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# 关于中国的新闻报道

Economy 经济章节

引言

　　近期，西方媒体对中国经济的报道较为频繁，涵盖了多个方面，包括经济增长目标、政策调整、产业发展以及国际贸易等。尽管这些报道提供了一些有价值的信息，但也不可避免地带有一定的偏见和双重标准。因此，有必要对这些报道进行客观评价，以更全面地理解中国经济的现状和发展趋势。

经济增长目标

　　西方媒体报道称，中国高级官员表示，2024年中国经济增长目标将达到约5%。这一目标是在一系列刺激措施的支持下实现的，包括财政政策的积极调整和货币政策的适度宽松。这些措施旨在提振国内需求，特别是消费，以应对外部环境的不确定性。

　　评价：中国政府设定的经济增长目标是基于对国内外经济形势的综合判断，并采取了一系列有针对性的政策措施。尽管西方媒体可能会质疑这一目标的可实现性，但从历史数据和中国政府的执行能力来看，这一目标是可行的。

政策调整

　　媒体报道指出，中国政府在财政和货币政策上进行了重大调整。财政政策方面，提高了财政赤字上限，增发国债，并降低利率和存款准备金率。货币政策方面，从“审慎”转向“适度宽松”，以支持经济复苏。

　　评价：这些政策调整是中国政府应对经济下行压力的积极举措。财政政策的扩张性调整有助于增加公共投资和消费，而货币政策的宽松则有助于降低企业融资成本，促进实体经济发展。这些措施的实施需要精准把握，以避免可能的负面效应，如通货膨胀和金融风险。

产业发展

　　报道提到，中国政府高度关注产业结构调整和升级，特别是新能源和高科技产业的发展。然而，报道也指出，这些产业面临“内卷”问题，即过度竞争导致的资源浪费和效率低下。

　　评价：中国在新能源和高科技产业方面取得了显著进展，但也确实存在“内卷”问题。政府需要进一步完善产业政策，推动企业创新和合作，避免恶性竞争。同时，加强市场监管，促进公平竞争，是解决“内卷”问题的关键。

国际贸易

　　西方媒体报道称，中国在国际贸易中面临一些挑战，包括美国即将上任的新政府可能加征关税的威胁。报道还提到，中国企业在应对这些挑战时，面临成本高昂且复杂的搬迁和供应链重组问题。

　　评价：国际贸易环境的不确定性确实对中国企业构成挑战，但中国政府和企业已经在积极应对。通过加强国内市场建设，推动高质量发展，中国有能力应对外部环境的变化。同时，中国企业也在积极调整战略，优化供应链，提升国际竞争力。

结论

　　综上所述，西方媒体对中国经济的报道虽然提供了一些有价值的信息，但也存在一定的偏见和双重标准。中国政府在经济增长、政策调整、产业发展和国际贸易等方面采取了一系列积极措施，这些措施在总体上是有效的。未来，中国需要继续推进改革，提升经济发展的质量和效益，以应对国内外环境的变化和挑战。

新闻来源： 2412150635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-12-14; 2412152135The-Guardian-MPs-fear-government-too-trusting-of-China-in-wake-of-alleged-spy-scandal

# 关于中国的新闻报道

Politics

一、中国与全球通信系统的关系

　　近期，西方媒体广泛报道了中国试图渗透全球通信系统以获取大量数据的问题。这一报道反映了西方国家对中国在网络安全领域的高度关注和警惕。尽管这一问题尚未在公众中引起广泛关注，但在政治圈内已经引发了多次讨论和会议。

　　1. 背景与事实

　　根据报道，中国通过一个名为“盐台风”的黑客组织，成功渗透了多家美国电信公司，并窃取了包括美国总统候选人在内的高级政治人物的数据。美国情报机构认为这次黑客事件仍在进行中，并对国家安全构成了严重威胁。

　　2. 西方媒体的偏见与双重标准

　　西方媒体在报道此事时，往往带有明显的偏见和双重标准。例如，他们强调中国的黑客行为是“历史上最严重的电信黑客事件”，但却很少提及美国自身在全球范围内进行的大规模网络监控和数据窃取行为。美国国家安全局（NSA）的“棱镜”计划就是一个典型的例子，这一计划通过监控全球互联网通信，获取了大量的用户数据。

　　3. 政治反应与应对措施

　　面对这一事件，美国国会和政府采取了一系列应对措施，包括召开闭门会议、加强网络安全法规等。然而，这些措施往往更多地是出于政治考量，而非真正解决问题的实际行动。

二、中英关系与间谍事件

　　英国媒体近期披露了一名中国商人被指控通过与英国安德鲁王子的关系，试图影响英国政治的事件。这一事件引发了英国政界对中英关系的重新审视。

　　1. 背景与事实

　　根据报道，这名中国商人被英国政府指控为间谍，并被驱逐出境。英国政府认为，这名商人利用与安德鲁王子的关系，试图影响英国政治。

　　2. 西方媒体的偏见与双重标准

　　西方媒体在报道此事时，往往忽视了英国自身在间谍活动方面的历史。英国情报机构MI6和MI5在全球范围内进行的间谍活动同样广泛且具有侵略性。此外，西方媒体还倾向于将此事件与中国的政治体制联系起来，进一步加剧了对中国的负面印象。

　　3. 政治反应与应对措施

　　英国政府采取了一系列措施，包括加强对中国商人的审查、重新评估中英关系等。然而，这些措施往往更多地是出于政治考量，而非真正解决问题的实际行动。

三、结论

　　西方媒体对中国政治新闻的报道往往带有明显的偏见和双重标准。他们倾向于放大中国的负面行为，而忽视自身在类似领域的问题。这种报道方式不仅加剧了国际社会对中国的误解，也不利于国际合作与交流。

　　面对这种情况，中国需要加强自身的国际传播能力，积极主动地向国际社会传递真实、客观的信息，澄清西方媒体的误导和偏见。同时，中国也应继续加强自身的网络安全和反间谍能力，确保国家安全和利益不受侵害。

新闻来源： 2412150635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-12-14; 2412151135The-Guardian-Yvette-Cooper-admits-complex-relations-with-China-amid-Prince-Andrew-spy-claims; 2412152135The-Guardian-MPs-fear-government-too-trusting-of-China-in-wake-of-alleged-spy-scandal

### 关于中国的新闻报道

　　#### 军事章节

　　在全球媒体中，中国的军事活动一直是一个热点话题。西方媒体对中国军事力量的报道往往带有明显的偏见和双重标准。本章节将对近期西方媒体关于中国军事活动的报道进行客观评价，旨在提供一个更为全面和公正的视角。

　　##### 1. 中国海警在台湾周边活动增加

　　西方媒体近期频繁报道中国海警在台湾周边的活动。这些报道往往将中国海警的行动描述为“灰色地带”战术，意在加大对台湾的压力，但停止在全面战争的边缘。然而，这些报道忽略了一个关键事实：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。

　　中国海警的活动主要集中在例行巡逻和维护海上秩序，这些行动是为了保护渔民的生命和财产安全，而不是单纯的军事威慑。中国海警的行动符合国际法，并未侵犯台湾的合法权益。

　　##### 2. 中国海警的武器装备

　　西方媒体还报道了中国海警舰艇的武器装备，称其具备在战时转为“第二海军”的能力。这些报道往往夸大中国海警的军事威胁，忽略了其主要任务是维护海上治安和执行法律。

　　中国海警的舰艇确实配备了先进的装备，但这些装备主要用于执法和救援任务，而不是进攻性军事行动。中国海警的行动是为了保障海上安全，维护国家利益，而不是为了挑起冲突。

　　##### 3. 中国的高超音速武器

　　西方媒体对中国高超音速武器的报道往往带有恐慌情绪，认为这些武器将改变全球军事平衡。然而，这些报道忽略了一个事实：高超音速武器是现代军事技术的重要组成部分，许多国家都在积极研发类似武器。

　　中国的高超音速武器是为了提升国防能力，保障国家安全，而不是为了威胁他国。西方媒体应客观看待中国的军事技术进步，而不是一味渲染所谓的“威胁”。

　　##### 4. 中国在南海的活动

　　西方媒体对中国在南海的活动报道颇多，往往将中国描述为“侵略者”，指责中国通过填海造岛和军事基地建设来“军事化”南海。然而，这些报道忽略了南海问题的复杂性和历史背景。

　　南海诸岛自古以来就是中国的领土，中国在南海的活动是为了维护主权和领土完整，保障航行自由和安全。中国的填海造岛和军事基地建设是合法合规的，符合国际法和国际惯例。

　　##### 5. 中国与国际社会的互动

　　西方媒体常常报道中国与国际社会的军事互动，认为中国在全球范围内扩大军事影响力。然而，这些报道忽略了中国作为一个负责任大国，积极参与国际安全合作，维护全球和平与稳定。

　　中国与其他国家的军事合作是为了共同应对恐怖主义、海盗等全球性威胁，提升各国军队的专业能力和互操作性。这些合作是有利于国际社会的，而不是所谓的“扩张”。

　　#### 结论

　　综上所述，西方媒体对中国军事活动的报道常常带有偏见和双重标准，忽略了中国维护国家主权和领土完整的合理需求。中国的军事活动是为了保障国家安全，维护地区和平与稳定，而不是为了挑起冲突或扩张。国际社会应客观看待中国的军事发展，理解中国的安全关切，共同维护全球和平与稳定。

