Mistral点评

• As Birthrates Slow, China Raises Its Retirement Age
• Malaysian king tells Xi Jinping it will work with China to keep peace in South China Sea
• Why Spain’s efforts to stop tariffs on Chinese EVs will fall short
• In Sea of Japan, China and Russia flex power to counter US and allies in Asia-Pacific
• China’s youth unemployment hits new high as fresh graduates flood market
• China’s home of world’s largest iPhone factory eyes night economy to brighten outlook
• Could common ground on Gaza bring China and Europe closer?
• China faces calls for transparency after latest stabbing attack sparks safety fears
• China seeks to grow sound, complete food industry chain with abundant, diverse sources
• Suspect in Japanese boy’s stabbing is jobless with criminal record, Chinese media says
• China’s food delivery giant Meituan says its riders out-earn the average worker in Beijing
• BMW, GM, Toyota lose more market share in China as transition to EVs hurt deliveries
• China showcases Y-20 transport plane, other military exports at South Africa air show
• Malaysia dangles tax breaks to lure Asia’s rich to Forest City to revive China-backed project
• China to ‘gradually’ lift ban on Japanese seafood imports
• Philippines says China-centric Pogos ‘deeply’ linked to global crime rings
• China launches plan for healthier, longer lives: gene sequence 1% of world’s population
• Why the US should restore the Fulbright programme for China
• US study on China’s ‘much stronger’ innovation, discounted Apple iPhone 16s: 7 highlights
• Father, daughter from China die after tree falls on car in Malaysia
• China’s retirement-age changes force rethink of life plans to work longer and save smarter
• Outrage after China officials say schoolgirl stabbed 200 times with sewing awl ‘not bullying’
• US parties find unity in Quad’s potential to counter China in the Indo-Pacific
• [Sport] China spent millions on this new trade route - then a war got in the way
• How China could benefit from adopting US college sports model
• New submarine detector shows ‘tremendous potential’ in South China Sea tests
• Japan a Good Fit for Chinese Intellectuals, Investors

As Birthrates Slow, China Raises Its Retirement Age

https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/as-birthrates-slow-china-raises-its-retirement-age-/7786485.html

Starting next year, China will raise its retirement age for workers. The country’s current retirement age is now one of the lowest among the world’s major economies.

The move comes as Chinese officials aim to deal with a shrinking population and an aging work force.

The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPCSC), the country’s legislature, passed the new policy recently. State media’s CCTV said the policy change came shortly after a sudden announcement that the NPCSC was considering the measure.

The policy change will be carried out over 15 years. The retirement age for men will be raised to 63 years. The retirement age for women will go to 55 or 58 years depending on their jobs. The current retirement age is 60 for men and 50 for women in blue-collar jobs and 55 for women doing white-collar work.

Xiujian Peng of Victoria University in Australia studies China’s population and its ties to the economy.

“We have more people coming into the retirement age, and so the pension fund is (facing) high pressure. That’s why I think it’s now time to act seriously,” Peng said.

The retirement ages in effect until recently were set in the 1950’s. At that time, life expectancy was around 40 years, Peng said.

The announcement from China’s legislature said the policy will start going into effect in January. The change will take effect based on people’s birthdates.

For example, a chart released along with the policy says a man born in January 1971 could retire at the age of 61 years and 7 months in August 2032. A man born in May 1971 could retire at the age of 61 years and 8 months in January 2033.

Experts say demographic pressures made the move necessary. By the end of 2023, China counted nearly 300 million people over the age of 60. That number is estimated to reach 400 million by 2035.

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences has projected that the public retirement payment system, or pension fund, would run out of money by 2035.

Pressure on government-run retirement payment systems such as pensions and social security is a worldwide problem—including in the U.S. Studies suggest that currently, the social security system will not be able to pay retirees all that U.S. law requires by 2033.

“This is happening everywhere,” said Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations. Huang added, “But in China with its large elderly population, the challenge is much larger.”

The policy change comes at a time of fewer births. Younger people are deciding not to have children. They note the high cost of raising children. In 2022, China’s National Bureau of Statistics reported that for the first time the country had 850,000 fewer people at the end of the year than the previous year.

The change marked a turning point from population growth to decline. In 2023, the population shrank further, by 2 million people.

That means fewer young workers will be paying into the retirement system for the nation’s growing population of older people. Pension payments are largely financed through deductions from the pay of people who are currently working.

Researchers measure that pressure by looking at a number called the dependency ratio, which counts the number of people over the age of 65 compared to the number of workers under 65. The government said that number was 21.8 percent in 2022.

Such a level means that about five workers support one retiree. The percentage is expected to rise, meaning fewer workers will be supporting retirees.

Experts say the necessary corrections will cause short-term pain. They would come at a time of already high youth unemployment and a weak economy.

A 52-year-old Beijing resident whose family name is Lu said he will now retire at age 61 instead of 60. Lu was positive about the change. “I view this as a good thing, because our society’s getting older, and in developed countries, the retirement age is higher,” he said.

Thirty-five-year-old Li Bin works in the event planning industry.

Li said, “It’s three years less of play time. I had originally planned to travel around after retirement.” But she said it was better than expected because the retirement age was only raised three years for women in white-collar jobs.

I’m John Russell.

And I’m Ashley Thompson.

Huizhong Wu and Emily Wang Fujiyama reported on this story for the Associated Press. John Russell adapted it for VOA Learning English.

___________________________________________

Words in This Story

blue-collar – adj. Of or relating to the class of workers whose duties call for the wearing of work clothes or protective clothing

white-collar – adj. of or relating to the class of workers whose duties do not call for the wearing of work clothes or protective clothing

pension fund – n. money that a country or company invests in order to pay workers who are retired. That money is used to pay a fixed amount to retired workers and is usually legally guaranteed.

life expectancy –n. the average length of life for a person in a place or country, usually using several numerical qualifiers

chart –n. a picture or graphic that shows information that is usually based on numbers or quantities

projected –adj. an estimate that reached using certain methods that can be adjusted to account for additional changes

challenge – n. a difficult task or problem

deduction – n. something that is subtracted (often in the form of taxes on pay or wages)

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Malaysian king tells Xi Jinping it will work with China to keep peace in South China Sea

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3279402/malaysian-king-tells-xi-jinping-it-will-work-china-keep-peace-south-china-sea?utm_source=rss_feed

Malaysia will work with China to keep peace in the South China Sea, Malaysia’s king told Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, according to mainland state media on Friday.

Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar made the pledge during his visit to Beijing in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of bilateral relations, the first trip to China by a Malaysian monarch in 10 years.

Sultan Ibrahim and queen Raja Zarith Sofiah were received by Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, at a welcome ceremony on Thursday. The two heads of state met again on Friday at the Great Hall of the People.

“Malaysia would like to join hands with China to contribute constructively to the maintaining of peace and stability of the South China Sea,” mainland state broadcaster CCTV quoted Sultan Ibrahim as saying.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, while Malaysia, as well as the Philippines, Brunei and Vietnam, have overlapping claims.

Although tensions between Beijing and Kuala Lumpur have never been as bad as with Manila recently, reports have surfaced over the years of China and Malaysia squabbling over oil and gas development in the resource-rich waters.

Earlier this month, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said China had sent protest notes to stop the island nation’s oil-exploration activities in the South China Sea. The prime minister stressed the two sides continued to communicate on the issue.

During Friday’s meeting, Xi told Sultan Ibrahim that China would like to strengthen connectivity with Malaysia under the Belt and Road Initiative as it pertained to infrastructure.

The Chinese leader singled out projects for cooperation, including the construction of a railway along Malaysia’s eastern coast and two joint-venture industrial parks in the Chinese city Qinzhou and the Malaysian city Kuantan.

Xi also promised to boost cooperation in agriculture, poverty reduction, new energy and the digital economy. He further vowed to deepen ties in higher education as well as scientific and technological research.

For his part, Sultan Ibrahim said Malaysia had benefited from the belt and road strategy and that the country would enhance its cooperation with China in trade, investment, infrastructure, connectivity, culture and education, CCTV reported.

As chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 2025, Malaysia would help promote better Asean-China partnership, the king stated. Sultan Ibrahim in particular appreciated Beijing’s position on the situation of Palestinians, the report added.

Sultan Ibrahim during his trip is slated to meet Chinese Premier Li Qiang. Li during an official visit to Kuala Lumpur in June announced a series of deals on tourism, durian trade, green-tech cooperation and fighting transborder crime.

Li at the time touted a plan to support Malaysia in building a rail to link connecting to other China-backed railways projects in Laos and Thailand.

Observers of the high-profile visit in Beijing have expected discussions between the leaders to range from cooperation on high-speed rail to the implementation of the deals signed between Li and his Malaysian counterpart.

Sultan Ibrahim’s four-day trip is the first to be made by a Malaysian monarch since 2014, when the late Sultan Abdul Halim visited.

The king’s itinerary includes stops at Beijing Foreign Studies University and the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China’s Beijing Aircraft Technology Research Institute.

While the role of king in Malaysia is chiefly ceremonial, in recent years it has become increasingly significant in the country’s diplomatic efforts. The king oversees major political appointments and is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

Why Spain’s efforts to stop tariffs on Chinese EVs will fall short

https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3279039/why-spains-efforts-stop-tariffs-chinese-evs-will-fall-short?utm_source=rss_feed

“Useless efforts lead to melancholy” – Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset’s words from decades ago aptly reflect the current Spanish government’s abrupt attempt to take a more proactive role in shaping the European Union’s China policy.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s recent visit to Beijing was filled with dulcet overtones. The intent was supposedly straightforward: secure a more robust economic partnership while assuaging Chinese concerns over Spain’s stance on escalating European protectionism.

Sanchez is walking a fine line. While advocating for more robust European anti-subsidy duties against Chinese goods, as a means of pushing Beijing towards building more factories in the EU, he had also affirmed openness to closer economic and cultural ties between China, the second-largest economy in the world, and Spain, the fourth-largest economy in Europe.

Spain wants Chinese investment to support job creation, infrastructure development and growth in its globally integrated automotive sector.

More recently, Sanchez has even called on the EU to rethink its tariff plan and instead adopt “a solution negotiated and agreed in the WTO framework” that “avoids commercial escalation that benefits no one”. Ahead of an upcoming binding vote on European tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs), his remarks indicate a new-found scepticism towards the escalating barriers to trade.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also appears swayed by the economic argument against tariffs. Chinese EVs are far too significant to European consumers for the latter to bear the brunt of the raised costs.

Admittedly, the benefits of such tariffs for the European automotive industry and the prospects for more affordable EV pricing have often been omitted in Europe-wide renewable energy policies. With the sluggish consumption rate in the region, a de facto trade war against China is not a tenable economic path.

