Mistral点评

• Why US-China rivalry ‘impedes’ global efforts to regulate artificial intelligence
• Eyeing China, Quad leaders to expand joint maritime security operations in Indo-Pacific
• Concert leads to flood of calls to China resident after singer shared number, claiming to be his
• China urges elderly to volunteer as workforce shrinks and population ages
• Malaysian king breaks down as he remembers dead son during talks with China’s Xi Jinping
• China woman’s epic 58-page exposé on boyfriend’s cheating with 300 women, costs him his job
• West should thank China for kick-starting its economic growth
• Egypt rumoured to buy Chinese J-10C jets as Middle East looks beyond US weapons
• China-born Chen Zhijian wins top US medical research prize said to foretell Nobel
• Malaysia must tread fine line in EV push amid US-China rivalry, trade tensions: minister
• China woman and 2 chefs subdued knife attacker using umbrella, kitchen tools, praised as heroes
• China ‘iron butt’ woman travels to 42 cities during gap year, spends US$2,800 on tickets
• If China’s love of Western luxury is fading, I think I know why
• Fed’s rate cut no panacea for China’s pain, but it helps take the edge off: analysts
• China’s leading AI start-ups eye fresh opportunities after OpenAI previews latest LLM
• Is China looking to Mao Zedong’s ‘Third Front’ as part of economic self-reliance drive?

Why US-China rivalry ‘impedes’ global efforts to regulate artificial intelligence

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3279368/why-us-china-rivalry-impedes-global-efforts-regulate-artificial-intelligence?utm_source=rss_feed

Beijing raised eyebrows when it decided not to sign an international declaration this month to keep humans, not artificial intelligence, in control of decision-making on nuclear weapons.

It is unclear why China opted out of the non-binding joint statement – endorsed by over 60 countries, including the US and Ukraine – at the end of the second Responsible AI in the Military Domain (REAIM) conference, hosted by South Korea.

Observers say it underlines Beijing’s dilemma as it tries to balance concerns about making nuclear-related commitments amid its rivalry with the US on military AI, and its desire for a bigger say in global governance of the rapidly evolving technology.

They also say it is an example of how the worsening feud between the two powers holds back global efforts to regulate AI, especially its expanding military use.

“At this stage, China’s approach is to engage in international discussions while being extremely cautious about making specific commitments that might tie its hands in the future,” said Tong Zhao, a nuclear expert and senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“[China] is also interested in delaying its participation in international regulations to protest US export control policies against China’s access to advanced chips, which are crucial for its competition with the US over AI technologies.”

The two-day summit in Seoul, which involved nearly 100 countries, ended on September 10 with a “blueprint for action” declaration that said it was essential to “maintain human control and involvement for all actions … concerning nuclear weapons employment”.

“We stress the need to prevent AI technologies from being used to contribute to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and emphasise that AI technologies support and do not hinder disarmament, arms control and non-proliferation efforts,” the declaration said, according to Yonhap.

“AI applications should be ethical and human-centric” and AI capabilities in the military domain “must be applied in accordance with applicable national and international law”.

This year’s pact was believed to be more “action-oriented” than a modest “call to action” document adopted at the first REAIM meeting in The Hague last year, which was endorsed by some 60 nations, including China.

Russia was not invited to the talks in Seoul or The Hague due to its invasion of Ukraine.

Although China’s nuclear policy experts have largely supported the principle of not allowing AI to make nuclear authorisation decisions, Beijing seems to have reservations, according to Zhao.

“China may worry that committing to such a principle could lead to greater pressure to provide transparency over its nuclear weapons and nuclear command, control and communication systems,” he said.

Zhao said other possible explanations included that Beijing may want to avoid supporting a mostly Western-led event organised by a US ally and a proposition it knows Russia opposes.

“That said, it’s hard to tell if China’s decision not to support the blueprint for action is primarily due to concerns about limiting AI’s incorporation into nuclear systems,” he said. “The blueprint also includes many other general commitments about regulating the military application of AI that China is not ready to make, fearing it could constrain its future options.”

Seong-Hyon Lee, an associate with the Harvard University Asia Centre, said despite the improvement in operational capabilities brought by AI in the military it also posed the risk of misuse, making it a “double-edged sword”.

He said broader tensions with Washington also influenced Beijing’s stance, making it hesitant to join US-led initiatives.

“The military use of AI has become a key component of the US-China strategic rivalry, with both nations heavily investing in AI development to gain a future military edge,” he said.

He described Beijing’s decision as “another example of how US-China competition impedes global AI regulation efforts, which require cooperation between the two powers”.

Pointing to growing concerns about an AI arms race and potential conflict escalation, he said the US worried about China’s misuse of AI, while China opposed US restrictions on AI technology.

“Reaching an agreement on military AI between the two countries is challenging due to strategic competition, differing values, and deep-rooted mistrust,” he said.

In October last year, China put forward a short policy statement titled Global AI Governance Initiative, which highlighted its focus on “the well-being of humanity” – rather than the West’s emphasis on protecting human rights and the rule of law.

Beijing’s initiative called for ensuring that “AI always remains under human control”. It opposed “drawing ideological lines or forming exclusive groups to obstruct other countries from developing AI” and “creating barriers and disrupting the global AI supply chain through technological monopolies and unilateral coercive measures”.

The following month, China attended the first AI safety summit in Bletchley Park, England, signing a joint declaration along with the US and the European Union calling for global cooperation to mitigate risks from the technology.

And in July this year, the ruling Communist Party issued a call to establish “regulatory systems to ensure the safety of AI” in its policy document after the third plenum.

Lee said China might also be concerned that a public commitment on keeping AI out of nuclear-related decisions could constrain its future strategic options given the gaps on military AI use between Beijing and Washington.

“Furthermore, China may prefer to develop its own … AI governance frameworks rather than adopting Western-led proposals, reflecting its desire for greater autonomy in this area,” he said.

Manoj Harjani, a research fellow and coordinator of the military transformations programme at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, agreed. He said China was likely focused on its efforts to lead a resolution at the UN General Assembly on military AI governance.

In March, the UN General Assembly adopted its first resolution on AI, drafted by the US and co-sponsored by over 120 countries including China, by consensus without a vote, calling for “safe, secure and trustworthy” development of the technology.

However, China chose to abstain last November on a UN resolution seeking to address the use of AI in autonomous weapons systems, also known as “killer robots”, which was endorsed by 164 countries, including the US. Five countries, including Russia and India, voted against it while eight countries abstained, including Israel and Iran.

Harjani said the US was not a significant factor in Beijing’s move to opt out of the Seoul declaration, which he said did not “necessarily signal that China absolutely disagrees with its content and the REAIM process”.

“Differences with the US will certainly be one factor affecting China’s general approach towards global military AI governance, but the REAIM process is not led by the US, so I don’t think that it weighs very significantly in this instance,” he said.

Instead, he pointed to the bilateral dialogue between the two countries as an effective way to “improve mutual understanding while reducing risks from miscommunication”.

Beijing and Washington held their first dialogue on AI in Geneva in May, which US deputy secretary of state Kurt Campbell described as a sign that China “may be prepared to talk about other issues around nuclear issues”.

China is believed to be expanding its nuclear forces “faster than any other country”, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. However, it has been criticised for a lack of transparency and for dodging strategic dialogue with the US on nuclear matters.

Beijing described the Geneva talks as an “in-depth, professional and constructive” exchange of views. US officials raised concerns about China’s “misuse of AI” while Beijing “expressed a stern stance on the US restrictions and suppression in the field of AI”.

China’s embassy in Washington said the two sides discussed the application of artificial intelligence in managing and deploying nuclear weapons.

Harjani said a recently announced second round of talks on AI was “a positive sign”.

“I’m not sure it will lead to a legally binding agreement, but the fact that there is a platform for both countries to build consensus and discuss areas of disagreement is valuable,” he said.

“We shouldn’t assume that a legally binding agreement is needed to solve every aspect of military AI governance – a platform to clarify positions and intentions may be sufficient for some issues.”

With a comprehensive global agreement unlikely, Lee of the Harvard University Asia Centre said it would be realistic for the world to work towards limited agreements on specific AI applications, focusing on safety and ethics.

“Globally, achieving consensus on AI regulation, particularly in military applications, is equally difficult amid geopolitical tensions, especially between the US-led West and the China-Russia coalition,” he said.