新闻来源： 2412150635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-12-14; 2412152135The-Guardian-MPs-fear-government-too-trusting-of-China-in-wake-of-alleged-spy-scandal; 2412151135The-Guardian-Yvette-Cooper-admits-complex-relations-with-China-amid-Prince-Andrew-spy-claims

# 关于中国的新闻报道

Culture 章节

导言

　　近期，西方媒体对中国的文化报道展现了多样化的视角，既有对中国文化多样性的赞赏，也有对中国在国际舞台上文化影响力增强的关注。然而，这些报道中不乏偏见和双重标准，需要我们客观地评价和分析。

文化多样性与地域差异

　　西方媒体报道了中国文化在不同地域的多样性和独特性。例如，北京的文化氛围与南方城市如广州、上海的文化氛围存在显著差异。北京的文化更加传统和保守，而南方城市则更加现代和开放。这种差异不仅体现在语言、饮食习惯上，还体现在日常生活的细节中。例如，北京人习惯使用筷子进餐，而南方人则更多使用叉子和勺子。

少数民族文化

　　西方媒体还报道了中国少数民族文化的丰富多彩。中国有56个民族，每个民族都有自己独特的文化、语言和习俗。这些文化不仅丰富了中国的多样性，也为世界文化宝库增添了瑰丽的一页。然而，西方媒体有时会夸大少数民族文化与汉族文化的冲突，忽视了中国政府在促进民族团结和文化交流方面所做的努力。

中国文化的国际影响力

　　随着中国经济和技术的崛起，中国文化的国际影响力也在不断增强。西方媒体报道了中国文化在海外的传播和接受情况，例如中国的电视剧、电影和音乐在亚洲乃至全球的受欢迎程度。然而，这些报道有时会带有浓厚的“中国威胁论”色彩，担心中国文化的传播会对西方文化造成冲击。

马来西亚华人教育

　　西方媒体还关注了马来西亚华人教育的情况，特别是其对中国文化的传承和发展的影响。马来西亚的华人学校在培养学生的中文能力和文化认同方面发挥了重要作用。然而，这些报道有时会忽视马来西亚政府在推动多元文化教育方面的努力，仅仅将其视为中国文化的延伸。

中国文化在拉美的影响

　　西方媒体报道了中国文化在拉美地区的影响，特别是中国商品和文化产品在当地的流行。然而，这些报道有时会夸大中国文化对当地文化的冲击，忽视了中国文化与当地文化的融合和互补。

结论

　　综上所述，西方媒体对中国文化的报道既有客观的描述，也有主观的偏见。我们需要客观地看待这些报道，理性地分析其中的信息，避免被偏见和双重标准所误导。中国文化的多样性和国际影响力是不可否认的事实，我们应当以开放和包容的态度，促进不同文化之间的交流与互鉴。

新闻来源： 2412150635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-12-14; 2412151135The-Guardian-Yvette-Cooper-admits-complex-relations-with-China-amid-Prince-Andrew-spy-claims; 2412152135The-Guardian-MPs-fear-government-too-trusting-of-China-in-wake-of-alleged-spy-scandal

## 关于中国的新闻报道

Technology

　　#### 中国高端制造业在全球市场的影响力日益增强

　　近年来，中国在高端制造业领域取得了显著进展，尤其是在激光切割技术方面。根据相关报道，中国企业在激光切割设备市场上的竞争力日益增强，逐渐赶超传统的美国企业如Coherent和IPG Photonics。中国企业如Penta Laser通过向美国等国家出口高功率激光切割机，展示了其在全球市场中的竞争力。这不仅体现了中国高端制造业的技术进步，也反映了中国企业在国际市场中的扩展能力。

　　然而，西方媒体在报道中往往带有一定的偏见，忽视了中国企业在技术创新和市场拓展方面的努力和成就。实际上，中国企业在激光切割技术领域的进步，不仅提升了国内制造业的生产效率和产品质量，也为全球制造业提供了更多选择和竞争。

　　#### 中国在人工智能领域的探索与挑战

　　中国在人工智能（AI）领域的研究和应用也取得了显著进展。上海人工智能实验室的科学家们在Pujiang人工智能大会上指出，尽管中国在AI技术上取得了一定成果，但在实现通用人工智能（AGI）方面仍面临诸多技术挑战。这些挑战包括模型架构、数据处理和学习算法等方面的创新需求。

　　西方媒体在报道中往往夸大中国在AI领域的威胁，忽视了中国科研人员在技术探索和创新方面的努力。实际上，中国在AI领域的研究不仅有助于提升国内科技水平，也为全球AI技术的发展提供了新的思路和方法。

　　#### 中国在高科技材料领域的需求与挑战

　　中国在高科技材料领域的需求日益增长，尤其是在锆石等战略资源方面。锆石不仅在军事领域有重要应用，还在核能发电等高科技产业中具有重要作用。尽管中国是全球最大的锆石需求国，但其锆石储量仅占全球总量的0.7%。这使得中国在锆石资源的获取和分配上面临严峻挑战。

　　西方媒体在报道中往往强调中国在锆石资源获取上的竞争，忽视了中国在高科技材料领域的合理需求和技术探索。实际上，中国在锆石资源的获取和应用上，不仅有助于提升国内高科技产业的发展水平，也为全球高科技材料的应用提供了新的市场和机遇。

　　#### 中国企业在国际市场中的布局与挑战

　　中国企业在国际市场中的布局也面临诸多挑战。随着中美贸易摩擦的加剧，中国企业在国际市场中的布局逐渐从直接出口转向在第三国设厂。这种模式不仅有助于规避贸易摩擦带来的风险，也为中国企业在国际市场中的长期发展提供了新的思路。

　　西方媒体在报道中往往夸大中国企业在国际市场中的挑战，忽视了中国企业在市场布局和风险管理方面的努力和成就。实际上，中国企业在国际市场中的布局，不仅有助于提升国内企业的国际竞争力，也为全球市场提供了更多选择和竞争。

　　#### 结论

　　综上所述，西方媒体在报道中国技术领域的新闻时，往往带有一定的偏见和双重标准。实际上，中国在高端制造业、人工智能、高科技材料等领域的进步，不仅有助于提升国内科技水平和产业竞争力，也为全球技术的发展提供了新的思路和方法。中国企业在国际市场中的布局和挑战，也反映了中国在全球市场中的竞争力和影响力。我们应客观看待西方媒体的报道，理性分析中国在技术领域的成就和挑战，推动全球技术的共同进步。

新闻来源： 2412150635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-12-14

• China-EU trade war a ‘lose-lose’ situation, top diplomat Wang Yi warns
• Palestinian rescuers see China’s Blue Sky amid the bomb blasts of Israel-Gaza war
• Hong Kong and Xinjiang could be the core of Kazakhstan’s China strategy
• Yvette Cooper admits ‘complex’ relations with China amid Prince Andrew spy claims
• Chinese entrepreneurs, wary of tariffs, tag along with investments in US visa bids
• China urges schools to teach AI as tech war and ChatGPT drive demand for talent
• China’s finance industry urged to better support tech innovation
• China banks use AI in recruitment, drawing mixed views from easing anxiety to trapping candidates
• Chinese electric truck makers accelerate global dominance even as they face trade hurdles
• Man sues China firm after failing 26-day challenge to live in isolation for US$120,000 reward
• How will Hungary’s Orban square the circle of ties with China and Trump?
• AI crackdown: China stamps out tech misuse to preserve national literature and ideology
• China mistress sues woman who refused to divorce husband after receiving US$165,000 from her
• From Teresa Teng to Chiung Yao: Taiwan’s lost age of cultural sway over mainland China
• What Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy can learn from China’s reformers
• Chinese laser scientist ‘Crazy Li’ arms small drones with metal-cutting beam

China-EU trade war a ‘lose-lose’ situation, top diplomat Wang Yi warns

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3290871/china-eu-trade-war-lose-lose-situation-top-diplomat-wang-yi-warns?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s top diplomat has warned that a trade war between China and the European Union would result in a “lose-lose” situation and urged Beijing and Brussels to continue talks and strengthen their cooperation.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi made the comments on Saturday while meeting Emmanuel Bonne, diplomatic adviser to French President Emmanuel Macron, at the 26th China-France Strategic Dialogue in Beijing, according to the Chinese foreign ministry.

“A trade war will only lead to a ‘lose-lose’ situation,” Wang said. “China is the staunchest defender of the free trade system and opposes the politicisation of economic and trade issues.”

China and the EU remain locked in a feud over trade. Earlier this year, the 27-member bloc slapped tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, which Brussels says have unfairly benefited from state subsidies. In return, Beijing has launched investigations into European pork and dairy imports.

Wang urged Brussels to adopt a constructive attitude and find mutually acceptable solutions through dialogues.

He said exchanges between the people of France and China had grown closer and the two countries had voiced their opinions on global challenges, including artificial intelligence, ocean governance and the Middle East.

Wang said he hoped China and France could pursue a positive agenda next year, promote cooperation and explore opportunities in fields such as nuclear energy and aerospace, artificial intelligence, new materials, high-end equipment, environmental protection and healthcare technology.

He expressed hope for more exchanges related to youth, culture, scientific research and education.

Wang also called on China and France to work together to uphold multilateralism.

“China and France should firmly support an international system centred on the United Nations, build an equal and orderly multipolar world, promote international unity and cooperation, oppose division and confrontation, and especially abandon the Cold War mentality and zero-sum games,” he said.

Both sides said they would strengthen cooperation on climate change, biodiversity, sustainable development and poverty reduction. They also exchanged views on the Ukraine crisis, the Iranian nuclear issue, and the situation in the Middle East.

