the survey that began in 2021 and was completed earlier this year, about 139,000 new samples of crop-germplasm resources and 1.19 million new samples of livestock and aquatic genetic materials were collected, the report said. Coupled with the existing preserved resources, the report said China now has the world’s largest collection of agricultural genetic resources, without specifying the total.

A national bank of crop germplasm resources and another of marine fishery germplasm are now fully operational, while a new livestock and poultry germplasm resource bank and another for freshwater fishery germplasm will be established next year, said Yang Haisheng, deputy head of the ministry’s seed management department.

“China’s strategic conservation capacity for agricultural germplasm resources will thereby be enhanced to meet development needs in the next 30 to 50 years,” he was quoted as saying.

Domestically raised white-feather broiler chickens and Pacific white shrimp had respectively captured more than 25 and 35 per cent of their markets by the end of June, gradually reducing the nation’s reliance on those imports, the report said.

Chicken is China’s second-most-consumed meat, after pork. The nation had developed a domestic broiler breed in the 1990s, but it was wiped out by bird flu in 2004, reinforcing the need for imports.

China is also promoting a number of high-oil and high-yield soybean varieties, machine-harvested corn, and new salt-alkali-resistant crops developed by domestic firms.

A total of 270 national seed enterprises have received financial incentives from the government since 2021 to enhance their breeding abilities, and CCTV said they now cultivate more than 60 per cent of newly approved national varieties.

The sector, which used to be plagued by counterfeit and substandard products, has become “cleaner” after authorities started a tough crackdown three years ago as part of the initiative, with seed-related legal cases declining annually, CCTV said.

China netizens accuse ‘two-faced’ skier Eileen Gu over links to ‘arrogant’ French swimmer

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/china-personalities/article/3274453/china-netizens-accuse-two-faced-skier-eileen-gu-over-links-arrogant-french-swimmer?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s Olympic champion skier Eileen Gu is facing criticism online after videos emerged of her dancing intimately with a French swimmer accused of disrespecting a Chinese sports coach.

The video, which surfaced as the Paris Olympics came to a close, shows Gu interacting intimately with Games swimming champion Leon Marchand in a Paris nightclub.

At one point, Gu can be seen holding an Olympic gold medal while making a kissing gesture, leading to speculation that the medal belonged to Marchand and that the pair are romantically linked.

Gu won two golds and a silver medal for skiing at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics while Marchand clinched four golds and a bronze in Paris.

This made the Frenchman the first swimmer since US legend Michael Phelps to win four individual golds at a single Olympics.

The controversy has its roots in an incident after Marchand won the 200m individual medley on August 2.

The French swimmer faced criticism from Chinese netizens for being “arrogant and disrespectful” after he appeared to ignore a handshake request from Zhu Zhigen, coach of the Chinese bronze medalist Wang Shun.

Although Marchand apologised, claiming he was unaware of the coach’s gesture, thinking he was trying to help with a lane rope, discontent continued.

This extended to Gu when it was revealed that she had frequently interacted with Marchand on Instagram during the Olympics.

Gu deleted the interactions after Marchand became the subject of controversy which prompted a mixed reaction on mainland social media.

While some viewed her actions as patriotic, others labelled them opportunistic.

On Weibo, sports commentator Li Pingkang said: “There’s nothing wrong with commenting, knowing, or even being friends with someone, but immediately distancing yourself when it might cause controversy proves that she is opportunistic and utilitarian.”

Born and raised in the US by a Chinese mother, speculation has swirled that Gu holds dual citizenship since she competed for China in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

Many people contend that there is no record of Gu renouncing her US citizenship.

This has led to criticism that she might have dual citizenship – a nationality status not officially recognised under Chinese law – and is using it for personal and commercial gain.

Strained Sino-US relations have intensified the scrutiny of Gu’s credentials.

The fact that she publicly took a pro-China stance while continuing her relationship with Marchand in private has led to accusations that she is “two-faced”.

Chinese netizens even used the popular skincare routine slang, “Morning C, Evening A” – originally meaning to use Vitamin C products in the morning and Vitamin A products at night – to criticise her for “being Chinese by day and American by night”.

Also, at the Paris Olympics, Gu actively shared her experiences and interactions with other athletes on social media, sparking criticism over self-promotion and limelight hogging.

After Chinese divers Quan Hongchan and Chen Yuxi won their gold medals, Gu attended their press conference.

Social media commenters have overwhelmingly expressed discontent about Gu and Marchand.

“The two are a perfect match – an arrogant and rude guy with a sophisticated, self-serving girl!” one person said.

Another netizen said: “Don’t expect an American-born Chinese who was raised abroad to have any real sense of belonging to China. It’s all about mutual benefits.

“Brands should be more cautious in their choices. We have our own tennis champion Queen Wen (Zheng Qinwen) fighting for the country. Let’s hope the endorsements turn to her!” wrote another person.

China’s US$1.3 billion of ‘dim sum’ bond sale overbought as appetite grows for yuan debt

https://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/3274483/chinas-us13-billion-dim-sum-bond-sale-overbought-appetite-grows-yuan-debt?utm_source=rss_feed

The Chinese government’s fourth sale of yuan-denominated sovereign bonds in Hong Kong this year was vastly overbought, as investors rushed to take advantage of the yield gap with the mainland through a transborder investment channel with the city.

The 9 billion yuan (US$1.3 billion) tranche of bonds, offered with tenures of two years, three years and 10 years, attracted 30.4 billion yuan of bids from investors, according to the Hong Kong branch of Bank of Communications (Bocom), the sole agent of the sale.

The yield on the so-called dim sum bonds were 1.9 per cent, 2 per cent and 2.38 per cent respectively, the Ministry of Finance said in a separate statement in Beijing.

“Amid the current volatile interest rate environment, the yuan has become an important choice for international investors for its stability and resilience,” said Bocom, the sole sales agent for 15 consecutive years. “This successful issuance reflects international investors’ recognition in China’s sovereign creditworthiness as well as their confidence in the sustainable and stable growth of Hong Kong economy.”

The uptake augurs well for the finance ministry, which has announced its plan to sell six batches of bonds to raise 55 billion yuan this year in Hong Kong. The government raised 12 billion yuan in March, 11 billion yuan in June and 9 billion yuan last month.

The sale is another step towards the global use of the yuan, also called the renminbi, which catapulted to become the fifth member of the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) of the International Monetary Fund in October 2016, alongside the US dollar, the euro, the yen and the pound sterling.

The SDR is an international currency reserve created by the IMF in 1969 to promote trade, increase liquidity and supplement member countries’ official reserves during financial crises.

Institutional investors have tendered for the treasury bonds via the electronic platform called Central Moneymarkets Unit, run by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), the city’s de facto central bank.

Many investors from mainland China have poured into the bonds via the so-called Southbound Connect transborder investment channel with Hong Kong.

“Global institutional investors and certain central banks will invest in China’s sovereign bonds for the benefit of diversification”, said Wilson Chan Fung-cheung, the associate director of City University’s MBA programme. “Hong Kong has successfully sold the Ministry of Finance bonds for 15 years, and international investors take Hong Kong as the centre of these offerings. This has strengthened Hong Kong as the global offshore yuan trading centre.”

Tom Chan Pak-lam, the permanent honorary president of the Institute of Securities Dealers, said the Ministry of Finance bond offering in Hong Kong indicates the country’s support for the city’s role as an international financial centre.

“It is positive for Hong Kong as the connector between China and the world”, Chan said. “The HKMA has done a lot to promote the internationalisation of the yuan and the sovereign bond offerings are part of the process.”

The Ministry of Finance has steadily increased the size of its issuance in Hong Kong and their frequency since the first debt was sold in 2009, Bocom said, adding that these offerings “improve the benchmark yield curve and help promote yuan internationalisation in a steady, prudent and solid manner.”

Besides the sovereign bonds, China’s provincial authorities are also planning to issue yuan offshore notes in Hong Kong.

Guangdong province last month said it is looking to issue up to 7.5 billion yuan of offshore yuan bonds in Hong Kong and Macau this year, following Shenzhen’s announcement to issue up to 7 billion yuan of dim sum bonds in Hong Kong soon.

