Mistral点评

# 关于中国的新闻报道

Economy 章节

引言

　　近期，西方媒体对中国经济的报道频繁，内容涵盖了经济增长、通货紧缩、政策调整以及国际贸易等多个方面。这些报道在一定程度上反映了中国经济面临的挑战和应对措施，但由于西方媒体在报道中国时往往带有偏见和双重标准，因此需要对这些报道进行客观、专业的评价。

经济增长放缓

　　西方媒体指出，中国经济增长速度正在放缓。例如，2015年和2016年的国内生产总值（GDP）年增长率约为7%，而2023年第三季度经济增长仅为4.6%。许多经济学家预测，2024年的增长将进一步放缓。

　　评价： 中国经济增长放缓是一个客观事实，但这是全球经济放缓的一部分。中国在过去几十年中保持了高速增长，随着经济体量的扩大，增长速度放缓是不可避免的。此外，中国政府也在积极调整经济结构，从投资和出口驱动型转向消费和创新驱动型，这在短期内可能会导致增长速度的放缓，但有利于长期可持续发展。

通货紧缩风险

　　西方媒体报道称，中国正面临通货紧缩的风险。工业生产者出厂价格同比连续26个月下降，国内生产总值平减指数已连续6个季度处于负值区域。

　　评价： 通货紧缩确实是中国经济面临的一个挑战，但需要注意的是，中国政府已采取了一系列措施来应对这一问题，包括降低利率、增加政府借贷和支持地方政府财政资源等。此外，通货紧缩在全球范围内都是一个复杂的经济现象，不仅仅是中国面临的问题。中国政府在应对通货紧缩方面有着丰富的经验和政策工具。

政策调整

　　西方媒体指出，中国政府正在通过新的财政和货币政策来应对经济挑战，包括降低利率和增加政府借贷。中央政治局还表示将在2024年实施更加积极的财政政策，并采取“适度宽松”的货币政策。

　　评价： 中国政府的政策调整是积极应对经济挑战的体现。降低利率和增加政府借贷可以在短期内刺激经济增长，但需要注意的是，这些措施的效果可能会受到多种因素的影响，包括国际经济环境、市场预期和政策执行效果等。此外，政策调整需要与结构性改革相结合，才能实现长期可持续发展。

国际贸易挑战

　　西方媒体提到，美国当选总统特朗普可能会与中国展开贸易战，这将进一步加剧中国的经济压力。

　　评价： 贸易战确实是中国经济面临的一个重要挑战，但中国在应对贸易战方面有着丰富的经验和政策工具。中国政府一直坚持开放的贸易政策，积极推动全球化进程，并通过多边和双边贸易协定来应对贸易保护主义。此外，中国的国内市场巨大，具有很强的韧性和潜力，能够在一定程度上缓解贸易战带来的冲击。

结论

　　综上所述，西方媒体对中国经济的报道在一定程度上反映了中国经济面临的挑战和应对措施，但这些报道往往带有偏见和双重标准。中国经济增长放缓是全球经济放缓的一部分，通货紧缩是一个复杂的经济现象，政策调整需要与结构性改革相结合，贸易战是一个重要挑战但中国有能力应对。总体来看，中国经济具有很强的韧性和潜力，能够在复杂的国内外环境中实现可持续发展。

新闻来源： 2412171021半岛电视台-中国能否成功避免重蹈日本经济衰退的覆辙; 2412170635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-12-16

# 关于中国的新闻报道

Politics 政治章节

引言

　　近期，西方媒体对中国政治动态进行了广泛报道，涵盖了中美关系、台湾问题、文化交流以及中国的改革经验等多个方面。这些报道反映了西方媒体对中国政治环境的关注和分析，但也不乏偏见和双重标准。为了更客观地理解这些报道，本章节将对其进行详细评析。

中美关系

　　#### 习近平主席的外交活动

　　习近平主席在近期的多次国际峰会上明确表达了中国对美关系的立场。他强调了中美两国在台湾问题、人权问题等方面的红线，并呼吁两国在相互尊重、平等的基础上开展合作。这些言论表明中国在国际舞台上的坚定立场和对维护国家主权的重视。

　　#### 修昔底德陷阱

　　习近平主席在与美国总统拜登的会晤中驳斥了“修昔底德陷阱”理论，强调“遏制中国”的政策注定会失败。这一观点反映了中国对美国霸权主义的警惕和对国际关系的理性思考。

台湾问题

　　#### 两岸文化交流

　　报道指出，台湾的文化影响力在大陆逐渐减弱，尤其是在台湾政治环境发生变化之后。台湾的文化产品曾在大陆引起广泛关注，但近年来，随着两岸关系的紧张，这种文化交流逐渐减少。

　　#### 两岸政治动态

　　台湾的政治环境对两岸关系产生了重要影响。民进党执政期间，台湾的政治立场趋向独立，这与大陆的统一立场形成了对立。这种政治环境使得两岸文化交流和政治互信受到影响。

中国的改革经验

　　#### 改革者的角色

　　报道提到，中国的改革者如邓小平和朱镕基在推动改革中扮演了关键角色。他们不仅是改革者，更是拥有巨大权力的顶级领导人，得到了中国共产党的支持。这使得他们能够推动系统性变革。

　　#### 统一的意识形态叙述

　　中国的改革成功与统一的意识形态叙述密不可分。邓小平的改革被定义为“现代化革命”，而朱镕基的改革则与中国融入全球经济的愿望相联系。这些明确的叙述帮助统一了党和人民，推动了改革的顺利进行。

　　#### 渐进实施

　　中国的改革采取了渐进实施的方式，逐步推进，注重管理政治和社会影响。这种方式有助于减少改革带来的冲击，确保社会稳定。

国际关系

　　#### 匈牙利的外交平衡

　　匈牙利总理欧尔班在处理与中国和美国的关系时面临挑战。他在政治上支持特朗普，但在经济上依赖中国的投资。这种平衡策略反映了匈牙利在国际关系中的复杂处境。

结论

　　西方媒体对中国政治动态的报道反映了其对中国在国际舞台上的关注和分析。然而，这些报道往往带有偏见和双重标准。通过客观评析这些报道，我们可以更全面地理解中国的政治环境和国际关系。中国在维护国家主权、推动改革和处理国际关系方面展现了坚定的立场和策略，这些都是理解中国政治的关键要素。

新闻来源： 2412170635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-12-16; 2412171107The-Guardian-Chinese-embassy-criticises-anti-China-clamours-after-Yang-Tengbo-spy-claim; 2412171456半岛电视台-修昔底德陷阱以及中国对特朗普治下的美国的红线

## 关于中国的新闻报道

军事章节

　　#### 导言

　　近年来，西方媒体对中国的军事报道呈现出多样化和复杂化的趋势。这些报道不仅涉及中国军事现代化的进程、武器装备的发展，还涵盖了地缘政治、国际关系等多个方面。然而，这些报道往往充满了偏见和双重标准，具有较强的主观色彩，缺乏对中国军事发展的全面、客观的分析。本章将对西方媒体关于中国军事报道的主要内容进行梳理，并从专业角度进行评价。

　　#### 一、中国军事现代化

　　西方媒体频繁报道中国军事现代化的进程，认为中国在提升军事实力方面取得了显著进展。例如，中国在无人机技术、导弹技术、航母建设等方面的突破，引发了西方国家的广泛关注和担忧。然而，这些报道往往夸大中国军事现代化的威胁，忽视了中国军事发展的防御性质和合理性。

　　评价：中国军事现代化是为了维护国家主权和领土完整，保障国家安全和发展利益。西方媒体的报道往往缺乏对中国国情和安全环境的全面了解，未能客观评价中国军事现代化的必要性和合理性。

　　#### 二、武器装备发展

　　西方媒体对中国武器装备的发展尤为关注，特别是高新技术武器的研发和应用。例如，中国的隐形战机、高超音速武器、激光武器等新型武器装备的出现，引发了西方国家的高度关注和警惕。

　　评价：中国武器装备的发展是国家科技进步的体现，也是维护国家安全的重要手段。西方媒体的报道往往夸大中国武器装备的威胁，忽视了中国在国际军控和裁军领域的积极作用。

　　#### 三、地缘政治与国际关系

　　西方媒体在报道中国军事问题时，往往将其与地缘政治和国际关系联系起来。例如，中国在南海问题、台海问题、中印边界问题等方面的立场和行动，引发了西方国家的广泛关注和争议。

　　评价：中国在地缘政治和国际关系中的立场和行动，是维护国家主权和领土完整的正当举措。西方媒体的报道往往带有强烈的意识形态色彩，忽视了中国在国际事务中的合理利益和正当主张。

　　#### 四、国际合作与交流

　　西方媒体对中国在国际军事合作和交流方面的报道相对较少，但也有一些关于中国参与国际维和行动、联合军演等方面的报道。这些报道往往强调中国在国际军事合作中的积极作用，但也有一些报道对中国的军事合作动机进行质疑。

　　评价：中国在国际军事合作和交流方面的努力，是为了维护国际和平与稳定，促进全球安全治理。西方媒体的报道往往忽视了中国在国际军事合作中的积极贡献，缺乏对中国和平发展理念的全面理解。

　　#### 结论

　　综上所述，西方媒体对中国军事报道存在较多的偏见和双重标准，缺乏对中国军事发展的全面、客观的分析。中国军事现代化和武器装备发展是维护国家安全和发展利益的正当举措，西方媒体应客观、理性地看待中国军事发展，避免夸大威胁和制造紧张局势。

　　在地缘政治和国际关系方面，中国的立场和行动是维护国家主权和领土完整的正当举措，西方媒体应尊重中国的合理利益和正当主张，避免带有强烈的意识形态色彩的报道。

　　在国际军事合作和交流方面，中国的努力是为了维护国际和平与稳定，促进全球安全治理，西方媒体应客观评价中国在国际军事合作中的积极贡献，避免对中国军事合作动机的无端质疑。

新闻来源： 2412170635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-12-16; 2412171107The-Guardian-Chinese-embassy-criticises-anti-China-clamours-after-Yang-Tengbo-spy-claim

# 关于中国的新闻报道

文化（Culture）章节

引言

　　近年来，西方媒体对中国文化的报道频繁，涉及范围广泛，包括台湾与大陆的文化交流、人工智能在文化领域的应用、以及中国文化产业的发展等。然而，这些报道往往带有一定的偏见和双重标准，缺乏对中国文化复杂性和多样性的全面理解。本章节将对这些报道进行客观评价，揭示其背后的真实情况和可能的误解。

台湾与大陆的文化交流

　　西方媒体常常关注台湾与大陆之间的文化交流，特别是台湾文化对大陆的影响。报道中提到，台湾的综艺节目和电视剧曾在大陆非常受欢迎，但近年来这种影响力有所减弱。这一现象被归因于政治因素和大陆文化产业的崛起。

　　然而，这些报道往往忽视了更深层次的原因。首先，台湾与大陆的文化交流受到政治关系的影响，台湾政府近年来强调“台湾独立”，导致两岸文化交流减少。其次，大陆文化产业的快速发展使得本土文化产品越来越受欢迎，减少了对台湾文化的依赖。此外，大陆对台湾文化产品的审查也在一定程度上影响了其在大陆的传播。

人工智能在文化领域的应用

　　西方媒体对中国在人工智能领域的应用尤为关注，特别是人工智能在文化领域的应用。报道中提到，中国政府对人工智能生成的内容进行严格监管，以防止其对传统文化的歪曲和对青少年的不良影响。

　　这一点实际上反映了中国政府对文化传承和青少年教育的重视。人工智能技术的快速发展确实带来了新的挑战，但中国政府通过制定相关法规和政策，确保技术发展与文化传承相结合，保护传统文化的纯洁性。这一做法不仅是对文化的保护，也是对未来一代的责任。

中国文化产业的发展

　　西方媒体对中国文化产业的发展持续关注，报道中提到中国文化产业的快速崛起，吸引了大量台湾艺人和投资。然而，这些报道往往忽视了中国文化产业发展的多样性和创新能力。

　　中国文化产业不仅在数量上有了显著增长，在质量和创新能力上也有了长足进步。中国的电影、电视剧、音乐等文化产品不仅在国内受欢迎，也在国际市场上取得了显著成绩。中国政府通过一系列政策支持文化产业的发展，鼓励创新和多样性，推动文化产业的国际化进程。

结论

　　西方媒体对中国文化的报道往往带有一定的偏见和双重标准，缺乏对中国文化复杂性和多样性的全面理解。然而，通过客观评价这些报道，我们可以看到中国文化在面对挑战时的韧性和创新能力。台湾与大陆的文化交流受到政治因素的影响，但文化交流的本质仍然是双向的、互惠的。人工智能在文化领域的应用带来了新的挑战，但中国政府通过制定相关法规和政策，确保技术发展与文化传承相结合。中国文化产业的快速崛起不仅在数量上有了显著增长，在质量和创新能力上也有了长足进步。

　　总之，中国文化在全球化背景下面临诸多挑战，但通过政府的支持和社会的共同努力，中国文化正在不断发展和创新，展现出强大的生命力和影响力。

新闻来源： 2412170635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-12-16

### 关于中国的新闻报道

　　#### Technology 章节

　　##### 引言

　　近年来，中国在科技创新领域取得了显著进展，尤其在人工智能（AI）、量子通信、电动汽车等多个前沿技术领域表现突出。然而，西方媒体对中国科技发展的报道常常带有偏见和双重标准，本章将对相关报道进行客观评价，揭示其中的事实与误解。