Despite Sanchez’s best efforts, however, Spain has – unsurprisingly – limited influence over how EU states will vote next month. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has been adamant in pressing for stiffer tariffs, accelerated de-risking and a general distancing of European economies from China. Any reversal now would jeopardise the commission’s credibility and authority, given the high stakes involved.

Reversing the tariffs requires a qualified majority – that is, 15 European countries comprising more than 65 per cent of the EU’s population. An indicative vote taken in July saw 12 states in favour, 11 abstaining and four opposed to the decision. Building a coalition against these tariffs, even with Germany and Spain on board, would be a complex and cumbersome process.

Sanchez’s exuberance might seem like a win to China, but it is anything but as it is unlikely to alter the voting outcome. Certainly, it would only further estrange Madrid from the mainstream conversation on Beijing as central and western European states view with suspicion any perceived efforts to divide and conquer.

A viable solution would be to pursue more joint ventures between Chinese and European firms rooted in sharing of technologies, talent and revenues, and that leave local manufacturers feeling included in China’s economic vision in the region.

While Beijing would welcome a more pragmatic European attitude towards its drive for strategic autonomy, what matters more is that EU states move with coordination and certainty on key priorities. If a reassessment of the rationale for tariffs was genuinely needed, why did Sanchez so forcefully back these tariffs in the first place?

His shift in stance has attracted much opprobrium, with critics accusing him of lacking “foreign policy mettle” and the gumption to make tough calls and defend his nation’s interests.

Despite being the fourth-largest economy in the EU, Spain represents a mere 5 per cent of all European exports to China and suffers from one of the largest trade deficits in the union. Such disparity highlights Spain’s dependence and disadvantage relative to China within the bargaining process.

Structurally, Spain must strengthen its expertise and strategic leadership on China. For instance, Sino-Spanish relations are presently lumped together alongside North America, eastern Europe, the Pacific and other Asian countries in a single directorate-general – an arrangement that reflects a fundamental lack of dedication and focus.

China and Asia at large do not receive the attention they warrant from Spain. Contrast this with the specialist China House nested within the US State Department as a separate unit, with the exclusive mandate of addressing the Sino-American strategic competition.

Yet all is not lost. As Europe’s second-largest car producer and the world’s eighth-largest exporter, Spain could have used its stance on EV tariffs as a leveraging tool in trade talks with China, aiming to secure concessions and attract greater investment. Chinese renewable energy developer Envision Energy has agreed to build a US$1 billion green hydrogen park in Spain, yet this could have been extended into a more integrated and comprehensive green energy co-development.

As a leading pork supplier to China, Spain is keenly aware of the impact of potential weaponisation. In 2023, Spain exported US$1.5 billion worth of pork products to China – 22 per cent of China’s total pork imports – underscoring Spain’s importance to certain segments of the Chinese consumption market.

Sanchez would benefit from more seriously taking stock of his country’s economic strengths and weaknesses relative to Beijing and developing a balanced position. Only then could he forge a consensus on capacity-building with sensitivity to national security considerations – in a way that would not alienate both his critics and allies.

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In Sea of Japan, China and Russia flex power to counter US and allies in Asia-Pacific

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3279363/sea-japan-china-and-russia-flex-power-counter-us-and-allies-asia-pacific?utm_source=rss_feed

The Chinese navy held back-to-back drills with Russia in the Sea of Japan, or East Sea, earlier this month in what analysts say shows Beijing and Moscow’s growing ability to counter coordination by the US and its allies in the region.

According to state media, Chinese and Russian forces held the first phase of the “Northern/Interaction-2024” exercise, a joint live-fire naval drill, from September 11 to 15.

A People’s Liberation Army naval fleet, including the guided missile destroyer Xining, visited a military port in the Russian Far East on Wednesday ahead of the second phase of the exercise, which will take place in the Sea of Okhotsk later this month. The two navies will also conduct their fifth joint maritime patrol in the northern Pacific Ocean as part of the drill.

The first phase of the exercise included simulated missile strikes using data from air troops aimed at “examining the tactical command coordination and joint operational capabilities of the two sides”, according to China Military Online.

China’s defence ministry said the drills aimed to “deepen the level of strategic coordination between the Chinese and Russian militaries, and enhance their ability to jointly respond to security threats”.

The PLA also took part in a seven-day joint exercise hosted by Russia, dubbed “Ocean-2024”, that began on September 10.

Spanning the Pacific and Arctic oceans as well as the Mediterranean, Caspian and Baltic seas, more than 400 warships, submarines and support vessels took part in the exercise, as did over 120 planes and helicopters and more than 90,000 troops.

China was the only country to join Russian forces in the drill, sending several PLA warships and 15 aircraft to waters off the Russian Far East in the Sea of Japan, according to the Russian military.

“We pay special attention to strengthening military cooperation with friendly states,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said to military officials at the launch of the exercise.

“Today, in the context of growing geopolitical tensions in the world, this is especially important. We see that the United States of America is trying to maintain its global military and political dominance at any cost.”

According to data from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, China and Russia have increased their military exercises over the past decade, holding up to 10 joint drills per year. Before 2014, the two sides held at most four exercises annually, and in some years none.

Including the two most recent drills, China and Russia have held nine joint exercises so far this year. Their other activities included July’s “Joint Sea-2024”, a joint naval exercise in the South China Sea, where Beijing has several territorial and maritime disputes with its Southeast Asian neighbours.

Later that month, Chinese and Russian bombers entered the air defence identification zone over Alaska. The planes were intercepted by American and Canadian fighter jets.

Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said the military drills between China and Russia were “an indication of the significance of the ‘no limits’ partnership between Moscow and Beijing” and showed that these ties were taking on the “characteristics of a military alliance”.

“In undertaking these military exercises, China and Russia are demonstrating to the US, Japan and South Korea, as well as Australia, their willingness and ability to undermine US presence and influence in the region, and hold at risk US and allied forces in a major crisis.”

Stephen Nagy, a visiting fellow at the Japan Institute for International Affairs, said both Beijing and Moscow were “sending a message” to Washington about their ability to escalate cooperation and complicate the strategic position of the US and its allies in the region.

“Russia would like to demonstrate that it can engage in a full-scale war with Ukraine [and] at the same time have a significant presence in the Indo-Pacific,” Nagy said.

“China, on the other hand, would like to demonstrate to the United States that as it continues to strengthen relations with the Philippines, Japan, Australia and other partners in the region, that China can also strengthen its military partnerships with like-minded states like Russia, potentially North Korea, as well as Iran.”

This month’s exercises both took place in the Sea of Japan, highlighting the growing strategic importance of the waterway that connects the Russian Far East with the East China Sea. The Sea of Japan is surrounded by Russia, North Korea and two US allies – South Korea and Japan.

The waterways near the Sea of Japan have been a venue for several joint military exercises between the US and its allies.

In June, Seoul, Tokyo, and Washington conducted their first trilateral multi-domain exercise, named “Freedom Edge”, involving a visit by the US Navy’s USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier to Busan in South Korea.

The US, South Korea and Japan have strengthened military ties since their trilateral summit last year at Camp David, where they pledged to regularise tripartite drills in response to growing threats from North Korea and tensions with China.

Collin Koh, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said the strategic motivations and importance of joint exercises in the Sea of Japan “might actually be different” for China and Russia.

For Moscow, he said, recent tensions with the West have put renewed emphasis on nuclear deterrence and protecting strategic assets in the Russian Far East.

While for China, gaining experience in the Sea of Japan could prepare the PLA to counter military cooperation between the US, South Korea and Japan in the event of potential conflicts in the region, including in the Taiwan Strait, Koh said.

“In the event of a Taiwan Strait conflict, the Sea of Japan, the East China Sea, is definitely part of the contiguous theatre of operation. So therefore, for China it is necessary to be accustomed and to be familiar with the area.”

China’s youth unemployment hits new high as fresh graduates flood market

https://www.scmp.com/economy/economic-indicators/article/3279388/chinas-youth-unemployment-hits-new-high-fresh-graduates-flood-market?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s revised youth unemployment rate rose to the highest level since the data set was reintroduced last year, as career prospects for young people dimmed amid the ongoing economic downturn.

The jobless rates for the 16-24 age group, excluding students, rose to 18.8 per cent in August, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Friday, up from 17.1 per cent in July.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate for the 25-29 age group, excluding college students, also rose to 6.9 per cent in August from 6.5 per cent a month earlier.

Beijing introduced the revised method for December having last year.

Under the previous approach, the jobless rate for the 16-24 age group, including students, had peaked at 21.3 per cent in June last year.

August was the first month since the record 11.79 million college graduates entered the job market.

They have scaled back their salary expectations with the economy struggling to find momentum.

Last week, China had confirmed its overall urban unemployment rate for August stood at 5.3 per cent, compared with 5.2 per cent a month earlier.

Finding jobs for China’s youth has been made a high priority by Beijing, as the risk of lower incomes puts pressure on consumer spending.

And with lacklustre job prospects, more fresh graduates are choosing to pursue continued education.

A survey of the 39 top- tier universities from Economic Observer media outlet found most institutions in China had enrolled more postgraduates than undergraduate students.

China’s top Tsinghua University admitted 3,800 undergraduates in September, while the number of postgraduate students reached 9,926, the Shandong-based economic publication found.

The government has urged companies to create jobs and absorb fresh graduates.

And to heed the government call, food delivery giant Meituan revealed its plan to recruit 6000 fresh graduates in 2025, according to an internal letter from chief executive Wang Xing on Tuesday.

China’s home of world’s largest iPhone factory eyes night economy to brighten outlook

https://www.scmp.com/economy/policy/article/3279312/chinas-home-worlds-largest-iphone-factory-eyes-night-economy-brighten-outlook?utm_source=rss_feed

Central China’s Henan province, home to the world’s largest iPhone factory, on Thursday unveiled a series of measures to boost consumer spending at night, as it scrambles to offset declining exports.

The provincial development and reform commission encouraged local government agencies to utilise reserve land not yet included in supply plans to establish distinctive nighttime fairs and supporting facilities like parking lots and office spaces, in a circular dated last week.

It also outlined plans to create more nighttime spending scenes, including music festivals, theatre performances, art exhibitions and sporting events, along with emerging businesses such as 24-hour bookstores, late-night cafeterias and speciality night fairs to diversify consumption options.

“The night economy has become a new engine for new types of business, cultivating markets, promoting employment and expanding consumption,” the commission said.

The circular encouraged various businesses entities to carry out digital upgrading, promoting nighttime live-streaming shopping, while calling for entrepreneurship among college graduates and the unemployed to set up stalls at local night markets.

As part of the government incentives, night fair operators with monthly sales of less than 100,000 yuan (US$14,138) would be exempt from tax.

The province is seeking to counteract a large decline in exports after shipments in the first seven months of the year dropped by 15 per cent in value to 244.1 billion yuan (US$34.5 billion).