Hong Kong tech festival to offer HK$1 entry for mainland Chinese visitors in limited deal

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3274466/hong-kong-tech-festival-offer-hk1-entry-mainland-chinese-visitors-limited-deal?utm_source=rss_feed

The Hong Kong Computer and Communications Festival will only charge a HK$1 (12 US cents) admission fee for mainland Chinese visitors under a limited offer, while exhibitors from belt and road countries are set to join for the first time.

The four-day festival will launch on August 23 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai and is expected to draw 300 exhibitors – the event’s largest number since 2009.

Among those joining the event were 120 software companies drawn from the mainland and countries that made up the Belt and Road Initiative, the festival organiser said on Wednesday.

The initiative refers to Beijing’s plan to link economies in Asia, Europe and Africa into a China-centred trade network.

To help attract attendees, the festival will offer a limited number of tickets to mainland visitors through Alipay for HK$1 from Wednesday to Sunday. Hongkongers can pick up the tickets for HK$5 over the same period.

Alipay is a payment app owned by Ant Group, an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, which owns the South China Morning Post.

Standard tickets are priced at HK$35. Admission is free for children no taller than one metre (3.3 feet), people over the age of 65 and holders of a Registration Card for People with Disabilities.

Hui Kin-sang, a former chairman of festival organiser The Chamber of Hong Kong Computer Industry (CHKCI), said it also hoped to use such promotions to attract more Hongkongers amid a trend of many residents heading north to spend.

He estimated that the number of visitors would be similar to last year, but hoped the promotions could contribute to a 5 per cent increase year on year.

The festival is also offering tickets to tourists with valid travel documents for HK$10 each if they buy them at the host site’s visitors centre. The first 1,000 tourists to register will each receive a HK$100 voucher.

Those paying full price may be in line to receive a coupon ranging in value from HK$10 to HK$500.

The first 300 Hong Kong residents through the venue door on launch day can also qualify for discounts worth more than HK$2,000 off select products after their first purchase worth HK$200.

Cheung Yiu-sing, the chamber’s founder chairman, said it was possible more tourists would join this year’s event.

“The number of tourists coming to Hong Kong has increased a lot after the pandemic, therefore we want to seize the opportunity to attract more of them as most of the tourists coming to the festival will buy things,” he said.

But a change in slogans for the festival marks a shift away from focusing on the low prices of products.

“Consumption is lukewarm in Hong Kong right now, therefore, we will not focus on the price of the product but the new technologies and activities,” Cheung said. “Hopefully these new things will stimulate the consumption.”

Hui said that the aim of this year’s festival was not just about encouraging people to spend but to “let them have fun and learn more about the industry”.

“The festival is a good platform for residents to get to know some innovative technologies,” he said.

“We want the youth to see there are so many technology companies in Hong Kong and then choose to engage in this industry in their future career.”

The festival will also debut its artificial intelligence-themed zone, which will showcase some of the latest in such software including computer vision, machine learning and new applications for gaming.

Other attendees include tech giants Microsoft, Lenovo and Samsung, which are all expected to exhibit their latest AI products at the event.

Non-profit organisation Hong Kong Technology Advancement Group will also hold the festival’s first cybersecurity competition to educate the public about how to protect their personal data online.

The event will also include a zone showcasing 10 innovative technologies that cover health monitoring, home automation and entertainment for elderly people.

Custody ruling in same-sex case hailed as LGBT milestone in China

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/14/custody-ruling-in-same-sex-case-hailed-as-lgbt-milestone-in-china

A woman fighting a landmark LGBT custody battle in China said she “still has faith for the future” after winning the right to make monthly visits to her daughter.

Last month, Didi, who is 42 and lives in Shanghai, travelled to Beijing to visit her seven-year-old daughter, who lives in the capital with Didi’s estranged wife and their other child. It was the first time Didi and her daughter had seen each other in four years.

A court in Beijing said in May that she should be allowed monthly visits with the child that she gave birth to in 2017. “I think maybe she still remembers me,” said Didi, who asked to be referred to by her nickname for privacy reasons. She said that the separation had been “heartbreaking”.

The visitation agreement from Beijing Fengtai people’s court is the first time that a court in China has recognised that a child can have two legal mothers, and has been hailed as a milestone by LGBT campaigners.

However, Didi has not been granted contact with her son, the girl’s brother, highlighting the difficulty faced by Chinese courts in handling LGBT family arrangements.

Didi’s prolonged and unusual legal battle to gain shared custody of her children is part of a lawsuit that marks the first time that a court in China has been forced to consider how to handle same-sex parents.

Same-sex unions are not legally recognised in China. But the recent development in Didi’s case is “very important”, said an LGBT activist based outside China who asked to remain anonymous. They said it was significant because it marks the first time that a court has recognised that a child can have two mothers.

Didi and her wife married in the US in 2016. Later that year, they underwent IVF treatment, with embryos made from the wife’s eggs and donor sperm implanted in both women.

In 2017, Didi gave birth to a girl and her wife gave birth to a boy. Both children are only genetically linked to Didi’s ex. “We were creating new life … I didn’t imagine that one day we would break up,” Didi said.

But back in China, the relationship broke down and in 2019 the couple separated (they are still legally married in the US). Didi’s wife took the two children to live with her in the capital and cut off contact with Didi.

In March 2020, Didi sued for custody of the toddlers, in what was China’s first same-sex custody dispute. Four years later, she has won a victory.

A bittersweet ‘big step forward’

Chinese law has an “avoidance approach” to gay relationships, said Gao Mingyue, Didi’s lawyer. It “does not clearly define the rights of same-sex couples”.

China’s civil code and marriage law assumes that a child will be born to a heterosexual, married household.

Although there are provisions for adoption and step-parents, there is no mechanism for dealing with the “shared motherhood” approach that lesbian couples sometimes use to have children, in which an embryo made with one woman’s egg is implanted into the uterus of the other woman, who carries and gives birth to the child. Birth certificates assume that the woman who gives birth to a baby is her biological mother.

Because Didi gave birth to her daughter, despite not being genetically related to her, she had some grounds to argue that she was a rightful mother. She has little chance of being legally recognised as a guardian to the girl’s brother. “I really love both my children, I want to look after them,” she said.

Since China abandoned its one child policy and now is encouraging people to have more babies rather than fewer, courts are increasingly inclined to protect the rights of children born out of wedlock, including to LGBT households and single parents, according to Gao.

“But for the same-sex couples themselves … it’s getting more and more difficult,” Gao said. “The courts are still not protecting the covenants and arrangements between couples.”

In 2019, a campaign to push for the legalisation of same-sex marriage in China’s new civil code led to more than 200,000 submissions being made in a public consultation. The campaign failed, but prompted a government spokesperson to make a rare public acknowledgment of interest in the topic.

A survey published in July by the Williams Institute at UCLA found that of the nearly 3,000 respondents, 85% had favourable attitudes towards the idea of same-sex parents. Nearly 90% supported the idea of same-sex marriage. With Chinese society increasingly tolerant of LGBT people, “the law should catch up”, said the activist.

For Didi, the fact that she has won a minor victory with regards to her daughter, but nothing with regards to her son, makes the moment bittersweet. But her lawyer, Gao, said that it is a “big step forward”.

The case has been widely discussed on Chinese social media and in academic circles, and it sets a precedent of two mothers sharing parental custody, he said.

Didi hopes that as China becomes more socially permissive, the legal system will also start to recognise same-sex households, even if only through incremental steps. “It’s very simple,” she said, “other families have one father and one mother. We have two mothers.”

Additional research by Chi Hui Lin

EU subsidy raids on Chinese company Nuctech were legal, court rules

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3274381/eu-subsidy-raids-chinese-company-nuctech-were-legal-court-rules?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese company Nuctech’s claims that the European Commission’s dawn raids of its premises seeking evidence of state subsidies were illegal have been thrown out by a court in Luxembourg.

In April, the commission joined local authorities in unannounced inspections of Nuctech’s premises in the Netherlands and Poland in the most high-profile use of its foreign subsidies regulation (FSR) to date.