　　##### 人工智能教育

　　中国教育部近期发布通知，要求全国中小学校加强人工智能教育，以培养未来的创新人才。根据教育部的规定，低年级学生应初步了解AI概念，高年级学生则需掌握AI技术的应用。这一举措旨在提升学生的数字技能和问题解决能力，为未来的科技发展打下坚实基础。

　　然而，西方媒体在报道这一政策时，往往忽视了中国在AI教育方面的积极努力和成就，转而关注实施过程中可能出现的问题，如教师资源不足、教学设备短缺等。实际上，中国已有超过180所学校参与AI教育试点项目，并且多所高校已开设AI专业，为AI教育的普及奠定了基础。

　　##### 量子通信

　　中国在量子通信领域的突破性进展也备受关注。2016年，中国成功发射了世界首颗量子卫星“墨子号”，实现了超长距离的量子通信。此外，中国科学家还在移动设备上实现了超高精度的时间同步技术，极大提升了智能武器平台的协调精度。

　　尽管中国在量子通信领域取得了显著成就，西方媒体往往将其描绘成军事威胁，忽视其在民用领域的潜在应用。实际上，量子通信技术不仅可以提升军事装备的性能，还可以在金融、医疗等多个领域发挥重要作用。

　　##### 电动汽车

　　中国电动汽车产业迅猛发展，成为全球电动汽车市场的重要参与者。中国企业如比亚迪和北汽福田已将电动汽车出口至多个国家，并在全球多地设立了生产基地。然而，西方媒体在报道中国电动汽车产业时，常常强调其面临的贸易壁垒和政策挑战，忽视其技术创新和市场竞争力。

　　事实上，中国电动汽车在性价比和技术性能方面具有显著优势，已在多个新兴市场占据重要份额。中国企业还在积极探索新能源汽车的技术创新，如快速充电、长续航等，推动全球电动汽车产业的发展。

　　##### 金融支持科技创新

　　中国金融业被呼吁更好地支持科技创新，以推动经济转型升级。清华大学国家金融研究院院长田轩指出，中国科技创新仍有很大提升空间，需要金融支持以发展新技术。他建议开放资本市场，吸引外资投资，以降低企业融资成本，提升创新能力。

　　西方媒体在报道这一议题时，往往将中国科技创新与美国进行对比，指出中国在科技企业市值和创新能力方面的差距。然而，这种对比忽视了中国在科技创新领域的快速进步和潜力。实际上，中国在5G通信、人工智能、新能源等多个领域已取得了显著成就，并在全球科技竞争中占据重要地位。

　　##### 总结

　　综上所述，西方媒体对中国科技发展的报道存在偏见和双重标准，往往忽视中国在AI教育、量子通信、电动汽车等领域的显著成就，转而强调其面临的挑战和问题。实际上，中国在科技创新领域取得了快速进步，并在全球科技竞争中占据重要地位。未来，中国将继续推动科技创新，为全球科技发展贡献力量。

新闻来源： 2412170635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-12-16

# 关于中国的新闻报道

Society 章节

一、文化交流与社会变迁

　　#### 1.1 两岸文化交流的现状与挑战

　　近年来，两岸文化交流在多个层面上展现出复杂的动态。根据国立政治大学黄教授的观点，文化交流是工业发展的正常过程，然而，随着政治因素的介入，两岸文化交流出现了一定程度的“漂移”。例如，台湾电视剧在大陆的播放受到了更多限制，尤其是涉及敏感话题的作品。大陆方面强调国家主义，而台湾则强调文化独特性，这使得两岸的文化产品在内容和受众上出现了分化。

　　#### 1.2 台湾文化对大陆的影响

　　台湾的文化产品曾在大陆产生过广泛影响，尤其是在电视剧和综艺节目方面。台湾综艺节目《康熙来了》曾因其“无禁忌”的讨论内容在大陆广受欢迎，但随着2017年大陆颁布的新规定，所有在线播放的视频节目，特别是来自海外的节目，都需要事先获得批准，这使得台湾的文化产品在大陆的播放变得更加困难。

　　#### 1.3 大陆文化产业的崛起

　　随着大陆文化产业的快速发展，越来越多的台湾艺人选择在大陆发展事业。大陆的文化产业在资金、人才和创新能力上具有显著优势，吸引了大量台湾艺人前往。然而，这也导致了台湾本地文化产业的相对衰退，台湾的文化产品在大陆市场上的影响力逐渐减弱。

二、社会治理与公共政策

　　#### 2.1 人工智能内容的监管

　　大陆对人工智能生成内容的监管日益严格，特别是涉及传统文化和历史的内容。国家网信办多次表示，将清理可能对青少年产生不良影响的视频内容。这一举措旨在保护传统文化，防止信息污染和历史虚无主义的传播。然而，也有观点认为，过度监管可能会限制创新和娱乐自由。

　　#### 2.2 婚姻与家庭法律纠纷

　　近年来，大陆的婚姻与家庭法律纠纷案件频发，尤其是涉及婚外情和财产分配的案件。一名“小三”因未能如约让原配离婚，诉至法院要求返还120万元人民币，但法院以违背社会公德和公共秩序为由驳回了其诉求。这一案件引发了广泛的社会讨论，反映了公众对婚姻道德和法律保护的关注。

三、社会现象与公众反应

　　#### 3.1 自律挑战与心理压力

　　大陆的自律挑战节目近年来颇受欢迎，参与者需在严格的规则下完成长时间的隔离挑战，以获取高额奖金。然而，这类节目也引发了对心理健康的担忧，参与者在极端环境下的心理压力可能对其身心健康造成不利影响。

　　#### 3.2 公众对监管政策的反应

　　大陆的监管政策在公众中引发了不同的反应。一部分人认为监管是必要的，有助于维护社会秩序和传统文化；另一部分人则认为过度监管可能限制个人自由和创新。这种分歧反映了社会在发展过程中对平衡自由与秩序的探索。

结论

　　综上所述，大陆的社会发展在文化交流、公共政策和社会现象等方面展现出复杂的动态。两岸文化交流在政治因素的影响下出现了分化，大陆的文化产业快速发展，但也带来了对本地文化的冲击。大陆在人工智能内容监管和婚姻家庭法律方面的政策引发了广泛的社会讨论，反映了公众对传统文化保护和社会秩序的关注。自律挑战节目的流行则反映了社会对心理健康的关注。总体而言，大陆社会在发展过程中展现了对平衡自由与秩序的探索和努力。

新闻来源： 2412170635英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总_2024-12-16; 2412171456半岛电视台-修昔底德陷阱以及中国对特朗普治下的美国的红线; 2412171107The-Guardian-Chinese-embassy-criticises-anti-China-clamours-after-Yang-Tengbo-spy-claim

• [Sport] The Chinese 'Spy' is Named
• Top Chinese and Indian officials to discuss Himalayan border dispute this week
• Trump says China, US can work together to ‘solve all of the world’s problems’
• US-China working groups on economy, finance meet as future in doubt under Donald Trump
• Prince Andrew to miss royal family Christmas after links to alleged Chinese spy emerge
• Prince Andrew’s Chinese spy drama again pushes King Charles III to rein in scandal-prone brother
• Alleged Chinese spy linked to Prince Andrew denies claims, criticises UK political climate
• [Sport] Who is Yang Tengbo, the alleged Chinese spy linked to Prince Andrew?
• Alleged Chinese spy linked to Prince Andrew named as Yang Tengbo
• Minister answers urgent question about Chinese intelligence gathering as Yang Tengbo denies being a spy – UK politics live
• Chinese names added to EU sanctions list over Russia’s war in Ukraine
• Chinese ‘behaviour’ remarks by MIT scientist Rosalind Picard rattle top AI conference
• China’s amped-up nuclear power ambitions at core of energy security amid safety concerns
• China launches first satellites for GuoWang project to rival SpaceX’s Starlink
• How backchannel diplomacy helped US and China emerge from shadow of balloon incident
• PLA electronic war ‘kill list’, how China can survive Trump threats: SCMP daily catch-up
• New look at old Chinese, French ties in ‘grand finale’ Hong Kong exhibition
• ‘True artist’: China delivery worker plays flute between orders, praised for spreading joy
• Tech war: China’s chip industry reports sharp drop in funding in 2024 amid US rivalry
• Foreign investors gain new collateral options for China bond trades in January
• [Sport] China's efforts to spy in the UK happening in plain view, says ex-Tory leader
• Alleged Chinese spy who befriended Prince Andrew is ‘tip of iceberg’, warns senior MP
• China warns citizens in Philippines of safety risks amid surge in robberies and scams
• Face corruption head-on to stop interest groups ‘preying’ on party, says Chinese leader
• Concocting a plan: Starbucks hires chief growth officer in China to reignite sales
• South China Sea: why Philippines’ new legal case against Beijing may fall flat
• Next stop, Nigeria: China cement giant Huaxin’s African expansion spree
• ‘Copycat tax’: China KOL presents lavish gifts to pop star he imitates, expresses gratitude
• India plays catch-up to influence Myanmar as China’s clout over junta and rebels grows
• Chinese money fuels hiring spree among private banks in Hong Kong
• China’s retail sales in November miss estimate at 3.0%
• Malaysia’s Chinese character of 2024 isn’t ‘sinkhole’ – or ‘Madani’
• MPs fear government too trusting of China in wake of alleged spy scandal
• Economist Zhang Yansheng on how China can survive Trump threats, avoid Japan’s mistakes
• From blind box toys to snacks, Chinese venture capital firm finds growth in niche spending

[Sport] The Chinese 'Spy' is Named

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0kcgbr9[Sport] The Chinese 'Spy' is Named

Top Chinese and Indian officials to discuss Himalayan border dispute this week

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3291079/top-chinese-and-indian-officials-discuss-himalayan-border-dispute-week?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is to host India’s national security adviser Ajit Doval in Beijing to discuss the nations’ Himalayan border dispute on Wednesday, the ministry said on Monday – the latest sign of improved ties following an agreement on patrolling the boundary.

Foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said the meeting would be the 23rd under the “special representatives dialogue” mechanism – but the first since 2019 – and would cover “the consensus reached between China and India”.

On the eve of a meeting in October between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Beijing and New Delhi agreed to disengage their patrolling troops at the disputed border, a diplomatic breakthrough that is expected to end the high-altitude stand-off since a deadly skirmish four years ago.

In addition to using the dialogue “to maintain peace and tranquillity in the border area and to seek a fair and reasonable solution”, according to the Chinese readout of that meeting, Xi and Modi also agreed to push for more engagement between officials “at all levels” so as to “promote early return of relations between the two countries to the track of stable development”.

China and India have never agreed on their border demarcation. Since a short but bloody war over the issue in 1962, the two nations have been divided by a 3,200km (1,990-mile) Line of Actual Control (LAC) – though they have not even been able to agree on precisely where that lies.

Following a series of violent border clashes, including one in June 2020 in the Galwan Valley that left 20 Indian soldiers dead and an unspecified number of Chinese casualties, ties between the neighbouring nations deteriorated sharply.

Since then, rounds of negotiations have been held between officials of foreign policy, military and border affairs, while both sides have stepped up their military presence in the disputed area.

A diplomatic thaw would help put areas of cooperation back on track, particularly Chinese investments in India, which have faced tightened scrutiny by Delhi after the border tensions.

In addition to repairing economic ties, analysts also said that a China-India detente could serve as a hedge against the uncertainties of US foreign policy once president-elect Donald Trump takes office next month.

Established in 2003, the special representative mechanism on the India-China boundary question is intended to explore a political solution to the border dispute.

In 2012, the two sides also launched the working mechanism for consultation and coordination on border affairs.

Trump says China, US can work together to ‘solve all of the world’s problems’

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3291081/trump-says-china-us-can-work-together-solve-all-worlds-problems?utm_source=rss_feed

US president-elect Donald Trump said on Monday that Beijing and Washington could work together “to solve all of the problems of the world”, a sweeping statement issued little more than a month before he reassumes office.

Trump made the comment during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Florida, when asked about Chinese President Xi Jinping’s response to his invitation to attend the January 20 presidential inauguration.

Xi “hasn’t said one way or the other”, he said about the invitation.

That the issue was “something we barely discussed”, he said, adding that he has had “some very good conversations” with the Chinese leader through letters.

“You know, because China and the United States can, together solve all of the problems of the world, if you think about it. So it’s very important. And you know, he was a friend of mine”, Trump added.

Reflecting on the meeting the two men had at Mar-a-Lago in 2017, Trump said: “He was here for a long time, right in that spot, except sitting in a very comfortable chair. He wasn’t standing like you are. But we spent hours and hours talking, and he’s an amazing guy”.

Trump also appeared to further soften his position on TikTok, a Chinese owned short video platform that faces a ban in the US on January 19, 2025, after questioning the effort to block the app that has more than 170 million domestic monthly users in the US.

“We’ll take a look at TikTok. You know, I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok. TikTok had an impact, so we’re taking a look at it”, he said.

No Chinese head of state has ever attended a presidential inauguration in the US. Such a move would be a departure from a decades-long tradition whereby the White House includes foreign dignitaries and diplomats at the ceremony but not world leaders.

Some analysts have expressed doubt that Xi would attend the inauguration, pointing out hat the diplomatic groundwork for such a visit would likely require more than the five weeks remaining before the president-elect is sworn in.

Denis Simon, a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute, a think tank in Washington, said it has “more or less been determined that Xi is not coming, and the only question will be, ‘who would come’?”.

