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• Canada imposes a 100% tariff on imports of Chinese-made electric vehicles, matching the US
• Canada to follow US lead in imposing 100% tariff on Chinese electric vehicles
• Traders dump China, load up on EM bond ETFs as Fed cuts near
• Agenda for US-China talks includes Taiwan, South China Sea, Russia and AI
• Odds ‘high’ for another Xi-Biden summit as Jake Sullivan heads to China
• China’s AI start-ups have ‘no choice’ but to explore overseas markets despite challenges
• Canada imposes 100% tariffs on China-made EVs, 25% levy on steel, aluminium, matching US
• How China can make life better for foreign and domestic tourists alike
• Chinese and US scientists create AI model to help develop new drugs
• What’s the buzz with China’s low-altitude economy, and what is propelling its development?
• Chinese coastguard alleges ‘illegal intrusion’ by Philippines near disputed Sabina Shoal
• Japan scrambles jets after China aircraft ‘violates’ airspace
• Taiwan bans mainland rapper for describing island as part of China
• China Initiative inquiries left researchers feeling ‘targeted, alienated’, US agency says
• China to keep up financial risk control campaign with draft rules for microlenders
• Hong Kong pupils to learn more about Communist Party history on mainland China trips
• Hong Kong must integrate spirit of China’s third plenum into ‘everyday affairs’: John Lee
• Hong Kong should export governance expertise to mainland cities: China affairs scholar
• As China upgrades its androids, is ‘more human than human’ on the horizon?
• Pakistan’s Balochistan, home to China-led projects, hit by militant attacks, killing 33
• IBM China said to be laying off more than 1,000 employees as it closes research labs
• Chinese probe into cooking oil scandal results in arrests, firms disqualified and fines
• European farmers caught in crossfire of EU-China trade war as Beijing targets dairy
• Chinese University of Hong Kong appoints former Legco administrator Kenneth Chen as vice-president
• Liu Jin resigns as Bank of China’s president for undisclosed ‘personal reason’
• China nurse saves life of 820-gram baby in ‘critical danger’ born in toilet during flight
• Mainland Chinese man arrested after allegedly stealing HK$330,000 Rolex on Hong Kong flight
• Harris-Walz in spotlight over China ties as Democrats rubber-stamps ticket
• China’s Dali offers dating service, Singapore’s housing dilemma: 5 weekend reads
• ‘Cramped’ China mother and child demand free upgrade to first class, disrupt flight
• China strengthens Myanmar border with ‘armed and air-to-ground’ joint PLA patrols
• China’s low-altitude economy spreads its wings as struggling locales look skyward
• North Korea challenges China’s border telecoms plans in rare protest
• Philippines ‘will be a target’ in event of nuclear war between China and US, analysts warn
• ‘As long as we’re here, it’s ours’: the island fishing community on the frontline of South China Sea tensions

Canada imposes a 100% tariff on imports of Chinese-made electric vehicles, matching the US

https://apnews.com/article/canada-china-evs-tariffs-0cd68ba7533bc6e7111cdd5811c8889cCanadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks with reporters during a news conference at the Federal ministers cabinet retreat in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024. (Kelly Clark/The Canadian Press via AP)

2024-08-26T12:38:32Z

TORONTO (AP) — Canada’s government on Monday announced it is imposing a 100% tariff on imports of Chinese-made electric vehicles that matches U.S. tariffs and follows similar plans announced by the European Commission.

The announcement came after encouragement by U.S. national security advisor Jake Sullivan during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and cabinet ministers on Sunday. Sullivan is making his first visit to Beijing on Tuesday.

Trudeau said Canada also will impose a 25% tariff on Chinese steel and aluminum.

“Actors like China have chosen to give themselves an unfair advantage in the global marketplace,” he said.

There was no immediate response from China.

Chinese officials are likely to raise concerns about American tariffs with Sullivan as Beijing continues to repair its economy after the COVID-19 pandemic. U.S. President Joe Biden in May slapped major new tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, advanced batteries, solar cells, steel, aluminum and medical equipment.

“The U.S. does believe that a united front, a coordinated approach on these issues benefits all of us,” Sullivan told reporters on Sunday.

Biden has said Chinese government subsidies for EVs and other consumer goods ensure that Chinese companies don’t have to turn a profit, giving them an unfair advantage in global trade.

Chinese firms can sell EVs for as little as $12,000. China’s solar cell plants and steel and aluminum mills have enough capacity to meet much of the world’s demand. Chinese officials argue their production keeps prices low and would aid a transition to the green economy.

“We’re doing it in alignment, in parallel, with other economies around the world that recognize that this is a challenge that we are all facing,” Trudeau said of the new tariffs. “Unless we all want to get to a race to the bottom, we have to stand up.”

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Canada also will launch a 30-day consultation about possible tariffs on Chinese batteries, battery parts, semiconductors, critical minerals, metals and solar panels.

“China has a intentional state-directed policy of overcapacity and oversupply designed to cripple our own industry,” Freeland said. “We simply will not allow that to happen to our EV sector, which has shown such promise.”

The only Chinese-made EVs currently imported into Canada are from Tesla, made at the company’s Shanghai factory.

Canada “had to go with the U.S. position, when you think about the economic integration that we have with the U.S. More than 75% of our exports go to the U.S.,” said a former Canadian ambassador to China, Guy Saint-Jacques. “This reflects the fear that the next president of the United States might be Donald Trump, and so they know we have to be pretty much aligned in all of this.”

Saint-Jacques said Canada can expect retaliation from China in other industries, adding that barley and pork are candidates because the Chinese can get it from other countries.

“China will want to send a message,” he said.

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Canada to follow US lead in imposing 100% tariff on Chinese electric vehicles

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/26/canada-tariff-china-electric-vehicles

Canada, following the lead of the United States, on Monday said it would impose a 100% tariff on the import of Chinese electric vehicles and also announced a 25% tariff on imported steel and aluminum from China.

The prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said Ottawa was acting to counter what he called China’s intentional, state-directed policy of over-capacity. But he did not specify whether tariffs would be softened or would be the same on Tesla, whose shares were down over 3% on Monday after the announcement.

“I think we all know that China is not playing by the same rules,” he told reporters. The tariffs will be imposed starting on 1 October this year.

“What is important about this is we’re doing it in alignment and in parallel with other economies around the world,” Trudeau said on the sidelines of a three-day closed-door cabinet meeting in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The Chinese embassy in Ottawa was not immediately available for comment.

Ottawa will continue to work with the United States and other allies to ensure that customers around the world are not unfairly penalized by non-market practices of countries such as China, Trudeau said.

Ottawa is also looking at further punitive measures such as tariffs on chips and solar cells, Trudeau said, without giving any details.

Joe Biden in May announced a quadrupling of tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles to 100%, a doubling of duties on semiconductors and solar cells to 50%, as well as new 25% tariffs on lithium-ion batteries and other strategic goods including steel to shield firms from Chinese excess production.

The European Union earlier this month imposed tariffs of up to 36.3% on imports of EVs.

Ottawa is trying to position Canada as a critical part of the global EV supply chain, and had come under pressure from domestic industry to act against China.

China is Canada’s second-largest trading partner, although it trails far behind the US. Data from Canada’s largest port in Vancouver show imports of automobiles from China at the port jumped 460% annually in 2023, when Tesla started shipping Shanghai-made EVs to Canada.

Tesla does not disclose its Chinese exports to Canada, which began in the first half of 2023. However, vehicle identification codes showed that the Model 3 compact sedan and Model Y crossover models were being exported from its Shanghai Gigafactory to Canada.

“In response to the tariffs, I would expect Tesla would shift its logistics and potentially export autos to Canada from the US,” Seth Goldstein, equity strategist at Morningstar, said.

“The market is likely reacting to the tariffs and weighing a potential profit impact if Tesla has to export vehicles to Canada from its higher-cost production base in the US,” Goldstein said referring to the drop in shares.

The EU imposed a new reduced extra rate of 9% for Tesla, lower than the 36.3% it had imposed on other Chinese EV imports.

Canada has inked deals worth billions of dollars to bring in top European automakers in all parts of the EV supply chain to bolster its manufacturing heartland.

“We feel vindicated and motivated. Let’s now get to the business of defending our market with the best of Canadian innovation and resolve,” Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association, said over email.

Implementation of the US tariffs has been delayed until September and there is a possibility that planned duties might be softened this week.

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Traders dump China, load up on EM bond ETFs as Fed cuts near

https://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/3276020/traders-dump-china-load-em-bond-etfs-fed-cuts-near?utm_source=rss_feed

Investors pulled money from exchange-traded funds that buy Chinese stocks last week amid growing concern over the country’s economy, while they loaded up on emerging-market debt as the US Federal Reserve nears the start of its easing cycle.

The KraneShares CSI China Internet Fund, known by the ticker KWEB, saw US$238 million in outflows last week, its biggest weekly outflow since August 2022, as Beijing struggles to foster a rebound in growth.

“Investors have been avoiding China,” said Brendan McKenna, an emerging markets economist and FX strategist at Wells Fargo. “Unless Chinese authorities can give significantly more clarity on what policy will be, China’s local markets are likely to be avoided for the remainder of this year, possibly even longer.”

The iShares China Large-Cap ETF also recorded outflows, with investors withdrawing almost US$55 million last week marking an 11 continuous weeks of redemptions.

As concern over the outlook for China persist, investors are looking for other opportunities to secure returns amid expectations the Federal Reserve will kick-start its easing cycle in September. The iShares JP Morgan USD Emerging Markets Bond ETF, known by the ticker EMB, recorded US$238 million in inflows last week, while the Janus Henderson Emerging Markets Debt Hard Currency ETF recorded US$157 million of new money coming in.

“The Fed’s pivot toward rate cuts is sparking some risk-on behaviour, especially in EM,” McKenna said. “Lower EM rates can support emerging-market fixed income, especially if select EM central banks have more policy space to also continue or start cutting rates.”

The US$16.1 billion iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Ex-China ETF, known by its ticker EMXC, also continues to draw interest among investors looking for riskier assets, while avoiding China, with the fund garnering about US$194 million of inflows last week.

Emerging market assets rallied on Friday after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the time to adjust monetary policy has come, prompting a risk-buying spree across global markets.

Inflows to US-listed emerging market ETFs that invest across developing nations as well as those that target specific countries totalled US$554.7 million in the week ended August 23, compared with gains of US$20.2 million in the previous week, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. So far this year, inflows have totalled US$3.57 billion.

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Agenda for US-China talks includes Taiwan, South China Sea, Russia and AI

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3276025/agenda-us-china-talks-includes-taiwan-south-china-sea-russia-and-ai?utm_source=rss_feed

In addition to Taiwan and tariffs, when US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi meet this week, they will discuss counternarcotics, better communication between the nations’ militaries and improved artificial intelligence security, a senior White House official said Monday.

The meetings, scheduled for Tuesday through Thursday in Beijing, are to build on the talks that began at last year’s summit in California between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“Mr. Sullivan’s trip to China was discussed by the two leaders last November. A lot of planning and scheduling went into it since then, and they’re now executing it in Beijing,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.

Sullivan’s meeting, his fifth with Wang, will be the first trip by a US national security adviser to Beijing since 2016, when Susan Rice of the Barack Obama administration travelled there.

Additionally, Sullivan is expected to raise US concerns regarding security in the Indo-Pacific region, China’s support for Russia’s defence industrial base as well as other international hotspots, including North Korea, the Middle East and Myanmar, a senior US official said last week.

On Sunday, China’s Foreign Ministry said that Beijing regarded Sullivan’s trip as “an important step for the two sides to implement the common understandings the two presidents had at their San Francisco meeting,” but that Wang would take the opportunity to raise “serious concerns” about Taiwan.

“The US side must abide by the one-China principle and the provisions of the three China-US joint communiques, and honour its commitment of not supporting ‘Taiwan independence’,” the ministry said in a statement.

According to Kirby, the US intends to tackle the “rising tensions in the South China Sea”, where China and the Philippines are embroiled in territorial disputes.

On Monday, Manila criticised Beijing for “repeated aggressive, unprofessional and illegal” actions in the waterway, accusing Chinese aircraft of conducting unsafe manoeuvres against a civilian aircraft patrolling over the Scarborough Shoal and Subi Reef.

Kirby said that Sullivan would also discuss “sea tensions across the Taiwan Strait and a range of other issues, including unfair economic practises”.

China’s Foreign Ministry said it intended to communicate to Sullivan that “countries outside the region should not do things that provoke confrontation or increase tensions”.

“China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the region have sufficient historical and legal basis, and … countries in the region have full confidence, wisdom and capability to properly handle the issue,” the statement added.

Odds ‘high’ for another Xi-Biden summit as Jake Sullivan heads to China

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3276003/odds-high-another-xi-biden-summit-jake-sullivan-heads-china?utm_source=rss_feed

The odds are very high but expectations are low for a China-US summit, Chinese observers said as the US president’s national security adviser prepared to touch down in Beijing.

Jake Sullivan will be in the Chinese capital from Tuesday until Thursday for talks with top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi on “areas of difference” such as Beijing’s alleged support for Russia’s defence industrial base, the South China Sea and Taiwan.

Sullivan’s trip is the first to China by a White House national security adviser in eight years and is widely seen as laying the groundwork for another summit between US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

Lu Xiang, a US-China relations specialist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the possibility of Biden meeting Xi was “very high” and Sullivan was likely to raise the suggestion during his trip.

Lu said Biden might visit China after the US presidential election in November to add the American leader’s political legacy.

“If he does not come, he will be the only US president [in decades] who has never visited China. That would be a pity for him,” Lu said.

Biden made four trips to China as vice-president and senator, but has not been since his presidency started in early 2021. Jimmy Carter, who was in office from 1977 to 1981, was the last sitting US president not to make the trip. It has been almost seven years since a US president – Donald Trump – went to China.

Xi has been to the United States five times since becoming China’s leader, most recently 10 months ago when he went to California for talks with Biden.

The G20 summit in the Brazilian city Rio de Janeiro could be another chance for the men to meet but observers were sceptical about what the talks could achieve, given that Biden would be well into a lame-duck period.

Shi Yinhong, an international relations professor at Renmin University in Beijing, said Biden was finishing his term soon and unlikely to make any promises on behalf of the next US administration.

In any case, Shi added, more frequent exchanges between the Chinese and US governments had not stopped Washington from expanding and upgrading technology “containment” against China.

On the same day as Sullivan’s trip was announced, the Biden administration added dozens of Chinese entities and individuals to blacklists as part of sweeping sanctions package against Russia’s international supply chain.

“The increased frequency and numbers [of communication] can coexist with the continued or even intensified China-US competition and rivalry,” Shi said.

Analysts in China say regardless of who wins the US race, they do not expect any change in Washington’s strategy of competitive approach towards Beijing. The candidates from both parties are only expected to remain tough on China as the race enters the home stretch.