Retail sales in the province did rise by 5.7 per cent to 1.75 trillion yuan in the first eight months of the year, which was better than the national average of 3.4 per cent, although this was attributed to a lower comparison base last year.

And Henan is not alone in prioritising consumption, as the central government has accelerated the use of trade-in schemes and equipment upgrades to drive up domestic demand.

Since 2019, in urban areas including the major cities of Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, local governments have unveiled a series of measures to stimulate nighttime consumption in a bid to turn cities into world-class “nightlife capitals”.

The State Council, China’s cabinet, had also reinforced the concept in 2019, calling on urban areas to step up their efforts to promote nighttime businesses as one of 20 measures outlined to boost national consumption.

Over 60 per cent of China’s consumption occurs at night, and the market size of the night economy industry has doubled from 22.54 trillion yuan in 2018 to 50.25 trillion yuan in 2023, according to a report by the state-backed CCTV in June.

Could common ground on Gaza bring China and Europe closer?

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3279381/could-common-ground-gaza-bring-china-and-europe-closer?utm_source=rss_feed

Common ground on the Israel-Gaza war could give China a chance to improve ties with Europe, an observer said, after various European countries and Beijing backed a UN call for an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian territories.

In the non-binding vote at the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, at least 10 European countries, including France and Spain, urged Israel to “end its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory” within 12 months and to “cease immediately all new settlement activity”.

They also called for the return of land seized since 1967 and the repatriation of displaced Palestinians.

Only two European nations – the Czech Republic and Hungary – voted with the United States and Israel against the resolution. Others, including Germany and Italy, abstained.

China was among the 124 countries that voted in favour.

On Thursday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said China “welcomes and appreciates” the adoption, and hoped that “it will be fully implemented”.

“Ending the occupation is not an option, but an obligation; ending the fighting is not just the appeal of one country, but international consensus,” Lin said.

“Implementing the two-state solution is the only viable way to resolve the question of Palestine.”

Observers said the vote reflected a growing political shift between much of Europe and the US on Palestinian issues.

Zhang Chuchu, an associate professor at Shanghai’s Fudan University, said more European nations were concerned about the US’ unwavering support for Israel.

Europe’s growing Muslim population was also influencing its political landscape, Zhang said, suggesting that this demographic shift was reshaping public sentiment and policy.

“European countries will gradually become more cautious and shift away from their previous alignment with the US [on Palestinian issues],” she said.

She added that Europe was also worried that Washington’s focus on the Gaza war could take more global attention away from the Ukraine war, which is in its third year.

Several European nations have already taken big steps in this direction, with Spain, Ireland, and Norway declaring their recognition of Palestinian statehood.

China has long called for the “two-state” solution and has not condemned the Hamas attack on October 7 that marked the start of the renewed conflict.

“More and more European countries will likely be willing to engage with China on Gaza issues. China’s role in the Middle East is gaining traction,” Zhang said.

She pointed to Beijing’s two major diplomatic achievements in the region: the China-brokered peace deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran last year, and an agreement in Beijing among 14 Palestinian factions for a peaceful post-war Palestinian government.

These deals had attracted attention in Europe, she said.

Josef Gregory Mahoney, a politics and international relations professor at East China Normal University, said there was a shift in some parts of Europe on the war in Gaza but observers should be cautious about seeing it as a definitive split within the West.

Some countries were responding to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, while many others continued to grapple with the complexities of the situation without a clear stance, he said.

“While some European countries, including Spain and Ireland, have long been in the vanguard of opposing Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, many others have hemmed and hawed over the tragedy and effectively accommodated it,” Mahoney said.

“The spectre, if not reality, of genocide and an escalating war, certainly runs contrary to progressive European liberalism, and this is prompting some European countries to shift their voting patterns in the [UN General Assembly]. However, it’s premature to conclude this marks a split among Western nations,” Mahoney said.

“These countries know they can still freeride on US veto power on the Security Council, so they can register a public disgust with what’s transpiring but without actually taking substantive measures against it.

“If we see them doing more than joining non-binding votes, for example, joining South Africa’s suit, imposing sanctions and curtailing diplomatic relations, then a split will be more evident.”

Sebastian Contin Trillo-Figueroa, a former Asia global fellow specialising in European studies at the University of Hong Kong, said a division was opening up in Europe, particularly in the European Union, as both the pro-Palestine and pro-Israel agendas grew.

“The war in Ukraine has been the one issue where the EU has largely operated with near-unanimity in decision-making. Inversely, the Israel-Hamas conflict has revealed deep divisions, with each European state acting independently. This disunity undermines the EU’s geopolitical influence,” Trillo-Figueroa said.

“Ideally, the bloc should present a unified front, but ongoing internal divisions continue to weaken its diplomatic relevance.”

He said China was taking a similar approach to the Gaza war as it was to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

“China’s approach to the Israel-Hamas conflict mirrors its stance on Ukraine, aiming primarily to contain US influence rather than taking explicit sides. Despite this neutrality, China managed to broker talks between Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas in Beijing, signalling a potential national reconciliation,” he said.

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China faces calls for transparency after latest stabbing attack sparks safety fears

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3279355/china-faces-calls-transparency-after-latest-stabbing-attack-sparks-safety-fears?utm_source=rss_feed

A string of recent stabbing attacks on foreigners in China could fuel worries about personal safety in the country’s expatriate community, according to diplomatic observers, who say that more transparency from authorities will be crucial to ease fears and restore confidence in the country.

The latest violence – in which a 10-year-old Japanese boy died Thursday morning a day after he was stabbed in the southern city of Shenzhen – has renewed calls for Beijing to be more transparent in how it addresses such incidents.

Local authorities had said the attacker was a man with a previous criminal record, but have not disclosed a motive. Foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning did not comment on a motive on Friday, citing the ongoing investigation.

In a phone call on Thursday, Chinese foreign vice-minister Sun Weidong told Japan’s ambassador to China, Kenji Kanasugi, that the killing was an “isolated case carried out by an individual with a criminal record”, according to the Japanese embassy.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian also described the incident as “isolated” and stressed that such attacks could happen anywhere in the world.

“China has always taken, and will continue to take effective measures to ensure the safety of all foreign nationals in China,” Lin said, adding that he did not foresee the latest incident affecting relations between China and Japan.

By Friday, extra security cameras near the school and the crime scene had been installed.

In a meeting with Shenzhen vice-mayor Luo Huanghao, Kanasugi called for security to be improved to help keep Japanese residents safe. The message was repeated during an emergency meeting held by the Japanese embassy, which was attended by representatives from the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China and the Japanese School of Beijing.

The incident on Wednesday was the third knife attack against foreigners in China in the past four months.

In early June, four American teachers from Cornell College in Iowa were stabbed in a park in the northeastern province of Jilin.

They survived their injuries but later that month, a Chinese school bus chaperone was killed in the eastern city of Suzhou while trying to protect a young Japanese student and his mother from an attacker.

Chinese officials have not given motives for any of the attacks, but on Thursday Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida demanded an explanation for the stabbing in Shenzhen.

“We strongly demand that the Chinese side explain the facts of the case. As more than a day has already passed since the crime, we have demanded them to provide an explanation as soon as possible,” Kishida said.

A 44-year-old suspect, surnamed Zhong, confessed to attacking the boy, according to a report by Southern Metropolis Daily and Shenzhen Special Zone Daily, citing a police source.

Diplomatic observers cautioned that an outbreak of violence against foreigners combined with Beijing’s opaque approach could fuel insecurity, undermining China’s attempts to lure back foreign visitors. The authorities should release more details on the incidents to ease public concerns, they said.

Last year, China introduced visa-free entry policies for several countries and recently broadened the scheme to include visa-free transits, allowing travellers from certain countries to remain in specific areas for up to 144 hours.

Despite China’s multiple measures to attract foreign investment and tourists, the recent attacks could “significantly undermine these efforts”, according to Zheng Zhihua, an associate professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Police statements about such incidents tended to “downplay the involvement of foreigners in the stabbing incidents”, Zheng added, noting that the latest victim was only identified as a minor with the surname Shen.

“It seems to be a conscious effort to prevent any perception of animosity or violence towards foreigners in Chinese society.”

The assault happened on a significant date in China – the anniversary of the 1931 “918 Incident” – also known as the Manchurian, or Mukden, Incident – which led to the Japanese invasion of the region and has come to symbolise national disgrace.

Ahead of the anniversary, Japan had asked that Chinese authorities step up safety measures at Japanese schools. It was not clear if this had happened at the school in Shenzhen before the sensitive date.

“Given this situation, we are profoundly disappointed that the incident still took place,” Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa said.

Chong Ja Ian, an associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore, warned that more such attacks could foster a perception that foreigners were unwelcome in China, potentially leading to a decline in people-to-people exchanges.

He added that stabbings might reinforce the perception that China was not a welcoming place for foreigners.

“Foreigners and foreign companies could stay away as a result. This could also accelerate the relocation of corporations away from China,” he added.

“Should this trend increase and become persistent, people-to-people exchanges in China could diminish. There could well be a view that people-to-people contact in the country could be dangerous rather than beneficial,” Chong said.

In response to the attack, Panasonic Holdings Corporation, is allowing its Japanese employees in China to temporarily return home, and is covering the costs for both the employees and their family members. The company will also provide counselling for its employees, according to a report by Japan’s Jiji Press.

“Local governments have shown some deficiencies in handling these incidents, such as not fully disclosing to the public the attackers’ motives, their mental state, whether they were targeting foreigners, as well as criminal procedure process,” Zheng, from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, said.

The government had a responsibility to clarify and keep the public informed to dispel any concerns foreigners may have about potential hostility or aggression towards them in China, he added.

Chong agreed, adding that a “lack of transparency and explanations tend to fuel speculation. Foreigners are more likely to attribute threats to physical safety to China’s social environment more broadly.”

Foreigners might conclude that increasing Chinese nationalism had contributed to the recent attacks, he said.

Zhang Yun, an associate professor of international relations at Japan’s Niigata University, said the most important step now would be to “calm down emotions in both countries”, noting that it remained uncertain if nationalist motives were the sole reason for the attack.

“Such incidents can easily create negative societal perceptions in both countries. If societal perceptions deteriorate or become negative, it can be extremely detrimental to the entire Sino-Japanese relationship, both politically and economically,” Zhang said.

The incident sparked strong anti-Chinese and anti-Japanese sentiment in both countries.

On X, numerous Japanese users urged their government to cut diplomatic relations with China and advise nationals to leave immediately. They also said the authorities should not to allow Chinese tourists to visit.

In China, some online posts labelled Japanese schools as espionage hubs and demanded they be closed.

But Beijing has also been criticised for fanning nationalism, with one person commenting that the recent attacks were the result of “spreading the seed of hatred in the daily education and propaganda in the country”.

After the Suzhou attack, Japan’s foreign ministry requested a ¥350 million (US$2.4 million) budget for the next financial year to help improve the safety of Japanese school buses in China.

