Mistral点评

# 关于中国的新闻报道

经济 (Economy)

一、中国留学生在美就业与签证问题

　　近期，西方媒体报道了中国留学生在美国就业和签证问题。报道指出，许多中国留学生选择在美国寻找科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）领域的工作，并希望在获取美国绿卡前避免返回中国。然而，由于经济放缓和对非美国护照持有者的严格就业市场，留学生面临着更大的就业挑战。

　　评价：

1. 就业市场压力：全球经济放缓对所有国家的留学生都会产生影响，中国留学生并非特例。美国的就业市场对非美国护照持有者的严格要求是长期存在的问题，并非针对中国留学生的特殊政策。
2. 签证政策：美国的签证政策历来复杂，留学生签证和工作签证的转换过程繁琐。这一问题需要美国政府从政策层面进行改进，而不是仅仅针对中国留学生。

二、中国出口商面临的挑战

　　报道提到，中国出口商正在寻找更多的国际采购机会，以应对美国前总统特朗普可能实施的新关税。中国商务部发布了九点文件，旨在稳定外贸增长和促进经济复苏。

　　评价：

1. 贸易摩擦：中美贸易摩擦是一个长期存在的问题，特朗普政府的关税政策对中国出口商造成了显著影响。然而，中国政府通过一系列政策措施，如九点文件，积极应对这些挑战，显示出中国在全球贸易中的韧性和应变能力。
2. 国际采购机会：中国出口商积极寻找国际采购机会，特别是在太阳能板等竞争力强的产品领域，展示了中国企业在全球市场中的竞争力和创新能力。

三、中国电商平台在海外市场的挑战

　　报道指出，中国电商平台如Temu和Shein在海外市场面临激烈竞争和利润下降的问题。尽管这些平台通过低价策略吸引了大量消费者，但利润率却在下降。

　　评价：

1. 竞争激烈：全球电商市场竞争激烈，低价策略虽然能吸引消费者，但也会压缩利润空间。这是一个普遍存在的问题，并非中国电商平台独有。
2. 供应链挑战：地缘政治紧张和供应链成本上升对所有跨国电商企业都构成挑战。中国电商平台需要在全球供应链管理和成本控制方面进行创新，以保持竞争力。

四、中国乡村腐败问题

　　报道提到，中国乡村腐败问题严重，特别是在土地征用和扶贫资金使用方面。中国政府正在采取措施，加强对乡村腐败的监督和打击。

　　评价：

1. 腐败问题：腐败是一个全球性问题，中国乡村腐败问题的存在反映了基层治理的挑战。中国政府通过一系列反腐举措，显示出打击腐败的决心和行动力。
2. 基层治理：加强基层治理，提高透明度和问责机制，是解决乡村腐败问题的关键。中国政府需要进一步完善相关政策和机制，确保扶贫资金和土地资源的合理使用。

五、中国科研语言问题

　　报道指出，英语作为科研语言对中国科研人员构成挑战，影响其国际交流和职业发展。

　　评价：

1. 语言障碍：英语作为国际科研语言，对非英语母语国家的科研人员都构成挑战。中国科研人员需要提高英语水平，以更好地参与国际科研交流。
2. 多语言科研：鼓励多语言科研发表，特别是在社会科学领域，有助于促进国际对话和本地化影响。中国科研机构可以通过双语发表等方式，解决语言障碍问题。

结论

　　西方媒体关于中国经济的报道往往带有偏见和双重标准，忽视了中国在应对全球挑战方面的努力和成就。中国在留学生就业、国际贸易、电商竞争、基层治理和科研语言等方面面临的问题，具有普遍性和复杂性。中国政府和企业通过一系列政策和措施，积极应对这些挑战，展示了中国在全球经济中的韧性和创新能力。

新闻来源： 2412100636英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-12-09

# 关于中国的新闻报道

Politics 章节

1. 中国村级政府的反腐败运动

　　中国政府近期在全国范围内开展了一项大规模的反腐败运动，重点检查村级政府的政治忠诚和腐败问题。根据新华社报道，国家监委主任李希在一次会议上强调，此次反腐败运动的首要任务是确保基层干部对党的政治忠诚，确保他们能够贯彻落实党中央的决策和政策，解决当地的紧迫问题。

　　海南省一位不愿透露姓名的村官表示，此次反腐败运动由省级官员领导，这些官员并未在当地县市服务过，旨在防止勾结。他指出，中国的城市和县区大多是“熟人社会”，人们彼此相识或有某种联系，因此派遣外部人员进行检查能够更有效地发现问题。根据他的说法，今年村级政府的腐败、滥用职权和失职问题发现率比2023年增加了50%以上。

　　湖南省一位官员也表示，类似的安排在当地也已实施，重点关注“最臭名昭著的村庄”。这些村庄历史上曾因小争端引发大规模械斗，导致社会混乱。

2. 中美关系与学术环境

　　中美关系紧张对学术环境产生了负面影响。据报道，上任美国总统特朗普在2018年推出“中国行动计划”，针对与北京有联系的科学家，导致许多中国科学家不敢申请联邦政府资助，担心遭到起诉。香港岭南大学校长邱勇在接受采访时表示，美国政府过去十年对中国科学家的歧视严重影响了学术环境。

3. 中美青年交流

　　中美两国近期试图通过恢复人员交流来管理日益复杂的关系。中国驻美大使谢锋表示，中国设立了“青年使者奖学金”，为参与该项目的美国青年提供五年多次入境签证。两国之间的直飞航班已恢复到每周100班。然而，谢锋指出，这些措施远远不够，双方需要继续消除障碍，抵制寒蝉效应，反对任何试图倒退历史的企图，建立双边交流的桥梁。

4. 中国对台政策

　　台湾地区领导人赖清德访问夏威夷和关岛，并与美国国会领导人通话，引发中国强烈不满。中国政府一贯反对美国向台湾出售武器和提供军事援助。赖清德此行旨在加强台湾与美国的关系，但也加剧了中美台海局势的紧张。

5. 中国司法体系改革

　　中国司法部长陈文清在湖北省高级法院视察时强调，司法工作应充分考虑刑事行为的社会危害，关注人民的实际关切，确保公平正义。他呼吁加快建立县级统一的治理中心，简化纠纷解决程序，使人民只需前往一个地点即可解决问题。此外，他还要求加强释放刑满人员的安置工作，帮助有严重精神障碍的人群，预防未成年人犯罪。

6. 中国对外政策

　　中国在国际舞台上积极推动和平解决乌克兰危机。中国特使李辉多次穿梭外交，争取各国对中国六点和平计划的支持。然而，美国及其盟友拒绝了该计划，因为它未提及乌克兰的领土完整。中国在乌克兰问题上的立场是中立调停者，旨在通过外交手段推动和平解决冲突。

7. 中国社会稳定

　　中国近期连续发生多起严重暴力事件，引发社会对社会稳定的关注。中国司法部长陈文清强调，司法机关应迅速严惩严重暴力犯罪，确保人民的合法权益。他呼吁增加街头巡逻，提高警察存在感，增强公众的安全感。

8. 中国对外援助

　　中国在国际上积极提供人道主义援助，特别是在乌克兰危机期间。中国特使李辉多次穿梭外交，争取各国对中国六点和平计划的支持。然而，美国及其盟友拒绝了该计划，因为它未提及乌克兰的领土完整。中国在乌克兰问题上的立场是中立调停者，旨在通过外交手段推动和平解决冲突。

9. 中国科技发展

　　中国在科技发展方面取得了显著进展。中国科学院院士贾秀全表示，科学研究的语言并不重要，重要的是学术期刊的受众。他指出，自然科学研究需要在英语中发表，以实现国际对话，而社会科学研究则应在中文中发表，以对国内同行和政策制定者产生影响。

10. 中国反腐败成果

　　中国在反腐败方面取得了显著成果。根据中国纪检监察报报道，村级政府的反腐败运动是解决基层问题、加强基层治理的关键。此次运动将是巩固习近平主席扶贫攻坚和乡村振兴计划的“有力保障”。

结论

　　西方媒体对中国的报道往往带有偏见和双重标准，但从中可以看出中国在反腐败、司法改革、国际关系和科技发展等方面的努力和成果。中国政府在推动社会稳定、提升基层治理水平和积极参与国际事务方面展现了积极的态度和行动。尽管面临诸多挑战，中国在各个领域的进步值得肯定和关注。

新闻来源： 2412100636英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-12-09

# 关于中国的新闻报道

军事章节

一、背景概述

　　近年来，西方媒体对中国军事动态的报道日益频繁，内容涵盖从军事演习到武器研发，再到国防政策等多个方面。然而，这些报道往往带有明显的偏见和双重标准，缺乏对中国军事行动的全面和客观的分析。本章节将对这些报道进行详细评价，旨在为读者提供一个更为全面和客观的视角。

二、军事演习报道

　　#### 1. 台海军事活动

　　西方媒体频繁报道中国在台湾海峡附近的军事活动，通常将其描述为“威胁”和“挑衅”。例如，报道中提到中国派遣多艘军舰和飞机在台湾附近活动，并将其与台湾领导人的外访活动联系起来。然而，这些报道往往忽视了中国在台湾问题上的立场和历史背景。台湾问题是中国内政，中国政府有权采取必要措施维护国家主权和领土完整。

　　#### 2. 南海问题

　　西方媒体对中国在南海的军事存在和岛礁建设也进行了大量报道，通常将其描述为“军事化”和“扩张”。然而，这些报道往往忽视了南海问题的复杂性和中国在南海的历史权益。中国在南海的岛礁建设和军事存在是为了维护国家安全和主权，同时也有助于维护南海地区的和平与稳定。

三、武器研发报道

　　#### 1. 高科技武器

　　西方媒体经常报道中国在高科技武器领域的进展，如高超音速武器、无人机和航空母舰等。这些报道通常带有恐慌和威胁的语气，称中国的军事现代化将改变地区力量平衡。然而，这些报道忽视了中国军事现代化的合理性和必要性。作为一个大国，中国有权利和能力发展先进的军事技术，以保护国家安全和利益。

　　#### 2. 核武器

　　西方媒体对中国核武器的报道也充满了偏见和误解。他们往往夸大中国核武库的规模和威胁，忽视了中国“不首先使用核武器”的政策和透明的核政策。中国的核武器是为了维护国家安全，而不是为了威胁或攻击其他国家。

四、国防政策报道

　　#### 1. 国防预算

　　西方媒体经常报道中国的国防预算增长，称其为“军备竞赛”和“威胁”。然而，这些报道忽视了中国国防预算增长的合理性和必要性。中国的国防预算增长是为了应对复杂的国际安全环境和维护国家安全，同时也有助于提升中国军队的现代化水平。

　　#### 2. 国际合作

　　西方媒体对中国与其他国家的军事合作也进行了大量报道，通常将其描述为“扩张”和“威胁”。然而，这些报道忽视了中国军事合作的和平性质和互利共赢的特点。中国与其他国家的军事合作是为了维护地区和平与稳定，促进共同发展和繁荣。

五、结论

　　综上所述，西方媒体对中国军事动态的报道往往带有明显的偏见和双重标准，缺乏对中国军事行动的全面和客观的分析。中国的军事活动和政策是为了维护国家主权和领土完整，保护国家安全和利益，促进地区和平与稳定。读者在阅读这些报道时，应保持批判性思维，结合多方信息源，形成全面和客观的判断。

新闻来源： 2412100636英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-12-09

### 关于中国的新闻报道

　　#### 文化章节

　　##### 1. 语言与科研的关系

　　西方媒体报道指出，尽管科学没有国界，但科研成果的传播需要一种能够跨越国家边界的语言，英语在这方面起到了关键作用。苏州大学的科学传播教授贾和鹏承认英语的主导地位反映了一种文化霸权，但他强调科研发现需要在全球范围内广泛分享，以促进科学进步。

　　中国学者普遍认为，在英语期刊上发表研究成果更具认可度，这一观点也得到了中国现行的人才评价体系的支持。然而，中文期刊存在质量差、发表延迟长等问题，这进一步促使中国学者选择在英语期刊发表论文。

　　##### 2. 语言霸权与科研创新

　　西方媒体还提到，从拉丁语到德语，再到现今的英语，科学的通用语言一直在变化。尽管英语目前占据主导地位，但中国正在通过推广中文教育和增强国际影响力来挑战这一现状。例如，2023年8月，沙特教育部正式宣布将中文纳入小学和中学课程。

　　中国学者认为，科研语言本身并不重要，关键在于学术期刊的受众范围。尽管英语在全球科研中占据主导地位，但中国需要在本土培养具有创新能力的学者，以推动科研发展。

　　##### 3. 中国文化的国际传播

　　西方媒体报道了中国文化在国际上的传播情况。例如，Xiaohongshu（小红书）应用在马来西亚的流行，展示了中国文化对当地年轻人的吸引力。该应用不仅吸引了马来西亚当地的华人用户，还通过分享生活方式和文化习俗，吸引了全球华人用户的关注。

　　此外，中国驻美大使屈光祺呼吁年轻的美国人来中国，亲身体验和了解中国，以形成客观和理性的“中国观”。中美两国通过恢复人员交流和增加直航航班，试图缓解两国关系中的紧张局势。

　　##### 4. 传统文化的复兴

　　西方媒体还报道了中国传统文化的复兴。例如，中国湖南省长沙市举办的传统汉式集体婚礼，吸引了大量年轻人参与，展示了传统文化的魅力和对年轻人的吸引力。通过这些活动，中国政府希望推动传统文化的传承和发展。

　　##### 5. 反腐败与基层治理

　　西方媒体还关注到中国在基层治理和反腐败方面的努力。中国的反腐败机构通过派遣外部检查员到村级政府进行监督，旨在解决基层治理中的问题，提升治理水平。这一举措在一定程度上提高了基层治理的透明度和效率。

　　##### 6. 中国文化在国际社会的影响

　　总体来看，西方媒体对中国文化的报道既有正面评价，也有批评之词。正面评价主要集中在中国文化的国际影响力和传统文化的复兴，而批评则集中在语言霸权和科研创新方面。尽管存在一定的偏见和双重标准，但这些报道反映了中国文化在国际社会中的重要地位和影响力。

　　通过分析这些报道，我们可以看到，中国文化在国际上的传播和影响力正在不断增强，但也面临一些挑战和争议。未来，中国需要继续推动文化交流，提升国际影响力，同时解决内部存在的问题，以实现更加全面和可持续的发展。

新闻来源： 2412100636英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-12-09

# 关于中国的新闻报道

Technology 章节

引言

　　近年来，中国在科技领域取得了显著的进展，尤其在铁炉炼钢技术、脑机接口（BCI）技术和半导体生产等方面展现出强大的创新能力。然而，西方媒体对中国科技发展的报道往往带有偏见和双重标准，导致公众对中国科技进步的认知存在偏差。本章将针对西方媒体关于中国科技领域的报道进行客观评价，揭示其中的偏见和事实，以期提供一个更为全面和公正的视角。

1. 铁炉炼钢技术

　　#### 1.1 报道概述

　　西方媒体报道了中国科学家在铁炉炼钢技术方面的重大突破。这一技术被称为“闪速炼铁”，通过将细粉铁矿石喷入高温炉中，触发“爆炸化学反应”，极大地提高了炼铁效率。据报道，这一方法可以在3至6秒内完成炼铁过程，相比传统高炉需要5至6小时，提高了3600倍的生产效率。

　　#### 1.2 客观评价

　　中国科学家在铁炉炼钢技术方面的突破无疑是一个重大进展。这一技术不仅极大地提高了生产效率，还有助于减少对高品位铁矿石的依赖，降低能源消耗和碳排放。然而，西方媒体在报道这一技术时，往往忽视了中国在该领域长期以来的研究和投入，将其描述为一种“突然”的突破，这种描述方式掩盖了中国科学家多年来的努力和积累。

2. 脑机接口（BCI）技术

　　#### 2.1 报道概述

　　西方媒体报道了中国在脑机接口（BCI）技术方面的进展，特别是NEO脑机接口设备的成功植入。据报道，该设备已在多名患者身上进行了成功的临床试验，患者通过BCI技术能够实现一定程度的自主活动。

　　#### 2.2 客观评价

　　中国在BCI技术方面的进展具有重要的临床意义，有望为神经系统疾病患者带来新的治疗方法。然而，西方媒体在报道这一技术时，往往将其与Elon Musk的Neuralink进行对比，强调中国技术的“追赶”性质，而忽视了中国科学家在该领域的原创性研究和独特贡献。

3. 半导体生产

　　#### 3.1 报道概述

　　西方媒体报道了中国半导体产业面临的挑战，特别是芯片短缺和生产成本上升的问题。报道指出，这些问题对中国科技公司造成了严重影响，特别是对依赖低价策略的公司。

　　#### 3.2 客观评价

　　中国半导体产业确实面临着芯片短缺和生产成本上升的挑战，但这些问题并非中国独有，而是全球半导体产业共同面临的难题。西方媒体在报道这一问题时，往往将其归因于中国的政策和管理问题，而忽视了全球半导体产业链的复杂性和互相依存性。