Describing Trump as a “deal maker”, Simon reckoned that by inviting Xi, the US president-elect wants to be “seen as some kind of grand statesman” with a knack for personal diplomacy, and added that Beijing might be inclined to send a high-level delegation.

“I really do think Trump wants a Nobel Peace Prize win. I think that’s his aim here. So I think that this grand statesman status, if he can work with Xi, and then Xi can work with Putin and all of a sudden we can find peace in several areas, I think that would be Trump’s dream”, the long-time China scholar contended.

Earlier this month, Trump had suggested that China could play a key role in brokering peace between Russia and Ukraine.

“Too many lives are being so needlessly wasted, too many families destroyed, and if it keeps going, it can turn into something much bigger, and far worse. I know Vladimir well. This is his time to act. China can help. The World is waiting,” Trump said in a social media post on December 9.

In an interview aired later that day Trump told NBC that he “got along very well” with Chinese President Xi Jinping and that the two leaders had “communication as recently as this week.”

At the time, the Chinese embassy in Washington declined to comment on any recent communication between Xi and Trump, saying only that Beijing “welcomes and supports all effort conducive to the peaceful settlement of the crisis”.

---

US-China working groups on economy, finance meet as future in doubt under Donald Trump

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3291083/us-china-working-groups-economy-finance-meet-future-doubt-under-donald-trump?utm_source=rss_feed

The US and China held what could be their last working-group meetings on economics and finance, a month before Donald Trump’s return to the White House amid an anticipated revival of the two superpowers’ trade war.

The US Treasury on Monday announced that senior officials from Washington and Beijing discussed economic and financial issues in two working group meetings in recent days.

The economic working group convened on the sidelines of the Group of 20 deputies’ meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, on December 12, according to a Treasury read-out, and was co-led by Jay Shambaugh, Treasury’s undersecretary for international affairs, and Liao Min, China’s vice-minister of finance.

Treasury said the US voiced concerns about the mainland’s “nonmarket practices and industrial overcapacity” and their impact on American workers and companies as well as Chinese firms’ alleged support for Russia’s defence industrial base during the Ukraine war.

The Chinese finance ministry’s read-out of the meeting said it clarified Beijing’s position to US officials on economic and trade issues while raising its own concerns about American trade restrictions against China.

The working groups were set up by US President Joe Biden to manage differences in Sino-American ties as he met last year with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in a landmark summit. It is unclear whether Trump will keep the mechanism going.

Bilateral dialogue could fall off in Trump’s second term, according to some observers, as it was far less frequent in his first term compared with under Biden, especially in areas like climate change, which the president-elect has described as a “scam”.

US-China relations have been strained in the years since Trump initiated a trade war against Beijing in 2018, marked by more than US$300 billion worth of tariffs on mainland products.

Trump has vowed to impose more tariffs upon his return to the White House, namely up to 60 per cent on all mainland imports. Biden has largely kept the tariffs in place.

The Biden administration has worked with US allies to impose additional tariffs on Chinese clean-energy products such as electric vehicles to address what it has called the mainland’s manufacturing overproduction undercutting Western competitors.

And as tech competition between the countries escalates too, the US has added more mainland semiconductor companies to its “entity list” comprising foreign individuals, companies and organisations deemed to be an American national-security concern.

In a similar vein, the US has restricted domestic and foreign companies from supplying products, if they contain American technologies, to such firms as part of its larger strategy of curbing China’s hi-tech development.

Washington has argued Beijing’s advances could bolster the People’s Liberation Army.

Treasury said the two countries also discussed the impacts of China’s recent stimulus policies. Last week Xi led a meeting outlining economic priorities and strategies amid the country’s sluggish economic performance as well as protectionist US measures.

The priorities include boosting consumption and clean-energy development, relaxing China’s monetary policy and deepening reform to lure foreign investment.

Since September, Beijing has rolled out its most significant stimulus measures to date following the coronavirus pandemic, including interest and mortgage rate cuts, hoping to catalyse the world’s second-largest economy.

Economic well-being has been top of mind of late for both countries.

In Nanjing over the weekend, Brent Neiman, Treasury’s assistant secretary for international finance, and Xuan Changneng, deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China – the country’s central bank – convened the US-China financial working group.

Finance officials from both sides further met on the sidelines in Nanjing to discuss illicit finance, a topic on which Treasury raised several concerns.

In addition, the countries signed a memorandum of understanding on information-sharing and other areas of mutual interest in the insurance sector, Treasury said.

The Nanjing meeting took place as Pan Gongsheng, governor of the PBOC, convened a meeting on Monday and said the central bank would strengthen its efforts to develop financial ties with the US and Europe.

Pan said the central bank would stabilise China’s currency while cutting interest rates again at “an appropriate time”.

Prince Andrew to miss royal family Christmas after links to alleged Chinese spy emerge

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/dec/16/prince-andrew-to-miss-royal-family-christmas-after-links-to-alleged-chinese-spy-emerge

The Duke of York is to stay away from the royal family’s traditional Christmas gathering at Sandringham this year amid the controversy surrounding his links to an alleged Chinese spy.

Andrew, 64, will miss the festivities at the private Norfolk estate of his brother, King Charles, where 45 members of their family had been expected to spend Christmas Day.

Last week, a high court hearing revealed that the alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo, who was banned from the UK, was said to have been a “close” confidant of Andrew.

Yang, a businessman whose identity was previously protected by an anonymity order, was named after a judge lifted the ban on Monday.

In a statement, Yang denied suggestions he was involved in espionage and said he had “done nothing wrong or unlawful and the concerns raised by the Home Office against me are ill-founded”.

The businessman had visited the UK regularly, attending events at a series of royal residences, including Andrew’s birthday party at his home.

According to court documents, Yang was so close to the duke that he was authorised to act on his behalf in an international financial initiative with potential partners and investors in China.

Andrew’s office said last week he had stopped all contact with the man, whom he had met through “official channels” with “nothing of a sensitive nature ever discussed”.

The prince’s ex-wife, Sarah, Duchess of York, will also miss Christmas at Sandringham, in what will be seen as a show of solidarity for her former husband.

The pair are said to be preparing to spend the day together at Royal Lodge, the home they share in Windsor Great Park, Berkshire.

It is not yet known whether Andrew will attend Charles’s traditional pre-Christmas lunch for the extended family at Buckingham Palace on Thursday.

Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, who have young families, had already planned to spend Christmas with their respective in-laws this year for the first time, sources said.

---

Prince Andrew’s Chinese spy drama again pushes King Charles III to rein in scandal-prone brother

https://apnews.com/article/prince-andrew-yang-tengbo-chinese-spy-b3aeebcf4f7d73eaac3dae37b4b3760eFILE -Prince Andrew leaves after attending the Christmas day service at St Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham in Norfolk, England, Sunday, Dec. 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)

2024-12-16T15:50:46Z

LONDON (AP) — How do you solve a problem like Prince Andrew?

That’s the question facing King Charles III as the drama surrounding his 64-year-old brother roils Britain and the monarchy once again.

In the latest episode, a Chinese businessman has been barred from the U.K. because of concerns he cultivated links with Andrew in an alleged effort to influence British elites on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party. The man, identified Monday as Yang Tengbo, said he wasn’t involved in espionage and had “done nothing wrong or unlawful.”

The allegations represent the most high-profile example to date of a threat intelligence officials have repeatedly warned about: China’s increasing efforts to secretly influence politicians and other members of the British establishment to support the country’s expansionist policies.

But the story also made news because it involves Andrew, once second-in-line to the British throne but now a constant source of tabloid fodder because of his money woes and links to questionable characters, including the late American financier and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Queen Elizabeth II stripped Andrew of his royal duties and charity roles, but the unflattering headlines kept coming. More recently, Charles has tried to persuade his brother to cut his expenses by leaving the sprawling royal estate he occupies west of London and moving to a cottage inside the security perimeter of Windsor Castle. But Andrew remains ensconced at the 30-room Royal Lodge.

The king needs to take more aggressive action to keep Andrew out of the public eye, such as barring him from processions and other royal events, said Ed Owens, author of “After Elizabeth: Can the Monarchy Save Itself?’’

While Andrew said in a statement that nothing sensitive was ever discussed and that he ceased contact with the Chinese businessman as soon as concerns were raised, his constant brushes with scandal tarnish the work of the royal family, Owens said.

“Andrew is toxic and he is very much damaged goods,” he added. “He can only, through his behavior, further undermine the reputation of the monarchy. It’s in the king’s best interest, it’s in the best interests of the future of the monarchy, for Andrew to take a step back.”

Scandal fuels anti-monarchy criticism

Britain’s most prominent anti-monarchy group used the latest scandal to call for a parliamentary inquiry into alleged royal corruption.

“When a Chinese spy befriends a royal, they want access to the British state. We must know if the royals have given them what they want,” said Graham Smith, leader of Republic, which seeks to replace the monarchy with an elected head of state.

Andrew has become a cautionary tale about the temptations and pitfalls of modern royalty.

When Andrew was born he was second in line to the throne, the proverbial spare who was there to step in if disaster struck the heir, his brother Charles. But after Charles married, Andrew’s position dropped with every new child and grandchild. He now stands at eighth place in the royal pecking order.

The Epstein scandal costs Andrew his job

While other senior royals spend much of their time opening recreation centers and meeting community leaders on behalf of their more exalted relations, Andrew initially took on bigger tasks.

After 22 years in the Royal Navy, including combat operations as a helicopter pilot during the Falklands War, Andrew was named Britain’s special representative for international trade and investment in 2001.

But he was forced to step down in 2011 amid growing concern about his friendship with Epstein, who had been sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution.

Andrew had also been criticized for meeting with the son of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi and the son-in-law of ousted Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Even before that, some members of Parliament had raised concerns about the sale of Andrew’s former home, Sunninghill Park, to a son-in-law of former Kazakh ruler Nursultan Nazarbayev in 2007. The buyer allegedly paid 15 million pounds ($19 million) — 3 million pounds more than the asking price.

But Andrew’s links to Epstein have been his biggest problem.

The disastrous BBC interview

Questions about the relationship resurfaced after Epstein was again arrested on sex trafficking charges in 2019. In an effort to silence criticism, Andrew gave a disastrous interview to the BBC’s Newsnight program in which he tried to explain away his contacts with Epstein and failed to show empathy for victims.

Amid the backlash, Andrew announced on Nov. 20, 2019, that he was stepping away from royal duties “for the foreseeable future.” In a statement, he called his association with Epstein “a major disruption to my family’s work.”

But that didn’t end the scandal.

In August 2021, one of Epstein’s victims sued Andrew in a New York cour t, alleging that the prince had sex with her when she was underage. Andrew denied the allegations, but he was stripped of all military affiliations and royal charity work as the case moved through the legal process.

Netflix film brings a global audience

Andrew ultimately settled the case for an undisclosed sum, with a joint statement indicating the prince would make a “substantial donation” to a victims’ rights charity. British newspapers reported amounts for the settlement ranged from $6 million to $16 million.

Even now, Andrew’s interview haunts the prince and the royal family. It resurfaced earlier this year in the Netflix movie “Scoop,” reminding a worldwide audience of his missteps.

“He has consistently used his privileged position and his power to cozy up to convicted sex offenders, Chinese spies — in pursuit of his own interests, whether it’s about expanding his own influence or indeed extending his own business interests,’’ Owens said. “That’s the problem here, that he’s used the position given to him by birth to seek out these opportunities.”

Alleged Chinese spy linked to Prince Andrew denies claims, criticises UK political climate

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3291076/alleged-chinese-spy-linked-prince-andrew-denies-claims-criticises-uk-political-climate?utm_source=rss_feed

Alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo, who forged links with Prince Andrew and mixed with other British establishment figures, has insisted that he has “done nothing wrong or unlawful”.

Yang said it was “entirely untrue” to claim he was involved in espionage and said he was a victim of a “political climate” which had seen a rise in tensions between the UK and China.

A businessman, Yang became a “close” confidant of Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, and has also been pictured with senior politicians including former conservative prime ministers David Cameron and Theresa May.

In a statement after a High Court judge lifted an order granting him anonymity, Yang he said: “Due to the high level of speculation and misreporting in the media and elsewhere, I have asked my legal team to disclose my identity.”

“I have done nothing wrong or unlawful and the concerns raised by the Home Office against me are ill-founded. The widespread description of me as a ‘spy’ is entirely untrue,” he added.

Yang last week lost an appeal over a decision to bar him from entering the UK on national security grounds.

Yang was known in the legal case only as H6 until the anonymity order was lifted on Monday.

He is listed as a director of Hampton Group International, a business consultancy which claims to act as a bridge between China and the rest of the world.

The 50-year-old worked as a junior civil servant in China before heading to the UK in 2002 to study and he was granted indefinite leave to remain in 2013.

Yang – also known as Christopher Yang – was the founder-partner of Pitch@Palace China.

The Pitch@Palace initiative was Prince Andrew’s scheme to support entrepreneurs.

Yang was first excluded from Britain by then-home secretary Suella Braverman in 2023, when the Home Office said he was believed to have carried out “covert and deceptive activity for the Communist Party”.

The businessman suggested he was a victim of increasingly hawkish views on China under the Conservative administration at the time.

“The political climate has changed and unfortunately, I have fallen victim to this,” Yang said.

He added: “When relations are good, and Chinese investment is sought, I am welcome in the UK. When relations sour, an anti-China stance is taken, and I am excluded.”

Judges at a specialist tribunal in London last week ruled Braverman had been “entitled to conclude” that he “represented a risk to national security” after he launched an appeal against the decision.

The businessman had brought a case to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) after his initial exclusion in 2023 but his appeal was dismissed.

