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• China retrieves its first reusable satellite in a quest to cut space research costs
• China’s middle class is riding a wave of optimism for now, but can it last?
• The giant sphere that China hopes will track elusive neutrinos
• China invites EU team for more talks to hammer out EV tariffs dispute
• China’s Li Xiaopeng, son of former premier Li Peng, signals end to closely watched career
• Can joint ventures fix China’s trade imbalance with the EU and US?
• Was the Lion of Venice made in China more than 1,000 years ago? Italian scientists have evidence
• China’s investors left wanting after ministry keeps mum on stimulus plan
• China’s tiger mums tour Singapore universities during holiday to give children competitive edge
• Young men in China share vasectomy experiences online, foster ‘new good man’ image
• Foreign Office ‘asked for UK visit by Taiwan ex-president to be deferred’ to not anger China
• China’s finance ministry holds press conference as markets hope for fiscal lift
• Electric buses: can 100% tariff pain kill China’s resolve to dominate global market?
• China men’s clothing KOL sells a million pairs of trousers using ‘emotional value’
• Milton vs Yagi: why do superstorms kill more people in US than China?
• An in-depth look at China’s economic crisis, and why inexperience is fuelling the fire
• US Seeks Ban on Chinese, Russian Tech for Self-driving Vehicles

China retrieves its first reusable satellite in a quest to cut space research costs

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3282123/china-retrieves-its-first-reusable-satellite-quest-cut-space-research-costs?utm_source=rss_feed

China recovered its first reusable experimental satellite on Friday, retrieving its scientific payload and equipment after two weeks in orbit.

The China National Space Administration said the Shijian-19 satellite met its targets on various technological fronts, from reusability to payload ratio and re-entry.

“Shijian-19 is … an efficient platform for research in microgravity science and space life sciences,” state broadcaster CCTV reported on Saturday.

“Additionally, the Shijian-19 satellite provided an in-orbit flight test verification opportunity for domestically produced components and materials.

“The flight tests verified the technical specifications of a new generation of high-performance, reusable space experiment platforms.”

The satellite is part of a series developed by the Fifth Academy of the Aerospace Science and Technology Group for scientific exploration and experiments.

It was launched on September 27 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre aboard a Long March 2D rocket but officials did not say how it returned to Earth.

It carried various payloads, including experiments on plant and microbial breeding, technology verification and space science. Seeds from Hainan and Anhui provinces were sent aloft and exposed to space conditions to induce mutations.

Large numbers of the Shijian series of satellites have been launched.

In the past, data and materials from satellites were transferred to a disposable return capsule after completing their missions in orbit, which were typically no more than a month.

Recyclable satellites require even higher levels of design propulsion, thermal protection, and navigation systems.

According to state news agency Xinhua, reusable satellites will help to cut space technology costs for China and enable technology to be tested faster, transforming research for practical applications.

Reusable, highly reliable, and safe space vehicles are important future directions in space exploration. Both the Chinese government and numerous private companies are actively exploring reusable rocket technology.

On December 14, a reusable experimental spacecraft was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre using a Long March 2F rocket, though the flight duration and model type were not disclosed.

Similar reusable experimental spacecraft were launched on September 4, 2020 and August 5, 2022 from the same launch centre, returning to the designated landing site after time in orbit.

China’s middle class is riding a wave of optimism for now, but can it last?

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3282068/chinas-middle-class-riding-wave-optimism-now-can-it-last?utm_source=rss_feed

After the mainland Chinese stock market fell to a five-year low in February, Gu Wenyi dumped all her shares, vowing “never again”.

The 41-year-old had lost around 80 per cent of the 2 million yuan (US$283,000) she invested over a decade.

This week she was among the hundreds of millions of Chinese rushing back to the market on a wave of optimism after the government announced new measures to revive the economy.

“I think the top leadership is serious this time,” said Gu, a homemaker in Shanghai whose husband is a company executive. “As a stock market veteran, I’m cautiously optimistic – I’m sure we’ll have a bull market but it’s uncertain how long it will last.”

Mainland Chinese bourses saw record highs in trading volume on Tuesday when they reopened following the week-long National Day holiday. It was prompted by a slew of economic stimulus measures that have supercharged the confidence of middle-class investors, at least in the short term. But many remain cautious about the country’s long-term economic prospects.

The mainland stock market has been one of the world’s worst performers since 2021, hit by a shaky post-pandemic economic recovery and as Beijing’s focus was on other issues like national security and technology amid tensions with Washington and its allies.

The rallying cry came at the end of last month during a Politburo meeting, with a call to support the private sector, stabilise the property sector, buoy confidence in the capital market and expand fiscal support.

That followed policy moves including cuts to the benchmark interest and mortgage rates, a plan to prioritise job creation, and a pledge to introduce “powerful and effective” measures to boost the capital market.

The announcements have continued this week, with the National Development and Reform Commission on Tuesday saying it would front-load 100 billion yuan (US$14.1 billion) from the 2025 budget to finance infrastructure construction projects. The NDRC did not give further details, but analysts say stimulus packages in the trillions of yuan could be in the pipeline later this year and next year.

China’s economic growth has continued to lose steam this year, dragged down by the property market downturn, lacklustre domestic demand and negative investor sentiment.

Gu was hopeful about the policy changes. “It shows the top leadership cares about the economy and capital market – it gives us hope,” she said. “After all, there’s no better investment option for middle-class people like me.”

The ruling Communist Party wants to see more Chinese join the middle class. At the third plenum in July, a key conclave setting the economic blueprint for the next five to 10 years, party elites pledged to “steadily expand the middle-income group”.

The middle-income group – defined by the National Bureau of Statistics as a three-person household earning between 100,000 yuan and 500,000 yuan a year – currently accounts for about one-third of China’s 1.4 billion population.

In comparison, the middle class makes up about 50 per cent of the population in the United States, and in many developed countries in Europe more than 70 per cent of the population is middle class.

The middle class is widely regarded as an important parameter of a country’s economic dynamics and a predictor of economic and social prosperity. China’s middle class has even transformed the world economy by influencing demand for goods and services in global markets in better times before the pandemic.

But the government’s tough zero-Covid restrictions have taken a heavy toll. Many businesses collapsed, and the price of property – which accounts for about two-thirds of middle-income assets – has plunged in the past few years. Anxiety over issues like finances and investment, career development and a higher retirement age has weighed heavily on the middle class, forcing many people to reduce their spending.

For Gu, the stock market rally is a chance to improve her family’s finances. “The good times are behind us now as China is locked in this rivalry with the US,” she said. “So I’ll take every opportunity to make more money for the rainy days in the future.”

But the stock market is too volatile for Zhang Shengying, a 38-year-old programmer in Beijing who describes himself as “risk averse”.

He had considered selling one of his two flats after the Beijing government made it easier for people to buy property by lowering interest rates on mortgages and reducing down payments, following similar moves in other big cities including Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

Buying interest picked up over the week-long holiday from October 1. New-home transactions in 22 Chinese cities rose 26 per cent from a year earlier while existing home sales were up by 161 per cent, according to China Real Estate Information Corporation.

Zhang’s flat is in suburban Beijing, where prices have dropped by one-third from a 2017 high. He said it was still valued at 60 per cent more than 13 years ago, when his parents bought it for him, but he could have had the same return on investment from a term deposit.

“Market sentiment is better than months ago – I thought it might be a good time to sell,” Zhang said. “But I don’t know where I’d invest the money from the sale so I decided to stay put.”

Zhang lives with his family in the flat and rents out the second one.

“I could be laid off at any time. I don’t want to put more money into property, so selling one and buying a bigger, more expensive home is out of the question,” he said.

“These policies may work for the short term, but I’m not confident about the long term as China will have fewer people in the future.”

China’s population is shrinking and ageing, and it could be heading towards the largest decline seen in any country. A UN report in July forecast a 50 per cent chance that China could lose more than half of its current population by 2100. The birth rate is at a record low, there are fewer women of childbearing age, and people are putting off getting married, with more choosing not to have children at all – despite government efforts to encourage young people to start families.

Beijing is also trying to boost consumption. On Tuesday, NDRC director Zheng Shanjie emphasised the need to increase consumption, especially among lower-income and middle-class groups, as well as the need to improve aged care and childcare services, but no specific measures were announced.

In Suzhou, Jiangsu province, 34-year-old Qian Yihang, who runs a travel agency, said he had been planning to take up an incentive to trade in his petrol guzzler for an electric vehicle.

China last month said the subsidy would go up to 20,000 yuan per vehicle – nearly double the subsidy announced in April.