The additional funding would pay for security guards to be assigned to each school bus serving the 11 Japanese schools located in nine major cities in China.

China seeks to grow sound, complete food industry chain with abundant, diverse sources

https://www.scmp.com/economy/policy/article/3279284/china-seeks-grow-sound-complete-food-industry-chain-abundant-diverse-sources?utm_source=rss_feed

China has outlined its latest effort to ensure food security, with a road map to broaden food production beyond traditional farmlands and crops amid mounting pressure to feed 1.4 billion people with conventional resources.

The State Council issued a directive to establish a diversified food supply system that combines agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery, as well as plants, animals and microorganisms by 2027 to increase self-reliance.

President Xi Jinping’s “all-encompassing approach to food” idea has repeatedly appeared in official narrative amid an increasing sense of insecurity in food supply due to geopolitical risks, trade tensions and climate change.

The directive issued on Sunday vowed to achieve a “sound and complete food industry chain” and “abundant and diverse foods” by developing new varieties, exploring alternative biological resources and promoting technological innovation.

More alternatives should come from forest-based food industries, grass-fed livestock farming and deep-sea aquaculture, according to the directive.

On Thursday, China’s top economic planner also said it was working with relevant departments to establish statistical monitoring indicators for food, launch a survey of food resources and industries and develop various food resources based on local realities.

“An all-encompassing approach to food and a diversified food supply system are important measures to ensure national food security and improve people’s well-being,” said National Development and Reform Commission spokesman Jin Xiandong.

As the world’s largest producer and consumer of crops, China imported more than 59 million tonnes of grain in 2023, representing an 11.1 per cent increase from the previous year.

China’s domestic grain output has remained above 650 million tonnes for nine consecutive years, with last year’s production hitting a record 695.41 million tonnes.

But room for further growth is seen to be dwindling due to low agricultural efficiency and a loss of farmland amid urbanisation, pushing China to encourage increased consumption of other foods.

Last year, China’s forest-food production exceeded 200 million tonnes, becoming the third largest agricultural product after grain and vegetables, while aquatic product production reached 71.16 million tonnes, ranking first in the world, Jin added.

Chinese authorities have also imposed tough measures to reclaim arable land in the past few years as limited resources continue to restrict food supply.

Since 2021, China has added about 1.17 million hectares (2.89 million acres) of arable land, reversing the long-term decline in farmland, vice-minister of natural resources Liu Guohong said on Thursday.

Suspect in Japanese boy’s stabbing is jobless with criminal record, Chinese media says

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3279346/man-accused-stabbing-japanese-boy-jobless-criminal-record-says-media-china?utm_source=rss_feed

The man accused of stabbing a Japanese boy on the way to school in Shenzhen this week has a criminal record and no steady employment, according to local police who have released more information about the suspect than is usual in similar cases in China.

The suspect, a 44-year-old man surnamed Zhong, was reportedly detained by Dongguan police in 2015 for damaging public telecommunications facilities and released on bail, the state-owned Shenzhen Special Zone Daily said on Friday. And it said that in 2019, he was handed an administrative detention – a maximum of 15 days – by Shenzhen police for fabricating facts to disrupt public order.

The accused man Zhong confessed to attacking the boy on Wednesday, the Shenzhen outlet said, citing police.

The police have called this week’s case “isolated”, saying the alleged attacker had no accomplices and that the case was being investigated.

In a previous attack in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, in June in which a Chinese woman was killed when stopping a knife-wielding attack on a Japanese mother and child, local police only described the attacker as a 52-year-old unemployed man surnamed Zhou.

No further details were given months after the attack, including information about the attacker or any punishment stemming from the crime.

In previous cases, whether concerning Chinese or foreign nationals, information about attackers is seldom disclosed, including in viral cases drawing huge attention on the internet. Online discussion is often censored to quell concerns about social stability and possible ill feeling or opposition towards the Communist Party.

According to the Shenzhen media outlet, the child was driven to the nearby Qianhai Shekou Free Trade Zone Hospital by ambulance after he was stabbed on Wednesday. A team of doctors from various hospitals in Shenzhen provided expertise but the child, who was badly hurt, died on Thursday morning, the report said.

Shenzhen’s education bureau is reported to have organised a team to provide counselling to students and the government has vowed to aid the victim’s families and friends. Shenzhen will increase security around the school and nearby public areas to prevent other incidents, according to the report.

Since the attack, state media has set the tone in condemning the attack and calling for peace while offering reassurance to foreigners that China is an open and secure environment for them to travel, study and conduct business in. In a commentary published on Friday, the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily said illegal violent acts must be punished.

“Using violence to harm the innocent, especially children, challenges the bottom line of human civilisation and is a provocation to our law,” it said.

It said the stabbing crime did not represent the Chinese people, and that a few “extreme cases” did not equal “the whole society’s positive energy”.

Meanwhile, online discussion of the matter has been censored, including WeChat articles apologising to the child.

Some netizens said it was unacceptable that the attack occurred in the Shekou area in Shenzhen, an area where the city’s reforms began more than 40 years ago.

The district is regarded as one of the most progressive, popular and affluent residential areas in southern China and is home to most of the city’s foreign community and international schools.

China’s food delivery giant Meituan says its riders out-earn the average worker in Beijing

https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3279304/chinas-food-delivery-giant-meituan-says-its-riders-out-earn-average-worker-beijing?utm_source=rss_feed

New data released by Meituan, China’s largest on-demand services provider, showed that its food delivery crews working in major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen earn more on average than the local population.

According to the report, Meituan delivery people who work in major cities and meet the company’s minimum work time requirement took home an average monthly pay of 11,000 yuan (US$1,550) in June. Those who work less than the minimum time made 7,354 yuan on average.

Both numbers were higher than Beijing’s per-capita monthly disposable income of 7,180 yuan in the first half of the year.

Amid China’s ongoing economic challenges, more people have turned to flexible employment in the food delivery and ride-hailing sectors to support themselves while looking for full-time jobs.

In the first six months of the year, the number of delivery workers in Beijing soared 50 per cent year on year to 17,000, while the unemployment rate edged down slightly to 4.1 per cent, according to the municipal statistics bureau.

Almost half of the 7.45 million delivery workers hired by Meituan worked fewer than 30 days last year, the report showed – a sign that many viewed their gigs as a transitional job. Only 11 per cent of all Meituan riders accepted orders for more than 260 days last year, the company said.

“It has become normal for people to look for other opportunities while working in food delivery,” Meituan’s research team said.

Under the rising trend of gig employment, the Chinese government has for the past few years rolled out a slew of measures to protect the rights of flexible workers, who are excluded from the labour protections afforded by formal employment.

Gig workers made up about 23 per cent of China’s working population, or around 200 million people, in the past three years, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Last year, around 60 per cent of Meituan riders, or 4.5 million of them, were covered by occupational injury insurance, offered via a nationwide pilot programme initiated in 2022 to protect gig workers, company co-founder and CEO Wang Xing said in an internal letter on Tuesday.

Meituan reported last month for the June quarter. Revenue rose more than 21 per cent year on year to 82.3 billion yuan, while profit more than doubled to 11 billion yuan.

The company recently , a central city in Saudi Arabia, in May last year.

BMW, GM, Toyota lose more market share in China as transition to EVs hurt deliveries

https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3279264/bmw-gm-toyota-lose-more-market-share-china-transition-evs-hurt-deliveries?utm_source=rss_feed

Foreign carmakers from of Germany to Toyota of Japan are losing more market share to mainland Chinese rivals in the world’s biggest automotive market, paying the price for their slower transition to electrification, industry statistics showed.

International marques, through their local joint ventures, delivered 480,000 units in August, a 27 per cent slump from a year earlier, the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) said. Their market share shrank to 36.6 per cent from 48 per cent over the same period. BMW’s number plunged 42 per cent to 34,846 units.

The rapid decline contrasted with the dominance of foreign brands only a decade ago, when they commanded 80 per cent of the market, before the shift to electric vehicles (EV) gained momentum and concerns about climate change and carbon emissions heightened.

“A tiny proportion of electric car [offerings] by the foreign brands caused them to lose appeal to Chinese shoppers,” said Cui Dongshu, CPCA’s general ­secretary in Shanghai. “On the contrary, home-grown players powered ahead in August with surging EV sales.”

Sales of EVs – comprising battery-driven models and hybrids that run on petrol-and-battery engines – jumped by 43.2 per cent to 1.03 million units last month, making up 53.9 per cent of deliveries nationwide. EVs also outsold petrol-guzzling cars in July, by 51.1 per cent to 48.9 per cent, the association said.

Among deliveries by indigenous car brands, nearly four out of every five cars, or 75.9 per cent, were either pure electric or plug-in hybrid models.

Total EV sales by foreign brands, including Tesla’s 63,456 deliveries in China, represented just 10 per cent of the country’s total EV sales last month, CPCA data showed. Deliveries of EVs by the international conventional carmakers such as Volkswagen and Honda made up only 8 per cent of their total sales, CPCA data showed.

has intensified the pressure on major carmakers, which had to slash prices of their petroleum-powered cars to survive the competition. Nearly all carmakers from BYD to BMW and Xpeng have engaged in a price war to defend their market share on the mainland market, Cui said.

Amid a margin squeeze, BMW was the first to quit the bruising price discounting in mid-July. All BMW car dealers raised prices by 30,000 yuan (US$4,249) to 50,000 yuan and stopped offering rebates and incentives to help shore up profitability.

The German carmaker reported a 4.2 per cent year-on-year decline in deliveries to 375,900 vehicles in mainland China in the first half of 2024 – in contrast to a 2.3 per cent gain in global deliveries. Losses have deepened in July and August, according to the CPCA report.

“International carmakers are facing a dilemma here,” said Tian Maowei, a sales manager at Yiyou Auto Service in Shanghai. “They will lose sales if they keep prices unchanged or maintain sales by cutting prices at the expense of profit margins.”

Due to a sharp decline in sales, foreign carmakers will have to build more electric cars to draw young Chinese consumers, Tian added. “Otherwise, the companies will grapple with severe overcapacity issues because petrol cars can no longer sustain their sales momentum.”

and its Chinese partner SAIC Motor plan to close down a factory in Nanjing in eastern Jiangsu province as early as next year, according to a Bloomberg report this week, citing weakening demand for combustion-engine cars.

The Nanjing production site, which builds VW Passat and Skoda cars, has an annual production capacity of 360,000 units. The joint-venture is likely to shut more plants in the future, the report said.

SAIC Volkswagen delivered 85,000 units in August, 23 per cent lower than a year ago. , which also has a venture with SAIC, reported a 30 per cent year-on-year slide in deliveries to 84,000 units last month.

According to the CPCA, German car brands had a 16.6 per cent share of the mainland market in August, compared with 20.1 per cent a year ago. Japanese automotive firms’ market share dwindled to 12.6 per cent from 16.8 per cent, and their US counterparts took just 5.7 per cent of the market, down from 8.6 per cent.