Lee added that China should strive for more transparency, especially on its approach to AI and its military use.

“It would have been beneficial, actually, for China to explain its reservations and what it perceives as problematic or unfair,” he said. “As China attempts to position itself as a responsible superpower, its ability to articulate its views to the international community will become increasingly important in terms of gaining global support for its positions.”

Eyeing China, Quad leaders to expand joint maritime security operations in Indo-Pacific

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3279410/eyeing-china-quad-leaders-expand-joint-maritime-security-operations-indo-pacific?utm_source=rss_feed

The leaders of the US, Australia, India and Japan will announce on Saturday an expansion of their joint maritime security operations into the Indian Ocean and closer coastguard integration throughout the Indo-Pacific.

Meeting US President Joe Biden in his home state of Delaware for the fourth in-person summit of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, Australian Prime Minister , Indian Prime Minister and Japanese Prime Minister will be showing their resolve to bolster a partnership that Beijing has dismissed.

Against a backdrop of rising tensions in the South and East China seas, particularly between Chinese and Philippine vessels, deliverables from the summit are being watched closely for how much the four countries intend to push back against a more militarily assertive China.

This new agreement will expand the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA), an initiative launched by the Quad in 2022 that allows the members to share satellite and other data among themselves and other Southeast Asian and Pacific Island nations into the Indian Ocean, senior Biden administration officials told reporters.

“In addition to the coverage [IPMDA] is already providing to our partners in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands, to help them monitor their water for illegal fishing and other illegal activities, it will expand that coverage to include the Indian Ocean region thanks to India’s leadership,” one of the officials said.

The expansion would be consistent with the initiative’s aims so far, she added, which “generally has focused not on military security or hard defence cooperation, but rather … cooperation on things like humanitarian assistance and disaster response, cooperation to improve our coastguard compatibility and working with partners to improve their ability to enforce laws in their waters”.

The Indian Ocean region stretches from the eastern coast of Africa to the Strait of Malacca and the western coast of Australia, encompassing more than 35 countries and nearly three billion people.

It serves as a vital economic corridor for global trade, and its passages include the Strait of Hormuz, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the Malacca Strait and the Mozambique Channel.

China has increased its activity in the Indian Ocean in recent decades, often to other countries’ consternation.

In an April report, the London-based Environmental Justice Foundation identified 138 Chinese vessels fishing off Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya and Madagascar in 2023, with 95 of them being longliners targeting tuna and tuna-like species.

Between 2017 and 2023, these vessels were linked to 86 cases of illegal fishing or human rights abuses in the southwestern Indian Ocean, according to the study. The report described the Chinese fleet’s illegal fishing activities as “systemic”.

Amid its fishing activities, Beijing’s vigilance against piracy in the Indian Ocean region is viewed with suspicion by Washington and its Indo-Pacific partners.

In 2008, China initiated naval deployments for anti-piracy missions in the Gulf of Aden. Chinese vessels now regularly transit from the western Pacific to the Horn of Africa, and in 2014, submarines were introduced to support these efforts.

Washington, its allies and partners have questioned whether submarines are needed for anti-piracy measures, suggesting Beijing might use the ships in the event of armed conflict.

In March, China, along with Russia and Iran, conducted five days of military exercises, deploying its 45th escort task force, which included the guided-missile destroyer Urumqi and other vessels to enhance regional maritime security.

That followed joint exercises with Pakistan in the Arabian Sea featuring the People’s Liberation Army’s guided-missile destroyer Zibo.

China’s strategic efforts of late extend a pattern of building its defence preparedness in the region.

In 2017, Beijing established its first overseas military base, in Djibouti, and has invested heavily in strategic ports across South Asia and the western Indian Ocean as part of its Belt and Road Initiative – China’s plan to grow global trade and investment.

Key projects include the port of Gwadar in Pakistan, Kyaukphyu in Myanmar, Hambantota in Sri Lanka and Bagamoyo in Tanzania.

China has also stationed naval vessels at Cambodia’s Ream Naval Base, raising alarm in New Delhi and Washington.

To blunt China’s expanding clout in the region, India has sustained a continuous naval presence in the Indian Ocean for the past five years.

And to try to keep pace with the PLA Navy, India has invested more in its seafaring capabilities. In 2022, New Delhi’s naval budget surged 45 per cent to support the acquisition of new platforms and equipment, according to Indian media reports.

The IPMDA, the Biden administration official said, would be strengthened with “new, sophisticated technologies to improve the maritime domain picture that our partners are seeing … and will provide new training programmes to ensure that all the partners who are receiving this important project are maximally well positioned to use it”.

While the IPMDA was meant to help combat illegal fishing – activity that the US Coast Guard has accused China of engaging in – the Quad as a group has largely refrained from directly criticising the country.

The Biden official briefing reporters declined to “get ahead of whatever the leaders might choose to discuss”.

“I will say that the Quad agenda always focuses on a wide range of strategic topics in the Indo-Pacific,” she added. “That absolutely includes considerations with respect to the PRC, including on the economic front, in the maritime space and elsewhere.”

PRC refers to the People’s Republic of China, the country’s official name.

US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell made that connection more explicit on Wednesday under intense questioning by the House Foreign Affairs committee about the Biden administration’s Indo-Pacific strategy.

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

Saturday’s Quad outcomes are expected to include an announcement that United States Coast Guard vessels will bring counterparts from Australia, India and Japan on board “in the Indo-Pacific and that that type of cooperation will continue, including on a rotational basis as appropriate”, according to a second Biden administration official.

Asked about concern that Beijing might view such a move as a “red flag”, the first official said the decision was “consistent with the long-stated goals of the Quad”, which the official said “is focused on reinforcing peace and stability and the continuity of international law in the region”.

Saturday’s summit also marks a coda of sorts for efforts by Biden, who will leave office in January regardless of the outcome of the US election in November, having opted not to run for another term.

The American leader throughout his presidency has sought to reinforce Washington’s alliances and partnerships to form a bulwark against China and Russia.

By any measure, the Quad summit culminates a remarkable transformation for the framework of four nations over the course of its 17-year history.

In 2007, the Quad held a single round of dialogue and joint military drills during the George W. Bush administration. It drifted into a hiatus when Australia withdrew the following year to boost ties with China.

The grouping was revived during the Donald Trump administration when it reconvened on a ministerial level.

Biden’s push to elevate the grouping to the leaders’ level was one of very few areas of cooperation with Republicans in an otherwise deeply divided American political landscape.

Concert leads to flood of calls to China resident after singer shared number, claiming to be his

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/china-personalities/article/3279225/concert-leads-flood-calls-china-resident-after-singer-shared-number-claiming-be-his?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese singer Zhang Jie inadvertently revealed a random phone number as his own during a concert, resulting in a surge of calls to an unsuspecting Shanghai resident.

The 41-year-old made his television debut by winning the mainland reality singing competition My Show in 2004 and was later signed by Universal Music China. Zhang’s cheerful personality and impressive vocal range have garnered him a large following, amassing 82 million followers on Weibo.

On September 6, during a concert in Fujian province, southeastern China, fans prompted Zhang to share his phone number. He jokingly invented a number, incorporating digits from his birth date, and teased fans that he would call them that night.

However, a report by Fengmian News revealed that the randomly chosen digits corresponded to an actual phone number belonging to a Shanghai resident, who suddenly received numerous calls from strangers and had to turn off their phone as a result.

The incident has sparked widespread discussion on mainland social media.

Supporters of Zhang defended him, stating: “We understand he did not do it on purpose, and he did not expect the made-up number to be real. Fans all understand him.”

Conversely, other users criticised him, arguing: “Zhang lacks basic legal knowledge. Celebrities should be cautious about their behaviour in public.”

Another commenter added: “A celebrity’s influence is tremendous. Zhang’s fans have caused distress to the innocent resident.”

Some observers suggested that concert staff should prepare a special number in advance, allowing fans to call a pre-recorded message instead.

Yu Long, a lawyer from Beijing Wei Heng Law Firm, told Fengmian News that fans calling a stranger’s number could infringe on personal privacy. Chinese law prohibits the violation of privacy through harassment or public exposure.

“Zhang’s action was not intended to disturb anyone’s peace, but it was negligence that caused harm. He should promptly issue a statement to clarify the facts and prevent further infringement of privacy,” Yu stated.