But Qian decided to keep his car after his father had a stroke, leaving him as the only breadwinner in a family of six – including a new baby.

“The stimulus policies are what we need, but they seem to be piecemeal and inadequate,” Qian said.

“With a sick parent and two children to raise, I feel so stressed. I hope there’ll be some significant help – such as government cash handouts and improvements in social welfare, so that we can regain confidence in the economy in the long run.”

The giant sphere that China hopes will track elusive neutrinos

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3282118/giant-sphere-china-hopes-will-track-elusive-neutrinos?utm_source=rss_feed

China is a step closer in its quest to measure elusive particles called neutrinos with the installation of a massive subterranean sphere detector in the country’s south.

The sphere is about 35 metres (115 feet) in diameter and is a central element of the US$376 million Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory, or Juno, project in Jiangmen, Guangdong province.

It will be filled with 20,000 tonnes of a “liquid scintillator” and suspended in 35,000 tonnes of pure water 700 metres below ground to try to measure the mass of different types of neutrinos produced by two nearby nuclear power plants.

Neutrinos are elementary particles that are very difficult to detect because they have no electrical charge, very little mass and move at near light speed.

Although almost all of the particles will pass through the detection liquid without a trace, some will interact with the liquid, triggering two flashes of light which will then be recorded by thousands of light-detecting phototubes.

State broadcaster CCTV reported on Friday that the sphere had been installed, and work was under way on assembly of its outer metal shell and the phototubes.

All installation is expected to be completed by the end of November, and the facility will start collecting data from August next year, according to the report.

It was previously scheduled to start taking data in 2023.

Work started on the lab in 2015, but the project was delayed by groundwater problems, according to a 2022 report in China Science Daily.

The project is an international effort, with a team of 750 researchers from 74 institutions in 17 countries and regions, of which nearly 300 are from Europe, including Italy, Germany and France.

Juno is the successor to the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment, which ran from 2003 to 2020 near Shenzhen, also in Guangdong. US scientists were involved in the Daya Bay project but have not collaborated on Juno.

Juno is expected to be the first of a number of next-generation neutrino detectors around the world.

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment in the United States and the Hyper-Kamiokande observatory in Japan are both scheduled to be up and running in 2027-28.

According to China News Service, Wang Yifang, director of the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said on Thursday that the team had to develop a number of technologies to advance Juno.

This included developing the most efficient light-detecting phototubes in the world.

“The completion of Juno will further consolidate China’s international leadership in neutrino research,” Wang was quoted as saying.

According to China News Service, Cao Jun, Juno’s deputy co-spokesman, who also works for IHEP, said all results obtained during Juno’s construction and future operation would be published on behalf of the international collaboration group and co-authored by all participating scientists.

In 2022, Cao said Juno would spend five to six years collecting a total of 100,000 signals to solve the neutrino mass question.

China invites EU team for more talks to hammer out EV tariffs dispute

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3282130/china-invites-eu-team-more-talks-hammer-out-ev-tariffs-dispute?utm_source=rss_feed

China has invited an EU team to visit for further talks on the bloc’s tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, despite the failure of nearly three weeks of negotiations, according to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.

The ministry said on Saturday that from September 20, Chinese and European Union representatives held eight rounds of intense talks over 20 days and made “significant progress” in some areas.

“Yet regrettably, the EU has failed to positively respond to matters relating to the core concerns of Chinese and EU industries,” it said.

“With major differences between the two sides, the consultations have been unable to produce a mutually acceptable solution.”

However, China remained “committed and sincere towards finding solutions through dialogue and consultation”, it said, adding that it hoped an EU technical team could visit China and arrange for talks to “reach a proper solution as soon as possible”.

The talks began after Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and European Commission trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis agreed on September 19 to advance price undertaking negotiations to find a solution acceptable to both sides.

Asked on Saturday about reports that the bloc was conducting separate price undertaking negotiations with individual companies, the ministry said such action would undermine trust.

“If the EU engages with any individual company in separate price undertaking negotiations while the China-EU consultations are under way, it will undermine the foundation and mutual trust for negotiation, thus disrupting the bilateral consultations and holding back the overall progress,” the ministry said.

“China hopes the EU will demonstrate sufficient sincerity, take the industry’s core concerns seriously and reach a solution acceptable to all parties based on the ongoing consultations.”

Earlier this month, EU members voted to impose punitive tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles, drawing swift criticism from Beijing.

Tariffs will be imposed by October 31 for five years, following the closed-door vote of the bloc’s 27 member states. The vote was triggered by an anti-subsidy investigation, which found that Chinese-made EVs were distorting the European market.

China’s Ministry of Commerce slammed the decision, saying “China will take all measures to firmly safeguard the interests of Chinese companies”.

Car companies from Germany and China were also critical, with Mercedes-Benz calling the tariffs a “mistake”, and Volkswagen urging the commission to resolve the issue with Beijing before the tariffs go into effect.

Chinese carmaker Geely said the decision would “potentially hinder EU-China economic and trade relations”.

The China Chamber of Commerce to the EU also expressed “deep disappointment” with what it called “the EU’s adoption of protectionist trade measures”.

China has rejected EU suggestions that it has subsidised every stage of the EV supply chain, saying its companies are competitive because of their prowess and innovation.

Beijing has also threatened the EU car industry and started investigations into European brandy and dairy exports.

China’s Li Xiaopeng, son of former premier Li Peng, signals end to closely watched career

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3282110/chinas-li-xiaopeng-son-former-premier-li-peng-signals-end-closely-watched-career?utm_source=rss_feed

Li Xiaopeng, son of former Chinese premier Li Peng, has taken a semi-retirement role on the country’s top political advisory body, drawing an end to the closely watched political career of a member of one of China’s most powerful families.

Li was assigned the role of deputy director of the economic affairs committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), state news agency Xinhua reported on Friday.

The role is commonly seen as a semi-retirement role without actual decision-making power in Chinese politics. The decision was announced at a two-day meeting of the advisory body’s standing committee that concluded on Friday.

Li served as Communist Party chief of China’s Ministry of Transport from May 2023 until his title was removed at the end of September, three months after he turned 65 – the de facto retirement age for ministerial-level officials in China.

Li was born in June 1959 in Beijing. He earned a bachelor’s degree from North China Electric Power University, where he studied electrical engineering.

He started his career as a technician at the system institute of the China Electric Power Research Institute in 1982 and rose through the ranks to become the head of the system institute in 1990.

He worked in the power industry until 2008, eventually becoming chairman of Huaneng Power, one of the country’s biggest electricity producers.

This was followed by eight years of leadership experience in China’s coal-rich Shanxi province, where he was governor and deputy party chief from 2013 to 2016.

Li became China’s transport minister in 2016.

Li’s career moves have attracted attention within China as he is the son of Li Peng, who served as China’s premier from 1987 to 1998 and was one of the country’s most influential – and controversial – political leaders.

Li Peng died in 2019 at age 90 in Beijing. As the only Chinese leader to serve as both premier and chairman of the national legislature, he wielded tremendous influence during his career.

During his time as premier, he was openly at odds with Zhao Ziyang, party general secretary at the time, during the student-led pro-democracy protests in the summer of 1989.

On May 20, 1989, Li appeared on national television and officially declared martial law in Beijing. This eventually led to the bloody crackdown at Tiananmen Square on June 4 of that year, and his name was often associated with the incident.

In a rare move for a Chinese leader, Li Peng published a memoir in 2014 about his early political career, though he omitted the sensitive episodes of the later years.

While former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping picked Jiang Zemin to replace Zhao in 1989, Li remained premier until 1998, when he became chairman of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, cementing his position as the second most powerful man in China at the time. He retired from politics in 2003.

Li Peng’s family has been powerful in China’s energy sector for many years. His daughter, Li Xiaolin, has been called China’s “power queen”, holding top jobs in various state-owned energy giants until her retirement in 2018.

Li Xiaopeng is the only child of Li Peng to have entered politics.

Can joint ventures fix China’s trade imbalance with the EU and US?

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3282106/can-joint-ventures-fix-chinas-trade-imbalance-eu-and-us?utm_source=rss_feed

Encouraging Chinese companies to set up joint ventures abroad may be Beijing’s only way out of its trade imbalances with Western countries, according to a Chinese foreign trade expert.

Speaking at a round table event in Beijing on Friday, Huo Jianguo, former head of a think tank under China’s Ministry of Commerce, told representatives of foreign embassies and international organisations that he was “worried about [China’s trade] surplus”.