According to a senior US administration official, Sullivan will address “how we intend to manage the balance of this administration, how we intend to manage the transition” in his talks with Wang.

But he will not speak to what the next administration may do with China or how they intend to use the established channels of communication between the two countries.

Lu said the transition period in the US was “now extremely unstable and unpredictable” and was one of the most important issues for the talks with Sullivan.

“It is hoped that during the transition period, there will not be any major ups and downs in China-US relations and that the overall stabilising trend will be maintained,” he said, stressing the need to avoid new tensions in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.

“If the US side were to provoke further, it could bring both sides into a crisis at any moment, which I believe would benefit no one.”

Shi said it was “impossible” to expect the two sides to do more than repeat their opposing positions and basic policies during the talks, given that China and the US had differences and competition in “most major areas”.

Still, he expected that China and the US would continue to prevent a military conflict between them and that Beijing would further clarify its policy on the war in Ukraine.

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China’s AI start-ups have ‘no choice’ but to explore overseas markets despite challenges

https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3275973/chinas-ai-start-ups-have-no-choice-explore-overseas-markets-despite-challenges?utm_source=rss_feed

Leading Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-ups see entering the overseas market as a defining stage for success, despite geopolitical tensions and economic sanctions.

Shanghai-based MiniMax – a generative AI start-up that is often called one of China’s “four little AI dragons” – said it aimed to develop markets in countries involved in China’s Belt and Road Initiative in the next one or two years to add to its business in Japan, South Korea, the United States and the Southeast Asian region.

“One of the main defining factors in the next stage would be presence in the overseas market,” Simon Peng, chief editor and vice-president of Minimax, told a panel on the sidelines of the HICOOL 2024 Global Entrepreneurship Competition in Beijing on Sunday.

“Right now, the entire AI industry is shaped by two ends- the US and China.”

Its booming AI industry, prompted by the global buzz created by ChatGPT, has been one of the sectors key for China to close the widening tech divide with the US that has been fuelled by geopolitical tensions.

While Beijing identified home-grown hi-tech sectors as key to growing its slowing economy, domestic barriers- including censorship that limits AI generated content – have weighed on development, on top of US export controls that bar Chinese firms from accessing frontier software and hardware to advance their products.

“The initial stage was like the qualifiers, but in the next stage, firms that have built a good foundation and ability should proactively engage in international competition,” Peng said on the last day of the three-day expo, which hosted a tech start-up competition that awarded 200 firms more than 7,000 different prizes this year.

Yuan Jinhui, co-founder and CEO of Chinese AI start-up SiliconFlow, who spoke during the same panel, said that even if the US was a difficult market to enter, it was still crucial.

“For reasons that are obvious to everyone, the US is not too welcoming to Chinese [tech] companies. So we serve that customer base through authorising our products or through direct sales,” Yuan, whose company specialises in designing large-scale AI model inference, said.

Yuan, whose company also has business in Japan, South Korea, India, Southeast Asia and the Middle East, said the overseas market was crucial because of higher profit margins.

“It is now a trend that many Chinese start-ups define themselves as global corporations and are heading for the overseas market from the start. It is easiest to first start with commercialising your product overseas and then develop one in the domestic Chinese market,” added Yuan.

“No matter if your target audience is business or consumers, in terms of profit, the overseas market is much better than [in China] domestically.”

Ma Jie, co-founder of Beijing-based AI unicorn 01.AI, told the panel that while the overseas market was important, firms faced challenges to localise products to make them relevant.

“When we arrive at a place, there are quite a number of challenges that should not be taken lightly,” said Ma.

“01 is doing business in the Middle East. But their political, religious and cultural contexts are complex, and the variety of the Arabic language is wide.”

The firm, founded by venture capitalist and former president of Google China, Lee Kai-fu, is focused on building large language models, which train computer algorithms to read, understand and produce humanlike text, images and codes.

“So if we look globally, many countries actually require products that are made to fit them,” he added.

Meanwhile, Peng from MiniMax said developing overseas markets was more than just about developing business, but also had a national strategic perspective “including promoting ideology and Chinese culture”.

“We have to be determined, going overseas is not a matter of choice, it is something that we must do,” he said.

MiniMax’s Talkie AI, which allows users to interact with virtual chat bot characters, ranked inside the top five among the most downloaded free entertainment apps in the US in June, according to market research firm Sensor Tower.

Canada imposes 100% tariffs on China-made EVs, 25% levy on steel, aluminium, matching US

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3276004/canada-imposes-100-tariffs-china-made-evs-25-levy-steel-aluminium-matching-us?utm_source=rss_feed

Canada’s government is imposing a 100 per cent tariff on imports of Chinese-made electric vehicles that matches US tariffs.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also announced Monday there will be a 25 per cent tariff on Chinese steel and aluminium.

“Actors like China have chosen to give themselves an unfair advantage in the global marketplace,” Trudeau said at a cabinet retreat in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Trudeau’s government began 30-day consultation on the issue earlier this summer to counter what Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland has said is a clear effort by Chinese companies to generate a global oversupply.

Canada’s move comes weeks after both the United States and the European Commission announced plans to impose higher import tariffs on Chinese EVs.

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan encouraged Canada to do the same during a meeting with Trudeau and cabinet minister at a cabinet retreat in Halifax, Nova Scotia on Sunday.

Right now the only Chinese-made EVs imported into Canada are from Tesla, made at the company’s Shanghai factory. There are no Chinese-branded EVs sold or imported at the moment.

Freeland has said Canada will act in concert with its allies in the United States and the European Union as North America has an integrated auto sector. Freeland has said her government would ensure Canada doesn’t become a dumping ground for Chinese oversupply.

US President Joe Biden has said Chinese government subsidies for EVs and other consumer goods ensure that Chinese companies don’t have to turn a profit, giving them an unfair advantage in global trade.

Chinese firms can sell EVs for as little as US$12,000. China’s solar cell plants and steel and aluminium mills have enough capacity to meet much of the world’s demand, with Chinese officials arguing their production keeps prices low and would aid a transition to the green economy.

How China can make life better for foreign and domestic tourists alike

https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3275041/how-china-can-make-life-better-foreign-and-domestic-tourists-alike?utm_source=rss_feed

What a difference a year makes. In June 2023, when my family visited China, we had to deal with a complex Covid-19 declaration, rely on my daughter-in-law to pay for purchases using her WeChat account and go through two travel agents to get our rail tickets.

Since then, China has dispensed with pandemic regulations, greatly liberalised visas for foreign visitors, nudged second-tier hotels to accept foreign guests and, importantly, WeChat has opened its payment system to international credit cards.

China is clearly pushing to win over foreign tourists and their spending. According to the National Immigration Administration, the mainland attracted 14.6 million foreign visitors in the first half of 2024 – almost 1 million more than in the whole of 2023.

However, that number is still less than half the number from 2019. Clearly, Beijing has a way to go to restore pre-pandemic levels of tourists.

China faces structural barriers, particularly on air connectivity. The number of inbound flights is still far lower than before the pandemic. In June, China was served by 366 flights each week from the US. That is down by three-quarters from the 1,563 flights per week in January-June 2019.

At the same time, there is much China can do to attract more foreign tourists. One improvement would be to further refine its entry policies, as they still fall short of those in Thailand, for example.

Thailand allows visa-free entry to nationals of 93 countries and provides a visa-on-arrival service to another 31, including China. Last month, a visa-on-arrival scheme was introduced at Beijing airport, but that is limited to urgent cases. This should be opened up, and extended to all major international points of entry.

To begin with, it should also be available in Chengdu, Chongqing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, and be open to everyone, not just urgent cases. The Shenzhen facility would also help boost tourism in Hong Kong, a goal of the mainland government.

Another area ripe for improvement is the payments system. In mainland China, it is difficult to get any service without WeChat Pay. Tencent has now opened the system to international credit cards but levies a 3 per cent fee. It does exempt bills of up to 200 yuan (US$28), which is a nice gesture, but for more costly items, 3 per cent is a lot.

Now that more Chinese shops and restaurants accept international credit cards, it is cheaper for foreign tourists to pay directly with these. Tencent should adjust its system so the retailer pays the credit card fee regardless of how the customer charges their credit card.

Yet another area to improve is the railway service. China’s high-speed rail network is an outstanding piece of transport infrastructure and ought to be a tourist attraction in its own right. Although the hardware is world class, however, the software needs improvement.

Here are three suggestions that could attract more tourists and improve the service for domestic travellers too. First is the reservation system. The current system limits bookings to just 15 days in advance. That might be OK for locals, but foreign tourists often need to plan ahead.

China Railway could copy airlines’ reservation system, which allows bookings up to 11 months in advance. And to accommodate people travelling at short notice, some seats could be reserved for booking nearer the time of travel.

Another hurdle to booking rail tickets is the need for a Chinese mobile number. That forces foreigners to buy tickets through travel agents. Supporting travel agents should not be the purpose of the system. Instead, it should accept foreign mobile numbers.

Second is the boarding procedure. Station staff open the gates for check-in just 15 minutes before departure. During my recent trip from Shanghai Hongqiao station to Hangzhou, boarding degenerated into a mad rush in the last few minutes. China can surely do better.

The time allowed for boarding should take into account the expected number of passengers. For instance, a train originating from a major city such as Shanghai will need longer. Another way would be to provide more gates for ticket inspection as that seems to be the main bottleneck.

My final suggestion for the railways is a minor one, but it would help many foreigners. Rather than translate station names strictly in pinyin, the geographical features should be translated into English. For instance, Beijingnan should be rendered as Beijing South and Hangzhoudong as Hangzhou East. Such renaming might even help Chinese learn a bit of English.

Chinese and US scientists create AI model to help develop new drugs

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3275821/chinese-and-us-scientists-create-ai-model-help-develop-new-drugs?utm_source=rss_feed

Scientists in China and the United States say they have developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) model that could help overcome some major challenges to drug development and discovery.

The model, called ActFound, outperforms competing models while bypassing challenges to using machine learning in bioactivity prediction, according to a paper published in Nature Machine Intelligence.

“Bioactivity encompasses various properties of compounds, such as their interaction with targets, impact on biological systems and therapeutic effects,” said the researchers from Peking University, the University of Washington and AI tech firm INF Technology Shanghai.

The main challenges to using machine learning include limited data labelling and incompatibility between assays, the tests that measure the activity or potency of drugs.

The model not only outperforms competing AI models, but also functions as well as free-energy perturbation (FEP) – a traditional computational method.

Although FEP calculations have a high level of accuracy, the team warned that they “require extensive computational resources that are often not affordable for large-scale applications”.

Such methods often rely on hard-to-obtain, three-dimensional protein structures to run, which can only be obtained using expensive equipment and extensive laboratory procedures.

The team said ActFound could accurately function with fewer data points, offering an accurate and less costly alternative to FEP.

“Our promising results indicate that ActFound could be an effective bioactivity foundation model for various types of activities,” said Wang Sheng, corresponding author and assistant professor at the University of Washington.

China is home to a booming pharmaceutical industry, with the government investing heavily in research and development for innovative drugs.

Some companies have turned to AI to find potential drug targets in a bid to cut development time, with some products already undergoing clinical trials.

“Evaluating the bioactivity of compounds is central to drug discovery and development,” the team wrote in their paper.

Bioactivity prediction aims to predict values for compounds, helping scientists to identify potentially useful compounds from a large number of candidates while minimising time-consuming and expensive experiments.

But despite machine learning’s potential, some major challenges limit its adoption.

“Existing machine learning approaches have poor generalisability in bioactivity prediction due to the small number of compounds in each assay and incompatible measurements among assays,” the team wrote.

Foundation models, which are pre-trained on large data sets to generalise prediction for unlabelled data sets, are one way to bypass these issues.

ActFound was trained using 35,644 assays from a popular chemical database as well as 1.6 million experimentally measured bioactivities.

It also uses two machine learning methods: meta-learning and pairwise learning.

Meta-learning is a framework that allows a model to be optimised using limited labelled data to predict the properties of unmeasured compounds. A model trained with a large number of assays can be used to work within assays with limited data.

Meta-learning “is well suited for bioactivity prediction, because there is a severe shortage of unmeasured bioactivity data in many drug discovery projects due to the high costs of laboratory experiments,” Wang said.

Meanwhile, pairwise learning helps generalise the model. Instead of predicting potentially incompatible absolute values, it calculates the relative differences between compound pairs.

“Our intuition was that, although compounds from different assays may have different units, value ranges or measurement metrics, those within the same assay are comparable,” the team wrote.

“As far as we know, we were the first to combine meta-learning and pairwise learning in bioactivity prediction.”

ActFound was tested on six real-world bioactivity data sets, and was found to outperform nine competing models for in-domain prediction and performed strongly in cross-domain prediction.

The team also conducted a case study to see if their model could be used to predict the bioactivity of cancer drugs, and found it performed better than other models.

“Our promising results indicate that ActFound could be an effective bioactivity foundation model for compound bioactivity prediction, paving the way for machine-learning-based drug development and discovery,” the team said.

What’s the buzz with China’s low-altitude economy, and what is propelling its development?

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3275949/whats-buzz-chinas-low-altitude-economy-and-what-propelling-its-development?utm_source=rss_feed

For anyone following China’s economic development and policy updates this year, it is hard to miss the rising buzz around the “low-altitude economy”, a term increasingly touted as a new growth driver for a national economy struggling to find new sources of momentum.

As China’s traditional real estate and infrastructure investment-based development model can no longer sustain high-quality economic growth, central and local authorities are turning their sights from the land to the skies.

“Low-altitude economy” generally encompasses manned and unmanned activities within airspace below 1,000 metres (3,280 feet), but the range can be extended to 3,000 metres depending on regional and practical needs.

Technology for electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, aka flying cars, is being developed for airport shuttles and intercity air travel, providing air taxi and logistics services.

Shanghai-headquartered Autoflight has announced that eVTOL fares could drop to 6 yuan (84 US cents) per kilometre, potentially lowering the cost of a 20-minute flight from Shenzhen to Zhuhai to as low as 240 yuan, compared with the current two-and-a-half-hour drive.

The Yangtze River Delta is also advancing in this area, with eVTOL flights between Shanghai and Suzhou completing the journey in under 30 minutes for a few hundred yuan per person.

Drones are being utilised to enhance last-mile delivery efficiency, including the transport of parcels and medical supplies, as well as emergency rescue.

Meituan this month launched Beijing’s first drone-delivery route at the Badaling Great Wall, providing tourists with heat-relief products and emergency supplies, marking the expansion of Meituan’s drone-delivery service across four major Chinese cities – Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

Low-altitude aerial sightseeing and adventure activities such as skydiving and paragliding are being promoted, alongside city and natural landscape flights.