Bonne’s China visit is expected to lay the groundwork for a potential China trip by Macron in the new year.

The Chinese statement quoted Bonne as saying that France did not support trade wars and supported “mutually beneficial cooperation between Europe and China”.

The French envoy said his country valued friendship and trust in its ties with China. He added that France would adhere to the one-China policy and maintain close high-level exchanges with China.

He said France hoped to work with China to expand cooperation in trade, investment, artificial intelligence, nuclear energy, aerospace, agricultural food products and green development.

China and France held their first strategic dialogue in 2001. High-level talks between senior diplomats are typically held at least once a year under the strategic dialogue mechanism.

Palestinian rescuers see China’s Blue Sky amid the bomb blasts of Israel-Gaza war

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3290620/palestinian-rescuers-see-chinas-blue-sky-amid-bomb-blasts-israel-gaza-war?utm_source=rss_feed

In the eastern city of Changshu, six Palestinians have spent two weeks being trained by a team from China’s Blue Sky Rescue in urban search and rescue operations.

They were taught how to shore up collapsed buildings, cut through walls, search for victims and safely evacuate survivors.

It is now just over a year since the Israel-Gaza war began, and in that time more than 44,000 Palestinians – including at least 88 of the search and rescue team’s colleagues – have been killed. So when they were invited to send a delegation for training in China, they jumped at the chance to help save more lives.

The search and rescue team of Palestine’s Civil Defence first met China’s Blue Sky rescuers back in February 2023, amid the rubble of Malatya, Turkey, as they worked side by side to find survivors after a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit eastern Turkey and Syria. China sent more than 200 members of its grass-roots rescue organisation to assist in the wake of the disaster.

That shared experience has led to a growing relationship between the two teams.

“China has the kindest and most hospitable people,” said Raed Qazmouz, director of central operations in the Palestinian Civil Defence, from his headquarters in Ramallah. “I had known they were a polite and respectful people, but not to this extent.”

Invited by Blue Sky Rescue and the local Changshu emergency volunteer association – and facilitated by the United Nations International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) – the Palestinian officers spent their time in China benefiting from Blue Sky’s knowledge.

“There are international standards and guidelines for urban search and rescue operations, and we learned from China how to do that,” Qazmouz said.

Founded in 2007, Blue Sky Rescue is China’s largest non-governmental humanitarian organisation. It provides vital help in natural disaster rescue efforts, both in China and beyond, including during the catastrophic magnitude 8 earthquake in Sichuan in 2008, which killed 69,000 people.

While the Palestinian search and rescue workers are not dealing with natural disasters, there are stark similarities between rescue efforts in earthquakes and those in bombings. Both involve survivors trapped in unknown locations and conditions.

Since the war began on October 7, 2023, the Israeli military has dropped more than 85,000 tonnes of bombs inside the besieged Gaza Strip, according to a statement by the Palestinian Environment Quality Authority in November.

With nearly two decades of experience dealing with floods, quakes and typhoons, Blue Sky instructed the Palestinian team in the use of sensors in rescue operations.

“The techniques were very helpful to our daily missions after any attack, as each intervention dealing with the consequences of an attack takes us at least 10 to 24 hours,” Qazmouz said. “We were amazed at the high capabilities of the Chinese civil defence and civil protection.”

For Ming, a Blue Sky member who coordinated the exchange, it was his own visit to Palestine in June that really opened his eyes to what the search and rescue team is dealing with over there. He described what he saw as a “man-made earthquake”.

“I was mentally prepared for a very difficult situation as a war was taking place, and after going there and seeing the situation in refugee camps, it confirmed my belief that they need international help,” he said.

“China was the first country to recognise Palestine as a state and as a country. So this kind of relationship, especially at the civil level, complements what the government is doing, and we are using our expertise to enable and equip our friends on the front line to save more lives,” he said.

Qazmouz first met Ming in the aftermath of the earthquake in Turkey last year. He said Ming was a “very brave man” to have visited areas that had been devastated by Israeli attacks, despite his warnings. Ming, who recently assisted with the UN’s evacuation efforts in Beirut, Lebanon, is a firm believer that “actions speak louder than words”.

“I told him, ‘It’s not safe for you to visit; it’s a very risky area,’ but he said, ‘I will go to the affected area,’ so he was the first of the Civil Defence’s guests to do that,” Qazmouz said.

“He went to the affected area in our camps in the north, he walked on the destroyed streets, he heard the sound of the drones, he was inside collapsed buildings – he saw everything there.”

After the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Israeli military authorities consolidated complete power over all water resources and water-related infrastructure in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Israel continues to control and restrict Palestinian access to water.

According to Qazmouz, fire engines and water tanks have been shot at by Israeli forces, and there has been a very strict control on the availability of water and especially on water tanks – essential to fire and rescue situations. The process of getting replacements for parts has also been challenging.

“After each attack or during the attack, in addition to fire and rescue services, we as Civil Defence are responsible for providing water to hospitals, critical facilities and the population,” he said.

Qazmouz said water supply trucks were an “urgent need”, especially for when Israel cut off water supplies. He also stressed the need for diggers, bulldozers, cutting machines and fire rescue vehicles.

“Some of them are damaged, completely damaged; some of them are consumed and getting out of service,” he said.

Qazmouz added that there was “no problem” for those resources to be received from donors and international organisations through the West Bank.

Currently, donations come directly from Blue Sky Rescue members themselves and their operation in Palestine is not open to public help, but Ming has noted a “strong passion” from many in China to help, and said there would be opportunities for them to do so in the future.

“There is a strong willingness from the donors to contribute – they just lack the right channels and platforms to do that,” Ming said.

“A lot of people have donated to the Palestinian embassy in China, and they are always looking for platforms where they can see direct impact.”

To round off their two-week visit, the delegation visited nearby Shanghai and Hangzhou, two of China’s most scenic and innovative cities. For the Palestinian delegates, an act as simple as a leisurely stroll along Shanghai’s Bund or Hangzhou’s West Lake was something to savour.

“Most importantly, it is a very safe country … You are safe everywhere you go,” Qazmouz said.

Hong Kong and Xinjiang could be the core of Kazakhstan’s China strategy

https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3290513/hong-kong-and-xinjiang-could-be-core-kazakhstans-china-strategy?utm_source=rss_feed

Building strong ties with China has traditionally been one of Kazakhstan’s key foreign policy priorities. Astana now aims to strengthen relations not only with the country’s central leadership in Beijing but also with Hong Kong.

Hong Kong’s strategic location, open economy, tradition of free trade, ease of starting a business and numerous tax benefits make it attractive to companies worldwide, including those from Kazakhstan. In 2016, Hong Kong’s then-financial secretary John Tsang Chun-wah encouraged the largest Central Asian nation to expand economic ties with the financial hub.

“Hong Kong is one of the best places in the world to do business. We are a global city and we fly the flag of free trade,” he stressed, adding, “We have the experience, the expertise and the connections to serve as the fundraising and financial management hub for the Belt and Road economies.”

Indeed, experience is precisely what Kazakhstan seeks to gain from Hong Kong. Earlier this month, Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Serik Zhumangarin met Hong Kong commerce and economic development secretary Algernon Yau Ying-wah in Urumqi, the capital of China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. Zhumangarin reportedly invited representatives of the Hong Kong stock exchange to Kazakhstan to share their experience.

It is no secret that Kazakhstan seeks to build stronger ties between the Astana International Financial Centre and the Hong Kong stock exchange.

In an interview with the Post on October 6, Almas Seitakynov, Kazakhstan’s top envoy in Hong Kong, said that his country would like to boost trade ties with the city and connect Kazakhstan’s financial centre in Astana with the Hong Kong’s stock exchange while pushing to bolster cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative.

This is in line with Tsang’s vision for relations between Hong Kong and Kazakhstan. Timothy Bennett, director and chairman of the board of the Astana International Exchange, said in an interview with Asiamoney in 2020 that Kazakhstan’s long-term plan is to attract investors from Hong Kong. At the time, several bankers suggested that Astana’s long-term strategy was to turn the energy-rich Central Asian nation into a Dubai of the Steppes.

To achieve that goal, Kazakhstan would have to significantly develop its stock market, a task that is easier said than done. In 2023, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev stressed that boosting the stock market was a “priority task” for the country. He had suggested a merger between the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange and the Astana International Exchange.

Such a merger would be a key step towards strengthening Kazakhstan’s stock market. The merger has, however, not taken place. Sanctions imposed by the United States against the Moscow Exchange, which has a 13.1 per cent take in Kazakhstan Stock Exchange, are a major obstacle.

With the merger still on hold, potentially slowing the pace of financial cooperation, Astana seeks to develop other areas of partnership with one of the world’s leading hubs for finance and logistics. The energy-rich nation needs capital, which probably explains why a business forum on investment opportunities in Kazakhstan was held in Hong Kong in April 2023.

Four months later, Kazakhstan and Hong Kong signed a memorandum of understanding to enhance education collaboration, which indicates that Astana wants to establish a wider partnership with Asia’s world city.

“We aim to further deepen our strategic partnership and attach great importance to the development of cooperation with Hong Kong in the trade, economic and investment spheres,” said Arman Shakkaliyev, Kazakhstan’s trade and integration minister, in September 2023 during a meeting with Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu.

However, it is Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, rather than Hong Kong, that is Kazakhstan’s key partner in China. The autonomous region reportedly accounts for almost half of overall bilateral trade turnover.