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China showcases Y-20 transport plane, other military exports at South Africa air show

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3279242/china-showcases-y-20-transport-plane-other-military-exports-south-africa-air-show?utm_source=rss_feed

China is demonstrating its Y-20 military transport aircraft at South Africa’s largest air show to promote the heavy lifter and other military exports to Africa.

The Y-20, a flagship multi-role transporter of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF), will take to the sky and then be displayed during the five-day Africa Aerospace and Defence Exhibition (AAD 2024), the PLA Daily reported on Thursday.

AAD 2024 is Africa’s largest aerospace and defence expo, and is taking place from September 18 to 22 at Waterkloof airbase near Pretoria.

Captain Liang Yao was quoted as saying that the Y-20, which weighs over 100 tonnes, will perform five “carefully choreographed manoeuvres” during a 10-minute demonstration for “optimal visual effects”.

“We will strive to demonstrate the outstanding performance of the Y-20 and the excellent combat prowess of Chinese air force pilots,” Liang told the PLA Daily.

Beijing has been active in promoting sales of the Y-20s, and an export-oriented version, the Y-20BE, was shown to Nigerian Defence Minister Mohammed Badaru Abubakar in November when he visited China.

Besides air shows, China has also sent the heavy transporter to participate in various humanitarian missions and transport troops and equipment to take part in joint Chinese-foreign exercises.

AAD 2024 is taking place just two weeks after the Egypt International Airshow, where the Y-20 made its first overseas air show debut. At the three-day event, the Y-20 performed manoeuvres including large angle ascension and dive, large slope turning and fast landing. In a symbolic show, it flew over the Giza Pyramids and the Great Sphinx leading a formation of six J-10 fighter jets of the PLAAF’s August 1st Aerobatic Team.

The Xian Y-20 “Kunpeng”, named after a mythological bird, is 47 metres long and 50 metres wide (154ft long and 164ft wide) and can carry up to 66 tonnes – comparable to the Soviet Ilyushin Il-76 and America’s Boeing C-17. With about 100 aircraft already in service, the Y-20 has become the PLAAF’s workhorse heavy lifter since it entered service in 2016.

According to the PLA Daily report, it carried a medium-weight Z-10ME attack helicopter and other Chinese contingents for display at the AAD 2024 exhibition.

It flew to South Africa through Yemen, across Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Malawi. China is keen to expand its ties with African countries, especially against the background of intensifying geological competition with the United States.

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Malaysia dangles tax breaks to lure Asia’s rich to Forest City to revive China-backed project

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3279275/malaysia-dangles-tax-breaks-lure-asias-rich-forest-city-revive-china-backed-project?utm_source=rss_feed

Malaysia on Friday said it will offer a zero per cent tax rate to entice Asia’s rich to set up family offices in the Forest City Special Financial Zone (SFZ), as the government finally outlines its incentives to attract foreign capital to the troubled multibillion-dollar project.

The SFZ is Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s attempt to revive the US$100 billion Chinese-led mega project after long delays and weak demand from target buyers in China, which is grappling with capital controls and a prolonged economic slowdown.

Aimed at high net worth individuals from Malaysia and across Asia, the zero-interest tax offer will be part of a Single Family Office Scheme that the government plans to be operational by the first quarter of 2025, said Second Finance Minister Amir Hamzah Azizan.

“Supported by good infrastructure, a competitive talent pool, robust common law practices and effective governance, opportunities abound for family offices,” Amir Hamzah said in his speech at the launch of the SFZ in Johor, where Forest City is being built.

Anwar’s administration has been aggressively pursuing high- and ultra-high net worth individuals to set up family offices in Malaysia, following the family office boom in neighbouring Singapore which managed US$1.3 trillion in offshore assets in 2023, according to estimates by US strategy and management consultancy McKinsey & Company.

Malaysia’s Securities Commission said in March that a regulatory framework for family offices will be announced when the government unveils its 2025 budget, scheduled for next month.

In addition to family offices, the SFZ will offer a corporate tax rate of between zero and five per cent and a special individual tax rate of 15 per cent for skilled workers.

The government also set a special tax rate of 5 per cent for financial services and financial technology companies and foreign payment system operators. In addition, it is offering special deductions for relocation costs, enhanced industrial building allowances, and withholding tax exemptions for qualified firms in the banking, insurance, and capital market sectors.

To expand the SFZ’s banking presence, the government will relax regulations for locally incorporated foreign banks to open additional branches in the zone. Amir Hamzah said they will also allow flexibility in foreign exchange for offshore borrowing in foreign currency and investments in foreign currency assets.

Launched to much fanfare in 2016, Forest City has turned out to be a flop that has dragged down embattled Chinese developer Country Garden, which is drowning in billions of dollars in debt as it struggles to find buyers for its projects in China and abroad.

While the SFZ is specifically designed to revive the project, Anwar’s government is also hoping Forest City can get an additional boost from the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone, which is expected to be formalised at the annual Malaysia-Singapore leaders’ retreat scheduled for the end of the year.

China to ‘gradually’ lift ban on Japanese seafood imports

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3279276/china-gradually-lift-ban-japanese-seafood-imports?utm_source=rss_feed

China has agreed to “gradually resume” imports of Japanese seafood products a year after it imposed a ban in response to the release of treated waste water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

The decision was made after “rounds of talks” between Beijing and Tokyo over the impact discharging the waste water into the Pacific Ocean, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday afternoon.

The announcement also came a day after a 10-year-old Japanese boy died from stab wounds sustained in a knife attack in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.

The death sparked safety concerns among the Japanese community in China and demands from Tokyo for information about the attack.

More to follow …

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Philippines says China-centric Pogos ‘deeply’ linked to global crime rings

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3279282/philippines-says-china-centric-pogos-deeply-linked-global-crime-rings?utm_source=rss_feed

China-focused online casinos that boomed in the Philippines during Rodrigo Duterte’s presidency may have “deep links” to international crime syndicates, a lawmaker leading the probe on the industry said on Friday.

The Senate inquiry on so-called Philippine offshore gaming operators has established ties between these gambling operations and foreign criminal groups, Senator Risa Hontiveros told foreign correspondents. “We have seen numerous and deep links to transnational crime syndicates,” she said.

She noted how two people of Chinese origins convicted in Singapore’s S$3 billion (US$2.3 billion) money-laundering case were identified in the Senate’s investigation for possible involvement in Philippine gambling operations. The online casinos could also be linked to spying, and money from the industry could have been used in Philippine local elections, she added.

The investigation into the industry has gripped the Southeast Asian nation, most notably the case of dismissed mayor Alice Guo who fled to Malaysia, Singapore and was later arrested in Indonesia. The probe has raised questions about Guo’s citizenship, with her fingerprints supposedly matching that of a Chinese national.

Philippine authorities have filed money-laundering and human trafficking complaints against Guo and her associates over their alleged connection with an illegal offshore gambling operation.

Guo has denied wrongdoing and involvement in Pogo operations. She said she had divested her stake in 2021 in Baofu Land Development Inc., which she incorporated in 2019 together with Zhang Ruijin and Lin Baoying, the two who were convicted in Singapore’s largest money-laundering case. Baofu allegedly owns the property and buildings where illegal activities were committed, according to the Senate inquiry.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr in July ordered the shutdown of Pogos by year-end, after congressional inquiries on Guo bolstered calls for the closure of the industry.

China launches plan for healthier, longer lives: gene sequence 1% of world’s population

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3279178/china-launches-plan-healthier-longer-lives-gene-sequence-1-worlds-population?utm_source=rss_feed

A group of Chinese researchers has launched an international plan to increase the number of healthy years in people’s lives by proposing a new phase of the pioneering Human Genome Project to gain a deeper understanding of the human genome.

Building on the landmark achievements that generated the first human genome sequence two decades ago, the researchers have proposed to sequence the genomes of more than 1 per cent of the world’s population – 80 million people from more than 100 countries.

The data and findings would be used to extend the average health span of people by improving medical practices such as screening tests for genetic diseases and rare disease diagnoses, as well as contribute to the development of the evolving field of precision public health, according to their initial goals.

The concept refers to “using advanced technologies, data analytics and interventions to prevent disease, promote health and improve healthcare delivery at the population level”, according to the Human Genome Project II (HGP2) proposal, which was published in an editorial article in the journal Cell Research on September 11.

The researchers are from institutes in 15 countries: Australia, Belgium, Britain, China, France, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Russia, Singapore, Turkey, the United States and Vietnam.

“HGP2 certainly will not stop at 1 per cent of the world population; however, in achieving the goals set for the first 1 per cent, we believe that HGP2 will have initiated a permanent paradigm shift toward precision public health globally,” the team said in the article.

“This will open the gates for the rest of humanity to use their genome to lead healthier and longer lives, fulfilling the vision of the HGP.”

The Human Genome Project was started in 1990 under the leadership of American physician-geneticist Francis Collins, with funding from the US Department of Energy and the US National Institutes of Health.

“This international effort to sequence the 3 billion DNA letters in the human genome is considered by many to be one of the most ambitious scientific undertakings of all time, even compared to splitting the atom or going to the moon,” the NIH’s website says about the achievement of HGP , which was completed in 2003.

The endeavour was joined by scientists from institutes in Britain, China, France, Germany and Japan, as well as American institutes outside the NIH. They became known as the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium.

In China, BGI Group was founded in 1999 as a research organisation to support the HGP. Five scientists from BGI Group, now headquartered in Shenzhen, along with two researchers from Fudan and Peking University, are part of the 21-member international team behind the proposal, which was initiated by the Chinese scientists.

The researchers said the aim was to have the project become a “global research alliance” supporting international collaboration.

“Redundant effort must be avoided, when possible, to provide maximal support for existing scientific initiatives; this research alliance will foster “team science”, not competition,” they said.

“We hope that this proposition inspires exemplary national initiatives to soon organise and collaborate around HGP2’s principles,” they added.

Most funding for the project “will come from existing and future national initiative budgets”, and they will work with the World Health Organization and the United Nations for funding support, the researchers said.

It will also organise a World Bank-like international funding initiative for low- and middle-income countries taking part in the project so that “all may bring the scale and representation needed” for the global effort, according to the proposal.

“As genome sequencing costs start falling below US$100, personal genomes are fast becoming widely affordable,” they said.

According to a 2011 report by Battelle, an American applied science and technology non-profit, the US government investment of US$3.8 billion in the HGP drove US$796 billion in US economic output, and US$244 billion in personal income for Americans while creating 310,000 jobs.

In 2010 alone, the genomics‐enabled industry generated enough federal and state taxes to cover the total government investment, while noting the huge potential impacts of human genome sequencing in medicine, agriculture, energy and the environment, Battelle reported.