Drones are employed for precision agriculture tasks such as pesticide spraying, environmental monitoring and disaster assessments.

The applications also include surveillance, infrastructure inspections and maintenance – including surveys of power grids, oil and gas pipelines, and bridges. Drones can also be deployed to monitor and offer relief amid catastrophes.

Several regions, including Beijing, Anhui and Suzhou, are prioritising the development of low-altitude flight scenarios to drive growth in the low-altitude economy.

Beijing’s action plan proposes establishing air routes between Daxing Airport and the Xiong’an New Area, and between Capital International Airport and regions such as Tianjin and Langfang, while exploring new urban air-mobility models.

Suzhou city, located west of Shanghai, aims to create an aerial corridor connecting the city with surrounding airports, enhancing regional connectivity.

Meanwhile, Anhui province is encouraging cities to explore eVTOLs for short-distance commercial transport, expand urban low-altitude flights and promote demonstrations of urban air-mobility applications.

In addition to these efforts, regions are working on simplifying airspace management. Plans include establishing low-altitude air-route networks, coordinating with military and civil aviation authorities, and optimising flight application processes to support the growth of urban air mobility and low-altitude infrastructure.

However, concerns have been raised about some regions “blindly following strategic trends”, rather than tailoring their emerging-industry policies to their specific conditions, as noted by Anbound, a Beijing-based public policy consultancy.

The drone industry is the leading sector in the low-altitude economy, and Guangdong province holds a significant advantage in its development, owing to a high concentration of drone enterprises.

Guangdong cities such as Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Zhuhai are at the forefront of exploring policies related to the low-altitude economy, with the province placing particular emphasis on the layout and expansion of the drone-industry chain.

Shenzhen, home to major industry leaders such as DJI, EHang, and Zerotech, leads the country with the most low-altitude economy enterprises, followed by Guangzhou and Beijing.

In 2022, Shenzhen’s drone industry generated nearly 75 billion yuan (US$10.5 billion) in production output, accounting for 70 per cent of the national total, with consumer drones capturing 70 per cent of the global market share, according to local government figures.

By the end of 2022, the city had introduced a three-year plan for the sector’s high-quality development. Last year, the city incorporated the low-altitude economy into its government work report. And this year, Shenzhen enacted the country’s first legislation on the low-altitude economy – a success recognised by the national government.

Shenzhen had 1,730 drone-related enterprises as of last year, covering the entire value chain from manufacturing and R&D to software development.

Chinese coastguard alleges ‘illegal intrusion’ by Philippines near disputed Sabina Shoal

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3275986/chinese-coastguard-allege-illegal-intrusion-philippines-near-disputed-sabina-shoal?utm_source=rss_feed

The Chinese coastguard said it took “control measures” against two Philippine ships that “illegally intruded” into waters off Sabina Shoal on Monday – the third confrontation near the disputed South China Sea atoll within a week.

Hours earlier, both sides had put out statements blaming the other after their vessels collided near the shoal on Sunday, in a repeat of a similar face-off in the area on August 19.

A Chinese coastguard statement published on Monday afternoon said Philippine coastguard vessels 4409 and 4411 had “illegally intruded” into waters near Sabina Shoal “without the permission of the Chinese government”.

“They continuously and dangerously approached Chinese coastguard ships conducting normal navigation,” the statement said.

The Chinese coastguard responded with control measures against the Philippine vessels involved, in accordance with the law and regulations, it added.

While the Chinese statement did not specify when the incident took place, the Philippine coastguard announced early on Monday that it was sending two ships – the BRP Cape Engaño and BRP Cabra – on “a humanitarian mission” to the BRP Teresa Magbanua.

The hull numbers for the two ships are MRRV-4411 and the MRRV-4409, respectively.

Sabina Shoal, claimed by China as Xianbin Reef and as Escoda Shoal by the Philippines, is controlled by neither country.

The coral atoll is part of the disputed Spratly Islands, called the Nansha Islands by China, which claims most of the South China Sea.

Sabina Shoal has emerged as a third potential flashpoint between rival claimants Beijing and Manila after the Second Thomas and Scarborough shoals – the scene of frequent and intense stand-offs over the past year.

The Teresa Magbanua, which is one of Manila’s most advanced coastguard ships, has been anchored near Sabina Shoal since April, according to the Philippine news outlet Rappler.

Beijing has also deployed several vessels, including its biggest coastguard ship, to patrol the area. The Philippines has said it will not move its ship despite intimidation from the five times larger Chinese “monster ship”.

Manila says the Teresa Magbanua was sent to monitor what it calls China’s illegal land reclamation activities at Sabina Shoal – an accusation denied by Beijing.

Regarding Sunday’s incident, China said a Philippine ship delivering supplies to a coastguard vessel anchored at the shoal “refused to accept control” by a Chinese coastguard ship and “deliberately collided” with it.

Filipino crew members who had fallen into the water following the collision were promptly rescued by the Chinese coastguard, a spokesman said.

But Manila disputed this account of events, accusing Chinese vessels instead of taking “aggressive and dangerous” action, including ramming and using water cannons on a ship carrying out a “humanitarian mission” to supply fishermen with fuel, food and medical supplies.

The incident came six days after the first reported collision between the two sides near Sabina Shoal, when two Philippine vessels on a resupply operation – including the BRP Cape Engaño – sustained damage. This was followed by both sides trading blame as they did again on Sunday.

The Sabina Shoal is part of the disputed Spratly Islands, called the Nansha Islands by China, which claims most of the South China Sea.

The coral atoll has emerged as a third potential flashpoint between rival claimants Beijing and Manila after the Second Thomas and Scarborough shoals, which have seen frequent and intense stand-offs over the past year.

Sabina Shoal holds potential strategic importance for the Philippines as a staging hub for resupplying forces stationed on its grounded warship at the Manila-controlled Second Thomas Shoal, which is also a part of the Spratlys.

On Saturday, Manila accused Beijing of “firing flares” as close as 15 metres (49 feet) away from one of its patrol aircraft near the Scarborough Shoal, a rich fishing ground controlled and called Huangyan Island by China, and claimed as the Panatag Shoal by the Philippines.

Japan scrambles jets after China aircraft ‘violates’ airspace

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3275987/japan-scrambles-jets-after-china-aircraft-violates-airspace?utm_source=rss_feed

Japan scrambled fighter jets on Monday after a Chinese military aircraft “violated” Japanese airspace, the defence ministry said.

The Chinese aircraft was “confirmed to have violated the territorial airspace off the Danjo Islands in Nagasaki Prefecture,” the ministry said in a statement, adding it had launched “fighter jets on an emergency basis”.

China’s “Y-9 intelligence-gathering” aircraft entered Japanese airspace at 11:29am for around two minutes, the ministry added.

There was no comment from Chinese authorities.

Local media, including public broadcaster NHK, said the incident marked the first incursion by the Chinese military’s aircraft into Japan’s airspace.

The ministry said steps were taken by the SDF such as “issuing warnings” to the aircraft, but NHK reported that no weapons, such as flare guns, were used as an alert.

In response to the incident, vice foreign minister Masataka Okano summoned China’s acting ambassador to Japan late on

Monday, and “lodged [a] firm protest” with the official, as well as calling for measures against a recurrence, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The Chinese diplomat said in response that the matter would be reported to Beijing, according to the ministry.

Japanese and Chinese vessels have previously been involved in tense incidents in disputed areas, in particular a chain of islets known as the Diaoyus by Beijing, and referred to as the Senkaku Islands by Tokyo.

The remote chain of islands have fuelled diplomatic tensions and been the scene of confrontations between Japanese coastguard vessels and Chinese fishing boats.

Beijing has grown more assertive about its claim to the islands in recent years, with Tokyo reporting the presence of Chinese coastguard vessels, a naval ship and even a nuclear-powered submarine.

In the past, two non-military aircraft from China – a propeller plane and a small drone – were confirmed to have forayed into the Japanese airspace near the Senkaku islands in 2012 and 2017, according to NHK.

Beijing claims the South China Sea – through which trillions of dollars of trade passes annually – almost in its entirety, despite an international court ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.

The Danjo Islands are a group of small islets located in the East China Sea, off Japan’s southern Nagasaki region.

Japan in recent years has strengthened security ties with the United States to counter China’s growing assertiveness in the region, boosting defence spending and moving to acquire “counterstrike” capabilities.

At the same time, it has boosted military ties with the Philippines, which has also been involved in recent territorial stand-offs, as well as South Korea.

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Taiwan bans mainland rapper for describing island as part of China

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3275989/taiwan-bans-mainland-rapper-describing-island-part-china?utm_source=rss_feed

Taiwan has banned a popular mainland Chinese rapper from performing in Taipei for referring to the island as “Taipei, China” in promotional materials.

The ban on Wang Yitai came days after Taiwan condemned the mainland for using economic coercion and nationalistic sentiment to “bully” the Taipei-based conglomerate Evergreen Group over the refusal of a hotel it owned in Paris to fly the Chinese flag during the Olympics.

Wang was planning to hold concerts in Taipei on September 14 and 15, but the Taiwanese authorities denied him permission to enter on the grounds that his promotional materials violated local laws by using the term “Taipei, China”.

Wang posted a series of promotional photos on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu, showing him sitting on a bench in front of a signboard reading “Beijing South Station: Beijing to Taipei, China,” along with a caption that said “Next stop: Taipei, China”.

Wang’s post also said: “Head south towards the Tropic of Cancer and there will be a return in the end,” a reference seen by the Taiwanese authorities as hinting at reunification.

“The content of this mainland Chinese singer’s promotional materials violates the ‘Regulations on the Entry of Mainland Chinese Citizens into Taiwan Area.’ After cross-departmental discussions, the relevant authorities have decided not to grant approval for his entry in accordance with the law,” the Mainland Affairs Council said on Monday.

Beijing views Taiwan as part of its territory that must be reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary.

Most countries, including Taiwan’s main international supporter the United States, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but Washington opposes any attempt to take the island by force and is legally bound to arm the island to help it defend itself.

Mainland laws require the island’s international sports teams to be called Chinese Taipei, a term also used by the International Olympic Committee and some other governing bodies.

The concert organiser was also accused of violating regulations that ticket sales can only start after the authorities have approved the application to stage the performance.

The Mainland Affairs Council said the event’s organiser, Mercury Entertainment, had started selling tickets on July 1, but only submitted the application to stage the show on July 10.

“The government welcomes mainland Chinese artists to Taiwan for performances and exchanges and is pleased to see cross-strait exchanges through music,” the council said.

“However, cross-strait exchanges should be conducted on the principles of equality and dignity, and any statements or promotions that undermine Taiwan’s status will not be tolerated.”

The organiser said it “currently does not have any response, and if we do, it will be posted on the official website”.

Wu Szu-yao, who leads the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s caucus in the legislature backed the decision, saying that visiting mainlanders “must adhere to the principles of law, equality, and dignity.”

Wang Hung-wei, a legislator for the main opposition party Kuomintang party, said the ban “is clearly a political move, especially following the recent Evergreen Group’s hotel controversy”.

Evergreen apologised last week after a mainland Chinese blogger posted videos on various platforms complaining that the hotel in Paris had refused to fly the Chinese flag.

The move prompted mainland Chinese media outlets and social media users to call for a boycott of the hotel chain, prompting the group to apologise and say that it respects the “1992 consensus” – an informal understanding that states there is only one China though there are different interpretations of what that means.

The day after the apology, both the council and Taiwan’s foreign ministry condemned Beijing for “manipulating nationalism, inciting … netizens to bully and pressure Taiwanese enterprises” and “using economic pressure to interfere in politics.”

China Initiative inquiries left researchers feeling ‘targeted, alienated’, US agency says

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3275910/china-initiative-inquiries-left-researchers-feeling-targeted-alienated-us-agency-says?utm_source=rss_feed

Six years after former US president Donald Trump’s administration launched its controversial China Initiative targeting scientists for suspected connections with Beijing, a government agency that led most of the investigations has acknowledged the “difficult climate” its inquiries created, but stopped short of offering an apology.

The US National Institutes of Health (NIH), the US government’s main agency for biomedical and public health research, said that as of June 9, a total of 112 of those scientists – mostly of Asian descent – had lost their jobs through dismissals or forced retirements for alleged undisclosed links to China.

Aside from casting doubts over the integrity of dozens of scientists, the NIH’s prosecution of Chinese-born US faculty researchers has also been criticised for harming life sciences research in the US.

Earlier this month, Monica Bertagnolli, director of the NIH, issued a statement expressing support for Asian-American, Asian immigrant and Asian research colleagues.

She acknowledged that the government actions “had the unintended consequence” for Asian-American and Asian research colleagues “who may feel targeted and alienated”.

According to the statement, the NIH is now working with universities and academic organisations to take steps to repair relations with Asian researchers, including research security training and the promotion of international scientific collaboration.

The vast majority of NIH cases involved researchers who received NIH-funding for suspected undisclosed links with Chinese institutions. Aside from termination of employment, some cases resulted in suspension of funding or criminal investigations.

Founded in the late 1880s and now part of the US Department of Health and Human Services, the NIH is the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world and is an important force behind America’s emergence as a world leader in life sciences innovation.

Wang Nianshuang, a principal scientist at US biotechnology company Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, said that researchers of Chinese descent accounted for a large proportion of scientists in the NIH and the broader US life sciences and biotechnology research community. Most research papers published in top journals today include researchers of Chinese descent.

Wang, whose previous research on the coronavirus enabled the development of the two major mRNA vaccines, said that many researchers, including well-established senior scientists, left the US, sensing they were being targeted and bullied because of their race. Although the number of people actually investigated was relatively limited, the impact had rippled across many lives, he added.

The NIH was the first and the most frequent federal agency to conduct the investigations, according to a study published in April in the peer-reviewed journal PNAS by a group of political scientists with the University of California San Diego.

The China Initiative ended in 2022, according to the US Department of Justice, but the NIH’s efforts to curb foreign interference continues, news website Science reported.

A leading Chinese-born virology professor in the US, who did not want to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue, welcomed the NIH statement and said it was encouraging, but added that the damage and impact of racial profiling on Asian-American scientists, especially those of Chinese origin, was “long-lasting and almost irreversible”.

Amid the US-China push for dominance in science and technology, the professor said that the NIH’s investigations would “definitely” weaken the competitiveness of the US in life sciences research, a field in which China has become a fierce competitor.

For more than six decades, the US has been the prime destination for the world’s top researchers. There are 100,000 Chinese-born scientists in the US who make enormous contributions to America’s leadership in science.

But according to findings published on July 15 by a team of researchers from the Stanford Centre on China’s Economy and Institutions, the number of Chinese-born scientists leaving the US rose steadily, from 900 in 2010 to 2,621 in 2021.