It is, therefore, no surprise that top officials of the former Soviet republic have attended meetings with both their Hong Kong and Xinjiang counterparts. During their most recent summit in Urumqi, leaders from Kazakhstan and the two Chinese regions reportedly agreed to establish a joint mechanism for trilateral cooperation. Zhumangarin proposed the creation of a Joint Investment Fund, which would be based in either Urumqi or Hong Kong to finance joint projects.

For Astana – which aims to increase the supply of its agricultural products to Hong Kong and other Asian economies – Xinjiang plays the role of a link between Kazakhstan and other parts of China.

Kazakhstan is seeking investments from Hong Kong in its agricultural sector, hoping that the city’s companies will launch joint production projects that could potentially support exports to Europe.

Given that many economists expect the centre of global economic activity to keep shifting from the West to the East, strengthening economic ties with China, including at the subnational level, will undoubtedly remain one of Kazakhstan’s top priorities.

Statistics show that this is the case. The trade turnover between Hong Kong and Kazakhstan from January to July 2023 amounted to US$45.9 million which is 59.7 per cent higher than in the same period in 2022, according to Kazakh government trade statistics. Meanwhile, in 2023, Kazakhstan’s trade turnover with mainland China reached US$41 billion.

Thus, while maintaining good relations with Beijing, Astana is expected to continue developing closer economic ties with both Hong Kong and the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. That could very well be at the core of Kazakhstan’s China strategy.

Yvette Cooper admits ‘complex’ relations with China amid Prince Andrew spy claims

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/dec/15/yvette-cooper-admits-complex-relations-with-china-amid-prince-andrew-spy-claims

The UK home secretary, Yvette Cooper, has admitted the government has a “complex arrangement” with China because of the need for economic co-operation, against the backdrop of the exclusion of an alleged Chinese spy with links to Prince Andrew.

The man – who was banned from Britain by the government on national security grounds – was invited to Andrew’s birthday party and visited Buckingham Palace twice as well as St James’s Palace and Windsor Castle at the invitation of Andrew, according to the Times.

It was reported by the Sunday Times that the man also met David Cameron and Theresa May and kept pictures of his meetings with the two prime ministers on the desk in his office. Both said they did not recall meeting him.

Cooper was asked on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme what her message was to China. “Well, we will continue to take a very strong approach to our national security, that includes to any challenge to our national security including to our economic security from China, from other countries around the world, that will always be the approach that we will take.

“Of course, with China we also need to make sure we have that economic interaction, economic co-operation in place as well. So it’s a complex arrangement.”

The former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith has said he will raise an urgent question about the man in the Commons on Monday, raising the possibility he could be named under parliamentary privilege.

On Friday, the Duke of York said he had “ceased all contact” with the businessman when concerns were first raised about him. A statement from his office said Andrew met the individual through “official channels”, with “nothing of a sensitive nature ever discussed”.

The businessman, referred to as H6, brought his case to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac), which upheld a ruling that he should be excluded from the UK.

The shadow home secretary, Chris Philp, said proven instances of Chinese interference needed to be publicly exposed in order to keep the public and government vigilant.

“This question of Chinese influence is not a new one. It’s been around for years, or even decades,” he told the BBC. “They’ve been systematically trying to infiltrate universities, to steal intellectual property businesses for the same reason, and also influence government institutions. We need to be super-vigilant and publicly expose Chinese infiltration where it happens. Everybody in academia, in business, in government needs to be alert. If anyone has the slightest concern, they should contact the security services immediately.”

In the letter from the home secretary excluding the businessman in July last year, it said: “We have reason to believe you are engaging, or have previously engaged, in covert and deceptive activity on behalf of the United Front Work Department (UFWD) which is an arm of the Chinese Communist party (CCP) state apparatus.”

The alleged spy was initially stopped at an airport in November 2021 where his phone was seized. Communication on the phone, which is set out in the hand down from the Special Immigration Appeals Tribunal, suggests there was high-level contact between the businessman and the prince.

In a message from the duke’s adviser, Dominic Hampshire, it said that “outside of his closest internal confidants, you sit at the very top of a tree that many, many people would like to be on”.

It also contained a message from the duke’s adviser to the businessman, which said that since their first meeting “we have wisely navigated our way around former private secretaries and we have found a way to carefully remove those people who we don’t completely trust … we found away to get the relevant people unnoticed in and out of the house in Windsor.”

Chinese entrepreneurs, wary of tariffs, tag along with investments in US visa bids

https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3290718/chinese-entrepreneurs-wary-tariffs-tag-along-investments-us-visa-bids?utm_source=rss_feed

Until this year, working – much less living – in the United States had never crossed Daniel Mai’s mind.

The idea only took hold after he had set up production lines for apparel in California and a cross-border e-commerce company to service them, establishing a foothold in the American market in preparation for the tariffs on Chinese goods he saw as inevitable.

Mai, a seasoned businessman previously based in Guangdong province, runs his US operations on an L-1A visa. The temporary status is granted when a US employer wishes to transfer employees of its foreign offices stateside, or a foreign company meeting certain conditions sends a manager to establish a satellite firm.

After his positive experiences in the US – the rate of profit, he said, is higher than several emerging markets – Mai decided to begin the application process for an EB-1C visa. The permanent worker status, reserved for managers and executives, would be a next step to obtaining a green card and gradually relocating his two children.

“Many people opposed my decision to build plants in the US, including my family,” Mai said. “But it turned out to be the right choice,” he added, particularly as Donald Trump’s second term as president approaches.

“I had never come to the US before this year, nor had I considered immigration. But now, it is on the agenda.”

Mai said he plans to expand his US operations to the East Coast while keeping his original apparel firm in Guangdong province intact. He wants to keep that factory and its 100 staff members busy, as China’s domestic market remains essential despite the bifurcation of his business.

Mai is not the only Chinese entrepreneur with a sudden need for a new place of residence. Dramatic geopolitical changes and rising trade barriers have prompted numerous business owners to consider setting up overseas facilities and emigrating to keep their operations humming along without interruption.

Even as traditional mainstay demographics for immigration – like those in the affluent middle class and skilled workers – are finding it increasingly difficult to establish themselves overseas, Chinese nationals looking to set down roots along with their investments are becoming more common.

According to a survey conducted by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council last year, nearly 90 per cent of polled enterprises from mainland China indicated they plan to “go global” in the next three years, and more than 70 per cent expressed an interest in emerging markets. Many named countries and regions involved with the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership trade deal and China’s Belt and Road Initiative as areas rife with opportunity.

There are more than 52 million micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in China, per the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

More than 750,000 Chinese enterprises have launched overseas operations, according to a report by Chinese tech news outlet 36kr. The semi-annual reports of A-share listed companies this year show that nearly 5,300 companies have overseas revenues accounting for nearly 65 per cent of their total income.

In Guangdong alone, Mai said, he knows more than 20 business owners who have launched production lines or branches abroad this year.

Supply chain consultant Mike Liu is in the process of applying for his own professional visa, an EB-1A status reserved for candidates deemed by the US’ Citizenship and Immigration Services to possess “extraordinary ability” in their field.

With two daughters in middle school and an increasingly hazardous environment for young Chinese students looking to secure visas, a successful application would be invaluable to safeguarding his daughters’ future.

“I never considered immigrating until later this year. But the value of [my] assets in China has shrunk dramatically, and confidence among entrepreneurs is low,” he said. “It might be time to explore opportunities in the US.”

Some young people are trying for long-term residence elsewhere because of the hurdles involved with moving to the West, taking their investments to countries in Southeast Asia. But even that path could become fraught.

“It’s important to act early,” said Beitong, a popular YouTube creator in a recent video from Thailand. “Some policies have already begun to tighten, such as making it more difficult for Chinese to open bank accounts or apply for driver’s licences.”

China urges schools to teach AI as tech war and ChatGPT drive demand for talent

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3290852/china-urges-schools-teach-ai-tech-war-and-chatgpt-drive-demand-talent?utm_source=rss_feed

China has urged its primary and secondary schools to add artificial intelligence to the curriculum as it moves to nurture young talent in the emerging field.

The Ministry of Education has asked the schools to improve AI education to “meet China’s future demand for innovative talent” and improve students’ digital skills and problem-solving abilities, according to a ministry circular released last week.

More than 500 Chinese universities and colleges have rolled out an AI major since 2018, a year after Beijing unveiled a plan to become the world leader in artificial intelligence.

China’s enthusiasm for artificial intelligence has grown amid its tech war with the US and as AI-powered chatbots such as ChatGPT have become a part of daily life.

The education ministry said AI courses should be launched “systematically” and included as a factor when evaluating schools

Pupils in lower primary school should gain experience and develop basic ideas about AI, while those in higher grades should understand and learn to apply the technology. In senior high school, the focus should be on “innovative projects with the application of AI”, the circular states.

Schools should promote “assignment or project-oriented teaching” for AI and integrate the technology into their computer science courses and field trips, while teachers should be trained in artificial intelligence, according to the ministry.

It is the first time that China has set goals for AI education in primary and secondary schools. In February, 184 schools around the nation were selected to take part in a pilot programme to explore AI education.

In a ceremony to mark the start of the semester, Beijing Hongzhi Middle School – one of six AI pilot schools in the Chinese capital – invited scholars from top universities to give speeches on the technology and accepted AI devices donated by American tech giants Intel and Hewlett-Packard Company, according to a People’s Daily report from September.