In his statement, Yang hit out at the process which led to his ban from entering the UK.

“I have been excluded from seeing most of the evidence that was used against me under a process which is widely acknowledged by SIAC practitioners as inherently unfair: decisions are made based on secret evidence and closed proceedings, which has been described as ‘taking blind shots at a hidden target’,” Yang said.

“On their own fact finding, even the three judges in this case concluded that there was ‘not an abundance of evidence’ against me, their decision was ‘finely balanced’, and there could be an ‘innocent explanation’ for my activities. This has not been reported in the media,” he said.

Relations between the UK and China have improved since Keir Starmer took office and in November he became the first prime minister to meet China’s President Xi Jinping since 2018.

But the prime minister acknowledged he was “concerned about the challenge that China poses”.

He defended his strategy for dealing with China: “Our approach is one of engagement, of cooperating where we need to cooperate, particularly on issues like climate change, to challenge where we must and where we should, particularly on issues like human rights, and to compete when it comes to trade.”

Two of the Commons’ most prominent critics of the Beijing administration warned about the extent of the activities of the United Front Work Department (UFWD), the branch of the Chinese state Yang is alleged to have links with.

Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith told BBC Radio 4’s Today: “The reality for us is very simple – China is a very clear threat.”

Duncan Smith also suggested the Labour Government’s approach to engaging with Beijing meant the UK was viewed as the “soft underbelly” of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance by partners the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Former security minister Tom Tugendhat told BBC Breakfast: “I’m absolutely certain that there are members of the United Front Work Department who are active right now in attempting to influence journalism, academics, politics, and the whole lot. This is really the tip of the iceberg.”

“So, the story, I can understand why it’s been about Prince Andrew, but it’s not really about Prince Andrew. It’s about the way the Chinese Communist Party is seeking to exert influence here in the United Kingdom,” Tugendhat added.

[Sport] Who is Yang Tengbo, the alleged Chinese spy linked to Prince Andrew?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3dx1yzzerlo

Supplied

Alleged Chinese spy linked to Prince Andrew named as Yang Tengbo

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/dec/16/alleged-chinese-spy-linked-to-prince-andrew-named-as-yang-tengbo

The alleged Chinese spy who got close to Prince Andrew as a way to gain access to the UK establishment has been named as Yang Tengbo, a businessman also known as Chris Yang.

Yang, whose identity was previously protected by an anonymity order, can now be named after judge lifted the ban on Monday afternoon.

Yang, 50, the former chair of Hampton Group, had been in the UK for almost two decades.

He was first stopped by counter-terrorism services in 2021 and ordered to surrender his devices. Court documents said Yang had split his time between China and the UK and told officials he considered the UK his second home.

In February 2023, he was “off-boarded” from a flight from Beijing to London and told the home secretary was in the process of examining the case to exclude him from the UK. That order was made the following month. His appeal against the decision was rejected by the special immigration appeals tribunal (Siac) last week.

Details of Yang’s close links to Andrew emerged last week in the Siac ruling.

The businessman had visited the UK regularly, attending events at a series of royal residences, including Andrew’s birthday party at his home. The hearing heard he was barred because he was believed to be associated with China’s united front work department, which seeks to gather intelligence on influential overseas nationals. The ruling said in his witness statement, Yang had “downplayed his links” with the group.

In a statement on Friday, Andrew’s office said he had stopped all contact with the man, whom he had met through “official channels” with “nothing of a sensitive nature ever discussed”.

According to court documents, the businessman was so close to the Duke of York, he was authorised to act on his behalf in an international financial initiative with potential partners and investors in China.

In the judgment that upheld his exclusion from the UK the judge found Yang “won a significant degree, one could say an unusual degree, of trust from a senior member of the royal family who was prepared to enter into business activities with him”.

When the businessman’s phone was searched, officials uncovered a letter from March 2020 from Dominic Hampshire, a senior adviser to Prince Andrew, which referred to him being invited to the duke’s birthday party that month and said: “Outside of his closest internal confidants, you sit at the very top of a tree that many, many people would like to be on.”

The letter also suggested the relationship had a potentially secretive nature, and said: “We have found a way to carefully remove those people who we don’t completely trust … we found a way to get the relevant people unnoticed in and out of the house in Windsor.”

A document was also found on the businessman’s phone that had “main talking points” for a call with the duke, which said he was “in a ‘desperate situation and will grab on to anything.’”

More details soon …

---

Minister answers urgent question about Chinese intelligence gathering as Yang Tengbo denies being a spy – UK politics live

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2024/dec/16/chinese-spy-keir-starmer-prince-andrew-uk-politics-latest-news

---

Chinese names added to EU sanctions list over Russia’s war in Ukraine

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3291065/chinese-names-added-eu-sanctions-list-over-russias-war-ukraine?utm_source=rss_feed

The European Union has added Chinese individuals and companies to a sanctions list that will see them hit with travel bans and asset freezes for their role in supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

At a meeting in Brussels on Monday, foreign ministers from the bloc’s 27 member states greenlit a package that included “fully fledged listings” for seven Chinese citizens and companies.

It marks the first time such a punishment has been used in relation to China’s relations with Russia. In previous sanctions packages, mainland Chinese and Hong Kong-registered entities have been added to a blacklist banning them from buying sensitive goods from the EU, but had not been added to the sanctions register.

The new list of those sanctioned includes one individual and two entities for helping companies linked to the Russian military circumvent EU sanctions.

The individual was named as Sophia Li Xiaocui a businesswoman who is accused of assisting the sanctioned Russian company Unimatik – described in the legal documentation as a “major actor in the Russian military-industrial complex – source export-controlled goods made in Europe.

The two companies named under this category are linked to Li. They are ARCLM International Trading Co, a Hong Kong-based business, and Shijiazhuang Hanqiang Technology Co, based on the mainland.

Four firms, meanwhile, were sanctioned for “supplying sensitive drone components and microelectronic components to the Russian military industry in support of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine”.

The companies include Asia Pacific Links, a Hong Kong-based company owned by Russian national Anton Trofimov, described as “largest supplier of microelectronic components to Russian companies since the beginning of Russia’s war”. The other three are Juhang Aviation Technology Shenzhen Co; Redlepus TSK Vektor Industrial (Shenzhen) and Xiamen Limbach Aviation Engine Co.

The latter three are accused of involvement in a “procurement and manufacturing network” that, through a Russian intermediary, delivered components that were used to make Garpiya-3 attack drones.

The Xiamen company is also accused of sharing engine designs with “entities involved in producing [the] Shahed-136”, an Iranian-made attack drone.

Being added to the sanctions list means those listed are hit with travel bans, asset freezes and a “prohibition to make funds available”.

Separately, Brussels has added a further seven mainland Chinese or Hong Kong-registered firms to the blacklist, meaning they are now subject to “stricter export restrictions with respect to dual-use goods and technology and advanced technology items”, according to the list.

It is the EU’s 15th round of sanctions since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The bloc’s new financial services commissioner Maria Luis Albuquerque said that objective was to “weaken Russia’s economy and its ability to pursue its illegal aggression against Ukraine”.

“With each new round of sanctions, we improve effectiveness and close gaps, and we will continue to do so, as part of our unwavering commitment to support Ukraine and its people,” Albuquerque said.

The listings are part of a broader package that included sanctions on two senior North Korean officials – Defence Minister No Kwang-chol and Kim Yong-buk, the army’s deputy chief of the general staff – over Pyongyang’s growing role in the war.

The package also targets Russia’s “shadow fleet” of oil tankers. These are ships that operate outside the official shipping world, ferrying illicit Russian oil to covert buyers, and adding billions of US dollars to Moscow’s coffers.

The ministers agreed to add 52 vessels to the sanctions list, meaning they will be banned from entering important ports and accessing vital services.

“These ships have been found to be engaged in high-risk shipping practices when transporting Russian oil or petroleum products, in arms deliveries, grain theft or supporting the Russian energy sector,” said the press release.

The ministers are also expected to discuss a drone factory in the Chinese region of Xinjiang which is alleged to be making military-grade aircraft for Russian forces. The matter is also expected to be raised during Thursday’s European Council summit in Brussels attended by the leaders of the member states.

That meeting will produce a set of conclusions – often painstakingly negotiated – that identify specific areas of concern and outline actions to be taken to reach policy objectives.

Diplomatic sources said it had yet to be decided whether China’s support for Russia would be specifically referred to amid divisions among member states about how hard to push Beijing.

Some members – including Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden – are convinced by evidence of the drone factory, while others want more time to consider the evidence, a senior diplomat said.

Calling out China in the conclusions would push the EU closer to the Group of 7 and Nato, both of which have described Beijing as a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s war efforts.

Beijing has repeatedly rejected allegations that it is helping the war effort and says it has maintained normal trade relations with both Russia and Ukraine.

Chinese ‘behaviour’ remarks by MIT scientist Rosalind Picard rattle top AI conference

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3290948/chinese-behaviour-remarks-mit-scientist-rosalind-picard-rattle-top-ai-conference?utm_source=rss_feed

A speech by an American scientist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) during a top AI conference last week has sparked anger for comments that specified the Chinese nationality of a university student in an example of misbehaviour.

Rosalind Picard, a professor of health sciences and technology at the MIT Media Lab, was speaking during a keynote speech in Vancouver, Canada on Friday at NeurIPS 2024 – the 38th annual conference on neural information processing systems, during which she highlighted an incident involving a Chinese student who had been expelled.

According to Picard, the student – who was from a well-known school in China – tried to justify using AI for an assignment by explaining that “I did it to make my paper results look better. Nobody at my school taught us morals or values”.

“I was shocked to hear that they thought this was justifiable behaviour there,” Picard told the conference, adding that “most Chinese who I know are extremely honest and morally upright”.

During a Q&A session that followed, a Chinese attendee challenged Picard on her remarks, noting that it was the only time in the entire lecture where she explicitly mentioned nationality in relation to behaviour.

What Picard said “reflected a deeply troubling and racist view of Chinese scholars”, Furong Huang, an associate professor in the computer science department at the University of Maryland, remarked on social media, adding: “This was not just inappropriate but also profoundly disheartening.”

Huang said that it was entirely unnecessary to mention the student’s nationality when discussing an example of cheating, yet Picard chose to highlight it. “This choice perpetuates harmful stereotypes about Chinese scholars and reflects a broader bias against Asians,” Huang said.

“Racism has no place in academia, and incidents like this tarnish the principles of inclusion and respect that we, as a global research community, should uphold.”

Picard later apologised. In a statement posted on the MIT Media Lab website on Saturday, she said she “regretted” including the nationality in her presentation.

“I see that this was unnecessary, irrelevant to the point I was making, and caused unintended negative associations,” she said. “I apologise for doing this and feel very badly about the distress that this incident has caused.”

Picard’s keynote speech was entitled “How to optimise what matters most?”

The NeurIPS conference organisers also responded quickly, saying that the cultural generalisation “reinforces implicit biases by making generalisations about Chinese scholars”. “This is not what NeurIPS stands for,” the organiser said in a statement on social media.

According to the MIT Media Lab information, Picard is a scientist, inventor, entrepreneur, author and engineer. She is best known for her book Affective Computing, which proposed and described how to give computers emotional intelligence capabilities, including voice assistants, robots and agents, among other interactive technologies.

China’s amped-up nuclear power ambitions at core of energy security amid safety concerns

https://www.scmp.com/economy/article/3291041/chinas-amped-nuclear-power-ambitions-core-energy-security-amid-safety-concerns?utm_source=rss_feed

China is leading the world in nuclear power installations and projects under construction as Beijing amps up investment efforts to decarbonise its energy mix.

The country, the world’s largest producer of greenhouse gases, accounting for more than a third of global emissions, will kick off construction of more nuclear plant projects in coastal regions in 2025, with more in the state-planning pipeline.

National Energy Administration director Wang Hongzhi said at a national energy work conference on Sunday that more nuclear projects would be launched next year, with an eye on safety.

With a combined installed capacity of 113 million kilowatts, China currently has 102 reactors, either in use or being built, that dot the country’s coastline, with economic powerhouses Guangdong, Jiangsu and Fujian boasting the biggest clusters.

In comparison, the United States had 93 operating commercial reactors at 54 nuclear power plants in 28 states as of August 2023, with total net summer electricity generation capacity standing at 9.47 million kW in 2022, according to US Energy Information Administration data.

In one of China’s biggest pushes for its nuclear industry in years, the State Council, China’s cabinet, in August greenlit 11 new reactors at five projects worth more than 200 billion yuan (US$27.5 billion).

In the same month, China published new green-transition guidelines aimed at revving up decarbonisation, with a focus on more nuclear power plants and wind and solar farms in the northwest.

China has been seeking to champion global actions to tackle climate change, setting itself a goal of peaking carbon dioxide emissions before 2030.

Specifically, it aims to raise the share of non-fossil consumption to 25 per cent by then to wean its energy use off coal and ultimately achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.

China’s nuclear power units generated 433.4 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in 2023, representing less than 5 per cent of the nation’s total power supply, according to the China Nuclear Energy Association.

Three coastal provinces – Fujian, Liaoning and Hainan – have relied on nuclear power for more than 20 per cent of their total electricity generation in the last year.

“The nuclear investment boom will last for a decade or longer, with 2023’s record, 94.9 billion yuan, set to become the base for higher growth in the next five years,” said an August report from Jiangsu-based Guolian Securities.

To realise peak carbon neutrality, the installed capacity of nuclear power needs to reach 150 million kW in 2030, and 380 million kW in 2050, when wind and solar power generation can fluctuate, according to a 2023 estimate by the state-owned China General Nuclear Power Group.