He said one way to mitigate the problem would be to foster more joint ventures, which pool the resources of Chinese and foreign entities for a shared business or project.

“If there are more joint ventures or more investment [into these countries], on the whole, they will feel better because [they will think that although] we have a deficit, we have new investment, so that will make a little bit of balance,” said Huo, former president of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.

While Beijing must maintain “friendly dialogue” with its trading partners about the trade balance, China should also open up more and “stimulate companies to invest abroad”, Huo said.

“That’s the only way to solve this problem,” he said in the round table event hosted by the Beijing-based Centre for China and Globalisation, a non-governmental think tank.

The round table came as Western countries continued to blame China for trade imbalances, accusing it of exporting its industrial capacity amid weak domestic demand since 2021, especially in the electric vehicle sector.

Trade tensions are growing, with China announcing on Tuesday that it will start collecting anti-dumping duties on European brandy. The announcement came just days after Brussels voted to impose tariffs on Chinese-made EVs after concluding that Beijing was unfairly subsidising EV exports to Europe.

The long-standing EU trade deficit with China reached a record €396 billion (US$433 billion) in 2022. The figure fell to €292 billion last year, but Brussels said there were “imbalances that remain significant” and “a matter of great concern”.

The European Union has also raised concerns about foreign direct investment in its member states. In January, the bloc proposed plans to review its vetting mechanism for foreign investment and impose tighter controls on technology outflows.

But Huo said the EU market was “so big” that China could not give up on it, even though its trade relations with the emerging economies of the Global South were growing.

“If we want China’s foreign trade [to be] stable, we need to continue to explore or stabilise the shares of the American market and the EU market,” he said, adding that it was important as “domestic investment and consumption is weak”.

Yi Xiaozhun, former deputy director of the World Trade Organization and another speaker at the event, said Beijing should do more to increase consumption in China.

He added that Chinese exports were strong not because of subsidies or protectionist policies but because of the country’s integration into the global value chain.

“I think it’s definitely not China’s goal to pursue [a high] trade surplus,” Yi said.

“It’s high time for China and its trading partners to talk about it. As long as it’s a trade issue, we have WTO rules, we have common interest to address this kind of imbalance.

“So we need to have this kind of discussion instead of [waging a] trade war or geopolitical struggle.”

Was the Lion of Venice made in China more than 1,000 years ago? Italian scientists have evidence

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3281965/was-lion-venice-made-china-more-1000-years-ago-italian-scientists-have-evidence?utm_source=rss_feed

The winged Lion of Venice watches over St Mark’s Square in the north Italian city, just as it has done for hundreds of years. But now a team of scientists in Italy have found evidence that the statue originated in China.

Having come to symbolise the city of Venice, the winged lion also happens to be the traditional emblem of the patron saint of the square it inhabits: St Mark.

Researchers have now showed that it was most likely originally a tomb guardian cast during the Tang dynasty (618-907) using bronze from the lower Yangtze River basin in southeast China. But the question of just how the 2.8-tonne statue made its way across continents to the top of a granite column in Italy sometime in the 13th century remains unanswered.

The discovery has been more than 30 years in the making. Lead archaeologist on the research team Massimo Vidale, an associate professor at the University of Padua in northern Italy, said when the statue was taken down for restoration between 1985 and 1990, scientists took the opportunity to perform various technical studies, including a lead isotope analysis.

“This is a very refined chemical analysis which measures the relative proportion between different isotopes of lead. The specific proportion between different isotopes is a kind of ID card that pinpoints precisely in the world the location of the mine from which the copper was extracted,” he said.

At the time of the tests, archives were not as rich as they are today, so scientists were not able to match the samples with the source, he said.

But last year, there was a breakthrough when Vidale put together three new samples from the lion with six previously analysed samples for re-examination.

“With the new archives for comparison that we have nowadays, the information came out very clear, pointing to the lower Yangtze River geological context,” he said. “It was not possible to say the same thing 30 years ago.”

The results from the chemical analysis prompted the scientists to reconsider the stylistic features of the lion, which Vidale said had been “a big riddle for archaeologists”.

He said the team, which also includes a medieval art expert and a sinologist in addition to archaeologists and geologists, “all agree that the style is unmistakably Chinese and it is most probably a Tang sculpture”.

Taking a close look at the statue, the lion features locks of hair flowing down from its chin, a large nose with flared nostrils, open fangs and a fierce expression, he said.

“All these qualify the sculpture as a zhenmushou, or a tomb guardian – one of those threatening images that in Tang times were put defending the graves of the elites.”

As an archaeologist, Vidale said, his part of reconstructing the lion’s history is to say: “It is Chinese because of the chemical features of the metal and the style.”

But, he said, it would be up to historians to work out how the sculpture was transported and repurposed as the holy image of the Apostle Mark.

“What is really mysterious is that in Venice there is no historical record of the arrival of the statue or its casting or even its mounting on the column. Everything is obscure.”

He said the only piece of confirmed information is that when Marco Polo returned to Venice in 1295, the lion was already mounted on the column.

“This leaves the possibility open that the lion arrived in Venice during the trip of his father and his uncle. But this is only a conjecture for the moment,” Vidale said, referring to the Venetian explorer’s father Niccolo and uncle Maffeo, who visited the Mongol court in Beijing between 1264 and 1266.

Presenting their findings last month at an international conference commemorating the 700th anniversary of Marco Polo’s death, Vidale said the research team’s discovery caught the audience by surprise.

Previously, the most commonly accepted theory of the lion’s origins was that it was “a Hellenistic sculpture made in Turkey in the 4th or 3rd century BC, absorbing some features from Syrian or Middle Eastern styles”, he said.

“This lion is so visible. Everybody knows the lion; they can see this statue. But it is so high that you really cannot appreciate the stylistic features of the image,” he said. “Now the idea that it came from China was a kind of shock.”

The significance of the winged lion is intrinsically linked with the history of Venice.

“The winged lion became the official symbol of the Republic of Venice in the 1260s, immediately after Venice lost Constantinople,” Vidale said. The Republic of Venice was a major European power which, at its height, governed most of Greece, Cyprus and several cities in the eastern Mediterranean.

“They had to abandon the city and entrench their boundaries, especially in the Greek islands, against the eastern power.

“It was a very strong, politically motivated and ideologically entrenched political movement to establish the lion as a political symbol of Venice,” he said. “It was a very strong symbol because it was sacred, but also military and political – justifying the power of Venice.”

In 1797, after French general Napoleon defeated the Republic of Venice, the winged lion statue was taken to Paris where it remained until 1815 after the fall of Napoleon. It broke into pieces during its return and was repaired by a sculptor who cast new wings using the fragments of the old ones.

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China’s investors left wanting after ministry keeps mum on stimulus plan

https://www.scmp.com/economy/policy/article/3282104/chinas-investors-left-wanting-after-ministry-keeps-mum-stimulus-plan?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s Ministry of Finance did not deliver a broad-based fiscal stimulus package at a Saturday press conference, instead pledging stronger action to deal with local government debt and the property market – two areas of concern weighing down the country’s economic growth.

However, analysts still expect some mild stimulus measures from the ministry, including an increase to the fiscal deficit ratio from the current 3 per cent, more issuance of ultra-long special treasury bonds and local government bonds as well as tax cuts.

The ministry presented a number of changes at the one-hour conference intended to aid localities and the financial system, including raising debt ceilings and tapping funding from an unused government bond quota, fiscal support for the property market and capital replenishment for major state-owned banks.

Cash-strapped local governments could rely on a total of 2.3 trillion yuan (US$325.3 billion) in special bond funding for the last three months of the year, said finance minister Lan Foan.

The central government will also introduce a one-time, large-scale debt ceiling increase to swap local governments’ hidden debts, which the minister called “the most powerful measure to support debt reduction introduced in recent years”.

Regarding the property sector, deputy finance minister Liao Min said local governments will be allowed to use special bonds to purchase idle land and commercial homes from troubled developers.

More of these funds should be allocated for government-subsidised homes, and less on the building of new homes, Liao said.

In the meantime, the ministry planned to replenish the tier-one capital of major state-owned banks – capital used for core functions – to increase their resilience to risk, add to their credit lending capabilities and better serve the development of the real economy.

“China’s fiscal situation is resilient enough that it can achieve a balance between revenue and expenditure,” Lan said.

Despite no specific figures for stimulus – a source of heavy market speculation in advance of the conference – the minister hinted Beijing could roll out more support depending on the economic situation.

“The central government has the capacity to issue more bonds and raise the fiscal deficit,” he said twice at the briefing. “There are other policy tools for countercyclical measures that are under study.”