In a speech in June, Marcia McNutt, president of the US National Academy of Sciences, warned that the country was ceding its global scientific leadership to other nations, highlighting China in particular.

“US science is perceived to be – and is – losing the race for global STEM leadership,” McNutt said, citing figures to demonstrate the shift in strength between the two countries. For example, China’s percentage of drug trials had risen to 28 per cent by 2021, from just 3 per cent in 2013, while the US share had declined.

As part of plans to reverse the trend, she called on the country to attract the best and brightest by reducing red tape for international students and lowering regulatory burdens on faculty members.

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China to keep up financial risk control campaign with draft rules for microlenders

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3275981/china-keep-financial-risk-control-campaign-draft-rules-microlenders?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s financial watchdog has taken a step further in setting standards for the microlending industry, placing limits on loans and bolstering consumer protection.

The National Administration of Financial Regulation (NAFR) released draft rules on Friday to tackle issues within microfinance firms, named in the draft as “lax management”, “high credit risk”, “excessive marketing”, “improper debt collection”, “illegal fees” and “the renting or lending of licences”. The rules will be open to public consultation until September 23, after which a final version will be approved.

The measures were announced as part of an ongoing campaign to clean up the microlending sector, itself an aspect of broader efforts by the world’s second-largest economy to stabilise its financial system.

In 2020, a notice on the oversight of online microlending was issued by the now-defunct China Banking Regulatory Commission, which will be replaced by the recent draft standards.

The new draft includes a rule capping online microloan balances at 200,000 yuan (US$28,074) per account for consumption loans and 10 million yuan (US$1.4 million) for business production and operation loans to “benchmark against similar standards in the banking industry” and prevent “irrational” overborrowing.

“Compared to banking institutions, microloan companies have a higher loan delinquency rate, and some have shut down due to poor management,” said the financial regulator.

It urged companies to establish standardised systems for asset risk classification and risk reserve to improve their resiliency, mandating a change to non-performing status for loans overdue by more than 90 days.

“Risk control now is obviously the most important policy objective for the Chinese financial regulators,” said Zhang Zhiwei, president and chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management. “This shows they’re pretty serious about it.”

One chapter was drafted to address consumer rights, specifying regulations on microfinance firms’ disclosure of information, risk alerts, marketing and publicity, as well as the collection and use of customer information.

The regulator enumerated five practices by microlenders which would be banned, including fraudulent marketing, misleading loans, targeting minors, defaulting to loans as payment and forcing unwanted products or services on borrowers.

Zhao Xijun, a professor of finance at Renmin University in Beijing, said regulating microfinance is in alignment with “inclusive finance”, a frequent subject of official rhetoric as one of five realms of focus for domestic financial institutions. The other four are science and technology, the green economy, care for the elderly and the digital economy.

Microfinance in China is in great demand, Zhao said, as individuals and smaller enterprises have had difficulties with traditional financing for some time.

“Both microfinance companies and borrowers are vulnerable to risk,” he said. “The new rules aim to strike a balance between risk prevention and promoting inclusive finance.”

According to government data, by the end of 2023 China had 6,550 microfinance companies, of which 179 were online. That was a drop from the 224 internet firms recorded in 2018, a year after a suspension of registration for online microlenders entered into force.

Hong Kong pupils to learn more about Communist Party history on mainland China trips

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Hong Kong education authorities have vowed to bolster pupils’ national spirit by including more elements covering the Communist Party’s history and the struggles of its significant figures for primary and secondary student trips to mainland China.

The Education Bureau also said the move aligned with national calls to promote patriotic education, with the excursions in the coming school year to include visits to museums, memorial halls and sites of historical relevance to the party.

Authorities are planning 81 cross-border trips, each to last one to six days, for students in Primary Four and upwards under an annual outline for mainland exchange programmes.

In the circular, the bureau called for schools to “proactively arrange” for students to take part in the exchanges.

“Mainland exchange programmes and study tours for students form an important part of national education … [helping] enable primary and secondary students to gain first-hand experience of our country’s development from multiple perspectives, deepen what they have learned in class, enhance their understanding of our country and strengthen their sense of national identity,” it said.

The government earlier said the programmes had an annual quota of more than 100,000 students, meaning each pupil in the city could join at least once in primary school and again during their secondary education.

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu last October announced in his annual policy address that the city government would integrate patriotic education into the local curriculum.

The bureau said on Monday that it would introduce more elements covering party history as part of the cross-border trips.

“In line with [promoting] patriotic education, ‘red resources’ will be heightened in the itineraries for the new school year, including visits to historical sites, museums and thematic memorial halls,” it said.

“[The red resources aim] to enhance students’ understanding of the revolutionary stories and struggles of revolutionary predecessors, thereby nurturing their national spirit,” the bureau’s document said.

Thirty of the 81 trips listed in the circular noted that red resources would feature as part of the excursions.

The list of trips covers cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, as well as Guangdong, Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces, and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

In one case, Form Three to Five students were expected to visit Beijing’s Museum of the Communist Party of China as part of a five-day trip.

“The learning focus is to understand the history of the Chinese Communist Party and the country’s development in different periods and how it dealt with different challenges,” the bureau said.

The trip’s itinerary also includes a visit to the Xibaipo Memorial Museum, where students will learn how the Communist Party’s Central Committee and the People’s Liberation Army used the small village in Hebei province as their headquarters during the civil war in the ‘40s.

Each student on the trip will need to pay about HK$1,400 (US$179.5) to HK$1,800, while city authorities will cover the remaining 70 per cent of the cost.

The bureau also said past mainland trips organised and subsidised by authorities had been well received by schools and parents over the years.

The bureau has been stepping up its effort to promote patriotism among students since the 2019 anti-government demonstrations.

Education authorities in 2021 revamped liberal studies, a core subject for senior secondary pupils, into citizenship and social development, as well as establishing the citizenship, economics and society subject, which will roll out next month for junior secondary students.

Both subjects focus on understanding national security and strengthening pupils’ sense of national identity.

The bureau has also announced that from the 2025-26 school year, it will break general studies into science and humanities subjects to allow for a greater emphasis on patriotism at a primary school level.

Hong Kong must integrate spirit of China’s third plenum into ‘everyday affairs’: John Lee

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3275914/hong-kong-must-integrate-spirit-chinas-third-plenum-everyday-affairs-john-lee?utm_source=rss_feed

Hong Kong must integrate the spirit of a key Chinese Communist Party meeting into “everyday affairs” amid external challenges and a pressing need for reform, the city’s leader has said after a briefing by a visiting senior Beijing official.

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu on Monday also highlighted efforts by local authorities to turn Hong Kong into an “international hub for high-end talent”, noting the city’s various talent schemes had drawn 340,000 applications from professionals “wanted by the world”.

The push to turn the city into a global talent hub was a key focus in the resolution from the party’s third plenary session for its 20th Central Committee last month.

Lee made the remarks after joining a high-level, closed-door briefing on the third plenum led by Shen Chunyao, chairman of the legislative affairs commission of the National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee.

Shen also chairs the Hong Kong Basic Law Committee.

City leader Lee told the media after the morning meeting that Hong Kong should familiarise itself with the “spirit” of the plenum and promote reform with a new mindset, adding that the financial hub still played “an irreplaceable and important role” in the country’s reform and opening up.

The city also needed to ensure that “everyday affairs” aligned with key takeaways from the third plenary session, he added.

“As the world undergoes major changes unprecedented in a century, the country’s development has entered a critical period where strategic opportunities, risks and challenges coexist,” Lee said.

“We must be proactive, pragmatic and responsible, actively recognise and adapt to changes, and take the promotion of further reform as our own responsibility.

“I have also instructed Hong Kong government officials to take a deep look into the spirit of the third plenary session … to thoroughly implement it and integrate it into their daily work.”

Asked about measures to leverage Hong Kong’s role as an aspiring high-end global talent hub, Lee hailed efforts by the local government to attract overseas professionals.

He said Hong Kong’s various dedicated schemes had garnered 340,000 applications from talent “wanted by the world”, with more than 140,000 successful candidates having already arrived in the city.

Lee also pledged that Hong Kong would step up the talent drive, through efforts such as developing an educational city in the Northern Metropolis and cultivating synergies among strategic industries.

The morning session, which took place at government headquarters in Admiralty, was attended by more than 500 senior government officials, Executive Council members, legislators and the heads of statutory bodies.

Zheng Yanxiong, director of Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong, also attended the meeting.

Shen will chair another explanatory session in the afternoon, which will be held at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai and be broadcast live on television.

Hong Kong should export governance expertise to mainland cities: China affairs scholar

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3275934/hong-kong-should-export-governance-expertise-mainland-cities-china-affairs-scholar?utm_source=rss_feed

An adviser to Chinese policymakers has called on Hong Kong to export its governance experience and internationally recognised practices to mainland cities, arguing it would consolidate the city’s role in national development while also helping the country’s modernisation.

Zheng Yongnian, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Shenzhen campus, highlighted on Monday Hong Kong’s advantages in having globally recognised rules, procedures and management standards at a forum organised by the Bauhinia Culture Holdings.

“After the implementation of the Article 23 legislation, the safety and political conditions have been met for the full alignment of mainland China’s practice with that of Hong Kong’s rules and management standards,” he said, referring to the city’s domestic national security law, which came into force in March.

Zheng, a member of the Chief Executive’s Policy Group, encouraged Hong Kong to systematically package its governance expertise and proactively integrate with mainland cities, drawing a comparison with Singapore’s successful model of exporting its governance “software” to China.

He said Hong Kong doing so would help it become a leading force in the development of the Greater Bay Area, a national blueprint that aims to combine Hong Kong with Macau and nine mainland cities into a major economic bloc.

Zheng, a China affairs scholar and also a board director of the Guangzhou Institute of the Greater Bay Area, was among the experts invited in 2020 to share his views on the country’s 14th five-year plan at a seminar hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing.

He identified several areas where Hong Kong could contribute, including intellectual property protection, consumer industry safeguards, food safety, education, scientific research systems, and healthcare.

A constructive way to achieve China’s modernisation is through high-level institutional openness, he added.

“A full alignment with Hong Kong’s rules, procedures, and management standards is undoubtedly the most effective approach [to achieve that],” Zheng noted.

The scholar also urged Hong Kong to boldly seize international resources against other financial centres, while providing effective financial services to support China’s modernisation, thereby reinforcing its status as an international financial centre.

Cui Jianchun, commissioner of the foreign ministry’s office in Hong Kong, asked the forum participants, which included foreign consuls general, to “understand, support and adhere” to China’s “one country, two systems” governing principle.

In his keynote speech, the diplomat also pointed to wider challenges faced by the country and Hong Kong, such as the climate change, geopolitics and humanitarian crises, while emphasising that the resolution approved by the third plenum of the 20th Party Congress in July was important not only to the city, but also to the international community.

Central authorities had said in its resolution document that Hong Kong should become an “international hub for high-end talent”, while the nation should open up further amid increased international cooperation to create a new open economic system.

Another speaker, Lau Siu-kai, a consultant at the semi-official Beijing think tank, the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, said it remained a “daunting yet highly pressing task” to correct misconceptions within the global community about the “one country, two systems” guiding principle.

He referred to repeated claims by the West suggesting the guiding principle was “dead” with Beijing’s erosion of the city’s high degree of autonomy, freedoms, rights and the rule of law.

“To control the international narrative and understanding of the principle requires the concerted effort of the central government, Hong Kong government, and all sectors of the city to advance it wisely and in a planned manner,” he said.

The forum saw over 10 scholars from Hong Kong, mainland China and overseas countries take to the stage to share their insights on China’s development and its global influence in the past 75 years since the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949.

As China upgrades its androids, is ‘more human than human’ on the horizon?

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3275936/china-upgrades-its-androids-more-human-human-horizon?utm_source=rss_feed

Shortly after the release of Alien: Romulus – the new film in a science fiction series that has often depicted artificial intelligence as ruthlessly calculating – a decidedly more optimistic mood filled the halls at the World Robot Conference in the southeast of Beijing.

There, the models on display prompted more academic conversations in lieu of the films’ life-or-death scenarios. One of the more burning questions, looming larger as reality appears to be converging rapidly with fantasy: how close are we to incorporating humanoid robots, or androids, into our daily routines?

“Humanoid robots are often seen in industrial settings, but the more important factor for [them] entering everyday life is their costs need to drop to a level that the general public can afford,” said Yao Yunchang, hardware director at the Humanoid Robot Innovation Centre in the eastern province of Zhejiang.

Yao’s centre unveiled a new model at the conference, which even at prices ranging from 700,000 yuan (US$98,260) to 800,000 yuan has already seen some sales. Most purchasers were manufacturers, but supermarkets have also expressed interest.

“We anticipate that humanoid robots could see large-scale applications in industrial settings as early as next year or the year after. We should see some trial deployments in service scenarios across various regions as early as next year,” Yao said. “This could lead to a reduction in costs … given the pace of technological iteration, it’s likely we’ll see robots in households within five to 10 years.”

During the conference – held from August 21 to Sunday – a total of 27 models were showcased, the highest number in the event’s history. More than 30 companies involved in the manufacture of androids made an appearance.

As China has begun to pursue the advancement of science and technology – seeing emerging sectors as a new source of economic growth – companies have ramped up investment in humanoid robots, generating a swarm of enterprises looking to capitalise on the trend.

This infusion of funds is accelerating the deployment of androids in various fields, including manufacturing, healthcare, elderly care, education, entertainment and consumer services.

According to the International Federation of Robotics, the global humanoid robot market is expected to achieve a compound annual growth rate of 71 per cent from 2021 to 2030.

By 2030, China’s share of that market could reach around 870 billion yuan (US$122.1 billion) in value, according to the China Electronics Society. Several regions have already established innovation centres, providing incentives and support to companies in the industry chain.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang paid a visit to the Beijing conference on its last day, speaking to companies about their products and potential applications.

“We must integrate the development of robotics into policies supporting digital transformation, smart manufacturing and large-scale equipment upgrades,” Li said.

“It is essential to increase institutional support to encourage venture capital participation, foster more unicorn companies and create clusters of industries with distinctive advantages.”

Li also said advancing robotics requires strengthening international cooperation and supporting foreign enterprises and research institutions as they invest and operate in China.

While the US leads in certain technologies – especially artificial intelligence and software – in terms of overall capabilities and hardware, China has a broader supply chain advantage, industry insiders said.

Yao said he believes the implementation of humanoid robots is likely to be realised domestically first.

However, making a lifelike robot that can talk and move is not nearly as difficult as crafting one capable of performing complex tasks with humanlike efficacy.

For many purchasers at the conference, a significant portion of orders are intended as showpiece models, more a novelty than a reliable performer of specific tasks in real-world scenarios.