Meanwhile, significant changes in America’s nuclear industry reflect how the rapid nuclear expansion efforts are not limited to China. The US’ Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 provided substantial support for existing and new nuclear power plants, and it could help grow the industry in the coming years.

There have been calls from former officials and nuclear advocates in China for Beijing to loosen restrictions for new projects to be launched in inland regions.

Wang Yiren, a former vice-chairman of the China Atomic Energy Authority, told China Energy News in May that the geographical distribution of new nuclear stations should be optimised.

“New projects should be allowed to be built in central provinces such as Hubei and Henan, where the electricity supply is constantly struggling to meet demand,” Wang said.

With safety a consideration, China has yet to approve nuclear projects in inland regions. Such plants have operated for decades in landlocked locations across America and Europe.

China launches first satellites for GuoWang project to rival SpaceX’s Starlink

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3290994/china-launches-first-satellites-guowang-project-rival-spacexs-starlink?utm_source=rss_feed

China has launched the first satellites for its GuoWang megaconstellation, intensifying the race for space-based broadband internet services both domestically and internationally.

A group of satellites lifted off aboard a Long March-5B rocket coupled with the Yuanzheng-2 upper stage from southern China’s Wenchang spaceport at 6pm and later reached their designated low-Earth orbit, according to state news agency Xinhua.

The satellites have entered into their predetermined orbit and the mission has been declared a success.

GuoWang, meaning “national network”, first came to light in 2020 when China submitted filings with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for a constellation of nearly 13,000 satellites.

Often seen as China’s answer to SpaceX’s Starlink, GuoWang aims to provide global broadband internet coverage while meeting China’s national security objectives.

The project is managed by China Satellite Network Group Co Ltd, a state-owned enterprise established in 2021 under the State Council, China’s cabinet. The company is headquartered in Xiongan, Hebei province, and has registered capital of 10 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion).

Speculation about GuoWang’s satellite deployment began circulating last year, but progress appears to be slower than anticipated.

In contrast, a similar megaconstellation known as Qianfan, funded by the Shanghai municipal government, launched its first 54 satellites this year across three missions.

The Qianfan project, whose name means “thousand sails”, aims to have nearly 650 satellites in orbit by the end of next year, with a goal of providing global internet coverage by 2027.

SpaceX’s Starlink has surged ahead in the global satellite internet race, with more than 6,700 satellites in orbit.

Meanwhile, the London-based OneWeb satellite constellation has more than 600 satellites providing connectivity from low-Earth orbit.

Under ITU regulations, constellation operators must meet specific deployment milestones to retain their frequency rights.

For GuoWang, this means deploying at least 1,300 satellites, or 10 per cent of the total, by 2029 and 6,500 satellites, or 50 per cent, by 2032. It must complete the constellation by 2035.

The global race to launch satellites has intensified as players push to fill the limited space in low-Earth orbit, located between 160km and 2,000km (100 to 1,200 miles) above Earth, where satellites can operate with reduced transmission delays and offer faster internet speeds.

The Long March-5B is China’s most powerful rocket. With a diameter of 5 metres and a lift-off thrust exceeding 10,000 kilonewton, it can deliver payloads weighing up to 25 tonnes to low-Earth orbit.

Between 2020 and 2022, the heavy-lift rocket launched the three modules of China’s Tiangong space station, each weighing 22-23 tonnes.

The Yuanzheng-2 upper stage has a diameter of 3.8 metres and was developed for the Long March 5 series.

Combined, the Long March-5B and Yuanzheng-2 can haul several tonnes directly to geostationary orbit, 36,000km (22,000 miles) above Earth, making them China’s most powerful orbital transport system to date.

How backchannel diplomacy helped US and China emerge from shadow of balloon incident

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3291063/how-backchannel-diplomacy-helped-us-and-china-emerge-shadow-balloon-incident?utm_source=rss_feed

In February last year, in an incident that threatened already fragile US-China ties, the US shot down what Washington said was a Chinese spy balloon threatening its sovereignty while China countered that the craft was a stray civilian device.

Three months later, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and China’s foreign policy chief Wang Yi met in secret in Vienna where for two days they had “frank, in-depth, substantive and constructive” discussions to stabilise the decline in relations, according to China’s readout.

Wang and Sullivan held two further secret meetings, in Malta in September last year and in Bangkok in January this year. They have also met in Washington and Beijing.

Sullivan described how these kinds of backchannel meetings prevented US-China relations from further deteriorating in a video interview with an Australian think tank published on Monday.

“It allowed us to manage through difficult situations at points when the relationship could have taken a very serious downward turn,” Sullivan said in an interview at the White House with the Lowy Institute’s executive director, Michael Fullilove.

Sullivan, who will leave office when Donald Trump becomes president on January 20, said the lines of communication had to be maintained to responsibly manage competition between Beijing and Washington to prevent it from veering into conflict.

“It requires a strategic channel empowered by the two presidents, President Biden and President Xi, of senior officials, myself and Wang Yi, to talk through those strategic areas of profound difference and risk between the US and China,” Sullivan said.

In the interview, Sullivan said their discussions covered economics and national security, the South China Sea, the war in Ukraine and “careful, sober, detailed engagement on cross-strait relations to try to maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait”.

Beijing sees Taiwan as a breakaway province that must be reunited with the mainland – by force if necessary. Most countries, including its main international partner the US, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state. However, Washington is opposed to any attempts to seize the island by force and is legally bound to supply arms to help it defend itself.

Sullivan described how the strategic communication efforts had helped manage the relationship.

“We don’t agree on everything. In fact, we profoundly disagree on many things, but it allowed for greater clarity of intention, greater transparency about what we are doing and what we are not doing,” he said, according to the Lowy Institute interview.

“It’s a complicated relationship. It has some elements of cooperation, but deep and intense elements of competition that will endure. Managing that relationship, that competition requires a kind of intense diplomacy.”

He said China was the country with both “the desire and the inherent capacity to challenge the United States in all dimensions. And we have to be determined not to allow that to succeed”.

In the wake of Trump’s election to a second term, Sullivan revealed he was working closely with the incoming national security adviser, Michael Waltz, on issues around China, a country Sullivan considers the US’ competitor of “most consequence”.

“He has been a very good partner in this transition. We’ve spoken several times. I’m keeping him abreast of developments so we have a smooth handoff, whether it’s with respect to Ukraine, the Middle East or China,” Sullivan said of Waltz.

Waltz, a three-term Republican congressman known for his hawkish views on China, called for a boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and co-introduced an act to reduce US reliance on Chinese critical minerals.

Despite their admittedly different stances on China, Sullivan added that “this is how it should work: two different parties, two different views, but a common belief that we have to look out for the American national interest”.

Sullivan warned that China’s growing dominance in technology could lead to both oppression and military hegemony.

“An authoritarian superpower having the keys to your digital future means more oppression and repression, and more of them dictating for you rather than you having the freedom to decide for yourself,” he said, adding that it would allow greater military capacity to exercise hegemony over smaller, weaker states or even the entire world.

He said merging alliances between China, Russia, Iran and North Korea were an area of “real concern” for the US.

“We see a lot more cooperation between these countries … whether through economic exchanges or the provision of weapons,” Sullivan said.

He urged China to reconsider its alignment with adversarial nations, saying such ties would strain relationships with not only the US, but also European and Indo-Pacific allies.

“From my perspective, this would be a strategic mistake for China, but it’s a choice they’re going to have to make.”

PLA electronic war ‘kill list’, how China can survive Trump threats: SCMP daily catch-up

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3291058/pla-electronic-war-kill-list-how-china-can-survive-trump-threats-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 .

The People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) electronic warfare unit has produced a list of targets for a coordinated attack against US aircraft carrier strike groups.

China’s consumption growth slowed in November, as did property investment, while the industrial sector showed limited signs of recovery, underscoring challenges to Beijing’s push for an “all-around” expansion of domestic demand in 2025 amid external uncertainties.

In this interview, the economist discusses Beijing’s response plan for tariffs and trade encirclement during Donald Trump’s second White House term and what Chinese companies should look out for when expanding overseas.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called on cadres to confront corruption head-on so that interest groups cannot “prey on” the Communist Party.

Taiwan has received its first M1A2T Abrams tanks from the United States, which are expected to drastically improve the island’s ability to counter potential amphibious operations by the People’s Liberation Army.

The Philippines is reportedly planning to file a new arbitration case before the United Nations regarding its maritime conflict with China, but analysts have questioned the necessity of the move, pointing to existing issues in a 2016 ruling that Beijing rejected.

Home prices in some of China’s largest cities are showing signs of stabilisation, the statistics bureau said on Monday.

New look at old Chinese, French ties in ‘grand finale’ Hong Kong exhibition

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3291056/new-look-old-chinese-french-ties-grand-finale-hong-kong-exhibition?utm_source=rss_feed

An exhibition featuring nearly 150 historical artefacts from France’s Palace of Versailles and the Forbidden City in Beijing highlighting “mutual fascination” between the two cultures opens on Wednesday in Hong Kong and is expected to draw 200,000 visitors.

The show, “The Forbidden City and the Palace of Versailles: China-France Cultural Encounters in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries”, marks the first time collections from the two UN World Heritage sites are to be juxtaposed in the same exhibition.

Laurent Salome, director of the National Museum of the Palaces of Versailles and Trianon, said on Monday that the exhibition had its origins in 2014 and that it was important to show how artisans learned from each other back in the day.

“The show [offers] new ways to discover those two cultures, which have felt a mutual fascination for each other for centuries,” he said.

“You’ll see how complicated this is – it goes both ways and you can trace the stories and the influences through the objects on display.”

The exhibition will be held at the Hong Kong Palace Museum as one of four shows at the West Kowloon Cultural District in 2024 to celebrate 60 years of Sino-French diplomatic ties.

Hong Kong Palace Museum director Louis Ng Chi-wa called the exhibition an “extraordinary cultural milestone” and the “grand finale” of the four shows.

“[The exhibition] covers scientific and diplomatic exchanges along with craftsmanship and innovation, offering a fresh approach that illustrates the significance of the Sino-French exchanges,” Ng said.

Organisers said many of the exhibits were being shown in Hong Kong for the first time and 200,000 visitors were expected during the show period.

The showcase is supported by the government’s Mega Arts and Cultural Events Fund. The fund was created to support events promoting Hong Kong as a centre for cultural exchanges and arts development, and to bring back tourists to the city in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The exhibition secured HK$8 million (US$1 million) from the fund. The scheme, launched in April 2023, has supported at least 20 large-scale arts and cultural events, with each getting a maximum of HK$15 million in funding.

Salome said that while an exhibition of the Versailles collection was held at the Palace Museum in Beijing between April and June, the show in Hong Kong was “completely different” and had benefited from modern technology.

The exhibition features eight multimedia installations that were not included in the Beijing edition, with one of them showcasing a recreation of a letter from Louis XIV to Emperor Kangxi in 1688 that never reached the Qing Empire.

The Hong Kong Palace Museum also turned some paintings into animation, which in turn was used to tell the stories of how craftsmen in China and France produced the art pieces.

“It’s the advantage of a new facility – modern, very flexible spaces. It has been able here to design the show to precisely tell the story … that helps you understand the connection between objects,” Salome said.

One of the highlights is a perfume fountain from Versailles, which according to the organisers, “exemplifies how Chinese porcelains were collected and adorned by the French court”.

Owned by Louis XV and dated 1736 to 1743, the fountain was produced in Jingdezhen, China, and was likely to have been given flamboyant Rococo-style gilt-bronze mounts in France, marking “vital cultural exchange and convergence” between the two countries.

Another highlight, a quiver-and-bow case dated 1735 to 1795 that came from the Forbidden City, was decorated with French-made brocade and features a symmetrical “lace-patterned” design.

Organisers said this was the result of China – a centre for silk production and a major exporter to France – attempting to produce silk with French patterns that were popular in the European nation.

The exhibition runs until May 4 next year, with adult tickets priced at HK$150 and concessionary ones at HK$75.

‘True artist’: China delivery worker plays flute between orders, praised for spreading joy

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3290846/true-artist-china-delivery-worker-plays-flute-between-orders-praised-spreading-joy?utm_source=rss_feed

A delivery rider in China has inspired many after videos of him playing the flute during his deliveries went viral.

The delivery worker was frequently spotted on the streets of Shanghai, playing the flute while sitting on his electric bike in between orders or waiting at traffic lights.

Many praised his carefree spirit, likening him to ancient Chinese literati such as Li Bai, who often recited poetry spontaneously.

The man, Zhao Yue, in his 30s, has worked for China’s largest food delivery company, Meituan, for four years.

Zhao shared that he had been learning to play the traditional Chinese transverse flute from a teacher and through online tutorials for seven months. He picked up this hobby out of a deep interest in traditional Chinese culture and as a means to enrich his inner world.

He mentioned needing to practise for at least 90 minutes each day. He worked daily from 7am to 1.30pm and from 5pm to 8pm, so in addition to his leisure time, he utilised what he called “fragmented time” for practice.

He carried two insulated food delivery boxes: one for delivery orders and the other for four flutes and his personal belongings.

As an experienced rider, Zhao was familiar with the duration of red lights at various crossings and stated that he would only play his instrument at major intersections where the red light could last up to two minutes.

Zhao became a food delivery rider to achieve a better work-life balance, as it allowed him to choose his working hours freely.

By the end of last year, there were over 11 million active delivery workers on Meituan and Ele.me, the two largest on-demand delivery service providers in China.