On September 9, Zhang announced he had reached out to the phone number’s owner to apologise and urged his fans to “stop calling or texting adisnd bothering the owner”.

The response from the phone number’s owner has not been disclosed to date.

The incident also echoed previous cases where private phone numbers were accidentally revealed.

In 2018, a real phone number was shown in the mainland television series The Revolution Of Our Love, leading to thousands of calls directed at the owner. The production company was subsequently ordered to pay compensation of 35,000 yuan (US$5,000).

China urges elderly to volunteer as workforce shrinks and population ages

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3279445/china-urges-elderly-volunteer-workforce-shrinks-and-population-ages?utm_source=rss_feed

China has issued guidelines to encourage elderly people to volunteer in community services and help underdeveloped areas as the country grapples with a rapidly ageing population and shrinking workforce.

The National Committee on Ageing has released a set of guidelines for the Silver Age Action initiative, introduced two decades ago to promote volunteer work by the elderly, according to a Friday statement from the civil affairs ministry.

“[We aim to] upgrade Silver Age Action, improving its quality and effectiveness, to safeguard the rights of the elderly to participate in economic and social development, as well as achieve meaningful social engagement,” the guidelines state.

The committee urged local authorities to incorporate the Silver Age Action initiative into regional cooperation between eastern and western provinces as well as intra-provincial development plans to guide educated elderly people in supporting less developed regions.

It encouraged the elderly to volunteer for community activities and urged local authorities to help them take part in patrols, childcare, senior care, disability assistance, and support for disadvantaged and “left-behind” children, referring to children who remain in rural areas while their parents go to work in big cities.

The guidelines came as the world’s second-largest economy grapples with an economic slump and the mounting pressures of a rapidly greying population alongside a shrinking workforce.

In 2023, China’s population aged 60 and above reached 297 million, accounting for more than 21.1 per cent of the total population, while those aged 65 and above exceeded 217 million, making up 15.4 per cent, according to government data.

The Economist Intelligence Unit predicted earlier this year that the proportion of people above age 60 would reach 32.7 per cent of China’s population by 2035.

The guidelines call for a proportion of volunteer positions at large events to be reserved for the elderly. They also encourage authorities to create an online platform to help match volunteer supply and demand.

The committee also urged more research and promotion for the initiative through gathering examples to “showcase the spirit of the elderly, who, like old steeds, continue to strive and contribute positively to society”.

According to the guidelines, Silver Age Action is set to become an “institutionalised and standardised” long-term programme by 2026. And by 2028, it aims to establish itself as a “key brand” for the elderly to engage in society and contribute their expertise.

Last week, China’s top legislature approved a plan to gradually raise retirement ages by up to five years by 2040. The retirement ages will increase by several months each year starting from January.

From 2030, the minimum contribution period required to receive a basic pension will gradually increase from the current 15 years to 20 years over the span of a decade.

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Malaysian king breaks down as he remembers dead son during talks with China’s Xi Jinping

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3279448/malaysian-king-breaks-down-he-remembers-dead-son-during-talks-chinas-xi-jinping?utm_source=rss_feed

Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar, the king of Malaysia, wept during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping as the conversation turned to his late son, a leading Chinese-language Malaysian newspaper reported.

According to the Sin Chew Daily, Sultan Ibrahim was in tears as he mentioned his son, who died in 2015 aged 25 after battling liver cancer. He also thanked China for its part in his medical treatment.

The king arrived in Beijing on Thursday for a four-day state visit marking the 50th anniversary of bilateral relations. It is the first trip to China by a Malaysian monarch in 10 years, and Sultan Ibrahim’s first overseas state visit since being crowned in July.

In Malaysia’s constitutional monarchy, the throne usually rotates every five years between the rulers of nine Malaysian states headed by centuries-old Islamic royalty.

Meeting Xi at the Great Hall of the People on Friday, the Malaysian king shared heartfelt memories of his late son, Tunku Abdul Jalil Iskandar Ibrahim, who had received treatment at a hospital in China.

Born in 1990, Tunku Abdul Jalil was the fourth of six siblings in the Johor royal family. He held a degree in zoological and conservation studies from the Zoological Society of London and was the first member of the Johor royal household to serve in the police force.

In late 2014, Tunku Abdul Jalil was diagnosed with stage four liver cancer. In December that year, he underwent a liver transplant at the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong. Although the operation was successful, he died a year later.

Sultan Ibrahim expressed his gratitude to China for helping the late prince in undergoing the operation.

President Xi and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who also attended the meeting, were both “deeply moved”, according to the report by the Malaysian paper.

Sultan Ibrahim also reportedly shared an “unknown” link between his family and China. He told Xi that his great-grandmother was from Guangdong province and that her name was Huang Yajiao.

“This indicates that our leader has Chinese ancestry, and upon hearing this, President Xi immediately instructed the Chinese government to search for the genealogy of the Sultan Ibrahim family in Guangdong,” the Sin Chew Daily quoted Malaysian housing and local government minister Nga Kor Ming as saying.

According to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, Sultan Ibrahim told Xi that Malaysia would like to “join hands with China” to contribute constructively to the maintaining of peace and stability of the South China Sea.

China claims most of the busy, resource-rich waterway, while Malaysia is among several regional countries with overlapping claims.

Xi promised to strengthen infrastructure connectivity with Malaysia under the and boost cooperation in areas such as agriculture, poverty alleviation, new energy and the digital economy.

China woman’s epic 58-page exposé on boyfriend’s cheating with 300 women, costs him his job

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3279435/china-womans-epic-58-page-expose-boyfriends-cheating-300-women-costs-him-his-job?utm_source=rss_feed

A Chinese woman created a 58-page PowerPoint file detailing her boyfriend’s history of infidelity with more than 300 women and shared it online.

The incident rapidly became the top trending post on the Chinese social media platform Weibo on September 19, garnering 300 million views.

In the PowerPoint file she crafted, she accused the man, known by his surname Shi, a management trainee at China Merchants Bank’s Shenzhen headquarters, of engaging in sexual activities with hundreds of women, including sex workers, over the course of a year.

The anonymous woman, who began dating Shi in October last year, initially perceived him as a “gentleman”.

Her shock set in when, in June, she discovered sexually explicit messages exchanged via chat apps between him and numerous women.

The slideshow disclosed that he had made at least nine visits to sex workers, paying between 2,500 to 5,000 yuan (US$350 to US$700) from March to August.

Additionally, it presented romantic messages exchanged with around 300 women he encountered on dating apps, labelled with trade settlement terminology such as T0 and T1.

There were also photos documenting his sexual encounters with various women.

The poster stated she confronted Shi in June, but he knelt before her, pleading with her not to tell anyone and promising it would never happen again.

She claimed she forgave him to avoid upsetting his parents.

However, she resolved to seek revenge upon discovering he continued cheating in September.

Shi is a recent graduate from the School of Economics at Xiamen University. He participated in a programme at China Merchants Bank designed to train young professionals for leadership roles, typically offering good pay and advancement opportunities.

On September 19, the bank announced it had terminated Shi’s employment and expelled him from the Chinese Communist Party following an investigation into the matter, as reported by the Chinese media outlet Securities Times.

The woman indicated that she would also report Shi’s involvement with prostitutes, which is illegal in China, to the police and other relevant authorities.

Nevertheless, Liao Hua, a lawyer at China’s Taihetai Law Firm, stated that the girlfriend’s act of posting unverified information about Shi online might infringe upon his privacy.

The man’s promiscuity and the woman’s pursuit of revenge have ignited intense discussions online.

“This is what a powerful woman does: never forgive, never trust again, and make him pay for his disloyalty,” one user commented.

“Is it really that easy to work at China Merchants Bank if he had time to cheat on his girlfriend with 300 women?” another mused.

West should thank China for kick-starting its economic growth

https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3279116/west-should-thank-china-kick-starting-its-economic-growth?utm_source=rss_feed

When will the unjust pillorying of China by the United States and Europe end? China’s unstoppable economic advance has brought the people of the two continents up against the inconvenient truth that they are no longer able to compete in many key economic areas.

At the same time, it has prompted them to think in new ways about the need for state-led “industrial policy” rather than relying solely on market-led development, as well as about the need for state capital to supplement private financing.

China’s Belt and Road Initiative has produced a flurry of US and European moves to update their own outdated infrastructure. The US Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 introduced government subsidies for green development – including electric vehicles, where China is a fierce competitor – into the world’s largest economy.