Nuctech, a maker of body and baggage scanners for airports and ports, sued the commission in June. It claimed the raids forced it to unlawfully provide information located outside the EU and that complying with the FSR probe would force it to violate Chinese criminal laws.

Nuctech further argued there was no evidence of market distortion caused by its subsidies and that the raids, having generated headlines across Europe, caused the company reputational harm and financial damage.

On Monday, the Luxembourg-based General Court, the EU’s second-highest court, dismissed the case on all grounds in a landmark ruling expected to send shock waves through Chinese businesses operating in Europe.

The FSR bestows broad powers on the commission to investigate companies suspected to have received undeclared state subsidies enabling them to undercut EU competitors.

It can be used when non-EU firms bid for procurement contracts or attempt mergers or acquisitions.

The commission can also launch an investigation of its own volition, when – as in the case of Nuctech – it has been tipped off that market operators possessed subsidies that were disadvantaging local rivals.

Nuctech had been flagged as a security risk in some European capitals.

During an investigation, the EU’s executive branch can request an extensive amount of corporate information on tight deadlines, making it difficult for Chinese subsidiaries in Europe to comply.

The regulation is particularly complicated for state-linked companies such as Nuctech, whose parent company is the state-owned enterprise Tsinghua Tongfang Co, an entity under the China National Nuclear Corporation.

Such companies fear they could be forced to hand over internal documents considered sensitive to authorities in Beijing.

Four of the five uses have involved mainland firms, putting businesses on high alert. On two occasions, the Chinese firms withdrew from lucrative procurement tenders rather than comply with the commission’s requests.

In a lengthy verdict, the court found that the commission must “be entitled to request information” held outside the EU to assess whether “their conduct infringes EU law and is likely to produce a substantial effect on the internal market”.

Otherwise it would not be able to “hold non-EU entities liable for conduct substantially affecting the internal market”, thus encouraging companies to store their information outside the EU, the ruling found.

Nuctech had argued it lacked access to information stored on servers in China, claims the court ruled were “neither explained nor substantiated”.

The court observed that it was Nuctech’s parent company that did not reply to the commission’s request for information stored in China and that the parent company had deemed that the information would put it in conflict with local laws there.

“The applicants have not only failed to state the reason why they have no access to the requested information, but they also do not explain how Chinese law could prevent them, as entities established in the EU, from responding to the commission’s requests and why the provisions of Chinese law are relevant to them,” the ruling read.

Nuctech had argued it could be in breach of Chinese criminal laws, including Articles 31 and 36 of the Data Security Law, Article 41 of the Personal Information Protection Law and Article 28 of the Law on Safeguarding State Secrets.

The court determined the firm had “failed to demonstrate” that any of the mailboxes the commission sought access to “actually contain state secrets” or that, if they did, Nuctech had tried to obtain authorisation to disclose the information.

And while Nuctech argued it incurred and would incur reputational damage because of the raids, the court noted the commission had not named the firm.

Moreover, the ruling said statements by the China Chamber of Commerce to the EU “and by the applicants themselves … made it possible to make the link with the inspection”.

In a statement on Tuesday, Nuctech denied that it had received state subsidies.

“Nuctech has not received any subsidies from the Chinese state and will continue defending its reputation as an independent business operator,” it said.

“What’s more striking is the court’s insistence on Nuctech breaking the Chinese laws to illegally share data stored in China,” the company added.

“Nuctech has repeatedly informed the commission and the court that we are prohibited from providing such data as it violates … PRC law. Such [a] stance raises questions on the legal and political impartiality of the case.”

The ruling will buoy regulators who have vowed to crack down on what they describe as market-distorting subsidies received by Chinese companies.

The FSR is a competition tool and is being used alongside traditional trade instruments meant to stop subsidised goods from landing at European ports below market price.

Last week, Beijing lodged a request for consultations at the World Trade Organization over Brussels’ anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese-made electric vehicles.

The provisional results of the investigation slapped duties on the imports ranging from 17.4 per cent to 37.6 per cent.

Bian Mei, China’s first elite woman bodyguard protected royalty, world leaders wearing 4kg steel vest

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/china-personalities/article/3274395/bian-mei-chinas-first-elite-woman-bodyguard-protected-royalty-world-leaders-wearing-4kg-steel-vest?utm_source=rss_feed

As the nation’s first elite female bodyguard, Bian Mei fearlessly protected many of the world’s top leaders who visited China on official visits.

She also clinched third place in a beauty pageant, demonstrating a combination of remarkable physical strength and grace.

As a young woman she thought nothing of wearing a four-kilo, steel-plated bulletproof vest to safeguard heads of state and royal families.

She took her job seriously and would have laid her life on the line for the people under her protection.

The 56-year-old from Beijing, comes from a family of police officers, and her father served as the chief bodyguard for several Chinese political leaders.

In 1984, Bian was admitted to the China People’s Police University, majoring in security protection, according to her online resume.

She learned boxing, judo, shooting, driving skills and became proficient in criminal psychology as well as law.

In an interview with CCTV in 2009, Bian said: “Once during a training session, I broke my left leg. But the rule at our school was that you should get to the training ground – crawl there if necessary.”

She said such rigorous challenges cultivated her willpower and determination.

Bian was inspired by Tim McCarthy, the bodyguard of former US President Ronald Reagan, and saw him as her role model.

In 1981, when Reagan was the subject of an assassination attempt in Washington D.C., McCarthy shielded him, successfully protecting the president.

“When the gunshot rang out, most people’s first reaction was to crouch down for self-protection. But McCarthy remained standing, even after being shot, he stood for a while longer,” Bian said.

“All the prior training had given McCarthy’s body a kind of muscle memory – he had to stand and protect the president, blocking the assassin’s view. I really admire him.”

After graduating with top honours from university in 1988, Bian joined the Ministry of State Security, becoming China’s first woman elite bodyguard.

Throughout her career, she successfully protected high-profile figures, including first ladies from the US, the former Soviet Union, India, and Japan, as well as a Thai princess and Pakistan’s former prime minister.

Not a single accident occurred under her watch, and she was praised for combining strength with attentiveness.

During former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s visit to China in May 1989, Bian developed a close friendship with his wife, Raisa.

Noticing the first lady’s back pain, Bian thoughtfully provided a cushion for her in the car, earning praise from her who told Chinese officials: “Bian is very considerate.”

After returning home, the first lady sent Bian a photo of the two of them.

In 1989, while serving as Thai Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn’s bodyguard during her visit to China, Bian caught the princess when she fell from a camel during a tour. The two became friends.

The legendary bodyguard also came third in a Beijing beauty pageant in 1993.

Bian once revealed that she often wore bulletproof steel plates that weighed up to four kilos.

“I wear a bulletproof vest not for myself, but to ensure that when a bullet comes, I can block it, so that it will not pass through my body and harm the foreign guest,” she said.

Bian retired in 1995 due to “ageing” and the immense pressure her work entailed.

She started a security consulting company in Beijing, and now works in real estate, according to mainland news reports.

Bian’s life as an elite bodyguard continues to fascinate many peope today.

“Bian is a genuine Mulan in China. Her remarkable courage and outstanding combat skills are truly commendable,” said one person on Weibo.

“She embodies the beauty of a fairy, showcasing both the softness of a woman and the unwavering determination of a soldier,” another said.

“This remarkable heroine deserves a tranquil and joyful retirement. I sincerely hope the public will respect her privacy,” a third added.

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China hits 100 billion deliveries as couriers grow part and parcel with e-commerce

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3274424/china-hits-100-billion-deliveries-couriers-grow-part-and-parcel-e-commerce?utm_source=rss_feed

Joe Zhou came home from work one evening to find numerous packages at his Beijing flat door – a stack so high he could barely squeeze through. He had ordered almost everything his newly renovated home would need online, from appliances like an oven and coffee maker to full pieces of furniture.

Scenes like these are becoming increasingly common across China, as the country’s courier sector expands in tandem with the seemingly unstoppable rise of e-commerce.

On Tuesday, the State Post Bureau reported more than 100 billion parcels had been delivered this year – a major milestone reached 71 days sooner than in 2023.