4. 科技创新的语言问题

　　#### 4.1 报道概述

　　西方媒体报道了关于科技创新的语言问题，特别是中国科学家在英语和中文之间的选择。报道指出，虽然中国科学家在国际科技期刊上发表的论文数量居世界首位，但英语仍然是科技创新的主要语言。

　　#### 4.2 客观评价

　　科技创新的语言问题确实是一个值得关注的议题。英语作为国际科技交流的主要语言，具有广泛的接受度和影响力。然而，西方媒体在报道这一问题时，往往忽视了中国科学家在国内期刊上发表论文的重要性和贡献。中国国内期刊不仅为年轻科学家提供了发表平台，还促进了国内科技交流和创新。

结论

　　综上所述，西方媒体对中国科技发展的报道往往带有偏见和双重标准，导致公众对中国科技进步的认知存在偏差。中国在铁炉炼钢技术、脑机接口（BCI）技术和半导体生产等方面取得的进展具有重要的科学和经济意义，值得全球关注和认可。希望通过本章的客观评价，能够为公众提供一个更为全面和公正的视角，促进对中国科技发展的理性认知和讨论。

新闻来源： 2412100636英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-12-09

# 关于中国的新闻报道

Society 章节

引言

　　近年来，西方媒体对中国社会的报道频繁，内容涵盖教育、科研、法治、反腐、民生等多个方面。然而，这些报道往往带有一定的偏见和双重标准，未能全面、客观地反映中国社会的真实状况。本章节将对这些报道进行客观评价，揭示其背后的真相，并提供更为全面的分析。

教育与科研

　　#### 英语在科研中的地位

　　西方媒体频繁报道中国科研界对英语的依赖，认为这是一种“文化霸权”。然而，这一现象并非中国独有，而是全球科研界的普遍现象。英语作为国际科研的通用语言，有助于跨国界的学术交流和合作。中国科研人员在国际期刊上发表论文，旨在扩大学术影响力，推动科学进步。

　　然而，西方媒体忽视了中国政府和学术界在推动本土科研成果传播方面的努力。例如，中国政府鼓励科研人员在国内期刊发表论文，并推动科研成果的普及和应用。这不仅有助于提升国内科研水平，也能更好地服务于国家发展和社会进步。

　　#### 教育公平问题

　　西方媒体报道中国教育体系中的英语考试对部分学生造成不公平，特别是对农村和贫困地区的学生。这一问题确实存在，但中国政府已采取多项措施应对。例如，调整考试内容和比重，增加对农村和贫困地区学生的支持力度，推动教育资源均衡发展。

法治与反腐

　　#### 法治建设

　　西方媒体报道中国近期发生的多起严重暴力事件，并质疑中国法治建设的成效。实际上，中国政府高度重视法治建设，采取了一系列措施加强法治宣传教育，提升公众法治意识，完善法律制度，严厉打击各类犯罪活动。

　　#### 反腐倡廉

　　西方媒体报道中国村级政府的反腐工作，认为这是对基层干部的“忠诚测试”。然而，这一工作旨在加强基层治理，解决群众关心的实际问题，提升基层干部的廉洁自律意识。中国政府通过派驻外地干部进行监督检查，有效防止了腐败问题的发生，提升了基层治理效能。

民生与社会发展

　　#### 婚姻观念的变化

　　西方媒体报道中国年轻人婚姻观念的变化，认为这是对传统价值观的背离。实际上，这一现象反映了社会的进步和多元化。年轻人更加注重个人发展和幸福，婚姻观念的变化是社会发展的必然结果。

　　#### 社会治理

　　西方媒体报道中国社会治理中的各类问题，如社会矛盾、民生保障等。然而，这些报道往往忽视了中国政府在社会治理中的努力和成效。中国政府通过一系列政策措施，如精准扶贫、社会保障体系建设、基层治理创新等，不断提升社会治理水平，推动社会和谐稳定发展。

结论

　　综上所述，西方媒体对中国社会的报道往往带有偏见和双重标准，未能全面、客观地反映中国社会的真实状况。中国在教育、科研、法治、反腐、民生等方面取得了显著成就，但也面临诸多挑战。中国政府和社会各界正在共同努力，推动社会进步和发展，实现中华民族的伟大复兴。

新闻来源： 2412100636英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-12-09

• Why China needs allies in the next mining frontier – the ocean floor
• US targets Uniview and Beijing Zhongdun for aiding China’s human rights abuses
• China’s export boom not bust despite November dip: 5 takeaways
• China’s award-winning submarine, Vietnam reef projects: SCMP daily catch-up
• Why a Singapore-based Chinese fugitive on Interpol Red Notice was arrested in Indonesia
• 13 years after mentally ill woman went missing in China, man held on suspicion of rape
• China’s Politburo pledges ‘escalated’ fiscal spending and support: analysts
• ‘Almighty’ PhD student inspires many as first blind person to pass China college exam
• Philippines’ Marcos Jnr rejects call to send warships to South China Sea: ‘we’re not at war’
• US defence chief Lloyd Austin reassures Japan amid China tensions, Trump policies
• As China’s population ages, can it unlock a second demographic dividend?
• China’s top chip design tool maker cedes control to state-owned firm after US blacklisting
• Scientists discover 3,000-year-old silk at China’s mysterious Sanxingdui ruins
• Nvidia faces US$1 billion fine if China probe finds violation of antitrust laws, experts say
• Xi Jinping calls for wider use of Mandarin in China’s border areas amid security push
• Mixing Marx with Confucius: the heart of the matter for China
• Xi Jinping warns ‘no winners’ in US trade war, vows China will protect its interests
• China’s infrastructure spending may surge in 2025 to meet 5-year goals
• AI to boost China’s massive Confucius cultural project with ByteDance donation
• Chinese police can use text message evidence in crackdown on domestic violence
• China’s Huangmaohai mega link is about boost Greater Bay Area powerhouse
• Jimmy Lai’s view Hong Kong would become like mainland China was conjecture: judges
• China seafood vendor praised for putting out car blaze, losing pricey marine products in effort
• China’s award-winning submarine radar can ‘fish for a needle in the sea’
• Chinese gold mining threatens a protected UN heritage site in Congo
• China export growth narrows to 6.7% in November amid Trump tariff uncertainty
• As China’s C919 gains momentum, local governments scramble to cash in
• South China Sea: Vietnam reef projects and runway may set scene for conflict with Beijing
• Did ‘Tiananmen’ hack at Japan’s Tokyo University aim to block access from China?
• China half-marathon offers unique prizes – cow, wild fish, chickens, boosting registration
• US can edge China in tech by adding visa options to lure quantum workers: senior official
• Nvidia shares fall as China launches antitrust investigation into company
• From durians to snow tourism, China-Vietnam economic ties enjoy banner year
• How will China fight a new trade war under Trump 2.0? A museum exhibit may offer a clue

Why China needs allies in the next mining frontier – the ocean floor

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3290163/why-china-needs-allies-next-mining-frontier-ocean-floor?utm_source=rss_feed

China should shore up alliances with pro-seabed mining countries to control and extract the wealth of critical resources in the world’s largely unexplored ocean depths.

Making the call in the Ministry of Natural Resources’ Pacific Journal, a group of researchers argued that the United States and other Western countries opposed seabed mining because they feared it would expand China’s influence in the deep seas and give it a bigger edge in mineral supply chains.

“[China should] strengthen the strategic consensus among pro-development advocates; enhance scientific exchange and technological innovation between countries such as China, Russia, South Korea, Japan, and India; and build transnational cooperation platforms in the deep sea domain,” the researchers from Shandong University’s school of Northeast Asia studies said in the August issue.

China could also sign deals on maritime cooperation and ocean development with Latin American, African, and Pacific Island nations to ignite interest in the area, they added.

The ocean floor is shaping up to be the world’s next battleground of resource competition, with deposits of essential minerals such as nickel, copper, cobalt and manganese in seabeds around the world.

These minerals are used in electric vehicle batteries, cell phones, solar panels and other electronic devices but can be vulnerable to supply chain disruptions.

Supporters argue that extracting metals and minerals from the seabed is essential for the global energy transition and that it would cause far less environmental disturbance than mining on land.

But critics say seabed mining would be unavoidably destructive, potentially wiping out animals and plants in those areas.

Commercial mining is still a prospect rather than a reality but there have been experimental operations.

One of the more common proposed mining methods involves sending a giant robot to the seabed from a support vessel to hoover up lumps of metal, known as nodules, and sending them to the ship through a pipe for processing either on board or ashore.

The International Seabed Authority, a United Nations body with authority over the seabed in international waters under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), has granted 31 exploration licences – five of them to China, which hopes to start mining as soon as next year.

In a separate Pacific Journal article, researchers from Shanghai Jiao Tong University said seabed mining was an opportunity for Beijing to expand its international reach.

“China should recognise this global competitive landscape and treat the development of seabed mineral resources as a key strategic approach to participate in global ocean governance, thereby expanding its international influence and strategic space in maritime rights and security,” they said.

But China still lagged the US, Japan, and Europe in seabed mining equipment and technology, particularly in the development of eco-friendly extraction and transport equipment, they said.

China is one of the biggest donors to the ISA, which is finalising exploitation regulations.

The US, which has not ratified UNCLOS, is an observer state but has no vote and cannot obtain a contract for seabed mining exploration or exploitation through the organisation.

Concerns about China’s involvement in and potential control of seabed mining have reached the US legislature, with 31 Republican members of Congress last year urging the secretary of defence to examine the issue.

“We cannot afford to cede another critical mineral resource to China,” the lawmakers said in a letter to the secretary. “The United States, and specifically, the Department of Defence, should be engaging with allies, partners, and industry to ensure that China does not seize unfettered control of deep-sea assets.”

Beijing and Washington have been embroiled in a tech war that shows no signs of abating. Last week, China banned exports to the US of the critical minerals gallium, germanium and antimony, one day after Washington unveiled new restrictions on China’s semiconductor industry.

More than 30 countries have taken positions against seabed mining in international waters, calling for a pause or ban, according to the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, an advocate alliance of international organisations.

The list includes Latin American nations such as Brazil, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Panama, and Pacific Island nations including Fiji, Samoa, and Palau.

Li Xuewei, a professor specialising in maritime governance and one of the Shandong University signatories, wrote that international opposition to seabed mining had grown and was amplifying the rhetoric of the “China threat”.

Beijing should “firmly resist the geopolitical politicisation of seabed mining and formation of blocs” and play a constructive role in the ISA, they said.

US targets Uniview and Beijing Zhongdun for aiding China’s human rights abuses

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3290224/us-targets-uniview-and-beijing-zhongdun-aiding-chinas-human-rights-abuses?utm_source=rss_feed

The United States added two Chinese companies to a trade restriction list on Tuesday for allegedly enabling human rights violations as President Joe Biden kept up the pressure on Beijing in the waning days of his administration.

The Commerce Department, which oversees export policy, added Zhejiang Uniview Technologies Co., Ltd. to the entity list, “because it enables human rights violations, including high-technology surveillance targeted at the general population, Uygurs, and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups,” the agency said in a filing.

China’s Beijing Zhongdun Security Technology Group Co., Ltd. was added for selling products that “enable China’s public security establishment to carry out human rights violations”.

Uniview did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Beijing Zhongdun Security could not be reached for comment.

The United States has in recent years used the entity list to punish Chinese companies it accuses of aiding in China’s repression of Uygur and other minority groups, including Chinese video surveillance company Hikvision in 2019.

Being added to the entity list forces American suppliers of the targeted company to get a difficult-to-obtain licence before shipping to them. Six other entities in Russia and Myanmar were also added on Tuesday.

China’s export boom not bust despite November dip: 5 takeaways

https://www.scmp.com/economy/economic-indicators/article/3290162/chinas-export-boom-not-bust-despite-november-dip-5-takeaways?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s export growth slowed in November, missing expectations and growing by 6.7 per cent year on year to US$312.31 billion.

Zichun Huang, China economist at Capital Economics, estimated that growth in export volumes also slowed sharply, and after accounting for changes in export prices and for seasonality, he estimated that export volumes also softened.

“Export growth slowed sharply last month, but we doubt this signals the end of China’s recent export boom,” Huang said.

“We expect exports to accelerate again in the coming months, supported by gains in export competitiveness and exporters front-running tariffs.”

Analysts at Goldman Sachs said the moderation of export growth was likely due to softened external demand from some trading partners, including Latin America and the European Union.

They said that by major category and in sequential terms in November, the export value of metals fell the most - driven by lower steel and iron exports - followed by automobiles and home appliances.

Analysts at Barclays, though, said the 6.7 per cent growth in November “was still quite robust” compared with the year-to-date growth of 5.4 per cent.

China’s imports fell by 3.9 per cent from a year earlier in November, compared to a 2.3 per cent decrease in October.

After accounting for changes in export prices and for seasonality, Huang at Capital Economics said that import volumes also declined month-on-month.

“Import volumes declined last month, but they are likely to recover in the short-run as accelerated fiscal spending boosts demand for industrial commodities,” added Huang at Capital Economics.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs said the decline in imports was widespread across countries, which was consistent with the fewer working days this November compared to the same month last year.

“We think the second consecutive month of decline in imports, along with the weaker-than-expected consumer price index print, suggest the recent domestic demand recovery is still too shallow and too weak,” said analysts at Barclays.

China’s trade surplus stood at US$97.44 billion in November, compared with US$95.72 billion in October.

China’s exports to the United States increased by 8 per cent, while shipments to the European Union rose by 7.24 per cent.

Exports to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations rose by 14.9 per cent in November compared with a year earlier, while exports to Russia decreased by 2.54 per cent.

“The breakdown data showed the growth in shipments to the US and Asean outperformed the headline increase,” said analysts at Goldman Sachs.

Zhang Zhiwei, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, said November’s trade data showed a similar message as earlier months, as exports continued to grow while imports remained soft due to weak domestic demand.

But he pointed to Monday’s Politburo meeting, where a “more active” set of policies was pledged to expand domestic demand in 2025.

“The market is anxiously waiting for details on what exactly the government will do. Hopefully the central economic work conference will shed more light, particularly on the fiscal policy front,” he added.

Huang at Capital Economics said he expects China’s exports to “probably” rebound before long.

“And although US tariffs could reduce export volumes by around 3 per cent, they may not be felt until the middle of next year. In the short run, they may even spur exports as US firms ramp up orders in anticipation of tariffs,” he added.

Huang also said imports should recover, with recent signs including the Politburo readout suggesting that the fiscal deficit would be expanded next year.

“Robust fiscal expenditure, much of it likely directed toward investment, should boost demand for industrial commodities in the coming quarters,” he said.

And analysts at Barclays expect China’s exports to remain resilient, at least through the first quarter of 2025, as exporters front-load shipments.

“However, we are concerned about subsequent payback as tariff hikes materialise. We think the deeper contraction in imports suggests the recent domestic demand recovery is still too shallow,” they said.

China’s award-winning submarine, Vietnam reef projects: SCMP daily catch-up

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3290184/chinas-award-winning-submarine-vietnam-reef-projects-scmp-daily-catch?utm_source=rss_feed

Catch up on some of SCMP’s biggest China and economy stories of the day. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider .

After posting a strong rebound in October, exports from the world’s second-largest economy grew by 6.7 per cent year on year to US$312.31 billion in November, according to customs data released on Tuesday. The figure was lower than the expected 8.76 per cent increase surveyed by Chinese financial data provider Wind, and fell short of the 12.7 per cent rise recorded in October.

Chinese archaeologists say they have discovered silk at the Sanxingdui ruins for the first time, and they believe the treasured textile was used 3,000 years ago in rituals to “communicate between heaven and earth”.

For years China has had an advantage in the South China Sea as its land reclamation programme on reefs of strategic significance created a possible base for large planes and vessels, including navy ships. But the dominance might be challenged in the future as Vietnam pushes ahead with its own land creation and airstrip construction on reefs in the area.

As China’s state-owned aircraft maker looks to turbocharge production of its C919 passenger jet, local governments are locked in a fierce competition to secure a slice of the lucrative new industry.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has warned there will be no winner in a tariff or tech war between China and the US and vowed that Beijing would firmly safeguard its interests.

Police issuing warnings in domestic violence cases could use video and audio recordings, text messages, testimony from children or neighbours, and medical records as evidence, Chinese authorities said in new national guidelines.

A Chinese radar research team’s scientific paper that plumbed new depths of underwater discovery has been recognised in this year’s awards from the international journal Applied Optics.

Why a Singapore-based Chinese fugitive on Interpol Red Notice was arrested in Indonesia

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3290206/why-singapore-based-chinese-fugitive-interpol-red-notice-was-arrested-indonesia?utm_source=rss_feed

Singapore is neither obliged nor conferred the power to arrest fugitives on Interpol’s Red Notice list who are wanted by a foreign jurisdiction, according to experts.