Long a bastion of private capitalism and free markets, the US has now acknowledged that private enterprise alone cannot guide macroeconomic development and that government policy is essential to balanced economic development.

The European Union has now come up with an EU-wide industrial policy backed by muscular state funding. It has joined the US in recognising the clear fact that government subsidies are needed to nurture growth and a more effective and competitive private sector

The West should be grateful to China for administering shock treatment to their “advanced” economies that have grown used to resting on their laurels and which have become sclerotic in their response to change. But instead of being grateful for this generosity, the US and Europe feel more inclined to vent their wrath upon China with tariffs and sanctions, and even talk of revoking China’s permanent normal trade relations status.

Meanwhile, they are increasingly adopting aspects of Chinese state capitalism. The latest example of this was the launch on September 9 of a flagship report on European competitiveness – or lack thereof – by former Italian prime minister Mario Draghi. The report is a blueprint intended to guide the European Commission on how to steer future development.

It calls for a radical overhaul of the EU’s economic and fiscal policies and makes numerous recommendations on the development of European industry. It is a document that any state planner could feel proud of creating.

“Never in the past has the scale of our countries appeared so small and inadequate relative to the size of the challenges,” Draghi said in introducing the report. He went on to acknowledge that “the private sector is unlikely to be able to finance the lion’s share of [needed] investment without public sector support”.

According to Draghi’s report, a fit-for-purpose competitiveness agenda would require annual funding of €750 billion to €800 billion (US$835 billion-US$890 billion) for projects whose objectives were already agreed on by the EU. This display of humility and realism on the part of the former Italian leader was both welcome and overdue. It hints at the fact that lessons are being learned from state capitalism – and from China.

While the Draghi report emphasises the need for Europe to increase its competitiveness and access to capital relative to that of the US, it is the impetus of competition from China that is providing the basic spur to European and US efforts to shape up in terms of industrial efficiency.

Western economies are being forced to accept and even publicly acknowledge that private capital cannot or will not step up to provide sufficient funds to meet the growing demands of their societies. This applies to financing everything from basic infrastructure and healthcare provisions to the battle against climate change and paying for improved education systems capable of supporting technological advances and competitiveness.

Investment provided by stock markets has often focused to a fault on financing areas of the economy concerned with private consumption while other critical areas of socioeconomic activity have been neglected. Of course, China and many other Asian economies have functioning stock markets to supply capital and serve as vehicles for savings collection, but these markets have not been developed at the expense of state financing, as is the case with many Western economies.

Meanwhile, it is significant that the merits of reducing the size of the state are increasingly being called into question. The view that increased state involvement in critical areas of the economy is needed – albeit without embracing the idea of full-blown socialism – appears to be gaining traction across the globe.

As Era Dabla-Norris, Enrico Di Gregorio and Yongquan Cao wrote in a recent blog for the International Monetary Fund, conservative politics have traditionally been defined by an emphasis on minimising the role of the state while left-leaning parties are usually associated with higher levels of spending and a larger role for the state in the economy.

Yet, the authors noted, “parties across the political spectrum sound increasingly similar when it comes to fiscal policy: they all campaign on ideas of a bigger government and promising more spending”.

Increased government spending implies a bigger role for the government – he who pays the piper calls the tune – in policymaking and planning. In an ideal world, this convergence of development approaches between East and West would lead to global synthesis. But that implies the need for both sides to “think big” at a time when small-mindedness seems to dominate the debate.

Egypt rumoured to buy Chinese J-10C jets as Middle East looks beyond US weapons

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3279387/egypt-rumoured-buy-chinese-j-10c-jets-middle-east-looks-beyond-us-weapons?utm_source=rss_feed

Egypt’s reported purchase of Chinese fighter jets is a sign of Beijing’s increasing leverage in the Middle East as the region attempts to diversify its military procurement to rely less on the United States, analysts said.

According to Bulgarian defence news portal Bulgarian Military, the Egyptian defence ministry reportedly placed its first order for China’s J-10C 4.5-generation fighter jets on August 19.

However, there was no official announcement about the purchase from either Cairo or Beijing. The Egyptian government did not respond to the South China Morning Post’s emailed requests for details about the arms agreement.

If Egypt officially adds the Chinese-made fighter jet to its air force, it will join Pakistan as the second country outside China to operate the J-10 series. Pakistan received its first shipment of the aircraft in March 2022.

The reports came as China showed off the J-10 jets at the first Egypt International Air Show earlier this month. It was Beijing’s first time showcasing the combat aircraft in Africa.

The J-10C first entered service with the Chinese air force in 2018. It is a variant of the J-10 4.5-generation multirole combat aircraft and is equipped with a Chinese-produced WS-10B engine. It has often been compared to the American-made F-16 fighters in its capabilities and role.

Egypt’s rumoured purchase of the J-10Cs is probably aimed at replacing its ageing fleet of F-16 fighter jets, which Cairo first introduced in the 1980s. The combat capabilities of the US-made jets are outdated as Washington has restricted weapons sales to the Middle Eastern country because of alleged human rights violations.

While the US had proposed upgrading Egypt’s F-16s to F-16Vs, Cairo reportedly opted to procure the J-10C. The Chinese jet is considered to outperform its US counterpart in air-to-air combat and strike missions using its PL-10 and PL-15 missiles. It is also seen to have better manoeuvrability and avionics.

“The J-10C offers superior combat capabilities compared to the enhanced F-16V model while being similarly priced,” said Gedaliah Afterman, head of the Asia policy programme at the Abba Eban Institute for Diplomacy and Foreign Relations at Reichman University in Israel.

“This makes the Chinese jet an attractive option for Egypt, which is seeking to modernise its air force at a cost-effective price without the constraints imposed by Washington.”

Egypt has been diversifying its fighter jet fleets away from US-made options in recent years. In 2021, the Egyptian defence ministry announced additional orders of 30 Rafale fighter jets from France, following its purchase of 24 units in 2015, becoming the largest operator of the aircraft.

Egypt also bought 46 MiG-29M jets from Russia in 2015, becoming the fighter’s first overseas operator.

“Egypt’s purchase of the J-10C is consistent with Cairo’s push to diversify its sources of military purchases. Egypt also owns equipment from Russia and France … and now possibly China,” said Timothy Heath, a senior international defence researcher at the Rand Corporation.

“Egypt, like other countries in the Middle East and Africa, [is] looking to reduce their reliance on the USA and Europe. China is an attractive partner because Beijing puts far fewer restrictions on arms purchases, unlike the West, which is more concerned about human rights.”

According to analysts, Egypt’s decision to buy Chinese combat aircraft highlights Beijing’s growing influence in the region following Cairo’s recent entry into the Chinese-led Brics bloc in January. Three other Middle Eastern and African countries – Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates – also joined the group of emerging markets.

Afterman said the trend to diversify defence procurement and reduce the reliance on US and Western arms is “not unique to Egypt”, noting that US allies in the region such as the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia were also diversifying their military sources.

“As China’s influence in the Middle East grows, its increasingly advanced yet cost-effective military technology appeals to nations seeking alternatives free from Western political conditions,” Afterman said.

“Egypt’s recent Brics membership further aligns with this strategy. By joining the bloc, Egypt strengthens its economic and strategic ties with China and other non-Western powers, which could shape its future defence procurement decisions.”

Afterman added that Cairo’s J-10C purchase “enhances China’s influence in the Middle East, including its growing arms sales across the region”.

“In response, the US is likely to employ a combination of diplomatic pressure, upgraded technology, and economic incentives to maintain its influence in the Middle East,” he said.

“However, for countries like Egypt that face barriers to acquiring top-tier US military equipment, alternative suppliers such as China may offer more attractive deals.”

Heath said while the US still had a competitive edge in many defence industries, and Beijing’s success was “coming at the expense of Russia”, now bogged down by international sanctions, Chinese arms sales were increasing in the region, reflecting the “competitiveness of Chinese weapons and equipment”.

“US equipment is often too expensive, and the US is often reluctant to sell its most advanced platforms to countries in the Middle East and Africa with authoritarian or illiberal tendencies. Many of these countries thus tended to buy from Russia, which offered cheaper and decent quality equipment,” Heath said.

“But Russia’s war [in Ukraine] has limited its ability to export, and the poor Russian performance on the battlefield has led many customers in the Middle East and Africa to consider China as an alternative.”

