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• US-China progress sparks hope for Cop29, Azerbaijan says
• Most Chinese-Americans say Washington not doing enough to fight discrimination: study
• Western media urged to stop telling ‘one-sided stories’ about Hong Kong, mainland China
• Chinese scientists find world’s oldest cheese buried with mummies in Xinjiang desert
• [Sport] Finland to return pandas to China early due to cost
• At Sabina Shoal, China, Philippines weigh their next moves. Is conflict ‘inevitable’?
• Banks may become collateral damage as China’s ‘big bang’ squeezes margins, degrades assets
• Millions revel in China comeback of pop icon Wang Leehom, dive queen Quan Hongchan joins fun
• China offers Iran moral support in shadow of Israel-Hezbollah hostilities
• China’s top chip equipment maker sees two US executives step aside amid tech war tensions
• China boarding school criticised for harsh punishment of pupil for using toilet late at night
• China is churning out AI research but ‘decoupled’ from global networks, report finds
• How China’s diversifying overseas investment has swung open doors into the Global South
• Top Chinese economist disappears after criticising Xi Jinping in private chat – report
• Outrage after China firm fires woman for refusing to buy breakfast for boss, results in reinstatement
• India-China relationship is key to the future of Asia, New Delhi’s foreign minister says
• China should disarm before criticising US Typhon deployment: Philippines defence chief
• China’s yuan continues upward climb after Beijing’s stimulus roll-out
• China’s first lady Peng Liyuan reaches out to US students during Beijing sports event
• Why falling FDI in China may be no bad thing
• Philippines set to file criminal case against Chinese businessman Tony Yang
• Sri Lanka’s new leader must balance ties between regional powerhouses India and China
• Country Garden unit sells stake in China’s largest mall operator for US$447 million
• A path towards freedom: the new route to Europe for desperate Chinese migrants
• Finland zoo will return its giant pandas to China, blaming inflation
• China conducts first public test launch of intercontinental ballistic missile
• Is China’s new stimulus a strategic pivot in policy or a tactical move? Analysts weigh in
• ‘Golden week’ break to attract 850 mainland Chinese tours to Hong Kong. But is it enough?
• Chinese nanotech pioneer leaves US, panda stem cell breakthrough: 7 science highlights
• Chinese stock regulator urges listed firms to revamp assets, boost market value
• 5 million watch viral clip of China teen viciously attacking mum for refusing to give him money
• Spirit of Hong Kong Awards: traditional Chinese medicine practitioner targets wider audience
• China launches ICBM with simulated warhead into Pacific Ocean: defence ministry
• Chinese esports firm launches multi-title tournament in Asia with Saudi Arabia backing
• How China’s can-do attitude on canals opens the door to white elephants

US-China progress sparks hope for Cop29, Azerbaijan says

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3279974/us-china-progress-sparks-hope-cop29-azerbaijan-says?utm_source=rss_feed

The United States and China are closing the divide on the contentious issue of international climate finance, raising hopes for a breakthrough at a crucial climate conference in Azerbaijan, according to the host country’s chief negotiator.

In an interview, Yalchin Rafiyev said he had received “positive signals” following recent high-level talks between the world’s two largest economies, which frequently assert themselves as leading voices for the Global North and South in international negotiations.

“There had been a very wide gap among the positions of the US and China,” explained Rafiyev, who was speaking at the margins of the UN’s annual high-level summit, and is tasked with steering negotiations between world leaders at the Cop29 negotiations in Baku this November.

“This gap is now narrowing, and we see visible progress,” added the 37-year-old diplomat, saying he saw a “softening” of stances on both sides.

While he declined to go into specifics, citing the need not to jeopardise delicate negotiations, he added: “That gives us an understanding that we may hope for a positive outcome in the Cop29.”

While last year’s Cop28 summit in UAE struck a landmark deal to phase out fossil fuels, Cop29 is charged with a new, daunting task: putting a price tag on how much developing nations will need to weather the mounting impacts of climate change and to transition to greener economies.

More than a decade ago, wealthy nations – including the United States, European Union, Japan and others – pledged to deliver US$100 billion annually by 2020 to support developing countries.

But that goal was only achieved for the first time in 2022, and much of the funding came in the form of high-interest loans, drawing fierce criticism and accusations of broken promises.

India has called for US$1 trillion annually, a tenfold increase in the existing pledge.

Not only do developed countries view such figures as unrealistic, they are now advocating for oil-rich Gulf states and China to share the financial burden, arguing that the original list of donor countries is based on outdated 1990s development levels.

Rafiyev emphasised that Cop29’s benchmark for success would be reaching consensus on a final headline figure. However, he declined to weigh in on the Global North’s push to expand the pool of contributors, stressing the host country’s need to stay neutral.

He also declined to specify when Azerbaijan, whose economy depends heavily on oil and gas extraction, would unveil its updated plans to meet the emissions reductions required by the Paris Agreement.

Although countries are not obliged to submit these plans until February 2025, many climate observers had hoped Azerbaijan would seize the opportunity at the UN General Assembly to show leadership by setting ambitious new targets.

Instead, Rafiyev said Azerbaijan would “do our best” to release its new climate strategy ahead of the Baku summit, and was coordinating with Brazil and the UAE – the next and previous Cop hosts – towards this goal.

Rafiyev brushed off suggestions that reliance on fossil fuels extraction made Azerbaijan an inappropriate venue for the climate summit.

“Our revenues from fossil fuels have been invested in the welfare of our people,” he said, adding that Azerbaijan is now firmly focused on a greener future, signing on to a global pledge to reduce methane, a potent and long-acting greenhouse gas, and increasing its share of renewables in the energy mix.

Hosting the conference, he said, “has inspired us to accelerate our energy transition and strengthen our climate resilience”.

But according to an independent scientific analysis by the Climate Action Tracker, Azerbaijan’s current climate plans are “critically insufficient” and its emissions are set to rise 20 per cent through 2030.

Azerbaijan has called for a global truce in conflicts during the summit, with Rafiyev pointing to research that attributes nearly six per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions to military activity.

However, critics have labelled the appeal hypocritical, given the country’s checkered human rights record and its military offensive last year to crush ethnic-Armenian separatists.

Rafiyev dismissed such accusations as “baseless” and “cynical”.

“At the end of the day, what we are aspiring for is peace, and why should that be criticised?”

Most Chinese-Americans say Washington not doing enough to fight discrimination: study

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3279967/most-chinese-americans-say-washington-not-doing-enough-fight-discrimination-study?utm_source=rss_feed

A majority of Chinese-Americans believe Washington is not doing enough to combat discrimination, overwhelmingly see US-China relations as dismal and find that deteriorating bilateral ties fuel the discrimination and hateful rhetoric they face personally, according to a survey released on Wednesday.

Respondents noted struggling with psychological issues, particularly those who are younger, female and regularly experience racial discrimination, the report by the non-profit Committee of 100 added.

“We were surprised at the large percentage of responses when it came to issues of mental health and wellness and how the relationship with the US and China impacts how Chinese-Americans are feeling discriminated against,” said Sam Collitt, a research and data scientist with the committee.

“We know there are issues related to shame and language barriers that prevent discussions from taking place,” said Collitt, adding that overall Asian-Americans were 60 per cent less likely to seek mental health services than other racial groups.

These factors underscored the need to “continue to put this challenge into the spotlight”, he added.

Most respondents also said the US was headed in the wrong direction, although they identified areas where Washington and Beijing could, at the margin, improve ties, including student exchanges and in fighting climate change and infectious diseases.

“Chinese-Americans are dissatisfied with the handling of violence against their communities, with more than half saying federal elected officials are doing a poor job of handling this situation,” the report stated.

The Committee of 100 partnered with the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Centre to gather data on 504 Chinese-American adults.

Nine in 10 Asian-Americans viewed the US-China relationship as “negative”, according to the findings, and nearly two-thirds said that affected how other Americans treated them.

The poll, taken before US President Joe Biden decided not to run for a second term, found that nearly half of the Chinese-American respondents identified as Democrats, three in 10 as Republicans and about a quarter as independents.

Four in five Chinese-Americans, meanwhile, expressed concern over the language and rhetoric used by the 2024 presidential candidates when they spoke about China and US- China relations.

That discriminatory language in turn engendered prejudice against them from the candidates’ followers, they added.

As with the US electorate at large, Chinese-Americans who identified with one of the two major parties had divided views on such hot-button issues as abortion, affirmative action, gay rights, the responsibility of government, gun control and climate change.

It was notable, analysts said, that respondents hoped for greater legal repercussions and better political representation in response to anti-Asian violence, rather than simply piling on more policing.

“This signals to us a keen political consciousness in the Chinese-American population that will hopefully translate to increased voter turnout and participation,” said Vivien Leung of Santa Clara University, who helped design and analyse the survey.

“A strong agenda and goals are the key to strengthening community and political ties.”

On other fronts, only a third of Chinese-Americans expressed optimism that their values and cultures were gaining greater acceptance in the US, while 41 per cent felt American society had not shifted in either direction in terms of cultural acceptance.

A majority of respondents said being Chinese and being American was very important to their identity.

And more than two thirds of respondents said they faced some sort of discrimination in an average month, with the majority attributing it to their race, ethnicity, accent or name.

Most Chinese-Americans reported being dissatisfied with the handling of violence against their communities, with 51 per cent criticising US elected federal officials for failing to deal with it.

Asked about mental-health issues, half reported feeling hopeless in the prior 30 days, 43 per cent said they felt depressed and 39 per cent reported having felt worthless.

While the data did not show a direct link between Asian hate incidents and mental-health challenges, it indicated a strong association, Leung said.

“Which is why one of our recommendations is [that] there needs to be greater investment in mental-health services and disbursement of mental-health resources to Chinese-American communities,” added Collitt, who oversaw the survey.

Nearly six in 10 Chinese-Americans reported hearing about legislative efforts by many states and the US Congress to limit individuals who hold Chinese citizenship from owning houses, farmland and other stateside property.

Of those who had heard about the legislation, two thirds thought it had a negative effect on how others treated them.

The Committee of 100’s recommendations included a call for more complete data on hate crimes, with a particular focus on older Chinese-Americans who are less proficient in English and more likely to encounter discrimination.

The committee also called for greater investment in mental-health services amid pervasive depression and reluctance at times to seek help given language, cultural stigma and other factors as well as more emphasis on cultivating Asian-American political candidates to help counter prejudice.

On Wednesday, the US Justice Department announced it would allocate nearly US$30 million to combat the rise of hate and bias crimes.

The funding is earmarked for law enforcement agencies, states, community-based organisations, national civil-rights groups and other stakeholders.

Western media urged to stop telling ‘one-sided stories’ about Hong Kong, mainland China

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3279964/western-media-urged-stop-telling-one-sided-stories-about-hong-kong-mainland-china?utm_source=rss_feed

Media outlets should foster understanding rather than “paranoia”, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry’s arm in Hong Kong has said, insisting the city remains an international hub for the press despite recent cases of foreign journalists being denied work visas or refused entry.

Huang Jingrui, spokesman for the Commissioner’s Office of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong, said on Wednesday that residents enjoyed “all the freedom” provided under the “one country, two systems” governing model as long as they abided by the government’s “red lines”.

During a talk hosted by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Huang also indicated that Beijing was considering further easing entry requirements to mainland China for Hong Kong’s non-permanent residents.

Huang said Hong Kong and the mainland’s reputation had been “smeared” in recent years, and that the media, particularly in the West, had “become a problem” and kept telling “one-sided stories”.

“If you check the Western media, whenever it mentions Hong Kong, 90 per cent of the time it’s about national security cases,” Huang said.

“It gives the outside world the impression that both [the] mainland and Hong Kong have become a state or region of surveillance … but it’s totally wrong.”

Western publications have targeted Hong Kong in numerous editorials alleging the city’s freedoms have eroded since the introduction of the Beijing-imposed national security law in 2020 and its complimentary domestic legislation earlier this year.

Both the Hong Kong and central government have repeatedly hit back at such pieces, labelling them as “fact-twisting”, “misleading” and “alarmist.”

“I want to appeal to the press in Hong Kong, both domestic and especially international media, that it is your job to facilitate understanding, not facilitate misunderstanding and even drive people to paranoia, to new McCarthyism,” Huang said.

“That is not your job. Your job is to tell the truth [and] facilitate understanding between countries and peoples.”

The Post earlier learned that photojournalist Louise Delmotte, who works for Associated Press in Hong Kong, was questioned by authorities when she arrived at the city’s airport as a tourist on September 14 and repatriated to France. A string of similar cases have occurred in recent years.

Asked if foreign journalists could still get work visas in the city in light of the recent incidents, Huang insisted Hong Kong remained an “international media centre” and that they were still able to legally work in the city, but stressed there were “limits” on freedom of expression and press.

Huang, who declined to comment on individual cases, said: “I fully acknowledge the rights of reporters to do their job, but they still have to work within the law.”

It was understood that the work visa of Delmotte – known for ­taking exclusive photos of former media mogul Jimmy Lai Chee-ying at a maximum-­security prison last year – expired in the first half of 2024, and her application for an extension was denied during the middle of this year.

Hong Kong ranked 135 out of 180 jurisdictions in the latest World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders. The city ranked 18th when the annual report was first published in 2002.

Asked whether the central government would continue to uphold the freedoms provided to Hong Kong under one country, two systems, Huang said it was important to emphasise both sides of the model.

“Don’t just look at the two systems. We still have to be one country,” Huang said.

“You can’t overthrow the government, you can’t advocate independence. So there’s always a red line and apart from that, you have all the freedom.”

He also cited remarks by President Xi Jinping that the governing model would be maintained “for the long term”.

Huang was also asked if Beijing would consider easing mainland entry requirements for non-permanent residents following the introduction of a new five-year multi-entry visa for the city’s foreign national permanent residents earlier this year.

“I think Beijing is considering it. You just keep your fingers crossed,” he said.

Chinese scientists find world’s oldest cheese buried with mummies in Xinjiang desert

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3279944/chinese-scientists-find-worlds-oldest-cheese-buried-mummies-xinjiang-desert?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese scientists say they have discovered the world’s oldest known cheese, dating back around 3,500 years, buried alongside mummies in the Tarim Basin in far west China.

The team found the DNA of goats and fermenting microbes from Bronze Age dairy samples scattered around the necks of mummies in coffins at the Xiaohe cemetery in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

“It appears that the Xiaohe population actively adopted animal husbandry from steppe culture and that the related fermented milk product, kefir cheese, became an important part of the Xiaohe culture and subsequently spread further in inland East Asia,” they said in a new study.

The researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Peking University Third Hospital, the Xinjiang Cultural Relics and Archaeology Institute and Xinjiang University published their findings in the peer-reviewed journal Cell on Wednesday.

Kefir is a fermented drink made with milk and kefir grains and has a thinner consistency than yogurt drinks. It is drained to produce a soft cheese.

The three dairy samples analysed in the study have been identified as kefir cheese because of the “presence and abundance of proteins from ruminant milk, lactic acid bacteria and yeast in the samples”, the paper states.