This equates to an average of 71.43 packages per person, 5,144 packages delivered every second, or 440 million packages moving across China every day.

Per the same data, peak daily volume exceeded 580 million parcels, average monthly volume surpassed 13 billion parcels and average monthly revenue was over 100 billion yuan (US$14 billion) – all record highs.

China is the world’s largest e-commerce market – accounting for about half of global online sales – with companies like Alibaba, JD.com and PDD becoming household names in the sector. Alibaba is the owner of the South China Morning Post.

According to the Ministry of Commerce, China’s online retail sales reached 15.4 trillion yuan (US$2.1 trillion) in 2023, growing by 11 per cent and consolidating its global lead for the 11th consecutive year.

However, the rise in delivery volume has come with a cost for operators, as a fierce price war has diminished profits in recent years.

To capture market share, many couriers have cut prices to unsustainable levels, pushing some small and medium-sized firms to the brink of extinction and eroding profitability across the industry.

Last year, major Chinese courier companies STO Express, Yunda and YTO reported a decline in revenue per parcel.

The surge in parcel numbers is also driven by more product returns. Some sellers report return rates of around 60 per cent, with women’s clothing – a product category boasting some of the highest return rates – seeing percentages as high as 80 to 90 during peak periods, according to some media reports. This means that only one or two of every 10 purchases are actually completed.

Cherry Wang, a resident of the southwestern city of Chengdu, is one of many young women with no qualms about returning clothes. During China’s premier online shopping seasons, she returns up to 70 per cent of her purchases.

“I usually go all out during big sales, spending about 2,000 yuan and returning around 1,000 yuan’s worth,” she said. “Even when I’m not shopping much, my return rate is still around 50 per cent.”

The rapid growth of the courier sector can be credited to a concurrent development of transport infrastructure, particularly in rural areas. According to the Ministry of Transport, China has established over 1,200 county-level public delivery service centres and more than 300,000 logistics service stations for villages.

Consequently, the volume of parcels collected and delivered in rural areas has increased more than tenfold over the past decade.

Building on China’s rural delivery systems, courier companies have increased their own investments in technological and logistical improvements. In the country’s less densely populated western regions, packages that once took a week to arrive can now be delivered in as little as two or three days.

China to hold air force drills with Thailand as it bolsters Southeast Asia defence ties

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3274442/china-hold-air-force-drills-thailand-it-bolsters-southeast-asia-defence-ties?utm_source=rss_feed

China and Thailand will commence their annual joint air force drill this Sunday as Beijing continues to shore up defence relations with Southeast Asian nations.

The bilateral aerial exercise, known as Falcon Strike 2024, will be held from August 18 -29 at the Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base, according to a statement from Thailand’s air force.

China’s Ministry of National Defence said in a statement that it would send aircraft and special operations forces to take part in the training, which is aimed at “enhancing the combat skills of the participating troops from both sides and deepening practical exchanges and cooperation”.

The Falcon Strike joint training exercises have been held annually since 2015 but were suspended in 2020 and 2021 because of the Covid-19 pandemic. This year’s event is the seventh training exercise between the air forces of China and Thailand.

The base, located in Udon Thani province in northeastern Thailand, was formerly a United States Air Force base.

It is unclear which types of Thai and Chinese aircraft will be used in the exercise.

However, in last year’s drills, China deployed its Shaanxi KJ-500 early warning and control aircraft, the J-10C fighter jet, the JH-7A fighter-bomber, and the navy’s J-11B fighter jets.

Thailand opted not to deploy its US-built F-16 fighters last year, instead sending the Saab JAS 39 Gripen fighter, the Alpha Jet, and the Saab 340 early warning aircraft.

Thailand is the oldest US treaty ally in the region and its only treaty ally in the Southeast Asian mainland. But its ties with Washington were strained following a 2014 military coup that overthrew the democratically elected government.

At the time, Washington swiftly condemned the takeover and reduced its military cooperation with Bangkok, suspending US$3.5 million in military aid and downscaling joint exercises.

The decline in Thailand-US defence relations has allowed China to step in, with Bangkok bolstering military ties with Beijing and making several defence procurements.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Thailand’s arms purchases from China have increased since 2014 and included several big-ticket items such as submarines, anti-ship missiles, air defence systems and armoured vehicles.

In May, the Thai navy announced its plans to resume the acquisition of S26T attack submarines from China following suspension of a defence contract in 2023.

The contract, initiated in 2017, has faced numerous delays and obstacles due to engine delivery issues. Additionally, China has reportedly offered the S26T submarines to the Indonesian government, further clouding the prospects of the submarine deal between Bangkok and Beijing.

China and Thailand have broadened the scale and scope of their bilateral joint military exercises, growing from just one bilateral drill in 2017 to three in 2023 covering air, land and maritime operations. However, experts have noted that Thailand’s bilateral exercises with China remain less complex compared to those conducted with the US.

Beijing has been boosting defence ties throughout Southeast Asia. China and Indonesia agreed to hold joint military training in their first “2 +2” military and diplomacy talks, which concluded on Tuesday, according to Indonesia’s foreign ministry.

The Indonesian ministry added that the two countries “reaffirmed their commitment to enhancing cooperation to maintain regional security and stability, prevent terrorism, and address transnational crimes”.

In July, Beijing held a two-week joint military exercise with Laos. The drills, known as Friendship Shield 2024, involved around 900 Laotian and 300 Chinese military personnel.

China and Cambodia held their annual Golden Dragon military drills in May. Around 1,315 Cambodian and 760 Chinese military personnel took part in the 15-day ground and sea exercise, which involved three Chinese and 11 Cambodian ships.

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[Sport] US soldier pleads guilty to selling secrets to China

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c79w810e38no

CBS

Chinese robotaxi firm WeRide gets California approval to test with passengers

https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3274394/chinese-robotaxi-firm-weride-gets-california-approval-test-passengers?utm_source=rss_feed

China-based autonomous driving start-up WeRide has received approval from California to test its driverless vehicles with passengers, according to a permit from the state’s utility regulator.

The move comes as the company seeks a valuation of as much as US$5 billion from its New York initial public offering even as the US is set to ban vehicles with China-developed systems, according to people briefed on the matter.

The permit from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) – issued earlier this month for three years – allows WeRide to ferry passengers in test vehicles with a driver and without one. WeRide will not be allowed to offer rides to the general public and cannot charge any fares.

WeRide has 12 active vehicles and will operate in San Jose and nearby areas, CPUC said in a statement to Reuters.

Developing and commercialising robotaxis in the US has been tougher than expected with regulatory hurdles, opposition from city agencies and public outrage.

Alphabet’s Waymo, which has about 700 vehicles in its fleet, is the only US firm operating uncrewed robotaxis that collect fares.

General Motors’ Cruise restarted testing with safety drivers in April after one of its vehicles hit a pedestrian last year.

WeRide, founded in 2017, first received permits from California to test its vehicles without passengers in 2021. The company, which also makes autonomous vans, buses and street sweepers, has driverless permits in Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.

WeRide did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for further details.

Fiji leader’s visit gives China chance to restore trust after ‘biggest failure’ in Pacific

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3274402/fiji-leaders-visit-gives-china-chance-restore-trust-after-biggest-failure-pacific?utm_source=rss_feed

Beijing is expected to seek to deepen security ties and restore trust with Fiji when Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka visits China this week.

The 10-day visit comes just months after a review of a controversial policing agreement signed in 2011 that allowed Chinese police officers to be stationed in Fiji.

At the time of the review, Rabuka – who ousted long-time leader Frank Bainimarama in the 2022 election – said he saw “no need” for the deal.

He said: “If our systems and our values differ, what cooperation can we get from them? We need to look at that again before we decide whether we go back to it, or if we continue the way that we have in the past by cooperating with those who have similar democratic values and systems.”

Fiji eventually upheld the agreement – which also saw Fijian officers being trained in China while Beijing provided equipment such as surveillance gear and drones – but Chinese police will no longer be deployed inside Fiji.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said China hoped the visit, which ends on August 21, would bring the partnership with Fiji to “a new level” and “build an ever closer community”.