China-born Chen Zhijian wins top US medical research prize said to foretell Nobel

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3279364/china-born-chen-zhijian-wins-top-us-medical-research-prize-said-foretell-nobel?utm_source=rss_feed

China-born scientist Chen Zhijian is among the winners of this year’s Lasker Awards, a top American prize for medicine and public health research that has gained a reputation for identifying future Nobel laureates.

Announcing the awards on Thursday, the Lasker Foundation said the 2024 Albert Lasker Award for basic medical research had gone to Zhijian “James” Chen, professor of molecular biology and director of the Centre for Inflammation Research at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre (UTSW).

Chen is the sixth scientist of Chinese origin to receive a Lasker Award. He is also the second Chinese recipient in the basic research category, more than six decades after biochemist Choh Hao Li, who won in 1962.

Established in 1945 and often referred to as “America’s Nobels”, the Lasker Awards recognise significant achievements in medicine and biomedical research in four categories. They are sometimes seen as a harbinger of Nobel prizes in the sciences, as many Lasker winners have gone on to win that prestigious award as well.

China’s Tu Youyou, winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize for medicine, won the Lasker-DeBakey Award for clinical medical research in 2011 for her discovery of artemisinin and its use in the treatment of malaria.

Renowned Chinese bioscientist Rao Yi, president of Capital Medical University in Beijing, posted about the Lasker Awards on social media. In an article posted to his WeChat account, Rao said that Lasker awardees in the basic research category were more likely to win Nobels than those in the clinical medical research category.

Chen is a leading researcher in the field of innate immunity, which studies the body’s response to pathogens and its ability to rapidly identify and destroy attacked cells and tissues.

The Lasker Award recognises his discovery of the enzyme cGAS, which senses invading pathogens and triggers the body’s immune system. Chen’s lab discovered the enzyme in 2012, solving a century-old medical mystery about how DNA stimulates immune and inflammatory responses.

The enzyme “provides a pharmaceutical target for diverse human maladies and … holds promise for fighting infectious diseases and cancer”, the foundation said.

The discovery has already won Chen multiple awards. In 2018, he was named the winner of the world’s largest science prize – the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences. The award is sponsored by tycoons including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Chinese tech giant Tencent’s Pony Ma Huateng, with winners receiving US$3 million each.

UTSW president Daniel K. Podolsky said in the institute’s press release that Chen’s research had “elucidated the process by which our bodies fight off invasive pathogens, including viruses, bacteria and other microbes”.

“Insights into this signalling pathway provide a foundation for new approaches to the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases as well as vaccine development,” Podolsky said.

Shan-Lu Liu, a professor of virology at Ohio State University, also said that Chen’s discovery had “opened new avenues” for understanding autoimmune diseases.

“Dr Chen’s work not only enhances our understanding of immune mechanisms, but also provides potential strategies for treating diseases linked to immune dysregulation,” Liu said.

Chen, 58, was born in a rural area of China’s southeastern Fujian province. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in biology from Fujian Normal University in 1985, he won an overseas scholarship to the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he earned a PhD in biochemistry in 1991.

He set up a lab at UTSW in 1997 and was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences in 2014. His other honours include the Merck Award from the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 2015 and the Lurie Prize in Biomedical Sciences in 2018.

Chen is the fourth UTSW faculty member to win a Lasker Award. The previous three winners are all Nobel laureates.

He is among six Lasker recipients this year for significant contributions in basic research, clinical research and public service. The winners in each category share an honorarium of US$250,000.

The Lasker-DeBakey Award for clinical medical research went to three scientists for their work on GLP-1, the hormone that led to the development of drugs such as Wegovy that have transformed obesity treatment. The winners are Joel Habener, professor of medicine at Harvard University; Svetlana Mojsov, research associate professor at Rockefeller University; and Lotte Bjerre Knudsen, chief scientific adviser at global healthcare firm Novo Nordisk.

In the public service category, Salim Abdool Karim and Quarraisha Abdool Karim, both from the Centre for the Aids Programme of Research in South Africa, were recognised for developing life-saving approaches to prevent and treat HIV infections.

The awards will be presented at a gala ceremony in New York on Friday.

Malaysia must tread fine line in EV push amid US-China rivalry, trade tensions: minister

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3279379/malaysia-must-tread-fine-line-ev-push-amid-us-china-rivalry-trade-tensions-minister?utm_source=rss_feed

Malaysia must navigate global trade tensions carefully as it seeks to sustain competition in its electric-vehicle sector through incentives for local manufacturers and lure investment, according to its Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz.

In an exclusive interview with This Week in Asia, Zafrul warned that if tensions between the United States and China came to a head “in terms of a war on tech supply”, the “whole world”, not just Malaysia or Asean, would be affected.

Malaysia has emerged as a beneficiary of superpower rivalry, attracting investments from tech companies and carmakers keen to diversify their supply chains and mitigate geopolitical risks.

But it has not all been smooth sailing. Solar companies in Malaysia may face tariffs as part of Washington’s anti-China trade policies, while its EV sector must balance growth with not being overtaken by Chinese imports.

“That’s why for Malaysia, we have to keep a very open position, and continuously engage both countries,” Zafrul said.

Chinese EV makers are expected to expand into Southeast Asian markets after being frozen out by tariffs in the US and Europe. Countries like Brazil and Turkey have also implemented duties to address what they see as a flood of Chinese imports.

Critics argue that Chinese subsidies allow its companies to export vehicles at discounted prices, undermining the competitiveness of locally produced models. Beijing counters that its success stems from careful planning and innovation.

Zafrul maintains that Malaysia has no need for such tariffs, asserting that there is healthy competition among carmakers in the country.

“We keep reminding our national car companies that we are an open economy … We protect industries that are strategic, and while we think automotives are also strategic, they should be open to competition,” he said.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s administration has ambitious plans to transition 15 per cent of all vehicles on Malaysia’s roads to EVs by 2030, part of a broader plan to attract manufacturers like Tesla to establish production in the country.

But the high cost of converting to an EV have been a sticking point in Malaysia and across the region. Around 10,000 EVs were registered in Malaysia as of November, accounting for just over 1 per cent of nearly 800,000 new cars sold, according to the Malaysian Automotive Association.

Despite a nearly 290 per cent surge in EV demand last year, with 10,159 units sold compared to 2,631 the previous year, industry executives warn that growth may stall as consumers grapple with high prices and limited access to charging infrastructure.

Zafrul believes the solution lies in attracting companies to produce more affordable vehicles in Malaysia. To this end, the government has introduced incentives to encourage foreign firms to establish production facilities in the country.

“We give incentives based on local components,” he said. “The higher the [ratio of] local components, from the seats to the chips running the cars, the higher the incentives you get.”

Malaysia prohibits imports of battery EVs priced below 100,000 ringgit (US$23,400) as a protective measure for local companies and to ensure economic benefits remain within the country, the minister said.

“If BYD has a lot of cars below 100,000 [ringgit], they can’t bring them in unless they build them in Malaysia,” Zafrul said, referring to China’s largest EV manufacturer.

To compete with Chinese companies in the lower-price segment, Malaysia is increasingly relying on local EV manufacturers.

Cheah Wen Chong, an Asia research analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit, said that the cost cap will “preserve some space” for local carmakers Perodua and Proton, who have been tasked by the government with introducing home-grown EVs by 2025.

Last month, Proton, in partnership with China’s Geely Holdings, unveiled the e. MAS7, expected to be one of Malaysia’s first locally branded EVs. Perodua, the country’s largest domestic carmaker by sales volume, is also working on its EV, which CEO Zainal Abidin Ahmad indicated in May was 60 per cent complete and would be priced under 100,000 ringgit.

Regarding higher-cost EVs, Zafrul expressed hope that Tesla would expand its presence in Malaysia, despite signs that the American carmaker may be losing interest due to stiff competition from Chinese rivals.

“Tesla is very hard to court … they have not committed to building a factory but we want them to build, of course,” he said, emphasising Malaysia’s competitive edge in its growing semiconductor industry.

Zafrul said Malaysia had not faced pressure from the US, whose primary concern was whether Chinese companies were entering Malaysia and Southeast Asia to “circumvent tariffs”.

“We have to engage them and explain how we define exports from Malaysia,” he said. “If the country of origin is Malaysia, it has to be 40 per cent local components. But if not, then they will be imposing tariffs. Our job is to show we are complying with [these arrangements].”