The Tarim Basin, a barren desert in Xinjiang, is home to Bronze Age mummies dating back around 3,300 to 3,600 years ago. Their distinct “Western” physical appearance, clothing and apparent farming practices involving cattle, wheat and kefir cheese have for decades puzzled scientists who have been keen to find out the genetic origins and ancestry of the mummified bodies.

In 2021, an international team of scientists found that the mummies were direct descendants of the Ancient North Eurasians, instead of newcomers to the region.

In the latest study, the Chinese team found that the kefir cheese was made with the milk of cows and goats, which they said was “consistent with the historical record of kefir production using ruminant milk”.

They said the cheese production process significantly reduced the lactose content, which helped the Xiaohe people – who were “genetically lactose intolerant” – consume dairy.

“Making kefir cheese was likely a measure that not only extended the shelf life of raw milk but also mollified gastrointestinal disturbance caused by lactose,” they said.

According to lead author Fu Qiaomei, the discovery also supports the idea that “kefir culture” has existed in the Xinjiang region since the Bronze Age, challenging a long-standing belief that the fermented milk drink originated solely in the North Caucasus region in what is now Russia.

“Although it was previously suggested that kefir was spread from the Northern Caucasus to Europe and other regions, we found an additional spreading route of kefir from Xinjiang to inland East Asia,” the team wrote.

They said kefir’s dispersal was “likely accompanied by cultural interactions, as various archaeological evidence suggests cross-regional exchanges between the Bronze Age Xinjiang and Tibetan populations”.

“As kefir can only be produced through inoculating milk using existing kefir grains, these fermenting microbes serve as an ideal proxy to track the history of kefir production,” they said.

Fu, director of the molecular palaeontology laboratory at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the discovery of ancient cheese presented a rare opportunity to understand ancient diets and cultures, as preserving food over thousands of years was “extremely difficult”.

Two decades ago, when archaeologists found a mysterious white substance smeared on the heads and necks of several Xiaohe mummies, the researchers suspected it might be a type of fermented dairy product but were unable to pinpoint exactly what it was.

Thanks to advancements in ancient DNA analysis, Fu’s team solved the mystery in what was the world’s first metagenomic study of ancient dairy samples, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

“This is an unprecedented study, allowing us to observe how a bacterium evolved over the past 3,000 years,” Fu said.

“By examining dairy products, we’ve gained a clearer picture of ancient human life and their interactions with the world.”

[Sport] Finland to return pandas to China early due to cost

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd0z289ervmo

RONI REKOMAA/AFP via Getty Images

RONI REKOMAA/AFP via Getty Images

At Sabina Shoal, China, Philippines weigh their next moves. Is conflict ‘inevitable’?

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3279949/sabina-shoal-china-philippines-weigh-their-next-moves-conflict-inevitable?utm_source=rss_feed

China will try to prevent the Philippines from deploying another vessel at a disputed shoal, observers say, fuelling the risk of conflict in the hotly contested waters between the two rival claimants.

After the Philippines recalled the BRP Teresa Magbanua from Sabina Shoal earlier this month, Beijing said its coastguard would continue to “carry out consistent law enforcement activities” in the waters to “safeguard its territorial sovereignty and maritime interests”.

Manila said it had sent a replacement for the vessel but would not reveal the exact location as part of an “operation adjustment” based on what was learned from previous experiences in dealing with the Chinese vessels.

“It’s better for them to guess where the ship is. Because if they know where it is, they will go there. It’s like a magnet. So, that is our approach. We will not reveal where it is,” National Maritime Council spokesman Alexander Lopez said on Saturday.

While both Beijing and Manila appeared to be carefully weighing their next moves for Sabina Shoal, regional observers said the risk of confrontation remained high.

Beijing was unlikely to allow another Philippine vessel to be “illegally grounded” at Sabina Shoal, while Manila would not abandon its presence in the area to prevent a repeat of what happened when it lost control of Scarborough Shoal in 2012, according to observers.

“The Philippines was unwilling to leave Sabina Shoal at that time, and it is very likely that it would seek to return to the shoal,” said Chen Xiangmiao, an associate research fellow at the National Institute for South China Sea Studies.

“A maritime conflict would be inevitable,” he said. “But how it would develop depends on how much the Philippines’ next move would provoke China. That will determine how China will take further countermeasures.”

On Tuesday, Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, the Philippine Navy spokesman for the West Philippine Sea, said 11 People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy warships, as well as 16 Chinese coastguard vessels and 55 militia ships were spotted between last Tuesday – three days after the Teresa Magbanua was recalled – and Monday.

Chen questioned the number of warships, but warned that violent collisions similar to the ones at the end of last month could happen again.

At that time, China said a Philippine coastguard ship had “deliberately collided” with one of its vessels near the disputed Sabina Shoal, while Manila said the Chinese side had “deliberately rammed” a Philippine vessel. No injuries were reported, but the Philippines said the collision caused significant damage to the ship.

“Coastguards are enough to block the Philippines,” Chen said.

“If the Philippine forces try to enter the lagoon, I think it’s possible that China may use water cannons again, or in an escalated scenario, a collision may happen again,” he added.

Days before the Teresa Magbanua left the area, diplomats from the two countries met in Beijing for what the Chinese foreign ministry said was a “candid” discussion over the Sabina Shoal situation, raising speculation that a deal had been made between the two sides. Manila rejected the claims.

It remained unclear which ship the Philippines would deploy to the shoal. Options include the sister ship of the Teresa Magbanua, the Japanese-built 97-metre (318 feet) Melchora Aquino, as well as the French-built BRP Gabriela Silang, an offshore coastguard patrol vessel.

Collin Koh, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, said Beijing may seek to interdict the newly deployed ship from stationing at Sabina Shoal.

He said that even if the Philippines managed to station its ship in the atoll, China would still seek to block its resupply, and eventually force the ship to return to port.

“I’m inclined to believe that the Philippine vessel would arrive on station but be blocked from entering the lagoon,” he said. “If that happens, the situation would closely resemble what happened at Scarborough Shoal after April 2012.”

Koh said Manila may have to draw on its navy, or in the most serious scenario, involve the United States and other external powers for direct support to maintain what it has called a “strategic presence” at Sabina Shoal, and Beijing would be aware of that.

“This means the current show of force around Sabina Shoal is as much to flex muscle as to try to dissuade the Filipinos from trying to enter the lagoon, or even to convince Manila, in a best-case scenario for Beijing, that it’s unsustainable to continue this deployment.”

Banks may become collateral damage as China’s ‘big bang’ squeezes margins, degrades assets

https://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/3279937/banks-may-become-collateral-damage-chinas-big-bang-squeezes-margins-degrades-assets?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s banks may end up as unintended collateral damage amid the government’s slew of economic stimulus policies announced this week, as they may have to contend with squeezed margins and deteriorating mortgage quality, analysts said.

Banks’ net interest margins may be eroded by a fifth of a percentage point, or 20 basis points, according to an estimate by S&P Global Ratings. Return on assets could drop by 14 basis points, requiring the average deposit rate to fall by a quarter point to “neutralise the impact, which would be challenging for banks with weaker deposit base and regulatory buffers,” the rating company’s analysts wrote after the policy was announced.

Net interest margin [NIM], the difference between what a bank pays for deposits and what it earns from loans, is a key source of income and a gauge of its profitability. That margin became thinner after the People’s Bank of China instructed banks to reduce their mortgage rates by 0.5 percentage point on existing loans, while keeping deposit rates unchanged.

“We expect [banks’] NIM to remain under pressure” in the second half, extending into 2025, “driven by existing mortgage rate cuts and government directives to lower borrowing costs to support the economy”, said Fitch Ratings’ director of Asia-Pacific financial institutions Vivian Xue. “We expect this to be partly offset by further reduction in the reserve requirement ratio and deposit rates.”

That could be bad for China’s banks. All six of the nation’s largest state-controlled banks – except Agricultural Bank of China – reported declines in their first-half results. Agricultural Bank’s NIM narrowed to 1.45 per cent in the six months ended June, from 1.66 per cent last year.

China’s government also slashed the down payment ratio for second homes to 15 per cent, from 25 per cent, in an unprecedented move to encourage buyers to return to the market. That could help to ease the mortgage burden for an estimated 150 million people, potentially lowering their annual interest expenses by about 150 billion yuan (US$21.4 billion), central bank governor Pan Gongsheng said.

“On a dynamic basis, the mortgage measures could slow prepayments and reinvigorate investment demand,” S&P analysts wrote. “The stabilisation of banks’ mortgage balances would help their capital ratios.”

Capital ratio measures the amount of capital a lender has relative to its risk-weighted asset, helping to indicate its capacity to absorb losses.

In another move to inject liquidity into the economy, the Chinese central bank cut the reserve requirement ratio – the amount of cash banks must hold in reserve – by half a percentage point.

“Chinese banks have been moderating loan growth and capital consumption to mitigate the hit on profitability from lower interest rates,” said S&P analysts. “Over the long run, we are mindful of the lower down payment ratios, especially on second homes in lower-tier cities, if the property prices do not stabilise.”

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Millions revel in China comeback of pop icon Wang Leehom, dive queen Quan Hongchan joins fun

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/china-personalities/article/3279925/millions-revel-china-comeback-pop-icon-wang-leehom-dive-queen-quan-hongchan-joins-fun?utm_source=rss_feed

Taiwanese-American singer Wang Leehom has made a comeback at a mega event in China, performing alongside stars like Jackie Chan and Olympic diving champion Quan Hongchan, sparking widespread attention online.

In December 2021, Wang announced his divorce from wife Lee Jinglei.

A short time later, Lee took to social media to accuse Wang of misconduct that included serial cheating and soliciting sex workers.

The scandal severely tarnished his public image, leading to multiple brands cutting ties with him.

In May, a Beijing court cleared Wang of any misconduct, ruling that the allegations were likely fabricated before unfreezing 9.01 million yuan (US$1.3 million) of his company’s assets.

On September 22, Wang took part in the Greater Bay Area Film Concert in Macau, organised by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV-6.

His appearance marked the pop icon’s official mainland comeback following the 2021 scandal.

The event brought together hundreds of film stars, singers and Olympic athletes from China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, performing classic Chinese songs that highlighted national sentiments of unity.

Before the concert began, related topics on Weibo had attracted an astonishing 4 billion views online.

Alongside Wang, stars such as Jackie Chan, Xiao Zhan and Olympic champion diver Quan, as well as table tennis champion Fan Zhendong, were present.

Quan, who hails from Guangdong province in southern China, greeted the audience in Cantonese and expressed her wish to compete in Macau in the future.

Wang performed the song The Grand China with Quan and the other stars, including Olympic athletes wearing their Chinese Olympic team outfits.

He also sang Heaven and Earth Dragon with Hong Kong actor and singer Aarif Lee Zhi-ting, and performed his signature, self-composed Our Song.

Wang shared photos from the concert on Weibo, including a picture with Quan, writing: “Thank you, everyone. I’m deeply moved today. I will remember this moment for the rest of my life.”

In videos circulating online, Wang can be seen bowing respectfully and shaking hands with Quan, who excitedly held on to his hand and did not want to let go. Quan even sang Our Song in front of him.

Before Wang’s divorce controversy grabbed public attention, he had been worshipped as a top idol for more than two decades in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and overseas.

The 48-year-old heartthrob holds a master’s degree from Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.

With his tall, handsome appearance and musical talent, he became one of the most popular stars of the 2000s.

Wang’s music, which blends jazz and rap with a Chinese flavour, has earned him numerous awards. Some of his top-ranked songs include Dragon’s Successor, Change Yourself, and The Only One.

He has a huge fan base across China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and overseas Chinese communities, with 67 million followers on Weibo and 5.4 million on Instagram.

Wang’s return has been warmly welcomed around the globe.

One mainland Weibo user said: “After everything, my hero has finally returned.”

“Thank you for your hard work and perseverance. Justice finally prevails,” another person wrote on Instagram.

“Wang was born for music. I’m so happy to hear his voice again,” added a third.

China offers Iran moral support in shadow of Israel-Hezbollah hostilities

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3279946/china-offers-iran-moral-support-shadow-israel-hezbollah-hostilities?utm_source=rss_feed

Two top Chinese diplomats have voiced support for Tehran in talks with senior Iranian officials this week, amid the rising risk of an all-out war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah.

On the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, pledging support for Tehran in safeguarding its “sovereignty, security, territorial integrity, and national dignity”.

“Regardless of changes in the international and regional situation, China has always been a trustworthy partner of Iran and will, as always, support Iran … and oppose interference by external forces in Iran’s internal affairs and the imposition of sanctions and pressure,” the Chinese foreign ministry quoted Wang as saying.

He also said China would “uphold justice and promote a ceasefire to end the Gaza war”.

The meeting was the first between Wang and Pezeshkian, the new Iranian reformist president, who is believed to favour mending ties with the West.

According to Iranian state-owned news agency IRNA, Pezeshkian said China had a role to play in resolving the conflict.

“[Israel] does not adhere to any of the legal frameworks and the crimes of this regime are not acceptable to human conscience,” he said.

“China’s role as one of the most important countries in the world will definitely be effective in condemning and stopping these crimes.”

According to the IRNA report, Wang said the “actions of the Israeli regime in Gaza are unjust and have led to the killing and displacement of the Palestinian people, and unfortunately, such actions are spilling over to the region”.

Pezeshkian added that Iran and China should “join hands so that with the development of multilateralism in the world” and “would not allow the coercive powers to impose their demands on other nations”.

In Iran, Chinese Middle East envoy Zhai Jun also met Ali Asghar Khaji, a senior adviser to the Iranian foreign minister, and Mehdi Shushtari, Iran’s assistant foreign minister for West Asia and North Africa.

Without referring to the conflict directly, Zhai said China was “ready to strengthen communication and coordination” with Iran in Middle East affairs and to promote a “comprehensive, just and lasting solution to hotspot issues”.

“At a time when the Middle East region is undergoing profound and complex changes, China supports Iran and regional countries in safeguarding their sovereignty, security, and development interests,” Zhai said, according to the Chinese foreign ministry.

The meetings were set against the backdrop of the deadliest day in Lebanon since 2006 as Israeli air strikes killed more than 500 people on Monday, including more than 90 women and children, according to Lebanese authorities.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the bombardment targeted Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant and political group in Lebanon.

Wang told the UN General Assembly that the strikes were “indiscriminate attacks against civilians”.

He also told Lebanese counterpart Abdallah Bou Habib in New York that Beijing would always stand on “the side of justice and Arab brothers, including Lebanon” and “strongly condemns this violation of the basic norms of international relations”.

Wang condemned last week’s explosions of communication devices in Lebanon, which killed at least 37 people and wounded around 3,000.

Although it has not acknowledged responsibility, Israel is believed to be behind the detonation of pagers and walkie-talkies that targeted Hezbollah members.

China has been seeking a bigger voice in Middle East affairs, especially since brokering a peace deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia last year.