According to the 2023 China Blue-collar Workers Employment Research Report published by a university-affiliated institute in Beijing, delivery workers earned an average of 6,800 yuan (US$930) a month, which is higher than the average monthly salary for Chinese blue-collar workers.

However, many riders noted that the higher pay came with longer working hours. Many reported working 14 to 15 hours a day for 26 days a month.

Zhao distinguished himself as a gig worker by showcasing a unique leisure in enjoying life and bringing joy to others.

He recounted a moment when he played “Maiden’s Love”, a song from the 1986 TV series Journey to the West while delivering an order and passing by the Jade Buddha Temple at dusk.

“The sun was setting. Many people were listening. I’m happy to bring joy to people with my music,” he said.

He also played the same tune for a father carrying his mentally disabled daughter on his bike, noting that his music brought a big smile to her face.

“What an adorable person, having love and enthusiasm for life even though his job can be difficult and boring,” one commenter remarked.

“He is a true artist,” another added.

Tech war: China’s chip industry reports sharp drop in funding in 2024 amid US rivalry

https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3291019/tech-war-chinas-chip-industry-reports-sharp-drop-funding-2024-amid-us-rivalry?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s semiconductor sector saw a steep one-third decline in funding inflows this year amid US restrictions on advanced chips and overcapacity concerns in legacy chips, according to data from a local industry research firm.

In the first 11 months of 2024, the country’s chip industry recorded 677 investment deals, a decline of 35.9 per cent year on year. In the same period, total funding fell by 32.4 per cent year on year, according to a report released by JW Insights, a local consultancy and research firm.

The largest deal by ticket size was a 10.8 billion yuan (US$1.48 billion) funding round announced in March by ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), a developer of dynamic random access memory chips, from investors that included Chinese flash memory designer GigaDevice, Hefei Industry Investment Group, and the investment arms of several major Chinese banks.

The next biggest involved mobile chip specialist Unisoc, which raised 6 billion yuan in total this year from several state-owned entities, ahead of a potential IPO planned for 2025.

Government-backed funding now dominates semiconductor investment in China, according to JW Insights. As the US-China tech war escalates, Washington has tightened Beijing’s access to advanced US technology over fears it could be used to modernise China’s military.

Measures include a soon-to-be-effective ban on US investments in China’s semiconductor and artificial intelligence sectors (AI), and the expansion of a trade blacklist that limits Chinese firms’ access to cutting-edge chipmaking equipment.

Meanwhile, China’s state-owned funds have doubled down on the semiconductor sector. The largest is the China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, commonly known as the “Big Fund”.

Established in 2014, the fund launched its first phase with 138.7 billion yuan. The second phase in 2019 offered 204.1 billion yuan in backing for local chip ventures, while the third phase, Big Fund III, was set up in May with registered capital of 344 billion yuan.

The Ministry of Finance is the largest shareholder, holding a 17.4 per cent stake.

JW Insights data shows that in the third quarter of 2024, the US semiconductor market surpassed mainland China to become the world’s largest single market.

“The surge in demand for advanced computing chips and high-end memory products – driven by the current artificial intelligence boom – has been hindered by domestic supply chain restrictions in China, while the US has made massive investments in AI infrastructure,” said Han Xiaomin, general manager of JW Insights, adding that the trend will continue.

Separately, a report by the World Integrated Circuit Association projects that the integrated circuit market in mainland China will reach US$186.5 billion in 2024, up 20.1 per cent year on year, accounting for 30.1 per cent of the global total.

---

Foreign investors gain new collateral options for China bond trades in January

https://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/3291055/foreign-investors-gain-new-collateral-options-china-bond-trades-january?utm_source=rss_feed

Foreign investors can pledge their holdings of China government bonds and policy bank bonds as collateral for Northbound Swap Connect trades beginning on January 13 in a move that enhances their capital efficiency and promotes yuan internationalisation, bourse operator Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) said on Monday.

HKEX’s clearing subsidiary, OTC Clearing Hong Kong, will allow the new forms of collateral to cover initial margin requirements in the connect scheme, which allows global investors to access mainland China’s interbank financial derivatives market to hedge interest-rate risks. That is an expansion from the current list of collateral, which is mostly cash and certain offshore securities.

The move “provides greater flexibility to international investors and [enhances] their capital efficiency”, HKEX said in a statement. “It will also help vitalise international investors’ bond holdings in the China Interbank Bond Market, promoting the internationalisation of the [yuan].”

The latest announcement added an official launch date after financial authorities in Hong Kong and mainland China discussed the inclusion for several months, most notably in July when Northbound Bond Connect trading turned seven years old.

Overseas investors’ holdings of onshore Chinese bonds reached 4.15 trillion yuan (US$570 billion) in November, marking the eighth consecutive month that the tally stayed above 4 trillion yuan despite a recent retreat due to a weaker yuan against the US dollar and tumbling long-term yields. Chinese government bonds were the most active bond type, accounting for 50.1 per cent of the monthly trading volume, followed by negotiable certificates of deposits at 23.6 per cent and policy financial bonds at 21.7 per cent, according to official data.

Swap Connect, launched in Hong Kong in May 2023, has supported global investors in hedging their Chinese bond risk via interest-rate swaps. Such derivative products are over-the-counter, bilateral contracts that allow bondholders to manage their risks by swapping one stream of future interest payments for another based on a specified principal amount.

They have become popular as more overseas investors are taking part in the onshore cash bond market, and their demands for risk-management tools for yuan interest rates are also increasing.

Earlier this year, financial regulators introduced three enhancements to expand the mechanism’s product scope, equip it with ancillary services like compression and clearing of backdated swap contracts, and reduce participation costs.

It has seen steady growth in trading volume and was hailed by market participants as “the last important piece of the puzzle for overseas investors entering China”.

As of last month, 71 overseas institutions have taken part in Northbound Swap Connect, resulting in an average daily turnover of 18.2 billion yuan in the month, up significantly from about 3 billion yuan in May 2023.

Another risk-management tool – China treasury bond futures – is also in the works, to launch “in the near future”, regulators said in July.

[Sport] China's efforts to spy in the UK happening in plain view, says ex-Tory leader

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg68vyz9lgo

Getty Images

Getty Images

Alleged Chinese spy who befriended Prince Andrew is ‘tip of iceberg’, warns senior MP

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/dec/16/prince-andrew-alleged-chinese-spy-naming

An alleged Chinese spy who forged a close relationship with Prince Andrew is just “the tip of the iceberg” of Beijing’s attempts to infiltrate the UK, a leading China-sceptic MP has warned.

Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative leader, who is seeking an urgent Commons question on Monday to quiz ministers about the issue, said Keir Starmer’s efforts to create better links with Beijing had involved the UK “showing a massive amount of weakness to China”.

If Smith’s question is granted by the Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, there is speculation that other MPs, potentially from Reform UK, might name the alleged spy, who under a UK court order can be referred to publicly only as H6.

Asked if the fact the man had been identified by security services and banned from the UK meant the threat in this case had been dealt with, Smith rejected this argument.

“We’re dealing with the tip of the iceberg,” he said, saying that Beijing’s so-called United Front Work Department, tasked with establishing ties with influential people in other countries, had about 40,000 operatives globally.

“The fact is, there are many more like him in the UK. There are many more doing the job that he’s been doing, and the fact he was leaving the UK tells you that he realised at some point he was going to get caught.

“The reality is that there are many, many more involved in exactly this kind of espionage that’s taking place now. The reality for us is very simple. China is a very clear threat.”

Ministers are coming under pressure to set a timeline to revive the foreign influence registration scheme (FIRS), which had been delayed until next year, and to put China on the enhanced category for threats.

Smith denied that the last government had made insufficient preparations for the scheme, hence the delay, saying: “Nobody with half a brain will believe a word of that. The reality is it’s an excuse not to upset China.”

As part of the partial reset of relations with Beijing, Starmer met China’s president, Xi Jinping, at the G20 summit in Rio, the first meeting between the UK and China’s leaders in six years. Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is expected to visit Beijing soon.

Smith said ministers had “turned a blind eye” to the use of slave labour in Chinese-made solar infrastructure being bought by the UK, saying of the government: “They are actually showing a massive amount of weakness to China, and they’re way away from where Europe and the United States are.”

There is also unease about the government’s approach to China among some on the Labour benches and among trade unions. Five new Labour MPs have joined the China-sceptic group – the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC).

Jim McMahon, the local government minister, said the decision about naming the alleged spy was “a matter for the courts” and that MPs should be wary of pre-empting this.

“We have a privilege in parliament, which is that we do have parliamentary privilege, and that should be exercised with caution, and the overriding public interest has to be maintained, of course,” he told Times Radio.

He added: “From a personal point of view, it’s not something that I’d be queueing up to do today in the context of the person being known to the authorities and the matter being dealt with.”

China warns citizens in Philippines of safety risks amid surge in robberies and scams

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3290984/china-warns-citizens-philippines-safety-risks-amid-surge-robberies-and-scams?utm_source=rss_feed

In its second safety advisory in 10 days, the Chinese embassy in the Philippines urged citizens to remain vigilant amid a surge in armed robberies, drug-facilitated thefts, currency exchange scams and other crimes.

The embassy’s “solemn” reminder on Sunday followed an advisory on December 5 warning Chinese nationals about “prominent” public security risks in the Southeast Asian country involving robbery and personal injury.

“Recently, the public security situation in some parts of the Philippines has been unstable, and many cases of armed robbery, [drug-facilitated] robbery, currency exchange fraud and theft involving Chinese citizens have occurred, causing serious damage to the personal and property safety of the parties involved,” the Sunday statement said.

“In view of this, the [embassy] once again solemnly reminds Chinese citizens in the Philippines to raise their awareness of self-preservation.”

It advised Chinese nationals to avoid high-risk areas, travel in groups, and minimise nighttime outings. It warned against accepting drinks, food or cigarettes from strangers and urged vigilance in crowded areas.

Tourists were also advised to safeguard travel documents such as passports. If they lose their documents, they should be wary of calls from unknown people claiming to have found their passport and demanding a fee for its return.

The embassy also advised avoiding displays of wealth – especially cash, watches and jewellery – and urged citizens to use legitimate currency exchange channels.

“If you need to exchange currency, please go through formal and legal channels such as banks,” it stated.

“Do not rely on luck or choose the easy way, otherwise you will not only be easily deceived, but may also be suspected of participating in criminal activities such as money laundering, illegal foreign exchange trading, and so on.”

There have been growing concerns about the safety of Chinese citizens in the Philippines in recent years.

In late June, two Chinese nationals visiting the Philippines for business were kidnapped and killed, prompting a diplomatic intervention by Beijing to urge Manila to find and severely punish the killer.

Last year, six Chinese nationals were kidnapped from their home in Manila and four were killed, according to Philippine police.

The notice also included a list of phone numbers, including those of the Chinese embassy, the consulates in Cebu, Laoag, Davao and the foreign ministry’s emergency hotline.

Tensions between Beijing and Manila have escalated in recent months over maritime disputes in the South China Sea.

Chinese and Philippine vessels have clashed in a growing number of incidents in the strategically important waterway, with the two sides blaming each other for collisions involving their ships. The Philippines has accused China of aggressive actions, including using water cannons, while China has accused the Philippines of provoking tensions.

Face corruption head-on to stop interest groups ‘preying’ on party, says Chinese leader

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3290989/face-corruption-head-stop-interest-groups-preying-party-says-chinese-leader?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called on cadres to confront corruption head-on so that interest groups cannot “prey on” the Communist Party.

He made the comments in a speech in January, but some of the contents were only made public on Sunday in an article published in the Central Committee’s theoretical magazine Qiushi.

Xi was speaking at January’s plenary session of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), the top anti-corruption body, where he said all party members must “deeply promote the party’s self-revolution” – referring mainly to the fight against corruption.

“If we don’t avoid criticism and don’t whitewash mistakes, and if we promptly identify and solve our own problems, we can effectively combat the preying and erosion of all interest groups, powerful groups and privileged classes,” Xi said.

Xi added that all party members must be able to sense potential dangers, saying: “As the situation and tasks change, as the external environment changes and as the party itself changes, it is inevitable that various conflicts and problems will arise within the party.

“We must have the courage to turn the knife inwards and promptly eliminate all negative influences to ensure that the party remains full of vitality and vigour.”

State media has previously reported that Xi told anti-corruption officials at the meeting that China’s fight against corruption is “severe and complex” and that “no mercy” should be shown in eradicating the problem.

Last week a meeting of the Politburo, the party’s elite decision-making body, vowed to “maintain a high-pressure stance against corruption”.

The Politburo meeting also announced that the next plenary meeting of the CCDI would be held between January 6 and January 8.

The meeting next month is expected to be chaired by Li Xi, secretary of the CCDI, and will be attended by members of the Politburo, as well as senior political, legal and military figures.

The military anti-corruption drive with the army, which has swept up dozens of generals over the past years, is also seen as an important part of Xi’s large-scale anti-corruption campaign.

Last month, Miao Hua, the admiral in charge of party work on the Central Military Commission, was suspended from duty and placed under investigation for suspected “serious discipline violations” – a euphemism for corruption.

People’s Liberation Army anti-corruption investigations are handled by the CMC’s Commission for Discipline Inspection, but senior commanders are usually also party members.

Last year, the CCDI announced that it had launched investigations into a record number of 45 “tigers”, or high-ranking cadres, but this year the total has already reached 54.