“The HGP is arguably the single most influential investment to have been made in modern science and a foundation for progress in the biological sciences moving forward,” the report said.

Why the US should restore the Fulbright programme for China

https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3279009/why-us-should-restore-fulbright-programme-china?utm_source=rss_feed

It is unlikely that relations between China and the West are going to dramatically improve in the foreseeable future. Indeed, current election-induced anti-China US congressional activity is a move in the wrong direction. This has harmed educational and academic exchanges, for one thing.

The number of Hong Kong undergraduate students studying in the US, for example, dropped from 5,272 in 2015-2016 to 3,021 in 2022-2023. Over the same period, the number of graduate students rose from 1,041 to 1,589. The United States has the most influential and one of the largest university systems in the world. Meanwhile, Hong Kong has multiple universities that are globally ranked.

Regardless of the geopolitical uncertainties, universities remain crucial institutions for mutual peace, understanding, research and security, especially with regards to health and climate-related issues.

US-China relations are unlikely to return to the “good old days” any time soon, but now is the time to immediately restart the Fulbright programme, which was terminated during the Donald Trump administration after it had operated in Hong Kong for many years. In the four years prior to the programme being shut down, some six to seven young Hong Kong scholars lectured or undertook research in the US annually. A bill to restore the Fulbright programmes for Hong Kong and mainland China was introduced on March 29, 2023, but has yet to be passed.

Between 2015 and 2021, US agencies supported nearly US$30 million worth of research in Chinese universities and other institutions. Funded research programmes can be an important tool for building trust. In recent years, China and the US have co-published more research articles than any other country.

However, in recent years, there has been a decrease in US-based scientists citing research papers by Chinese scientists in fields such as artificial intelligence. While the reasons are varied, the lack of American citations of Chinese research is perhaps due to a fear of being investigated for ties to China. This is, of course, detrimental to global science and innovation.

The number of Americans studying and researching in mainland China and Hong Kong has declined precipitously. In 2024, less than 1,000 Americans were enrolled in long-term study courses in China, down from a peak of nearly 25,000. While almost 290,000 Chinese are studying in America, the number of students has declined from a high of 372,000 in 2019-2020.

Meanwhile, the China Scholarship Council will fund up to 240 outstanding new graduates to pursue a master’s degree or doctorate at seven US partner universities in 2025. It is no wonder that former US ambassador to China Max Baucus called for the Fulbright programme to be resumed.

Resuming Fulbright programmes is a good place to start reversing the damage to mutual understanding among the next generation of leaders who are now studying at university. It can also help to boost scientific research that focuses on the health of the planet. Recognising the hardline position of both governments, the best way to restart the Fulbright programme would be to focus only on areas like climate change, community health and perhaps non-controversial cultural studies.

At the same time, both governments have to take a more rational approach to granting study visas. One step would be for Beijing to allow highly qualified young American students and scholars visa-free travel to mainland China.

President Xi Jinping’s invitation to 50,000 American students has to come with a welcoming environment that is not too securitised. That means ending the harassment of Chinese scholars and scientists at US universities, as well as Chinese students seeking a student visa.

The world’s two major powers cannot afford to drag their feet in averting the next global challenge, especially after the Covid-19 global health crisis. Working together to meet that challenge requires cooperation between their universities. At a time when higher education should be promoting people-to-people exchanges, mutual understanding and research cooperation to head off the next global crisis, relations between China and the West have become a major obstacle.

It is time to re-emphasise the importance of a mutual understanding between the two cultures, economies, political systems and societies. Programmes such as Fulbright are intended to do just that.

It is perhaps even more important when countries or civilisations may not be on the friendliest of terms. And there is no substitute for direct cultural contact and understanding, perhaps especially in the age of Zoom and artificial intelligence.

While we have focused here on the American-sponsored Fulbright programmes and the importance of both sides restarting them, it is clear that the US – and the West generally – needs to be open to Chinese-sponsored programmes. Many US universities have closed Confucius Institutes, not for national security reasons but due to concern over losing government-funded research grants that are their lifeline to knowledge creation.

But there are other possibilities. Some examples, such as the Public Intellectual Programme of the National Committee for US-China Relations and the one-time China-US Scholars Programme, have been funded by a consortium of US private foundations.

Now may not be the most propitious time to argue for the re-establishment of a small but historically important contribution to international exchange and mutual academic understanding, but it is important to start somewhere and the Fulbright programme is a good beginning.

US study on China’s ‘much stronger’ innovation, discounted Apple iPhone 16s: 7 highlights

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/3279226/us-study-chinas-much-stronger-innovation-discounted-apple-iphone-16s-7-highlights?utm_source=rss_feed

We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider .

Can China innovate and outcompete the US in their pitched battle for technological supremacy? A 20-month investigation into the innovation performance of 44 Chinese firms across key technologies revealed a troubling yes for the US.

The deadly pager explosions in Lebanon could prompt increased caution in China about the weaponisation of electric products, analysts have said.

“Experiential stores” like claw-machine arcades and selfie shops have made their presence felt in Hong Kong at a time when traditional shops have closed down, leaving countless street-level premises locked up and vacant.

The death of material scientist Li Haizeng from a heart attack at the age of 34 has unsettled China’s research community, even those already mindful of the huge pressure facing the country’s scientists today.

Online retailers in China have slashed the prices of ahead of its official release, as consumers in the world’s largest smartphone market hold out for the release of the US company’s first on-device artificial intelligence (AI) software.

is taking a tough stance on unruly foreign visitors in Bali to preserve the island’s culture and promote quality tourism by cracking down on troublemakers, deporting them in large numbers and insisting illegal activities, such as drug use and nudity, will not be tolerated.

A Chinese woman was brutally beaten and blinded by her husband two months after they married because she refused to fund his gaming habit.

Father, daughter from China die after tree falls on car in Malaysia

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3279244/father-daughter-china-die-after-tree-falls-car-malaysia?utm_source=rss_feed

The bodies of two Chinese tourists who were trapped in a car when a tree fell on it in Pinang Peranakan Mansion in Lebuh Gereja in Malaysia’s Penang state have been recovered.

Firefighters managed to retrieve the bodies of the victims – Liu Zhu, 69 and his daughter Liu Xinxin, 36 – from the wreckage at about 5pm on Wednesday.

The man was seated in the rear seat while the woman was found in the front passenger seat.

A crane had to be called in to lift the tree, whose roots were attached to a slab of concrete walls that came down with it.

It was understood that the duo had finished the visit at the attraction site and were leaving when the tragedy struck.

The driver of the vehicle managed to escape unhurt.

Two other empty cars which were parked beside the trees were also damaged.

Northeast district police chief ACP Razlam Ab Hamid said the victims were scheduled to check out from their hotel in Tanjung Bungah on Thursday.

“They arrived in Penang on a direct flight from China on September 14 for a holiday in the country and were supposed to check out of their hotel today (Thursday) to continue their vacation in Malaysia.

“Postmortem examinations carried out at the Forensic Medicine Department of Penang Hospital revealed that both victims died due to traumatic asphyxia in a person trapped in a vehicle due to a fallen tree,” Razlam said.

He said the victims’ family members have indicated they will come to claim the bodies as soon as possible and bring them back to China.

This story was first published by

China’s retirement-age changes force rethink of life plans to work longer and save smarter

https://www.scmp.com/economy/policy/article/3279160/chinas-retirement-age-changes-force-rethink-life-plans-work-longer-and-save-smarter?utm_source=rss_feed

The decision to gradually raise China’s retirement ages from next year has set off waves of reactions across the country. And for many city-dwelling professionals, the change looks to usher in an unwelcome stretch to the career finish line.

With the news fuelling uncertainty about what the move means for their retirement plans down the line, some are being forced to rethink their saving and spending habits, weighing such financial considerations against the prospects of working longer. Meanwhile, the overall sentiment looks to reflect a growing sense of unease about financial security in the face of extended careers and future economic shifts.

“There’s an emotional impact, but it feels like the government is just testing the waters. Even with the new retirement age, it’s still earlier compared with severely ageing countries,” said Joe Zhou, a 35-year-old analyst in Beijing.

“For people my age, there are too many immediate concerns to deal with. Overall though, pensions are too small to rely on. And without enough money, it doesn’t matter when you retire – you just can’t afford to.”

However, Zhou said he may start contributing less – or stop contributing entirely – to his voluntary private pensions, which can be paid up to 12,000 yuan annually.

“I was afraid that the pensions wouldn’t be enough, but now I am less worried, as the gap between the retirement age and life expectancy has narrowed by three years.”

Last week, China’s top legislature approved a plan to raise retirement ages gradually by up to five years by 2040, with annual increases of several months, starting from January.

The retirement age for men will gradually rise from 60 to 63 over 15 years, and for female office workers, it will increase from 55 to 58 by 2040. Female blue-collar workers, previously able to retire at 50, will now have to wait until 55.

Even after the adjustment, China’s retirement ages are still no higher than in countries facing more serious ageing problems. In Japan, people can begin receiving pensions at 65, while in South Korea, the pension age is 63.

Starting from 2030, the minimum contribution period required to receive a basic pension will gradually increase, by 6 months each year, from the current 15 years to 20 years over a the span of a decade.

The new scheme is also more flexible and allows people to retire early or delay retirement by a few years, with their employers’ agreement, as long as the workers have met the minimum years of pension contribution.

The overall economic impact of delayed retirement seems mixed, said Xu Tianchen, senior China economist with The Economist Intelligence Unit, noting how savings rates rose in Japan while the propensity to consume decreased after retirement was delayed, whereas the US showed almost the opposite trend.

“For older adults, longer employment before retirement typically means higher wages compared with pensions, leading to increased overall income and, in turn, higher consumption.

“However, younger and middle-aged workers may feel the negative effects, such as job competition from older workers and a rising dependency ratio. This could result in lower income, higher savings, and reduced consumption.

“That said, the immediate impact of delayed retirement is likely to be modest, as the policy this time isn’t overly aggressive and will be implemented gradually.”

In 2023, China’s population aged 60 and above reached 297 million, accounting for more than 21 per cent of the total population, while those aged 65 and above exceeded 217 million, making up 15.4 per cent, according to official figures.

The ageing trend is also compounded by China’s slowing economic growth, dragged down by the prolonged property crisis, sluggish domestic demand and outsized debt struggles – factors that are weighing on China’s ability to meet its economic growth target for this year.

And that, in turn, has further dampened consumers’ confidence to spend.

“I will save more … no one knows what changes the future might bring,” said Zhu Dongxia, a 29-year-old research assistant in Beijing. “You just have to hold on to as much as you can.

“After all, it takes time to receive a pension, and with the current economic situation, people might be more inclined to save as a buffer against risks rather than spend.” CAN

Even for older individuals, while some remain indifferent, there are still noticeable shifts in sentiment.

He Yunbin, a 43-year-old car dealer in Zhejiang province, said while his spending and savings have not been affected, his outlook on the future has changed significantly.