Their comments centre on the arrest of a Chinese national on Interpol’s Red Notice list in Indonesia instead of Singapore, where he has permanent residence and is based.

Yan Zhenxing was detained last Monday by Indonesian authorities after he arrived at a ferry terminal on resort island Batam, located some 23km southeast of Singapore, having travelled there for a holiday, Indonesian media reported.

Yan is wanted by Interpol China for online gambling, and is suspected of being involved in a criminal gang that laundered money.

His arrest raised questions about how Yan, who is in his early 40s, had been living in Singapore while there was an Interpol Red Notice for him, and how the Indonesian immigration authorities were able to flag and arrest him while he was there.

According to the Interpol website, Red Notices are a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action.

However, the notice is not an international arrest warrant and member countries apply their own laws in deciding whether to make the arrest.

Shashi Nathan, a joint managing partner of Withers KhattarWong who has dealt with extradition cases, told This Week in Asia: “Red Notices are just information and data to be shared. In itself, it does not prove any offence is committed. All it says is somebody [is] looking for you.”

Asked if Singapore was required to inform China about Yan’s presence in the city state, an Interpol spokesman said: “Each Interpol member country decides for itself what legal value to give a Red Notice and what action to take when an individual subject to a Red Notice is detected within their borders.”

The notices are published at the request of a member country and where the public’s help may be needed to locate an individual or if the individual may pose a threat to public safety.

The Singapore authorities told This Week in Asia they were aware of the Interpol Red Notice against the Chinese national and Singapore permanent resident.

“Under Singapore laws, the Interpol Red Notice does not confer the police with the powers to arrest a fugitive wanted by a foreign jurisdiction. The police would only be able to do so pursuant to an extradition request that fulfils legal requirements,” said the Singapore police and the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority, adding that they had not received any request for help from the Chinese authorities.

The authorities noted that Yan was not currently under any investigation, and was neither implicated nor investigated in the S$3 billion (US$2.2 billion) money-laundering case, referring to the city state’s largest scandal of its kind earlier this year.

They added that when Yan was granted permanent residence in Singapore, there was no Interpol Red Notice against him. The notice was issued in July this year.

Indonesian media reported authorities saying that Yan was believed to be responsible for transferring and laundering money from a gang that operated an online gambling platform. He was named as a suspect by police in China’s Inner Mongolia region who alleged he was involved in transferring and laundering more than 130 million yuan (US$17.9 million) from a criminal online gambling group.

Criminal lawyer Amarjit Singh Sidhu said a member country of Interpol might not arrest a subject if there was no such request from the home country and, had there been a request, member countries would have informed the home country. “In any event, the notice does not confer a country with the powers to arrest a fugitive wanted by a foreign jurisdiction.”

Nathan pointed out that Interpol did not have powers of arrest or seizure or detention, but was primarily a grouping of police from different jurisdictions for sharing information.

There are two typical ways to arrest someone in a foreign country; the first being an extradition order from the home country, while the second is based on a mutual agreement between countries, according to Nathan.

“The Red Notice does not give the police the power of arrest. It has to be that an offence was committed in the country or there was a request by the police force or extradition order at the government level,” said Nathan, noting that each case would still be evaluated by the country on its own merits in deciding whether to arrest the individual.

“If there is no evidence to arrest somebody, then whether it’s Singapore, or any other country, they shouldn’t make an arrest,” he said.

Yan’s case marks the latest in a recent spate of cases involving people of Chinese origin hiding out and allegedly spending their ill-gotten gains in Singapore.

In May, alleged botnet king Wang Yunhe, 35, was arrested in his home in Singapore. The United States’ Department of Justice said Wang had amassed at least US$99 million in profits by reselling access to criminals who used the botnet for identity theft, child exploitation and financial fraud.

In the S$3 billion money-laundering case, the 10 individuals of Chinese origin who were convicted spent their ill-gotten gains on property, luxury cars and watches, among other things in Singapore.

13 years after mentally ill woman went missing in China, man held on suspicion of rape

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3290202/13-years-after-mentally-ill-woman-went-missing-china-man-held-suspicion-rape?utm_source=rss_feed

More than a decade ago, a 32-year-old woman wandered away from her home in central China.

The woman, identified only by her surname Bu, had a university degree but she also had a history of mental illness, with several hospital stays for treatment by the time she went missing from her home in Jinzhong, Shanxi province, in 2011.

Now, 13 years later, she has been found in a village in Heshun county more than 150km (93 miles) away, and a 46-year-old villager surnamed Zhang on suspicion of raping her, according to county authorities.

The authorities said that Zhang allegedly saw that she was ill and took her home. Bu gave birth to his children, although an official statement did not say how many children the woman had.

“Zhang knew Bu had a mental illness but still had sexual relations with her and had children. He is suspected of committing a crime and has been detained by public security officials,” the statement said.

Local authorities have questioned several villagers about whether Zhang restricted Bu’s personal freedom, it said, adding that it appeared she often went out by herself to buy snacks and never ran away from the village. Police are investigating whether the case involved human trafficking, illegal detention or other crimes.

Bu is being treated in hospital, while the county said it was providing help to her and her children, while custody would be decided in the future “according to the law”.

The government investigation follows viral online media reports about Bu last week.

According to Red Star News, Bu had always been an excellent student and had received a master’s degree in engineering.

As she was applying for a PhD, however, she became ill and stayed home for treatment, Bu’s older brother told the media outlet.

After she went missing, her family looked for her and reported to police but said they did not hear anything more.

Then, on November 25, a woman in Heshun county sought help from volunteers, saying Bu, her aunt, had started living with her uncle more than 10 years ago but nothing was known about her family.

With the help of volunteers and local police, Bu was reunited with her family on November 30. A previous statement from the Heshun police on December 3 said Bu left home and was taken in by Zhang.

The media reports and official statements have sparked heated discussion online, where many have questioned whether there was human trafficking involved, and why local authorities did not uncover the case.

“How could you say you were sheltering this woman? Why didn’t you report this case to the police? Don’t find excuses for human trafficking,” one comment said on Weibo.

“How could a stranger live 13 years in another location without an ID or household registration? What were the local police, village committee and women’s federation doing,” another said.

Others compared the case with that of a woman found chained up two years ago. In 2022, an online video of a mentally ill woman chained to a hut by her neck and with eight children by her side came to the public’s attention.

Pressured by public outrage, authorities finally launched an investigation that found the woman was trafficked from the southwestern province of Yunnan to Xuzhou in Jiangsu in China’s east. They punished 17 officials but failed to quell public anger.

There have been no further updates about the woman and discussion about the case has been censored. In 2023, local authorities blocked the attempt of a Beijing lawyer to visit her in the Xuzhou village.

China’s Politburo pledges ‘escalated’ fiscal spending and support: analysts

https://www.scmp.com/economy/policy/article/3290170/chinas-politburo-pledges-escalated-fiscal-spending-and-support-analysts?utm_source=rss_feed

With the end of the year fast approaching – and the window for China to meet its annual economic targets narrowing by the day – high-level policymakers have issued a call for swift action to shore up growth and build a foundation for sustained performance through 2025, analysts said.

Observers noted a forceful rhetorical departure from previous notices in the summary statement issued after a Monday meeting of the Communist Party’s Politburo – a major decision-making body.

“The meeting conveyed an unusual message of committed and escalated policy support,” said HSBC analysts Liu Jing and Erin Xin in a note on Monday.

They called it “a timely pledge”, as Donald Trump’s second term as US president brings greater uncertainties and deflationary pressures suggest domestic demand remains soft.

HSBC said fiscal policy should lead the way, with analysts expecting a “larger official fiscal deficit and ongoing issuance of special central government bonds,” complemented by “additional monetary easing”.

That easing would include a cut of 0.5 percentage points to the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) and a 0.1 percentage point cut to the interest rate by year’s end, they said, adding the central bank’s recent treasury bond purchases – its first in two decades – might become the norm next year.

“The strong tone suggests Beijing is determined to stabilise growth and will step up fiscal spending next year,” Nomura analysts Lu Ting, Wang Jing and Harrington Zhang said in a note on Monday.

While forecasting two rounds of 0.15 percentage point cuts to the policy interest rates and two rounds of 0.5 percentage point cuts to the RRR in 2025, they also noted “limited space for conventional monetary policies” in response to concerns over squeezing bank profit margins.

On the fiscal front, which the analysts called “the focus of policy support”, they anticipated Beijing would raise the fiscal deficit ratio to 4 per cent from 3 per cent this year, and increase net financing by 3.6 trillion yuan.

In the Politburo statement, officials pledged to adopt a “moderately loose” monetary policy, a phrase that had not been used since the global financial crisis in 2009.

Since that year – when the central bank went all-out to stabilise the economy – monetary policy has almost exclusively been described as “prudent”.

The statement also signalled a shift in tone by calling for a “more active” fiscal policy and “unconventional” countercyclical adjustments to steer the economy.

An “all-around” expansion of domestic demand, as well as efforts to stabilise the property and stock markets, were other highlights from the summary statement.

HSBC’s analysts said the explicit mention of the stock market could mean stabilisation funds – announced alongside two new monetary policy tools by the People’s Bank of China in late September – are in the pipeline.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.5 per cent to 20,311.28 by close of business on Tuesday after registering a 2.8 per cent gain on Monday. On the mainland, the CSI 300 Index climbed 0.7 per cent and the Shanghai Composite Index added 0.6 per cent.

The benchmark 10-year treasury bond fell to a record low of 1.855 per cent on Tuesday morning.

Weak domestic consumption – driven by reductions in household wealth caused by a prolonged property market slump and declining stock indices – has dragged on China’s growth.

But Beijing needs to do more than merely increase fiscal spending, observers argued.

“To deliver a real recovery in 2025, Beijing may have to clear the property market, fix its fiscal system, repair the social welfare system and ease geopolitical tensions,” the Nomura analysts said, adding they remained “cautious” on Beijing’s resolve in these matters.

“Yesterday’s Politburo meeting reinforces our forecast that fiscal and monetary policy will be on the accommodative side,” said Zhu Haibin, chief China economist at JP Morgan at a media briefing on Tuesday. “But at this stage, we do not think the government is thinking about a ‘policy bazooka’ like some investors hope to see.”

“Structure, supporting consumption and the service sector, fiscal easing – particularly fiscal expansion by the central government – are more effective to address current economic challenges.”

Larry Hu, chief China economist at Macquarie Capital, said the tone of the Politburo statement suggests authorities are “deeply concerned” about present economic circumstances, given “sluggish” domestic demand and the “threat” of a new trade war.

“However, it doesn’t mean that they will announce another stimulus package any time soon,” he wrote in a note.

“In our view, Beijing’s policy framework is more likely to be: set a gross domestic product growth target at ‘around 5 per cent’ or ‘4.5 to 5 per cent’, assess the impact of US tariff hikes and do what is necessary to achieve the target.”

Additional reporting by Alice Li

‘Almighty’ PhD student inspires many as first blind person to pass China college exam

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3289979/almighty-phd-student-inspires-many-first-blind-person-pass-china-college-exam?utm_source=rss_feed

A blind PhD student in China has garnered widespread admiration on mainland social media after her videos, showcasing her positive attitude towards life and her ability to handle daily chores independently, have gone viral.

Huang Ying, 29, from the Ningxia Hui autonomous region in northwestern China, has been blind since the age of 2 due to a fever, as reported by the China Youth Daily.

In 2015, she successfully passed the country’s challenging university entrance examination, known as the gaokao, and subsequently enrolled at Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) in central Hubei province.

Huang is the first visually impaired person in China to gain admission to a top institution by taking the gaokao. Many disabled students typically pursue their education at high schools or vocational schools.

With outstanding scores during her undergraduate studies, she was recommended for graduate school at WUT without needing to sit for an entrance test. Huang is now a PhD candidate at the university’s management school.

For the past few years, she has shared a dormitory with another student, Che Meng, who expressed her amazement at Huang’s “almightiness in everyday life”.

“At first, I thought I would need to help her a lot. But after observing her for some time, I realised that aside from seeing, she can do almost everything,” Che was quoted as saying.

Huang mentioned that she enjoys the interactions with her roommate.

“Most people are cautious when interacting with the blind, but Meng Meng (Che’s nickname) isn’t. She does everything with me and goes out with me,” Huang said.

On Douyin, where Huang has 430,000 followers, she shares videos of her engaging in various activities independently, such as going out, crossing the road, shopping, applying cosmetics, and even visiting the hospital for treatment.

Some videos also highlight the friendship between the two roommates, featuring them running on the playground and playing the piano together.

One clip of the duo riding a tandem bicycle received about 150,000 likes.

“Today, Meng Meng said she wanted to take me out for a bicycle ride so that I could feel as free as the wind. I was very touched,” Huang said in the video.

She then discovered that Meng Meng, sitting in the front, was so playful that she hardly pedalled for much of the ride.

“She doesn’t see me as a blind person; she simply regards me as a friend,” Huang said in the footage.

Huang expressed her hope that her videos could help dispel public misconceptions about the lives of blind individuals.

“Many people believe that the blind can do nothing but stay at home all day,” she stated.

Her story has received a positive response from mainland Chinese social media users.

“Your videos have changed my perception of blind people. I’d like to suggest to my colleagues that we hire more disabled individuals,” commented one user on Douyin.

Another user added: “Thank you, Huang. You inspire me. I should work as hard as you do.”

Philippines’ Marcos Jnr rejects call to send warships to South China Sea: ‘we’re not at war’

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3290160/philippines-marcos-jnr-rejects-call-send-warships-south-china-sea-were-not-war?utm_source=rss_feed

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr has rejected calls to dispatch warships to the disputed waters of the South China Sea in response to Beijing’s latest tactics, a move observers say reflects that Manila is adamant about maintaining its rules-based approach.

Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said on Saturday that Marcos Jnr could order the deployment of warships as a “policy option” to respond to China’s use of its own navy in the contested waterway, but the decision lay solely with the president.

On Tuesday, Marcos Jnr told reporters he had turned down the idea. “We will never be part of an escalation in the situation in [the] West Philippine Sea,” he said, referring to Manila’s term for the parts of the South China Sea that lie within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

“If we look at the evolution of the situation in the West Philippine Sea, the Philippines has never been an agent of escalation of tensions.”

However, Marcos Jnr stressed the Philippines would continue its resupply missions in the region and stand firm in protecting its territorial rights.

“We are not at war, we don’t need Navy warships. All we are doing is resupplying our fishermen, protecting our territorial rights. Again, it will be provocative and will be seen as an escalation – we don’t do that. The Philippines does not escalate tensions,” he said.

On December 4, Chinese coastguard and naval ships blocked four Philippine vessels attempting to reach the Scarborough Shoal, known as Huangyan Island in China and Panatag Shoal in the Philippines.

Philippine authorities said the coastguard and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources were conducting routine patrols to support local fishermen when they were met with “aggressive actions” from several Chinese coastguard vessels and two People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy ships.

Officials accused the Chinese side of firing water cannons at a 30-metre Philippine fisheries vessel, the BRP Datu Pagbuaya, allegedly targeting its navigation and communications equipment. Two other Philippine Coast Guard ships, the BRP Teresa Magbanua and BRP Cabra, reportedly encountered Chinese coastguard and PLA Navy vessels making “dangerous manoeuvres”.

Beijing has frequently targeted Philippine ships in the South China Sea by firing water cannons and using high-intensity lasers to assert its territorial claims in the disputed waters.

Chester Cabalza, president of the Manila-based International Development and Security Cooperation think tank, told This Week in Asia that Marcos Jnr was being pragmatic by not escalating the Chinese strategy of grey-zone tactics.

Cabalza said even if the president chose to deploy warships and naval assets in the West Philippine Sea, such a move could not guarantee peace and order in the region.

Beijing seized Scarborough Shoal, a traditional fishing ground within the Philippines’ 200-nautical-mile EEZ, after a two-month stand-off in 2012 with the Philippine Navy. The incident later prompted Manila to initiate an arbitration case against Beijing.

In 2016, a United Nations arbitration court ruled in favour of the Philippines, finding China’s claims to historic and economic rights in most of the South China Sea had no legal basis. Beijing has rejected the ruling.

“The best option still for Marcos is to strengthen the presence of the coastguard’s white ships rather than swarm the WPS [West Philippine Sea] with grey ships, which would only increase the present high tensions at sea,” Cabalza said.

“But China will read Marcos Jnr’s proposed defence action differently [and] that would bring more coercion than cooperation in maritime security.”

Sherwin Ona, a visiting fellow at the Institute for National Defence and Security Research in Taiwan, argued, however, that Manila had the right to deploy its resources where the capabilities fit.

“Our capabilities are just for detection. Just like maritime domain awareness. So I don’t see any escalation or whatsoever. We are able to monitor intrusion and violations to our maritime territories,” said Ona, also a political-science professor at De La Salle University in Manila.

Ona noted, however, that the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ capabilities remained limited despite the government’s modernisation programme.