Despite Beijing’s clear alignment with Arab nations, it constantly claims to be a neutral player in the Israel-Hamas war and says it is willing to meditate on the conflict.

At a briefing at the Israeli embassy in Beijing on Wednesday, Yuval Waks, deputy head of the mission to China, said Israel did not want a full-scale war and was still seeking a diplomatic resolution.

Israel has said that the goal of the military operation is to seek a “fundamental change” in the security situation on Israel’s northern border.

It has called for a full implementation of UN Resolution 1701, which set out the ceasefire terms that ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War between Israel and Hezbollah.

Under the resolution, which also mandates the disarmament of Hezbollah, no armed forces other than UN peacekeepers and the Lebanese military will be deployed south of the Litani River, which flows about 29km (18 miles) north of the border with Israel.

“China is a close ally of the Iranians and can definitely pass the relevant messages that Israel will not allow this terrorist organisation to sit again on our borders,” Waks said, referring to Hezbollah.

While in New York, Wang has met leaders, senior diplomats and officials from at least 15 countries, but none from Israel.

He has also not had talks with his US counterpart Antony Blinken or US President Joe Biden but did meet US Senator Chris Coons to “exchange views on issues of mutual concern”.

In his talks with Pezeshkian, Wang also said Beijing supported further engagement between Tehran and Riyadh.

He added that Beijing was determined to implement its 25-year cooperation programme with Tehran – a deal signed in 2021 but with little apparent progress since then.

Additional reporting by Laura Zhou

China’s top chip equipment maker sees two US executives step aside amid tech war tensions

https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-war/article/3279922/chinas-top-chip-equipment-maker-sees-two-us-executives-step-aside-amid-tech-war-tensions?utm_source=rss_feed

Two executives with US citizenship at Chinese chip gear maker Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment (AMEC) have stepped down from their positions, as trade tensions between the US and China continue to escalate.

Ni Tuqiang and Yang Wei, both US citizens, are no longer “core technical personnel” at AMEC, which is widely seen as China’s best hope to produce advanced etching and deposition tools to cut reliance on foreign suppliers, for “personal reasons”, but the two remain employees of the company, Shanghai-listed AMEC said in a regulatory filing last week.

The number of AMEC’s “core technical personnel”, which also include chairman and CEO Gerald Yin Zhiyao, has decreased from nine to seven with the latest executive moves, the company said. The changes “will not have a significant adverse impact” on AMEC’s research and development progress, operational capabilities or its competitiveness, the company said.

AMEC did not specify what new positions the two executives would take on. Ni also stepped down as a vice-president of the company, AMEC said.

In October 2022, the US Department of Commerce announced restrictions on “US persons” supporting the “development or production” of chips at “certain China-located semiconductor fabrication ‘facilities’ without a licence”.

The surprise move saw dozens of US executives at listed Chinese chip companies scrambling to determine if they were subject to the restrictions.

The latest personnel changes at AMEC come as the country’s semiconductor industry navigates through intensified geopolitical conflicts as Washington mulls further measures to curb China’s access to advanced chip technology over perceived national security risks.

In its 2023 annual report published in March, AMEC did not state the nationality of its American chairman and CEO Yin, as it had done in previous annual reports. Yin, 80, worked in the US for Intel, Lam Research and Applied Materials before establishing his own company in China in 2004.

While China remains years behind the US in terms of sophistication in chip-making tools, the country’s semiconductor supply chain could achieve a “basic level of self-sufficiency” this summer, despite gaps in quality and reliability, Yin said during an industry panel discussion in July. The chip veteran added that he was confident China could catch up with the leaders in the chip-making industry in another five to 10 years.

In January, the US Department of Defence (DOD) added a number of Chinese companies, including AMEC, to it “Chinese Military Company (CMC)” list, citing their threat to US national security and barring them from doing business with some American companies.

In August, Shanghai-based AMEC said it had filed a lawsuit against the DOD, whose designation of the firm as a CMC was made without legal basis and had caused it “serious and irreparable” harm.

Still, AMEC’s business is expanding, which the company attributes to strong domestic demand for local chip-making tools. Its 2023 full year revenue jumped 32.1 per cent year on year to 6.26 billion yuan (US$879 million), the company said in its latest annual report.

Revenue for the first six months of this year grew 36.4 per cent year on year to 3.4 billion yuan, AMEC said in August.

China boarding school criticised for harsh punishment of pupil for using toilet late at night

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3279488/china-boarding-school-criticised-harsh-punishment-pupil-using-toilet-late-night?utm_source=rss_feed

A boarding school in northern China faced reprimand from the local education authority after punishing a student for using the toilet after curfew.

The teenage boy, a Form Three student at Yundong Secondary School in Shanxi province, went to the bathroom at 11pm, which was 15 minutes past curfew, and was caught by staff members.

As reported by Beijing News, administrators forced the boy to write a “deep self-reflection” letter and to distribute 1,000 photocopies of the essay to his schoolmates as punishment. Additionally, five points were deducted from his class’s monthly discipline score.

An anonymous teacher informed the news outlet that, before the authorities’ reprimand, students were prohibited from walking around the dormitory after 10.45pm, and using the toilet was not permitted.

Students who needed to use the bathroom after curfew were required to reach out to dorm administrators for permission.

In his self-reflection essay, the student expressed: “I have seriously breached the school rules, and going to the toilet in the evening not only disturbed other students’ sleep but also brought shame to my class.”

He sincerely apologised to his classmates and the school, pledging not to “repeat this behaviour in the future.”

The boy’s punishment went viral online, sparking significant backlash against the school.

“I don’t understand why going to the toilet after 11pm breaks the school’s rules. Who can control when they need to go?” one user commented on Douyin.

Another remarked: “This school resembles a prison with such strict regulations.”

As news of the school’s penalty gained traction on social media, the Education Department of Huairen, where the school is situated, swiftly responded.

“We instructed the school to learn from this incident and reflect on its errors. We told them to revise their discipline policies,” the education authority stated.

The department also advised the school to engage with the boy “in a caring manner” and mandated compensation of 100 yuan (US$14) to cover the costs of copying the self-reflection essay.

Officials stated they have instructed all schools to implement “reasonable and humane” discipline policies to prevent a recurrence of the late-night bathroom incident.

China is churning out AI research but ‘decoupled’ from global networks, report finds

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3279907/china-churning-out-ai-research-decoupled-global-networks-report-finds?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s artificial intelligence research output is rising rapidly but remains relatively “decoupled” from US-led global collaboration networks, a report by the Nature Index has found.

Six of the top 10 “rising institutions” in the field from 2019 to 2023 were in China, according to the latest AI index, compiled by part of the group which owns the British journal Nature.

However, China’s global connectivity is lagging behind the US – the leading AI research nation which also plays a central role in international collaboration – as well as Britain and Germany.

While Britain and Germany ranked fourth and fifth, respectively, in research output, both countries have stronger international ties than China, according to the report.

Caroline Wagner, a science policy and international collaboration expert at Ohio State University in the US, said China’s apparent “decoupling” was less likely to be politically driven.

She noted that although AI has become a heated area of competition between the US and China, with increasing scrutiny, there are no formal bans on collaboration between countries.

According to the report, artificial intelligence researchers in China, the US and Europe do collaborate.

“Such collaboration is established between trusted partners and has probably been going on for years,” Wagner said.

China’s weaker connectivity is more likely to indicate lower research quality as the level of international collaboration is often positively correlated to the quality of publications, according to Wagner.

“What we see is that high-quality work, such as the most-cited papers, is often internationally collaborative,” she said.

“There are just so many AI researchers in China. They publish a lot, including conference papers and open-access papers, which are not always considered top quality,” she said.

According to the report, the US is involved in nearly half of the top 40 bilateral collaborations in AI research, partnering with countries such as China, Britain, Canada, Japan and Israel. Britain and Germany follow with 10 and nine top partners, respectively.

China’s six key research collaborators are the US, Canada, Britain, Germany, Australia and Singapore.

The US remains the global leader in AI research, as measured by both country or institutional and author-based metrics. It is home to top AI research institutions such as Harvard University, Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

But the gap between the US and China is narrowing. The Chinese Academy of Sciences now ranks just behind Harvard University among the world’s leading AI institutions. Other fast-growing Chinese institutions are Peking University, Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University, the University of Science and Technology of China and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Germany is also rising in prominence in global AI research, with the Max Planck Society and Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres highlighted as top institutions.

The Nature Index, compiled by Nature Research Intelligence – part of Springer Nature – tracks contributions to research articles published in leading scientific journals. It is widely recognised as a key indicator of global high-quality research output and collaboration.

How China’s diversifying overseas investment has swung open doors into the Global South

https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3279911/how-chinas-diversifying-overseas-investment-has-swung-open-doors-global-south?utm_source=rss_feed

In hindsight, Hutchison Port Holdings made a prescient call 20 years ago when it invested in Mexico and Indonesia, according to managing director Eric Ip.

The international marine services provider’s move eventually proved beneficial in catering to a shift in China’s overseas investments away from North America since 2019, diversifying into regions such as Latin America and Southeast Asia, where seaports were needed to ship Chinese wares, Ip explained.

“Because of geopolitics, China has moved a lot of manufacturing enterprises to other countries, and the production lines to those countries,” he said.

Chinese companies are expanding in less-developed countries to sell goods in untapped markets as capacity balloons at home, and to take advantage of new infrastructure built or bankrolled by China over the past decade.

Their investments in relatively cheaper countries, meanwhile, offer a degree of insulation from China’s own economic-growth slowdown.

Outbound non-financial direct investment from the world’s second-largest economy rose in the first seven months of 2024 by an especially steep 16.2 per cent, year on year, to US$83.55 billion, according to Ministry of Commerce data. Of that, the ministry said, US$17.94 billion went to “co-construction” countries participating in China’s Belt and Road Initiative, up 7.7 per cent over the same seven months last year.

“I think, in the coming five years, for some of the manufacturing industry, they will move to Southeast Asia more because there is that trade war between China and other countries,” said Zeus Lam, director of the Phnom Penh-backed trade promotion group Cambodia Business Centre. “They’re going to move their facilities and will get some of the benefits.”

Chinese investments are flowing swiftly into Cambodia, with much going toward the production of furniture, garments and plastics, plus a US$500 million solar farm, Lam said. Chinese companies invested more than US$3 billion in Cambodia last year, the commerce ministry’s data shows.

Cambodia’s advantages, he said, are minimum wages of US$204 a month and its participation in the belt and road plan – an 11-year-old initiative to link economies into a China-centred trading network, including by creating ports, railways and other infrastructure to make China-bound trade easier. More than 150 countries, mostly in developing parts of the world, have participated in the plan.

Developing countries also help Chinese investors diversify away from sagging consumption at home while avoiding the West, where governments have stepped up trade sanctions against China, said Jayant Menon, a senior fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. The US and its allies have raised tariffs on Chinese goods since 2018 amid disputes over trade, technology transfers and views on geopolitics.

“As China’s growth continues to slow, foreign markets become increasingly important to offset demand contraction at home,” Menon said. “The developing-country markets in Southeast Asia, Africa and South Asia are still quite receptive to Chinese investments and do not discriminate against Chinese firms.”

Hutchison calculated that, from 2019-24, its port business in Mexico and Indonesia grew by about 20 per cent while North America gained just 3 per cent, Ip said. The builder has 53 terminals in 24 countries.

Banking and financial giant HSBC has found that 65 per cent of China-based firms had growth plans for the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) bloc in 2023 or 2024, and that Malaysia was the top destination because of its semiconductor sector and – for Chinese automaker Geely – a tie-up with Malaysian carmaker Proton.

Chinese investors separately agreed this month to invest 4 billion ringgit (US$959 million) in Malaysia’s halal foods, state media from both countries reported. That came after Malaysian and Chinese reportedly signed agreements in June for potential investments worth 13.2 billion ringgit to collaborate in sectors from oil and gas to education.

Three of the 10 Asean countries have minerals needed for electric-vehicle batteries, a major growth industry for China and one source of its investments overseas, while the region overall is one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing consumer markets, HSBC said in a July research note.

Manufacturers in China’s factory hubs in the southern Pearl River Delta want to expand into Cambodia and Vietnam because of “overcapacity” onshore, said Mandy Zhao, senior director for new business development at Carbon Newture in Shanghai.

Her four-year-old firm gauges carbon emissions for Chinese multinationals that need to meet environmental standards abroad.

China’s “weak” domestic demand and growing industrial capacity increased its manufacturing trade surplus by US$775 billion between 2019 and 2023, according to an estimate by research provider Rhodium Group.

Some Chinese investors have opened factories in other countries, while others have been stepping up sales.

Shenzhen Grenergy Technology, for example, is seeing brisk sales of its energy-storage gear in Central Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe – in line with China’s ambitions to develop green-energy projects in the same regions – according to the 14-year-old firm’s sales manager, Harry Han.

“There should be business for us, because belt and road countries are increasing their purchases of electric vehicles from China, and there’s a rather large market in that,” he said.

In Africa, Chinese budget smartphone brand Transsion has secured a 51 per cent market share, market research firm Canalys said in August, adding that Xiaomi’s handset sales in the continent grew by 45 per cent in the second quarter of this year over the same period in 2023.

In another Chinese investment trend overseas, Oceania and Latin America have seen “significant growth” in merger and acquisition deals value-led by Chinese companies, noted professional services firm Ernst & Young.

Hutchison Ports, which was founded in 1994 and once focused heavily on mainland China investments, had long suspected that China would eventually trade a lot more with the countries where the firm built ports, Ip said.

The managing director now expects Hutchison to expand most aggressively in Egypt, Pakistan and Mexico. Three container terminals in Egypt, including one on the heavily used Red Sea shipping route, will start opening this year. Hutchison is expanding a seaport in Pakistan through 2024, and two in Mexico over the next 12-18 months.

China is Pakistan’s largest trading partner and a top investor in infrastructure and energy. And Egypt, with the Suez Canal, is a pivotal point for cargo shipped by sea between Asia and Europe.

Meanwhile, Chinese manufacturers look to Mexico as a place to manufacture for the US market, where they face stiff import tariffs if shipping directly from China.

“China has changed its patterns to export to new belt and road countries [such as in] Asean and Latin America,” Ip said. “We are building terminals according to demands, where the opportunity arises.”

Top Chinese economist disappears after criticising Xi Jinping in private chat – report

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/25/china-economist-zhu-hengpeng-disappearance-xi-jinping-wechat-comments

A leading Chinese economist at a government thinktank has reportedly disappeared after being disciplined for criticising Xi Jinping in a private chat group.

Zhu Hengpeng, 55, is believed to have made disparaging remarks about China’s economy, and potentially about the Chinese leader specifically, in a private WeChat group. Zhu was subsequently detained in April and put under investigation, according to the Wall Street Journal which cited anonymous sources.

Zhu worked for the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (Cass) for more than 20 years, most recently as the Institute of Economics deputy director and director of the Public Policy Research Center. He has reportedly not been seen in public since April when he spoke at an event organised by Chinese media outlet Caixin, which he had done previously. Efforts by the Wall Street Journal to contact him at home were unsuccessful. The Cass has not responded to queries from the Guardian.