Zhang Zhiwei, president and chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, said Lan’s comments imply the government will raise the fiscal deficit above 3 per cent for next year.

“It would be a meaningful shift of fiscal policy,” he said. “It would help boost domestic demand and mitigate the deflationary pressure in the economy.”

The conference drew wide attention from the general public, especially retail investors who were caught up in this week’s stock market zigzags.

Thomas Li, a Hangzhou-based internet engineer in his thirties, watched the briefing to find out about any additional stimulus that could help his recent investment of 20,000 yuan (US$2,829).

He had hoped for bolder announcements to galvanise the market after a similar briefing on Tuesday from the National Development and Reform Commission – China’s top economic planner – failed to buoy domestic bourses.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index closed the week down 3.56 per cent, despite opening the market on Tuesday with a 10.1 per cent rise. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropped 6.53 per cent this week.

“I feel disappointed about what the department said at the presser, which had no information about a possible amount of fiscal stimulus in the coming months,” he said.

However, he is holding out hope for more action down the line.

“I would definitely hold on to the investment because the general economy and various industries are performing so poorly,” Li said. “Relying solely on current measures won’t be enough to fully turn things around.”

The People’s Bank of China has done most of the heavy lifting where stimulus is concerned, announcing a sizeable cut to the mortgage rate, a cut to the policy rate by 0.2 percentage points and a freeing of 1 trillion yuan in interbank liquidity by slashing the reserve requirement ratio.

On Thursday, the central bank launched a 500 billion yuan swap tool earlier than expected to enhance stock market liquidity.

Xu Tianchen, a senior China economist with the Economist Intelligence Unit, said though the government should already have a figure in mind, legal procedures mean the market will need to wait for the coming meeting of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee – the governing body of the top legislature – for the exact number.

“We shouldn’t worry too much about the size of the stimulus, given how committed the ministry was about tackling China’s economic challenges at the press conference,” he said, suggesting a strong stimulus focused on the thorniest economic issues may still be in the offing.

Larry Hu, chief China economist at Macquarie Capital, said the tone conveyed at the presser was a positive one.

“It would be understandable for the market to feel disappointed, as some of them had unrealistic expectations.”

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China’s tiger mums tour Singapore universities during holiday to give children competitive edge

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3282108/chinas-tiger-mums-tour-singapore-universities-during-holiday-give-children-competitive-edge?utm_source=rss_feed

When millions of Chinese flew abroad for the “golden week” holiday, not all plans involved visiting museums, high-rolling in casinos or relaxing on a beach – many ended up touring university campuses in Singapore.

Chinese parents, known to go the distance to give their children the academic edge, used their holiday to size up higher education in the city state. The trend spawned a mini ecosystem around the visits, creating business opportunities for hotels, bus and travel operators.

Many tour agencies in China sought to capitalise on this. Xiaohongshu, China’s Instagram-like app, featured more than 170,000 posts tagged to #SingaporeUniversityTourStrategy. Ads for such tours – offered for as much as 2,388 yuan (US$340) – were doing the rounds on apps, tour platforms and e-commerce sites like Taobao and 8Pig. Some went as far as offering consultancy services to help people settle in Singapore.

Singapore universities had to resort to crowd control measures on campus after visitor numbers jumped in recent months leading up to the “golden week” – the week-long holiday to mark China’s National Day. So much so that students took to online forums like Reddit to complain about disruptions to their classes, overcrowding on campus buses and cafeterias, and impolite etiquette.

The National University of Singapore curbed access to dining areas and other venues for tourists between September 30 and October 7, according to a student union statement. Earlier this year, Nanyang Technological University began charging a fee for tour groups, and also laid out plans to prioritise campus buses over those carrying visitors.

Although a temporary inconvenience for the universities, the interest signals a shift in Chinese parents’ preference towards college education in the city state. Besides the fact that NUS and NTU figure high in university ratings like the QS World University Rankings, some parents cited Singapore’s easy visa regime as a draw, and also because it’s closer to home and affordable to travel.

“I just wanted to bring the children to visit, and in the future, if there’s the opportunity and they are willing, they can study in this university,” said Alice Zhang, 35, who was visiting NUS during the “golden week” along with her two children. “In China, the academic demand is a little higher.”

Singapore’s two main universities do not release breakdown of university admission numbers by nationality. Both NUS and NTU directed a request for data from Bloomberg News to the country’s education ministry. The ministry, in turn, pointed to a 2022 parliamentary reply that said international student numbers in undergraduate level has remained at around 10 per cent in recent years, without providing information on nationality.

Touring prestigious universities both at home and abroad have long been a favourite pastime for Chinese families with young kids during winter and summer holidays. Top colleges in China like Beijing’s Peking University and Tsinghua University are teeming with teenagers during summer holidays while travel tours targeting Chinese to the US east and west coasts would include stops at Ivy League schools such as Yale and Harvard in their itineraries.

Oscar Du, a master’s student at NTU who conducts hour-long, 300-yuan-per-pax tours at the university, said he typically encounters middle-class families with younger kids in primary school, with many hailing from Shanghai.

“Many of them wish their children will start liking these universities, so they have the motivation to start applying for them,” said the 27-year-old Du, who hails from China’s Yunnan province. Visitors he encounters also typically visit other universities in China and overseas to start exploring options for their child early, he said.

For many, Singapore compares favourably to the US as a much safer place to study and to Australia as a cheaper place to stay.

“I just wanted to let my son experience the atmosphere of a university,” said Wen Wen, who was visiting NUS with her eight-year-old son. The 38-year–old from Chengdu was yet another tourist during the “golden week” who hoped her son would enrol in NUS one day. “Chinese universities are very good too but everyone there works too hard. It’s too competitive.”

Young men in China share vasectomy experiences online, foster ‘new good man’ image

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3281815/young-men-china-share-vasectomy-experiences-online-foster-new-good-man-image?utm_source=rss_feed

Young men in China are sharing their vasectomy experiences on social media platforms, as a symbol of being a “new good man” and advocating that contraception should not solely be a woman’s responsibility.

Traditionally, women have borne most of the contraceptive burden, using methods such as intrauterine devices (IUDs) and birth control pills.

About two-thirds of IUD users worldwide are in China, according to the World Health Organization.

Experts warn that the method has potential health risks such as irregular periods, uterine bleeding, and abdominal pain.

For men, a vasectomy is a minor surgical procedure that cuts or seals the tube that carries sperm from the testes and stops it from mixing with semen.

It is an effective form of contraception that affects neither sexual nor other physiological functions.

However, it is often perceived as detrimental to masculinity, with some believing that a vasectomy will reduce a man’s strength, despite the notion having no scientific basis.

In China, very few men choose sterilisation.

According to the China Health and Family Planning Statistical Yearbook, in 2020, there were a total of 14.7 million contraceptive surgeries nationwide, of which only 2,626 were male vasectomies.

Zhao Shanchao, a urologist at China’s Nanfang Hospital, said that a vasectomy can sometimes cause side effects, including incision infections and mild testicular pain.

Nevertheless, among all contraceptive methods, vasectomy is still considered one of the safest and most effective birth control methods.

As gender equality gains traction, more young Chinese men are opting for vasectomies and sharing their stories on social media platforms such as Xiaohongshu, Baidu, and Zhihu to support others considering the same.

Mainland media reported that vasectomy is now seen as a sign of the “new good man”.

This refers to someone who shares family responsibilities, cares about his partner, respects women, and values equality in relationships.

Chen, a 29-year-old who underwent a vasectomy in a hospital in Shanghai, told News Weekly that the procedure costs about 1,900 yuan (US$270), and after insurance coverage, he paid just 48 yuan (US$7).

Another 26-year-old man who underwent a vasectomy in March wrote on Xiaohongshu. “I love my girlfriend. The recovery time for male sterilisation is shorter and less harmful to the body compared to females.”

Wang, a 30-year-old from central China said that he plans to have the procedure by the end of the year.

Wang told the Post that both his parents and girlfriend fully support his decision.

“Having a child is a huge burden on women. I also do not have the confidence to be a good father. If our financial situation permits in the future, we may consider adopting a child,” he said.

The topic sparked a discussion on mainland social media.

One online observer wrote: “Thumbs up for the boyfriends and husbands who undergo vasectomy. They are brave and show respect for women.”

Another had a different view: “At the very least, sperm should be stored before vasectomy, just in case they regret it later in life and want children.”