Shanghai Qingbao Engine Robot sells units for 150,000 to 200,000 yuan, providing highly realistic androids to buyers who use them to draw attention at exhibition halls, unmanned retail stores, hospitals, schools, coffee shops, chain hotels and e-commerce live streaming.

“Our ultimate goal is to focus on elderly care,” said company chairman Wang Lei.

“We couldn’t start by making them for elderly care -it’s a process, there are still many capabilities we can’t achieve yet. For now, we can have the robot chat with or monitor [patients], but tasks like feeding them, helping them to the bathroom, assisting with bathing, or picking them up if they fall – those are more advanced.”

But Wang said the universalisation of robots in homes is not that far away.

“We can’t predict how the technology will develop. [It] could suddenly make a breakthrough one day.”

Tangible progress could be made within two to three years, Wang added, but creating a truly reliable product might take more than 10 years.

“For example, in elderly care, it’s not just about cost – there are also issues of safety and reliability. Many challenges cannot be addressed quickly; it’s a long-term process of accumulation.”

Hu Yuhang, founder of Aheadform, a start-up specialising in making lifelike robot heads with expressive facial features, said while people may think we are far from the androids of sci-fi literature and cinema – barely distinguishable from humans – a more focused viewpoint is needed.

“Within 10 years, we might interact with robots and feel like they are almost human; maybe in 20 years, they could walk normally and perform some tasks just like a human. Each stage of development is different, but to create a robot that is exactly like a human is very difficult,” he said.

The service industry is likely to continue to use androids to stand out, Hu added, as a lifelike robot can capture attention, draw people in and ultimately convert that interest into sales.

Despite the positive attitude of many Chinese entrepreneurs, Marc Raibert – chairman of Boston Dynamics – expressed some reservations during a conference round table on Saturday afternoon, saying humanoid robots could complicate the development of the industry.

“I think there will be lots of progress with robots being used in the industry. And there’s a lot of attention … the technology available to make robots better is continuing to mature, and I think the industry will make progress.

“[But] humanoids themselves are still pretty immature, by and large. You can look at the demos that some are doing with car companies. I think that’s to some degree a show-off thing more than a productivity thing.”

Pakistan’s Balochistan, home to China-led projects, hit by militant attacks, killing 33

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3275946/pakistans-balochistan-home-china-led-projects-hit-militant-attacks-killing-33?utm_source=rss_feed

Separatist militants attacked police stations, railway lines, and vehicles on highways in Pakistan’s province of Balochistan, killing at least 33 people, officials said on Monday, in the most widespread assault by ethnic insurgents in years.

Militants have fought a decades-long ethnic insurgency to demand the secession of the resource-rich southwestern province, which is home to a number of major China-led projects, including a strategic port and a gold and copper mine.

The largest of the attacks confirmed by authorities targeted vehicles from buses to goods trucks on a major highway, killing at least 23 people, officials said, with 10 vehicles set ablaze.

A rail line between Pakistan and Iran and a railway bridge linking Quetta, the provincial capital, to the rest of the country were also hit with explosives in militant attacks, railways official Muhammad Kashif said.

Rail traffic with Quetta was suspended, he added.

Around the same time, militants also targeted police and security stations in the sprawling province, officials said, one of which killed at least 10 people.

Militant group the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) took responsibility in a statement emailed to journalists that claimed many more attacks, including one on a major paramilitary base, though Pakistani authorities have yet to confirm these.

On Sunday night, armed men blocked a highway in Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province, marched passengers off the vehicles, and shot them after checking their identity cards, said Ayub Achakzai, a senior superintendent of police.

“The armed men also not only killed passengers but also killed the drivers of trucks carrying coal,” said Hameed Zahir, the deputy commissioner of the area, adding that at least 10 trucks had been set on fire after their drivers were killed.

Militants have targeted workers from the eastern province of Punjab, whom they see as exploiting their resources. In the past, they have also targeted Chinese interests and citizens operating in the province.

China runs the strategic deep water port of Gawadar in Balochistan’s south, as well as a gold and copper mine in the west.

The BLA said its fighters had targeted military personnel travelling in civilian clothes, who were shot after being identified.

Pakistan’s interior ministry said the dead were innocent citizens, however.

Six security personnel, three civilians and one tribal elder made up the 10 killed in clashes with armed militants who stormed a station of the Balochistan Levies in the central district of Kalat, police official Dostain Khan Dashti said.

Officials said police stations had also been attacked in the two southern coastal towns, but the toll had yet to be confirmed.

The office of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attacks in a statement, vowing that security forces would retaliate and bring those responsible to justice.

Balochistan, which borders both Iran and Afghanistan, is Pakistan’s largest province by size, but the least populated, and it remains largely underdeveloped, with high levels of poverty.

IBM China said to be laying off more than 1,000 employees as it closes research labs

https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3275900/ibm-china-said-be-laying-more-1000-employees-it-closes-research-labs?utm_source=rss_feed

US computing giant IBM has reportedly shut down its research and development (R&D) operations in China, joining a slew of global Big Tech firms in trimming their mainland businesses amid geopolitical headwinds.

IBM is closing its China Development Lab and China Systems Lab, while laying off more than 1,000 employees in cities including Beijing, Shanghai and the northern port city Dalian, according to reports by local news outlets.

IBM’s China-based R&D employees over the weekend found themselves blocked from accessing the company’s intranet system, Chinese news website Jiemian reported on Saturday. The Armonk, New York-headquartered company announced the job cuts during an internal meeting on Monday morning, according to posts by multiple employees on Chinese social media platforms.

“IBM adapts its operations as needed to best serve our clients, and these changes will not impact our ability to support clients across the Greater China region,” an IBM representative said in an email to the Post, without providing details of the lay-offs.

IBM’s local strategy is “focused on having the right teams with the right skills” to help Chinese companies – especially privately owned firms – co-create hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions by drawing on its “considerable technology and consulting expertise”, the representative said.

IBM is the latest multinational tech giant to shed jobs in China, as an intensified Sino-US rivalry forces global businesses to adjust their operations on the mainland.

Sweeping job cuts this year have affected China-based workers in companies from Swedish telecommunications equipment manufacturer Ericson and electric vehicle maker Tesla to e-commerce behemoth Amazon.com and chip company Intel.

IBM’s sales in China have steadily declined in recent years.

In 2023, IBM’s revenue in the country dropped 19.6 per cent compared to a 1.6 per cent rise in revenue across Asia-Pacific, according to the company’s annual report. Sales in China in the six months ended June 30 this year fell 5 per cent, while revenue in Asia-Pacific increased 4.4 per cent, IBM’s financial statement showed.

Still, IBM China credited its Development Lab for making “important contributions” to the development of the company’s enterprise-facing generative AI development platform WatsonX, in a blog post published on WeChat last November.

IBM announced WatsonX in May last year and made it available to customers in China in the following August.

The China Development Lab had “more than 24 years of outstanding development experience” and was behind hundreds of main and innovative products, IBM said in the WeChat post.

IBM reported 2 per cent growth in global revenue for the second quarter, with software sales up 7 per cent. Its shares have jumped 21 per cent since the beginning of this year.

Chinese probe into cooking oil scandal results in arrests, firms disqualified and fines

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3275905/chinese-probe-cooking-oil-scandal-results-arrests-firms-disqualified-and-fines?utm_source=rss_feed

Drivers, transport companies and producers are facing criminal charges, disqualification and fines after Chinese authorities revealed the findings of its investigation into tankers carrying cooking oil.

A team led by the State Council’s Commission on Food Safety released its report into the food safety scandal that caused widespread anger last month, the state news agency Xinhua said on Sunday.

Last month, The Beijing News published a report claiming it was an “open secret” in the transport industry that the same trucks were used to carry cooking oil and chemicals without being cleaned between loads to save money.

The statement on Sunday night said the two truck drivers named in the report had been arrested and were expected to face criminal charges.

It said three other people who helped the driver issue a false receipt that the truck had been cleaned served 10 days in administrative detention.

The investigators said the local government had disqualified two transport companies and fined them more than 1.5 million yuan (US$210,000), and another company had been fined nearly 2 million yuan (US$281,000). It asked local police to continue investigating the three companies.

A subsidiary of the state stockpile company Sinograin was fined 2.86 million yuan. Another major player named in last month’s report, the private Hopefull Grain and Oil Group, was fined 2.51 million yuan.

One company that bought the oil carried in the tankers was fined 300,000 yuan and another was fined 260,000 yuan.

The statement by the investigation team said the incident was “extremely bad in nature, trampling on the bottom line of morality and the red line of the law, and is a typical criminal offence that must be severely dealt with”.

It said that, apart from the two trucks mentioned in media reports, the investigation team had conducted a nationwide investigation but “did not find any similar problems”.

The investigation team said the first truck was carrying 35.91 tonnes of cooking oil, of which 11 tonnes was used to make animal feed. The rest had not been not sold and had been sealed.

The second truck was carrying 31.86 tonnes, of which 29.38 tonnes had been packaged and sold, mainly to the city of Ordos in the northwestern autonomous region of Inner Mongolia. Some 7.78 tonnes that had been sold but not yet used was recalled and sealed.

The two trucks originally came from Xingtai in Hebei, a northern province that borders Beijing. The investigation team said local officials were responsible and that anti-corruption agencies would be involved in further investigations.

The team vowed “zero tolerance” for such incidents and that it would continue to control the transport of cooking oil.

Shortly after the report was published, a commentary in the People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party, said it reflected Beijing’s “highly responsible attitude to food safety and its high-pressure stance of continuing to crack down on criminal and illegal acts involving food”.

Early last month, the cooking oil scandal sparked nationwide concern and anger, with media outlets, including several state media outlets, calling for a thorough investigation and serious punishment.

Several cooking oil companies said they had investigated within and found no problems with their products or transport.

The State Council then set up a high-level joint investigation team, including the National Development and Reform Commission, the ministries of public security and transport, the National Health Commission, the State Administration for Market Regulation and the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration.

It is not the first time Chinese media have reported on the transport of cooking oil. In 2005 and 2015, media reports highlighted similar practices.

Last month, some bloggers discovered that a Chinese online platform that tracks truck movements could provide clues as to whether trucks were being used to transport both fuel and cooking oil.

The platform, which is mainly for delivery companies, stopped sharing information after a surge in traffic.

European farmers caught in crossfire of EU-China trade war as Beijing targets dairy

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3275830/european-farmers-caught-crossfire-eu-china-trade-war-beijing-targets-dairy?utm_source=rss_feed

On his family farm half an hour south of the Irish border, Thomas Duffy could have been forgiven for thinking he was safe from the expanding tentacles of China’s brewing trade war with Europe.

But this week, he and many of Ireland’s 17,000 other dairy farmers were stunned by news that China is investigating subsidies into cheese, milk and cream from across the European Union.

Ireland exported almost US$50 million of the products named in the announcement to China last year. Most of it is shipped via co-operatives that take produce from dairy farms like Duffy’s, on the outskirts of Virginia, a picturesque town that hugs the shore of Lough Ramor in County Cavan.

The probe is seen as retaliation for the EU’s anti-subsidy duties of up to 36.3 per cent that were proposed this week, and which could be slapped on Chinese-made electric vehicles (EVs) from October.

“It’s funny, because I’m a dairy farmer and an EV driver,” said Duffy, whose 100-strong herd of cattle provides produce that is shipped to China, as well as the Middle East and North Africa.

Having been a Volkswagen loyalist for years, he now drives an electric Korean Hyundai because he felt the German company was neither innovative nor affordable in the emergent space.

“We should 100 per cent be making things in the EU, but we should not be falling behind on technology … then we wouldn’t be getting into these trade wars,” he added.

A couple of hundred kilometres further south in Kilkenny, Denis Drennan “milks 60 cows a day” when he is not donning his hat as president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA).

“We are collateral damage. France and Germany are struggling to compete with Chinese EVs and now China hits back. Somehow it’s the likes of myself, on a rural farm in the middle of nowhere in Ireland, that gets hit,” said Drennan, who called for Brussels to reimburse any Irish farmers who might get caught in the cross hairs.

In the Belgian capital, official sources say the sequence of events was entirely predictable – it was expected that China would respond to the EV duties with asymmetric actions.

“It’s straight from the Chinese government playbook,” said one EU diplomat who works on trade matters.

Retaliatory probes into dairy, brandy and pork were well-telegraphed in the Chinese state media, as was a potential tariff increase on large-engine cars.

On Friday, the commerce ministry floated the auto duty increase again, which would hit Germany – providing 36 per cent of China’s imports – and Slovakia – a further 20 per cent, according to Rhodium Group research.

Farmers and car makers are among the bloc’s most powerful and active lobby groups, and a move to curtail their exports is a sure-fire way to get them mobilised.

When he went to Beijing earlier this year, former EU agriculture commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski begged Chinese counterparts not to drag farmers into the row over EVs.

“My intention is to do everything which is possible to avoid the situation that agriculture is a victim of the problems in other sectors,” said Wojciechowski, to the dismay of some EU officials who felt he may as well have been carrying a target with farm goods in the middle.

Inside the European Commission, each move by China is seen to push particular pressure points in an effort to influence a crunch vote of EU members in October that will determine whether the EV tariffs are adopted for five years.

“We knew that it would only get worse before the final decision,” said a senior EU official, who thought Beijing’s efforts were designed to “scare” bloc members ahead of the vote.

To block the tariffs, a majority of 15 EU members representing 65 per cent of the European Union’s population would have to vote against their adoption. With each escalatory move from Beijing, EU wonks are crunching the numbers to see who might cave.

In an indicative vote in July, just four members voted against – Cyprus, Hungary, Malta and Slovakia.

Abstaining – which counts as neither a vote for nor against – were Germany, Sweden, Austria, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Romania and Slovenia, while the Czech Republic and Greece cast no vote at all.

Voting in favour of the tariffs were France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

In its dairy probe, China has named national-level subsidy programmes in Ireland, as well as Austria, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, Italy and Romania.

At this stage, it appears unlikely that Beijing will convince enough capitals to reject the duties.

Each of the countries named, plus Germany and Sweden – which are highly connected to the Chinese auto supply chain and have both criticised the EV probe – would have to flip.

Even then, China would probably need Spain, along with either Belgium or Denmark, to perform a 180 on their July votes to tip it in their favour.

These member states will be studying the impact of pork and brandy probes closely. For now, the commission is confident it has the numbers, but the pressure will continue to mount.

Beijing has succeeded in kicking off a debate in countries that were erstwhile bystanders to the trade dispute – even if the tone may not always be to its liking.

“The EU must not allow itself to be blackmailed by the Communist regime in Beijing in terms of trade policy. Because there is more at stake than simply exchanging electric cars for dairy products,” stated a forceful editorial in Austrian daily newspaper Die Presse this week.

Back in Kilkenny, ICMSA president Drennan will be leaning on the Irish government to vote against EV duties. The issue is sure to be raised when Irish agriculture minister Charlie McConalogue takes a trade mission to China in the coming weeks.