Earlier this month Hong Kong media reported a shakeup of the institute’s senior ranks, with the director and secretary also removed from their posts at the same time Zhu was stripped of his role. The other two officials were reassigned, according to Sing Tao Daily, but Zhu was not, and is no longer listed on the Cass website. Websites related to his work at Tsinghua University have also been taken offline, although the Guardian could not confirm when.

The Cass is a leading thinktank in China, which reports directly to the cabinet of the Chinese Communist party (CCP), the State Council, and has long been an influential policy advisor, sometimes providing relatively frank analysis. However under the increasingly authoritarian rule of Xi, criticism of the CCP and his individual leadership has become increasingly frowned upon, and treated punitively.

China-based academics have previously told the Guardian of a growing fear among their profession of reporting or discussing negative assessments of China’s economic, social, or political situation for fear of reprisals. Discussion of Xi as an individual, especially in online spaces which are censored and monitored, is largely avoided or done through vague or coded statements.

Notices on the Cass website show staff engaging in several political education sessions in recent months, with a heavy focus on party loyalty and adherence to Xi Jinping Thought – the name given to the enshrined political ideology of the CCP leader.

“The meeting emphasised that we must always bear in mind that the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences is a political institution whose work is centred on scientific research, put strict enforcement of the party’s political discipline first, work hard to enforce strict discipline and abide by rules,” said a report on one July meeting, led by Cass president Gao Xiang. Gao, a Xi loyalist, was appointed to the role in 2022 and has overseen a campaign to improve party loyalty at the institution.

The specifics of what Zhu wrote in the private WeChat group are not known, although Sing Tao Daily described it as “improperly discussed central policies”. The Wall Street Journal also reported he allegedly made a reference to “Xi’s mortality”.

China’s economy is struggling, and there are concerns that the world’s second-largest economy will miss its own 5% annual growth target, a relatively modest ambition by historic standards. On Tuesday the country’s central bank announced the biggest stimulus efforts in years in a bid to boost growth, but experts expressed concern the measures, including a cut in interest rates, would not be sufficient.

A growing crisis in China’s property market has unfolded since authorities cracked down on excessive borrowing by developers, leading many to default on their debts. Property developers and owners continue to cope with high mortgage payments, dragging on their ability to invest and grow.

Regulators have avoided making large-scale cuts to borrowing costs, fearing that the stimulus would reignite a boom in sales and values, creating a fresh property bubble.

Additional reporting by Phillip Inman

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Outrage after China firm fires woman for refusing to buy breakfast for boss, results in reinstatement

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3279487/outrage-after-china-firm-fires-woman-refusing-buy-breakfast-boss-results-reinstatement?utm_source=rss_feed

A woman in Shanghai was briefly fired after she refused to purchase breakfast for her boss, igniting outrage across mainland social media.

In response to the public backlash, the company reinstated the employee and terminated her supervisor.

The woman, identified by her surname Lou, was a new hire at an educational institution and shared her experience on Xiaohongshu.

Lou recounted that her supervisor, a woman surnamed Liu, demanded that she bring her a “hot Americano and an egg” each morning. Additionally, Lou mentioned that her boss insisted on having a bottle of water readily available for her to drink.

When Lou addressed these unreasonable demands in a work chat group, she was reprimanded by a group administrator. Subsequently, she was fired by the human resources department and informed that she would not receive any compensation.

Lou sought reimbursement from Liu and expressed that the entire ordeal left her feeling “helpless and absurd”.

Once the incident garnered public attention, it drew widespread condemnation.

One commenter noted: “This boss treated her subordinate like a free assistant, which is unethical and constitutes bullying.”

Another remarked: “Lou displayed significant bravery by exposing her boss’s misconduct.”

On September 12, the company released a statement announcing that Lou’s supervisor had been fired for abusing her authority and coercing subordinates into assisting her with personal matters.

Meanwhile, Lou regained her position and resumed her regular duties, though it remained uncertain whether she would receive any compensation.

Wang, the head of HR for the company, told mainland media outlet Dafeng News that Lou’s termination was solely Liu’s decision and did not align with company policy.

However, the HR department initially took the action to fire Lou.

Lou’s experience has also heightened awareness of workplace bullying in China, with related discussions attracting over 2 million views on Weibo.

A 2020 survey conducted by Zhilian Zhaopin, a mainland recruiting company, revealed that 64 per cent of respondents in China had experienced workplace bullying. Common forms of bullying included being coerced into completing unreasonable tasks, enduring verbal abuse, and facing sexual harassment.

Over half of those who experienced bullying chose to resign, while 6 per cent turned to social media to bring the issue to light.

Chinese law does not clearly delineate workplace bullying, and penalties vary from case to case.

He Bo, a lawyer at Sichuan Hongqi Law Firm, explained to the Post: “For instance, forcing employees to work overtime violates labour laws, and sexual harassment can result in administrative or criminal liability for the offenders.”

“In combating workplace bullying, employees should gather evidence such as screenshots, audio recordings, and videos to protect themselves,” he advised.

He added that employees are not required to execute tasks unrelated to their job duties and have the right to refuse unreasonable work requests. Seeking legal counsel may be advisable if necessary.

India-China relationship is key to the future of Asia, New Delhi’s foreign minister says

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3279865/india-china-relationship-key-future-asia-says-new-delhis-foreign-minister?utm_source=rss_feed

The relationship between Beijing and New Delhi has become vital not only for Asia’s future but also for the broader global order, although the neighbours’ “parallel rise” also poses a “unique problem”, according to Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.

“I think the India-China relationship is key to the future of Asia. In a way, you can say, if the world is to be multipolar, Asia has to be multipolar,” he said, adding that the bilateral ties between the two unfriendly neighbouring countries would “influence not just the future of Asia, but in that way, perhaps the future of the world as well”.

Jaishankar, who was India’s ambassador to China from 2009 to 2013, made the remarks on Tuesday on the sidelines of the high-level United Nations General Assembly during an event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank in New York.

The decades-old Himalayan border dispute between China and India remains the most contentious aspect of their bilateral ties. A fraught peace prevailed along the Line of Actual Control for decades after the 1962 Sino-India war but it was broken by a deadly border brawl in 2020, killing at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh region.

“Right now, both sides have troops who are deployed forward,” Jaishankar said, sharing that the last four years had a focus on disengaging, which he described as “only one part of the problem”.

The “main issue”, he said, was patrolling those disputed areas along the border because the arrangement put in place in the 1990s and early 2000s was “disturbed” after the Galwan clashes.

“Some of the patrolling issues need to be resolved, but once we deal with the disengagement, there is the larger issue, which both of us have brought very large number of troops up to the border. So there is what we call the de-escalation issue,” the top Indian diplomat noted.

Highlighting that both China and India had populations in the billions, Jaishankar acknowledged that their ascent in the global order, along with their “overlapping peripheries”, created an unusual issue.

“If you look today in global politics, the parallel rises of India and China, I would say, present a very unique problem,” he contended.

To tackle this challenge, New Delhi has aligned more closely with Washington as China’s military might and economic influence have grown in recent years.

India is a member of the Quad, a US-led security bloc that includes Japan and Australia.

The Quad was originally formed in 2004 but became dormant until 2017. The alliance has since been enthusiastically embraced by US President Joe Biden as part of his Indo-Pacific strategy.

The group is aimed at what the Biden administration calls “maintaining peace and stability” in the Indo-Pacific region. China has criticised it as a “small clique” that is “bent on provoking confrontation”.

India is the only Quad country that shares a land border with China. Last week, leaders of the Quad nations announced an expansion of their joint maritime security operations into the Indian Ocean and closer coastguard integration throughout the Indo-Pacific.

However, New Delhi finds itself in a tricky situation as it is also a member of Brics, a grouping that includes China and Russia. Despite concerns from the US, India has continued to buy oil from Russia, a long-time friend.

On Tuesday, Jaishankar again ruled out picking a side. “We chew gum and walk at the same time,” he quipped as he was asked about taking part in varied forums with competing powers. “Times have moved on,” he said.

He described the Quad as a “non-treaty” way of working with like-minded countries that were “market economies, political democracies and pluralistic societies” that “also are all maritime powers, and they have a common interest in dealing with the Indo-Pacific”.

But Jaishankar added that it was not “feasible to expect that big countries constrain their options and do not deal with other countries, not because of their interest but because somebody else has a problem with those countries”.

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China should disarm before criticising US Typhon deployment: Philippines defence chief

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3279877/china-should-disarm-criticising-us-typhon-deployment-philippines-defence-chief?utm_source=rss_feed

American and Filipino security officials have agreed to keep a US mid-range missile system in the northern Philippines indefinitely to boost deterrence despite China’s expressions of alarm, two Philippine officials said on Wednesday.

The US Army transported the Typhon missile system, a land-based weapon that can fire the Standard Missile-6 and the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile, to the northern Philippines as part of combat exercises in April with Philippine troops and to test its deplorability aboard an Air Force aircraft.

Tomahawk missiles can travel over 1,000 miles (1,600km), which places China within their target range. Officials are considering keeping the missile system in the northern Philippines up to April next year, when US and Philippine forces are scheduled to hold their annual Balikatan – Tagalog for “shoulder to shoulder” – large-scale combat exercises, he said.

The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the sensitive US missile deployment publicly. There was no immediate comment from US officials.

Chinese diplomats have repeatedly conveyed their alarm to the Philippine government, warning that the deployment of the missile system could destabilise the region.

The Philippine army said earlier that the system was scheduled to be removed from the country by the end of this month. Philippine Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jnr refused to confirm or deny the extension.

But Teodoro rejected China’s demands as interference in the Philippines internal affairs, speaking to reporters on Tuesday on the sidelines of an Asian defence industry exhibition in Manila.

“China is saying that they are alarmed but that is interference into our internal affairs. They are using reverse psychology in order to deter us from building up our defensive capabilities,” Teodoro said.

“Before they start talking, why don’t they lead by example? Destroy their nuclear arsenal, remove all their ballistic missile capabilities, get out of the West Philippines Sea and get out of Mischief Reef,” he added. “I mean, don’t throw stones when you live in a glass house.”

Teodoro used the Philippine name for the parts of the disputed South China Sea it claims and for a contested reef off the western Philippines that Chinese forces seized in 1995 and is now one of seven missile-protected island bases China maintains in the disputed waters.

Philippine military chief General Romeo Brawner Jnr said he has asked US military officials to keep the missile system in the Philippines, but declined to say what was their response. “If I were given the choice, I would like to have the Typhon here in the Philippines forever because we need it for our defence,” Brawner told reporters.

Last month, Philippine Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo said his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi expressed China’s “very dramatic” concern over the US mid-range missile deployment to the Philippines during their recent talks in Laos on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ meetings with Asian and Western countries.

Manalo said Wang warned the presence of the US missile system could be “destabilising”, but he said that he disagreed. “They’re not destabilising” and the missile system was only in the Philippines temporarily, Manalo said he told Wang.

Although the missile system was transported to the Philippines for joint combat exercises in April, it was not fired during the joint drills by the long-time treaty allies, according to Philippine and US military officials.

China has strongly opposed increased US military deployments to the region, including to the Philippines, saying they could endanger regional stability and peace.

The US and the Philippines have repeatedly condemned China’s increasingly assertive actions to fortify its territorial claims in the South China Sea, where hostilities have flared since last year with repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine coastguard forces and accompanying vessels.

Several nations have overlapping claims in the busy waterway, a key global and security route which is also believed to be sitting atop vast undersea deposits of gas and oil.

China’s yuan continues upward climb after Beijing’s stimulus roll-out

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3279884/chinas-yuan-continues-upward-climb-after-beijings-stimulus-roll-out?utm_source=rss_feed

The Chinese yuan jumped to its highest level in over a year on Wednesday, following a series of heavyweight policy moves from its central bank a day earlier and an interest-rate cut from the US Federal Reserve last week, with analysts expecting the currency to continue to appreciate.

On Wednesday morning, the offshore yuan rallied to break the 7 per US dollar threshold for the first time since May 2023. The People’s Bank of China set the fixing rate at 7.0202 per US dollar on the same day, stronger than the previous day’s 7.051.

The yuan’s rise followed a set of sweeping changes announced by the PBOC on Tuesday, including a 0.2 percentage point cut to the benchmark policy rate, a 0.5 percentage point reduction in the reserve requirement ratio and several measures to bolster the beleaguered property sector.

Ding Shuang, chief economist for Greater China with Standard Chartered, said the recent appreciation of the yuan can primarily be credited to “market expectations around economic fundamentals.”

“While the PBOC’s rate cut widened the rate differential, [Tuesday’s] measures are stronger than expected and mark a landmark step, which encourages the market to anticipate further support for the economy,” Ding said.

He added the yuan will remain under appreciation pressure in the short term considering the faster pace of Fed rate cuts and Chinese exporters’ demand for foreign exchange settlement.

Central bank governor Pan Gongsheng said on Tuesday that the depreciation pressure on the yuan has eased markedly, shifting to appreciation after the monetary policy adjustment from major economies.

Last week, the US Federal Reserve kicked off a rate-cutting cycle which widened the space for monetary policy action in China.

Pan also made note of uncertainties in the currency’s external environment, citing divergent economic performance across countries, geopolitical changes such as November’s US presidential election, and volatility in global financial markets.

“From the domestic perspective, we believe that the yuan exchange rate still has a relatively solid foundation for stability,” he said.

The PBOC’s aim is to maintain the yuan’s exchange rate at a reasonable equilibrium, the governor said – while also warning against one-sided bets on the currency’s movement.

“We must prevent the foreign exchange market from forming unilateral, consistent expectations that could become self-fulfilling, and guard against the risk of exchange rate overshooting or over-adjustment,” he said.

Ding said the central bank may not excessively intervene during moderate yuan appreciation.

“But if the yuan appreciates too quickly, causing overshooting,” he added, “the PBOC may take measures to relieve pressure, such as easing capital outflow channels.”

China’s first lady Peng Liyuan reaches out to US students during Beijing sports event

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3279897/chinas-first-lady-peng-liyuan-reaches-out-us-students-during-beijing-sports-event?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s first lady Peng Liyuan told a group of Chinese and American students that a “tree of friendship” between the two countries can be nurtured through travel experiences, as she attended a friendly basketball match between the high school teams in Beijing on Tuesday.

The sports and culture event, billed as a “Shared Journey for China-US Friendship”, was held at the Beijing No. 8 High School on Tuesday afternoon. It welcomed a youth delegation from 10 high schools in the US state of Washington, who recently toured the provinces of Guizhou, Sichuan and Shandong.

Peng said she hoped that the young people of both countries can “know each other better” and “inject positive energy into bilateral relations”, adding that future ties rest on them, according to a readout from state news agency Xinhua.

After watching the match between the Chinese and US teams, Peng presented the students with commemorative medals, while noting that the trip had “helped forge a deep friendship” between the two sides. The players also sang Chinese and English songs together.