The school has launched a general course on the technology and adopted AI-powered software to help students practise English, polish teachers’ writing, and count pull-ups and measure long jump distances in physical education classes, the school’s principal Cai Lei told the Communist Party mouthpiece.

However, some parents who spoke to the South China Morning Post were sceptical about whether children would receive quality AI training in schools.

Zhou Jingjing, mother of a fifth grader at a top public school in Beijing, said: “Our school is not capable of teaching computer science, let alone AI.”

Since 2000, China has required primary and secondary schools to offer computer science classes. But the school Zhou’s son attends does not have an AI course.

She said that in the weekly computer science class her son has attended since third grade, pupils just sit at their desks without a computer and watch a video showing how to code in the visual programming language Scratch.

“No one can learn programming by just watching. It’s a waste of time,” Zhou said. “There’s a computer lab at school. But it’s never used.”

“I really doubt if there will be enough qualified educators available to teach AI. I guess many schools would just fudge with some PowerPoint materials when they claim they offer AI courses,” she said.

Dong Chen, father of an eighth-grade student, said his daughter had been learning to code in the programming language C++ at a top school in Shanghai.

“Our school has adopted some AI-powered software, so that I can see AI-generated summaries when I review classes online,” Dong said, adding that the school so far has not offered AI classes.

“If you really want to learn something, you cannot count on the schools. After all, AI is not a subject on middle school or university entrance exams, so schools are not highly motivated to teach.”

Xiong Bingqi, director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, a Beijing-based think tank, said a chronic problem in China’s education system was excessive attention to exam subjects, while other areas of study were often “marginalised”.

“We can only enhance AI education by reforming the education appraisal system and focusing more on students’ learning experience,” Xiong said.

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China’s finance industry urged to better support tech innovation

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3290879/chinas-finance-industry-urged-better-support-tech-innovation?utm_source=rss_feed

Technological innovation in China still has “much room for improvement” and the country needs financial support to develop new ideas, according to a prominent economist.

Tian Xuan, chairman of Tsinghua University’s national institute of financial research, said there is a particularly large gap with the United States.

He said nine out of the 10 biggest American firms by valuation were tech companies or funds that invested in technology.

In contrast China’s largest firm was the drinks maker Kweichow Moutai, followed by four state-owned banks. The battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology was the only tech-related firm in China’s top 10 by valuation.

Xuan also said that Apple was valued at US$3.5 trillion, “which is two times or more higher than our top 10’s total”.

He added: “The crux of the issue is that how can the financial sector help expedite technological innovation and push the development of new quality productive forces.”

He also said foreign investment should be encouraged, because a “healthy and open capital market is necessary for enhancing innovation”.

Tian cited data from 20 international markets to argue that foreign investors had boosted creativity and modernisation.

“Foreign capital can lower the financing cost of companies and upgrade corporate governance that will scatter risks,” he said. “It’s very important to open up capital markets and let overseas institutional investors come in.”

Beijing is looking for ways to boost the economy, including “new quality productive forces” – a combination of labour with technology and infrastructure.

Tian said corporate venture capital would help accelerate innovation.

“Steady and consistent macro policy implementation, instead of random policies, can smoothly push ahead technological innovation and new quality productive forces,” he added.

Tian said “tolerance” and “accepting failure” would be a “bold capital investment” and are necessary for innovation.

“With a higher tolerance for failed attempts, a company’s number of creative outcomes that can be launched in the market also increases – this is a causal relationship,” he added.

In a report published last week, the New York-based Asia Society said “new quality production forces” are likely to be the bedrock of China’s next five-year plan.

China banks use AI in recruitment, drawing mixed views from easing anxiety to trapping candidates

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3290763/china-banks-use-ai-recruitment-drawing-mixed-views-easing-anxiety-trapping-candidates?utm_source=rss_feed

An increasing number of mainland Chinese banks have adopted AI interviewing tools to reduce recruitment costs and enhance efficiency, though they have received a mixed response from participants.

Financial institutions embracing this initiative include both prominent national banks such as Bank of China (BOC) and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), as well as local entities like Hangzhou Bank in eastern Zhejiang province and Shanghai Bank.

Among the AI tools utilised are AI interviewers, each capable of processing up to 2,500 interviews within a 24-hour period, as reported by the Economic Observer.

The AI interview occurs after the written examination and before the in-person interview, according to the report.

Candidates are required to download designated software and test their camera and microphone in advance of their scheduled session with the AI interviewer.

A female applicant, identified by her surname Xu, expressed that she felt more at ease when interacting with an AI interviewer. Notably, she appreciated having two opportunities to respond to each question.

“I tend to feel nervous when speaking to a real person in an interview. Typically, I don’t get two chances to answer questions, and I hesitate to ask the interviewer for another opportunity if my response isn’t satisfactory,” she stated.

This sentiment was echoed by a male candidate, surnamed Li.

“An AI interviewer appears more approachable. It lacks any bias and does not pressure you,” Li remarked. “While I was answering questions, the AI figure nodded occasionally. When I paused, it tilted its head, waiting for me to continue.”

However, another applicant, surnamed Wang, found it awkward to be interviewed by AI, likening the experience to talking to herself.

She noted that some AI interviewers posed irrelevant questions like they were trying to “trap” the candidates.

“I was applying for a customer manager position, yet the AI repeatedly asked me about handwriting,” Wang explained.

Several applicants reported encountering technical issues, with the AI application malfunctioning unexpectedly during interviews.

“An AI interviewer lacks the sophistication needed for interpersonal interactions and does not possess personal charisma. Nevertheless, it significantly alleviates the workload for human resources staff,” Wang added.

Some AI interview assistant software is available on social media platforms in mainland China, helping jobseekers prepare and providing assessments. One such product, which allows users to participate in four interviews over two hours, has been bought by 1,068 individuals for 68.8 yuan (US$9.5).

According to an AI industry report by the domestic software giant Yonyou, about 60 per cent of companies in the financial sector in mainland China have implemented AI interviewers

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Chinese electric truck makers accelerate global dominance even as they face trade hurdles

https://www.scmp.com/business/china-evs/article/3290862/chinese-electric-truck-makers-accelerate-global-dominance-even-they-face-trade-hurdles?utm_source=rss_feed

Dominant in the electric vehicle (EV) sector, Chinese companies have been quietly consolidating their position in the lesser-watched trucking scene – but foreign tariffs and a perceived quality gap could signal roadblocks ahead, experts warn.

The domestic supply chain and low-price strategy that helped make China’s EV industry world-leading are being leveraged by established carmakers and start-ups alike, aiming to similarly transform trucking.

Electric trucks currently represent less than 1 per cent of truck sales worldwide, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) – with China making up 70 per cent of those sales in 2023.

But the agency said it was “optimistic” policy and technology developments would see more widespread adoption in the next 10 years.

“This industry, I believe, is ripe for disruption,” Han Wen, the founder of start-up Windrose, said on a factory floor as the company’s first vehicles for delivery were assembled behind him.

Fleets of electric heavy goods vehicles from China have been growing internationally, even as Western countries target the country’s EVs with heavy sanctions.

Chinese companies like BYD and Beiqi Foton have shipped trucks to countries including Italy, Poland, Spain and Mexico, and have opened assembly plants around the world.

“China’s trucks are generally cost-competitive in emerging markets,” said Stephen Dyer, from consulting firm AlixPartners.

“For mature markets, performance and durability do not yet meet the needs of most customers, but that is changing.”

When it comes to emissions, “heavy-duty trucks are considered one of the more difficult to abate transport segments [after aviation and shipping]”, said IEA analyst Elizabeth Connelly.

A major challenge is the trade-off between battery size and range.

“The larger the battery, the longer the range. But the larger the battery, the heavier the truck … and the worse the fuel economy,” Connelly said.

Chinese manufacturers have been seen as producing lower quality products than foreign counterparts.

“Historically, Chinese trucks tended to have a shorter useful life cycle than European or Japanese trucks,” said AlixPartners’ Dyer.

While that perception is changing, China’s flagship companies still lag rivals on factors like range and battery capacity.

According to the Zero-Emission Technology Inventory, the median Chinese heavy duty truck range is 250km, compared with 322km in the United States.

BYD – which in October beat Tesla in quarterly revenue for the first time – says its 8TT model’s range is 200km, compared with the 800km promised by Tesla’s Semi truck.

But Chinese manufacturers could close the gap quickly.

Windrose’s Han says its semi-trucks can go up to 670km on a single charge.

Meanwhile, battery giant CATL has rolled out truck battery-swapping facilities – where drained units can be immediately replaced, eliminating charging time altogether.

China’s existing EV ecosystem is a massive advantage.

“We’re very lucky to have the Chinese supply chain [for EVs],” said Han, noting Windrose was using an electric bus company’s factory to build its trucks.

“There’s no doubt that China also will have an edge on the electrification of heavy-duty trucks.”

More unpredictable are the testy geopolitical waters the sector risks stalling in.

This year has seen important trading partners, including the European Union and the United States, impose hefty tariffs on Chinese EVs, saying Beijing’s state aid to carmakers undercuts their own firms.

China refutes this, but as its EV truck footprint grows globally, so could the risk of similar action being taken.

“Governments in potential export markets want to protect their local industries,” said Sam Fiorani from AutoForecast Solutions.

US president-elect Donald Trump has promised huge tariff hikes on Chinese imports once he takes office.

“Since EV truck volume is smaller than passenger EVs, there is a chance that EV trucks would fall a little under the radar in normal times,” AlixPartners’ Dyer said.