“At most, we have three anti-submarines ships. And as far as I know, [they are] only for detection and monitoring,” he said.

National Security Council Assistant Director General Jonathan Malaya told local media on December 5 that the government hoped China would not view the country’s diplomatic actions as cowardice.

“We do not want to be sending signals to China that they can do what they want simply because we do not want to escalate. No, it is they that first deployed the PLA Navy ships. Therefore, it is now also within the rights of the Philippines. And we reserve that right to deploy our Philippine Navy ships in the future,” Malaya said.

Scarborough Shoal, the site of the latest clash of China, was part of Philippine territory, Malaya stressed.

“We consider Scarborough Shoal [part of] Philippine territory […] Therefore, what we exercise in Scarborough Shoal is not only sovereign rights, but also sovereignty. That is why we have always maintained that position and that our fishermen have to fish there,” he said.

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US defence chief Lloyd Austin reassures Japan amid China tensions, Trump policies

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3290172/us-defence-chief-lloyd-austin-reassures-japan-amid-china-tensions-trump-policies?utm_source=rss_feed

Outgoing US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin met Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Tuesday, having a day earlier warned American troops near Tokyo of the threat represented by China.

Austin’s visit is likely to be his last official trip to the region, as the United States and Japan prepare for a new era shaped by US president-elect Donald Trump’s protectionist “America First” policies.

“These are very dynamic times,” Austin told Ishiba on Tuesday. “May our alliance remain the cornerstone of peace and stability in this region for the foreseeable future.”

Ishiba thanked Austin for his “dedicated efforts … [in] strengthening our bilateral alliance over the years”.

The Pentagon chief had on Monday described the threat posed by China in a speech aboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, which is stationed off Yokosuka south of Tokyo.

“The PRC is the only country in the world that has the intent and, increasingly, the capability to change the rules-based international order,” he said, using the initials of its official name, the People’s Republic of China.

“And so, you know, we want to see this region, this area remain open to freedom of navigation and the ability to fly the skies and international airways whenever we want to,” Austin said.

“We’re going to continue to work with our allies and partners to ensure that we can do just that.”

Austin will also meet his Japanese counterpart Gen Nakatani on Tuesday.

Around 54,000 US military personnel are stationed in Japan, mostly in Okinawa, east of Taiwan.

On Tuesday, Taiwan said mainland China was deploying dozens of ships in its biggest maritime mobilisation around the island in years.

Beijing regards the island as a breakaway province to be brought under mainland control – by force, if necessary. Many countries, including the US, do not officially recognise Taiwan as an independent state but oppose the use of force to change the status quo.

Austin also spoke about the situation in Syria, where Islamist rebels have unseated president Bashar al-Assad after decades of brutal rule.

“As this unfolds, there’s a potential that elements in the area, such as ISIS, could try to take advantage of this opportunity and regain capability,” he said, using another name for Islamic State group.

Austin’s trip to Japan is his 13th visit to the Asia-Pacific region as defence secretary, according to the Pentagon.

Trump, who will be sworn in next month, hopes to replace him with Pete Hegseth, a former military officer and Fox News presenter.

Analysts predict that Trump’s protectionism will mean less cash from Washington for security in the region, with investors betting on Japan upgrading its own military capacities.

The country is already in the process of doubling its military spending to the Nato standard of two per cent of GDP.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s brief declaration of martial law last week, and the ensuing political turmoil, reportedly led to a planned Seoul leg being cut from Austin’s itinerary.

This “significantly undercut” the value of his Asia trip, said Daisuke Kawai, deputy director of the University of Tokyo’s economic security research programme, citing a lost last-minute chance for Washington to solidify its ties with the pair.

But the outgoing defence chief’s trip remains a chance for Washington to assure its closest ally that it “won’t abandon Japan even after Trump swings back to power”, Kawai said.

Tokyo was also keen to strengthen ties to “leave Trump less room for a policy change”, he added.

As China’s population ages, can it unlock a second demographic dividend?

https://www.scmp.com/economy/policy/article/3290153/chinas-population-ages-can-it-unlock-second-demographic-dividend?utm_source=rss_feed

China is stepping up efforts to address its ageing population by promoting employment opportunities for the elderly and boosting the so-called silver economy.

Diversified and personalised employment opportunities, as well as support for the senior care industry, would be created, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, along with three other government departments, said on Tuesday.

In 2023, the number of people aged 60 and above in China reached 297 million, accounting for more than 21 per cent of the total population, according to official data. The population aged 65 and over exceeded 217 million, making up 15.4 per cent of the total.

However, only 8.8 per cent of China’s workforce is aged 60 and above, much lower than other ageing societies like Japan.

Japan is faced with the most severe ageing population, where 71 per cent of people aged between 60 and 64, and nearly 50 per cent of those aged between 65 and 69, remain employed.

The notice also called on employers to create jobs that are suitable for older workers, focusing on roles that utilise experience, technical skills and patience, while minimising physical demands.

It also encouraged public institutions and community organisations to adopt “elder-helping-elder” service models, and advised flexible employment arrangements for seniors in industries such as education, healthcare, housekeeping and property management services.

The rapid growth of the elderly population in China is expected to increase costs for pensions and health insurance, adding pressure to the social welfare system.

Lu Jiehua, vice-president of the Chinese Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics, suggested in an analysis released by the National Development and Reform Commission last year that increasing elderly employment could extend China’s demographic dividend and unlock a “second demographic dividend,” driving economic growth.

The silver economy, which focuses on the needs and services for the elderly, is expected to grow significantly, with an annual report last week from the China Association of Social Welfare and Senior Service predicting the sector could reach 30 trillion yuan (US$4.14 trillion) by 2035, contributing 10 per cent to China’s gross domestic product.

In September, China’s top legislature approved a proposal to raise the retirement age, accelerating reforms to the decades-old law in response to an economic slump and pressure from an ageing population.

The retirement age for all men will increase from 60 to 63, and for female office workers from 55 to 58. Female blue-collar workers, who previously retired at 50, will now have to wait until they are 55.

The changes will take place gradually over the next 15 years, starting from January 1. On the same date in 2030, the country’s minimum period for pension contributions will also steadily lengthen, from 15 to 20 years.

China’s top chip design tool maker cedes control to state-owned firm after US blacklisting

https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3290156/chinas-top-chip-design-tool-maker-cedes-control-state-owned-firm-after-us-blacklisting?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s top developer of chip design systems has ceded control to its largest state-owned shareholder after the firm was put on a US trade blacklist, signalling growing government oversight of the semiconductor industry as Washington continues to tighten restrictions.

Beijing-based Empyrean Technology – China’s top alternative to US-based Cadence, Synopsys and Siemens EDA, which dominate the electronic design automation (EDA) tool market – said in a corporate filing on Monday that its board of directors granted China Electronics Corporation (CEC) full control of the company.

Its stock price surged 9 per cent to 134 yuan in Shenzhen on Tuesday.

Four Empyrean directors quit the board, paving the way for CEC, which indirectly holds a 34 per equity stake in the company, to take a total of six seats on the 11-seat board. A shareholder meeting is scheduled later this month to endorse the change.

Empyrean said the change would allow it to take advantage of CEC’s access to national ministries, local governments, and state-owned enterprises, according to a stock filing to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Monday. The change “will not adversely affect the day-to-day business activities of the company” or the “independence of personnel, business, financial independence and integrity of assets”, Empyrean said in the filing.

The change, which doesn’t involve equity stake transactions, came a week after the US Department of Commerce added Empyrean and its subsidiaries to the so-called Entity List, along with other Chinese semiconductor firms, effectively barring it from doing business with American firms. CEC been on a separate list from the US Department of Defence over alleged ties to the Chinese military since 2021.

The company said last week that the impact is “controllable”, as its home-grown technologies in EDA software ensure the independence and integrity of its operations.

The case shows how external geopolitical pressure is leading to unprecedented collaboration between China’s state-owned companies and private firms in the chip industry. CEC, once a strategic investor, will consolidate the financial statements of Empyrean Technology into its own and manage the EDA firm as a direct subsidiary.

In another case, China’s largest chip-packaging company, Jiangsu Changjiang Electronics Tech (JCET), made sweeping changes to its board to allow China Resources Group, a state-owned conglomerate, to take over.

Empyrean’s revenue has been growing rapidly in recent years amid China’s drive to localise its semiconductor supply chain. Revenue reached 1 billion yuan (US$137.6 million) last year for the first time, up 26.6 per cent year on year. In the first nine months this year, revenue was up 16.3 per cent year on year to 744 million yuan.

Empyrean Technology controls about 5 per cent of China’s EDA market. As in every other market, Cadence, Synopsys and Siemens remain the dominant suppliers of such software.

Scientists discover 3,000-year-old silk at China’s mysterious Sanxingdui ruins

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3290182/scientists-discover-3000-year-old-silk-chinas-mysterious-sanxingdui-ruins?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese archaeologists say they have discovered silk at the Sanxingdui ruins for the first time, and they believe the treasured textile was used 3,000 years ago in rituals to “communicate between heaven and earth”.

According to the researchers, the discovery sheds light on the cultural origins of silk and the religious beliefs of the ancient Shu people, who lived in what is now Sichuan province.

“The presence of silk residues detected in the Sanxingdui sacrificial pits … provides archaeological evidence of the Southwest Silk Road, confirming that silk was already used in the ancient Shu state more than 3,000 years ago,” the team wrote in an article published in the peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports last month.

The team includes researchers from the China National Silk Museum in Hangzhou, the Sanxingdui Research Institute and the Sanxingdui Museum in Sichuan.

Silk, a precious commodity in China, was instrumental in the creation of the Silk Road – the first global trade route linking China with the West, through which ancient peoples exchanged merchandise, knowledge and culture.

Sanxingdui, the capital of the ancient Shu state, had a long history of silkworm cultivation, or sericulture, and silk weaving – industries that were vital to its economy. The researchers noted that many historical records about sericulture in ancient China mention Shu state.

However, it has been difficult for scientists to pinpoint where silk was invented because its fibres degrade during burial and over time. The team said no silk or silk residue had previously been found at Sanxingdui.

The team developed a new technique to identify mineralised textiles and their remnants. The researchers enriched silk residues found in archaeological samples with a substance to help make the fibres easier to detect.

They found traces of silk that had been incinerated attached to the surface of bronze and jade items unearthed from the Sanxingdui sacrificial pits.

The researchers wrote that their method could be used to detect other materials, such as fur, that had been used in the past but “have now become invisible archaeological remains”.

They found that a grid-like, silk-covered object dug up at the Sanxingdui site was similar in shape to an item described in ancient records about how the legendary Emperor Yao, who ruled China 5,000 years ago, passed the throne to Emperor Shun.

Legend has it the order to pass the throne was conveyed by a divine turtle on behalf of the emperor of heaven.

“So the silk remnants on the surface of the jade and grid-like ware can be surmised to have been the material carriers of communication between Heaven and Earth,” the paper states.

The archaeologists also noted that silk was used as a burial clothing, citing the Book of Rites, or Liji, an ancient Confucian text. It was believed that wrapping bodies in silk created an artificial cocoon that could help the souls of the dead ascend to heaven.

Nvidia faces US$1 billion fine if China probe finds violation of antitrust laws, experts say

https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3290190/nvidia-faces-us1-billion-fine-if-china-probe-finds-violation-antitrust-laws-experts-say?utm_source=rss_feed

US artificial intelligence (AI) chip giant Nvidia could face a fine of up to US$1 billion under Beijing’s antitrust probe, which was widely seen as a retaliatory move against Washington’s escalated chip restrictions, according to experts.

The investigation will apply the country’s antimonopoly law to Nvidia’s 2019 acquisition of Israeli interconnect products and solutions provider Mellanox Technologies, according to a statement from China’s State Administration for Market Regulation on Monday.

China granted “conditional” approval for the deal in April 2020, noting that Nvidia agreed to supply its graphic processing unit (GPU) and connection products to the Chinese market based on “fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory principles”, and that it would ensure their compatibility with other companies’ hardware.

However, Nvidia has restricted exports of its advanced GPUs to China to comply with US regulations, an act that displeased Beijing. The investigation into a previously-approved transaction marks the first time that China’s market regulator has opened the books on a closed deal.

Chinese media on Monday reported that Nvidia could face fines of up to US$1.03 billion, equal to 10 per cent of its China sales in financial year 2024, under the country’s antitrust law. The law stipulates that companies violating antitrust regulations can face fines ranging from 1 to 10 per cent of their annual sales from the previous year, although it does not specify whether this applies to global or China sales.

China, including Hong Kong, represents Nvidia’s third-largest market by revenue, with sales reaching US$10.3 billion for the financial year ended January 24, or nearly 17 per cent of its total revenue.

It is too early to determine the exact amount of the fine, according to Liu Xu, a research fellow at the National Strategy Institute of Tsinghua University. Liu said that penalties could range from 1 per cent to 10 per cent of the previous year’s sales if regulators find evidence of abusive market dominance through practices such as tied selling, where customers are forced to purchase one product to get access to another.

“If the violation is particularly egregious and the impact severe, it could face maximum penalties – multiplied by 2 to 5 times – resulting in a fine of US$2.89 billion,” Liu added.

However, the likelihood of maximum penalties being imposed depends on both the extent of damage caused by Nvidia and its cooperation with the investigation, according to Liu. From Nvidia’s perspective, the company is expected to fully cooperate, reducing the probability of maximum penalties with additional multipliers, Liu added.

“Nvidia wins on merit, as reflected in our benchmark results and value to customers, and customers can choose whatever solution is best for them,” Nvidia said in a statement issued in response to the probe “We work hard to provide the best products we can in every region and honour our commitments everywhere we do business. We are happy to answer any questions regulators may have about our business.”

Washington has banned Nvidia from exporting to China several of its best GPUs for AI training. The US company is also facing more local competition in China with the advent of Huawei Technologies’ 910B AI chip, as well as other products from Chinese GPU start-ups.

Industry professionals view China’s antitrust investigation into Nvidia as a “warning shot” since it does not involve national security, distinct from the earlier investigation into US memory chipmaker Micron Technology over national and cyber security concerns. That resulted in Micron’s memory products being banned from China’s critical information infrastructure, costing the company US$4 billion in revenue.

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Xi Jinping calls for wider use of Mandarin in China’s border areas amid security push

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3290195/xi-jinping-calls-wider-use-mandarin-chinas-border-areas-amid-security-push?utm_source=rss_feed

President Xi Jinping has called for national security and social stability to be upheld in China’s border regions and for Mandarin to be spoken more broadly in those areas, according to state media.

Addressing a Politburo study session on Monday, Xi said maintaining security and stability was the “baseline requirement” for border governance, state news agency Xinhua reported on Tuesday.

The Chinese leader said efforts should be made to improve social governance, infrastructure and “the overall ability to defend the country and safeguard the border”.

He told members of the ruling party’s top policymaking body that it was necessary to guide all ethnic groups in border regions to “continuously enhance their recognition of the Chinese nation, Chinese culture and the Communist Party”.

He also said use of the common Chinese language, Mandarin, and nationally unified textbooks should be promoted.

“We should continue to deepen efforts on ethnic unity and progress, actively build an integrated social structure and community environment, and promote the unity of all ethnic groups – like pomegranate seeds tightly held together,” he said.

Xi renewed those calls as the 24-member Politburo held a group study session on the history of Chinese border governance.

The Politburo regularly holds such sessions, with discussion usually led by an academic – Monday’s session was led by Li Guoqiang, vice-president of the Chinese Academy of History.

China’s borderlands stretch across five provinces – Yunnan in the southwest, Gansu in the northwest, and Jilin, Liaoning and Heilongjiang in the northeast – as well as four autonomous regions – Tibet and Xinjiang Uygur in the west, Inner Mongolia in the north and Guangxi Zhuang in the south.

Ethnic tensions in those autonomous regions, especially Xinjiang and Tibet, have historically been a challenge for Beijing.

In August, authorities in Xinjiang vowed to make stability and security their top priority and to turn the far western region into a “strategic barrier” against geopolitical risks. Xinjiang shares borders with countries including Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. China has been accused of human rights abuses against Uygurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang – claims Beijing has denied.

In recent years, authorities have also stepped up efforts to promote Mandarin-language education as part of a nationwide drive to assimilate people from ethnic minorities into the majority Han culture.

However, such calls have been controversial. In 2020, efforts to promote the use of Mandarin rather than Mongolian in schools in Inner Mongolia prompted large-scale street protests over fears that the native language would be wiped out.

On Monday, Xi said modernising the border governance system and governance capacity was essential.

“The development of border areas must be incorporated into the overall strategy of Chinese-style modernisation, regional coordinated development strategies, and major regional strategies,” he said, according to the Xinhua report.

The Chinese leader also called for efforts to support border areas to leverage their resources and advantages to achieve development.

He said it was important to improve the standard of living in the border regions and to speed up development of infrastructure and basic public services.