Foreign Office ‘asked for UK visit by Taiwan ex-president to be deferred’ to not anger China

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/12/foreign-office-uk-visit-taiwan-tsai-ing-wen

The UK Foreign Office (FCDO) asked for a visit by the former Taiwanese president to be postponed so as not to anger China ahead of a trip by David Lammy, the Guardian has learned.

Lammy is due to travel to China next week for high-level meetings in his first trip to the country as foreign secretary.

The British-Taiwanese all-party parliamentary group (APPG) had been in talks to host Tsai Ing-wen, the former president of Taiwan, in parliament this month. But the plans for a visit were postponed after the Foreign Office indicated it could scupper Lammy’s imminent trip to China, three sources told the Guardian.

“We got a note from the FCDO via the Taiwanese representative to the UK,” said one person who had been involved in the discussions to host Tsai. “It said: ‘Please can you defer this for a while because the foreign secretary is about to make a “goodwill visit” to China and this would absolutely put the kibosh on it.’”

The revelation is embarrassing for the new Labour government, which has sought to improve relations with Beijing after they deteriorated under the Conservatives. Ministers are looking at restarting high-level economic dialogue with China and Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is drawing up plans to travel to the country next year.

The plans for a visit by Tsai have been postponed until the spring. While parliament does not need the government’s permission to organise it, the APPG was hoping Whitehall would facilitate the trip, including by providing security. Parliamentary authorities had also been involved in the discussions.

Frances D’Souza, a crossbench peer who is a member of the APPG and attended the inauguration of the new Taiwanese president, Lai Ching-te, last spring, said: “We very much hope to host former President Tsai Ing-wen in parliament in the near future. While we understand the political sensitivities, parliament is a democratic forum open to many different voices and views.”

Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, the Labour chair of the defence select committee, said Taiwan was an “important and valued partner for the UK, and we should do all we can to strengthen ties”, adding: “I hope the government will make it clear to former President Tsai, whom I met while on a parliamentary delegation visit to Taiwan, that she is indeed very welcome here.”

Tsai is visiting several European countries this month in her first international tour since leaving office. She is due in Prague and Brussels in the next week and is also expected to go to France, according to reports.

A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “Ministerial travel will be confirmed in the usual way. We do not comment on speculation.” The Taipei representative office in the UK did not respond to a request for comment.

The UK does not have diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but has a longstanding unofficial relationship and a history of visits.

A delegation of Labour parliamentarians led by the peer Sonny Leong travelled to Taiwan and met Tsai last April, shortly before she stepped down as president. The visit was strongly condemned by China’s embassy in London, which accused the parliamentarians of “serious interference in China’s internal affairs”.

China views Taiwan as a breakaway province that will eventually come under Beijing’s control, and there are fears it will eventually try to annex the island by force.

Taiwan, which has never been ruled by the People’s Republic of China, sees itself as distinct and has its own constitution and democratically elected leaders, and has grown increasingly opposed to China’s claims of sovereignty over it. In the presidential election last January voters elected Lai, who has pledged to uphold Taiwan’s self-governing status.

In their approach to China, Labour ministers have argued that they want to collaborate with Beijing on areas including trade and climate change while remaining clear-eyed on the security threat and human rights concerns.

In its manifesto, Labour pledged to conduct a Whitehall audit of the UK-China relationship, which is under way. In the past Lammy has also committed to taking steps to recognise China’s treatment of its Uyghur minority as genocide.

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China’s finance ministry holds press conference as markets hope for fiscal lift

https://www.scmp.com/economy/policy/article/3282090/chinas-finance-ministry-holds-press-conference-markets-hope-fiscal-lift?utm_source=rss_feed

This live blog has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by . Get faster notifications on the latest updates by .

China’s Ministry of Finance is holding a press conference on Saturday morning.

Chaired by minister Lan Foan, the conference is expected to cover the country’s fiscal implementation of the mandate for economic growth laid out at previous high-profile political meetings, including the third plenum of the Communist Party’s Central Committee and a Politburo conclave late last month.

The conference follows announcements of stimulus plans from other state bodies, with the People’s Bank of China unveiling cuts to mortgage rates and the National Development and Reform Commission advancing 100 billion yuan (US$14.14 billion) from the central budget for 2025.

– China to tap stimulus arsenal with bond-purchase mechanism, finance briefing

– China sets upbeat tone after meetings despite lack of supercharged stimulus

– China’s commitment to economy not undermined in absence of large stimulus: analysts

– China economic planner confident on growth, to front-load 100 billion yuan: as it happened

– How China’s 2024 stimulus compares with past packages, and what’s next?

Electric buses: can 100% tariff pain kill China’s resolve to dominate global market?

https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3282016/electric-buses-can-100-tariff-pain-kill-chinas-resolve-dominate-global-market?utm_source=rss_feed

In the first of a three-part series on electric vehicles (EVs), Eric Ng looks at how China’s dominant position in commercial EVs such as electric buses and coaches hold up amid rising geopolitical tension and trade protectionism.

Kent Chang, CEO of Asia-Pacific at Yutong Bus, China’s and the world’s largest bus and coaches maker, has been busy courting new customers. After a trade show in Chile in August and Australia in September, he is next bound for the Philippines and Thailand.

He is not alone. At the biennial National Coach and Bus show in Brisbane last month, Chinese peers like King Long United Automotive Industry and Foton Motor Group were also in the mix. BYD, the world’s largest electric-vehicle maker, also presented its fleet. Together, their prominence epitomises China’s leadership in the electrification of public transport.

In one decade, China has replaced 80 per cent of its public buses with a fleet powered by electricity and hydrogen fuel cells. The nation’s biggest manufacturers are now seeking to replicate the success globally, including in some of the more hostile markets. It will not be a stroll, amid growing trade barriers and protectionist measures in North America and Europe.

“Australia is important for us not only because it is a sizeable market for new energy vehicles, but also a showcase for the entire Asia-Pacific region,” Chang said at the Brisbane show, after unveiling a new electric bus technology platform that boosts driving ranges, cuts operating costs and enhances safety.

As China’s domestic market matures, overseas markets are key to future profitability. At stake are multibillion-dollar programmes by various governments to phase out diesel- and gas-powered buses. Rival like Volvo Group and Scania of Sweden are also eyeing these contracts.

The New South Wales government is seeking to replace its 8,000-odd diesel and natural gas-powered buses in stages by 2047. In Victoria, the state government requires all new public transport buses acquired from 2024 to be zero-emissions ones. Queensland declared the same policy in August last year.

“Business is looking good,” said Greg Abel, national sales manager for buses at Foton Mobility Group, the Australian distributor of new energy trucks and buses for Beijing-based Foton Motor. “Australia’s zero-emission commercial vehicles market is in the early stages of development and is poised to see some changes shortly. We are just waiting for the [purchase] decisions to be made by the various [state] governments.”

Foton recently sold three hydrogen fuel cell buses to the Tasmanian government, after deploying two in Adelaide for trial operations, Abel said. It has also sold two battery-powered buses to a company running shuttle services at Wollongong University, outside Sydney. Foton had in 2021 commissioned Australia’s first commercial hydrogen bus with technology from Japan’s Toyota and China’s SinoHytec.

“Sales of new energy vehicles will take off in coming years on the back of policies to phase out diesel buses,” said Zhao Junjie, overseas product manager at Yutong. Fossil fuel buses, which emit 40 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, still account for 90 per cent of Yutong’s sales in Australia, he added.

Yutong, the market leader based in Zhengzhou in central Henan province, has sold 190,000 new-energy commercial vehicles in 100 countries including France, UK, Denmark, Australia, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia, according to its website. Including fossil-fuelled buses, it has garnered a 10 per cent share of the global markets, on top of a commanding 36 per cent share at home.

The path to North American and European markets is certain to be rocky. The US and Canada last month slapped a 100 per cent tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles, including buses, to counter state subsidies and level the playing field. In the EU, electric buses have narrowly escaped tariffs of as high as 45 per cent.

The levy adds to the “Buy America” provision that requires that metals and goods bought for a transit project with public funds be produced domestically, according to Heather Thompson, CEO of Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) in New York, a non-government organisation that promotes sustainable and equitable transport.

“The verdict is still out on whether China’s industry dominance can be sustained,” she said. “Competition is growing in key regions like the US and the EU, bolstered by politics favouring domestic market protectionist measures that limit international trade of vehicles and components.”

To overcome the hurdle, Chinese exporters will need to establish production facilities there, she added. For example, BYD has already set up an operation in North America since 2013 to make buses, hiring more than 1,000 workers for its manufacturing facility in California and Ontario, Canada.