Corey Bell, a researcher at the University of Technology Sydney’s Australia-China Relations Institute, said strengthening security cooperation would be high on Beijing’s wish list.

He noted that Chinese President Xi Jinping had told Rabuka at the Apec summit last year that Beijing was willing to help Fiji protect its “security and sovereignty”, a comment that may have reflected “some contrition”.

“Beijing belatedly [realised] they were a bit insensitive and heavy handed in prosecuting their policing agreements in Fiji,” Bell said, adding that Fiji represented China’s “biggest failure” in the Pacific.

And by hosting Rabuka, “Beijing will be hoping to restore some of that trust by reaching out to claw back some of that closeness of cooperation”.

He said Fiji was also important to Beijing because of its Melanesian leadership role and strategic location at the crossroads of the Pacific.

China is also searching for a more reliable regional maritime hub and Bell said port development may also be on the agenda.

“Most importantly, Xi would probably convey his desire that Fiji comes to be a bit more sensitive to Beijing’s positions on foreign affairs issues such as its ‘core interests’, with the hope that other Pacific island countries might follow Fiji’s lead,” Bell said.

These interests include Taiwan and China’s sovereignty claims in the South and East China Seas, as well as issues involving Xinjiang and Tibet.

“Doing so may come across to Rabuka as a low-cost concession for whatever he may receive on the infrastructure or development front, although Rabuka will be cautious not to raise too many concerns in Canberra and Washington,” he said.

“A real coup for Xi will be to have Fiji also speak out, at least in a vague way, against what Beijing has called ‘block confrontation’ or partnerships aimed at countering China, such as Aukus, military cooperation between Japan, the Philippines and the US, and so forth.”

As for Rabuka – who is on his first trip to China since taking office – Bell said he would “gently press” for help on poverty alleviation and hi-tech infrastructure.

Ahead of his trip, Rabuka praised China’s development record and said he planned to travel to a number of provinces to see how the world’s second-largest economy has pulled millions out of poverty.

Bell said the length of the trip suggested Rabuka is “optimistic” it will be “smooth”, adding that relations appear to have recovered from the “trough” when he started reviewing the policing deal.

He said Rabuka has sought to strengthen Fiji’s regional leadership credentials and will want to show he has a “constructive relationship with Beijing that delivers for his nation and the region” but also “that he can walk the tightrope” between China, the US and Australia.

Anna Powles, an associate professor in security studies at Massey University in New Zealand, said relations have been “challenging” since Rabuka took office.

During the election campaign he promised to pivot away from China’s influence and last year triggered a diplomatic spat when he skipped a meeting with a senior Chinese official.

But Powles said she expected agreements covering areas such as climate and health to be signed during the visit, adding: “It’s definitely an indication that relations are improving.”

Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs at Renmin University, said China would likely seek to boost cooperation with Fiji in non-traditional security areas such as climate change and infrastructure.

He said that when it came to security, Australia, New Zealand and the United States have “great influence in the South Pacific region … but now [Fiji] is hoping to diversify”.

Bell said Rabuka’s trip also came amid renewed Chinese diplomatic efforts in the region, which saw Xi meeting leaders from Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands last month and pledging to help their development.

Bell suggested that there has been “a bit of a hiatus” for China’s diplomacy in the region, in part due to the “failures” of its previous aid and development model.

“[It] intensified a need for Beijing to step back and look at its aid diplomacy model as well as things like the [Belt and Road Initiative] which were proving both wasteful and unsustainable economically, and unsatisfactory in terms of their outcomes,” he said.

“Its probable, but still speculative, that Beijing has a new working plan in place, and is now working on applying that.”

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Kiribati’s pro-China government faces test as election begins

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/14/kiribati-election-2024-poll-voting

Polls opened in the Pacific country of Kiribati on Wednesday, after an election campaign dominated by the cost of living, rising sea levels and questions about the benefit of deeper ties with China.

A nation of 115,000 residents, Kiribati is considered strategic despite being small, because it is relatively close to Hawaii and controls more than 3.5 million sq km (1.4m sq miles) of Pacific Ocean.

Incumbent 63-year-old president Taneti Maamau is seeking to extend his almost-decade-long tenure.

Since coming to power, Maamau has drawn Kiribati ever closer to Beijing, switching ties from Taiwan to Beijing in 2019.

Ahead of election day, China’s ambassador Zhou Limin offered a warm embrace of Maamau’s government, and its “historic achievements in various areas”.

“In the past year, I have observed an increase in the number of cars on the roads, a wider range of goods in supermarkets, and new entertainment equipment at playgrounds, which are strong proof of the improvement of Kiribati people’s life quality,” he wrote.

In February, Reuters reported that Chinese police had begun working in Kiribati, a sensitive issue for neighbouring US, which signed a 1983 treaty providing for consultation before Kiribati allows third-party military use of its islands.

China’s police force donated riot control gear in July, pledging to “solidify collaboration in law enforcement and policing”, the Kiribati police said in a statement on Facebook.

A US request to establish an embassy has meanwhile stalled.

Some western analysts allege that Chinese activities in Kiribati – from police deployments, to developing a runway on Kanton Island, to extensive marine mapping – are a pretext for establishing a bigger security footprint.

Graeme Smith of the Australian National University said sending police to Kiribati offers Beijing “another intelligence channel into what is happening in the country … another line of reporting in addition to their diplomats.”

Despite China’s largesse, a significant drop in foreign aid – along with a massive pay rise for government workers – means Kiribati’s fiscal deficit is expected to jump to 9.7% of GDP this year, according to Asian Development Bank forecasts.

External debt is forecast to balloon by almost 400% in the coming years, reaching 35% of GDP by 2029.

Inflation-hit voters may decide the time has come for a change in approach.

“If Maamau doesn’t get back in and the opposition faction does, that could completely change the direction in Kiribati,” Jon Fraenkel, a political science professor at Wellington’s Victoria University, told AFP.

Interactive

Kiribati’s loose political groupings are typical of several Pacific Island nations, where many candidates run as individuals and voters directly elect the president later, from a shortlist chosen by the new lawmakers.

There are 115 candidates contesting for 44 parliamentary seats – 97 males and 18 females. The 45th seat is nominated by the Banaban community, a majority of who live on the island of Rabi in Fiji, according to RNZ.

The general election has up to two rounds of voting, and the process can stretch on for months. Citizens then separately elect a president from a pool of candidates put forward by lawmakers – “that will be what will really decide the future,” Fraenkel added.

Low-lying Kiribati faces a raft of economic and environmental challenges, such as rising sea levels that regularly taint scarce supplies of drinking water.

With outer atolls already under threat from coastal erosion, Tarawa has become one of the world’s most densely populated places.

Encroaching sea waters and the search for higher ground means the capital today has a population density comparable with Tokyo.

Residents are plagued by contagious diseases and other symptoms of overcrowding.

Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

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Why China’s risky bond rally has put PBOC on the offensive to optimise yields

https://www.scmp.com/economy/economic-indicators/article/3274351/why-chinas-risky-bond-rally-has-put-pboc-offensive-optimise-yields?utm_source=rss_feed

In recent months, China’s central bank has been battling with domestic bond traders, hoping to quell an ongoing rally of long-term government bonds that has depressed their yields to unprecedented lows.

The urgency behind the offensive was reflected in a second-quarter Monetary Policy Report released by the People’s Bank of China on Friday.

The yield curve, which plots out the interest rates of bonds to maturity, “has clearly deviated from the reasonable level and continues to accumulate financial risks”, the report said, noting that the 10-year government bond yield approached 2.2 per cent to close out the quarter in late June.

The rate continued to fall, dipping below 2.1 per cent this month before PBOC intervention sent it back up to 2.25 this week.

Government debt has become increasingly popular with Chinese investors on the back of the country’s sluggish economic recovery and amid market expectations of further interest rate cuts.

When economic growth remains slow, the general public has a strong preference for low-risk financial assets in their investment portfolio, with government bonds being typical examples, in contrast to parking money in places such as the sluggish stock market.

While home buying used to be a major investment channel for Chinese people, the nation’s enduring property crisis has nullified that option. And the falling deposit rates offered by banks have also left investors few alternatives with attractive returns.