---

Concocting a plan: Starbucks hires chief growth officer in China to reignite sales

https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3291007/concocting-plan-starbucks-hires-chief-growth-officer-china-reignite-sales?utm_source=rss_feed

Starbucks hired its first-ever chief growth officer in China, tasked with luring back young coffee drinkers as the US chain struggles with cheaper local rivals in its biggest international market.

Tony Yang, who has been on board since November, will pursue a strategy of brokering tie-ins with entertainment franchises and pop culture icons to market itself to consumers, Starbucks China said on Monday.

The China product development, R&D, and marketing departments will all report to Yang, a former user development executive at Geely Holding Group-backed electric vehicle maker Jiyue Auto. His role will also focus on coffee product innovation and improving customer experience.

China is “an important growth engine for the future”, the company said.

Starbucks was once seen as largely infallible in a China where flush consumers flocked to Western brands high in prestige. But it has struggled as the economy slows, with cash-strapped diners pulling back on pricier drinks in favour of cheaper local upstarts whose coffees can cost just a third of a Starbucks cup.

Key rival Luckin Coffee surpassed the Seattle-based company in annual China sales for the first time last year, and Starbucks is exploring options for its mainland operations, including the possibility of selling a stake in the unit, Bloomberg has reported.

Yang’s pledge to collaborate with pop culture franchises shows how the company wants to tap brand power other than its own to salvage Chinese business, with comparable sales down 14 per cent in the latest quarter ended September.

It also takes a page from the book used by Luckin, which has long made such partnerships a cornerstone of its marketing strategy. Luckin’s recent successes have seen a tie-in with popular video game Black Myth: Wukong, and an alcohol-laced latte made with premium domestic liquor label Kweichow Moutai that boosted both sales and online hype.

It is not just coffee chains. Household goods company Miniso Group Holding lures Chinese shoppers with relatively cheap toys based on Walt Disney and Sanrio characters. Beijing-based Pop Mart International Group has created a marketing frenzy with its “blind boxes,” which contain cartoon figurines from Garfield to the Minions.

Starbucks’ new CEO Brian Niccol previously said he would travel this month to China, where the company currently operates more than 7,600 stores, to better understand the local business and competition. Earlier this year he also laid out his vision for strategic changes at home, including reining in drink customisation and improving service times, saying the company had strayed from its own process in recent years.

South China Sea: why Philippines’ new legal case against Beijing may fall flat

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3291014/south-china-sea-why-philippines-new-legal-case-against-beijing-may-fall-flat?utm_source=rss_feed

The Philippines is reportedly planning to file a new arbitration case before the United Nations regarding its maritime conflict with China, but analysts have questioned the necessity of the move, pointing to existing issues in a 2016 ruling that Beijing rejected.

They argue that Manila should have taken immediate steps to clearly define boundaries after its tribunal victory, instead of letting Beijing set the terms in the disputed South China Sea.

Andres Centino, the Presidential Assistant on Maritime Concerns, was quoted in a Financial Times report last week saying the Philippines was preparing a new arbitration case against China over alleged violations of international maritime law.

Tensions between Manila and Beijing have increased in the past year, with the emergence of new flashpoints in the South China Sea and several clashes between Philippine servicemen and Chinese coastguard personnel, including an incident in June where a Filipino sailor lost a thumb.

In November, Manila’s Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said China was “stepping up pressure on the Philippines to concede its sovereign rights in the South China Sea”, adding that his country was a “victim of Chinese aggression”.

Teodoro’s statement came after Beijing’s foreign ministry published baselines around the contested Scarborough Shoal, shortly after Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, Jnr signed two maritime laws defining the country’s maritime zones and sea lanes.

The Philippines’s National Maritime Council opposed China’s drawing of baselines around the shoal, arguing that it “contravenes Unclos and the final and binding 2016 arbitral award,” referring the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and the decision by an international arbitration court that ruled in favour of the Philippines and deemed China’s nine-dash line claims in the South China Sea as invalid.

Ervin Jules Beltran Sape, executive director of the Philippine International Law of the Sea Academy, argued that filing a case was “not necessary for now”, as Beijing would disregard any legal action if the “core of Beijing’s concern in the 2016 arbitration” was not addressed.

Sape argued that the Philippines should request a judicial review from the International Court of Justice to assess the validity of China’s jurisdictional objections to the 2016 ruling.

“There is a lot that the Philippines should realign with initially in terms of properly interpreting and enforcing the 2016 award,” he said, adding that the Philippines should have set baselines around Scarborough Shoal after the ruling, like China did.

Julio Amador, interim president of the Foundation for the National Interest and founder and trustee of the non-profit policy advisory firm FACTS Asia, argued that the Philippines’ should adopt an “unpredictable” approach by not letting China “know its every move”.

“Announcing that a case will be filed when the case-building is not yet complete makes little sense at this point,” he said.

Amador added that the Philippines’ previous efforts had been to dissuade but not deter China in its actions in the waters within Manila’s claimed exclusive economic zone, and acknowledged Manila’s hands were tied, as its partners were “generally unwilling to go beyond diplomatic routes to assist the Philippines”.

He suggested that Manila’s remaining option was to deter Beijing through denial, like “presenting it with a fait accompli.” This could involve “creating permanent structures” on the features that Manila claims, similar to actions taken by other countries. Additionally, he noted that any success achieved by China should come “with an enormous cost” through unpredictable measures.

Chester Cabalza, president of the International Development and Security Cooperation think tank, said: “The 2016 arbitral award is the penultimate winning case we achieved as a maritime state to safeguard the Philippine position in the West Philippine Sea”, referring to Manila’s name for South China Sea waters within its exclusive economic zone.

He warned that filing another case against China would no longer be helpful since the ruling that favoured Manila “opened a Pandora’s box of promoting rules-based order, fighting for symmetrical defence relationship and partnership, and intensified further power rivalry”.

---

Next stop, Nigeria: China cement giant Huaxin’s African expansion spree

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3290504/next-stop-nigeria-china-cement-giant-huaxins-african-expansion-spree?utm_source=rss_feed

For about four years, China’s Huaxin Cement has been acquiring or building manufacturing operations in six African countries – part of an overseas expansion spree to hedge against shrinking profit margins at home.

The next stop is Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, where Huaxin is set to buy an 84 per cent stake in Swiss building materials maker Holcim’s shares in Lafarge Africa, in a deal worth US$1 billion.

Lafarge Africa operates four cement plants in Nigeria, with a combined capacity of 10.35 million tonnes per year.

According to data from this year’s Global Cement Directory, Huaxin has 10 cement plants in sub-Saharan Africa with a production capacity of about 18 million tonnes per year.

The Nigerian deal will position Huaxin as sub-Saharan Africa’s second largest cement producer, but it will be up against a well-established local giant – Dangote Cement, the biggest in Africa, with a capacity of 52 million tonnes per year across 10 countries.

Huaxin, which is listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, says Nigeria “offers attractive growth perspectives” as its domestic market faces thin margins. The transaction is expected to conclude next year, subject to regulatory approvals.

In a statement to investors earlier this month, Huaxin Cement’s chairman Xu Yongmo said the company’s overseas expansion aims to “effectively counterbalance the decline in the domestic market”.

“With its low per capita consumption of cement of only 140kg (308lbs), favourable industry structure, and the positive outlook of the construction industry, Nigeria offers attractive growth perspectives for the cement industry,” he said.

Holcim owns a major stake in Huaxin but has been offloading some of its African operations to the Wuhan-based cement maker as part of its divestment from noncore assets.

The acquisition in Nigeria would be Huaxin’s second from Lafarge Africa. In 2021, the Chinese company acquired a 75 per cent stake in Lafarge’s Zambia operation and 100 per cent of Lafarge Cement Malawi.

It will also make Nigeria the seventh country that Huaxin Cement entered since its first foray into Africa in 2020, when it acquired Maweni Limestone Ltd in Tanzania from ARM Cement.

Huaxin has added other African assets – in Mozambique and South Africa, as well as building a cement plant in Zimbabwe – over the years, which have seen declining demand for construction materials in China following a protracted property crisis and slow economic recovery.

Geoeconomic analyst Aly-Khan Satchu, who specialises in sub-Saharan Africa, expects Chinese acquisitions of African companies to gather pace but noted that Huaxin is ahead of the pack.

The company is acquiring “a pre-eminent position in what is a multi-decade infrastructure catch-up that we can expect in Nigeria and Africa”, he said. “US$1 billion is small potatoes in that context.”

According to Satchu, Chinese companies have a considerable head-start on the continent and this latest African acquisition is about embedding that advantage and indigenising the Chinese presence.

Furthermore, infrastructure acceleration on the African continent is a no-brainer and cement is a key input, he added.

Charlie Robertson, head of macro strategy at asset management firm FIM Partners, observed that “digesting the Nigeria operation may be harder [for Huaxin], as Dangote is a serious competitor”.

“But I guess Chinese firms, recognising weakness in the housing construction sector at home, are looking for new opportunities,” he said, adding that a housing boom is hard to achieve when interest rates are as high as they are in southern and western Africa”.

‘Copycat tax’: China KOL presents lavish gifts to pop star he imitates, expresses gratitude

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/china-personalities/article/3290766/copycat-tax-china-kol-presents-lavish-gifts-pop-star-he-imitates-expresses-gratitude?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese Mandopop star Lu Han received lavish gifts valued at 66,000 yuan (US$9,000) from his impersonator during a live-stream, igniting widespread discussion online about the phenomenon of celebrity lookalikes.

Lu, who was once a prominent member of the internationally acclaimed K-pop boy band EXO, showcased his talents as the main dancer and vocalist. After departing from the group at the end of 2014, he successfully transitioned into a solo artist.

The singer and actor, 34, boasts an impressive following of 63 million on Weibo.

On November 29, during a live-stream, Lu appeared to be in a “slightly tipsy” state, speaking somewhat unclearly, which led many viewers to speculate about his well-being and even question the authenticity of his presence on camera.

Seemingly frustrated by these doubts, Lu challenged his impersonator to call in and provide proof of his identity.

Shortly thereafter, his impersonator, Ling Dale, joined the live-stream, presenting 22 lavish gifts valued at 3,000 yuan each, and quickly became the top fan.

The 24-year-old Douyin influencer Ling Dale has gained notoriety for his striking resemblance to Lu, amassing 7.7 million followers through his impersonations of Lu’s singing and dancing.

Ling Dale hails from a rural area in Hunan province in southern China, where he previously worked in both a barber shop and a bubble tea shop.

In 2022, he became a member of the boy group ESO, composed of internet celebrities who resemble EXO members, and went viral for his spot on mimicry of their iconic stage performances. The group, however, disbanded due to a copyright controversy.

After leaving ESO, Ling Dale pivoted to live-streaming to sell snacks, reportedly earning a monthly income of up to 5 million yuan (US$680,000). Last year, he established his own company, which generated an impressive 138 million yuan in live-streaming sales within a year.

Reports from mainland sources indicate that Lu’s annual income in 2017 was 210 million yuan (US$28 million), primarily derived from endorsements and his music career.

Following Ling Dale’s generous gift-giving during the live-stream, Lu’s fans humorously dubbed him “well-behaved”, suggesting he was there to pay the “copycat tax”.

On November 30, Ling Dale released a video referring to Lu as his “benefactor”, stating, “Without Lu, no one would know who I am.” He expressed a desire to continue sending gifts to Lu as a gesture of gratitude for his influence.

As of now, Lu has not publicly responded to Ling Dale.

The legal implications of profiting from impersonating Lu have sparked extensive discussions across mainland social media platforms.

One observer noted: “Lu Han has 11 million followers on Douyin, while Ling Dale boasts over 7 million. Their popularity is nearly equivalent. Ling Dale has profited significantly from Lu’s fame, yet Lu has not filed any copyright complaints. Is that fair?”

Another commenter remarked: “Lu Han is so famous that countless individuals impersonate him. As long as they don’t engage in illegal activities under his name, there shouldn’t be any issue.”

Born in Beijing, Lu is celebrated as a leading figure in the Chinese pop music scene, captivating fans with his musical prowess and striking looks. He was ranked second on the 2017 Forbes China Celebrity 100 list.

---

India plays catch-up to influence Myanmar as China’s clout over junta and rebels grows

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3290945/india-plays-catch-influence-myanmar-chinas-clout-over-junta-and-rebels-grows?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s involvement in mediating a peace deal between Myanmar’s rebel groups and the ruling military junta has given Beijing leverage over India as both powers jostle to bolster their strategic interests in the country.

Last month, two key members of the anti-junta Brotherhood Alliance – Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) – said they were willing to hold peace talks under China’s mediation. The announcement came shortly after a visit to Beijing by junta leader Min Aung Hlaing.

Angshuman Choudhary, a doctoral candidate at the National University of Singapore and King’s College London, said the statements by TNLA and MNDAA underscored the leverage China has over the conflict in Myanmar.

“India will be watching this closely, with some degree of anxiety. It’s no surprise that we have seen a flurry of high-level engagements between India and the State Administration Council [SAC] in recent weeks,” said Choudhary, a researcher on Myanmar issues.

“New Delhi will be concerned that the SAC would move closer to China to protect itself. India would ideally want to have similar leverage over the SAC and some ethnic groups, such as the Arakan Army and the Chin National Front.”

The Kachin Independence Army (KIA), another ethnic armed group, has sent a delegation to China for talks.

Choudhary said India had not been able to match China’s influence in Myanmar.

“New Delhi might want to focus its energies in building stronger strategic ties with ethnic armed organisations that control large parts of western Myanmar, much like China has done in the north,” he added.