The American students were invited by the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, an official people-to-people diplomacy organisation that aims to “enhance people’s friendship, further international cooperation, safeguard world peace and promote common development”.

Their visit was part of an initiative by President Xi Jinping to invite 50,000 young Americans to China for exchange and study programmes over five years. It was announced during his visit to San Francisco last November, when he attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit.

During the trip, Xi also welcomed US governors, congressional members and “people from all walks of life” to visit China, saying “the hope of the China-US relationship lies in the people, its foundation is in our societies, its future depends on the youth, and its vitality comes from exchanges at subnational levels”.

On Tuesday, Peng said she hoped that the American students would “share their experiences with their families, friends and classmates when they return to the United States ... carry home the friendship of the Chinese people”, and “help nurture the ‘tree of friendship’ between the two peoples”.

Peng was a renowned soprano with the People‘s Liberation Army (PLA). She and Xi married in 1987 as she was pursuing a master’s degree in acoustics at the China Conservatory of Music and Xi was the vice-mayor of Xiamen.

The couple last visited Washington state together in 2015, where they watched a choir performance by Chinese and American students at Lincoln High School. The school’s assistant principal, who was also at Tuesday’s event, said he would like to “actively contribute to promoting mutual understanding between China and the US”.

At least 60 bilateral youth exchanges, consisting mostly of students, took place across 20 provinces in China in the first half of this year, according to the Centre for China and Globalisation (CCG), a Beijing-based think tank.

An event in July, hosted by the Hong Kong-based China-United States Exchange Foundation, gathered more than 500 young Chinese and Americans in southeastern Fuzhou, marking the largest youth exchange activity since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, CCG said.

While bilateral talks have increased over the past year – the latest being US climate envoy John Podesta’s trip to Beijing earlier this month – China remains classified as “Level 3” on the US state department’s travel advisory, meaning citizens are advised to “reconsider travel” to mainland China and “exercise increased caution” in Hong Kong.

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Why falling FDI in China may be no bad thing

https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3279867/why-falling-fdi-china-may-be-no-bad-thing?utm_source=rss_feed

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in actual use in China totalled 580.2 billion yuan (US$82 billion) in the first eight months of 2024, down 31.5 per cent year on year. Notably, this downward trend in China’s FDI inflow has shown no sign of changing since 2023, when there was an 8 per cent fall.

The withdrawal of foreign investment has become an extensively-discussed issue, accompanied by pessimism about China’s economy.

For a long time, foreign investment has been a key driving force of the country’s economic development. China has been working to attract such investment since the late 1970s. It was the introduction of foreign investment that ushered in a period of reform, opening up and socialist modernisation in China. Given the circumstances, should we be worried that the recent decline will cause China’s economy to slow further?

First, it’s worth pointing out that focusing solely on the withdrawal of foreign investments could be misleading. China is still a net importer of investment. In the past three decades, the value of China’s net FDI – that is, investments minus outflows – has always been positive. Moreover, China, with a total FDI inflow of US$163 billion, was still the world’s second-largest FDI recipient in 2023.

Even if foreign investment is really retreating, a more critical point is the extent to which such investments still affect China’s economy today. In other words, are they as irreplaceable as they were decades ago?

The answer is no, for two reasons. First, Chinese companies have become much more competitive, putting pressure on their foreign counterparts. Nikkei’s latest survey shows that Chinese companies gained the largest market share in 17 industries last year, lagging behind the US (26) but ahead of Japan (10).

In 2014, Chinese companies gained the largest share in only six industries, behind Japan (nine) and Korea (eight). With their dwindling advantages on cost performance, more and more foreign companies are finding it tough to turn a profit in China.

That’s why we have witnessed the gradual retreat of some multinationals: Samsung closed its last cellphone assembly plant in Huizhou, Guangdong province, in 2019 due to the expansion of Chinese-branded smartphones; Mitsubishi stopped producing cars in China amid intense competition from Chinese rivals; while Toyota and Honda have been cutting staff numbers at their Chinese joint ventures or halting production at certain factories. Just last month, IBM China laid off more than 1,000 employees as it shut down its research laboratories amid declining sales in the Chinese market.

Second, advancements in indigenous technologies also limit the market space for foreign companies. Among the indicators that reflect Beijing’s technological progress, its dependence on foreign technologies vividly illustrates how far it has come.

To measure this dependence, one way is to calculate the proportion of the number of patents granted to foreign residents to the number of patents granted to local residents. Using data from the World Intellectual Property Organization, I found that the ratio has dropped significantly over the past two decades, from over 100 per cent to less than 15 per cent.

It’s plain to see that foreign technology no longer plays a dominant role in China’s economy. Amid a drive for technological self-sufficiency, home-grown innovations are offering more momentum to the economy and lowering the reliance on foreign technical solutions.

That doesn’t mean China can rely on indigenous technologies in all areas. In sectors such as commercial airliners, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, operating systems or numerically-controlled machine tools, foreign companies still maintain a significant technological advantage.

But a comprehensive industrial system, combined with a strong national apparatus that concentrates resources to accomplish major tasks, enables Beijing to make technical breakthroughs despite its limited access to foreign expertise. In fact, the absence of foreign companies could even accelerate the self-sufficiency drive.

Since 2022, the US has forced the Netherlands to prohibit the sale of specific models of advanced lithography machines to China. However, this has not prevented China from launching, this month, its new home-grown lithography machines, which can operate at a resolution of below 65nm, a better resolution than before.

To sum up, there’s no need to worry about the withdrawal of foreign investment as it reflects the market mechanism of survival of the fittest. Foreign investors made such decisions based on the maximisation of profits.

In the latest round of the selection and elimination that is common in business competition, Chinese companies with better products and services won a larger market share. It’s unnecessary to intervene in such a process of optimal allocation.

Additionally, dramatic changes in the geopolitical landscape require China to enhance its internal circulation, making it a major driver of growth, to reduce the country’s vulnerability to foreign investment.

The current challenges for China’s economy mainly stem from deeper structural problems, such as a lack of domestic demand, failures in local government finances and flaws in wealth distribution, rather than the withdrawal of foreign investment.

Philippines set to file criminal case against Chinese businessman Tony Yang

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3279909/philippines-set-file-criminal-case-against-chinese-businessman-tony-yang?utm_source=rss_feed

The Philippines has pledged to pursue criminal charges against Chinese businessman Tony Yang after an ongoing investigation into illegal gaming operations revealed his ties to shady syndicates in the country.

Tony, the elder brother of former president Rodrigo Duterte’s economic adviser Michael Yang, was arrested at Manila airport last week.

Secretary of Justice Jesus Crispin Remulla said Tony faced multiple cases, including identity theft and violation of immigration laws, and he would not be sent back to China where he was wanted for financial fraud.

“We have a choice between immediate deportation and filing of criminal cases, I think the filing of criminal cases takes precedence now,” Remulla said at a news conference on Tuesday.

His remarks came as Tony told senators at a hearing he was a Chinese national, who illegally obtained his Filipino citizenship after arriving in the country in 1998 to reportedly help his grandfather run their family business, which included a steel plant allegedly linked to a Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (Pogo) firm in Misamis Oriental province.

Tony added he was not involved in the Pogo but admitted to acquiring a gun licence and a Philippine birth certificate, which he said was sourced by his grandfather for the “convenience” of operating their businesses in the country.

“You have been deceiving this country for the last 26 years,” Senator Risa Hontiveros, who was spearheading the investigation, told Tony at the hearing

Hontiveros said Tony, also known as Antonio Lim, and Michael had dealings with other Chinese nationals previously connected to Pogos, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported.

“The truth is, even though Michael is more known, Tony is the true architect of the Yang operations,” she said.

Michael allegedly served as the financier of Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation, which is facing corruption charges for supplying substandard pandemic medical gear after winning government contracts worth billions of pesos under Duterte in 2020.

In July, a panel of the House of Representatives cited him in contempt for failing to attend its successive hearings related to his business activities.

Also on Tuesday, Hontiveros queried Tony over photos of him posing with former Philippine police chief Benjamin Acorda.

Tony said he met Acorda and other officers through a business chamber in Cagayan province to seek help for the “safety of their community”.

In response, Hontiveros said: “So in relation to the photos I talked to you about, I really wonder what our high officials in government are doing fraternising with the wanted fugitive.”

Acorda maintained his innocence, saying in a statement on Tuesday “I did what needs to be done as a Filipino and I fulfilled that duty as a police officer.”

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Sri Lanka’s new leader must balance ties between regional powerhouses India and China

https://apnews.com/article/sri-lanka-dissanayake-balancing-india-china-cddc402be327fc6a9a4377d663b9999cFILE -Marxist lawmaker Anura Kumara Dissanayake waves as he leaves from the election commission office after winning Sri Lankan presidential election, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh, File)

2024-09-25T05:15:04Z

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — The Marxist lawmaker who won Sri Lanka’s presidency faces a key challenge in how to balance ties with his country’s two most crucial partners, India and China, as he seeks to draw foreign investment and pull the economy out of the doldrums.

Anura Kumara Dissanayake, 55, won the weekend election in an extraordinary political upset against an old political guard that voters blame for tipping the country into its worst economic crisis two years ago. Dissanayake must now deliver on promises to improve Sri Lankans’ lives, clean up government and ease austerity measures imposed by international lenders.

But looking beyond Sri Lanka’s borders, he also must navigate the rivalry between regional powerhouses India, the country’s next-door neighbor, and China, which Dissanayake’s party traditionally has leaned toward.

Located on one of the world’s busiest shipping routes, Sri Lanka has long been eyed by the two regional rivals. Sri Lanka governments have swung between the two camps, and New Delhi and Beijing have intensely jockeyed for influence in the island nation of 22 million.

“Dissanayake will try to keep both India and China at an equal distance” but his ability to balance them is likely to be tested in the coming weeks, said Veeragathy Thanabalasingham, a Colombo-based political analyst. “It’s going to be a tightrope walk,” he added.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping both congratulated Dissanayake soon after he won.

The victory was by the National People’s Power coalition led by Dissanayake’s People’s Liberation Front — also known as Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, or JVP — which considers itself Marxist, though it now expresses support for a free market economy.

Dissanayake and his party have in the past been seen as more ideologically aligned with China.

Analysts say that could mean drawing more Chinese investment, which slowed after the Sri Lankan government was blamed for taking on too many Chinese loans that added to the country’s debt as its economy collapsed in 2022.

Chinese money quickly became a cautionary tale in the country, while the economic crisis allowed India to gain some sway as it stepped in with massive financial and material assistance to its neighbor.

Just after Dissanayake was sworn in, Beijing said it wants to work with the new government on boosting development and cooperation in building China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Under Dissanayake, “there’s a possibility of more Chinese money coming into Sri Lanka,” said Happymon Jacob, founder of the New Delhi-based Council for Strategic and Defense Research, adding that this could concern India.

For New Delhi, Dissanayake and his JVP party could throw up fresh challenges. The party has previously criticized what it called “Indian expansionism” in the region, and Dissanayake has rejected devolving more power to Sri Lanka’s north and east, where most of the country’s Tamil minority lives - an issue close to India, given the community’s cultural links to the country’s Tamil Nadu state.

While campaigning, Dissanayake also said he would shut down a wind power project funded by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani who is seen to be close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling it a “corrupt deal.”

Indian analysts say that Dissanayake’s victory comes as a number of neighboring countries have recently drifted towards Beijing, including Nepal and the Maldives, which now have more pro-China leaders, and Bangladesh, where the ouster of a pro-India leader last month is also testing New Delhi’s regional power.

But Chinese grants and lines of credit into South Asia overall have slowed down in the past four years, said Constantino Xavier, senior fellow at the Centre for Social and Economic Progress. This has made countries in the region “realize that they have to reset their relations with India,” he added.

Similarly, Dissanayake has been pragmatic in his approach towards India so far, with New Delhi also keen to engage.

In February, months before the election was announced, the leader was invited to India where he met with the country’s foreign minister. And the Indian envoy in Colombo was the first to meet Dissanayake after the results were announced.

As a neighboring country, “we need to be concerned over India’s stability, national interests and national security when taking decisions,” Dissanayake told The Associated Press in an interview a few weeks before the election.

“Our main objective is the safety of the region and we will not allow any party to use our land, sea and air to create instability,” he added.

In the past, Chinese research ships docked at Sri Lankan ports have stoked security concerns in New Delhi over Beijing’s growing influence in the Indian Ocean.

Thanabalasingham, the Colombo-based analyst, said Dissanayake’s party has largely transformed into a liberal democratic party for practical purposes so that it is easier to deal with a range of countries and partners. Although he remains head of a Marxist party, he now says he supports a free market economy.

But Dissanayake may need to woo domestic voters who backed him, including a nationalist segment of the population that is anti-India, which could add pressure to court China more.

“He is likely to initially play up China to polish his credentials at home - even if only to extract maximum bargaining power with India,” said Xavier.

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Pathi reported from New Delhi.

KRUTIKA PATHI Pathi covers India and the wider South Asia region. She is based in New Delhi. twitter mailto

Country Garden unit sells stake in China’s largest mall operator for US$447 million

https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3279870/country-garden-unit-sells-stake-chinas-largest-mall-operator-us447-million?utm_source=rss_feed

Country Garden Services (CGS) sold a 1.49 per cent stake in a mall operator for 3.14 billion yuan (US$447 million), the listed property management arm of debt-laden Chinese developer Country Garden said in a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange.

It is the latest divestment by the Foshan-based developer, which was once China’s largest in terms of home sales.

The stake – about 108 million shares in Zhuhai Wanda, China’s biggest shopping centre operator – will be acquired by Dalian Wanda and a related party, Zhuhai Wanying.

In December, Country Garden sold a 1.79 per cent stake in the same company to the same parties for 3.07 billion yuan. Following the latest sale, CGS will still hold about 22.11 million shares, or 0.31 per cent, of Zhuhai Wanda.

Proceeds of the sale will be used for “general working capital and other purposes as approved by the board,” CGS said Wednesday.

It added that “after deducting the initial investment cost” of 2.8 billion yuan, it will result in “an increase in the net asset value of the group” of nearly 461.1 million yuan.

Country Garden’s shares are suspended from trading in Hong Kong because it has failed to file its 2023 earnings report. The company had 1.36 trillion yuan in total liabilities as of June 30, 2023, according to its latest published accounts. That included 258 billion yuan of bonds and bank borrowings.

Earlier this month, the developer said that it would postpone for six months the coupon and principal instalment payments on nine notes that are due on different dates this month.

The company said it has not yet raised sufficient funds to cover the principal and interest on the bonds because of plunging home sales and restrictions on fund allocations.

Country Garden’s total contracted sales for the first eight months of this year plummeted 78 per cent from a year earlier to 32.8 billion yuan, according to filings with the Hong Kong stock exchange.

The developer has been facing mounting pressure to reorganise its liabilities since October, when it defaulted on a dollar-denominated bond, which sparked alarm in the public markets.

In July, the Hong Kong High Court granted the developer a reprieve of nearly six months to work out a restructuring plan after adjourning a winding-up hearing.