In May, a market debut of special ultralong sovereign bonds in Shanghai and Shenzhen was met with frantic buying, leading to two trading suspensions.

As strong demand for government bonds pushes up the prices, their yields decrease. A bond’s yield is the return an investor can expect to receive each year over its term to maturity.

In an effort to build a strong central bank mechanism, the PBOC is currently downplaying quantity-based tools – such as the amount of credit – and moving toward price-based tools, which include yield-curve controls.

Beijing believes the current long-bond yield curve is not an accurate reflection of China’s economic outlook in the long term. The PBOC has said that it is determined to maintain a positive sloping yield curve for long bonds.

Regulators in China hope to prevent a situation where a low long-bond yield and pessimism about the future state of China’s economy – and in turn expectations for further interest rate cuts – would reinforce each other, resulting in a downward spiral.

The reasonable range for the 10-year government bond yield should be 2.5 to 3 per cent, according to a May report by the Financial News, a newspaper managed by the PBOC.

“From the perspective of stabilising the exchange rate and expectations, financial institutions snapping up government bonds means they expect the interest rates will get lower and lower in the future,” the report said.

“They are basically shorting the yuan and the Chinese economy, increasing the pressure of capital outflows.”

The PBOC is concerned about potential financial risks associated with bond investments, wary that the bond market bubble could burst once the country’s economy recovers and interest rates start to rise, with lessons gleaned from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.

The regional US bank had piled money into US Treasuries before the Federal Reserve raised interest rates to quell the inflation spike following the Covid-19 pandemic stimulus. As a result, the value of the old bonds it held fell sharply as the current 10-year Treasury bond offered a much higher yield, which led to a bank run on its deposits and eventually its collapse in 2023.

In its latest monetary policy report, the PBOC said that “the return on some wealth-management products, particularly bond-based products, is significantly higher than the return on the underlying assets”.

This is mainly achieved through leverage, which exposes investors to the interest rate risk, it said.

“When market interest rates rise in the future, the net value retracement of related asset-management products would also be substantial,” the report added, referring to a temporary pullback in the price of such financial instruments.

The Chinese central bank has not shied away from warning about the risks of an overheated bond market while pushing back against the bond rally of late.

On July 1, the PBOC announced that it would borrow government bonds from some primary dealers so it could sell them in the open market when necessary.

And the fight has amped up in August as the PBOC reportedly increased secondary-market intervention, including guiding large state banks to sell sovereign bonds.

The moves helped push the 10-year government bond yield up to 2.25 on Monday after it had nearly touched 2 per cent, but that is still markedly down from the PBOC’s aforementioned reasonable range. The last time the yield exceeded 3 per cent – now considered the high end of that range – was October 2021.

Last week, the National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors – an affiliate of the PBOC – announced an investigation into four rural banks in Jiangsu province that were accused of manipulating government bond prices in the secondary market.

Regulators have also significantly slowed down the approval process for new bond funds and asked some fund companies to document their existing bond-fund durations, while at least four Chinese brokerages have reduced or even cut transactions of sovereign debt, according to Bloomberg reports.

Big challenges remain, as weak credit demand, still-low inflation expectations, and depressed consumer and business confidence are not supportive of a sizeable rise of interest rates in China, said a note from Goldman Sachs on Saturday.

“The PBOC’s intervention does not change the supply-demand balance of the [Chinese government bond] market in the medium to long term,” it said. “We expect interest rates to trend lower in the medium term, as the PBOC may eventually need to lower interest rates further to support the economy and boost domestic inflation.”

The PBOC will be victorious in its efforts only when stronger domestic demand leads to reflation, said Larry Hu, chief China economist at Macquarie Capital.

Heytea snaps up Mong Kok space as mainland Chinese brands step up Hong Kong expansion

https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3274313/heytea-snaps-mong-kok-space-mainland-chinese-brands-step-hong-kong-expansion?utm_source=rss_feed

Mainland Chinese brands have been the most aggressive non-local entrants into the Hong Kong retail market so far this year, as lower rents entice popular chains – especially sellers of food and drink – to take a shot at establishing themselves in the city.

New Hong Kong leases by mainland Chinese brands grew by 215 per cent year on year in the first seven months of 2024, according to JLL. Among the mainland brands that expanded, 56 per cent chose to locate in high streets, while others set up shops in prime shopping centres, the property consultancy added.

As for the origins of the non-local brands expanding in Hong Kong, mainland China accounted for 35 per cent, followed by Japan (29 per cent), Taiwan (15 per cent) and South Korea (13 per cent), JLL said.

“With the continual growth of inbound tourism, we anticipate more mainland brands will enter the Hong Kong market,” said Cathie Chung, senior director of research at JLL. “Recognising Hong Kong’s crucial role as a gateway, these brands are strategically leveraging the opportunity to expand their presence in the global market.”

Brands offering light refreshments such as noodles, tea drinks, desserts and Chinese food made up most new market entrants, she added.

While not new to the market, Shenzhen-based Heytea showed its bullish outlook on the city by renting a new location in Mong Kok.

The outlet will be located on Soy Street at one of the busiest junctions in the area, which is famous for its dense foot traffic. The store will occupy 979 sq ft with a monthly rent of HK$160,000 (US$20,527). It was formerly occupied by a shoe retailer, reports said. Heytea did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

The chain, backed by Tencent Holdings and Singapore’s Temasek, opened its first outlet in Hong Kong in 2018 and now has 10 branches, according to a Google search.

Founded in 2012 in Shenzhen, Heytea has been aggressively expanding beyond its home market. It now has more than 4,000 stores in more than 300 cities in China and globally, including the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea.

It opened a pop-up store in Paris last month in time for the Olympics.

From 2021 to 2023, the brand’s top product – jasmine green tea with grapes and optional whipped cheese topping – sold more than 117.7 million cups, according to its website.

Hong Kong’s retail segment is seeing profound changes as residents spend more online and overseas while the city attracts fewer mainland Chinese visitors who are splurging less than in previous years.

As of June, outbound travel by the city’s population had exceeded 2018 levels on an annualised basis, according to S&P.

Hong Kong is targeting 46 million visitors this year, an increase of 35 per cent compared with 2023 but equal to just 70 per cent of the record 65 million tourists who came in 2018, according to a government forecast. Meanwhile, estimated spending per overnight visitor is expected to shrink by as much as 16.4 per cent to HK$5,800 this year, from HK$6,939 in 2023.

Tourist spending typically accounts for 30 per cent of overall retail sales in the city, and mainland China tourists make up 80 per cent of all tourist contributions, according to real estate broker CBRE.

Retail sales fell 9.7 per cent in June to HK$29.9 billion compared with a year ago, according to a provisional estimate by the Census and Statistics Department. In the first six months of the year, total retail sales declined 6.6 per cent year on year.

Disbelief as China’s ‘most handsome Shaolin monk’ Qiu Feng killed in car crash at 21

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/china-personalities/article/3274265/disbelief-chinas-most-handsome-shaolin-monk-qiu-feng-killed-car-crash-21?utm_source=rss_feed

Qiu Feng, the young man dubbed China’s “most handsome Shaolin monk”, has been killed in a car accident at the age of 21.

Top kung fu exponent Qiu, whose name means “autumn wind”, was killed in a taxi collision while en route to a charity performance.

He was a 34th-generation Shaolin monk from Jiyuan, Henan province in northern China. He began martial arts training at Songshan Shaolin Temple in Zhengzhou in Henan at the age of 13.

With his clean-cut, athletic looks and powerful kung fu moves, he quickly rose to fame, captivating fans who crowned him the “most handsome Shaolin monk”.

He became a modern poster boy for the traditional martial arts, thanks in part to the promotional efforts of the Culture and Tourism Department in Henan province.

His Douyin account amassed 1.8 million followers, and one video showing him reciting scriptures in the snow attracted 486,000 likes.

Another clip, which showcased his dynamic moves in a heavy downpour, received 266,000 likes.

Despite his popularity, Qiu remained humble.