“It’s about people’s trust in the government and concerns over the protection of their own interests,” he said.

Linda Wang, a 44-year-old manager at a state-owned company in Shanghai, said that she would not mind working three more years, and that doing so would not affect her spending and saving habits.

She has already paid into her pension for 20 years and said she could retire voluntarily when she reaches 55 years old.

Additional Reporting by Mandy Zuo

Outrage after China officials say schoolgirl stabbed 200 times with sewing awl ‘not bullying’

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3278641/outrage-after-china-officials-say-schoolgirl-stabbed-200-times-sewing-awl-not-bullying?utm_source=rss_feed

China is outraged after officials in eastern China said that a case in which a boy stabbed his classmate more than 200 times with a sewing awl over three months “did not meet the standards of bullying”.

According to the victim’s parents, their daughter was stabbed in her thigh by a male transfer student at the school in Shandong province, according to the Chinese media outlet Xiaoxiang Morning Herald.

The new student sat next to her in her Primary Six class and jabbed her with the needle of a sewing awl. The needle was about 7 to 8cm long, and he jammed it entirely into her leg, causing muscle injuries.

“It hurt so much, I wanted to die,” the girl said.

The girl revealed that the bullying included more than just sewing awl stabbings; she was also stabbed with a paper cutter, slapped, and forced to eat paper and pencil lead.

Additionally, she faced social isolation and was blackmailed for hundreds of yuan.

Her family demanded justice after posting videos on September 8, highlighting the damage to her thigh and school uniform from the stabbings.

The mother, unaware of the abuse due to her daughter’s attendance at a boarding school, explained that her daughter hid the violence to avoid worrying her, as she travels frequently.

The mother said the boy had told his classmates that his father was “the principal’s friend”.

The girl reported the bullying to a teacher, showing her injuries, but was advised to visit the health centre and told “not to provoke others”.

A spokesperson from the school informed Changcheng New Media that a vote was conducted to determine whether the incident would be classified as school bullying. Out of 14 participants, including school officials, a lawyer, and a local police officer, eight concluded it was not bullying.

The local education bureau echoed this, stating the boy’s actions “did not meet the standards of school bullying.”

A staff member from the education bureau noted that both students remain in the same grade but are no longer in the same class. New officials have been assigned to investigate the matter.

The case has drawn strong reactions online, with many finding the outcome shocking and ridiculous.

One user on Douyin remarked: “The authorities are correct. This was not school bullying; it was a crime of assault and intentional injury.”

Another added: “The school should not decide if it was bullying; the law must hold the boy accountable.”

Wang Qionghua, a lawyer from Guangdong Zhiheng Law Firm, emphasised that under China’s Provisions on the Protection of Minors on Campus, school bullying involves intentionally causing harm or financial loss.

She pointed out that such actions could also be criminal, and if minors are involved, they may need to be sent to special educational facilities.

US parties find unity in Quad’s potential to counter China in the Indo-Pacific

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3279229/us-parties-find-unity-quads-potential-counter-china-indo-pacific?utm_source=rss_feed

Bloodstains, bandages and not-so-veiled calls for violence have turned the American election into the ugliest one so far, shocking many who look to Washington for global stability and delighting those insisting that the country’s democratic system is a farce.

But deep divisions between the country’s two political parties are harder to detect when it comes to one of President Joe Biden’s signature foreign policy initiatives: the Japan-India-Australia-US security dialogue known as the Quad.

From his first year in the Oval Office, Biden elevated the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue grouping to head of state level and is committed to an annual summit.

Republicans seem to like it so much, they are demanding more. Crucially for US politicians of nearly all stripes, the Quad seeks to counter the more muscular stance that Beijing has taken in the Indo-Pacific.

While the two parties have often been at odds over many areas of foreign and trade policy, with tariffs and support for Ukraine emerging as key election issues, the point of contention over the Quad is not its existence, but how muscular it should be.

As Anthony Albanese, Fumio Kishida and Narendra Modi head to Biden’s seaside hometown of Rehobeth, Delaware for the Quad’s fourth in-person summit on Saturday, analysts expect agreement on measures that will almost certainly anger Beijing.

A Biden senior adviser told reporters on Thursday that the president will announce – jointly with the prime ministers – “tangible deliverables” on “maritime security”, among other measures.

“You’ll also see some announcements that demonstrate that the Quad has been institutionalised to endure over the long term,” said National Security Council senior director Mira Rapp-Hooper.

Asked whether recent clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels in the South and East China seas would be under discussion, Rapp-Hooper said: “I would expect the PRC and [its] various approaches to economics, to technology, to the maritime domain to be discussed.”

Later in the briefing, she said the leaders would announce progress on “upgrading what we can deliver by way of maritime domain awareness, on coastguard cooperation and on activities related to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief”, among other things.

Whether the measures will be enough to placate Republicans remains to be seen, but they are very much in the direction that they want.

Just a day earlier, Texas Representative Michael McCaul, a Republican who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, urged Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell to bolster the Quad in a way that will push back more against China.

“With regards to the Quad, we must strengthen ties with India to ensure the two largest democracies in the world are working together to advocate and safeguard democracy,” McCaul said in a hearing held by his committee.

“While these partnerships are critical to countering China, I must say I’ve been disappointed that it has not gone further.”

When Representative Gerald Connolly, a Virginia Democrat, pushed back against suggestions that the Biden administration was not doing enough to counter China, McCaul shot back: “I actually praise the Quad … but thanks for turning this into a partisan exercise.”

In the same hearing, Representative Amata Coleman Radewagen, a Republican lawmaker representing American Samoa, asked Campbell what progress the Quad has made in strengthening coordination on Indo-Pacific maritime awareness.

Campbell responded that “big announcements on Saturday” would indicate substantial progress on efforts for the Pacific and Southeast Asia to track “illegal fishing fleets that are the scourge of these extraordinarily important fishing areas”.

“The vast majority of those fishing fleets are Chinese,” he said.

Analysts agree that concern about China’s activities in the Indo-Pacific region are pushing the Quad to take more serious measures, within the confines of a partnership that is not a military alliance or defence treaty.

Farwa Aamer, director of South Asia initiatives at the New York-based Asia Society Policy Institute pointed to the Quad’s foreign minister’s meeting in Tokyo in July as an indication of what will come this weekend.

Without naming China, the joint statement issued by the ministers said the Quad was “seriously concerned about the situation in the East and South China Seas”, reiterating its “strong opposition to any unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo by force or coercion”.

“The summit on Saturday may further reiterate what was discussed during the foreign ministers’ meeting or build on it with a more concrete outcome, but that remains to be seen,” Aamer said.

“Individually, we have seen the US stance on the South China Sea and India also reaffirmed its support to the Philippines for upholding its national sovereignty during [Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar’s] visit to Manila earlier this year,” she added.

“So we have seen a more articulated stance emerge on the South China Sea, at least individually, and we will see whether the Quad mirrors that.”

Richard Fontaine, CEO of the Centre for a New American Security (CNAS), a non-partisan think tank in Washington, said “squaring off” between Chinese and Philippine vessels as recently as the past week only strengthens the Quad’s resolve and may transition into “actual security cooperation”.

“The next step – and what I would look for – is actual security cooperation, not just sharing information and making information available,” said Fontaine, who served as associate director for Near Eastern affairs at the National Security Council.

Speaking in a CNAS discussion panel on Thursday, he cited the possibility of “logistics cooperation and providing hubs or other abilities for militaries, navies or coastguards from the four countries to operate in and around each other’s territory and waters and things like that”.

According to Fontaine, this approach would result in the expansion of the maritime domain awareness effort into “an actual security cooperation effort”.

“And that would be totally in keeping with the trajectory that the Quad has had, where first it started talking about this stuff, and then it started sharing information, and now it’s hopefully going to start doing things,” he said.

[Sport] China spent millions on this new trade route - then a war got in the way

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czjyj2rd1zpo

Xiqing Wang/BBC

Xiqing Wang/BBC

Xiqing Wang/BBC

Xiqing Wang/BBC

Xiqing Wang/BBC

Xiqing Wang/BBC

Xiqing Wang/BBC

How China could benefit from adopting US college sports model

https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3278941/how-china-could-benefit-adopting-us-college-sports-model?utm_source=rss_feed

With the men’s national team suffering consecutive defeats in its 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifying campaign, it seems like the only way for Chinese football is up. Losing 7-0 away to Japan was particularly hard to swallow, especially given the geopolitical tensions between the two countries, and losing 2-1 at home to 10-man Saudi Arabia only made things worse.

It is clear China’s success in individual Olympic sports has not translated into better results in the world’s most popular team sports, such as football and basketball. China’s men’s basketball team has failed to qualify for the past two Olympics, leaving its national governing body facing some serious soul-searching.

What can be done about this? While learning from Japan’s journey to success can help reform China’s scandal-hit football scene, it might be more sustainable to look into a US college sports model as a way to improve the fortunes of Chinese team sports. The US men’s football team is 16th in the latest Fifa ranking – higher than 18th-place Japan, Asia’s top-ranked team – despite a general lack of mainstream support and Americans’ preference for the country’s own brand of football. China is in 87th.

Sports diplomacy between the US and China has historically generated wonderful results. In 1971, “ping-pong diplomacy” famously helped defuse tensions and restore diplomatic relations between the two nations.

Compared to China’s highly centralised sports governance, the market-driven US model seems more capable of sustainably delivering strong team sports performances. Such a model would benefit from having a mass market and a huge economy, both of which China already possesses.

The Chinese sports industry has risen to prominence in recent years, experiencing a 6.9 per cent year-on-year increase in revenue generated to 1.3 trillion yuan (US$183.2 billion) in 2022, according to government data. If the sports industry is to aid China’s transition to a consumption-led economy, such efforts can be turbocharged by a US-style college sports culture.

Many of Hong Kong’s top young sporting stars have benefited from receiving scholarships from US universities to pursue higher education and a sporting career. Rising women’s basketball star Yannie Chan Yan-man is on a full scholarship at Iona University, and Olympians Vivian Kong Man-wai and Siobhan Haughey experienced top-level competition while studying at Stanford and Michigan, respectively.

College sports provide a massive level of support for Team USA at the Olympics. At the Paris Games, 75 per cent of US Olympians had competed collegiately in their sport. More than 1,200 current, former or incoming athletes from US universities competed at this year’s Olympics, more than 800 of them for a country other than the US.

The Chinese state has spent decades bearing the heavy financial burden of identifying and developing sporting talent from a young age. To ensure sustainable financing for sports, the government established the China Sports Lottery, a state-owned lottery enterprise created to fund the country’s sports development.