“We absolutely should be voting against it,” Drennan said. “Farmers are afraid, and this is only the start of it – it will notch up as things go along and infant formula could be hit next.”

“If there is going to be a trade war over electric cars, then it’s crazy that small farmers like me are collateral damage.”

Chinese University of Hong Kong appoints former Legco administrator Kenneth Chen as vice-president

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/3275882/chinese-university-hong-kong-appoints-former-legco-administrator-kenneth-chen-vice-president?utm_source=rss_feed

The Chinese University of Hong Kong’s governing body has appointed Kenneth Chen Wei-on, former secretary-general of the city’s Legislative Council, as the institution’s vice-president on a three-year term following a special meeting on Monday.

A source told the Post that Chen, 59, did not receive a unanimous vote for his appointment and he would be responsible for the varsity’s administration, including public affairs with different stakeholders including the government, campus management and the liaison work with other institutions.

Chen served as the city’s undersecretary for education between 2008 and 2012 before joining the Legislative Council as secretary-general responsible for its administrative matters.

Liu Jin resigns as Bank of China’s president for undisclosed ‘personal reason’

https://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/3275889/liu-jin-resigns-bank-chinas-president-undisclosed-personal-reason?utm_source=rss_feed

Liu Jin has resigned as the vice-chairman and president of China’s largest global bank, in a surprise move five months after his reappointment to the lender’s top executive job.

Liu resigned for “personal reasons” from Bank of China, effective August 25, the state-owned bank said in a Sunday filing to the stock exchange, without elaborating. The bank’s Beijing spokespeople declined to comment.

The move came as a surprise as Liu, born in 1967, has yet to reach the official retirement age of 60 years for China’s public servants and employees of state-owned companies.

Bank of China’s history can be traced to 1905 when it was established as the Da Qing Bank under imperial rule. The bank was renamed after the 1911 revolution that overthrew the Manchu’s imperial rule.

Liu is a career banker, joining the bank as president in April 2021, and was appointed vice-chairman in June 2021. Before the Bank of China, he held various positions at state-owned China Everbright Bank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), and China Development Bank.

Ge Haijiao, BoC’s chairman and party secretary, will serve as acting president until a new president is appointed, the bank said in a separate announcement on Sunday. Ge has been the chairman, non-executive director, and chairman of the strategy and budget committee of the bank’s Hong Kong and mainland branches since April 2023.

Before Liu resigned, he had missed the bank’s August 19 board meeting, chaired by Ge, where the bank announced plans to switch its auditor for the year from PwC China to rival EY. PwC’s mainland China branch is facing a six-month ban by Chinese authorities and potentially a large fine as punishment for its involvement in the financial fraud of the now-liquidated developer China Evergrande Group.

According to the bank’s 2023 annual report, Liu missed two out of the 13 board meetings that Bank of China held throughout last year.

The former president’s resignation followed the departure of Liu Liange, the former party chief and chairman of the bank. Liu pleaded guilty in April to the charge of accepting more than 121 million yuan (US$17 million) in bribes and illegally issuing loans worth 3.3 billion yuan. The 62-year-old stepped down from his positions in March 2023.

China launched a new round of anti-corruption inspections by Chinese authorities in April, targeting some of the country’s largest state-owned banks, including ICBC and BOC, as well as financial regulators, such as the ministry of finance and the China securities regulatory Commission.

Bank of China’s shares retraced 0.9 per cent to 7 yuan in Shanghai, rising 0.3 per cent to HK$3.58 at the noon trading pause in Hong Kong.

China nurse saves life of 820-gram baby in ‘critical danger’ born in toilet during flight

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3275854/china-nurse-saves-life-820-gram-baby-critical-danger-born-toilet-during-flight?utm_source=rss_feed

A nurse in China has won massive plaudits for her calm, swift actions as she saved the life of a premature baby during a flight.

The mother was only 25-week pregnant when she gave birth in the toilet of a Southern Airlines plane from Haikou, Hainan province in the south of the country to Beijing on August 3, reported state broadcaster CCTV.

The woman was travelling with her four-year-old daughter to meet her husband in Beijing.

Chen Shanshan, a nurse who works in the neonatal department at Hainan Provincial People’s Hospital, responded quickly after flight attendants asked around the aircraft for emergency medical aid for the newly-born baby.

Chen said she saw the mother, surnamed Zhang, holding a palm-sized infant in her hand, and the baby was still wrapped in the fetal membrane.

Assisted by two doctors from different departments of the same hospital, Chen, wearing gloves, tore off the fetal membrane so the baby could breathe.

They soon realised the newborn’s entire body looked far too pale, it was not crying or breathing and they could not feel a pulse. The baby did not respond to stimulation.

“This little weak life is in critical danger. Every single second is vital to her,” Chen said as she performed emergency CPR on the tiny girl.

She asked cabin crew for a warm water bag to keep the child’s temperature stable, which is especially vital for premature babies who are at the risk of hematosepsis and even death.

Chen and the two doctors let out a sigh of relief as the baby’s breath and heartbeat stabilised.

The pilot made an emergency landing in Changsha, central Hunan province, southern China for the safety of the infant and her mother.

Chen had kept up the chest compressions for 90 minutes until the baby was sent to a hospital in Changsha.

“It was only as I saw the baby taken into the rescue room that I realised my arms were numb,” she said.

Zhang’s husband hurried to Changsha hospital when he heard about the birth of his younger daughter.

He said the infant weighed a mere 820 grams, gaining 50 grams during her two-week stay in hospital.

“Thank you for being there at the critical moment. We will tell our kid and she will remember you forever,” the father said in a video clip sent to Chen.

He said he would thank the nurse in person after the baby was discharged from hospital.

Chen said that she was not thinking about much at the time, she was so focused on rescuing the baby. She said the cabin crew and the two doctors also deserve thanks.

The story has triggered an outpouring of compliments for Chen on mainland social media.

Mainland Chinese man arrested after allegedly stealing HK$330,000 Rolex on Hong Kong flight

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3275892/mainland-chinese-man-arrested-after-allegedly-stealing-hk330000-rolex-hong-kong-flight?utm_source=rss_feed

Hong Kong police have arrested a mainland Chinese man on an HK Express flight for allegedly stealing items such as a Rolex watch worth HK$330,000 (US$42,321) and thousands of dollars in cash from a fellow passenger.

The force said on Monday the 57-year-old man, surnamed Chen, was apprehended the previous night after officers received a report that the victim was allegedly robbed of HK$5,000, US$200, €20 and 1 million Vietnamese dong.

The watch and a bank card were also among the stolen items.

Police added the victim had placed the items inside a handbag and stowed them in an overhead baggage compartment when she boarded, but found them gone after the plane landed.

Airport staff members called police after the victim notified them of the incident and all plane passengers had boarded a bus on a ramp.

“Several witnesses” identified the suspect, while the lost items which were hidden under a mat on the luggage rack of the bus had been recovered, police added.

A man, who said he had been a passenger on flight UO561 from Da Nang to Hong Kong which landed at 12:25am on Sunday, claimed he had witnessed the arrest as he posted clips and photos of the operations on Facebook.

“All the passengers disembarked and got onto a bus, when the driver suddenly locked the door without explanation and kept us trapped inside for about an hour,” he said.

“The air conditioner was blasting and it was so cold – we banged on the doors but no one responded.”

The man said that after police officers arrived, a flight attendant came down and identified five mainland passengers, who were subsequently brought back onto the plane, as a female passenger claimed that some of her belongings were missing.

The Post has reached out to the Airport Authority and HK Express for comment.

In March, a man, 54, was arrested by Singaporean authorities at Changi Airport for allegedly stealing S$107,000 (US$82,217) in cash from a fellow passenger on a flight from Hong Kong to the city state.

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Harris-Walz in spotlight over China ties as Democrats rubber-stamps ticket

https://www.scmp.com/economy/article/3275861/harris-walz-spotlight-over-china-ties-democrats-rubber-stamps-ticket?utm_source=rss_feed

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International affairs occupy a relatively low ranking when it comes to concerns of American voters, especially when the current election cycle has been marked by bloodshed and other intrigue largely unrelated to foreign policy.

When US presidential candidate Kamala Harris chose Tim Walz, the governor of the upper midwest state of Minnesota, to be her running mate, details about his teaching gigs in China emerged shortly thereafter. But the fact that he spent numerous stints in the country did not seem to weigh down the new ticket.

Republicans immediately seized on Walz’s China teaching experience - and the student-exchange programme he and his wife managed - in a bid to tarnish Walz right out of the gate, but within a week, the Democratic ticket had erased the polling gap that opened up after President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance a month earlier.

This doesn’t mean that the China factor is out of play for the Harris-Walz ticket. At the moment, Republicans are hammering Walz for his progressive policies as governor and the timing of his departure from the US military. His opponents in Congress have set some traps related to Walz’s China experience.

We’ll come back to that. Let’s first review the fast-paced drama that has so far defined the 2024 general election.

The now-infamous debate that marked the start of the tumult, when the two candidates threw familiar attack lines about China at each other, was less than two months ago.

Before that pivotal event, the election was marked by a general lack of enthusiasm for a replay of an election that led to one of the worst episodes of political violence in US history, the deadly January 6, 2021, attack by supporters of Donald Trump on the US Capitol.

And just as friction with China was a key characteristic of Trump’s presidency, he used the country as a line of attack against Biden even though the current president has left Trump’s China tariffs largely in place.

Biden took aim at Trump’s proposed tariff hikes, while the Republican nominee accused Biden of being “afraid” to deal with China, calling the president a “Manchurian candidate” in Beijing’s pocket.

But Biden’s mumbling, gaffe-filled performance represented a catastrophic turn for his re-election campaign, worrying even the president’s most ardent supporters over a smooth path back to the White House for Trump.

As top Democrats urged Biden to step out of the race, Biden insisted otherwise, casting a pall over the party’s prospects.

It was in this unsettled environment that the most menacing of black swans stepped in. An apparently deranged 20-year-old gun fanatic tried to assassinate Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

That led to demands for investigations and an outpouring of reverence for the candidate, particularly among his base.

Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle said later, during a highly contentious congressional hearing, that her agency failed in its mission to protect the former president.

Lawmakers of both major political parties demanded she resign over security failures that allowed the gunman to scale a nearby roof to find a line of sight to Trump, and she did so soon after.

Before the dust from that melee had settled, Biden announced his departure from the race and endorsed Harris - another turning point that required pundits to recalibrate their calls on the election outcome.

Harris was already closing the polling lead Trump had against Biden when she again shook up the race by selecting Walz as her running mate, and her numbers have continued to improve.

Eager to undercut Harris’ momentum, Trump held a series of events, including a live conversation on X, formerly Twitter, conducted by billionaire Elon Musk, which was delayed by 40 minutes owing to technical glitches. Musk endorsed the 2024 Republican presidential nominee last month and has pledged US$45 million per month towards the re-election bid - though claimed he had been misquoted later.

Trump also conducted a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, during which he suggested that he would “get along great” with Chinese President Xi Jinping if back in the White House.

Since Biden stepped out of the race, Trump has let loose with multiple falsehoods including assertions that no one died in the 2021 attack on the Capitol and that Harris’ replacement of Biden as the Democratic nominee was unconstitutional, leading to demands from some Republicans that he change tack.

Danger also lurks for the Harris-Walz ticket, as highlighted by Republican demands for investigations into Walz’s China engagements.

Representative Jim Banks of Indiana, who sits on both the House Committee on Armed Services and its select committee on China, asked Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin to investigate the Democratic vice-presidential nominee’s travel to the mainland as a member of the US military.

Banks wants Austin to look into whether Walz complied with foreign travel reporting requirements when he served in the Nebraska and Minnesota national guards. A Pentagon spokesperson said Austin would respond to the letter “in due course”.

Two days later, James Comer, chair of the US House Committee on Oversight and Reform, formally launched a probe of Walz, targeting his personal history with China.

In announcing the investigation, Comer cited reports highlighting the Minnesota governor’s “long-standing connections to Communist Party entities and officials”.

Regardless of how these investigations proceed, they are unlikely to have much impact on whatever China policy a Harris administration would adopt, according to observers.

In the meantime, Harris, Walz and Biden have emphasised domestic political issues throughout the Democratic National Convention, at which Harris formally accepted her party’s nomination.

In the only mention of China in his convention speech, Biden cited doubt over the inevitability of the country surpassing the US economically as proof of the efficacy of his economic policies.

Walz, meanwhile, opted not to address criticisms of his long personal history with China as he accepted his party’s nomination.

In her speech as she accepted the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination on Thursday, Harris promised to ensure “that America, not China, wins the competition for the 21st century”.

During her 40-minute address which capped off the four-day convention, the Democratic nominee said the US would “strengthen, not abdicate, our global leadership” under her administration.

60-Second Catch-up

Accepting historic nomination, Harris vows ‘America, not China’ will win 21st century.

Harris’ VP pick Tim Walz rallies Democrats in punchy speech, sidesteps China questions.

Video: Kamala Harris confirmed as Democratic presidential nominee after ceremonial roll-call.

Opinion: Kamala Harris’ economic plan could be what US voters will settle for.

Joe Biden touts policies for US middle class, says Chinese economic dominance not assured.

China-ties probe of Tim Walz, Democratic VP candidate, formally launched by US House panel.

Joe Biden approved secret nuclear strategy focusing on ‘Chinese threat’: New York Times.

Opinion: Why Harris-Walz is still the better pick for US-China engagement.

Deep Dives

As the Democratic Party unites behind US Vice-President Kamala Harris, the nation’s first Asian-American and African-American woman to be nominated for president by a major political party, many Asian-Americans say they feel increasingly emboldened and optimistic that their voices will be heard.

Democrats in general have been energised since US President Joe Biden, 81, stepped aside a month ago following a disastrous debate performance against the Republican candidate, former president Donald Trump. Biden’s endorsement of Harris, 59, sparked memes on social media platforms and record fundraising for her.

Read more.

If Kamala Harris were to win November’s election, analysts say her extensive engagement with Southeast Asia as US vice-president would put her in good stead to continue the current administration’s policies in the strategically vital region.

Through high-profile visits to key US allies Singapore and Vietnam, Harris has already staked out a tough stance against China’s assertiveness in the South China Sea, a central battleground in the intensifying US-China rivalry.

Read more.

US Vice-President Kamala Harris called for expanded US employment, increased opportunities for Americans and more secure supply chains on Friday in her first major policy speech since replacing President Joe Biden as the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate.

“As president, I will be laser focused on creating opportunities for the middle class that advance their economic security, stability and dignity,” she said to an enthusiastic crowd of about 300 at a community college in the contested state of North Carolina.

Read more.