Solar has been more of a challenge, he admitted, as US manufacturers have pushed for protection against imports from Chinese giants. This has led Washington to impose taxes on solar panels and technology shipped from Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam, resulting in job losses and factory closures, particularly in Malaysia’s Penang state, where Jinko Solar withdrew from the market.

Without a specific policy response to the issue, the responsibility will fall on solar manufacturers, said economist Cassey Lee, a senior fellow at the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute.

“The key question is how they will transform their supply chains to reduce inputs from China,” he said.

Zafrul said the US had taken issue with the use of Chinese technology, despite the solar panels being fabricated in Malaysia – though he emphasised that assessments were made on a case-by-case basis for each company.

When asked about fears over US tariffs affecting other sectors, including semiconductors, Zafrul said Malaysia would continue to engage the US to address any concerns.

“The answer is, we don’t know, but we have to keep engaging with all sides,” he said.

Zafrul, who moved from the corporate sector to politics in March 2020 when he became finance minister, expressed his desire to continue his political career beyond his current term as senator, which concludes in late 2025.

“When my senatorship ends, I will hope to continue in any form with the government … at the absolute discretion of the prime minister, of course, and then hope to contest in the next general election,” he said.

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China woman and 2 chefs subdued knife attacker using umbrella, kitchen tools, praised as heroes

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3279200/china-woman-and-2-chefs-subdued-knife-attacker-using-umbrella-kitchen-tools-praised-heroes?utm_source=rss_feed

A woman and two chefs in China used an umbrella and kitchen tools to thwart a knife-wielding man during a street attack, earning widespread praise on mainland social media.

On September 11, a photographer assaulted his female client with a fruit knife following an argument over her dissatisfaction with his work.

The incident occurred on the street in Suzhou, a city in eastern China, according to the mainland media outlet, Xiaoxiang Morning Post.

A video circulating online captures a female tourist stepping forward to strike the attacker’s hand with an umbrella as he gripped and pulled the client’s hair.

Shortly after, a restaurant owner and his employee joined in, using ladles as weapons to corner the assailant and ultimately subdue him.

Police have arrested the photographer and are investigating the incident.

The injured woman was taken to the hospital and was reported to be in stable condition at the time of writing.

The tourist who intervened with the umbrella is reportedly named Liu Yang, from Chongqing in southwest China.

Liu said the attack unfolded suddenly, and she felt a sense of responsibility as she was nearby.

“If something terrible had happened to the girl being attacked, I would have felt guilty for the rest of my life,” she stated.

The two men who wielded kitchen tools worked at a nearby braised food shop.

Jiao Yuanshi, 33, the shop owner, is a military veteran who served for eight years.

“I struck the attacker’s neck with the ladle, allowing the victim to escape. Then the attacker turned on me with his knife,” he explained.

Jiao mentioned he had received training to handle emergencies during his military service.

“Facing the knife, I did feel fear, but the instinct to protect others outweighed it,” he remarked.

He noted that many passers-by were at the scene, shouting at the attacker: “Put the knife down.”

He praised the female tourist with the umbrella, calling her “very brave”.

The man who assisted Jiao in subduing the attacker was Liu Qiang.

On September 12, a public welfare initiative established by Alibaba Group, the owner of the South China Morning Post, announced a reward of 20,000 yuan (US$2,800) for the three individuals to commend their bravery.

“In times of danger, true bravery isn’t defined by physical strength; it’s the courage fuelled by passion that overcomes our natural instinct to fear,” read a statement on the project’s Weibo account.

The trio’s heroic actions quickly made headlines on mainland social media, with many netizens dubbing them “Good Samaritans in China”.

“Using an umbrella and ladles to confront a knife, these three individuals demonstrated what true courage and a sense of justice are,” one commenter remarked.

“People like you remind me that the world can genuinely be a beautiful place. Thank you,” another wrote.

“Next time I witness someone in danger, I hope I can be as brave as you and step in to help,” a third added.

China ‘iron butt’ woman travels to 42 cities during gap year, spends US$2,800 on tickets

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3279143/china-iron-butt-woman-travels-42-cities-during-gap-year-spends-us2800-tickets?utm_source=rss_feed

A young woman in China has gained popularity on social media for traveling to 42 cities at home and abroad in the past year, all for just 20,000 yuan (US$2,800).

The 25-year-old Douyin blogger, known by the alias Xinxin, exemplifies the trend of “iron butt” travel – a movement among younger generations who seek out inexpensive tickets and are willing to spend more time on the road due to budget constraints.

Xinxin, originally from Jiangxi province in southeastern China, graduated last year with a master’s degree from a university in Yunnan province but has yet to find employment.

During her gap year, she explored 42 cities across the mainland, as well as in Russia, Thailand, and Indonesia, as reported by the news portal The Cover.

Before each journey, she diligently searched travel websites for the lowest air and train fares to maximise her savings. For instance, in January, she travelled from her hometown in Jiangxi to Murmansk, Russia, to see the northern lights for just 4,000 yuan.

This trip included a connecting flight from Wuhan, in central Hubei province, to Beijing and then Moscow, costing her 1,600 yuan. She also utilised internal flights in Russia for around 100 yuan each.

Additionally, she secured a free train ride from her hometown to Wuhan through a points exchange programme on a ticket sales website.

During her stay in Bali, Indonesia, Xinxin found a hotel that charged only 80 yuan per night.

“Many people overestimate the costs associated with travel. What truly matters is how the heart feels when preparing for a journey,” Xinxin stated.

“Before each trip, I meticulously research transport and accommodation costs, particularly focusing on uncovering hidden benefits on travel platforms.”

She noted that many users of leading mainland travel websites are unaware they can access complimentary taxi services from airports or railway stations to their hotels, provided the distance is within 5km or 10 km when they purchase tickets through these sites.

“Traveling on a budget does not equate to a poor experience. With thorough preparation, you can accomplish a lot with a minimal outlay,” she emphasised.

Xinxin expressed her enjoyment of meeting new people and gaining new insights during her travels, which also allows her to understand herself from different perspectives.

“Standing between heaven and earth, my horizons have expanded. This is the most delightful aspect of travel,” she remarked.

Other adventurous “iron butt” travellers from China include a man in his early 20s who journeyed from Yunnan to Laos, Thailand, and Malaysia over 20 days, spending only 5,000 yuan in total. He relied solely on trains and buses for transportation.

If China’s love of Western luxury is fading, I think I know why

https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3278107/if-chinas-love-western-luxury-fading-i-think-i-know-why?utm_source=rss_feed

International luxury brands are feeling the pain and lamenting cutbacks in Chinese consumer spending. Big-picture explanations for why Chinese shoppers have cooled towards brand-name goods include China’s wobbly economic recovery, the troubled housing market and even a crackdown on social media braggarts who showed off their stuff.

That could all be true. But might there be a small possibility that some Chinese people are also simply growing out of their obsession with Western luxury brands, just like how I outgrew my obsession with jeans?

I vividly remember the first time I saw a pair of blue jeans. I was still in secondary school and one girl in my class came to school one day wearing jeans that tightly hugged her hips and thighs, but flared dramatically above her feet. Two proud back pockets with visible stitching called attention to her bottom. Ah, so these were “cowboy trousers”. What a striking, daring look.

Jeans are literally known as “cowboy trousers” in Chinese. I had first heard of “cowboy trousers” during a short-lived political movement a few years earlier: a campaign to “clean up spiritual pollution”, which left me with the idea that denim jeans were an emblem of Western decadence that could somehow corrupt my mind.

That was the beginning of a jeans obsession I didn’t know I had until it passed.

Growing up in a small city in northern China, I was more used to people wearing loose trousers, in dark blue or grey, that left body shapes to the imagination. When a pair of bell-bottomed jeans made a bold appearance in my life, a young person like me didn’t know what to make of them. On the one hand, I was conscious that I wasn’t to fall under the bad influence of the West – that “girls shouldn’t dress like that” – but on the other hand, it was evident that the entire country was beginning to open up and learn from the West.

I finally got a pair of jeans when I went to college in one of China’s first special economic zones, set up in the south. I was surrounded by new ideas, films, fashion trends and a sense of opportunity everywhere I went. Wearing jeans was a way to embrace the changes that would sweep the country. It also made me feel a little closer not only to the fashionable students on the campus and adventurous characters from the movies, but also Levi Strauss, the man who co-invented jeans during the California Gold Rush for miners in need of durable trousers and whose company would become wildly successful.