In January, Country Garden listed five properties for sale in Guangzhou in a bid to repay its debts.

The assets – two office towers, a hotel, a residential building and commercial property – have a combined base price of 3.82 billion yuan.

A path towards freedom: the new route to Europe for desperate Chinese migrants

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/25/a-path-towards-freedom-the-new-route-to-europe-for-desperate-chinese-migrants

In a sleepy Bosnian town, barely five miles from the border with the European Union, a crumbling old water tower is falling into ruin. Inside, piles of rubbish, used cigarette butts and a portable wood-fired stove offer glimpses into the daily life of the people who briefly called the building home. Glued on to the walls is another clue: on pieces of A4 paper, the same message is printed out, again and again: “If you would like to travel to Europe (Italy, Germany, France, etc) we can help you. Please add this number on WhatsApp”. The message is printed in the languages of often desperate people: Somali, Nepali, Turkish, the list goes on. The last translation on the list indicates a newcomer to this unlucky club. It is written in Chinese.

Bihać water tower was once used to replenish steam trains travelling across the former Yugoslavia. Now it provides shelter to a different kind of person on the move: migrants making the perilous journey through the Balkans, with the hope of crossing into Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s neighbour in the EU.

Zhang* arrived in Bosnia in April with two young children in tow. The journey he describes as walking “towards the path of freedom” started months earlier in Langfang, a city in north China’s Hebei province. So far it has taken them through four countries, cost thousands of pounds, led to run-ins with the aggressive Croatian border police, and has paused, for now, in a temporary reception centre for migrants on the outskirts of Sarajevo.

The camp, which is home to more than 200 people, is specifically for families, vulnerable people and unaccompanied minors. As well as the rows of dormitories set among the rolling Balkan hills, there is a playground with children skipping rope and an education centre. But it is a lonely life. It’s rare to meet another Chinese speaker. To pass the time, Zhang occasionally helps out in the canteen.

“Staying here is not a very good option,” Zhang says, as his son and daughter chase after each other in the courtyard. But “if I go back to China, what awaits me is either being sent to a mental hospital or a prison.”

The fear of what the future held for him and his children propelled the 39-year-old from Shandong province on a journey so difficult and dangerous that many struggle to understand why someone from China would embark on it. Most of Zhang’s new neighbours come from war-torn countries in the Middle East. Until recently, Zhang had a stable job working for a private company in the world’s second-biggest economy, earning an above average salary. But the political environment in China left him feeling that he had no choice other than to leave.

In September, the Guardian travelled to Bosnia to meet some of the Chinese migrants attempting the dangerous Balkan route, to reveal the personal and political factors behind the new migrant population on the frontier of Europe.

‘No one wants to leave his country if they are safe’

Zhang is one of a small but growing number of Chinese people who are travelling to the Balkans with the hope of getting into the EU by whatever means necessary.

He and his children were apprehended four times as they tried to cross into Europe. Armed with little more than some vague tips he’d seen on the messaging app Telegram, and the map on his smartphone, he headed to various towns on the Bosnia-Croatia border to try his luck. But every time they were caught. Most recently, he tried to cross into Metković, a small town in the south of Croatia where the border is fortified mainly by a small ridge of forested mountains. But after camping overnight in the wilderness with sinister-looking brown snakes, the family were caught once again by the notoriously tough Croatian border police, and hauled back into Bosnia.

“Going into other countries in this way is not very honourable for me, to be honest,” Zhang says. “We know that there are many countries where people hate people like us … but no one wants to leave his country if they are safe”. He says he only made the journey because of his family. “My children are very young,” Zhang says, referring to his 10-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter. “I couldn’t explain to them what’s really happening. I just told the children that I wanted to give them a better life … they have no future [in China] at all”.

In 2022, of the more than 14,000 people caught trying to illegally cross Bosnia’s borders, two were Chinese. In 2023, that number had increased to 148. The majority of them were caught trying to cross into Croatia, according to the border police of Bosnia. They said that more than 70 Chinese people were apprehended in the first half of this year.

And under a bilateral agreement, the Croatia can deport people without the right to remain in the EU country back to Bosnia. In 2021, three Chinese people were admitted to Bosnia and Herzegovina in this way. In 2023, it was 260.

In recent years, the surging numbers of Chinese people trying to cross into the US via the treacherous southern border has become a political talking point in Washington, with US authorities deporting more than 100 migrants on a charter flight earlier this year and working with neighbouring countries to try to deter further arrivals.

David Stroup, a lecturer of Chinese politics at the University of Manchester, says that the rapid expansion of China’s surveillance state during the pandemic combined with a gloomy economic outlook were some of the driving forces for this new wave of Chinese migrants.

“The lockdowns created a sense that ordinary people who were just living their lives could somehow find themselves under heavy observation of the state or subjected to long arbitrary periods of lockdown and confinement,” Stroup said.

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Part of the reason that Bosnia is an attractive staging post for Chinese migrants, is that like its neighbour Serbia, it offers visa-free travel. Aleksandra Kovačević, spokesperson for Bosnia’s Service for Foreigner’s Affairs, a government department, said that Chinese people were “gaining statistical significance as persons who increasingly violate migration regulations of Bosnia and Herzegovina”. She said that along with Turkish citizens, Chinese people were trying to use legal entry into Bosnia as a way to “illegally continue their journey to the countries of western Europe”.

But why?

Zhang’s ‘first awakening’

Zhang’s winding path to Bosnia started more than a decade ago. In 2012, thousands of people across China participated in anti-Japanese protests, triggered by an escalation in the dispute between China and Japan over contested islets in the East China Sea. But Zhang publicly questioned the official narrative that the archipelago was an undisputed part of Chinese territory. He was arrested and accused of inciting the subversion of state power. “That was my first awakening,” he says.

Many ordinary Chinese occasionally feel the rough end of the government’s tight control over public speech. Most learn to keep their head down and, begrudgingly or not, quietly navigate the invisible red lines that dictate what can be freely talked about. But Zhang couldn’t bear it.

Over the years, rumours about his political views rippled throughout his community. A teacher at his son’s school accused Zhang of being unpatriotic, in front of the whole class. He and his wife quarrelled and ultimately separated, in part because she “couldn’t stand that kind of gossip”.

Things truly came to a head in the pandemic, three years in which “the government locked people up in their homes like animals”. In November 2022, a fire in an apartment building in Urumqi, a city in far west China, killed 10 people, with many blaming strict public health controls for preventing the victims from escaping. Anger spread online and in the streets, as hundreds of people in cities across China participated in the first mass anti-government protests since Xi Jinping came to power. Zhang was one of them. In the following days, several of his friends were arrested. Zhang thinks that the only reason he was spared was because he didn’t bring his phone with him, making it harder for the police to trace his movements. But the disappearance of his friends convinced him that he had to leave.

“China’s control over speech is getting tighter and tighter. They don’t allow people to talk about political parties, and no matter if the government is doing a good or bad job, they don’t allow people to talk about it. It is limiting people’s freedom of speech tremendously, and that’s the most important thing I can’t accept,” Zhang says. “The economy is secondary”.

Since China’s zero-Covid regime was abruptly lifted, shortly after the 2022 protests, hordes of people have been leaving the country. Some are fed up with the political repression, which has spread far and wide under the current regime. Others feel hopeless about the economy, which has struggled to recover since the pandemic, with high youth unemployment rates and stagnant wages. For many, the bargain between the party and the people, that living standards will continue to improve so long as you keep your head down, no longer holds water. So scores of people are finding ways out through the cracks.

Some are using student or work visas to relocate to places where they can live and talk more freely, with new diaspora communities emerging in cities such as Bangkok, Tokyo, and Amsterdam. But others, often lower middle class people who don’t have the funds or the qualifications to emigrate by official means, are choosing more dangerous escape routes. The phenomenon has become so widely discussed online that it has it’s own buzzword: runxue, or run philosophy, a coded term for emigration. Exact numbers are hard to come by as many people do not formally register their intention to leave, especially if they are planning on entering another country illegally. But in 2023, there were 137,143 asylum seekers from China, according to the UN’s refugee agency. That is more than five times the number registered a decade earlier, when Xi’s rule had just started.

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Stuck at the border

One potential pathway is the deadly Darién Gap, part of the migrant corridor that connects south and Central America with the southern border of the United States. Better known for attracting desperate Latin Americans, in recent years the number of Chinese people making that journey has surged. In the six months to April 2024, 24,367 Chinese nationals were apprehended by the US border police at the border with Mexico. That is more than the number of Chinese people who were apprehended in the whole of the previous financial year. In March alone, the number of times that the US border police encountered Chinese nationals increased by 8,500% compared with March 2021.

The Darién Gap route has been popular among Chinese migrants in part because they could start the journey in Ecuador, which allowed Chinese people to visit visa-free. In June, Ecuador suspended the visa waiver agreement, citing a “worrying increase” in arrivals from China.

Immigration officials describe the flow of migrants as being like a living organism. Its size swells and morphs, but it rarely shrinks. So when one door closes, the people on the move don’t stop moving, they just find another window.

For Zhang, the door to America, his first choice, closed when he was already en route. He had booked tickets to Ecuador via Singapore and Madrid early in the new year. But in Singapore the family was blocked from boarding the Spain-bound flight, with airline staff saying that the Spanish authorities had refused them entry. He was stranded, with no plan B. It was a kindly Czech couple who found him crying in the airport who suggested he try Europe, he says. So he booked a flight to Belgrade.

His hope is to find a way to northern Europe, where there is freedom of speech and employment opportunities. Other Chinese people have had the same idea. In the first eight months of this year, there were 569 new asylum applications from Chinese nationals in Germany, more than double the total number for 2022. In the Netherlands, 409 Chinese people applied for asylum last year, up from 151 the year before.

Some staff at the migrant reception centres gently encourage people to apply for asylum in Bosnia rather than continuing on into Europe.

But with high unemployment and a byzantine application process, most people would rather keep moving. Jing* a Chinese man living at another migrant centre near Sarajevo, tried to enter across the border into Croatia “six or seven times”. Now he has applied for asylum in Bosnia, “but I don’t think anything will come of it,” he says. He fled China after completing an eight-month prison sentence for anti-government comments he posted on X. Now he has run out of money and luck.

In the corner of a cemetery on the outskirts of Bihać, another unlikely journey from China to Bosnia has ended. Kai Zhu is buried here. Little is known about him, other than his year of birth, 1964, and the fact that he had expressed an intention to apply for asylum in Bosnia. Staff at the migrant reception centre where he died say that he had mental as well as physical health problems, and that his only acquaintance was another Chinese man in the camp, who soon moved on.

On 31 August, Asim Karabegović, a volunteer with SOS Balkanroute, an NGO, buried him in a corner of Humci cemetery that since 2019 has been reserved for migrants who have died on the EU’s doorstep. In the distance behind the rows of tombstones, the mountains that mark the border with Croatia form an imposing horizon. Karabegović says that the lonely traveller is the first Chinese person he has buried. His wooden tombstone reads only, “Kai Zhu, 1964 – 2024”.

Additional research by Chi-hui Lin and Džemal Ćatić

*Names have been changed

Finland zoo will return its giant pandas to China, blaming inflation

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/25/finland-ahtari-zoo-giant-pandas-return-to-china

A zoo in Finland has blamed rising inflation and upkeep costs for its decision to return two giant pandas to China, more than eight years ahead of the date they were set to go back.

The pandas, named Lumi and Pyry, were brought to Finland in January 2018, months after Chinese president Xi Jinping visited the Nordic country and signed a joint agreement on protecting the animals.

The Finnish agreement was for a stay of 15 years, but instead the pandas will soon go into a month-long quarantine before they are shipped back to China, according to Ahtari Zoo, the pandas’ current home.

The zoo, a private company, had invested over 8m euros ($8.92m) in the facility where the animals live and faced annual costs of 1.5m euros for their upkeep, including a preservation fee paid to China, Ahtari chair Risto Sivonen told the Reuters news agency.

Since its founding in 1949, the People’s Republic of China has sent pandas to foreign zoos to strengthen trading ties, cement foreign relations and boost its international image.

The zoo had hoped the pandas would attract visitors to the central Finland location but last year said it had instead accumulated mounting debts as the pandemic curbed travel, and that it was discussing a return.

Rising inflation had added to the costs, the zoo said, and Finland’s government in 2023 rejected pleas for state funding. In all, negotiations to return the animals had lasted three years, Sivonen said.

“Now we reached a point where the Chinese said it could be done,” Sivonen said.

The return of the pandas was a business decision made by the zoo which did not involve Finland’s government and should not impact relations between the two countries, a spokesperson for Finland’s foreign ministry said.

Despite efforts by China to aid the zoo, the two countries in the end jointly concluded after friendly consultations to return the pandas, the Chinese embassy in Helsinki said in a statement to Reuters.

China conducts first public test launch of intercontinental ballistic missile

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/25/china-missile-test-icbm-pla-rocket-force

China has publicly acknowledged for the first time that it successfully launched an intercontinental ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean, in a move likely to raise international concerns about the country’s nuclear buildup.

The ICBM, carrying a dummy warhead, was launched by the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force at 8:44am Beijing time on Wednesday and “fell into expected sea areas,” the Chinese defence ministry said in a statement, adding it was a “routine arrangement in our annual training plan” and not directed at any country or target.

China “informed the countries concerned in advance,” according to a separate Xinhua report, which did not clarify the path of the missile or where exactly in the “high seas of the Pacific Ocean” it fell.

The launch “effectively tested the performance of weapons and equipment and the training level of the troops, and achieved the expected goal,” Xinhua reported.

An analyst told AFP that China has typically conducted such tests in its own airspace.

“This is extremely unusual and likely the first time in decades that we’ve seen a test like this,” Ankit Panda, Stanton Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said.

“(The test) likely speaks to China’s ongoing nuclear modernisation manifesting in new requirements for testing,” he added.

The PLA Rocket Force, which oversees the country’s conventional and nuclear missiles, has been tasked with modernising China’s nuclear forces to deter developments such as improved US missile defences, better surveillance capabilities, and strengthened alliances.

Some analysts, however, argue the speed of China’s nuclear buildup goes beyond a credible minimum deterrence.

Beijing says it adheres to a “no first use” policy.

The Chinese military has emphasised that the central military commission, headed by President Xi Jinping, is the only nuclear command authority.

China, which has been frequently criticised by the US for the opacity of its nuclear buildup, scrapped nuclear talks with Washington in July over US arms sales to Taiwan.

China has more than 500 operational nuclear warheads in its arsenal, of which approximately 350 are ICBMs, and will probably have over 1,000 warheads by 2030, the Pentagon estimated last year. China’s military is constructing hundreds of secret silos for land-based ICBMs, the Pentagon said in the report.

That compares to 1,770 and 1,710 operational warheads deployed by the US and Russia, respectively. The Pentagon said that by 2030, much of Beijing’s weapons will probably be held at higher readiness levels.

The launch comes as democratically governed Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, has complained of increased Chinese military activities around the island in the past five years.