In the latest Republican attempt to discredit Tim Walz and his China experience, a US congressman has asked Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin to investigate the Democratic vice-presidential nominee’s travel to the mainland as a member of the US military.

The letter sent on Tuesday by Congressman Jim Banks of Indiana said the Minnesota governor possibly did not comply with foreign-travel reporting requirements during personal trips to China when he served in the Nebraska and Minnesota national guards.

Read more.

US presidential candidate Donald Trump accused American Democratic leaders of driving “natural enemies” China and Russia together while suggesting he would “get along great” with Chinese President Xi Jinping if he wins back the White House.

Speaking at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Trump described his once and possibly future relationship with China’s leader in positive terms while in the same sentence blaming him for the coronavirus pandemic.

Read more.

Trump’s fans love his bobbleheads. His planned China tariffs could change that

Just 10 days after former US president Donald Trump narrowly dodged an attempted assassination, the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum released two new Trump bobblehead dolls, citing requests from his fans and collectors.

One shows the Republican presidential candidate with a bloodied ear and a defiant raised fist, capturing the drama of the July 13 attack at a rally in Pennsylvania. The other bobblehead has him sporting a white bandage on his ear, which was nicked by a bullet.

Read more.

Former US president Donald Trump warned on Monday that China’s nuclear capabilities, though behind the United States, could surpass American dominance “sooner than people think”, raising concerns about a shift in global power dynamics.

Trump shared the comments during a live conversation on X, formerly Twitter, conducted by billionaire Elon Musk, who last month endorsed the 2024 Republican presidential nominee and has pledged US$45 million per month towards the re-election bid.

Read more.

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China’s Dali offers dating service, Singapore’s housing dilemma: 5 weekend reads

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/3275809/chinas-dali-offers-dating-service-singapores-housing-dilemma-5-weekend-reads?utm_source=rss_feed

We have put together stories from our coverage last weekend to help you stay informed about news across Asia and beyond. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider .

‘Cramped’ China mother and child demand free upgrade to first class, disrupt flight

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3275811/cramped-china-mother-and-child-demand-free-upgrade-first-class-disrupt-flight?utm_source=rss_feed

A mother in China sparked public outrage for allowing her noisy son to disturb other plane passengers and barge into the first-class cabin, delaying a flight for an hour.

The incident unfolded on August 15 when a domestic flight was preparing to leave Chongqing in southwestern China, The Paper reported.

A young boy, whose age was not released, cried and complained to his mother that their economy-class seats were too cramped, then stood in the aisle.

The mother, who ignored flight attendants’ requests for her son to return to his seat, allowed him to enter the first-class cabin.

“There are empty seats. Why don’t you just let us sit here?” the woman said in a video that went viral on mainland social media.

Several flight attendants tried to persuade the pair to go back to their seats, but they were ignored.

Other passengers became angry and voices could clearly be heard in the video saying, “get off the plane” and “do not waste time talking to her, just get her off”.

The plane finally took off an hour later.

It is not clear whether the woman received a punishment for her conduct. The name of the airline was also not disclosed in the report.

The mother’s behaviour attracted a wave of criticism on mainland social media.

“Prisons have many vacancies. She can have a seat there,” one online observer said.

“It’s not the child’s fault. The parent’s education is the issue. She should be held fully responsible for the inconvenience she caused to other passengers,” said another.

The airline’s approach to the disruption was also commented on by netizens.

“The flight attendants did not do a good job in dealing with the disturbance. Also, the company has not issued a statement explaining to passengers why the flight was delayed, or offering them compensation,” one observer said.

Incidents involving plane seats frequently make headlines in China.

Last year, an elderly woman reportedly swore at a young woman on a Jiangxi Airlines domestic flight after the latter refused to swap her window seat.

The elderly woman demanded to sit by the window because she had hypertension and heart disease. A flight attendant resolved the situation by seating her elsewhere.

China strengthens Myanmar border with ‘armed and air-to-ground’ joint PLA patrols

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3275860/china-strengthens-myanmar-border-armed-and-air-ground-joint-pla-patrols?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s military is conducting patrols in the southwestern province of Yunnan which borders Myanmar.

The PLA Southern Theatre Command issued a statement saying its army troops were organised to go to Ruili and Zhenkang on Monday “to carry out border armed patrol and air-to-ground joint patrol”.

“The purpose is to test the theatre troop’s capabilities in rapid mobility, three-dimensional containment and joint combat, to maintain the safety and stability of the border areas,” it said.

The patrols follow increasing violence in the prolonged civil war in neighbouring Myanmar between the ruling junta and armed ethnic minority groups. The destabilising situation is posing a challenge to China’s border security.

There are also concerns about the security of Chinese assets and personnel in the border region.

More to follow …

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China’s low-altitude economy spreads its wings as struggling locales look skyward

https://www.scmp.com/economy/economic-indicators/article/3275663/chinas-low-altitude-economy-spreads-its-wings-struggling-locales-look-skyward?utm_source=rss_feed

Gone are the days when local governments across China could trust in groundbreaking infrastructure and real estate projects to elevate their economies, so now many are turning their gaze upward – looking to the skies for opportunity.

Like a swarm of drones whizzing overhead, the buzz surrounding China’s burgeoning “low-altitude economy” has reached new heights this year as authorities have touted it in development plans and policy updates as a means of creating jobs and desperately needed revenue to fuel engines for economic growth.

These critical goals align with a national policy to foster “new quality productive forces”, particularly in science and technology, at a time when when traditional economic drivers have sputtered and stalled out.

The low-altitude economy is an integrated economic model that generally encompasses manned and unmanned activities within airspace below 1,000 metres (3,280 feet), but the range can be extended to 3,000 metres depending on regional and practical needs.

It encompasses the use of vertical take-off and landing aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for a range of low-altitude operations, including passenger transport, cargo delivery and other tasks, as well as a vast commercial ecosystem, encompassing infrastructure development and comprehensive support services, creating a significant industry chain.

Investment has been pouring into the sector as regional locales vie for the title of “Sky City”, sparking not only competition but also cooperation between regions.

Just over the weekend, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei low-altitude economy industrial alliance was established, and 33 projects were officially approved, including a battery production line and the planning of a low-altitude public route in a science park.

At an event in Tianjin on Saturday, guests from the three regions witnessed a drone show demonstrating low-altitude application scenarios and business models in the air, according to state media.

The size of China’s low-altitude economy reached 506 billion yuan (US$70.9 billion) last year, growing at a year-on-year rate of nearly 34 per cent, according to an April report by CCID Consulting, a subsidiary of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

The report forecast that, given the increasing frequency of low-altitude flight activities and the impact of infrastructure investment, the scale of China’s low-altitude economy is expected to surpass 1 trillion yuan by 2026.

The industry boasts a long value chain that spans from R&D and the manufacturing of components such as chips and batteries, to the design and production of drones, eVTOLs (electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles), and applications in sectors such as transport, logistics and agriculture.

Low-altitude economy was highlighted as a strategic emerging industry during the central economic work conference in December, and then further emphasised by Premier Li Qiang in his 2024 government work report as a key growth engine for future development. Since then, all 31 provincial-level regions on the Chinese mainland have either incorporated it into their government work reports or released related policies to boost the sector, with many elevating it to the status of a future leading industry.

Cities are establishing various industry investment funds, offering financial support, land, and favourable policies to attract and develop the promising sector.

This summer, local governments across China have accelerated the roll-out of policies supporting the low-altitude economy.

In the span of just a few weeks, major cities such as Shenzhen and provinces such as Zhejiang and Hubei have introduced supportive measures, with some regions setting clear development targets. For example, Guangzhou aims to grow its low-altitude economy to 150 billion yuan by 2027, while Beijing is striving to boost the city’s economy by more than 100 billion yuan within three years.

Regions focus on different aspects of the industry chain based on its unique resources, with policies promoting the low-altitude economy primarily concentrated on new infrastructure, manufacturing and operational flight support, among others.

As of February, more than 57,000 companies were operating in China’s low-altitude economy, with nearly 21,000 of these established in the past five years, and close to 80 per cent were founded within the last decade, according to the MIIT report.

The report also noted that more than 90 per cent of the nation’s low-altitude economy resources were concentrated in the 50 largest city economies.

The drone industry is the leading sector in the low-altitude economy, and Guangdong province holds a significant advantage in developing the industry due to its high concentration of drone enterprises.

Guangdong cities such as Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Zhuhai are at the forefront of exploring policies related to the low-altitude economy, with the province placing particular emphasis on the layout and expansion of the drone industry chain.

Shenzhen, home to major industry leaders such as DJI, EHang, and Zerotech, leads the country with the most low-altitude economy enterprises, followed by Guangzhou and Beijing.

In 2022, Shenzhen’s drone industry generated nearly 75 billion yuan in production output, accounting for 70 per cent of the national total, with consumer drones capturing 70 per cent of the global market share, according to local government figures.

By the end of 2022, the city had introduced a three-year plan for the sector’s high-quality development. Last year, the city incorporated the low-altitude economy into its government work report. And this year, Shenzhen enacted the country’s first legislation on the low-altitude economy – a success that has also been recognised by the national government.

Shenzhen had 1,730 drone-related enterprises as of last year, covering the entire value chain from manufacturing and R&D to software development.

Shanghai-headquartered Autoflight announced that fares of eVTOLs, popularly known as flying cars, could drop to 6 yuan per kilometre, potentially reducing the cost of a 20-minute flight from Shenzhen to Zhuhai to as low as 240 yuan, compared with the current two-and-a-half-hour drive.

The Yangtze River Delta is also keeping pace, with Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang advancing their drone industries and exploring new low-altitude applications, such as eVTOL flights between Shanghai and Suzhou, which can complete the journey in under 30 minutes for a few hundred yuan per person.

The Suzhou Industrial Park has also tested drone deliveries for emergency medical supplies, reducing delivery times by an average of 60 per cent.

China’s central and lesser-developed provinces are seizing the opportunity to leap into the low-altitude economy realm. Henan has unveiled an ambitious plan to establish low-altitude infrastructure and an airspace-management system by 2025, aiming to build around 10 general aviation airports and numerous drone take-off sites, with the industry size projected to reach 30 billion yuan.

Meanwhile, Xian in Shaanxi province has emerged as a major drone hub, with 1,635 new companies registered between 2022 and 2023 alone.

However, experts have cautioned that not every region is equipped to develop a low-altitude economy, despite the nationwide rush.

Considering tight local government finances, it is unwise for financially weaker regions to make heavy investments in the low-altitude economy, according to a report published last month by Anbound, Beijing-based public policy consultancy.

It added that, at this stage, only a few areas are suitable for significant investment, given the constraints of airspace regulations and airworthiness certification.

“The inefficient and redundant introduction and production is leading to increasingly homogenised industrial structures across regions,” Anbound said. “This not only drains local economic and fiscal resources but also stifles the development of regional comparative advantages, ultimately affecting the overall efficiency of the national economy.

“Local governments should tailor their emerging industry policies to their specific conditions and avoid blindly following strategic trends.”

Hefei, an innovation leader in southeast China’s Anhui province, is positioning the low-altitude economy as its next pillar industry, leveraging its proximity to the advanced Yangtze River Delta aerospace sector. The city has attracted major players such as EHang, committing US$100 million in support to solidify its status as a “low-altitude city” by 2025.

Smaller cities such as Rizhao in Shandong province and Loudi in Hunan province are also aiming to capitalise on the burgeoning sector, looking to take off by building necessary infrastructure.

Across the country, more than 10 provinces and cities, including Beijing, Zhejiang, and Henan, are prioritising the development of general aviation airports and low-altitude tourism.

In the latest competition among cities for dominance in the low-altitude economy, industry funds have become a key focus, with provinces and cities such as Anhui, Jiangxi, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Guiyang, Wuhan and Suzhou having launched low-altitude economy industry funds that range between from 1 billion and 20 billion yuan.

For instance, Wuhan plans to establish a 10-billion-yuan fund with contributions from both the city and district levels, while Suzhou has signed more than a dozen low-altitude economy industry funds this year, totalling more than 20 billion yuan and making it the largest in the country.

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North Korea challenges China’s border telecoms plans in rare protest

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3275868/north-korea-challenges-chinas-border-telecoms-plans-rare-protest?utm_source=rss_feed

North Korea has taken a stance opposing China’s plans to install telecommunications facilities near the border in a recent email to an international frequency management organisation - a rare revelation of a diplomatic action by Pyongyang to express dissatisfaction with Beijing.

According to the email obtained by reporters, North Korea also complained that China failed to consult it about the plans in advance, a sign that the two countries long known for close economic ties may have a problem in bilateral communication.

The dispute occurred after the Geneva-based International Telecommunication Union made the information about terrestrial networks available to relevant countries in June, including China’s plan to set up 191 facilities for purposes such as FM radio broadcasting.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of relations between North Korea and China, its long-time economic benefactor.

But Pyongyang has sought closer ties with Russia, especially in the defence sector, through activities such as sealing a strategic partnership treaty in June between its leader Kim Jong-un and President Vladimir Putin, a move diplomatic sources in Beijing said displeased China.

North Korea said that some of the proposed radio stations are “located in the border areas” with the country and it expressed “objection to the registration of those FM stations” in the email dated July 24.

Of the 191, 17 stations including those in Dandong, a border city in northeastern China, could cause “serious interference”, it said.

Beijing “has never made request for advance coordination” and the move would constitute an “infringement” of an ITU guideline as well as a bilateral agreement signed in 1981, Pyongyang said. Details about the bilateral accord are unknown.

“It is a rare occurrence that a confrontation between China and North Korea has been revealed,” said Atsuhito Isozaki, an expert on North Korean politics, adding that possible signals of worsening ties were also seen in reporting patterns by Pyongyang’s official newspaper.

The Rodong Sinmun has not mentioned Chinese President Xi Jinping or the 75th anniversary of the bilateral ties for several months, the professor at Keio University in Japan said, adding that the current status of relations does not seem to be “normal”.

Japan, the United States and South Korea expressed “grave concern over the increasing military and economic cooperation commitment” between Pyongyang and Moscow during their defence ministerial talks last month.

Philippines ‘will be a target’ in event of nuclear war between China and US, analysts warn

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3275703/philippines-will-be-target-event-nuclear-war-between-china-and-us-analysts-warn?utm_source=rss_feed

The Philippines finds itself in the cross hairs of a potential nuclear showdown between the United States on one side and China, Russia and North Korea, on the other, warn analysts – who are urging President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr’s administration to recalibrate its foreign policy.

Ominous reports emerged last week that US President Joe Biden is already strategising about how to counter the growing possibility of a joint strike against America by this formidable triad of nuclear powers. And the Philippines, with its strategic location and deep military ties to the US, is widely seen as a likely target should such a cataclysmic conflict erupt.