Xi also called for more multidisciplinary research on border history and governance and for accelerated efforts to establish a Chinese “knowledge system” on border studies.

Mixing Marx with Confucius: the heart of the matter for China

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3290159/mixing-marx-confucius-heart-matter-china?utm_source=rss_feed

In 2017, Chinese President Xi Jinping told the faithful at the five-yearly Communist Party congress that belief in people’s hearts would give strength to China as a nation.

“When people have faith, the country has strength and the Chinese nationality has hope,” he said at the time.

The phrase has been cited again and again by state media in the years since. For some time, overseas analysts wondered what “faith” stood for, as the Chinese word xinyang can be translated as either “faith” or “religion”.

Some speculated that Xi might have been using the reference to encourage Buddhism because he was reportedly a good friend of a monk when he was a grass-roots official in Zhengding county, Hebei province, in the 1980s.

Xi’s father, Xi Zhongxun, a party elder, was also a friend of the 10th Panchen Lama.

This speculation turned out to be way off the mark. As Xi spelled out at the previous party congress, the soul of a communist was “faith” in Marxism, and belief in socialism and communism. When he speaks of “faith”, he appears to always refer to Marxism, though he wants to define how it should be applied in China.

Ideology has always been an important part of the party’s governance but the organisation has struggled at certain times to make that ideology relevant to the public.

It is also an open secret that the Chinese public knows very well how to toe party lines on formal occasions while holding entirely different thoughts in private.

The difference between the party line and individual thoughts was most apparent in 1989, when students took over Tiananmen Square and espoused “Western” concepts such as democracy and freedom.

The extent of the “infiltration” of these thoughts startled the leadership, as did the toppling of communist governments in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe that year.

In 1994, former president Jiang Zemin sought to fill the ideological with a massive patriotic education campaign in schools.

Three decades later, that strategy appears to have paid off for the Communist Party, with a whole generation educated in patriotism and nationalism.

However, Xi wants more. He wants to construct a comprehensive framework to shape people’s belief systems.

His vision is ambitious. He wants China to have its own philosophy, its own knowledge system for the various branches of social sciences, economics and even science.

Xi wants China to this system to counter Western values, or “universal values” that China says are advocated by the West.

And to do this, he is looking to Confucianism as source material.

Confucianism has been a favourite of Chinese rulers for centuries because it emphasises social hierarchy and order, such as the relationship between emperors and officials, fathers and sons, and husband and wives.

It also presents moral guidelines for personal conduct, emphasising virtues such as loyalty, filial piety and courtesy.

In recent months, state media has stepped up propaganda campaigns about combining Marxism and Confucianism.

For example, Hunan Satellite Television used a mix of AI-generated characters and actors to create a programme showing a conversation between Marx and Confucius. However, the show was ridiculed abroad and at home, including among loyal Marxists, as being cheesy propaganda.

Combining Confucianism and Marxism to establish a belief system will be much more difficult than seeding patriotism in the Chinese population.

While national pride was the product of the education system, it was reinforced by the personal experience of wealth accumulation and higher living standards.

To achieve their goal, mainland authorities must work out what experience would make the population truly embrace Confucianism at their core.

This is a tough call, especially when people see others, including many officials, as having abandoned the virtues of the sage to first pursue class struggle during the Cultural Revolution and then the god of wealth in the years after.

Xi Jinping warns ‘no winners’ in US trade war, vows China will protect its interests

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3290131/xi-jinping-warns-no-winners-us-trade-war-vows-china-will-protect-its-interests?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese President Xi Jinping has warned there will be no winner in a tariff or tech war between China and the US and vowed that Beijing would firmly safeguard its interests.

The comments came after US president-elect Donald Trump told US broadcaster NBC on Friday that he and Xi “have been communicating with each other … since three days ago”. Trump also said Beijing could play a role in ending the Ukraine war.

The Chinese side did not confirm or deny whether the communication took place. It would be the first known conversation between the two since Trump’s decisive victory in the presidential election last month.

“Tariff wars, trade wars and technology wars run counter to historical trends and economic laws, and there will be no winners,” Xi said while meeting the heads of 10 major international organisations, including the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organization, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Tuesday.

During the meeting, Xi stressed China’s principles for engaging with the US, according to state news agency Xinhua.

“China will always insist on focusing on its own affairs and resolutely safeguard its sovereignty, security and development interests. Meanwhile, China’s determination to promote high-level opening up will not change,” he said.

Xi’s pledge comes amid expectations of a trade war between Beijing and Washington after Trump takes office on January 20.

Trump said on the campaign trail that he would impose tariff increases of 60 per cent or more on goods imported from China.

Last month, he said he would impose an extra 10 per cent tariff on goods from China and a 25 per cent tax on all products entering the country from Canada and Mexico as one of his first executive orders.

Xi’s comments came a day after China announced an investigation into US chipmaker Nvidia over suspected violations of the country’s anti-monopoly law. The investigation is widely seen as retaliation for Washington’s latest restrictions on the Chinese chip sector.

Xi told the heads of the economic organisations that China stood ready to expand cooperation and management differences with the US, Xinhua reported.

Xi stressed that China was willing to maintain dialogue, expand cooperation and manage differences with the US government, and promote China-US relations in a stable, healthy and sustainable direction. He added that he hoped the US would meet China halfway.

China’s infrastructure spending may surge in 2025 to meet 5-year goals

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3290134/chinas-infrastructure-spending-may-surge-2025-meet-5-year-goals?utm_source=rss_feed

With the clock ticking down on China’s 2021-25 five-year plan, many infrastructure targets remain unmet, setting the stage for a potential acceleration in construction that could spur a rise in investment next year.

Official data shows that progress in key sectors – from railways to nuclear power – lags behind the plan’s goals, leaving large room for next year, according to the Post’s review of the five-year plan progress.

To meet its target of building 50,000km (31,069 miles) of high-speed rail lines by 2025, China still needs to add around 3,800km worth of new lines between the current quarter and next year, according to calculations based on Ministry of Transport data made public.

This required pace far exceeds the progress made in the first three quarters of 2024, when only 1,210km of high-speed lines were added.

In the nuclear power sector, the latest government data from late August showed that China’s installed nuclear power capacity had reached 58.08 million kilowatts.

While this marks an increase of around 7 million kW from the end of 2020, it is still far short of achieving 70 million kW worth of operational capacity under the country’s 14th five-year plan.

The growth rate of infrastructure investment, a traditional engine of China’s economy, has gradually decelerated since peaking in 2008, and Beijing is now shifting its focus to cultivating “new quality productive forces” to revitalise and transform the economy.

On Thursday, the government unveiled guidelines to advance digital, networked, and intelligent urban infrastructure, aimed at building “resilient cities” with improved risk management and faster recovery capabilities.

Chinese leaders are widely expected to convene the annual tone-setting central economic work conference in the coming days to discuss next year’s major policy goals and concrete tasks.

While consumption is key to future growth in the world’s second-largest economy amid renewed tariff threats from US president-elect Donald Trump, infrastructure construction is still seen as vital to stabilising the national economy.

China’s January-October infrastructure investment rose 9.4 per cent, year on year, to 20 trillion yuan (US$2.76 trillion), government data showed.

In a series of commentaries run ahead of the central economic work conference, Xinhua reported that Beijing has considerable room for fiscal spending, as China’s debt ratio of 67.5 per cent is far behind that of some developed nations.

On Thursday, authorities in China’s financial hub of Shanghai held a meeting to map out its economic priorities for 2025, according to Jiefang Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party’s Shanghai branch.

At the meeting, the city’s mayor, Gong Zheng, highlighted the need to “sustain robust investment growth, increase the contribution of strategic emerging industries and address weaknesses in specific indicators”, with a goal of “ensuring a strong finish to the 14th five-year plan”.

Ding Shuang, chief Greater China economist at Standard Chartered Bank, said there was room for the government to push infrastructure construction, relative to the current distance from achieving its five-year targets.

“But China is not necessarily fixated on meeting every target, especially considering the delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic,” he noted, adding that project progress may not sharply accelerate, considering factors such as feasibility studies, quality standards and preparatory work.

“However, given this year’s low base for infrastructure investment, there is still room for growth next year,” he said.

Elsewhere in terms of investment, Ding expected that the manufacturing sector may struggle next year to maintain this year’s strong performance, due to overcapacity challenges and the impact of tariffs.

Investment in the service sector is likely to grow as the government seeks to bolster consumption, he added.

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AI to boost China’s massive Confucius cultural project with ByteDance donation

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3290138/ai-boost-chinas-massive-confucius-cultural-project-bytedance-donation?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s internet giant ByteDance has donated 25 million yuan (US$3.4 million) for the digitalisation of a national cultural project that is compiling all known Confucius classics, with the help of artificial intelligence.

ByteDance, the parent company of Douyin, China’s TikTok, said the donation will support the compilation and digitalisation of the Ruzang, or “Confucian Canon” project, which started in 2003 and is led by Peking University.

Zhang Yu, chairman of the Beijing ByteDance Public Welfare Foundation, said the Shidianguji digital platform – jointly developed by ByteDance Open Lab for Digital Humanities and Peking University – would help to streamline the project.

The platform has already digitalised more than 2,000 ancient texts since its launch in 2022, using cutting-edge technologies like optical character recognition and AI to enhance text recognition accuracy.

There are an estimated 200,000 ancient texts in China, of which about 80,000 have been scanned as images. Only 30,000 to 40,000 have been fully digitised into text, according to a ByteDance article in 2022, at the start of the Shidianguji platform.

In a post on the Foundation’s Douyin account, Zhang said the outcomes of the Ruzang project would be made permanently accessible to the public on the platform, “allowing more people to access and read traditional Chinese culture and Confucian culture more conveniently”.

The announcement on Monday was made as China strengthens its intellectual foundation and governance philosophy through a set of cultural projects in response to the increasing ideological rivalry with the US-led West.

Ruzang, which seeks to reflect the profound influence of Confucianism on Chinese philosophy, politics, and society, gained significant momentum in 2014 when President Xi Jinping became the first Chinese president to personally support it.

Around 500 scholars from China, South Korea, Japan and Vietnam have collaborated on the project, which will ultimately cost an estimated 150 million yuan (US$21 million).

By April last year, the project’s first phase had compiled 510 key Confucian texts into 282 volumes. The second phase aims to add 160 more works, ultimately creating a vast collection of around one billion characters, – the largest of its kind in Chinese history.

Wang Bo, PKU vice-president and director of Ruzang, has repeatedly emphasised – in multiple interviews – the importance of digitalising the compilation to enhance accessibility for contemporary readers.

He was quoted in the ByteDance announcement as saying, “Next, we will focus on developing a digital sorting system to meet the spiritual needs of contemporary Chinese people and have a foundational shaping force on the entire society and country.”

ByteDance has made noticeable efforts over the past three years in the restoration and digitalisation of ancient texts through the Shidianguji platform, besides its involvement in the Ruzang project.

The tech giant has also partnered with the China Foundation For Cultural Heritage Conservation to establish a special fund for the conservation of ancient books, aiming to restore more than 100 rare volumes and train 100 restorers.

Valuable texts such as the vast – an encyclopaedia commissioned under the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) – and the Dunhuang manuscripts from ancient China – discovered in the Mogao Caves in the 20th century – have been included in the restoration process.

Chinese police can use text message evidence in crackdown on domestic violence

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3290125/chinese-police-can-use-text-message-evidence-crackdown-domestic-violence?utm_source=rss_feed

Police issuing warnings in domestic violence cases could use video and audio recordings, text messages, testimony from children or neighbours, and medical records as evidence, Chinese authorities said in new national guidelines.

The guidelines were recently issued by nine government agencies – including the Ministry of Public Security, the Supreme Court and the All-China Women’s Federation – and regulate the procedures and measures that could be taken in a police warning system, the official People’s Daily reported on Monday.

They were issued eight years after the Anti-Domestic Violence Law came into effect.

In domestic violence cases, police can use testimony from the perpetrators and victims if there is no disagreement. However, if the accused abuser disputes the allegations, officers could collect medical records, phone messages or any previously written words from the perpetrator as evidence, the report said.

The guidelines set out the specific circumstances for issuing a police warning, the content of the warning letter and procedures to be followed.

In addition, a mechanism will be built for multiple government agencies to work together and help victims. Residential committees and local women’s federations should also cooperate with the police on family visits, it said.

The complete set of guidelines has not yet been made public.

Feng Yuan, director of the Beijing-based women’s rights organisation Weiping, said the high-level specific operative guideline from multiple departments had a positive effect.

“In these eight years, multiple provinces and cities have issued their own documents on warning letters, so when we finally have a national-level guideline, it’s conducive to giving full power to the role of the warning system and handling and preventing domestic violence,” she said.

However, she said as the complete set has not been released yet, it was difficult to assess whether it would be sufficient to prevent domestic violence or what risks it might pose.

Chinese authorities have previously declared their measures in preventing and dealing with domestic violence successful.

At a 2023 meeting of the National People’s Congress in August, Huang Xiaowei, party secretary of the women’s federation, said that since the law on domestic violence came into effect in 2016, Chinese courts had issued 15,000 protection orders and prosecutors had filed charges against more than 18,000 suspects. She said specific guidelines on police warnings had been issued in 14 provinces and municipalities, which “is a powerful deterrence to domestic violence”.

But professionals who work in this area have pointed out deficiencies in current policies and government measures.

During an online lecture held by the University of Hong Kong in 2021, Lu Xiaoquan, a women’s rights lawyer from Beijing-based Qianqian Law Firm, said the police warning system had not worked to its full potential because of poor enforcement in most cases.

According to data from the Shanghai women’s federation, police received nearly 3,000 domestic violence reports in 2016, but only 44 warning letters were issued.

Furthermore, he said China’s shelters could not meet the urgent needs of abused women, domestic violence lawsuits had a low success rate and there was no mandatory correction system for perpetrators.

China’s Huangmaohai mega link is about boost Greater Bay Area powerhouse

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3290129/chinas-huangmaohai-mega-link-about-boost-greater-bay-area-powerhouse?utm_source=rss_feed

China is about to open the latest addition to a growing network of mega transport links in the Greater Bay Area in the southern economic powerhouse of Guangdong province.

The Huangmaohai Cross-sea Passage – a 31km (19 mile) crossing connecting the cities of Zhuhai and Jiangmen in the Pearl River Delta – is scheduled to go into operation at 3pm on Wednesday, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

The link – which crosses both land and water, consists of two cable-stayed bridges, two tunnels and four interchange bridges, is expected to shorten journey time between the two cities by half to 30 minutes.

The 2.2km-long Huangmaohai Bridge and the 1.4km-long Gaolangang Bridge – which span part of the mouth of the Huangmao River – are built to withstand Level 17 winds, which can reach speeds of up to 220km/h (137mph), according to Zhu Chao, the crossing’s project manager.

The region, home to some of the world’s busiest ports and shipping lanes, often sees strong winds.

Construction on the project, which cost nearly 13 billion yuan (US$1.8 billion), began in June 2020.

The Huangmaohai Cross-sea Passage will be toll free for the public initially, but authorities were expected to impose tolls later, according to state media.

The new link is seen as the western extension of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, a combination of bridges and tunnels connecting the three cities that opened in 2018.

The 55km-long connector is the world’s longest sea crossing and has cut travel times from Hong Kong to Macau or Zhuhai’s urban Xiangzhou district to about 40 minutes, journeys that previously took about four hours.

The Huangmaohai crossing will provide Hong Kong and Macau drivers a more direct route to the western part of Guangdong through Zhuhai and Jiangmen via the two crossings.

The debut of the Huangmaohai Cross-sea Passage follows the opening of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link in June, which reduced travel times between the two cities from at least two hours to as little as 25 minutes.

The three crossings, accompanied by schemes allowing Hong Kong and Macau vehicles to travel to the mainland, are part of a plan to boost connectivity within the bay area and build a “one-hour traffic circle”.

Comprising some 70 million people, the Greater Bay Area is a Beijing initiative to integrate Hong Kong, Macau and nine cities in Guangdong province into an economic engine to rival similar regions in Tokyo, New York or San Francisco.

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Jimmy Lai’s view Hong Kong would become like mainland China was conjecture: judges

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3290111/jimmy-lais-view-hong-kong-would-become-mainland-china-was-conjecture-judges?utm_source=rss_feed

Former media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying returns to the witness box in Hong Kong on Tuesday to explain his communications with associates and friends after the Beijing-imposed national security law came into effect on June 30, 2020, as his testimony enters its fourth week.

The 77-year-old has pleaded not guilty to two charges of conspiring to collude with foreign forces under the security law, and a third count of conspiracy to print and distribute seditious publications in breach of colonial-era legislation.

Tuesday’s hearing was originally slated to be the penultimate day of defence lawyers questioning Lai, but the former media owner’s lawyer Steven Kwan Man-wai earlier asked the panel of three judges for more time to wrap up his questions.