“I am just an ordinary monk in the Shaolin Monks Group. The attention I’ve received is due to the unique charm of Shaolin kung fu,” he once said.

Shaolin kung fu was recognised as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2006, and its global appeal has since grown, prompting the popular monk to become an international ambassador.

In April, Qiu performed the ancient philosophical martial art at Angkor Wat in Cambodia with his peers, and in August, he displayed his skills at the Sydney Opera House alongside the Chinese Buddhist Chanting Music Ensemble.

His last post on Xiaohongshu showed him practising his craft in Australia, which he shared just before the fatal accident.

The young monk was killed on August 7, China’s traditional start of “autumn day”, on the Zhejiang Zhuyong Expressway in east China’s Zhejiang province.

According to Elephant News, Qiu and the cab driver were the only people in the vehicle when it collided with a large lorry. The taxi driver died instantly, while Qiu lost his life the next evening.

Qiu’s sister, surnamed Xing, told Red Star News that his head “suffered multiple impacts”.

The police are investigating and Qiu’s family has hired a lawyer.

“He was a positive and motivated person, still very young, with an outgoing personality. He was always respectful to everyone,” a senior brother at Qiu’s temple said.

Internet users also expressed their disbelief and sorrow.

“When I heard the news, I was truly shocked. I kept checking to confirm it, and even now, I cannot get over it. It’s the first time I’ve felt so sad for someone I didn’t know personally,” one person said.

Another person wrote a poem for Qiu, expressing their sorrow, which culminated with the line, “ Every time the autumn wind blows, we will remember you.”

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US soldier Korbein Schultz pleads guilty to selling military secrets to China

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3274387/us-soldier-korbein-schultz-pleads-guilty-selling-military-secrets-china?utm_source=rss_feed

A US Army intelligence analyst on Tuesday pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to sell military secrets to China, the US Department of Justice said.

Korbein Schultz was charged in March with conspiracy to disclose national defence information, exporting defence articles and technical data without a licence, and bribery of a public official.

Schultz, who held top secret clearance, conspired with an individual who lived in Hong Kong, whom he suspected of being associated with the Chinese government, to collect national defence information, including classified information and export-controlled technical data related to US military weapons systems, in exchange for money, according to charging and plea documents.

“Governments like China are aggressively targeting our military personnel and national security information and we will do everything in our power to ensure that information is safeguarded from hostile foreign governments,” FBI Executive Assistant Director Robert Wells said in a statement.

Before Schultz was arrested, he sent dozens of sensitive and restricted – but unclassified – military documents, the Department of Justice said.

A document discussing the lessons learned by the Army from the Russia-Ukraine war that it would apply in a defence of Taiwan, documents relating to Chinese military tactics, and a document relating to US military satellites were among the items collected and sent by Schultz.

Schultz was paid around US$42,000 for the information, according to the department.

“By conspiring to transmit national defence information to a person living outside the United States, this defendant callously put our national security at risk to cash in on the trust our military placed in him,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen said.

Schultz is scheduled to be sentenced on January 23, 2025

Can China’s ‘city of the future’ Xiongan really convince people to swap Beijing life?

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3274316/can-chinas-city-future-xiongan-really-convince-people-swap-beijing-life?utm_source=rss_feed

Ever since China launched the Xiongan New Area seven years ago, a burning question has been hanging over the project: will it become the futuristic “modern socialist city” touted by the top leadership, or just an expensive ghost town predicted by the sceptics?

The city, about 100km (60 miles) south of Beijing, was designed to reduce population pressure on the capital and speed up development in the surrounding province of Hebei and neighbouring mega-port of Tianjin.

It will not be completed until 2049, but has already attracted around 670 billion yuan (US$93 billion) in investment, and the leadership reaffirmed their commitment to the project during last month’s third plenum, a key economic policy meeting.

The site, which was an open plain dotted by rivers and wetlands and home to a small rural community a decade ago, is now fully connected physically and digitally to the rest of China.

According to official records, about 200 state-owned enterprises have set up subsidiaries in the city, and a number of universities in Beijing have plans to set up campuses there.

A recent visit to Xiongan, which is less than an hour ride from Beijing by high-speed train, confirmed that much of the urban hardware is already in place, with office buildings, residential blocks, public transport, schools and kindergartens, shops and restaurants all up and running.

Unlike most major cities in China, there are no skyscrapers, underground passes or overhead walkways.

Instead, all its buildings are of medium height and, most unusually for a major city in China, more than 70 per cent of the city is given over to green spaces such as parks and lakes, while every road has cycle lanes running alongside them.

But although it has an official population of 1.2 million permanent residents, another striking feature is the relative lack of people out on the streets.

In the city’s Rongdong district – which hosts the planned finance district and tech park – most of the street-level commercial spaces remained vacant, waiting for businesses to move in.

David Chew, the founder of a Tokyo-based tech start-up, said Xiongan was still flying “under the radar”.

“Xiongan is yet to differentiate itself in terms of branding … is Xiongan becoming Beijing 2.0? It is still unknown for me,” Chew said.

However, some businesses such as real estate agents and kindergartens said they were seeing signs of increased activity – a possible sign that more Beijing residents were preparing to make the move.

In one apartment block, which has its own kindergarten and plenty of green spaces, a sales agent said all units in the estate were ready for people to move in and around two-thirds of the units had been sold, many to Beijingers preparing for a future move.

Elsewhere, plenty of convenience stores and pharmacies and well-equipped kindergartens and primary schools could be seen every 10 blocks or so.

At one kindergarten decorated in baby blue, one of the teachers said it was preparing for the arrival of its first American teacher in September.

The teacher said the centre were also trying to appeal to families by offering classes in English and Russian and offering child care late into the afternoon for parents who may need to spend more time at work before they can pick up their children.

The monthly fees of US$950 put it well beyond the budget of most current Xiongan residents – but the teacher said 40 children had already enrolled at the kindergarten – and it was confident it would eventually reach its target of having 100 children.

One of the busiest shops was a high-end dry cleaners and shoeshine store, where one of the employees said they were dealing with more than 200 items – most of them apparently luxury or tailored items – a possible sign that business from Beijingers visiting the city is picking up.

But even if that is the case, the lure of life in the capital remains strong.

Mike Yang, who moved to Xiongan in May, said he only came because he found a job in the city, but he still spent most weekends in Beijing.

“The truth is, people haven’t come yet,” said the 24-year-old, but added that the government may force more people to move there from the capital in the next few years.

Luo Tien, an architect in his early 30s and working for a state-owned construction company in Beijing, said he did not want to move from the capital to the new city because it would mean “rebuilding my social networks from scratch” and public services such as education and health “will not be able to match what’s available in Beijing for a long time”.

However, he admitted that if people had to move from the capital to keep their jobs, most would do so.

Richard Hu, an urban planner and professor at the Canberra Business School who visited the city in December, said the concept behind the city might be too “idealistic”.

He said people from across China were drawn to Beijing because it offered better career prospects and public services such as schools and hospitals, but “now the government wants to counter that force and move people and resources out”.

“People moving from Xiongan to Beijing is upward migration but moving from Beijing to Xiongan is downward migration,” Hu said.

“People move due to government orders, they have to do that and they don’t have other options … But when we talk about migration, it must be voluntary and driven by personal pursuits and social economic considerations.

“[Xiongan] is a government project, a state project, and there is strong political will to define the idea.”

Another problem the city faces is that it is struggling to attract private businesses – especially from abroad where it is little known.

Michael Schumann, chairman of the board at the Berlin-based German Federal Association for Economic Development and Foreign Trade (BWA), led a delegation to visit the city in March.

He said: “It’s so amazing what they built there. It’s a pity then that you don’t hear about [Xiongan] so much in the sense of other future cities that are being built currently and that are being discussed currently.”

Schumann believes some of the urban technologies being developed in Xiongan to improve everyday life for residents could well be more advanced than in other comparable planned future cities.

Alain Saas, founder of a Toronto-based AI start-up, said the city’s “relative emptiness” and low rents could help attract start-ups.

But he said it needed better “interoperability with the world” – such as unrestricted internet access and rules making it easier for foreigners to acquire visas or residency permits.