Taiwan’s defence ministry said on Wednesday it had detected 23 Chinese military aircraft, including J-16 fighters and drones, operating around Taiwan carrying out long-range missions to the south-east and east of the island.

The ministry added it had also recently detected “intensive” Chinese missile firing and other drills, though it did not give details of where that took place.

Taiwan has dispatched its own air and naval forces to keep watch, the ministry said.

Is China’s new stimulus a strategic pivot in policy or a tactical move? Analysts weigh in

https://www.scmp.com/economy/policy/article/3279798/chinas-new-stimulus-strategic-pivot-policy-or-tactical-move-analysts-weigh?utm_source=rss_feed

By announcing a slew of bombshell measures to support the economy, Beijing is inching towards a strategic shift in macro policy amid fears of an economic free fall, according to analysts.

The announcements represented a change from policymakers’ previous approach of drip-feeding piecemeal support measures to a coordinated package of stimulus measures, the analysts added.

“We can no longer ‘squeeze out the toothpaste’,” said Zhu Tian, an economics professor with the China Europe International Business School in Shanghai, referring to the previous reluctance of Chinese policymakers to unleash large-scale stimulus.

“China’s economy is now in a serious drought situation. If we don’t release water, we will die of thirst.”

The policy changes, announced by People’s Bank of China governor Pan Gongsheng on Tuesday, included cutting the benchmark policy rate by 0.2 of a percentage point and the reserve requirement ratio by half of a percentage point; reducing the outstanding mortgage rate by half a percentage point and the down-payment ratio for second-time homebuyers from 25 to 15 per cent; and specific policies to provide liquidity to equity markets.

And in line with the measures unveiled a day earlier, China’s central bank on Wednesday cut the rate on 300 billion yuan (US$42.6 billion) worth of one-year medium-term lending facility loans to some financial institutions from 2.3 per cent to 2 per cent.

“I think there is a bit of panicking [among Chinese policymakers], as they should have cut the loan prime rate and the mortgage-related benchmark rate on Friday, but they didn’t,” said Alicia Garcia-Herrero, chief economist for the Asia-Pacific region at French investment bank Natixis.

The US Federal Reserve slashed interest rates by a half percentage point last week, easing depreciation pressure on the yuan and expanding room for monetary policies in China, though Beijing did not immediately follow the move, surprising the market.

However, the latest package is far from enough to arrest the current economic downturn, as fiscal stimulus should be further ramped up, the analysts added.

Tuesday’s measures are still “not enough”, and they are not even a “stimulus” as the current interest rates for a mortgage in China are “extremely high”, Garcia-Herrero added.

“The joint conference is a signal that they are inching towards a shift in strategy, but such a shift is not quite here yet,” she said.

China’s central bankers will also need to improve the transmission mechanism of injected liquidity, ensuring that money, which currently circulates among state-owned banks and enterprises, can eventually flow to households and smaller businesses, she added.

Larry Hu, chief China economist at Macquarie Capital, said the PBOC’s pivot on Tuesday “signals a broader shift in policy stance”, though more fiscal spending is needed to end the longest deflationary streak in the country since 1999.

“But it could be the beginning of the end, as it signals the rising urgency among top leaders to fight deflation in China,” Hu said.

The world’s second-largest economy is facing prolonged subdued domestic consumption, as a big part of the country’s household wealth is trapped in the faltering property market.

Pan said on Tuesday that the reduction in existing mortgage interest rates is expected to benefit 50 million households, or about 150 million people, reducing household interest expenses by an average of roughly 150 billion yuan (US21 billion) per year.

And this will efficiently boost consumption and investment, Pan added.

That said, it is just too small, relative to the annual household consumption in China of 49 trillion yuan, Hu said.

Beijing might eventually shift to a fiscal package that focuses on addressing the housing crisis, raising pension incomes for rural elders, helping to pay medical insurance for low-income households, and encouraging childbirth, said Lu Ting, Nomura’s chief China economist.

Though there is a low likelihood of a blanket cash or consumption-voucher handout, Lu added.

Kim Eng Tan, managing director of S&P Global Ratings’ sovereign ratings team in the Asia-Pacific region, said the PBOC’s measures were relatively indirect and aimed at “offsetting the negative sentiments that have come in because of the recent economic numbers”.

Tan said policymakers in Beijing remained relatively focused on managing longer-term risks to the economy, including systemic risks, despite growing calls for larger stimulus – which, in their view, might not necessarily deliver higher growth for China.

And the economic situation is not “that terrible” to an extent that it would cause systemic risks, and is hence still tolerable for Chinese policymakers, Tan said.

“Because one of the side effects of putting [forth] a lot of stimulus now is that the old sectors will come back up, it means that people who are trying to find new ways to survive, and new industries to get into, will be less motivated,” Tan said on the sidelines of the rating agency’s credit conference in Hong Kong on Tuesday.

Prior to the PBOC’s new measures, Johanna Chua, head of Asia-Pacific Economic and Market Analysis at Citigroup, described Beijing’s measures so far as remaining “incremental”, and she called for stronger coordination of monetary and fiscal policies “in a meaningful size”.

Chua referenced the measures that Beijing rolled out earlier this year, which encouraged local authorities to buy unsold homes to create affordable housing, while describing it as “stingy”, given that the relending rate still stands at 1.75 per cent.

“It should be much lower. [Beijing] should have stepped in and done a lot more aggressively,” she said while speaking at a conference hosted by rating agency S&P on Tuesday.

“By just doing incremental policies, [policymakers are] wasting policy space.”

Additional reporting by Sylvia Ma

‘Golden week’ break to attract 850 mainland Chinese tours to Hong Kong. But is it enough?

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3279863/golden-week-break-attract-850-mainland-chinese-tours-hong-kong-it-enough?utm_source=rss_feed

Hong Kong is expected to receive more tour groups from mainland China during this year’s National Day “golden week” holiday than in 2023, but industry leaders have said numbers are still unsatisfactory and called for better plans to attract more visitors.

The representatives made the call on Wednesday in a bid to boost tourism in the city as the sector faced challenges, such as trending solo and one-day trips.

Sara Leung Fong-yuen, chairwoman of the Hong Kong Tourism Industry Employees General Union, said the 850 mainland tour groups expected in Hong Kong during the National Day period were not satisfactory.

“The situation is not ideal. There are more solo trips, as well as visitors on one-day journeys. There are not many tourists staying overnight in Hong Kong,” she told a radio programme.

“During the ‘golden week’ holidays before 2018, 300 to 500 mainland tour groups visited Hong Kong every day, so it is not actually ideal when the estimated number cannot exceed 1,000 now,” she said.

The Travel Industry Council earlier estimated as many as 1.2 million mainland Chinese would visit the city during the holiday.

The council, a federation of trade associations, also predicted that the number of inbound tour groups could grow by nearly 10 per cent to 850 during the seven-day mainland holiday that starts on October 1.

Leung noted that hotels still had vacancies over the holiday break, unlike the full bookings over the same period pre-Covid, while the number of non-shopping tours offered by travel agencies was also small.

She attributed the sluggish performance to the city’s weak attractiveness to tours and the growing number of solo and one-day trips among tourists, as well as the absence of a long-term plan for the tourism industry in Hong Kong.

The Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau is mapping out the city’s tourism development blueprint 2.0, which was scheduled to be released in the second half of this year.

Caspar Tsui Ying-wai, executive director of the Federation of Hong Kong Hotel Owners, also said on the same radio programme that most visitors only made one-day trips, with a few joining tour groups.

“There will be more customers, but overall, our retail and catering industries are expected to see the return on consumption drop by 10 per cent to 20 per cent,” he said.

He added that many restaurants would offer discounts and hotels would launch packages such as featuring fireworks shows on display during the holiday to attract visitors.

The Immigration Department said on Tuesday about 10.03 million people, including residents and tourists, would pass through the city’s sea, land and air crossings from Saturday to October 7.

About 85 per cent of travellers are expected to use land crossings to Macau or neighbouring mainland cities.

Authorities said numbers were set to peak on National Day on October 1, with about 523,000 outbound and 632,000 inbound trips.

Hongkongers will be able to enjoy shopping vouchers, dining discounts and free rides on public transport as the city marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China on October 1.

In addition to special deals at 3,000 eateries, the government earlier announced that about 400 activities would be held to celebrate National Day, including a fireworks display, drone shows and car parades.

The pair of giant pandas gifted by Beijing to Hong Kong are due to arrive in the city on Thursday, but they will not meet the public at least until December.

Chinese nanotech pioneer leaves US, panda stem cell breakthrough: 7 science highlights

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/3279831/chinese-nanotech-pioneer-leaves-us-panda-stem-cell-breakthrough-7-science-highlights?utm_source=rss_feed

We have put together stories from our coverage on science from the past two weeks to help you stay informed. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider .

A world-leading nanoscience and nanotechnology scientist – known as “the father of nanogenerators” – has left his decades-long career in the US to focus his research efforts in his native China.

Award-winning Japanese mathematician Kenji Fukaya has left Stony Brook University in the US to join China’s Tsinghua University as a full-time professor.

Chinese scientists have created a type of self-renewing stem cell from giant pandas for the first time, an important step for the conservation and preservation of the animals and possibly other endangered species.

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.

China has offered a first glimpse at the soil samples brought back by the Chang’e-6 mission from the far side of the moon.

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.

China’s largest weapon manufacturer has unveiled a small but ultra-long range “kamikaze” drone that could significantly outperform its main American competitor, according to its performance data.

Chinese stock regulator urges listed firms to revamp assets, boost market value

https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3279869/chinese-stock-regulator-urges-listed-firms-revamp-assets-boost-market-value?utm_source=rss_feed

China will encourage listed companies to revamp their assets and do more to boost their market values as part of the nation’s broad stimulus package to revive economic growth and burnish the appeal of the US$8.4 trillion stock market.

Listed companies should use mergers and acquisitions to improve their asset quality and come up with plans to monitor and boost market capitalisation, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said in two documents published on its website on Tuesday to gather public comments.

CSRC chairman Wu Qing first disclosed the policies at a joint press conference by the nation’s financial regulators hours earlier, in which the central bank also unveiled 800 billion yuan (US$114 billion) in new funding for stock purchases and pledged to cut interest and mortgage rates.

The fresh package of stimulus measures came after China’s benchmark stock index dropped to its lowest level in more than five years this month and all key economic data in August fell short of expectations. A half-point interest-rate cut by the Federal Reserve last week has given China more leeway to escalate its policy loosening without weakening the yuan or triggering capital outflows.

“The announcements are positive for the broader equity market given potential additional fund inflows, greater levels of buy-backs and, in the long run, more corporate governance enhancement,” said James Wang, head of China strategy at UBS Group in Hong Kong.

The CSI 300 Index rose 2.2 per cent on Wednesday, on top of a 4.3 per cent surge a day earlier.

Capital markets should play a leading role in mergers and acquisitions while supporting injections of quality assets into listed companies to boost investment values, the CSRC said in one document.

Listed companies should focus on technology innovation and industry upgrades when it comes to mergers and acquisitions, it said. Companies with more than 10 billion yuan in market capitalisation and A ratings in information disclosure will be given fast-track regulatory approvals, the CSRC said.

On top of improving their profitability, publicly traded companies can use a variety of other methods to boost market values, such as mergers and acquisitions, stock incentives, cash-dividend payouts and better management of investor relations, the CSRC said in a separate document.

Corporate boards should come up with long-term goals for market value based on current earnings performance and future strategy, while paying greater heed to investor returns and avoiding blind expansion, it said. Boards should also make prudent analyses and issue statements when market performance significantly diverges from market value.

Companies on the key benchmarks, such as the CSI 300 Index and the Star Market 50 index, should have staff members or departments that are accountable for market-value management, the CSRC said. Contingency measures should be mapped out for cases where stock prices fall 20 per cent within 20 trading days or close 50 per cent lower than a year earlier, it said.

5 million watch viral clip of China teen viciously attacking mum for refusing to give him money

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3279482/5-million-watch-viral-clip-china-teen-viciously-attacking-mum-refusing-give-him-money?utm_source=rss_feed

A teenage boy in eastern China was caught on video assaulting his mother, shocking the 5 million viewers who have watched the footage.

The teenager was filmed violently attacking his mother on September 15 outside their home in a residential compound in Shandong province, according to Xiaozheng Video.

The video clip showed the boy chasing the middle-aged woman, shouting profanities and kicking her.

Eventually, the property’s security personnel intervened to stop the assault, calling the police, who arrived shortly afterwards.

Despite being physically restrained by the security guards, the boy, fuelled by his rage, continued to lunge at his mother.

He finally seemed to regain control after the police restrained him.

Nearby shop owners told Xiaozheng Video that the extreme violence likely erupted when the mother refused to give her son money. The mother had reportedly divorced his father and had spoiled the teenager in the aftermath of the split.

They noted that the woman did not fight back and even instructed onlookers not to interfere on her behalf.

One local resident claimed that the mother took her violent son home later that same day.

Many people online expressed outrage over the incident and concern for the mother’s future.

One commenter said: “He will definitely do it again. He is likely to cause even greater harm to society if he does not receive proper punishment and education.”

Some commenters even blamed the mother.

“Where there is a kind mother, there is a useless son,” another person remarked, referencing an ancient Chinese saying.

Others expressed sadness upon noticing the visible scar from the woman’s caesarean section, exposed during the violence involving her son.

China’s Public Security Administration Punishments Law states that a person who beats or deliberately injures another could face criminal detention of five to 10 days and a fine of between 200 and 500 yuan (US$28 to US$70). Minors generally face lighter penalties.

In instances of domestic violence, there have been cases of Chinese parents jailed for inflicting harm on their children. However, the Anti-Domestic Violence Law does not specifically address situations where the offender is a minor.

Spirit of Hong Kong Awards: traditional Chinese medicine practitioner targets wider audience

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3279804/spirit-hong-kong-awards-traditional-chinese-medicine-practitioner-targets-wider-audience?utm_source=rss_feed

For Hongkonger Lam Kar-yeung, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a practice that goes far beyond herbal remedies, acupuncture, moxibustion and massage therapy.

“[TCM] is a way of life,” Lam said. “When your body’s constitution determines when you should sleep, exercise, eat and even work. That is what Chinese medicine is all about.”

While Lam said TCM was a holistic approach to health, where every daily habit played a role in maintaining well-being, the medical system had long been considered a traditional practice and its promotion was often limited.

“There’s very little promotion because it’s seen as more of a traditional culture. That is why I tried to innovate and modernise it,” the TCM practitioner said.

Through his volunteer group, Eli Care, which he co-founded, Lam has spearheaded efforts to bring TCM to a wider audience in creative and accessible ways.

Now Lam has been selected as a finalist for the Spirit of Hong Kong Awards 2024 in the culture category.

The annual event, jointly organised by the South China Morning Post and property developer Sino Group, honours the achievements of remarkable people whose endeavours might otherwise go unnoticed.

Eli Care offers workshops and activities that integrate TCM into everyday life. One of Lam’s signature innovations is picture-guided acupressure, where participants learn about acupuncture points through simple physical movements while taking pictures.