The founder of the now-defunct, opposition-friendly newspaper Apple Daily on Monday denied trying to circumvent the national security law through “indirect” appeals for sanctions from the West, but told the court he decided to continue to give interviews with “good” media outlets overseas regarding his political views after consulting his wife.

Lai also rejected allegations previously laid out in the trial that he intended to incite hatred through a July 2020 commentary, in which he attacked Beijing by citing rumours that his friends, political commentator Simon Lau Sai-leung and his wife, had been intimidated by an alleged agent of the Communist Party.

The former tabloid founder also delved into his interview with Lau on July 2, 2020, in which he had predicted that life in Hong Kong under the national security law would become an “intangible prison”.

Lai told the court on Monday he believed the new law would compel people to change the way they conducted themselves in public or “conceal” their actions.

Defence lawyer Steven Kwan focuses the court’s attention on Lai’s first live-streamed show, which aired on the tabloid owner’s social media on July 9, 2020. He turned it into a series titled “Live Chat with Jimmy Lai” in the following months, with some foreign political figures appearing as guests.

During the first show, Lai said the national security law had superseded Hong Kong’s Basic Law and would erode the rule of law and freedom as promised in the city’s mini constitution.

He warned that people doing business in Hong Kong should be aware that their interest would no longer be protected, unless they paid off officials.

“That also means Hong Kong will have corruption like China,” he said on the show.

Arguing against allegations that he had streamed seditious content, Lai says he was merely telling the truth.

“The essential bearing here is to state the fact of what I understood to be the fact,” he tells the judges.

But Madam Justice Esther Toh Lye-ping, one of the three hand-picked judges presiding over the trial, asks Lai how he came to the conclusion that officials in Hong Kong could be bribed by businessmen in exchange for protection.

Lai says his view was based on “what happened in [mainland] China”, where there was no rule of law as he saw it. He adds that Hong Kong would “just become the same” after the enactment of the security law.

Toh said Lai’s views were “conjecture” and had no factual basis.

“So you’re not basing on a fact. But merely, you’re transposing what’s happening in [mainland] China over Hong Kong,” she says to Lai.

Mr Justice Alex Lee Wan-tang joins the fiery exchange, and wonders if Lai had been merely projecting what he worried might happen to Hong Kong – a statement Lai agrees with.

Lee asks Lai if he had foreseen that his predictions about Hong Kong’s future on the show could have incited hatred.

“No, I was just stating the fact, I was not inciting hatred,” Lai insists.

He adds that his audience might have been “frightened by what I said”, but such a reaction was different from hatred.

China seafood vendor praised for putting out car blaze, losing pricey marine products in effort

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3289959/china-seafood-vendor-praised-putting-out-car-blaze-losing-pricey-marine-products-effort?utm_source=rss_feed

A seafood vendor in eastern China has garnered widespread praise on mainland social media for draining the water from tanks of live marine products he was transporting to extinguish a car fire.

As a result of his actions, he suffered a total loss of the seafood he intended to sell.

The incident occurred on an unspecified day in November when an electric car was severely damaged in an accident and was being transported by a trailer on a highway in Jinhua, Zhejiang province.

Tong Linsong, a 55-year-old seafood dealer from the city, noticed the car ablaze while driving his truck, which was loaded with 100kg of fish and shrimp destined for the market, according to the Jinhua Evening News.

He quickly stopped his truck and used a bucket to remove water from the tanks containing the marine products to douse the flames.

Tong and the trailer’s driver, Zhu Honghui, fetched water about 30 times, totalling about a tonne, to combat the fire. Minutes later, firefighters arrived and successfully extinguished the blaze.

“I don’t know why I felt so brave. At that moment, I didn’t care about my fish or shrimp; I just thought that putting out the fire and saving the people in the car was the priority,” Tong said.

Fortunately, no one was inside the electric car. Firefighters later determined that the fire was caused by a short circuit in the wiring.

To express his gratitude, Zhu visited Tong’s home, bringing gifts and a silk banner to thank him.

Tong accepted only the silk banner, which bore Chinese characters praising him as a “Good Samaritan and a source of positive energy in society.”

At one point, Tong admitted he was worried the car might explode. However, he overcame his fear and sprang into action.

“I would also step up to help if I faced a similar situation in the future,” he said.

Tong’s courageous act has received an outpouring of admiration on mainland Chinese social media, with some referring to him as “Fish Dealer Brother”.

“Salute to this everyday hero!” one online observer commented.

However, not everyone shared the same sentiment: “That burning car is covered by insurance, while you have to bear the loss of your dead fish. It wasn’t really necessary to extinguish the fire, especially since you didn’t know if an explosion would occur.”

China’s award-winning submarine radar can ‘fish for a needle in the sea’

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3290099/chinas-award-winning-submarine-radar-can-fish-needle-sea?utm_source=rss_feed

A Chinese radar research team’s scientific paper that plumbed new depths of underwater discovery has been recognised in this year’s awards from the international journal Applied Optics.

The paper, which stood out among 1,278 submissions to the journal’s Best Paper Prize in October, introduced a radar technology that can detect objects at great depths with such clarity it has been likened to “fishing for a needle in the sea”.

The researchers, led by Xiamen University associate professor Shangguan Mingjia, unveiled the world’s first single-photon Raman lidar system in the 2023 paper, capable of operating at 1,000 metres (about 3,280 feet) below sea level.

Short for “light detection and ranging”, lidar sensors use lasers to measure the distance to objects.

The highly sensitive, low-noise single-photon detector beats the significant size and power consumption challenges of oceanic lidar systems and is also suitable for lowlight conditions.

Meanwhile, Raman scattering – the phenomenon of laser light interacting with materials to produce vibrational changes – can help to identify substances such as oil and dissolved CO2, according to the paper.

Beyond early detection of oil spills, the system shows immense potential for detecting and identifying materials in complex aquatic environments, with applications in ocean surveys and deep-sea resource exploration.

According to the paper, the team’s experimental demonstrations were based on a 40cm (about 15.7 inches) long cylindrical radar with a diameter of 20cm (about 7.87 inches) and a power consumption of under 100 watts.

The researchers reported that the radar successfully detected underwater oil spills from a distance of 12 metres (about 39.4 feet) using just a 1-microjoule laser pulse and a 22.4mm telescope.

A special report on the radar system by Optica, a professional society in the US, noted that it can be deployed at depths of up to 1,000 metres and said it was characterised by miniaturisation and high integration.

According to the Optica report, the system has significant potential applications in underwater material identification, coral detection, and manganese nodule exploration.

Since the technology provides a chance for high-resolution laser imaging of small underwater targets, it could have potential uses in underwater archaeology, structural inspections, and military fields such as reconnaissance and submarine detection.

Writing in the paper, Shangguan said the team’s next plan is to develop “another underwater Raman lidar using a shorter-wavelength laser, such as a blue laser, to reduce the influence of chlorophyll fluorescence from marine plants”.

“Additionally, we will integrate [the system] into autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs),” he said.

Shangguan and his team at the National Key Laboratory for Coastal and Ocean Environmental Science have been focused on developing underwater single-photon lidar technology for the past three years.

They have already created several lidar systems and filed 50 national invention patents as well as one US patent.

According to an official report from Xiamen University, the team’s radar technology can detect optical properties of water, water particle profiles, bubbles, water depth, oil spills, and more.

“Such radar systems have already been integrated into Xiamen University’s Jia Geng research vessel, AUVs and drones, playing a key role in marine surveys, deep-sea resource exploration, environmental monitoring, and underwater target imaging and recognition,” it said.

Chinese gold mining threatens a protected UN heritage site in Congo

https://apnews.com/article/congo-world-heritage-site-gold-mining-china-5e9499fd939c3c2d798a6165f3fc487bDeforestation is visible near the Muchacha mine in November 2020, near the Okapi Wildlife Reserve in Congo. (AP Photo)

2024-12-10T03:00:08Z

OKAPI WILDLIFE RESERVE, Congo (AP) — Scattered along the banks of the Ituri River, buildings cram together, cranes transport dirt and debris scatters the soil. The patches of trees are a scant reminder that a forest once grew there.

Nestled in eastern Congo’s Ituri province, the Chinese-run gold mine is rapidly encroaching on an area that many say it shouldn’t be operating in at all - the Okapi Wildlife Reserve, an endangered World Heritage site.

The original boundaries of the reserve were established three decades ago, by Congo’s government and encompassed the area where the Chinese company now mines. But over the years under opaque circumstances, the boundaries shrunk, allowing the company to operate inside the plush forest.

The reserve was already on the endangered list, amid threats of conflict and wildlife trafficking. Now the rapid expansion of the Chinese mines threatens to further degrade the forest and the communities living within. Residents and wildlife experts say the mining’s polluting the rivers and soil, decimating trees and swelling the population, increasing poaching, with little accountability.

“It is alarming that a semi-industrial mining operation is being given free rein in what’s supposed to be a protected World Heritage Site, that was already on the danger list,” said Joe Eisen, executive director, of Rainforest Foundation UK.

Spanning more than 13,000 square kilometers (5,000 square miles), the reserve became a protected site in 1996, due to its unique biodiversity and large number of threatened species, including its namesake, the okapi, a forest giraffe, of which it holds some 15% of the world’s remaining 30,000. It’s part of the the Congo Basin rainforest — the world’s second-biggest — and a vital carbon sink that helps mitigate climate change. It also has vast mineral wealth such as gold and diamonds.

Mining is prohibited in protected areas, which includes the reserve, according to Congo’s mining code.

Issa Aboubacar, a spokesperson for the Chinese company, Kimia Mining Investment, said the group is operating legally. It recently renewed its permits until 2048, according to government records.

Congo’s mining registry said the map they’re using came from files from the ICCN, the body responsible for managing Congo’s protected areas, and it’s currently working with the ICCN on updating the boundaries and protecting the park.

The ICCN told The Associated Press that in meetings this year with the mining registry the misunderstandings around the boundaries were clarified and the original ones should be used.

An internal government memo from August, seen by AP, said all companies in the Reserve will be closed down, including Kimia Mining. However, it was unclear when that would happen or how.

The document has not previously been reported and is the first acknowledging that the current boundaries are wrong, according to environmentalists working in Congo.

Rights groups in Congo have long said the permits were illegally awarded by the mining ministry based on inaccurate maps.

Shifting boundaries and rules

Eastern Congo’s been beset by violence for decades and the Okapi Reserve’s endured years of unrest by local militia.

In 2012, in Epulu town, a local rebel group slaughtered several residents including two rangers, as well as 14 okapis, the latter were part of a captive breeding program.

The reserve’s also been threatened by artisanal — small scale — mining, by thousands of Indigenous peoples who live in and around the forest.

The Muchacha mine — the biggest in the reserve and one of the largest small and medium scale gold mines in the country — spans approximately 12 miles (19 kilometers) along the Ituri River and consists of several semi-industrial sites. Satellite images analyzed by AP show consistent development along the southwestern section of the Reserve, since it began operating in 2016, with a boom in recent years.

The growth of the Muchacha mine is visible near the Okapi Wildlife Reserve. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)

Joel Masselink, a geographer specializing in satellite imagery, who previously worked on conservation projects in the forest, said the mining cadastral — the agency responsible for allocating mineral licenses — is using a version of the reserve’s maps in which the area’s been shrunk by nearly a third. This has allowed it to award and renew exploration and extraction concessions, he said.

The mining cadastral told the U.N. that the boundaries were changed due to a letter from the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature, the body in charge of protected areas in Congo, but didn’t provide a copy, said a report from U.N. experts. The ICCN told the AP it’s never seen the letter and the boundaries used should be the original ones.

Changing World Heritage Site boundaries needs to be approved by UNESCO experts and the World Heritage Committee, which analyze the impact of the modification, a spokesperson for the World Heritage Center told AP. The Center said no request to modify the Reserve’s boundaries had been made and that cases of boundary modifications to facilitate development were rare.

Civil society groups in Congo accuse some government officials of intentionally moving the boundaries for personal gain. “We all knew that Muchacha was within the reserve,” said Alexis Muhima, executive director of the Congolese Civil Society Observatory for Peace Minerals. He said the discrepancy over the park’s boundaries started when they realized the mine was producing large quantities of gold.

The U.N. report said mines are controlled by the military, and some members are under the protection of powerful business and political interests, with soldiers at times denying local officials access to the sites.

Residents, who once mined in the reserve, are infuriated by the double standard. “The community is worried, because the Chinese are mining in a protected area when it’s forbidden for the community,” said Jean Kamana, the chief of Epulu, a village inside the Reserve.

Despite being a protected forest, people still mined there until authorities cracked down, largely after the Chinese arrived. Kimia Mining grants limited access to locals to mine areas for leftovers, but for a fee that many can’t afford, say locals.

Muvunga Kakule used to do artisanal mining in the reserve while also selling food from his farm to other miners. The 44-year-old said he’s now unable to mine or sell produce as the Chinese don’t buy locally. He’s lost 95% of his earnings and can no longer send his children to private school.

Some residents told The AP there are no other options for work and have been forced to mine secretly and risk being jailed.

Losing land, animals and income

During a trip to the reserve earlier this year, Kimia Mining wouldn’t let AP enter the site and the government wouldn’t grant access to patrol the forest with its rangers.

But nearly two dozen residents, as well as former and current Kimia Mining employees from villages in and around the Reserve, told The AP the mining was decimating the forests and the wildlife and contaminating the water and land.

Five people who had worked inside Kimia’s mines, none of whom wanted to be named for fear of reprisal, said when the Chinese finished in one area, they leave exposed, toxic water sources. Sometimes people would fall into uncovered pits and when it rains, water seeps into the soil.

Employees and mining experts say the Chinese use mercury in its operations, used to separate gold from ore. Mercury is considered one of the top ten chemicals of major public health concern by the U.N. and can have toxic effects on the nervous and immune systems.

One 27-year-old woman who worked as a cook for Kimia for six months and lives in Badengaido town, close to the mine, said the soil has become infertile. “(It’s) poisoned by chemicals used by the Chinese,” she said.

The AP could not independently verify her claim. However, a report from the University of Antwerp that researched the impact of conflict and mining on the Reserve said chemicals used to purify gold, such as mercury or cyanide, can enter the ecosystems and pollute the soil.

In the past, 15 kilograms (33 pounds) of peanut seeds would yield approximately 30 bags, but now it’s hard to get three, she said. The loss of income has made it challenging to afford school and medical care for her siblings.

Assana, a fisher who also worked in the mines and only wanted to use his first name, said it now takes four days to catch the same amount of fish he used to get in a day. While doing odd jobs for the company last year, the 38-year-old saw the Chinese repeatedly chop swaths of forest, making the heat unbearable, he said.

Between last January and May, the reserve lost more than 480 hectares (1,186 acres) of forest cover — the size of nearly 900 American football fields — according to a joint statement from the Wildlife Conservation Society and government agencies, which said it was concerned at the findings.

Aboubacar, Kimia’s spokesperson in Congo, said the company respects environmental standards and pays tax to the government for reforestation. Mining is a crucial revenue stream for Congo and it “can’t place a higher value on the environment than on mining,” he said.

Kimia is supporting the population and has employed more than 2,000 people, said Aboubacar.

Conservation is an uphill battle

Conservation groups are trying to protect the reserve, but say it’s hard to enforce when there’s ambiguity on the legalities.

“On the one hand, Congo’s law clearly states that mining is illegal in protected areas. On the other hand, if a mine is operating with an official permit, then that creates confusion, and that becomes hard to enforce on the ground,” said Emma Stokes, Vice President of field conservation for The Wildlife Conservation Society.

The internal memo, seen by AP, outlines discussions by a joint task force between the ICCN and Congo’s mining registry, which was created to try and resolve the boundary issue. The document said it will trigger the process of stopping all mining within the Reserve and integrate the agreed upon map from the joint commission into the mining registry’s system.

UNESCO’s requested a report from Congo by February, to provide clarity on what will be done to resolve the problem.

But this comes as little comfort to communities in the reserve.

Wendo Olengama, a Pygmy chief, said the influx of thousands of people into the Chinese-run mines has increased poaching, making it hard to earn money.

During the authorized hunting season, he could capture up to seven animals a day, eating some and selling others. Now it’s hard to get two, he said.

Sitting in a small hut beside his wife, as she bounces their 3-year-old granddaughter on her lap, the couple says they want the Chinese company to provide business opportunities, such as cattle raising and teach people responsible hunting.

“If the situation persists, we’ll live in misery,” said his wife, Dura Anyainde. “We wont have food to eat.”

___

Associated Press reporter Jean-Yves Kamale contributed from Kinshasa.

___

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations, including for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

SAM MEDNICK Mednick is the West and Central Africa reporter for the Associated Press. She focuses on conflict, humanitarian crises and human rights abuses. twitter

China export growth narrows to 6.7% in November amid Trump tariff uncertainty

https://www.scmp.com/economy/economic-indicators/article/3290088/china-export-growth-narrows-67-november-amid-trump-tariff-uncertainty?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s exports rose in November, amid uncertainty about US president-elect Donald Trump’s trade policies.