Government subsidies have been instrumental in helping young athletes begin their sporting careers before they have the opportunity to compete for private-sector sponsorships and the additional financial incentives offered to Olympic medallists. The government’s top-down approach to elite sport development has delivered excellent results in individual competitions, but it becomes a double-edged sword in team sports, as it restricts athletes’ access to opportunities outside the elite programmes and hinders private-sector investment.

Rather than seeing sporting success as a zero-sum game, the US should seize a golden opportunity to build goodwill and trust with China by sharing its best practices in college sports. US civil society organisations and universities have tried to reach out and invite Chinese officials to visit and share their experiences in sport development.

These efforts can be expanded even further as they also represent an opportunity for US sports business to gain entry into the fast-growing Chinese sports market. Former NBA star Yao Ming himself is a passionate advocate for China to learn from US college sports culture.

Chinese universities have sent numerous administrators and coaches to US colleges to study how to combine athletics and academics to position sports as an integral part of a university’s culture and develop more well-rounded student-athletes.

If these efforts are successful, they can help accelerate a shift in mindset among Chinese society from having a predominant focus on academic results as the be-all and end-all to a more holistic understanding of success. Countering the prevalent zero-sum view on sports versus academic excellence can help young people in China live a happier life with a better work-life balance, counter the trend of “lying flat” and even help the country’s economy grow stronger.

China has created an ecosystem of world-leading manufacturing industries through the use of similar approaches, welcoming foreign expertise, incentivising them to stay long-term and eventually achieving technological superiority from within. College sports can help China do likewise to improve in popular team sports while simultaneously sharing best practices of its sporting strength with foreign youth.

Providing sports scholarships to Chinese and non-Chinese students to study in China while chasing their sporting dreams will be a highly effective yet low-cost measure to inject energy and diversity into Chinese grass-roots sporting culture.

Success in the world’s most popular team sports such as football and basketball will help China inspire and impress many young people worldwide. There is no better soft power projection than a robust college sports culture to convince sport enthusiasts worldwide that China is welcoming and open to them.

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New submarine detector shows ‘tremendous potential’ in South China Sea tests

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3279095/new-submarine-detector-shows-tremendous-potential-south-china-sea-tests?utm_source=rss_feed

A new submarine detection technology that can track even the quietest of subs has shown potential during testing in the South China Sea, its developers say.

Scientists from Shanghai Jiao Tong University said their detector – about the size of a pickup truck – was tested on a deep ocean seabed.

It was able to capture faint electromagnetic waves generated by a rotating propeller nearly 20km (12 miles) away.

By analysing these low-frequency signals, the scientists said they could potentially position and track military targets. They published their findings in the Chinese peer-reviewed Journal of Vibration and Shock last month.

The detection range is about 10 times greater than anything previously reported, meaning the technology could potentially give China an advantage in an intensifying underwater arms race.

That distance had been considered impossible to achieve since detectable electromagnetic signals emitted by submarines do not transmit that far in seawater. But they can be detected from further away by monitoring the seabed – a technique not previously used to detect submarines.

Electric currents are used on the hulls of navy vessels to reduce corrosion from seawater. When their propellers rotate, they cut through the electric field and generate electromagnetic radiation.

But those electromagnetic waves weaken in conductive seawater, and while some weapons can detect these signals they must be close to the target.

According to publicly available records, the furthest away that submarines have previously been detected was 2.5km-plus, and that was also achieved by Chinese scientists.

“Although a 3km detection and positioning range is already a significant breakthrough, it still falls short of meeting the requirements for detecting and positioning targets in the open sea,” Jiang Weikang, a professor with the Shanghai university’s State Key Laboratory of Mechanical System and Vibration, wrote in the paper.

“The new technological approach has demonstrated tremendous potential in sea trials,” he said, and it could potentially increase the detection distance of low-frequency electromagnetic signals to “over 50km”.

That distance is comparable to the range at which a modern torpedo can destroy a target.

The Shanghai scientists achieved this by using a detector to receive signals not from the seawater but from the seabed.

Some of the electromagnetic waves emitted by a submarine’s propeller travel down into the seabed and spread along the rock layers.

As the vessel moves, its propeller rotates about once per second. And as it does this, the intensity of the extremely low-frequency electromagnetic waves in the rock layers diminishes at a rate of about 0.173 decibels per km.

That is about 0.5 per cent of the rate it diminishes in seawater, meaning the signal detection range is much longer on the seabed than in seawater.

Marine geologists have long used this method to explore for undersea oil and gas, but it has yet to be used to monitor submarines.

In the paper, Jiang and his team noted that the challenge of using this technology is that the electromagnetic radiation from the propellers found in the seabed is extremely weak. The seabed also contains a significant amount of electromagnetic noise from natural or non-military sources.

To get around this, the scientists developed an algorithm to detect extremely weak target signals in complex and open environments.

They said positioning the target was also difficult since the detector needs to link multiple high-precision sensors spaced over 1km apart on the seabed. Their clocks must be synchronised and have a margin of error of one-billionth of a second – a level of precision that is difficult to maintain in the harsh deep-sea environment

Low-frequency electromagnetic waves also carry limited physical data, and researchers have yet to find a way to maximise its use for target identification and positioning.

The paper included a photograph of the detector, which has instruments and battery compartments to support long-term underwater operations and a surface buoy.

It can also be used to track surface ships by detecting the wake of propellers.

“We have achieved accurate detection of targets in the open sea,” the paper said.

Submarines have become quieter – the sounds they emit are now comparable to background ocean noise, making it increasingly difficult to detect them using traditional acoustic methods.

Rivals China and the United States have both stepped up efforts to improve anti-submarine warfare in hotspots such as the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait in recent years.

While the US has the edge on submarine technology, China has made progress in areas including gravity anomaly detectors, terahertz radars, unmanned underwater vehicle swarms, and AI-powered anti-submarine satellites that can detect invisible wakes on the high seas.

Japan a Good Fit for Chinese Intellectuals, Investors

https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/japan-a-good-fit-for-chinese-intellectuals-investors/7773913.html

Chinese migrants are going all over the world, from Mexico to Thailand and beyond.

But one country has become increasingly popular among Chinese migrants: Japan.

Many Chinese who choose to move to Japan are wealthy or highly educated. They like the country’s ease of living, rich culture and immigration policies that favor highly skilled professionals.

Intellectuals

Jia Jia is a writer and speaker at the University of Tokyo. Eight years ago, he was briefly detained in China on suspicion of writing a call for China’s top leader to resign.

Jia planned to move to the United States. But after experiencing the coronavirus outbreak in China, he was in a hurry to leave, and his American visa application was delayed. So, he chose to go to Japan instead.

“In the United States, illegal immigration is particularly controversial. When I went to Japan, I was a little surprised. I found that their immigration policy is actually more relaxed than I thought,” Jia told The Associated Press.

Li Jinxing is a Christian human rights lawyer who moved to Japan in 2022. Li sees similarities to a time over one hundred years ago. Back then, Chinese intellectuals such as Sun Yat-sen, the founding father of modern China, went to Japan to study how the country modernized.

“On one hand, we hope to find inspiration and direction in history,” Li said of himself and like-minded Chinese in Japan. “On the other hand, we also want to observe what a democratic country with rule of law is like. We’re studying Japan. How does its economy work, its government work?”

Changing immigration policy

Over the past 10 years, Tokyo has softened its position on immigration. The policy change was a result of the country’s low birthrates and ageing population.

Foreigners now make up about two percent of its population of 125 million. But the Tokyo-based National Institute of Population and Social Security Research says that percentage is expected to reach 12 percent by 2070.

Chinese are the most numerous newcomers to Japan. Of the 3 million foreigners living in Japan last year, Chinese represented about 822,000, government data shows. That number is up from 762,000 a year ago.

In 2022, China’s “zero COVID” public health policies led many of the country’s young or wealthy citizens to leave. There is even a term for it: “runxue,” using the English word “run” to suggest “running away” to places considered safer and wealthier.

For intellectuals like Li and Jia, Japan offers greater freedom than China. But for others, such as wealthy investors and businesspeople, Japan offers property protections.

Property protections

A report by investment migration company Henley & Partners says nearly 14,000 millionaires left China last year. That is the most of any country in the world. Japan was a popular destination for Chinese millionaires.

Q. Edward Wang teaches history at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey. Wang said a major reason is concern about the security of wealth in China.

“Protection of private property, which is the cornerstone of a capitalist society, that piece is missing in China,” Wang said.

In addition, the weakening Japanese yen makes buying property and other local assets a good deal.

And while the Japanese economy has not had major growth recently, China’s economy is facing problems. The property market is in crisis and stock prices have stayed at the level they were at in the late 2000s.

“If you are just going to Japan to preserve your money,” Wang said, “then definitely you will enjoy your time in Japan.”

Internet-based business leaders are among those leaving China after Communist Party crackdowns on the technology industry. For example, billionaire Jack Ma, a founder of e-commerce company Alibaba, took a position at Tokyo College, part of the highly respected University of Tokyo.

So many wealthy Chinese have bought apartments in Tokyo’s costly buildings that some areas have been called “Chinatowns,” or “Digital Chinatowns.” The term describes how many of the homeowners in those places work in high-tech industries.

“Life in Japan is good,” said Guo Yu, an engineer who retired early after working at ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok.

Guo does not concern himself with politics. He loves Japan’s snow in the winter and is a “superfan” of its hot springs. He owns homes in Tokyo and in other places.

Like Guo, many Chinese moving to Japan are wealthy and educated. The Japanese government has been careful about who it lets stay, placing importance on people to fill labor shortages for factories, construction and health care for the aged.

“It is crucial that Japan becomes an attractive country for foreign talent so they will choose to work here,” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said earlier this year.

False warnings

Chinese ballet dancer Du Hai said he has found a chance to use his talent in Japan. Leading a class one recent weekend, Du showed dance positions to a class of Japanese students.

Du liked Japan’s large ballet community, filled with professional groups and talented dancers. But he was also worried about warnings that Japanese people were unfriendly.

Such warnings turned out to be false, he said with a laugh. Now, Du is considering getting Japanese citizenship.

“Of course, I enjoy living in Japan very much now,” he said.

I’m John Russell.

And I’m Ashley Thompson.

Yuri Kageyama and Dake Kang reported this story for the Associated Press. John Russell adapted it for VOA Learning English.

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Words in This Story

migrant – n. a person who moves from one country, place, or locality to another

application – n. a formal, written request

controversial – adj. describes a discussion marked especially by the expression of opposing views

relaxed –adj. able to change to account for people’s needs

intellectual – n. a person who enjoys study, reflection, and careful thought

inspiration – n. the act of influencing or suggesting opinions

cornerstone – n. a basic element, a foundation

asset –n. a thing that has value that can be measured

preserve – v. to maintain; to keep alive, intact, or free from decay

crackdown –n. a campaign against a group or a behavior that uses law enforcement and strong punishments

crucial – adj. important

attractive – adj. arousing interest

talent –n. the ability to do a job in a skilled and effective way