Stores that only sold denim clothing showed up in China. They were all super trendy, but also super expensive. It never occurred to me to question how jeans, an article of clothing with such humble working-class roots, could be so pricey. All I knew was that my generic-looking jeans were inadequate, and that I wanted a branded (read expensive) pair.

After I started working, I was able to feed my passion for higher-end jeans. I remember the day I went shopping with a friend in one of those expensive stores and fell in love with a pair of jeans that had an up-to-the-minute style. They were black and printed with abstract patterns running down the legs. When I tried them on, both my friend and the shop assistant were lavish in their praise. I spent something like half a month’s pay and felt really good about myself.

That was probably the peak of my jeans obsession, because I don’t recall any milestones after that. My attention drifted to other things, and I moved on from denims without my noticing it.

In hindsight, I now see that it was an obsession that burned for a long time, flickering with impulses, emotions and arguments with myself. I recognise the symptoms in other Chinese people when they talk passionately about must-have handbags and other Western luxury items.

My obsession with jeans was influenced by a unique set of social, cultural and economic conditions. I suspect it is the same for the fans of It bags. We all see something more in the objects of our desire. Jeans are about feeling modern and free, while a designer handbag signifies high social status and good taste.

However, no mania lasts forever. When the conditions that were conducive to these obsessions cease, the obsessions will fade away too. This has been my experience, and it may be true for others. Once we see jeans and handbags for what they are – pieces of clothing, soft containers for carrying things – we will realise we can buy something nice and functional for far less.

This is why when I read about the decline in big-ticket spending in China, I can’t help but wonder if maybe, just maybe, my fellow Chinese are finally getting over their obsession with Western luxury brands.

Fed’s rate cut no panacea for China’s pain, but it helps take the edge off: analysts

https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3279345/feds-rate-cut-no-panacea-chinas-pain-it-helps-take-edge-analysts?utm_source=rss_feed

To arrest weakening economic momentum, China needs more meaningful support from domestic policies, combined with a more favourable external macro environment, analysts said as the recent US Federal Reserve rate cut has fuelled debate over its potential impact on China’s economy.

And the Fed’s easing alone, they say, is not the cure-all for China’s economy.

“The development of China’s economy and capital markets still depends on stable domestic demand, and the recovery of China’s internal growth momentum cannot be resolved by relying on Fed rate cuts or further domestic monetary policy easing,” said Wei Hongxu, a researcher at Anbound, a Beijing-based public policy consultancy.

“For China, the Fed’s shift to a rate-cutting cycle narrows the policy gap between the two countries and reduces the interest-rate differential, expanding room for domestic monetary policy,” Wei said, adding that the negative impact of a potential US economic growth slowdown on China’s foreign trade cannot be ignored.

A hitch in domestic demand has become a stumbling block for China as it is running out of time to reach its annual growth target of “around 5 per cent”, as residents slash consumption and businesses scale back production.

Exports, one of few bright spots in recent economic data, are already facing new hurdles in the form of increased tariffs from the US and its Western allies.

“China is such an enormous economy, and it is much more heavily influenced by domestic dynamics,” said Xu Tianchen, senior China economist with The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

“I would say that Fed cuts will at least ease some pressures facing China, particularly capital flows, but they alone will not turn things around for China,” Xu added. “Hopefully China can deliver more aggressive easing, as piecemeal cuts in the past didn’t really help stabilise the economy.

“We need to see more pro-business policies and greater easing, and hopefully external demand can stay resilient.”

The US Federal Reserve announced a cut of its benchmark borrowing rate by half a percentage point on Wednesday, bringing its range to between 4.75 and 5 per cent “in light of the progress on inflation and the balance of risks”, according to the Federal Open Market Committee.

This marked a reversal of course after 11 interest-rate increases from March 2022 until July last year.

The rate cut was seen as a kick-off of a rate-cutting cycle that China and other Asian economies are widely expected to follow, providing more room for policy easing to boost growth.

However, analysts say that the likelihood and space for significant rate cuts in China are limited, given already-low domestic interest rates and the narrowing of banks’ interest margins.

On Friday, China surprised the market by leaving a mortgage-linked lending rate unchanged, despite rising calls to help revive the crisis-hit property market amid deflationary pressures in the slowing economy.

The central bank is cautious in its monetary policy, explained He Wei at Gavekal Dragonomics, adding in a report on Friday that policymakers were not in a rush to support growth despite a string of disappointing economic indicators.

“The priorities for the PBOC, like other agencies, have been shifted by the top-level political focus on technology and industrial policy,” the China economist said. “Rather than working to boost aggregate growth, it is trying to reallocate credit to favoured sectors like manufacturing.”

The Fed rate cuts will not be strong enough to boost China’s domestic economy nor attract foreign capital, but they could certainly help boost confidence, said Hong Hao, chief economist at GROW Investment Group, a Shanghai-based hedge fund.

“A stronger yuan, capital inflows, and a market rebound can all help restore confidence,” Hong said.

China’s leading AI start-ups eye fresh opportunities after OpenAI previews latest LLM

https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3279392/chinas-leading-ai-start-ups-eye-fresh-opportunities-after-openai-previews-latest-llm?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s leading artificial intelligence (AI) start-ups are looking to chase down new opportunities in their field, following the preview of an advanced new series of large language models (LLMs) – the technology underpinning generative AI services – by ChatGPT creator OpenAI, according to executives at Alibaba Cloud’s Apsara Conference in Hangzhou.

OpenAI o1, previewed earlier this month by the Microsoft-backed firm, represents a so-called generative pre-trained transformer model, designed “to reason through complex tasks and solve harder problems than previous models in science, coding and maths”, according to the San Francisco-based company.

“[OpenAI o1] is indeed of great significance,” Yang Zhilin, founder of Moonshot AI, said on Thursday at the main forum of the three-day conference, which runs until Saturday. Alibaba Cloud is the digital technology backbone of Alibaba Group Holding, owner of the South China Morning Post.

“The most important question here is whether you can do further scaling through reinforcement learning, which completely raises the upper limit of AI,” Yang said, referring to the so-called scaling law on how an LLM’s performance improves as its size and training data increases.

The 31-year-old Moonshot AI founder expected OpenAI o1 to “cause some changes in the structure of many industries and create new opportunities for start-ups”.

According to an update by OpenAI this week, the new models were trained “to spend more time thinking through problems before they respond, much like a person would”. Through training, it can “learn to refine their thinking process, try different strategies and recognise their mistakes”, the US firm said.

“If [a company] reaches a certain computing power threshold, it can make basic innovations in algorithms and even breakthroughs in foundational models,” Yang said.

This development, Yang said earlier this week, represents a paradigm shift because LLM developers, which have run out of organic data to train their models, are now turning to a technique known as reinforcement learning to recreate thought processes and in turn, generate more data.

Echoing that view, AI start-up StepFun’s founder and chief executive, Jiang Daxin, said reinforcement learning “has been generalised to a higher stage” by OpenAI o1.

Jiang said OpenAI o1 is expected to boost opportunities for more innovation in the development of foundational models and AI applications.

Still, he pointed out that computing power remains a problem for start-ups. US trade sanctions restrict the availability of advanced semiconductors, such as those from Nvidia, for Chinese firms’ AI development projects.

“The computing power required is still not small, especially when we pursue a generalised reasoning model,” Jiang said. “But if the goal we are pursuing is artificial general intelligence [AGI], we will stick to it no matter how much the cost is.”

While existing AI technologies all function within a set of predetermined parameters, AGI covers the development of systems with autonomous self-control, a degree of self-understanding and the ability to learn new skills.

No more than 10 AI start-ups – including the four so-called “AI tigers” – in China will be able to double down on investments in reinforcement learning, according to a Baichuan AI staff member at the conference who declined to be named.

These AI tigers – Moonshot AI, Baichuan AI, Zhipu AI and MiniMax – are all focused on LLM development.

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Is China looking to Mao Zedong’s ‘Third Front’ as part of economic self-reliance drive?

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3279306/china-looking-mao-zedongs-third-front-part-economic-self-reliance-drive?utm_source=rss_feed

China is reviving aspects of a Mao Zedong-era plan to relocate critical facilities away from the country’s most densely populated areas to its western hinterlands.