But “these are not ‘normal times’ any more and anything Chinese is high profile in the US government currently”, he added.

Some companies have already taken steps that could mitigate this risk.

BYD proudly touts its trucks as being “assembled by union workers in Lancaster, California”, while it has announced plans to build a factory in Mexico, and has plants in Hungary and Romania.

Windrose’s Han said the firm has consciously spread its operations across multiple countries, moving key headquarters to Belgium earlier this year.

“We do embrace the fact that every major market would like its own domestic supply chain of EV,” he said.

“You have to start in China. We then try to move the supply chain globally … But you have to start in China. There’s no alternative.”

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Man sues China firm after failing 26-day challenge to live in isolation for US$120,000 reward

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3290752/man-sues-china-firm-after-failing-26-day-challenge-live-isolation-us120000-reward?utm_source=rss_feed

A man in China has paid 20,000 yuan (US$2,800) in registration fees to participate in a “self-discipline challenge” three times, hoping to win a substantial cash prize, but he was unsuccessful in all attempts.

The man, surnamed Zhang, took the company behind the challenge to court in Xian, in northwestern China, believing his dream of winning 860,000 yuan (US$120,000) had been shattered and claiming he had been defrauded, according to the Huashang Daily.

Zhang was drawn to the advertisement for the challenge, which stated that contestants would be rewarded with a lucrative sum for staying in a room for several days while adhering to specific rules.

According to the challenge rules, participants are placed in a room monitored by several surveillance cameras. They can only turn the light on and off once a day and must do so before 6am each day.

Participants must not move, shut down, or cover the monitoring cameras, and if they shield their face from the camera, this action cannot last more than three seconds.

Challengers are required to use their mobile phones during designated times each day and must return the devices to their original place. Additionally, they are prohibited from covering or drinking the beers provided in the room.

A participant can earn 6,800 yuan (US$930) if they successfully follow the rules for three days. The prize increases to 28,000 yuan for six days, 58,000 yuan for nine days, and ultimately 860,000 yuan for 26 days. The registration fees also increase based on the prize level the contestant chooses.

Zhang paid 6,900 yuan to enter the 860,000-yuan challenge on September 24 but failed within 24 hours after being caught covering his face for more than three seconds.

Undeterred, Zhang submitted another 6,900 yuan on September 25 for a second attempt.

“I was unemployed at that time and in debt. After failing the first time, I felt I had the experience to give it another go,” he said.

However, the next day, while making the bed and turning his back to the camera, Zhang was disqualified again for violating the rule against covering his face.

Shortly after, he borrowed money from a friend and paid to enter the challenge for a third time. “I’d like to take a gamble,” Zhang admitted. “I thought that since I had already spent so much money, I shouldn’t leave empty-handed.”

This time, he managed to stay in the room for 10 days before inadvertently covering the beer in the room, leading to his disqualification.

A relative later suggested to Zhang that he might have been scammed, prompting him to sue the organiser, Xian Mulin Culture Communication Company. A court accepted the lawsuit, although it remains unclear when the case will be heard.

Zhang’s lawyer claimed that the company’s challenge rules were unreasonable and unfair, imposing a severe psychological test on participants.

Such self-discipline challenges are not uncommon in China. Last month, a court in eastern Shandong province ordered a company to refund 5,400 yuan to a man who had paid 6,000 yuan to join a similar “isolation challenge”. He failed because he used a pillow to cover his face while sleeping.

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How will Hungary’s Orban square the circle of ties with China and Trump?

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3290847/how-will-hungarys-orban-square-circle-ties-china-and-trump?utm_source=rss_feed

Viktor Orban, the strongman Hungarian prime minister, ended his country’s helm at the six-month rotating EU presidency much as he started it: with a flurry of “peace mission” visits that earned him a stern rebuke from Ukraine.

On Monday, Orban was in Mar-a-Lago, US president-elect Donald Trump’s Florida residence, meeting Trump, business tycoon Elon Musk and other political figures. On Wednesday, he had a one-hour phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, for which he was scolded by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“No one should boost personal image at the expense of unity; everyone should focus on shared success,” Zelensky wrote on social media.

By Thursday, Orban was in the air again, off to Turkey to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to again promote his idea of a “Christmas ceasefire” for the war in Ukraine – a proposal that was roundly rejected by Kyiv.

The whirlwind week captured Orban’s self-styled policy of “economic neutrality”: he wants to remain in the good graces of superpowers to Hungary’s east and west, continuing a high-wire act he has performed for years.

“He’s an outlier as an EU and Nato member state that is in favour of Trump and a bit of a disruptive force Trump feels he can connect to. Through this, Hungary seems to be an important country beyond its significance in size and its economic might,” said Peter Kreko, director of Political Capital, a Hungarian policy research firm.

Now, though, Orban is facing his biggest balancing act to date.

Officials around Europe are wondering how long he will remain the European Union’s most pro-Trump and pro-China leader, particularly as the next US president threatens to get tougher on Beijing and could ask European governments to sever ties with China.

“Eventually he will have to make a choice,” a senior EU official said. “It’s Trump or China. We don’t know which one he would choose.”

A senior diplomat said that “certain member states are very happy with Trump’s win, but they also seem to love Putin and Xi”.

“So how are they going to square that circle?” the diplomat said.

Observers see Orban’s relationship with Trump and China through different lenses: one is political, the other economic. But they do not necessarily agree on which has a higher value for the Hungarian leader.

“There are two dimensions at play. Politically, Orban is very happy with Trump, he elevates his station and he can think he plays at the big table, that is the most important thing for Orban,” said Tamas Matura, an expert in Hungary’s relations with China at the Corvinus University of Budapest.

On the economic front, Hungary is struggling. Its economy dipped into recession for the second time in two years in October, making it the only euro-zone member to be in contraction.

That is why China is so important to Orban. Analysis from Rhodium Group, a research firm, and the Mercator Institute for China Studies, a think tank, found that 44 per cent of all Chinese foreign direct investment and more than two-thirds of its electric vehicle sector investment in Europe went to Hungary last year.

Big Chinese companies like CATL, the global leader in batteries, and BYD, the world’s biggest EV maker, have invested heavily in the central European country. CATL’s €7.3 billion (US$7.8 billion) plant in the eastern city of Debrecen is expected to start production next year, when BYD’s facility there is also set to start producing EVs.

“For Orban, business with China is more beneficial than close ties with the US,” Kreko said, pointing to the Hungarian leader’s repeated assertions that China has overtaken the US as the world’s top economic power.

“The reason Orban likes Trump is not just the ideology, he pulls out more US [military] tentacles from Europe. He doesn’t like the patronage of the US or the soft power of the US. He doesn’t think you have to be on good terms with the president to bring in American investment, because it’s done on business terms.

“On the other hand, to have Chinese investment, you have to be on good terms with the Chinese president.”

It is a dilemma Orban negotiated deftly during Trump’s first term in office. Knowing Trump’s dislike of EU institutions, Orban said he would not need to do business with China if Brussels had not frozen funds for Budapest because of slippages in the country’s rule of law.

He may also hope that Musk’s strong business connections in China will open the door to some deal-making with Beijing, and perhaps Budapest too. As a trading economy, Hungary stands to lose out from major disruptions to commerce even if it is not directly hit.

“My hunch is that they are working on some kind of deal with Trump. They may also hope that Hungary is very small and so may fly under the radar of Trump’s anti-China policies,” Matura said.

“If we look at the details of Chinese economic activity in Hungary, it may not be something the Americans are concerned about. It’s not breaching American national security interests. It’s not about chips, or military – it’s the EV sector.”

AI crackdown: China stamps out tech misuse to preserve national literature and ideology

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3290820/ai-crackdown-china-stamps-out-tech-misuse-preserve-national-literature-and-ideology?utm_source=rss_feed

Beijing is stepping up its defence of classic literature against AI misuse that it says could undermine and endanger China’s leading ideology.

The Chinese government says AI’s “peculiar adaptations” from classic television dramas based on Chinese literature are “highly deceptive”. Like memes, these edited video clips are made largely for laughs and social media traction, and highlight Beijing’s challenges in regulating artificial intelligence.

The National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA), the agency that oversees state broadcasting, last week issued a notice calling on its supervisory bodies to clean up videos that use AI to create jokes derived from Chinese cultural touchstones.

It said there was an increasing trend of altering video clips from television shows based on novels hailed as the greatest works of Chinese literature, including Dream of the Red Chamber and Journey to the West.

The broadcast watchdog said these AI-remastered jokes “seek to gain traffic without boundaries and disrespect classic intellectual properties”.

It added that they “challenge traditional cultural perceptions, go against the core spirit of the original works and may constitute copyright infringement”.

The AI-remastered videos, which are largely characterised by a humorous or sarcastic tone, can still be found on Chinese social media platforms, with some clearly labelled as generated by AI while others are not.

In an example, characters from the Journey to the West, a 16th century novel based on a Buddhist monk’s journey to India in the seventh century, are happily riding motorcycles on their supposedly arduous journey.

The NRTA notice reflects one of the latest challenges in AI governance in China, which seeks to balance the priorities of using the technology to boost the economy while combating deepfakes to eradicate misinformation and handle the potential impact on public perception.

Traditional culture, in particular, is key to the Communist Party’s governance philosophy, which it sees as part of its cultural rejuvenation campaign.

The Cyberspace Administration of China, the country’s top internet watchdog, has repeatedly pledged to clean up video content that could be harmful to the young.