“Regardless of [whether it’s an] immediate or direct threat, we are going to be affected,” warned Ramon Beleno III, head of the political science and history department at Ateneo De Davao University in the Philippines. “Even if they just hit Taiwan, because of our proximity … we will be a target.”

Manila allowing the US access to its military camps and to deploy a new missile system in the country were aggravating factors, Beleno said.

His dire assessment underscores the precarious position the Philippines now finds itself in. While Washington’s security guarantees have long offered a deterrent against potential aggressors, they have also placed the archipelago squarely in the cross hairs of a superpower showdown with apocalyptic stakes.

Beleno urged Manila to “refrain from taking sides” in this looming clash of nuclear titans. “If there will be a side for us to pick, it will be the side of peace,” he said. “If you use nuclear weapons, it will not just hit your enemy, it will destroy all of us.”

In the event of a nuclear showdown, China is likely to unleash a barrage of tactical strikes against key military targets across the Philippines such as facilities, runways, and shipyards, said Joshua Espeña, a resident fellow and vice-president of the International Development and Security Cooperation think tank.

“The People’s Liberation Army would likely place decoys on the signals received in the alliance’s intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance coverage,” Espeña told This Week in Asia. “So, it is apt for Manila to strengthen ISR, electronic warfare capabilities, air defence systems with enough munitions.”

The challenge, he explained, would be intercepting these tactical nuclear weapons mid-flight, given the limited range of the US military’s Mid-Range Capability (MRC) Weapon System. Espeña urged the Philippine armed forces to bolster their own dedicated air defence systems with robust munition stockpiles and advanced electronic warfare capabilities.

“We cannot rely on the MRC alone,” he said. “The Philippine military must also have its air defence system that has a significant amount of munition stockpile. Moreover, electronic warfare capabilities are essential to disable their targeting capabilities even if they have a range advantage.”

Since taking office in 2022, Marcos has embraced a US-centric foreign policy, granting Washington access to nine military sites under the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement. But Espeña warns that in the event of nuclear war, China could potentially disable these forward operating US units, leaving the Philippines “isolated to fight on its own”.

He suggested that the Philippine armed forces might be able to mount an asymmetric response, however, by tapping into the capabilities of the country’s special forces to identify and target key missile launch locations.

The heightened nuclear tensions have also drawn sharp warnings from Russia. In July, President Vladimir Putin cautioned that the US weapon systems now stationed in the Philippines could provoke Moscow to resume missile production and potentially deploy them beyond Russian borders.

The US Typhon missile launcher system was deployed to the Philippines in April for the countries’ annual Balikatan joint military exercises. The Typhon is capable of firing SM-6 anti-aircraft missiles and Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles, with operational ranges of more than 240km (150 miles) and 2,500km, respectively,

The Typhon has remained in northern Luzon to allow Filipino troops to familiarise themselves with the system.

However, the Philippines was unlikely to be a “primary target” in the event of a major conventional conflict between China and the US, according to Chris Gardiner, CEO of the Institute for Regional Security in Canberra, Australia.

He noted that all key US military sites would be potential targets and “prioritised with regard to critical systems function or basing of critical assets” in the event of war. Primary targets would include US nuclear capabilities and command and control that involve intercontinental ballistic missile sites, naval and airbases housing nuclear capable submarines and bombers, and communications and intelligence sites.

“It is not likely that the Philippines is a primary target in that regard,” Gardiner told This Week in Asia. “Interestingly, in terms of countries sharing collective security responsibilities, sites in Australia such as the Pine Gap facilities and the proposed nuclear submarine base in Western Australia would be targeted.”

However, he emphasised that the deployment of the powerful US Typhon missile system to the Philippines would be a critical deterrent against Chinese aggression in the country’s territorial waters. And should deterrence fail, the advanced capabilities of the Typhon would be pivotal in helping the Philippines prevail in any major conventional escalation, Gardiner said.

He said Manila faced two questions in regards to its defence policies and capabilities. The first is how to effectively deter China from utilising its military power in disputes with the Philippines – including determining the best strategies for managing any potential grey-zone conflicts or conventional escalations should deterrence fail, and how partners like the US, Japan and Australia can assist.

The second challenge is determining to what extent the Philippines should reciprocate the support it receives from these partner countries.

“I think the Marcos administration is right in thinking, for example, that its EDCA with the US is a prudent answer to both,” Gardiner said.

Philippine Senator Imee Marcos recently claimed, without providing any evidence, that China had plans to target sites across the Philippines with hypersonic missile strikes.

She said 25 areas in the country had been targeted in the plans she saw, including the island of Batanes and Subic in Zambales, where new Brahmos missiles systems have been deployed, and the Ilocos region, the venue of the annual Balikatan joint military drills.

Senator Marcos expressed concern that Washington could not prevent such attacks and argued that China was targeting the Philippines because of its growing military ties with the US.

The Philippines and the US are bound by their 1951 Mutual Defence Treaty obliging them to come to each other’s aid in the event of an external attack. Washington has repeatedly reaffirmed its “ironclad” commitment to this treaty.

Gardiner said it was important for Filipinos to understand that the major conflict scenarios currently being considered by the US, Japan, and Australia involve these nations joining Philippine military action to defend the country’s sovereignty.

“Should conflict escalate to a major conventional clash, the MRC systems would be very important, but likewise, they would be targeted, as would any system or site critical to conventional victory,” he said.

China would have developed its own assessment of potential conflict scenarios, and Gardiner said those plans could involve defeating the Philippines in any military conflict over current territorial claims.

“That involves a clash of claims and interests between China and the Philippines and does not arise from growing ties with the US. Growing US engagement with the Philippines in its defence actually complicates Chinese planning in that regard and acts as a deterrent,” he said.

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‘As long as we’re here, it’s ours’: the island fishing community on the frontline of South China Sea tensions

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/26/thitu-island-philippines-south-china-sea-tensions-pag-asa-fishing-community

From the sandy beaches of Thitu Island, blue waters stretch for as far as the eye can see. It feels like a tranquil paradise: there’s no noisy road traffic, air pollution or crowds. But Thitu is not a luxury retreat, it’s a tiny island in the remote Spratly chain and one of the world’s most fiercely contested maritime sites.

Thitu has been occupied by the Philippines since 1974 and is home to 387 civilians. However, China also claims the island and much of the surrounding South China Sea. Thitu and its people are on the frontline of an intensifying struggle against their superpower neighbour.

As is the case for many other features in the South China Sea, even the name of the island is controversial. The Philippines calls it Pag-asa Island (meaning “hope” in Tagalog), while the other claimants, China, Vietnam and Taiwan, use separate names. The name Thitu is used by international courts.

“We will not leave the island, no matter what happens,” says Larry Hugo, the head of the fisherfolk association on Thitu. Over the years he has been chased by Chinese vessels and has seen the number of Chinese boats plying the waters off Thitu grow in number, joined by aircraft and even drones overhead, he says. “It seems like Pag-asa is under surveillance. They are watching over what residents of Pag-asa Island are doing. They are more now than before.”

Residents have lived with the threat of China for years, but recently tensions in the South China Sea have escalated. Earlier this year, Chinese vessels in effect imposed a blockade to stop Philippine resupply missions from reaching troops based at Second Thomas Shoal, which lies 121 nautical miles away from Thitu, with the Philippines repeatedly accusing China of ramming its boats and blasting them with water cannon.

This month, two Filipino coastguard ships were damaged in a collision with Chinese vessels at another site, Sabina Shoal, in the first such incident there in recent memory. Both Sabina and Second Thomas fall within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Thitu does not.

On Friday, Chinese state media drew attention to Thitu, saying the Philippines could “stir up trouble” through its presence on the island and accusing Manila of “illegally” occupying it and expanding military infrastructure. Then on Sunday, Philippines and Chinese vessels clashed near Sabina Shoal over what Manila said was a resupply mission for fishers, and what China’s coast guard termed an “illegal” entry into its waters.

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China also introduced new regulations in June that empower its coastguard to detain foreigners accused of so-called trespassing. Thitu’s fishers now go out only in larger groups, says Hugo. “We discussed that if one of us is arrested, all of us will join,” he says.

‘We are ready to die here’

Hugo first came to Thitu for work in 2009, when the island was barely touched by development. “We were only 16 people back then, there were no other people in Pag-asa Island,” he says. “There was electricity only in the evening until 11pm. There was no signal.” It was silent on the island, he says. “You wouldn’t even hear the voices of people.”

Hugo was employed building some of the island’s first houses. He is now a fisher, and often films his sightings of Chinese vessels and aircraft, sharing videos on Facebook.

Today, Thitu has a health clinic, a school, a port, a runway, an evacuation centre and a small chapel. There is a basketball court, karaoke (though you must stop crooning before the island’s 10pm curfew), and neighbourhood stores selling fizzy drinks and snacks. A new airport and tourist accommodation is being developed. There is also a naval station, and a newly developed coastguard station to monitor traffic in the strategically important and resource-rich waters.

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The population has grown to 387 civilians, including about 98 school-age children, partly owing to incentives such as rice subsidies introduced by the government. This figure does not include construction workers who have moved temporarily for work. “It’s actually much better here,” says Hugo’s 14-year-old daughter, Abegail. The island is small, just a mile long, and so she is allowed to wander around freely.

Thitu is far from bad influences that are found back on the main island of Palawan, she says. “I’d like people to know its beautiful here – it’s happy, a joy to live here.” In her spare time she walks on the beach with friends, plays volleyball and swims in the sea until she is exhausted. Her favourite place, once she has finished her homework, is the island’s wifi centre, where she browses Facebook and TikTok. There is no wifi at home, and mobile data is patchy on the island.

There are things Abegail misses from Palawan. She longs most for vanilla ice-cream, and craves kaldereta, a Philippine stew, and adobo, a dish normally made with pork or chicken. There is a small piggery on Thitu, but just one pig is butchered a month, which does not go far. Sometimes she tires of eating fish every day, she says.

Life on Thitu is simple, and the island, a tiny speck in the sea, is vulnerable to nature. “There isn’t always good weather for fishing. Often it’s raining,” says Nasreen Guarin, a midwife who was deployed to the island in 2020. When a typhoon hit the region in July, it did not stop pouring for three to four weeks, and islanders were forced to rely on stockpiles of tinned foods.

Bad weather does not just stop fishers from going out but also means navy flights from Palawan, which bring regular food supplies including frozen goods, are cancelled. Some vegetables are grown on the island, including a type of string bean, spinach and gourd, but fruit is limited. Guarin misses grapes the most, she says.

There is also no birthing facility on Thitu, and pregnant women must return to Palawan. But resources have improved, the midwife says. The health budget has increased from 50,000 pesos (£675) in 2020 to 1.4m (£18,900) last year. “I had a headache managing with 50,000,” she says.

Living on Thitu makes sense financially for Guarin, 28, and many others on the island. Her pay is the same as in her previous job in Palawan, but it is far easier to save. “There’s no mall, no shopping, no restaurants,” she says. She has benefited from government incentives designed to encourage people to stay on the island. Water is free, she does not pay rent and the authorities give 5kg of rice every 15 days for adults, and 2kg for children.

Such financial assistance is designed to support families based on the frontlines of the South China Sea dispute, and who Philippine officials consider living proof of their country’s claim to Thitu Island. While Vietnam, Taiwan and China all claim Thitu, tensions with China are by far the highest.

“The presence of civilians is very important,” says Lt Cmdr Jheffrie Legaspi, head of the Joint Task Unit Pag-asa. “According to the United Nations, military forces cannot attack any civilian structure since they are noncombatant.”

Guarin hopes to stay until she can take early retirement. She is conscious of the tensions with China, however. Earlier this year, she followed the news as the Philippines repeatedly accused Chinese vessels of aggressive and dangerous behaviour near to Second Thomas Shoal. “My mother-in-law called me and she told me ‘just leave’. Lots of my friends and classmates were chatting with me asking how I was,” she says. She told them it was far away from Thitu.

“I don’t think that they will bomb us because there’s a community, there are people [here in the island]. But we think of when we will be gathered and asked to leave,” she says. “They make their presence felt. They come closer and closer,” Guarin says of the Chinese vessels. In the evening she has also seen the lights of what she believes to be drones flying overhead.

The signs of China’s ambitions in the waters are clear. On maritime patrol flights, which also take residents back and forth to the mainland, the Philippines air force personnel fly close to nearby Chinese-occupied islands, which have been transformed by military construction projects.

Just 12 nautical miles away from Thitu is Subi Reef, one of seven artificial islands China has developed in the South China Sea. It was once just a remote, coral atoll visible only at low tide. Today, China is estimated to have reclaimed 976 acres of land.

It features a 3,000-metre airstrip (big enough to accommodate military aircraft), hangar space for more than 20 combat aircraft, underground storage tunnels (probably for ammunition), a high-frequency radar array (providing protection against air or missile strikes), hardened structures with retractable roofs believed to be shelters for mobile missile launchers, communication facilities and a lighthouse, according to analysis by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative.

As the plane flies over features such as Sabina Shoal, which are within the Philippines’ EEZ, a text message from a network provider welcomes you to China, offering data roaming services.

On Thitu, it is people rather than military constructions that underline the Philippines’ claim to the island. “As long as we’re here, we can say that it is ours,” says Rolly Dela Cruz, a fisher.

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He is used to seeing Chinese vessels while out in his small wooden boat. Last Sunday he was monitored by Chinese coastguard ships, he says. “They were there around four to five hours. We were fishing and they were observing, and they flew a helicopter around us,” he says.

“Most of us are worried, most people from Palawan are worried,” Dela Cruz adds. “Some of the kids say that when they grow up they want to be a soldier, because they observe our life.’”

Realyn Limbo, a teacher at the island’s school, says children are not afraid but curious about the tensions. “It’s normal for them,” she says. “I tell them not to mind it.” For seven years she was the only teacher on the island, and she stayed because of the children. “I’ve seen the children’s eagerness to learn,” she says. “They have more energy here.” Most of the children will leave when they reach college age, she says.

Abegail will soon finish grade 10 and hopes to attend senior high school in Palawan, where a special strand of classes focused on sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics is offered. She would like to be a flight attendant, or an architect. In the future, she hopes that an extra school will be built so there is greater choice of subjects. “So that parents wouldn’t have difficulty sending their children to the mainland,” she says. She wants to return to the island after her studies, she says.

Her father says it is hard to put into words why he loves Thitu. Life has become more complicated for fishers. Radio exchanges back and forth between the Philippines coastguard and its Chinese counterpart are constant, day and night, Philippine officials say. There are some areas that are simply not accessible to Thitu’s fishing boats any more, because of China’s presence.

“As the years have gone by, I have seen the improvements in the island. That’s why I have stayed so long,” he says. Hugo is determined to stay, no matter what. “We are ready to die here in Pag-asa Island. As long as we can, we will fight.”