Mao’s 1964 “Third Front Construction” initiative was motivated by Cold War fears of nuclear attack, fuelled by the deepening American involvement in Vietnam and increased hostility between China and the Soviet Union.

Some observers say the new plan – unofficially described as the “new third front”– may still have a military dimension, but the main focus this time around appears to be economic security in the face of multiple challenges such as US tech curbs and wider moves to end supply chain reliance on China.

In a resolution passed during a key Communist Party policy meeting in July – the so-called third plenum – the leadership said it would “develop China’s strategic hinterland and ensure backup plans for key industries” as part of its ongoing self-sufficiency drive.

“In many ways, I see this [latest scheme] as a continuation of the ‘Third Front’ and ‘Go West’ policies, including their goals of developing poor, geographically remote regions in the West as well as creating strategic buffers by relocating some key parts of the supply chain to western provinces,” said Christopher McNally, a professor of political economy at Chaminade University of Honolulu.

The new policy reflects the multiple challenges facing the country, including growing hi-tech curbs from the United States, wider moves to end supply chain reliance on China, trade tensions with the European Union and a worldwide trend toward decoupling.

Ten eastern and southern provinces – which include major economic and technological powerhouses such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen – account for more than half of the country’s gross domestic product and hi-tech output while 12 western provinces account for just 21 per cent of GDP.

But they are seen as vulnerable to disruption, especially in the event of war. Hu Xiaohui, a professor of economic geography from Nanjing Normal University, said: “Once a war breaks out, the industrial chain and supply chain in the eastern coastal areas will be cut off, which will cause huge social and political problems.”

Seth Schindler, a professor of urban politics at the University of Manchester, said: “In general, the establishment of a ‘strategic hinterland’ is consistent with the party-state’s long-standing national spatial plan, whose primary objective is to channel investment into lagging regions in central and western China to reduce regional inequality.

“These regions lack many of the characteristics that make coastal areas so attractive to investors. In the absence of intervention from the state, economic growth in coastal areas would continue to outpace these regions, and regional inequality within China would increase.”

Schindler, who co-founded the Second Cold War Observatory, continued: “The establishment of a ‘strategic hinterland’ has more to do with fostering balanced regional growth, while also boosting investment in sectors that are deemed essential to national security.”

A well-integrated and diversified internal industrial structure is crucial for withstanding economic or geopolitical shocks, according to Hu, who has advised both the Jiangsu provincial government and the party’s central office.

He said that the focus on concepts such as self-reliance and a “strategic hinterland” in the southwest partly reflected the need to boost flagging domestic demand rather than relying on international trade.

When Mao developed the original concept of the Third Front, the country was divided into “first-line”, “second-line” and “third-line” areas based on their strategic value.

The latter covered 13 provinces and autonomous regions in northwest and southwest China, but mountainous areas in the southwest such as Sichuan, Chongqing and Guizhou were particularly important to the plan.

The initiative saw millions of workers being relocated to these parts of the country, where more than a thousand military and industrial projects were developed in secret.

At its height in the 1960s and 70s, major cities such as Chengdu and Chongqing were designated as bases for the production of arms and aircraft, while new industrial cities were created such as Mianyang, which became a centre for defence research, and Panzhihua, which was a major steel producer.

By prioritising development in these areas, the initiative laid the groundwork for later plans to promote balanced regional growth.

According to Ben Zou, an associate professor of economics at Purdue University, the projects “spurred urbanisation, improved education levels, and fostered private enterprise growth, leading to better economic development than neighbouring areas without Third Front enterprises”.

The latest focus on these areas has helped revive the concept of the “strategic heartland”, a term used to describe Sichuan in land use plans approved this year by the State Council, China’s cabinet, and in speeches by President Xi Jinping.

Hu, from Nanjing Normal University, said Sichuan’s strategic value arose from its strong supply chain, agricultural resources and an industrial base that had evolved from military to civilian industry, while its mountainous geography made it easier to defend.

“In scenarios where supply chains in the eastern regions are disrupted, Sichuan emerges as a key backup location for maintaining production,” he added.

Hu also said he would not rule out a military dimension to the plan, adding: “In the event of armed conflict, disruptions to eastern regions necessitate accelerating strategic initiatives in the west.”

Barry Naughton, a professor at University of California, San Diego and the So Kwan Lok chair of Chinese international affairs, said a number of sources had confirmed that the “new third front” was an “official” policy and there appeared to be some sort of “hierarchical plan”.

He also pointed to a tour last year by Xi that included a stop in Hanzhong, a key site in Shaanxi province for aircraft and car manufacturing during the Mao era, as well as other cities in Sichuan that were “precisely the heart of the old Third Front”.

“The fact that he specifically gets off the train in Hanzhong and talks to local leaders there almost seems designed to have resonance among people who remember the Third Front,” said Naughton, who has been studying the topic for four decades.

The new plan includes a focus on “key industries” deemed essential for national security and economic stability, ranging from basic software, industrial machine tools and medical equipment to integrated circuits, industrial software and advanced materials.

Schindler said both the US and China were wary of “increasing interdependence” and were vying for dominance across key global networks such as production, infrastructure and finance.

“Both Washington and Beijing anticipate that control over these networks will be the source of power in the 21st century,” he said.

The old Third Front initiative involved “replicating” existing set-ups and relocating entire factories or parts of them, said Zou.

“This way, if one set of equipment was bombed, production of submarines, missiles, and aircraft could continue,” Zou said.

But Schindler and Hu both said the new plan did not seek to duplicate existing facilities. The former said the idea was to expand supply chains, while the latter described the approach as being more “nuanced” and “refined” than the top-down directives of a planned economy.

“Complete duplication isn’t necessary; the focus should be on capital- and knowledge-intensive sectors like software and advanced materials,” Hu said.

“The Chinese government no longer fears a large-scale foreign invasion, and so it sees no strategic need to hide a large portion of its industrial base, like it did with the Third Front,” said Covell Meyskens, the author of Mao’s Third Front: The Militarisation of Cold War China.

Guangxi autonomous region has already been directed to become a crucial “strategic hinterland” for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, while other local governments have made a pitch to become “strategic hinterlands”.

These include Sichuan which cited its geographical advantages, extensive industrial base and rich natural resources.

“The aim is to revitalise industries while also fostering innovation and ensuring supply chain security,” Ding Renzhong, a professor from Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, and Wang Juan, a researcher at the Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences, wrote in an article in the official Sichuan Daily in June.

Guizhou has said its surplus of hydropower and favourable conditions for the establishment of data centres could make it a hub for data-driven industries, while Hanzhong has said its existing industrial capacity leaves it well-placed to develop high-quality “New Third Front” construction projects.

But observers warned that lessons must be drawn from the past to avoid the fate that many of the original Third Front projects suffered as a result of their remote location and rushed development.

Many were unable to adapt and went bankrupt as the country started to open up to the outside world and introduce market reforms in the 1980s.

The lessons from previous industrial relocation attempts, particularly in the wake of the 2020 “Go West” campaign, indicated that local conditions must be carefully considered to avoid wasted resources and sunk costs, Zou said.

The Go West plan was intended to stimulate growth in resource-rich western regions, but in the past 20 years the economic contribution of 12 western provinces has barely risen.

Jingting Fan, an assistant professor of economics at Pennsylvania State University, said some industries were already moving to central and western areas to cut costs and the shift would continue without centralised planning.

However, new strategic initiatives could “make this upgrade and reallocation less frictional by connecting sending and receiving cities”.

“It is important to assess whether a city is suitable for an industry, another lesson we learned from studying the Third Front,” Fan said.

“Given how vastly different cities in the hinterland are – and how all of these places have good infrastructure and abundant skilled workers, both different from the 1960s – I think it is feasible to find suitable locations for industries.”

McNally, from Chaminade University, said the focus should be on leveraging cities’ and provinces’ existing strengths, for example the existing manufacturing and hi-tech bases in cities such as Chengdu, Chongqing and Xian.

But he warned the country was “already facing redundant capacity and unproductive investments”, citing Guizhou’s heavy debt burden.

But Hu argued some “redundancy” had to be built into the scheme, saying: “Building resilience in supply chains requires investment and thus redundancy.

“Replicating operations, human resources or energy may not be immediately useful. However, during a crisis, these locations can quickly become functional. It’s essential to have appropriate equipment, systems and mechanisms in place.”