“We were concerned that people might struggle to remember the TCM knowledge, so we developed a photo-guided system where they do not need to memorise the names of acupuncture points,” he said.

“Instead, they simply learn the numbers associated with each point, making it easier to know exactly where to apply pressure.”

Lam and his team have also integrated acupressure into various activities, such as dramas, songs and handwashing procedures, to make learning about TCM more engaging and memorable, especially for seniors and children.

“We also teach the elderly how to do ‘cane exercises’ because many of them are reluctant to use walking sticks because they feel it makes them look old or weak,” Lam said.

Lam’s approach also includes making TCM accessible to people with disabilities.

“We sometimes add fun elements, like using sign language to explain medical procedures, to help people with hearing impairments understand the process better,” he said.

Lam added that the goal was to make TCM not only relevant but also inclusive, so that more people could benefit from its therapies.

Beyond these practical innovations, Lam said he believed TCM played an evolving role in modern healthcare, particularly in collaboration with Western medicine.

“Many elderly people and patients with chronic diseases benefit from combining both systems, especially for the management of long-term symptoms such as pain,” he said.

TCM principles could also supplement Western dietary concepts for better results, he said, highlighting that diet, seasons and food properties were deeply interconnected.

“The foods we eat should align with seasons. Each season is associated with specific elements, organs and types of foods can help maintain body balance. We should also be aware of the ‘cold-hot’ condition of our body and choose the right diet based on their ‘cold’ or ‘hot’ properties.”

However, he acknowledged that the integration of TCM into mainstream healthcare still faced significant challenges.

“There are barriers in terms of acceptance and professional collaboration,” he said.

But despite that, Lam said he continued to push for greater integration between TCM and Western medicine. He has also published numerous books in Hong Kong, mainland China and Taiwan, advocating a holistic approach to health and well-being.

Lam wrote those books in collaboration with a diverse range of professionals, including doctors, psychologists, geneticists, nutritionists, illustrators, chefs and fellow Chinese medicine practitioners.

Eli Care has also been shortlisted for the teamwork category of this year’s Spirit of Hong Kong Awards.

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China launches ICBM with simulated warhead into Pacific Ocean: defence ministry

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3279842/china-launches-icbm-simulated-warhead-pacific-ocean-defence-ministry?utm_source=rss_feed

The People’s Liberation Army launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) into the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday morning, according to the Chinese defence ministry.

The ministry said the PLA’s Rocket Force successfully launched an ICBM carrying a simulated warhead that “accurately landed in the predetermined sea area” in the high seas.

“This missile launch is a routine arrangement of the Rocket Force’s annual military training. It effectively tests the performance of weapons and equipment and the level of troop training,” the ministry statement said.

“[It] achieved the expected purpose. China notified relevant countries in advance.”

An ICBM typically has a range greater than 5,500km and is designed to carry nuclear warheads.

China’s latest ICBM is known to be DF-41, which first came into service in 2017 and has an operational range of up to 12,000–15,000km, capable of reaching the US mainland.

More to come …

Chinese esports firm launches multi-title tournament in Asia with Saudi Arabia backing

https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3279810/chinese-esports-firm-launches-multi-title-tournament-asia-saudi-arabia-backing?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese esports company VSPO has announced its first multi-title tournament in Asia, marking a big push to expand its presence in the global industry with support from Saudi Arabia.

The Esports Asian Champions League (ACL) will kick off next year, with tens of thousands of professional players set to compete across the continent in a six-month season each year, VSPO announced on Tuesday. The Tencent Holdings-backed company is the biggest esports operator in Asia.

The tournament will include seven to 10 titles at launch, according to VSPO, but it did not disclose the names being considered. The two biggest video gaming companies in China – Tencent and NetEase – both had representatives at the launch event on Tuesday, raising hopes that top Chinese esports titles such as Tencent’s Honor of Kings would be included.

The tournament could bolster China’s efforts to gain a greater foothold in the global esports industry, something the country has sought as part of an effort to boost its soft power through cultural exports.

The ACL has also secured support from Saudi Arabia’s Savvy Games Group, which invested US$265 million into Shanghai-based VSPO in 2023. Saudi Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud, who is Savvy’s vice-chairman, took the role of ACL honorary chairman.

Speaking to media at the event on Tuesday, Al Saud said the companies aim to bring esports to audiences in a way that is different from traditional offline competitions.

“To be able to do something to bring and unite all these players together, we want to do it in a way where they don’t have to jump on a plane and travel … but to give them a chance to do this in an easier way that can really take a step forward as a regional competition,” he said.

VSPO said it plans to make esports tournaments more accessible through cross-border competitions “in the cloud”, using “transformative” mixed reality-enabled “gaming arenas spread across Asia”.

China has the world’s largest esports market with 490 million participants, both gamers and viewers, according to data from the Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association. Revenue grew 4.4 per cent year on year to 12 billion yuan (US$1.7 billion) in the first half of 2024, according to the association.

China’s participation in global esports tournaments has yielded some positive results in recent years. It won four gold medals at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year and claimed championships in four titles, out of more than 20, at the Esports World Cup (EWC), a two-month multi-game event held in Saudi Arabia this summer.

VSPO said it is in discussions to make ACL a qualifier event for EWC 2025.

As China and Saudi Arabia have sought closer ties in recent years, esports has emerged as a major area of collaboration. The Middle Eastern country aims to become a “global hub for the games and esports sector by 2030”.

“The relationship between China and Saudi is long-standing,” Al Saud said on Tuesday. “But when it comes to esports, there’s so much that we can do together to make this a better industry, and that’s not just about investment.”

How China’s can-do attitude on canals opens the door to white elephants

https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3279772/how-chinas-can-do-attitude-canals-opens-door-white-elephants?utm_source=rss_feed

This is the second story in a two-part series about China’s increasing interest in canals, both at home and abroad, and what their construction will mean for economic growth and transport routes. You can read part one .

In recent weeks, China has been awash with headlines about how it has waded into a “grand canal era”. But a closer look at canal projects across the country tells a more winding and impactful story.

Having already completed a comprehensive network of high-speed railways that service most cities with at least 500,000 people, as well as expressways that connect almost every town, China is poised to see a flood of infrastructure projects comprising canals that link all waterways in the country, according to the prevailing narrative.

Clues of what’s to come can be seen in projects on the ground and in local government documents. In the southern Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, near the border with Vietnam, construction on the 134.2km (83.4-mile) Pinglu Canal is in full swing, at an estimated cost of more than 70 billion yuan (US$9.93 billion). And in Anhui province, the Jianghuai Canal, built as part of a massive 100-billion-yuan water-diversion project, started accommodating ships in 2022.

Meanwhile, proposals have been floated in the government plans of three inland provinces to spend more than 545 billion yuan on canals, and local-level delegates have repeatedly pitched such plans to the country’s top legislature.

With the world’s second-largest economy enduring a prolonged stretch of slow growth, mainly resulting from a crippling property crisis, massive investment in infrastructure is once again being served up as a panacea. From 2008-09, the bulk of a 4-trillion-yuan stimulus package mostly went to infrastructure projects as a means to shield the country from the spillover effects of the global financial crisis.

With other transport links saturated, canals arose as an option for some inland local government authorities. They tout the benefits that artificial waterways would bring, such as cheaper transport costs, while aligning such projects with broad national-level plans, from a unified national market to the Belt and Road Initiative.

But as authorities’ attention is focused so intently on critical cash injections, short-term economic vitality and shoring up political legacies, some analysts warn that a nationwide canal frenzy could result in multiple white elephant projects. Questions have swirled around their cost-effectiveness and their potential impact on the environment and society, especially in the face of a staggering rise in extreme weather events.

“Relying on macro investing to boost the entire economy – I don’t think it’s necessarily wrong. It depends on when, and in which sector, the investment is injected,” said James Wang Jixian, research director of the Bay Area Hong Kong Centre.

“Canal construction is definitely the wrong sector,” said Wang, who is also the former head of the Department of Geography at the University of Hong Kong.

As the world’s first civilisation to use canals to facilitate transport, China’s first success was the 36.4km Lingqu, whose construction was ordered by first emperor Qin Shi Huang in 214BC to conquer southern tribes and expand the imperial territory, connecting the tributaries of the Yangtze and Pearl rivers - the country’s two largest rivers by volume.

Construction on what would become the 1,800km Grand Canal – the Unesco World Heritage site built to link east China’s business hub of Hangzhou and the capital city of Beijing – was said to have begun in the 5th century BC and completed during the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368). It was the world’s largest civil-engineering project before the Industrial Revolution, and part of the waterway is still in use for shipping today.

Now, the central province of Hunan is proposing a modern version of the Lingqu that also links the Yangtze and Pearl rivers, at a projected cost of more than 150 billion yuan. The new Hunan-Guangxi Canal would further connect with the Pinglu Canal that has been under construction for two years and will ultimately flow to the South China Sea through the southern Beibu Gulf, according to the plan.

Meanwhile, Hunan’s neighbour province to the east, Jiangxi, has proposed spending 320 billion yuan on a canal that would run through Jiangxi and extend into Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces, surpassing the Grand Canal to become the world’s longest at 1,988km.

Both proposed canals have been dubbed a “project of the century”, making the leap from local concepts to state-led explorations, as both are undergoing feasibility studies led by China’s Ministry of Transport.

In an opinion document issued by the ministry in June, provinces were urged to “accelerate the planning and construction of national high-level waterways”, with pointed instructions to “guide and deepen the preliminary research and argumentation” of those two major projects.

In local planning, however, striving to begin construction within a year or two is an unspoken common goal. For projects that come with massive investments and will have profound and lasting impacts, support from the central government is indispensable, given the sheer size of the debts facing local governments.

At last year’s Two Sessions - the annual plenary sessions of the National People’s Congress and of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference - the Hunan delegation submitted a proposal calling for the Hunan-Guangxi Canal to be incorporated into China’s 14th five-year plan (2021-25) and for construction to begin as soon as possible.

The proposal, which has not been accepted, said that the canal would help Hunan “strengthen transport connections with the Beibu Gulf, Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macau, and the [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] region”, and better integrate the region into a “new western land-sea corridor” - a trade and logistics passage in China’s western hinterland being jointly developed by Beijing and Singapore as part of the Belt and Road Initiative.

The canal is the “first choice for reducing logistics costs” for Hunan and “an opportunity it must seize”, said Lu Yi, a professor with the School of Traffic and Transport Engineering at the Changsha University of Science & Technology.

“Water transport and logistics costs have the strongest negative correlation,” Lu wrote in an article published by the Hunan Daily in April, adding that, for the landlocked province of Hunan, “the most prominent bottleneck in developing industries is that it is far from the sea and has a long delivery time, which directly leads to high transport costs”.

The same logic is being applied in the parallel Jiangxi-proposed canal projects that would surpass the Grand Canal’s length. The latest proposed version consists of a 1,228km channel linking Jiangxi and Guangdong and a 760km waterway connecting Zhejiang and Jiangxi in the north.

The two canals would effectively elevate the regional advantage of Jiangxi and promote the economic openness of the inland province, according to the proposal.

But the biggest challenge facing the two proposals lies in a shared geographical barrier - the Nanling Mountains, a major range in southern China that separates the Pearl River basin from the Yangtze valley.

Lu Dadao, a prominent economic geographer affiliated with the Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that blindly building such canals equates to zuonie, or “committing a sin”, for the country’s current and future generations.

“For the few people shouting loudly about the two canals, they don’t know: by digging such canals, what [goods] will be shipped? What is the significance? To cross the Nanling’s watershed, the terrain is complex – how enormous will the project be?” he wrote in an opinion piece in August.

“The two provinces of Hunan and Jiangxi – both hinterlands of Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta – have powerful general-speed railways, high-speed railways and expressway networks leading to the above two urban agglomerations,” Lu said. “So, where are the problems with domestic and foreign passenger and freight transport?”

Compared with other modes of transport, canals require more time and money to build, there is less flexibility in where exactly they can be built, and the environmental impact is considerably greater. Thus, most canals constructed around the world have eventually become supplanted by railways and road networks, said Wang from the Bay Area Hong Kong Centre.

Notable exceptions are the Suez and Panama canals, which have thrived and been expanded, as they are both significant maritime shortcuts. The former shortens the journey from Asia to Europe by seven to 10 days, while the latter shortens the voyage between the east and west coasts of the United States by about 8,000 nautical miles (15,000km).

“Does China have an extremely special geographical environment similar to the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal? The answer is no,” Wang said.

As long as China can improve the shipping conditions of existing waterways and better integrate them with railway and expressway networks, that would be sufficient to meet the demands of the country’s economic and social development in the long run, he contends.

And with necessary funding inevitably coming from the central government, it is possible that cash-starved local governments may learn from each other by using canal construction as the excuse to get more money, he said.

“In other words,” he explained, “local governments could end up taking money from the central government and spending it on things that they shouldn’t.”

The Pinglu Canal seems to be the model others may want to follow. Launched in 2022 and expected to be completed by 2026, the canal project is said to shorten the route between inland Guangxi and the sea by up to 560km and facilitate trade with Southeast Asia.

Although the construction is halfway through, doubts have never faded about the project’s real cost-effectiveness.

Wang, who recently visited the construction site, said it is still unclear what cargo would be shipped through the canal instead of existing land routes.

The Port of Beibu Gulf already has a mature sea-rail intermodal train network that connects major cities and industrial centres in Guangxi and Southwest China - part of the “new western land-sea corridor”.

Meanwhile, most cargo shipped out of Guangxi through existing water courses are construction raw materials, which are intended for the Pearl River Delta rather than overseas destinations.

Still, a trade-oriented solution - such as creating an international wholesale market by the water - might offer a possible lifeline, as the canal is at least connected to the sea, Wang said.

Ideas surrounding canal construction have also surfaced in other provinces. In early June, Hubei governor Wang Zhonglin said the province intended to accelerate plans for the proposed Jinghan Canal - an estimated 74.8-billion-yuan undertaking that would cut 236km off the distance of traversing the Yangtze River by avoiding a sinuous middle region.

First put forth in 2015 as a solution to shipping obstructions along the Yangtze, the idea has yet to become a state-back plan.

Replying to a delegate proposal from the National People’s Congress in 2021, the transport ministry called the proposed Jinghan Canal “a complex systematic project” that would have a profound impact on the regional economy and society, on land space, and on the comprehensive utilisation of water resources and industrial layout.

“It is necessary to have large-scale protection instead of large-scale development as the overall direction, with ecological priorities and green development as the guide,” the ministry said while calling for more “in-depth research to fully demonstrate the necessity and feasibility of [the Jinghan Canal’s] construction”.

But that has not stopped Hubei from persisting in its proposals for the project, going as far as saying it would even help the fish.

Huang Yan, a Hubei delegate and president of China Three Gorges University, said during the Two Sessions this year: “We can build a canal so boats and fish can flow through their [separate] channels.”

“It is also a kind of protection for fish,” Huang said of the Jinghan Canal. “I think it is a big ecological project.”