Chinese manufacturers started electric bus development more than a decade ago, building their leadership with cost advantage in a huge domestic market. Favourable state policies also helped spur the development of battery and hydrogen fuel cell buses, while generous subsidies also aided sales.

There were 554,400 new energy public buses in China at the end of 2023, accounting for 81 per cent of the entire bus fleet, according to data published by the Ministry of Transport. It has risen 15-fold from 37,000 in 2014, when they made up just 7 per cent of the total fleet.

After reaching 90 per cent in 2020, China’s share of global electric bus sales shrunk to 60 per cent in 2023 as local sales growth cooled and overseas markets grew, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). The fall in demand could be a consequence of China’s early success, it said.

“Around 65 per cent of China’s electric bus stock was deployed before 2019,” IEA said. “It was also linked to the ending of [China’s] purchase subsidies of all-battery and hybrid electric buses at the end of 2022.”

The subsidies have since been replaced by an “old-for-new” incentive. From August, fleet owners stand to gain an 80,000 yuan rebate for each new electric bus acquired, if they retire one that is at least eight years old.

Some 140,000 buses, or a quarter of the existing stock on the road, meet that criteria, according to analysts at China Securities. Make no mistake, though. The future growth potential lies outside the country, they said.

Bus makers sold about 50,000 new energy buses last year, or only 3 per cent of sales worldwide, according to IEA, due to a slow transition in most emerging markets. In some developed markets like Canada, Finland, Netherland, Portugal and Sweden, they made up one-fifth of sales. That can accelerate with further state support, it added.

Electric buses could exceed 60 per cent of total bus sales worldwide by 2030 and 83 per cent by 2040, according to a Bloomberg NEF report published in June. The existing global fleet of 3.4 million buses are responsible for about 1 per cent of the transport sector’s carbon emissions, it estimated.

Chinese manufacturers are already driving decarbonisation of the municipal bus fleet in some regions, said Thompson of ITDP. For example, they accounted for some 85 per cent of electric city bus deployments in Latin America, the region with the fastest transition outside China, she noted.

“China plays a critical role in the world’s e-bus market with major manufacturers like BYD and Yutong, among others, being the primary suppliers both domestically and in large overseas markets like South Asia and Latin America,” she said. “To ensure the e-bus sector continues to grow, we need to emphasise more cost-effective manufacturing that makes vehicle production and acquisition more attainable in the global market.”

For the Chinese bus manufacturers, overseas sales are more lucrative. In Yutong’s case, being able to sell at higher prices means it was able to achieve a gross profit margin of 31.7 per cent on exports last year, far higher than 23 per cent in the domestic market, according to analysts at China Securities.

Yutong’s core competencies – fast delivery, price competitiveness and relatively advanced technology – would help it realise its long term goal to double exports from last year’s 10,000 units, they wrote. The firm’s exports of new energy buses surged 134 per cent in the first half of the year.

Despite facing protectionist trade rules and rival manufacturers in developed markets, Yutong’s Chang said it will continue to seek new opportunities, especially at major global sporting events, to market its products. The Summer Olympic Games, to be hosted by Brisbane in 2032, is one such occasion, he noted.

“Every Olympics or Fifa World Cup event offers an opportunity for rapid acceleration of new energy buses adoption in the host nation,” he said, citing the company’s experience as the official supplier of electric coaches at the Winter Olympics in Beijing and the Fifa World Cup in Qatar, both in 2022.

Qatar, one of the world’s major oil and gas producers, has a goal to transform the nation’s entire fleet of public and school buses to electric by 2030.

“Qatar never once considered the necessity of electric buses in the past, but is now on the pathway to full electrification,” Chang said. “Once you have felt, touched and experienced electric buses, you would not want to go back to diesel buses.”

In the near term, North America and Europe remain a large pie outside China. But emerging markets, including smaller but sizeable ones like Indonesia, will grow in importance due to ongoing urbanisation and decarbonisation needs, presenting ample opportunities for the Chinese makers.

“With most of the world’s top e-bus manufacturers based in China, the future of the market will depend on other countries’ prioritising affordable EVs,” ITDP’s Thompson said. “To really bolster the global decarbonisation of bus fleets, we need to make sure that production is not siloed or hindered by policies that in turn slow deployment.”

Additional reporting by Yujie Xue in Shenzhen

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China men’s clothing KOL sells a million pairs of trousers using ‘emotional value’

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/article/3281774/china-mens-clothing-kol-sells-million-pairs-trousers-using-emotional-value?utm_source=rss_feed

A woman live-streamer in China has topped the men’s clothing sales league on Douyin sparking a heated discussion on mainland social media.

The woman, known as “High-end sister”, reportedly sold more than a million pairs of men’s trousers.

She operates a matrix of accounts focused on selling menswear, with the most popular, KaLanFort High-end, based in Guangxi autonomous region in southern China.

High-end sister has attracted more than 800,000 followers.

Her sales strategy is said to provide “emotional value” by creating an immersive, fantasy-like setting in her live-streams, which helps male customers feel as though they are successful tycoons.

In each video, she dresses as an elegant secretary who wears a fitted business suit, a short skirt, and high heels.

While showcasing the trousers, she markets them as high-end and perfect for successful men, despite their affordable price tag of 158 yuan (US$22).

“Successful men with status must have this pair of trousers in their wardrobe,” she says. “If you’re chasing success in a big city, wearing these will elevate your status and give you face.”

The settings in her videos and live-streams are created to align with her marketing strategies.

She often films in so-called high-end locations such as Shenzhen’s central business district in southern China amid the gleaming skyscrapers, or with luxury car dealerships in the background.

The male models in her videos wear expensive accessories to reinforce an image of material success.

As she describes the product she is selling, the model might reveal a tantalising glimpse of a Rolex watch or Maserati keys.

She also employs stunts to highlight the practicality of the clothes.

For example, to demonstrate the air permeability and sweat absorption of trousers she will use a Maotai liquor bottle filled with water and pour the liquid onto the garment.

She once hung a pair of trousers from a fishing rod to demonstrate how light they were.

In a further attempt to persuade buyers that the inexpensive clothes are high-end, she sometimes places them in a safe, presenting them as if they were luxury products.

Her strategies are successful, as her six men’s clothing accounts have collectively generated estimated sales of between 4.35 million yuan (US$615,000) and 8.75 million yuan in July, according to Newrank, a Chinese social media evaluation and big data analytics platform.

She has reportedly sold a total of 1.12 million pairs of trousers and has also attracted female admirers, who marvel at her dedication to hosting daily live-streams for hours in full make-up without a break.

“I’ve seen these videos a few times. As a woman, I cannot help but watch them. They are compelling,” one woman said.

“Her soft, rhythmic tone of voice is good. No wonder she is making money,” a broadcast student said.

But not all feedback was positive.

One viewer said: “I found the content panders to the male gaze. After watching it a few times, I felt uncomfortable and blocked her.”

“Her gentle voice, body-hugging office outfits and high heels certainly captivate her targeted male audience. Who else would treat those customer groups buying 158-yuan pants with such tenderness, care, and consideration?” said another.

Milton vs Yagi: why do superstorms kill more people in US than China?

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3282023/milton-vs-yagi-why-do-superstorms-kill-more-people-us-china?utm_source=rss_feed

China and the US have each been hit by two major tropical cyclones this year. But while they were similar in terms of strength – and one struck the Chinese mainland harder than the other three – there were hundreds of American deaths, against six in China.

Tropical cyclones – called typhoons or hurricanes depending on the region – are a familiar threat in certain parts of the world. But the damage they cause varies greatly from country to country.

While some of the differences can be attributed to nature, human factors also come into play when determining the resilience of communities in the face of devastating weather events, according to experts.

Florida was hit by two powerful tropical cyclones in the space of 12 days. Hurricane Milton, a Category 3 storm, made landfall on Wednesday night near Siesta Key in Sarasota County, Florida. At least 16 people have died, the latest data shows.

On September 26, Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region, near the city of Perry, leaving more than 200 people dead. More than half of the fatalities occurred in North Carolina.

On the other side of the world, Super Typhoon Yagi swept across the Philippines, Hong Kong, three southern Chinese provinces and other Southeast Asian countries after forming in late August.

Yagi was packing winds of around 245km/h (152mph) when it made landfall in Wenchang, Hainan province, on September 6. In contrast, Milton was at 205km/h (120mph) when it hit Florida while Helene recorded maximum sustained winds of 220km/h (140mph).

More than 1.2 million people were affected by Yagi as it crossed southern China causing widespread power outages and disruptions to telecoms services, but there were relatively few casualties, with four deaths and 95 people injured.