The call to clean up AI-remastered content aligns with China’s campaign to control online information and clean up information it deems undesirable, such as that deemed contrary to traditional values or related to materialism, extreme individualism and “historical nihilism”.

Historical nihilism is a term coined by the Communist Party for challenges to its official version of history, which it sees as undermining its legitimacy.

Gu Yu, a Beijing-based lawyer, said such AI videos had not caused significant harm to the public but could influence people unfamiliar with the original works.

“While new technologies should be approached with a degree of tolerance to encourage public innovation, it is also crucial to take action against works that distort basic values,” he said.

But China’s AI regulation is still in an “exploratory phase”, with regulation and lawmaking lagging behind the technological advances, he said.

According to Gu, it is difficult to draft comprehensive laws without sufficient legal precedents, so measures are introduced when problems arise.

Beijing has taken many efforts to regulate AI, including its “Administrative Provisions on Deep Synthesis in Internet-based Information Services” implemented in January 2023, which require clear labelling of content that could confuse or mislead the public.

In August last year, China took measures to manage generative AI services and issued guidelines for multimedia content labelling standards.

The NRTA’s request to clean up AI-remastered content was a trending topic in China this week, ranked second among hot topics discussed on the social media platform Weibo microblog. The tag attracted more than 43.4 million views and over 14,000 discussions.

Many have expressed support, saying regulation is necessary and without oversight such content could lead to severe information pollution.

Some parents also expressed concerns that AI-made jokes might lead to a loss of respect for traditional Chinese classics.

One using the name Mr Bald wrote on Monday that if not regulated “junior school students haven’t even read the Four Great Chinese Classical Novels, yet they are watching funny videos of the Monkey King [the protagonist of Journey to the West] fighting with Jia Baoyu [protagonist of Dream of the Red Chamber].”

However, other online commentators said officials were “overseeing too much”, with one saying “work is already exhausting, and now even our freedom to enjoy entertaining videos after work is being taken away. Do they really have to regulate everything?”

Alex Roberts, who specialises in games and interactive entertainment at law firm Linklaters in Shanghai said: “Chinese authorities are acutely aware of the challenge of balancing the promotion of AI development to bolster growth in industry and the wider economy, while protecting the creative interests of traditional content producers and wider public interests and social values.”

He said Chinese authorities were not alone among global regulators in navigating this challenge and many governments are also exploring ways to regulate AI-generated content.

“But the size and importance of the digital ecosystem in China puts added weight on getting the balance right quickly and effectively,” Roberts said.

China mistress sues woman who refused to divorce husband after receiving US$165,000 from her

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3290746/china-mistress-sues-woman-who-refused-divorce-husband-after-receiving-us165000-her?utm_source=rss_feed

A Chinese mistress paid a “divorce fee” of 1.2 million yuan (US$165,000) to the legal wife of her married lover, only to have her petition for a refund rejected by the court after the wife accepted the money but refused to divorce.

In December 2013, a man surnamed Han, based in Shishi, Fujian province in southeastern China, married his wife, Yang, with whom he has two daughters whose ages remain undisclosed.

Later, Han began an affair with his colleague, identified as Shi. They also entered into a business partnership and welcomed a son together in November 2022.

In an attempt to “replace” Yang, Shi confronted her and proposed a deal, offering to pay 2 million yuan (US$280,000) if Yang agreed to divorce Han. To initiate the agreement, Shi transferred 1.2 million yuan to Yang at the end of 2022.

However, more than a year later, Yang still had not consented to a divorce.

Frustrated, the mistress demanded her money back and even filed a lawsuit to recover the 1.2 million yuan after the wife refused to return it.

In the lawsuit, Shi claimed there was a “verbal agreement” that the payment was contingent upon Yang divorcing Han and requested the court to order Yang to return the money along with overdue payment interest for breach of contract.

On February 7, the Shishi People’s Court ruled against Shi’s request, stating that the payment violated societal moral standards and public order as it was intended to disrupt a lawful marriage.

Additionally, it was determined that Han and Yang had already signed a divorce agreement and were in a “cooling-off period”, which meant that the payment did not meet the legal conditions for a refund.

This “cooling-off” period, imposed by the Chinese government in 2021, requires couples to wait 30 days after submitting a divorce application before the separation is finalised.

It has also been revealed that during his marriage, Han spent over 6 million yuan (US$825,000) on Shi without his wife’s knowledge.

Yue Zengchao, a lawyer from Henan Yushun Law Firm, explained to the Henan Broadcasting System that in such cases, the court is unlikely to side with the third party, even if the couple have not divorced.

“Any significant assets acquired by a married man during the affair, without his wife’s consent, are considered jointly owned by the couple. The wife has the legal right to demand the return of her share from the third party,” Yue clarified.

It remains unclear whether Han might face legal repercussions for potentially committing bigamy by living with and having children with someone else while still legally married.

The case has sparked lively discussion on Chinese social media, with many describing the outcome as “justice served”.

One commenter remarked: “The result is truly satisfying. Taking the money and refusing to divorce – this is the perfect way to make her lose both the man and the money!”

Another quipped: “What kind of man is worth 1.2 million yuan?”

From Teresa Teng to Chiung Yao: Taiwan’s lost age of cultural sway over mainland China

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3290812/teresa-teng-chiung-yao-taiwans-lost-age-cultural-sway-over-mainland-china?utm_source=rss_feed

When news broke earlier this month of the death of Taiwanese writer Chiung Yao, mainland fan Nicole Li was flooded with childhood memories of watching TV dramas based on Yao’s work.

“I can almost recite the lines and plots of ,” 30-year-old Li said, referring to mainland-Taiwanese co-productions in the late 1990s and early 2000s. “Most people of my generation would have the same memories.”

The shows were wildly popular, attracting millions of mainland viewers when they were broadcast on Hunan TV.

Former Hunan TV director Ouyang Changlin said the peak for these shows was around 1999 when the second season of My Fair Princess aired, capturing around 65 per cent of the mainland market.

For Li and her generation of young mainland Chinese, some of their earliest cultural memories are of the work of Taiwanese writers, musicians and filmmakers like Chiung Yao.

So much so that after her suicide, mainland Chinese media was flooded with tributes from artists, the public and even state media.

But in recent years, Taiwanese pop culture has struggled to appeal to mainland audiences.

Analysts say this is the result of a combination of political and social changes on both sides of the strait, the development of pop culture on the mainland, and the local focus of Taiwanese culture.

In the late 1970s, after decades of rule by late leader Mao Zedong, mainland China began to open up to the outside world and the work of Taiwanese artists was among those to seep in.

Taiwanese singer Teresa Teng was one of the more popular performers, even though her songs were initially banned by Beijing on the grounds that her romantic lyrics and soft singing would corrupt people’s minds.

Millions of mainland Chinese heard her songs on the radio from Taiwan and on black-market cassettes in the 1980s, with the ban lifted only after her death in 1995. According to state media reports, even Chinese President Xi Jinping – then an official in Fujian province just across the strait from Taiwan – was a fan.

While Teng’s songs were making the rounds unofficially on the mainland, Chiung Yao’s evocative romance novels, along with martial arts stories from Hong Kong and Taiwan, came in through official channels and quickly became popular.

Mainland media quoted a 1986 report in which 70 per cent of secondary school students surveyed in the southern city of Guangzhou had read something by Chiung Yao, whose stories were usually set in China’s turbulent early 20th century or during the Qing dynasty (1644-1911).

Mainland magazine Phoenix Weekly attributed her success to the general public’s need at the time “to find an outlet for their feelings after a long period of repression”.

Huang Chun-ming, an associate professor at the college of communication of National Chengchi University in Taipei, said that in the 1980s, when Taiwanese pop culture was introduced to the mainland, Taiwanese pop culture “still had ethnic [Chinese] characteristics” and therefore quickly attracted an audience.

But the work of Taiwanese artists no longer appears to resonate as easily with the mainland public.

According to Ho Chih-yung, assistant professor of general education at National Tsing Hua University in the Taiwanese city of Hsinchu, that waning is linked to the emergence of an “indigenous” trend in Taiwanese pop culture from around 2000, when the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) gained power.

“Taiwan inevitably underwent indigenisation [of identity]” after the election in 2000 saw the Kuomintang (KMT), which had ruled Taiwan for decades, hand power to the DPP, he said.

Beijing regards Taiwan as a province of China to be reunified by force if necessary. Most nations, including Taiwan’s main supporter the United States, do not recognise the self-ruled island as an independent state. But Washington opposes attempts to change the status quo by force and has pledged to supply arms to Taipei.

The DPP’s Chen Shui-bian was in power for eight years, followed by Ma Ying-jeou from the Beijing-friendly KMT for eight years. The DPP returned power in 2016 and has held on to the island’s leadership since then.

Ho said the last period of enthusiasm for cross-strait cultural exchanges was during Ma’s time in office from 2008 to 2016.

At that time, Ho said, “the biggest common ground in cross-strait relations was Chinese culture”, but since relations deteriorated during the eight years of the DPP’s Tsai Ing-wen, “that foundation has gone”.

Ho added that Tsai “wanted to reflect Taiwan’s cultural uniqueness” and therefore promoted the connection between Taiwan’s indigenous languages and the Austronesian languages of some Pacific islands, rather than its shared Chinese experience.

Another factor, Ho says, is growing censorship on the mainland of Taiwanese literary and artistic works.

Where once shows could be seen by people on both sides of the strait, producers are having a harder time getting content past mainland censors.