“If the city had the level of interconnection to the world as Hong Kong, a new city with the potential for cheap housing and like-minded pioneers, I’d move right away,” said Saas.

Edward Neale Knight, a China researcher from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change who visited Xiongan in June, said it would take a long time for the city to rival the likes of Shenzhen, the tech hub on the border with Hong Kong that has developed rapidly in recent decades.

Xiongan’s future will depend on factors such as rent and the ease of getting a residency permit, or hukou, that allows people to use public services.

“If rent is cheap and they have less stringent hukou policies, lots of people will be willing to live there and attain an urban hukou. If the rent gets too high and the hukou policy is too restrictive, it will be a much less attractive destination,” Knight said.

“Of course the city was slightly empty [when I visited] but it is not meant to be finished for a number of years and actually the city was closer to completion than I thought it would be.”

He predicted: “Given the progress I saw, and the clear desire to embrace technology and take a green approach, I think Xiongan will be like Beijing’s less significant but slightly friendlier little brother in 10 years.”

Chinese Rocket Breaks Up in Space, Releasing Hundreds of Debris Pieces

https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/chinese-rocket-breaks-up-in-space-releasing-hundreds-of-debris-pieces/7739799.html

Experts say a Chinese rocket that recently helped launch 18 satellites broke apart in space and created hundreds of pieces of debris.

Space traffic observation organizations said data showed part of a Chinese rocket came apart soon after making the satellite deployments. State media in China reported the satellites were carried to space aboard a Long March-6 rocket and reached orbit on August 6.

The satellites are part of a Chinese government-backed effort that seeks to provide high-speed internet services to people around the world. Such satellites operate from between 300 and 2,000 kilometers above Earth. The area is known as low Earth orbit.

The project is expected to become a competitor to American technology company SpaceX, which offers its own satellite-based internet service. SpaceX has so far deployed about 5,500 satellites for its Starlink service, Reuters news agency reports.

Several groups that continuously observe satellite and spacecraft traffic said the Chinese rocket stage that broke apart in space created at least 700 pieces of debris. The floating debris is also known as space junk. It can harm active spacecraft, other satellites and even the International Space Station (ISS).

The group that launched the satellites is state-financed Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology. The company did not answer requests from Reuters for comment about the situation.

Some experts said the high level of debris had placed more than 1,000 satellites and other orbiting objects at risk.

U.S. space-tracking company LeoLabs told Reuters it estimates the number of debris pieces created is likely over 900. The collection of debris sitting about 800 kilometers above Earth’s surface is expected to last several years, LeoLabs added.

Experts said it was not clear whether the rocket body's breakup was caused by a crash into another object or by an explosion of unused rocket fuel. The U.S. Space Command said early on in the event that at least 300 pieces of debris had been created.

Audrey Schaffer is the vice president of strategy at space-tracking company Slingshot Aerospace. She told Reuters her team had estimated over 1,100 satellites and other space objects were likely at risk of hitting the Chinese rocket debris.

Schaffer noted, however, that about one-third of at-risk objects are active spacecraft and could probably move out of the way. The rest are believed to be uncontrollable pieces of existing space junk that would have no way of avoiding new debris.

In 2022, a Long March 6A rocket stage similarly broke apart in space and created hundreds of pieces of debris. That event led to criticism of China from Western countries and space sustainability campaigners. The groups have called on China to establish better controls for how it retires used rocket bodies.

"It's disappointing that the rocket had the same issue again," Schaffer said. She added, "These kinds of debris-generating events that are potentially avoidable should not occur anymore."

I’m Bryan Lynn.

 

Reuters and The Associated Press reported on this story. Bryan Lynn adapted the reports for VOA Learning English.

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Words in This Story

 

debris – n. broken pieces of something

junk – n. material that is no longer working or useful

stage – n. a certain period of development

track – v. to closely follow the movements of something

strategy – n. a plan used to achieve something

sustainable – adj. causing little or no damage to the environment over a period of time

disappoint – v. to fail to fulfill the hopes or expectations of someone

occur – v. to happen

Post-coup Myanmar has not turned into a Chinese vassal state

https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3274133/post-coup-myanmar-has-not-turned-chinese-vassal-state?utm_source=rss_feed

Three years ago, in the wake of a military coup that eviscerated Myanmar’s democratic experiment, many predicted that the army’s power grab implied profound future changes to Naypyidaw’s foreign policy. The presumption among a number of foreign policy analysts was that the divorce from the West and reimposition of various rounds of sanctions against the military-installed regime would deal a mortal blow to the increasingly diversified great power diplomacy pursued by Myanmar during the previous decade, leaving its generals with just one choice to make: isolation or functioning in China’s shadow.

With no end in sight to the civil war that ensued following the coup, those predictions have proven to be wrong.

The military takeover certainly took a harsh toll on Naypyidaw’s international relations. It erased the normalisation process with the United States and the European Union between 2011 and 2021 while also prompting a rift with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The brutal repression of domestic dissent that followed it led to the revival of Myanmar’s status as a “pariah” of international politics, further delegitimising the junta’s authority .

The putsch also set the stage for a battle for diplomatic recognition between the latter and the representatives of the ousted civilian regime, which gave birth to a shadow cabinet known as the National Unity Government. The international fallout of the coup significantly reduced Naypyidaw’s strategic options, as well as the pool of external partners that had contributed to its progressive reintegration into the global arena.

However, despite its disruptive impact, the army’s power grab did not alter the underlying logic that crafts Myanmar’s relationship with the outside world, nor did it pave the way for the twilight of the country’s historical non-aligned stance vis-à-vis great powers. Post-coup Myanmar is not truly isolated on the global stage, not even from the Western camp, considering that both India and Japan decided to defect from the Washington-led sanctions regime.

Moreover, Myanmar is not progressively turning into a Chinese vassal state. Rather, it can be argued that the coup and its dramatic aftermath damaged Sino-Myanmar relations by creating an atmosphere of mutual suspicion and distrust.

The military-installed regime views Beijing’s “backchannel diplomacy” towards pro-democracy groups with a mix of wariness and disdain, fuelled by what Naypyidaw perceives as a Chinese neocolonial mindset regarding the ongoing exploitation of Myanmar’s natural resources. Beijing appears increasingly frustrated by the junta’s inability to protect Chinese interests in the country, de-escalate the civil war and re-establish a semblance of domestic order, especially in the regions bordering China.

Accordingly, as the military junta continues to navigate a nuanced foreign policy that is consistent with the non-aligned playbook practised by generations of Burmese policymakers, Naypyidaw’s post-coup international trajectory serves as a reminder that pariah states can still exercise agency and strategic autonomy. Myanmar’s agency is apparent in the manner in which it addressed the diplomatic fallout of the coup, seeking to fill the power gap left by the retreat of Western stakeholders by reaching out to alternative actors, which can also act as partial counterweights to China.

The diplomatic honeymoon currently enjoyed by Myanmar and Russia, for example, serves this purpose. Moscow has replaced China as Myanmar’s main defence partner, following a flurry of bilateral meetings between the military junta and the Kremlin that stands in vivid contrast to the near total absence of high-level exchanges with the Chinese leadership.

Furthermore, Naypyidaw’s constrained yet resilient international agency is visible in the quiet engagement process nurtured with India and Japan, which share the same fear of seeing the troubled Southeast Asian state becoming a Chinese satellite. Interestingly, 2021–2022 proved to be a record year for India-Myanmar trade, as the combined volume of bilateral exchanges reached US$1.89 billion, the highest since 2016. Likewise, a 2022 report noted that about 70 per cent of the Japanese companies that had invested in the country planned to either maintain or expand their operations.

In parallel, Myanmar’s approach to China is still characterised by an attentive mixture of deference and defiance, aimed at signalling that although the army acknowledges the paramount importance of its ties with Beijing, it remains committed to acting as the beacon of the country’s independence against external intrusion.

For all these reasons, for the foreseeable future Naypyidaw’s foreign policy is likely to continue to replicate the pattern already exhibited in the wake of the 2021 military takeover and to display recurring acts of defiance that signal the preeminence of its autonomy and self-determination.