In mid-September, Shanghai was lashed by Typhoon Bebinca, recording peak winds of 151km/h (94mph) when it made landfall. Local authorities said two people died in Kunshan, Jiangsu province, as a result of Bebinca’s passage.

Wang Naiyu, director of the REN Centre for Urban Resilience at Zhejiang University, noted significant differences in emergency warning and rescue models between China and the United States.

In his own province of Zhejiang, on China’s eastern coast, the government deploys large numbers of frontline workers to go door-to-door before a typhoon strikes to ensure that everyone is evacuated as required.

In contrast, the US does not enforce mandatory evacuations, according to Wang. Instead, the authorities issue warnings and leave the decision to evacuate up to the residents themselves.

Meteorologist Jeff Masters, who writes for the website Yale Climate Connections, said that in China “mandatory” really meant mandatory, so there were fewer people in harm’s way when a storm hit.

“The death toll from hurricanes in the US tends to be higher because a ‘mandatory’ evacuation order is not really mandatory – up to 40 per cent of the population will ignore it,” he said.

More than 410,000 people in southern China were relocated in preparation for Yagi’s landfall. Classes were cancelled and parks closed, while People’s Liberation Army soldiers stationed in Wenchang were ready to help with disaster relief.

Similarly, in anticipation of Bebinca, more than 414,000 people were relocated the day before its arrival and residents were advised to stay indoors. Flights, ferries and trains were suspended. Meanwhile, 56,000 rescuers in more than 2,500 teams were on standby.

According to Zhao Jiuwei, associate professor at Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, public awareness is one of the most important aspects of typhoon preparation.

“To mitigate the damage from typhoons, it is crucial to raise public awareness of disaster prevention, improve the accuracy of economic loss prediction models, and ensure effective post-disaster reconstruction efforts,” he said.

Observers in China also noted that the US did not appear to perform as well in providing emergency relief in the wake of the storms.

In a White House press briefing on October 2 to detail the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) response to Hurricane Helene, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said funding was an issue.

“We are meeting the immediate needs with the money that we have. We are expecting another hurricane hitting. We do not have the funds. FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season and what is imminent,” he said, according to the readout.

After Yagi, the National Development and Reform Commission – China’s top economic planning entity – allocated 200 million yuan (US$28.2 million) for disaster relief, focused on repairing roads, bridges and dams as well as restoring schools, hospitals and other public facilities.

In Hainan province, the PLA soldiers stationed in Wenchang worked with firefighters and residents to restore water, power and communications. Just a few days later, the damaged infrastructure was largely repaired.

In the US, the government’s response has been criticised as inefficient and slow but there has also been a rise in misinformation about post-hurricane relief efforts on social media, including claims that victims have been abandoned.

The issue has become heavily politicised, with President Joe Biden admonishing Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his campaign team for spreading “reckless, irresponsible and relentless disinformation and outright lies” about the federal response.

In terms of economic losses from tropical cyclones, the two countries have different assessment models, making direct comparisons difficult. Nevertheless, both Nanjing University’s Zhao and Masters agree that the US probably faces the higher risk.

Masters noted that the damage from a landfalling storm tended to be higher in the US, because it was a richer country with more assets concentrated in vulnerable coastal areas. Preliminary estimates suggest Yagi caused US$12 billion damage to China, while Helene’s destruction could amount to as much as US$34 billion.

An in-depth look at China’s economic crisis, and why inexperience is fuelling the fire

https://www.scmp.com/economy/economic-indicators/article/3281908/depth-look-chinas-economic-crisis-and-why-inexperience-fuelling-fire?utm_source=rss_feed

This is the first in a three-part series delving into the unprecedented challenges China is facing on its road to economic recovery, from inexperience in dealing with such crises to the compounding implications of internal demographic shifts and external trade hurdles.

The topsy-turvy roller-coaster ride that has seen China’s economy teetering on the rails for the past four years has left Zack Yao clinging to whatever business he can muster while struggling to determine when the wild ride will end.

At 37 years old, the seller of electric power tools in the eastern province of Zhejiang has never experienced anything like the series of ups and downs that accompanied China’s pandemic years and subsequent attempts to return to economic normality.

“I can still feel the sting every time I recall what I went through,” he said. “The memories are fresh.”

He hearkened back to when “everything ground to a halt in early 2020”, leaving him with no revenue for months, followed by a gradual resumption in economic activities and fluctuating earnings as snap lockdowns were imposed under China’s adherence to a zero-Covid policy. These included lockdowns from March to June 2022 in Shanghai, which borders Zhejiang to the south.

After restrictive pandemic policies were lifted later that year, glimmering hope appeared at the end of the tumultuous tunnel.

“I was overwhelmed by a sudden spike in orders in the second quarter of 2023 after China opened up and the city I live in launched new projects,” he said. “I rushed to rent a new warehouse and hire more shop assistants.”

But to his dismay, gleaned hope warped into a mirage. The business pickup was short-lived, and the woeful ride resumed.

By the end of last year, his sales had plunged back to those dismal 2020 levels as China’s economic malaise took its enduring toll. Yao had little choice but to slash costs where he could, including letting staff go. Still, his combined losses over the past four years, he says, equate to his total earnings in the five years before Covid.

“What keeps me up at night is I have no idea when the losses are going to end,” he lamented.

Yao’s experience is far from unique. He is among the countless Chinese residents feeling the pinch of a prolonged downturn. The national economy is facing its sternest test in decades, and the leadership hierarchy in Beijing, while steadfastly determined to press on with an economic transition, has never faced a spiral of such magnitude. Analysts point out that policymakers have no playbook for what has transpired in China, nor does the general public have a comparable frame of reference.

Meanwhile, the growth of China’s gross domestic product is a constant cause of concern. Amid efforts to avoid stagnation, employment and consumer confidence have not fared well. It is estimated that for every single percentage point of GDP growth in China, about 2 million jobs can be created.

The youth-unemployment rate, comprising people aged 16 to 24 but excluding college students as of July last year, has been particularly bleak. It reached a post-adjustment high of 18.8 per cent in August – putting nearly one in five young people of employment age out of work.

Also weighing on household and business confidence is the sluggish growth in China’s consumer price index – a measure for inflation that has long hovered around 1 per cent, amplifying deflationary pressures.

Meanwhile, shrinking balance sheets across the country were underscored by a contraction of new yuan loans to companies and households in July - the first such contraction in 19 years.

“I’ve never seen anything like this in my 30-year career,” Li Xunlei, chief economist of Zhongtai Securities, said at an investor conference in September.

“For years, the property market has been plunging – in search of a bottom – with the stock market stuck in bear territory,” added Li, famed for macroeconomic research.

The current crisis is different from the previous storms that China had weathered – namely the high inflation seen in the 1980s, the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the 2008 global financial tsunami – in terms of duration, scale and magnitude, as well as the root cause, according to analysts.

Beijing’s swift and resolute actions in the past proved effective in tackling those challenges, but now the unprecedented extended downturn may require a combination of decisive actions, protocols and systematic mechanisms, the pundits have concluded.

“The challenges are on a greater scale today than before, given the weight on the economy created by the property sector and the local government debt burden,” said James Zimmerman, a partner at international law firm Perkins Coie.

“In prior crises, most of the issues were external. Today, the challenges are mainly coming from within,” added Zimmerman, also a former chair of the American Chamber of Commerce in China.

Zhou Zheng, a senior analyst with Zurich-headquartered consultancy China Macro Group, echoed that sentiment in noting how the current challenges are unlike any that have come before.

“Beijing has had its fair share of blunders and missteps in recent years,” Zhou said, pointing to leadership’s inexperience in dealing with such calamities.

At the end of the 1980s, pro-market pricing liberalisation, economic overheating, a boom in fixed-asset investment and unchecked monetary supply set inflation alight, and the consumer price index soared 18.8 per cent between 1987 and 1989.

As bank runs and panic buying started to spread, Beijing rushed to slam the brakes on credit supply and axed thousands of infrastructure projects nationwide to arrest surging prices. In a first, the central bank also pledged inflation protections for depositors.

Those measures paid off in the short term, as inflation was defused in 1990, saving the national economy from catastrophe as Beijing pivoted to rekindle sentiment in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989.

A few years later, amid the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Beijing promptly launched countercyclical measures and eased fiscal policies to support domestic demand to compensate for slumping exports when its neighbours were embroiled in a financial contagion.

Beijing elevated reforms of the financial sector and state-owned enterprises to the top of its agenda. The People’s Bank of China lowered interest rates by half between 1997 and 1999 but withstood the yuan’s depreciation pressure.