Chen Yen-ming, the producer of Taiwanese variety show Kangsi Coming, told Business Weekly’s Taiwan edition in 2013 that the show used to be hugely popular on the mainland, in large part because it was “taboo free”, discussing topics mainland audiences considered sensitive, including the private lives of Taiwanese politicians and the sex lives of celebrities.

But such programmes now have a more difficult time getting to air, with mainland authorities now requiring all video programmes broadcast online, especially those from offshore, to obtain prior approval, according to a regulation announced in 2017.

Ho said Beijing was increasingly stressing nationalism in public content, which combined with Taipei’s emphasis on cultural uniqueness, had caused popular culture on both sides of the strait to “drift apart”.

“Politics has taken precedence over culture,” he added.

The mainland’s pop culture market has also expanded over the past two decades, attracting Taiwanese actors and singers to develop their careers there.

When Kangsi Coming stopped production in 2016, People’s Daily pointed to the rising strength of the mainland industry.

“Compared with Taiwan, the mainland’s variety show production is better funded, better staffed and more creatively innovative … As a result, with the further opening of the mainland’s TV market, Taiwanese artists have become more willing to come to the mainland,” the Communist Party mouthpiece said in a commentary.

Ho agreed that “the flow of actors and money to the mainland is irreversible from a market economy perspective”. And productions on Taiwan’s local culture “have almost no market in the mainland,” he added.

“It is a normal process of industry development,” Huang of National Chengchi University said.

Li, who works in a production company, said that most of the Taiwanese TV dramas that had sparked discussions on the mainland in recent years were social issues, including electoral politics and the #MeToo movement.

But even these discussions had been “mostly limited to groups of people who enjoy Taiwanese culture rather than the general public”, she added.

“What they [Taiwanese people] are talking about in their TV dramas now is completely different from our [mainland people’s] daily lives,” Li said.

What Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy can learn from China’s reformers

https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3290381/what-elon-musk-and-vivek-ramaswamy-can-learn-chinas-reformers?utm_source=rss_feed

The Musk-Ramaswamy duet is gearing up for one of the most ambitious reform projects in US political history. Appointed to president-elect Donald Trump’s proposed Department of Government Efficiency, their mission is to overhaul the government, make it smaller, streamline bureaucracy and ultimately transform the way America operates. It’s a grand vision to tackle some of the country’s most entrenched problems.

There might be a lesson or two to be learned from China’s rich history of reformers. From Shang Yang (390-338BC), whose legal and economic reforms paved the way for a unified Qin dynasty, to the Song dynasty’s Wang Anshi (1021-1086), whose New Policies famously failed, and Zhang Juzheng (1525-1582), whose tax reforms, while unpopular, helped the Ming dynasty reach a peak, China’s reform tradition has been shaped by powerful ideas and institutional resistance.

More recently, under paramount leader Deng Xiaoping in the 1980s and premier Zhu Rongji in the late 1990s, China undertook two of the most significant reform movements in its modern history.

While Deng famously equated his plan to downsize the government to a revolution, his reforms mainly rewrote economic rules. Markets were opened up to foreign investors, special economic zones were created, and collective farming gave way to household farming. Not that he did not tackle the oversized bureaucracy and officialdom – old cadres were retired en masse and kicked into “advisory committees”, and in just over two years, he trimmed the military by a million troops, despite a border conflict with Vietnam.

But it was Zhu’s reforms of 1993-2002 that are more comparable to the American project envisioned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

Zhu massively restructured China’s government and the state-economy relationship. In the first restructuring round, central government agencies were cut from 86 to 59, as employees on government payroll fell by 20 per cent. The second round, from 1998-2002, was even more radical: 15 ministries were axed and 1.15 million positions removed from the government payroll. Tens of thousands of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) closed their doors or were privatised, and millions were laid off.

The reform impact was stunning. But China emerged with a much leaner government and a more dynamic economy – the exact goals of the Musk-Ramaswamy plan.

Musk, given Tesla’s experience in China, is no stranger to how the Chinese government works and aims to deliver economic growth and industrial capacity. But it is highly doubtful the department he is to co-lead, which will operate outside government confines, will possess the advantages that helped Deng and Zhu’s reforms to succeed.

The first is strong political leadership. Both Deng and Zhu held unparalleled authority within China’s political system. They were not just reformers; they were top leaders with immense power, backed by the Communist Party. This allowed them to implement policies with the force needed to bring about systemic change.

The second is a unified ideological narrative. Deng’s reforms were framed as a “revolution” for modernisation, while Zhu’s agenda was tied to China’s desire to integrate into the global economy. These clear, strong narratives helped unify the party and population around the reform agenda.

The third is a gradual implementation. While the scale of both reform projects was large, the changes were implemented over time with an eye on managing the political and social repercussions. The government ensured programmes to mitigate the impact of downsizing, especially for laid-off workers.

Lastly, China’s reforms were also spurred by external factors, such as the need to modernise to compete in a global economy. Joining the World Trade Organization, for instance, in 2001 required China to adapt its economic and political structures.

For the Musk-Ramaswamy team, the most glaring difference is their political environment. They have limited power, being neither heads of state or government leaders. They also have to contend with the highly decentralised US political system, where checks and balances, partisan resistance and bureaucratic inertia will all play significant roles.

A second factor is the time constraint. The Musk-Ramaswamy team will be looking at a much shorter time frame than Deng and Zhu had – Trump has declared a deadline of July 4, 2026. This will force them to work quickly, without the luxury of the long-term planning and gradual implementation that made China’s reforms successful.

Thirdly, there is clearly an absence of a unified narrative. Unlike China, where the Communist Party could enforce a unified political vision, the US political landscape is highly fragmented. Musk and Ramaswamy will need to craft a compelling narrative that resonates with a broad spectrum of American voters, political elites and civil servants. Otherwise, they will face massive resistance from various interest groups.

And that will be hard to tackle. Any attempt to downsize or restructure the federal bureaucracy will be met with fierce resistance from entrenched political actors and public sector unions. And then there is the broader public, which may be deeply sceptical of any efforts that threaten essential services.

China’s modern reforms succeeded because they were implemented by strong leaders with unified political backing, over a longer period and with a clear ideological narrative. The proposed US reforms are a much more difficult task: Musk and Ramaswamy will need to work within a deeply divided political system, without the same degree of centralised power or political backing.

Success will depend on the ability of Musk and Ramaswamy to mobilise political support, craft a compelling narrative and find innovative solutions to America’s unique governance challenges.

Chinese laser scientist ‘Crazy Li’ arms small drones with metal-cutting beam

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3290461/chinese-laser-scientist-crazy-li-arms-small-drones-metal-cutting-beam?utm_source=rss_feed

A squad of fully armed soldiers follow closely behind a Humvee armoured vehicle, cautiously advancing through the ruins of an urban battlefield. About a kilometre ahead of them in the sky, a small drone hovers in place. Suddenly, one soldier lets out a scream, clutching his eyes with both hands as smoke curls between his fingers.

Soon after, the others also collapse, and the radar, cameras and communication antennas on the Humvee catch fire and malfunction one after another.

They have been hit by laser beams emitted by the drone. Near-infrared laser with a wavelength of 1080 nanometres can cause blindness at a power of just five microwatts. The beam intensity that enters these soldiers’ eyes is 200 million times that, reaching one kilowatt per square centimetre. If the exposed skin was hit, the subcutaneous fat would be instantly vaporised.

A laser of such an intensity is “sufficient to cut through metal”, wrote a research team led by Li Xiao, an associate researcher with the school of optoelectronic science and engineering of the National University of Defence Technology of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, in a peer-reviewed paper published in the Chinese journal Acta Armamentarii in October.

Li’s email prefix – “crazy.li” – hints at his unconventional thinking. The scenario he envisioned in the paper was once deemed impossible: generating a laser beam with a long kill distance typically requires bulky equipment the size of a truck. A small platform, similar to a consumer drone, could never carry such a high-powered laser weapon and its accompanying energy supply equipment.

Li and his colleagues invented a small and lightweight redirecting device that allows drones equipped with it to receive powerful beams from the ground and reflect them onto enemy targets.

This not only boosts the laser power emitted by the drone to 30kW or even higher but also allows the beam to bend in the sky, bypassing obstacles such as buildings and hitting targets at their most vulnerable spot.

“In future applications, multiple drones can be equipped with this device to detect targets and then request illumination from the ground, further improving response speed,” the team wrote in the paper.

The main components of the redirecting device are a pair of telescope-like tubes, with the receiving tube facing the friendly laser emitter on the ground and the reflecting tube pointing at the enemy.

The movement of the tubes is controlled by ultra-high-precision elevation servo mechanisms and azimuth turntables, and the optical path between the two tubes is connected by high-performance reflective mirrors.

The main challenge is the vibration generated during drone flight, which can cause the laser beam to scatter, reducing its lethality. Therefore, the device must have excellent vibration isolation technology, Li’s team said.

The tight locking of the optical path between the drone and the ground emitter also required first-rate optical beacon technology, they said.

Chinese scientists have solved most of the technical problems, according to the paper.

China launched the world’s first quantum satellite in 2016, turning ultra-long-distance laser aiming technology from science fiction into reality. In recent years, Chinese scientists have also achieved ultra-high-precision time synchronisation technology on mobile devices, vastly improving the coordination accuracy between intelligent weapon platforms.

This has enabled breakthroughs that were once deemed impossible, such as merging microwaves or lasers emitted from different platforms into a potent energy beam in the sky.