After posting a strong rebound in October, exports from the world’s second-largest economy grew by 6.7 per cent year on year to US$312.31 billion in November, according to customs data released on Tuesday.

The figure was lower than the expected 8.76 per cent increase surveyed by Chinese financial data provider Wind, and fell short of the 12.7 per cent rise recorded in October.

The increase likely benefited from the base effect, after exports grew by just 0.5 per cent during the same period last year.

Imports, meanwhile, fell by 3.9 per cent from a year earlier in November, compared to the 2.3 per cent decrease in October.

This led to a trade surplus of US$97.44 billion in November, compared with US$95.72 billion in October.

More to follow …

As China’s C919 gains momentum, local governments scramble to cash in

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3290022/chinas-c919-gains-momentum-local-governments-scramble-cash?utm_source=rss_feed

As China’s state-owned aircraft maker looks to turbocharge production of its C919 passenger jet, local governments are locked in a fierce competition to secure a slice of the lucrative new industry.

The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) has long had its main base in Shanghai, but it is also in discussions with several other regions as it races to put the C919 into mass production.

The company has signed contracts with Chinese airlines to build more than 360 of its narrowbody planes, but it had only delivered 13 as of early December.

With regions across China keen to bring in high-skilled investment and talent, analysts said the contest to sign C919-related contracts would ultimately benefit Comac, allowing it to build a more resilient supply chain amid a period of industry turbulence.

“Regions are competing for a slice of the growing pie, and that race is conducive to Beijing’s ambitions for Comac to ultimately take a bite out of the Boeing-Airbus duopoly,” said Fu Weigang, a senior analyst with the Shanghai Institute of Finance and Law think tank.

Shanghai has moved quickly to cement its position as Comac’s main production hub, rolling out a clutch of supportive policies including support for jet engine research and development as early as July.

In October, the city signed deals with the aircraft maker on a raft of aviation-related projects worth 26 billion yuan (US$3.57 billion), according to local media.

Comac also previously confirmed plans to build a major new production centre next to its existing facility in Shanghai’s Pudong district.

At a round table the same month, officials in Shanghai and Comac executives laid out ambitions to turn Shanghai into China’s “jet city” – rivalling the US’ Seattle and France’s Toulouse.

But several other Chinese localities believe they can tempt Comac to move some production to their areas.

The northwestern province of Shaanxi, for instance, noted in a document in October that it was still aiming to establish a C919 manufacturing facility.

“[Shaanxi shall] increase efforts to win state backing for major projects, such as the second C919 assembly base to be built in our province,” the document stated.

Sichuan and Jiangxi provinces have also indicated similar ambitions in their industrial development plans.

Comac has yet to confirm reports in Chinese media that it will expand C919 production to more regions. A manager with its Pudong plant told the Post that the C919 would be manufactured in Shanghai, for now.

“There is a lot of talk and hype elsewhere, but Shanghai shall be the sole locale for most work for the foreseeable future,” said the source, who declined to be named.

“Setting up a second production base requires long, careful planning and negotiations.”

Local officials, though, continue to make a beeline for Comac – and their efforts are often paying off.

Provinces including Hunan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Shaanxi have all signed or renewed deals with Comac since October, with a common focus on helping the latter raise output.

Among the new initiatives is a plan to build a series of Comac regional centres that will closely liaise with local suppliers in certain parts of China and coordinate logistics to guarantee production back in Shanghai.

The first such centre will be set up in Changsha, the capital of Hunan province, to oversee supply operations in central China, according to an agreement signed by Comac president He Dongfeng and Hunan governor Mao Weiming in November.

“Aircraft manufacturing is so complicated that it cannot be done in one locality,” said Jason Zheng, an analyst with Shanghai-based aviation information provider Airwefly. “Other regions can find their own niche in the very long supply chain.”

Though Comac has ambitions of rivalling Boeing and Airbus for dominance of the skies in China in the future, the C919 is also likely to present new opportunities to Western firms – especially those with production bases in China.

Comac would procure fuselages, wings and other less complex parts for the C919 from local partners, according to Zheng, but it relies on Western suppliers for a range of core components – from engines to landing gear.

Among them is German-Swiss engineering giant Liebherr, which ships state-of-the-art landing gear for the C919 from its sprawling factory in Changsha.

Liebherr reportedly met with Comac last month to discuss cooperation on the C919 and specifications for the widebody C929 model, which is currently under development.

Alex Vlielander, Liebherr’s chief customer officer, told the Post at the Zhuhai air show in November that the company’s Changsha plant was playing an important role in helping it keep component deliveries to Comac free from supply-chain disruptions.

“Landing gear and other products are made locally in China, so shipment to Comac is swift,” he said.

South China Sea: Vietnam reef projects and runway may set scene for conflict with Beijing

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3290043/south-china-sea-vietnam-reef-projects-and-runway-may-set-scene-conflict-beijing?utm_source=rss_feed

For years China has had an advantage in the South China Sea as its land reclamation programme on reefs of strategic significance created a possible base for large planes and vessels, including navy ships.

But the dominance might be challenged in the future as Vietnam, another claimant of the Spratly Islands, known as the Nansha Islands in China, pushes ahead with its own land creation and airstrip construction on reefs in the area.

Recent satellite images reveal the emergence of potential military structures on several Vietnamese features in the Spratly Islands and the formation of new embankments enclosing six protected areas. They have been seen across Barque Canada Reef, Central Reef, Tennent Reef, Namyit Island, South Reef and Ladd Reef.

Another runway could be built on the Vietnamese occupied Pearson Reef, according to a report published in October by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) at the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

Vietnam initiated its latest expansion of facilities in late 2021. Several think tanks have highlighted their rapid pace and large scale.

An AMTI report released in June indicated that Hanoi was poised to achieve record-breaking island construction efforts this year. It said that from November to May, Vietnam expanded its territory by around 280 hectares (692 acres) across 10 different features in the Spratlys, signalling a marked escalation in its territorial claims.

Analysts say a 3km (1.9-mile) runway taking shape on the Vietnam-controlled Barque Canada Reef considerably enhances Hanoi’s capacity to deploy combat aircraft in the Spratly Islands and boost its maritime capabilities, an advancement that could potentially offset Beijing’s strategic dominance in the South China Sea, much of which China claims as its own.

Vietnam already has a 1.3km runway on Spratly Island and the completion of a 3km runway would allow it to operate a wide range of military aircraft – from fighters to transport planes, reconnaissance and early warning aircraft, and barring only the largest bombers – according to Chen Xiangmiao, an associate research fellow at the Hainan-based National Institute for South China Sea Studies.

“Such a development would substantially boost Vietnam’s abilities in air superiority, surveillance and deterrence throughout the whole Spratly Islands,” he said last month on the sidelines of the Symposium on Global Maritime Cooperation and Ocean Governance in Sanya, Hainan province.

Chen noted that the new Vietnamese airstrip, once operational, would significantly enhance Vietnam’s ability to project power, extending its reach to the Philippine archipelago.

“This could challenge the strategic position China has achieved with its three major airstrips, deterrence abilities and airspace control in the Spratly Islands which were developed through its earlier island constructions,” he said, adding that the Vietnamese airstrip deserved close scrutiny, not just from China but from all claimant states in the South China Sea.

Before the facilities were developed, Vietnamese aircraft operations were limited to shorter distances. However, the new base and runway allowed for extended flight range, significantly boosting Vietnam’s military capabilities, Chen said.

In 2013, China launched a substantial island-building initiative in the Spratlys, a mix of civilian and military infrastructure that includes military-grade airstrips, radar stations, harbours and troop accommodation. Beijing maintains that its constructions are on features it controls and its actions are “lawful and justified”.

China has its “Big Three” Spratly Islands – Mischief Reef, Subi Reef and Fiery Cross – which have been fully militarised with anti-ship and anti-aircraft missile systems, laser and jamming equipment, fighter jets and runways longer than 3km.

Bill Hayton, an associate fellow with the Asia-Pacific Programme at Chatham House, said Hanoi was trying to “catch up belatedly” with China’s activities over the past decade.

He said Beijing had secured a “dominant position” in the South China Sea disputes with its island construction drive, with the upgrades allowing Chinese ships – naval, coastguard and maritime militia – to be posted there almost permanently with safe harbour and resupply facilities.

However, Vietnam’s outpost and second runway construction could give it “greater physical control” in the Spratly Islands, he said.

“[The airstrip] allows Vietnamese aircraft to do longer-range patrols in the South China Sea, rather than going back to Vietnam all the time, and they would have a potential refuelling place. If a plane has a malfunction, then it doesn’t have to return home.”

In the case of military conflict or if one runway is out of action, the new airstrip could afford Vietnam options, according to Hayton.

Hu Bo, the director of the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative (SCSPI), said the runway on Barque Canada Reef could put significant pressure on China, in part because Vietnam occupied strategic locations and a large number of islands and reefs.

He said that of the claimant states, Vietnam occupied the most features in the Spratly Islands, with some near the Philippines and Malaysia.

“If these features are well developed, they could offset the strategic advantages China gained from its own island constructions between 2013 and 2015, and increase the complexity of the China-Vietnam maritime dispute,” Hu said.

The Spratly Islands, comprising more than 100 large and small islands, reefs and atolls, are not under the control of any single nation but are variously within the 200 nautical mile (370km) exclusive economic zones of Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam and the Philippines, as well as within the scope of China’s nine-dash line that claims much of the waterway.

Hayton says Beijing is not likely to be alarmed by Hanoi’s progress. “Even if these runways are completed, they do not seem to have all the same infrastructure that the Chinese installations got – hangars from missiles, close-in weapons systems, radar, surveillance technology.”

So far, there is no indication that Vietnamese outposts are equipped with this level of infrastructure and its outpost construction could “even up some of the strategic imbalance that has emerged since China started building its island bases” in 2013, according to Hayton.

Still, a Chinese naval affairs analyst said he was concerned about the potential peril of Vietnam allowing the US and Japan to use the new airstrip and a possible new airport.

Wu Shicun, founder of the National Institute for South China Sea Studies and chairman of the Huayang Centre for Maritime Cooperation and Ocean Governance, said that as Vietnam heralds its island construction, it could make a long-term dent in China’s strategic advantage.

“Given the existing level of security cooperation between the US and Vietnam, and between Vietnam and Japan, this airport, once operational and potentially accessible to American and Japanese forces, could significantly offset geostrategic advantages and long-range capabilities Beijing gained in the South China Sea between 2013 and 2015,” he said.

Hayton said it was “implausible” that Vietnam would open the airstrip to foreign militaries to use because foreign vessels – with the exception of ships from Russia – would find access to its ports difficult.

“Vietnam’s closest military partner is Russia. … Vietnam puts all kinds of restrictions on foreign visitors, even to mainland Vietnamese harbours, the Americans get one ship visit a year. It is the same with other countries. The Russians have much easier access,” he said.

Hu also did not expect the airstrip on the reef would open access to the US or Japan because it sought a position poised between China and the US.

Hanoi navigates the complex geopolitical landscape via its “bamboo diplomacy” approach of balancing its relations with the world’s major powers and ensuring its national interests are safeguarded while maintaining strategic autonomy. Within nine months from September last year, Vietnam hosted the presidents of the US, China and Russia.

In contrast to Beijing’s typically assertive responses to the Philippines, China has so far maintained a relatively restrained reaction to Vietnam’s land reclamation endeavours in the region.

“But I believe we have reached a point where a more assertive reaction is necessary. If left unchecked … Vietnam’s ongoing construction will only expand, further disrupting the existing balance in the region. This will only lead to greater instability and increased uncertainty,” Chen said.

Noting that Malaysia had expressed disapproval through a formal protest, Chen said he expected an uptick in such responses.

Meanwhile, Hayton said Vietnam’s efforts were not a major threat to Beijing because there was a significant disparity between Vietnamese and Chinese maritime capabilities.

“What Vietnam needs to be able to do is to have some kind of deterrence that could impose some costs on China if there was ever a military action. I do not think it would have threatened China in the real sense, but it could complicate China’s military planning,” he said.

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Did ‘Tiananmen’ hack at Japan’s Tokyo University aim to block access from China?

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3290079/did-tiananmen-hack-japans-tokyo-university-aim-block-access-china?utm_source=rss_feed

The discovery of a subtle yet incendiary digital message buried deep within the source code of a University of Tokyo website has prompted an investigation into whether hackers sought to block access from China – or send a pointed political message.

At the heart of the controversy is a block of text that reads “six four Tiananmen”, an unmistakable nod to the crackdown on protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.

The hidden characters, written in kanji, were found embedded in the pages of the university’s Graduate School of Frontier Science website, including its English-language entry page and an admissions information section.

University officials are now digging into the hackers’ motives, with one professor suggesting resentment towards the growing number of Chinese students at Japan’s most prestigious university could be a factor.

“Inserting these characters in the code is being seen as creating a barrier to Chinese students accessing the pages,” the professor told This Week in Asia, speaking on condition of anonymity. “That is just speculative at the moment, but the university is looking into that possibility.”

According to a report on Saturday by Japanese newspaper the Mainichi Shimbun, the website was launched for the 2023 academic year, and the contentious lines of code were discovered in November.

The controversial characters have since been removed and the university has taken action to improve its web security in an effort to prevent any future attempts by hackers to insert data or keywords. An investigation is also under way to uncover how the breach occurred in the first place.

According to experts quoted by the Mainichi Shimbun, embedding sensitive phrases in a website’s source code can significantly increase the likelihood of those pages appearing in search results. Given that terms associated with Tiananmen trigger China’s stringent system of automatic censorship, this tactic could effectively restrict access for users within the country.

This Week in Asia sought comment from the university officials, but did not receive an immediate response. However, in a statement to the Mainichi, the university reaffirmed its commitment to fostering a diverse community of students and faculty members from around the globe.

“If the keyword was mixed in with the aim of inhibiting access from a specific country, it is an inappropriate act and is very regrettable,” the statement read.

The influx of international students at the university has been notable, with enrolment figures reaching 5,104 as of May. Among the foreign students, 60.5 per cent were Chinese nationals, who also make up nearly 70 per cent of the graduate school population.

Online commenters have expressed concern about the growing presence of Chinese students at the University of Tokyo. One, responding to the Mainichi story, said the rise in Chinese students “is nothing less than a threat to Japan, but there is no sign of any movement to correct it”.

“I’m sure I’m not the only one who wants to praise the actions of the person who [hacked and] set this up,” the commenter added.

Another comment questioned the appropriateness of recruiting international students and giving them “preferential treatment” at the university.

“The first priority should be to nurture excellent students in Japan for the development of this country,” it said. “National universities should not take the initiative in doing things that benefit foreign countries, especially those that are hostile to Japan.”

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China half-marathon offers unique prizes – cow, wild fish, chickens, boosting registration

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3289945/china-half-marathon-offers-unique-prizes-cow-wild-fish-chickens-boosting-registration?utm_source=rss_feed

A half-marathon in northeastern China has garnered widespread attention after announcing that the winner would receive a cow as a prize, alongside other rewards such as wild fish, chickens, and ducks.

These unconventional prizes have sparked significant interest, with many expressing enthusiasm about participating in the event.

On December 3, Chongqing Daily News Group reported that a race event took place in Nong’an county, Changchun, Jilin province.

The event featured two categories: a half-marathon and a 5-km health run.

According to the competition rules, the top 50 finishers in the half-marathon would receive a combination of cash and other prizes. The champion would be awarded a cow, while the first and second runners-up would receive valuable wild fish.

Participants placing fourth to 20th would be given a goose or rooster, and those finishing after the 30th spot would take home 10kg of rice or whole wheat flour.

The event organiser further explained: “Indeed, the top prize this year is a cow. Last year, we offered wild fish as the top prize, with second place winners receiving chickens and ducks.”

“To make this year more special, the champion has the option to either take the cow home or exchange it for 6,000 yuan (US$820) in cash.”

The organiser also noted that the prizes were selected to reflect local agricultural products, adding a regional flavour to the event while enhancing its appeal.

“The enthusiasm for registration has been remarkable, with many participants expressing interest in these unique prizes,” the organiser added.

The Chinese public has increasingly embraced healthier lifestyles and shown a growing interest in participating in marathons, drawn by their strong social and interactive aspects, which resonate with sports enthusiasts.

According to the “2023 China Road Running Races Blue Book” released by the Chinese Athletics Association, a total of 622 marathons and half marathons were held nationwide last year, averaging nearly two events per day.

This trend has expanded beyond major cities like Beijing, Guangzhou, and Chengdu, with smaller third- and fourth-tier cities, and even counties with populations of only a few hundred thousand, now organising races of varying scales.

These organising committees are increasingly incorporating local elements into this modern fitness trend.

Last month, the Lu’an Marathon in Anhui province in eastern China awarded live geese to the top 18 finishers as prizes.

Similarly, last year, the “Village Super League” football finals in Guizhou featured a variety of local specialties during the award ceremony, including chickens, geese, sheep, pigs, and cows.