In around a year, Beijing’s measures helped China emerge from the crisis largely unscathed.

Then, in 2008, when the world was engulfed in a financial tsunami, Beijing raced to get ahead of the fallout by unveiling a 4-trillion-yuan stimulus just two months after Western financial markets began to melt down. Leadership abandoned earlier aspirations to prevent overheating and inflation, fiscal policies became expansionary, and the budget-deficit ceiling was raised with more government bond issuances. The central bank also trimmed interest rates and reserve-requirement ratios to prop up the battered economy.

“This combination of stimulus and lower rates helped spark a pickup in growth by the second quarter of 2009,” praised the International Monetary Fund in a 2010 report.

However, while that swift action helped mitigate the impact of shock waves from abroad, it left China facing an enormous debt crisis, particularly among local governments and state-owned enterprises.

This time around, Beijing has been much more reserved in its stimulus efforts. A political scientist at Peking University said that, until the stimulus announcement in late September, Beijing spent more than a year beating around the bush amid rising calls to do more for an economy in crisis.

“The [response] slowness was indicative of its inexperience and cluelessness in tackling something as big as this,” said the scholar, who declined to be named as he was not authorised to speak to non-state media.

Comparisons have also been made between how Beijing has handled the unprecedented challenges and America and Japan’s experiences and lessons.

Li Xuenan, a finance professor at the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, said that the United States, which is no stranger to economic upheavals, has a mature response mechanism.

“The US has a well-oiled response process formed through losses, experiences and hard-fought lessons as it staggered from one crisis to the next – including the Great Depression,” Li said.

The Great Depression, the first mammoth downturn that the US grappled with, in the 1920s and ’30s, marked the establishment of some institutions and policies that have helped the country tide over subsequent crises.

Washington broke with norms and doctrinaire economic theories under President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal between 1933 and 1938 to salvage the US economy.

Roosevelt fired on all cylinders with proactive monetary policies for the Fed to pump liquidity into the market and scrap the gold standard that allowed the depreciation of the US dollar to stave off deflation. Expansionary fiscal policies also worked in unison, with more government spending and subsidies to households that proved conducive to economic recovery.

The US’ policy regime and transmission mechanism, including rate adjustments, have thus been formed in the past century. “Today, the Fed’s rate cuts, for instance, can have almost instantaneous effects. This is the envy of many central banks,” Li said.

“In contrast, Beijing still needs to accumulate experience and grow contingency-planning capabilities, and it needs a smooth transmission mechanism to cope with current and future events,” she added.

What is afflicting China also bears striking similarities to Japan’s economic difficulties in past decades.

“China’s ongoing hardship is acute and may be around for much longer than many may think, as we look at Japan’s protracted recession and dissect its lessons,” said the PKU scholar.

Richard Koo, chief economist at the Nomura Research Institute, told the Post in May that, for China to prevail over these deep woes that also bedevilled Japan for years, it needs experience in building resilient economic and societal foundations – something China is still lacking.

“If GDP stays the same and your social structure remains intact and people help each other, then [recession] won’t be so bad” as it was in Japan, Koo said. “If the social structure and bond aren’t so strong in China, and things start falling apart, it could get much uglier.”

The raft of stimulus policies that Chinese authorities fired off last month included mortgage rate cuts and new tools to boost the stock market. President Xi Jinping also issued a rallying call to Chinese officials in a bid to prevent property from further slumping, and to stabilise growth, marking leadership’s most forcible pivot since the pandemic.

However, economists and observers said it may take time to restore confidence among consumers and businesses to the point that it ultimately revives the whole economy.

One lingering question is whether the shift represents a strategic policy pivot or merely a short-term tactical move.

“Many of the initiatives launched last month are things that economists have [wanted] for years, together with more fundamental reforms that have yet to be initiated,” said Zimmerman at Perkins Coie.

“New stimulus measures are just a tactic. Without a strategy for restoring investor and consumer confidence, it’s all for naught.”

But Zhou at China Macro Group said a strategic transition is still under way, albeit slowly.

“There was already the pain from an economy in transition since the 2010s, which Beijing deemed necessary to upgrade industries. Had it not been for the trade war and Covid, the transition and upgrades could have borne enough fruit to put the Chinese economy in a far better shape than it is now,” he stressed.

“The transition, though slowed and more painful, is still ongoing.”

Professor Li at Cheung Kong also deemed September’s stimulus tactical, but stressed that Beijing has never lost sight of a strategic transition.

“Last month’s stimulus serves as more of a confidence boost,” she explained. “Beijing will not rely only on monetary-policy tweaks nor the stock market to reboot the economy. The real deal is always [China’s] economic transformation and tech innovation.”

Additional reporting by Sylvia Ma

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US Seeks Ban on Chinese, Russian Tech for Self-driving Vehicles

https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/us-seeks-ban-on-chinese-russian-tech-for-self-driving-vehicles/7805225.html

The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has proposed a ban on the sale of self-driving vehicles in the U.S. using Chinese or Russian technologies.

The proposal was recently announced by the U.S. Commerce Department. The ban would bar sales of internet-connected and self-driving vehicles equipped with software or hardware provided by China or Russia.

The purpose of the measure is to protect national security and American drivers, the Commerce Department said. A press release called the connectivity and autonomous vehicle technologies “critical systems” that need strong protection.

The department noted that providing access to such systems through software or hardware could lead some foreign governments to “collect our most sensitive data” and seek to control vehicles on American roads.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo spoke to reporters from The Associated Press (AP) and other media organizations last week about the proposal. She described a possible extreme situation in which a foreign enemy could shut down or take control of multiple vehicles operating in the U.S. Such an incident could cause major crashes and huge traffic problems, Raimondo said.

“This is not about trade or economic advantage. This is a strictly national security action,” Raimondo said. She added, “The good news is right now, we don’t have many Chinese or Russian cars on our road."

Raimondo said leaders in Europe and other parts of the world had raised security concerns about the large number of Chinese vehicles already on the roads in their areas. Imported Chinese-owned vehicle models captured 7.6 percent of Europe’s electric car market in 2023, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association said. That was up from 2.9 percent in 2020.

Janka Oertel is director of the Asia program at the European Council on Foreign Relations. She wrote on the council’s website that the security concerns in Europe included “matters of national security, cybersecurity and individual privacy.”

Raimondo noted the U.S. cannot wait until the nation’s roads are already populated with vehicles containing Chinese or Russian technology. “We're issuing a proposed rule to address these new national security threats before suppliers, automakers and car components linked to China or Russia become commonplace and widespread in the U.S.,” she said.

Commerce Department officials said the proposed ban on software would take effect with 2027 vehicle model years. A ban on hardware would take effect beginning with 2030 models. The officials said the different dates were set because software is much easier to change than physical hardware parts.

The software and hardware bans would cover vehicles equipped to communicate through Bluetooth, cellular, satellite or Wi-Fi systems. It would also ban the sale or import of software made in Russia or China that permits self-driving vehicles to operate without a driver in control. The ban would also cover vehicles made in the U.S. using Chinese and Russian technology.

The proposed rule would be for all vehicles except those not used on public roads, such as vehicles used for agricultural or mining purposes.

American automakers have said they share the government's national security goal. But currently, they say the need for such a measure is low. That is because there is very little software and hardware technology coming to American vehicles from China and Russia.

But the industry group Alliance for Automotive Innovation said the new rules will force some automakers to immediately search for new parts suppliers. “You can't just flip a switch and change the world's most complex supply chain overnight,” said the organization’s chief, John Bozzella.

Bozzella noted the timetables to begin the ban should be long enough for some automakers to make changes, “but may be too short for others.”

Administration officials told the AP that Commerce Department representatives met with officials from all major auto companies around the world while preparing the proposals. The officials also met with different industry organizations in an effort to understand the current supply chain issues.

The Commerce Department is currently taking public comments on the ban. This process generally lasts for 30 days after a rule is published. Agency officials said the finalization of the measure should happen by the end of the Biden Administration.

I’m Bryan Lynn.

 

The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse reported on this story. Bryan Lynn adapted the reports for VOA Learning English.

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Words in This Story

autonomous – v. acting separately from other people or things

advantage – n. a condition that provides a greater chance of success

access – n. the right or chance to use of see something

strict – v. strong or complete

advantage – n. something good about a situation that helps you

component – adj. one of the parts of something, especially a piece of electronic equipment

cellular – n. relating to cellular phones

flip a switch – phr idiom. to completely change something or make something happen quickly and easily

supply chain – n. the system of people and things that gets a product from its place of manufacture to the person who buys it