These unique prizes have captured significant attention among Chinese netizens, with many praising them as a “creative approach”.

One viewer commented: “Winning and taking home a cow would feel incredibly rewarding and certainly make you the centre of attention on social media.”

However, some netizens raised practical concerns: “If someone from out of town wins, how would they take a cow home? They can’t just drag it onto the train!”

Another added: “Using local specialties as prizes is definitely creative, but if the winner is from another city, perhaps they need to buy a high-speed train ticket for the cow?”

US can edge China in tech by adding visa options to lure quantum workers: senior official

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3290077/us-can-edge-china-tech-adding-visa-options-lure-quantum-workers-senior-official?utm_source=rss_feed

The US needs to explore expanding its visa options to bring in qualified workers in quantum research and industry to close a “significant” gap with China in the country’s pursuit of a technological edge, a senior American energy official has urged.

Rima Oueid of the US Department of Energy on Monday estimated that half of the jobs in quantum computing “are not getting filled” in remarks at the Hudson Institute, a Washington-based think tank.

Without disclosing specific figures, Oueid, who works in the DoE’s office of technology transitions, said the shortage ran into “the tens of thousands, so it’s significant”.

Even as American universities offer quantum programmes, about half of all PhD students in the US hail from abroad, she added.

And US immigration law can make it hard for those foreign nationals to stay.

“There’s been conversations around whether we could expedite different types of visas that would allow … students educated here to build these roles,” Oueid said. “That’s a big part of the problem.”

The assessment came as the US stays locked in a high-stakes quantum arms race with China, driven by a geopolitical rivalry touching on tech supremacy, economic dominance and national-security concerns.

By leveraging the principles of quantum mechanics and the physics of subatomic particles, quantum technologies could be used to develop advanced capabilities in computing, communication and sensing. They could also be applied for military use.

While the US is considered the world leader in quantum computing, China dominates the field of quantum communication and roughly matches the US in the field of quantum sensing, according to the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, another Washington-based think tank.

This has raised worries in Washington and among its allies that their sophisticated encryption could be cracked by Beijing.

Last week, four US senators introduced bipartisan legislation looking to authorise US$2.7 billion in federal funding to accelerate quantum research and development at federal-science agencies for the next five years.

The National Quantum Initiative Reauthorisation Act would focus on advancing practical applications in quantum science while expanding the scope of the original law signed in 2018 during the Donald Trump administration. It expired in September 2023.

In addition, the bill would include funding for new quantum research centres and workforce development hubs while allowing the programme to be continued through 2034.

Speaking at the same discussion on Monday, Ryan McKenney of Quantinuum, a Colorado-headquartered company that develops quantum-computing solutions, believed more should be done to retain the quantum talents in the US.

That could include proposals to lower qualifications for extraordinary-ability visas that used to require individuals be recipients of major internationally recognised awards like the Nobel Prize.

Even as Trump is expected to take a tough stance on US immigration policy when he takes office in January, some reform was merited to better balance national-security concerns with retaining scarce quantum talents, McKenney said.

“You don’t want quantum to just be a national-security issue,” he added.

“By highlighting the very clear national-security issues related to China, related to the encryption race, it can be easier to push something like immigration reform, at least in that narrow sense, for [the] quantum workforce.”

Nvidia shares fall as China launches antitrust investigation into company

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/dec/09/china-nvidia-antitrust-investigation

China said on Monday it had launched an investigation into Nvidia over suspected violations of the country’s anti-monopoly law, in a move widely seen as a retaliatory shot against Washington’s latest curbs on the Chinese chip sector.

The statement from the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) announcing the investigation did not elaborate on how the US company, known for its artificial intelligence (AI) and gaming chips, might have violated China’s anti-monopoly laws.

It said that the US chipmaker was, in addition, suspected of violating commitments it made during its acquisition of the Israeli chip designer Mellanox Technologies under terms outlined in the regulator’s 2020 conditional approval of that deal.

Nvidia did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company’s shares fell 2.2% in pre-market trading in New York after the Chinese regulator’s announcement.

The investigation comes after the US last week launched its third crackdown in three years on China’s semiconductor industry, which saw Washington curb exports to 140 companies, including chip equipment makers.

In a sign that China intends to fight back strongly against the latest move, shortly after Washington’s announcement Beijing banned exports to the United States of the critical minerals gallium, germanium and antimony.

On the same day, four of the country’s top industry associations issued a rare and coordinated response saying that Chinese companies should be wary of buying US chips as they were “no longer safe” and buy locally instead.

Nvidia has been one of the many companies caught up in US-China tensions. An earlier round of export curbs by the US stopped Nvidia from selling its most advanced AI chips to China, prompting it to come up with new China-specific versions that were compliant with US export controls.

Nvidia dominated China’s AI chip market with a more than 90% share before these curbs. However, it currently faces increasing competition from domestic rivals, chief among them being Huawei. China accounted for about 17% of Nvidia’s revenue in the year to the end of January, sliding from 26% two years earlier.

In 2020, the company won a key approval from China for its acquisition of Mellanox Technologies, despite concerns that Beijing could block the deal due to US-China trade frictions.

Beijing’s approval set multiple conditions for Nvidia and the merged entity’s China operations, including prohibitions on forced product bundling, unreasonable trading terms, purchase restrictions and discriminatory treatment of customers who buy products separately.

The last time China launched an anti-monopoly investigation into a high-profile foreign technology firm was in 2013 when it investigated Qualcomm’s local subsidiary for overcharging and abusing its market position in wireless communication standards.

Qualcomm later agreed to pay a fine of $975m, which at the time was the largest China had ever handed out to a company.

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From durians to snow tourism, China-Vietnam economic ties enjoy banner year

https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3289973/durians-snow-tourism-china-vietnam-economic-ties-enjoy-banner-year?utm_source=rss_feed

What do durians, lobsters and snow have in common?

They are all delivering economic dividends during an upbeat year for China’s ties with Vietnam.

Off and on since the 1970s, ships from the two nations have faced off in disputed parts of the South China Sea, sparking occasional mishaps and strongly worded diplomatic declamations.

But this year, as people on the ground tell it, each side found the other’s economy too influential to ignore.

“The Chinese government has kept an open attitude,” said Ding Wei, chairman of the China Business Association’s branch in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s main financial centre.

“It’s willing to invest in Vietnam and wants to have economic ties with Vietnam.”

Stronger economic ties have borne fruit this year in high-level dialogue, brisker trade and new direct investments in factories and infrastructure.

Two-way trade swelled to US$212.9 billion in the first 10 months of this year, according to Chinese customs data, up from US$183.9 billion over the same period last year.

Vietnam shipped US$2.78 billion worth of durians to China in the first 10 months of this year, a year-on-year increase of 42.6 per cent, according to Chinese customs data.

In October it surpassed Thailand to become the largest supplier of the pungent, spiky fruits, which can sell for US$25 apiece in Chinese supermarkets, the data shows.

Over the first three quarters of the year, the value of Vietnamese lobsters exported to China shot up by 3,285 per cent. Beijing cancelled import restrictions last year.

Growth in trade has increased the urgency of better connecting Chinese and Vietnamese railways for goods train use, said Carl Thayer, a veteran Southeast Asia-watcher who is now an emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia.

Two railway lines from the Chinese border to cities in central Vietnam will have the spacing between their tracks increased to 1.43 metres (4.7 feet), consistent with the Chinese standard, the Yicai Global news website in China reported in August. China and Vietnam are “joining forces” to do the work, it said.

China State Construction Engineering would separately participate in a US$67 billion high-speed railway project that will run from Hanoi, Vietnam’s capital, to Ho Chi Minh City, according to the country’s Association of Foreign Invested Enterprises.

The high-speed railway project could eventually link up with the Kunming-Bangkok-Singapore rail system that will run from China to the tip of continental Southeast Asia, Thayer said.

China has made a name for itself in completing technically advanced railway projects and other infrastructure work, including projects in many other parts of Asia.

Trains are moving more tourists as well as freight this year.

In the first half of the year, China ranked as Vietnam’s second-biggest source of tourists after South Korea with 1.8 million arrivals, up from 557,000 in the first half of last year, according to the Viet Nam National Authority of Tourism.

The first charter train from China to cross the border at Lao Cai recently brought tourists to Vietnam, the Viet Nam News reported in November.

Chinese tourists are fans of Vietnam’s long coastline, while Vietnamese may head the other way to see snow, which seldom falls in their home country, said Phuong Nguyen, communications manager of the 23-property Fusion Hotel Group in Vietnam.

She said travel agencies and internet influencers have helped increase Vietnamese tourists’ interest in China this year.

People travelling from Vietnam accounted for 4 per cent of the arrivals processed in China last year, according to market research firm Statista.

Economic relations between the two communist countries have long waxed and waned. They wax when leaders from each side see the benefits piling up on the other despite lingering territorial disputes, said Jack Nguyen, CEO of the professional services firm InCorp.

A landmark example was their 2007 agreement to explore jointly for oil and natural gas in the Gulf of Tonkin – known in China as the Beibu Gulf – which lies off their coasts in the northwestern part of the South China Sea.

The two countries’ top leaders met in December last year and again in August to discuss, among other topics, transport connectivity.

“[Vietnam] needs to keep good relations with China,” Nguyen said. “This goes back a thousand years. Economically, Vietnam buys a lot from China.”

China’s considerable imprint on Vietnam’s manufacturing sector has grown over the past five years or so, adding a major new source of investment to a Southeast Asian economy that is largely dependent on infusions of foreign capital.

Investment in Vietnam from China in the first seven months of this year amounted to US$1.97 billion, a Ministry of Commerce spokesman said in Beijing in October, adding that the figure reflected “rather fast growth”.

While many of those investors operate factories, some work in tourism or packing and logistics for China-bound durian shipments, Ding said.

In Beijing, officials want more railway connectivity throughout Southeast Asia to help extend their economic influence, Thayer said.

China’s involvement in the high-speed railway project running from northern to southern Vietnam will “extend China’s connectivity” from Ho Chi Minh City to Cambodia and Thailand, Thayer said.

Zha Daojiong, an international studies professor at Peking University, said “attainable cooperation in the land spaces” helps relieve pressure from the two countries’ maritime disputes.

“So, the two sides have found a way to practice competitive cooperation: not relenting on issues of principle over maritime space but a focus on feasible cooperation on land,” Zha said.

Vietnam was particularly ready for engagement with China this year after overcoming two political hurdles, some analysts in Ho Chi Minh City said.

The ruling Communist Party of Vietnam’s Central Committee picked a new general secretary, To Lam, in August after the death of his predecessor, while a knotty, high-level anti-corruption drive also wound down this year.

“Now it’s like ‘let’s get down to business’ and that’s just really recent and that’s good,” said Frederick Burke, the Ho Chi Minh City-based vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Business Association in Vietnam. “I feel like people are ready and it’s been too long.”

Nguyen said Chinese companies are searching for places to grow as their domestic economy is stuck in the doldrums and storm clouds loom on the horizon.

Vietnam’s location on China’s border and the fact it is free from punitive US tariffs on Chinese imports means that a Chinese company can move production without having to worry about any extra duties on US-bound shipments.

The Vietnamese economy is expected to grow faster than China’s this year, according to the Asian Development Bank. Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said on December 1 that his government will push for 8 per cent growth next year, Vietnam’s Tuoi Tre News reported.

Vietnam’s middle class is growing within the total population of about 100 million, business consultancy Dezan Shira & Associates said in a November briefing. That expansion represents a market for Chinese vendors.

Signage for Chinese consumer electronics brands such as TCL and Xiaomi speckles the streets of central Ho Chi Minh City, and a Haidilao hotpot restaurant, another emblematic Chinese brand, operates in their midst.

Increases in Vietnamese people’s spending power over the next five to 20 years will attract expansion-minded Chinese vendors, Ding from the China Business Association said.

“More and more Chinese enterprises will be here,” he said. “When they get to a certain level, they’ll want to go outside to expand.”

Two-way e-commerce has grown so fast that the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade demanded this year that Chinese budget-shopping platforms Shein and Temu register their businesses in the country.

They have now suspended operations in Vietnam as they await approval from authorities to restart their local services.

Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade ordered Temu, owned by Chinese e-commerce giant PDD Holdings, to halt its business after the platform failed to complete the required business registration process by the November 30 deadline, VietnamNet Global reported on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Shein has published a notice on its website saying that its shopping platform is temporarily unavailable in Vietnam as it works with the ministry to register its e-commerce services.

Some equity investments have been faring better. Chinese electric vehicle battery developer Gotion agreed last year to invest US$150 million in shares of VinFast, Vietnam’s first electric vehicle maker.

The carmaker’s parent company, Vingroup – the largest conglomerate in Vietnam – said in November that Gotion is now a “partner” in VinFast’s supply chain and “part of our efforts to collaborate with potential partners globally to diversify our supply sources”.

VinFast cars sell across a network of flashy showrooms in Ho Chi Minh City. Vingroup said 22,348 electric vehicles were delivered to customers in the first half of this year, more than in the same six months of last year.

In another hint of what may be next, Vietnamese Defence Minister General Phan Van Giang suggested to a visiting Chinese official in October that the two sides work together on the “defence industry and military trade”.

However, the two countries have not settled their maritime disputes, and Hanoi complained in October that Chinese law enforcement personnel had assaulted 10 Vietnamese fishermen near a disputed South China Sea archipelago.

China and Vietnam are unlikely to abandon each other economically if the maritime issue crops up again, experts say.

But Thayer said Vietnamese leaders would look past China for help on major projects such as railways.

“Vietnam assiduously pursues a policy of diversifying and ‘multilateralising’ its external relations and thus keeps all avenues open with respect to large-scale infrastructure projects,” he said.

How will China fight a new trade war under Trump 2.0? A museum exhibit may offer a clue

https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3290001/how-will-china-fight-new-trade-war-under-trump-20-museum-exhibit-may-offer-clue?utm_source=rss_feed

Inside the Museum of the Chinese Communist Party in northern Beijing – a massive new exhibition centre designed to allow the nation’s 900 million party members to pay tribute to the ruling party and showcase its achievements to the world – a small section named China-US Trade Negotiations sits near the exit.

It offers a summary of Beijing’s official recollection of its trade talks with Washington during Donald Trump’s first presidency. Two photos are displayed: one of President Xi Jinping meeting Trump on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, in June 2019, and another of Vice-Premier Liu He, head of China’s trade negotiation team, signing a deal with Trump at the White House in January 2020.

According to a brief description next to those photos, the Trump administration “abandoned basic international-relationship principles of mutual respect and consultation on a basis of equality”, and took a series of “extreme trade protectionist measures”, which damaged the international economic order and hurt global trade relations, including China-US trade cooperation.

Beijing, on the other hand, responded by firmly safeguarding its national dignity and core interests, while resolutely pushing forward the “healthy development of China-US trade relationship”, the text reads.

With Trump’s re-election, many are wondering how China will handle his return to the White House. The president-elect has already threatened to impose an additional 10 per cent tariff on all Chinese goods and 100 per cent tariffs on countries that seek to replace the US dollar as the main global currency. It seems that a new trade war between the world’s two largest economies is just around the corner.

If Trump were to go ahead with protectionist measures against China, Beijing would no doubt retaliate. Former Chinese central bank governor Yi Gang last week explained the rationale: while it may not be the best option for Beijing to respond with tit-for-tat retaliation against Trump, there is actually not much policymakers can do but to hit back to “give account to the [Chinese] public”.

Yi’s speech in Tokyo did not receive much coverage at home. When Chinese magazine Caixin reported on his remarks to underscore the message that retaliation may not be the best option from a free trade perspective, the article was censored. For Beijing, the last thing it can tolerate is to be seen as weak in front of Washington or yielding to US pressure.

China is also not in the mood to burn bridges, as Beijing’s ultimate aim is to build a “healthy” relationship with the US. As such, it is possible that China could pursue a more flexible and targeted approach this time around, rather than following the US into a tariff-hike contest during the first Trump administration.

Since China’s exports to the US far exceeds America’s exports to the mainland, Beijing could taking a bigger hit in a tariff war.

Like the rest of the world, China is still waiting to see what Trump’s end-game is: whether he truly wants higher tariffs on Chinese goods, or whether he is just using the threat of tariffs as an excuse to get concessions in other aspects. But as long as the US avoids stepping on mainland China’s “four red lines” – namely the Taiwan question, democracy and human rights, the nation’s path and system, and its development right – almost everything else could be negotiable.

One advantage for China in the Trump 2.0 era is that it is much better prepared now than in 2018, when the trade war began. When Trump threatened a trade war in his first year at the White House, Beijing initially took that as a bluff on the assumption that its relationship with Washington “can’t be too good or too bad”. In the past few years, China has seriously reviewed its dependence on the US in trade and technology, and calculated the real risks of decoupling.

So it will be interesting to see how that Chinese museum exhibition would be revised after four years.

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