China is overseeing a Belt and Road Initiative project in Myanmar, which aims to link Yunnan province to Kyaukphyu port in the Rakhine state. In December last year, China and the junta signed a supplementary agreement for developing the port.

Harsh V. Pant, a foreign policy specialist at the Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation think tank, said China had been engaging with the junta and the rebel groups for a long time.

“China has leverage because they have supplied weapons and given shelter to rebels and engaged with junta leadership, while India doesn’t engage in the internal affairs of the country,” Pant said.

“I don’t think there is anything India can do given that China is embedded in both sides of the conflict.”

India has been in discussions with Myanmar to advance its key projects in the Southeast Asian country.

According to the media reports, the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) last month hosted a junta delegation and other groups to discuss democracy, federalism and security challenges faced by Myanmar.

Randhir Jaiswal, Delhi’s external affairs ministry spokesman, said there had been interactions between India and key stakeholders in Myanmar over a period of time.

“It is our understanding that such interactions will contribute to developing Myanmar-led and Myanmar-owned solutions to address the country’s current challenges,” Jaiswal said at a press briefing last month.

Lucas Myers, a senior associate for Southeast Asia at the Wilson Centre’s Asia programme, said while India was being pragmatic in protecting its interests, China was always a step ahead of Delhi.

“Beijing holds more influence with both the Myanmar military and the resistance. New Delhi is attempting to acquire more influence over events in Myanmar but it has a long way to go to become a key player compared with China,” Myers told This Week in Asia.

Rebel advances in Myanmar have stalled the US$484 million Delhi-funded Kaladan multi-modal transit transport (KMMT) project.

Myers noted that India had been reaching out to the authorities in Myanmar and the anti-junta groups given the latter’s battlefield success.

“Resistance forces have seized substantial territory near India’s borders, and the Arakan Army is in control in key areas for India’s KMMT project. These new facts on the ground necessitate India’s outreach to the resistance,” Myers said.

Pant from ORF said India’s Act East Policy was a key consideration for its outreach efforts. In the case of Myanmar, Delhi was aiming to enhance its border security and have a stake in the country’s developmental agenda, he added.

The call for peace talks comes as the third member of the Brotherhood Alliance- Arakan army- recently gained full control of Myanmar’s border with Bangladesh. India and Bangladesh have hosted the largest number of refugees from Myanmar since the outbreak of the civil war.

In 2017, over 750,000 Rohingya Muslims were forced by Myanmar’s troops to flee the country. Nearly 79,000 refugees from Myanmar are living in India, including around 22,000 Rohingya, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Hong Kong-based rights activist Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman said while India should play a bigger role in resolving regional issues, it should not ignore the crimes against humanity committed by the Myanmar junta.

“The world knows that the same military government holds on to the state’s power by removing democratically elected representatives of Myanmar,” Ashrafuzzaman said.

Pant said India has to work closely with multiple stakeholders, including Myanmar and Bangladesh, to curb the regional spillover effects of the refugee crisis.

“It is a much more active border with a much bigger refugee crisis. India not only has to manage its refugee problems but also the problem of the region,” Pant added.

Chinese money fuels hiring spree among private banks in Hong Kong

https://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/3290934/chinese-money-fuels-hiring-spree-among-private-banks-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed

Wealth managers are ramping up hiring in Hong Kong to cater to an inflow of mainland Chinese money.

UBS Group is adding staff as it looks to double the assets it manages for millionaire clients in the region over the next three to five years. Bank of Singapore has boosted staff in Hong Kong by 30 per cent, while Julius Baer Group, a Swiss wealth manager, grew its office space in Hong Kong by 40 per cent last year along with hiring.

For the city, it’s a welcome reprieve after years of political turmoil, rigid Covid restrictions, and an exodus of people. Led by policies to entice the rich, the push is likely to see private wealth assets nearly doubling to US$2.3 trillion by 2030 as Chinese seek offshore diversification, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

“This year, we’ve seen an increase in mainland Chinese clients due to various government initiatives,” said Jamee Wong, head of private client, Greater China at the wealth management arm of UBS. “We’re strategically expanding our team in Hong Kong by hiring new client advisers and team heads.”

Hong Kong has been rolling out the red carpet for family offices and the wealthy with tax concessions as well as residency plans. Affluent Chinese have moved billions to the city, seeking higher yielding investments and snapping up insurance. A flow of cash to rival Singapore has also slowed after the island state stepped up scrutiny following a blockbuster money laundering case.

While Chinese have for years sought to park their money offshore, Xi Jinping’s push for “common prosperity” has accelerated that process. The slowing economy and sinking property prices have also prompted the wealthy to look overseas.

The tide has also shifted to the modestly wealthy – with assets of US$5 million to US$10 million. Hong Kong’s Private Wealth Management Association predicts that the number of firms targeting the lower wealth segment will see the biggest jump over the next five years.

Overall, private wealth net inflows to Hong Kong nearly tripled to HK$341 billion (US$44 billion) in 2023, according to the association. Total assets rose to about HK$9 trillion after sliding for two years.

Since launching in March, over 500 have applied for a plan that offers residency to people who invest HK$30 million in Hong Kong. Government body InvestHK estimates they will bring in more than HK$15 billion to the city.

The expansion in wealth helped boost licensed finance jobs to a record of almost 42,000 in October, offering momentum to the financial hub which has struggled with an exodus of people in the wake of the pandemic.

Among other large banks, Standard Chartered is planning to double its investment in the wealth business in coming years, adding staff in Hong Kong and other cities. Citigroup plans to add talent in Hong Kong as it’s bullish on the city and its links with the surrounding Greater Bay Area in mainland China, wealth chief Andy Sieg told Bloomberg Television in September.

The talent plan has contributed to an influx of white collar professionals with young families relocating to Hong Kong, said Wong at UBS. To cater to digitally savvy mainland Chinese clients, the Swiss bank has enhanced its digital capabilities and offers authorised communication channels via WeChat and WhatsApp.

Bank of Singapore, the private banking arm of Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp, boosted the number of relationship managers by more than 30 per cent in Hong Kong through October this year and plans to hire more, according to Rickie Chan, head of private banking for Greater China.

Chan is seeing “strong demand” from the US$5 to US$10 million segment but also the US$100 million and above segment. Chinese clients are observing what is happening in the US and geopolitics more closely, and are looking to diversify their investments and the banks they work with, he said.

“Amid geopolitics, we have been seeing a lot of interest from Chinese clients to open accounts with an Asian bank,” said Chan.

Simple accounts, including individual accounts with a very clear source of wealth, can take days to open but for more complicated accounts, it can take up to two months, he said.

The bank works closely with its OCBC China, which has commercial and corporate banking relationships as well as onshore private banking. It also collaborates with Bank of Ningbo, in which OCBC has a 20 per cent stake, for referrals.

Mainland Chinese face strict capital controls that only allow the equivalent of US$50,000 to be taken out annually.

Julius Baer expanded its Hong Kong office by over 40 per cent last year, and continues to “strategically hire” relationship managers to strengthen its front office, according to David Shick, market head for Greater China.

The Swiss bank has seen inflows from Greater China clients this year, and clients are “progressively transitioning” from holding cash to making investments across asset classes, including equities, fixed income and alternatives, according to Shick. It has cut down its accounting opening times by 20 per cent across Asia, he said.

Julius Baer also has a strategic partnership with Grow Investment Group, a Chinese asset management company.

Consultants such as Deloitte are also seeing increased inquiries from mainland clients for advice on immigration.

“I’m getting three to four calls daily from clients regarding immigration-related matters including the capital investment entrant scheme,” said Patrick Yip, vice-chair for Deloitte China. “Many of the wealthy Chinese are looking for options. They want to be able to travel with a “user-friendly” passport and get education overseas for their kids.”

For the cash for residency plan, we need to verify their assets for the past 24 months, and that is the “most complicated part”, according to Yip.

---

China’s retail sales in November miss estimate at 3.0%

https://www.scmp.com/economy/economic-indicators/article/3290925/chinas-retail-sales-november-miss-estimate-30?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s consumption growth slowed in November, as did property investment, while the industrial sector showed limited signs of recovery, underscoring challenges to Beijing’s push for an “all-around” expansion of domestic demand in 2025 amid external uncertainties.

Retail sales, a key indicator of consumption, increased by 3 per cent year on year last month, down from the 4.8 per cent growth in October, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday.

The reading missed estimates of 5.3 per cent growth projected by economists polled by Chinese financial data provider Wind.

China’s overall fixed assets investment – covering major items such as infrastructure spending, manufacturing and property construction – rose by 3.3 per cent in the first 11 months of the year, compared with the 3.4 per cent increase from January to October.

Property investment, which has been a major drag of the economy, fell by 10.4 per cent year on year from January to November, compared with the 10.3 per cent fall in the first 10 months of the year.

A readout issued after China’s annual tone-setting central economic work conference on Thursday prioritised the need to “vigorously boost consumption, improve investment efficiency, and expand domestic demand on all fronts” as the top economic work next year, up from second place for this year.

Before the two-day conference, the Politburo – the Communist Party’s major decision-making body – pledged to adopt “more active” policies and “unconventional” countercyclical adjustments to steer the economy next year, with observers saying they believed the forceful rhetorical change signalled fiscal expansion and monetary easing.

The urgency has been amplified by expectations of a turbulent external environment next year, amid renewed tariff threats by US president-elect Donald Trump.

Elsewhere, China’s overall urban unemployment rate for November stood at 5 per cent, compared with 5 per cent a month earlier.

Industrial output, meanwhile, rose by 5.4 per cent year on year last month, compared with a 5.3 per cent increase in October.

More to follow …

---

Malaysia’s Chinese character of 2024 isn’t ‘sinkhole’ – or ‘Madani’

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3290923/malaysias-chinese-character-2024-isnt-sinkhole-or-madani?utm_source=rss_feed

Malaysia has selected the Chinese character 升 (sheng) as its character of the year – a choice that reflects both economic advancement and the challenges of rising living costs.

The character 升, which means “increase” or “rise”, was chosen via a vote organised by the Federation of Chinese Associations Malaysia and the Han Culture Centre Malaysia. It resonates with pressing societal concerns tied to everyday life, highlighting the dual nature of its meanings.

According to the Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily, the character 升 is open to various interpretations. It symbolises not only the challenges posed by inflation and economic issues but also the hopes for progress within the community.

Goh Hin San, president of the Han Culture Centre Malaysia, noted that the public likely connected with the character due to the recent appreciation of the Malaysian ringgit and the strengthening ties between Malaysia and China. He said 80 per cent of voters expressed a sense of economic recovery, while 20 per cent viewed the character as indicative of rising prices.

“Although the character conveys both positive and negative connotations, the positive interpretations are more prevalent,” Goh said.

He also clarified that sheng differs from last year’s character 貴 gui (expensive), which directly reflect rising prices and costs. In contrast, 升 sheng showcases the richness of Chinese characters, allowing for multiple interpretations within a single term.

Goh revealed that the character for Madani – 昌 chang – narrowly missed being the top choice, indicating public interest in the current government’s governance and policies. “If the government performs well, chang might emerge as next year’s character of the year,” he added.

Malaysia’s top 10 characters of the year were:

1. 升 sheng (increase) – 18.52 per cent

2. 昌 chang (Madani) – 18.18 per cent

3. 币 bi (currency) – 14.42 per cent

4. 稳 wen (stable) – 10.99 per cent

5. 袜 wa (stocking) – 10.27 per cent

6. 水 shui (flood) – 8.5 per cent

7. 洞 dong (sinkhole) – 7.32 per cent

8. 榴 liu (durian) – 4.65 per cent

9. 数 shu (digital) – 3.81 per cent

10. 免 mian (exemption) – 3.34 per cent

This article was first published by

MPs fear government too trusting of China in wake of alleged spy scandal

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/15/mps-fear-government-too-trusting-of-china-in-wake-of-alleged-spy-scandal

MPs fear the government is moving too fast to re-establish UK-China relations as some consider naming the alleged spy who used his relationship with Prince Andrew to get access to the heart of the British establishment

Ministers will come under pressure this week to set a timeline to revive the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS), which had been delayed until next year, and to put China on the enhanced category for threats.

Labour MPs are among those who are urging caution in the government’s warmer approach to China after the new revelations about the closeness of the now expelled Chinese businessman to the Duke of York.

The former security minister, Tom Tugendhat, told the Guardian that the enhanced tier of the scheme had been “specifically designed” to tackle the operations of the Chinese organisation apparently connected to the expelled businessman. However, there is still a question mark over whether China will be designated in that category by the Labour government.

FIRS requires individuals or entities to register where they are directed by a foreign power to carry out political influence activities and there is an enhanced category for some nations, likely to include Russia and Iran.

Conservatives have claimed the scheme was ready to be put into force by the last government but the Labour security minister, Dan Jarvis, said in a letter in October that preparations for the introduction of the scheme by the last government were not sufficient.

A Home Office source said the Conservatives had not left the scheme in a fit state to be enacted but that it was still the government’s intention for it to come into force.

There is currently a court anonymity order protecting the identity of the alleged spy, though that may be lifted.

Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said the spy should be named. “I hope the court change or cancel their anonymity order. There may be other people who have had contact with that person,” he told LBC.

Nigel Farage said he expected Reform UK MPs to attempt to name the businessman in the House of Commons this week under parliamentary privilege.

The former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith is seeking an urgent question in the House of Commons on Monday or a government statement where he hopes to put new pressure on the government on FIRS.

The revelations come at an awkward moment for the UK government’s attempted reset of relations with Beijing, embraced by both Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves in a push for healthier economic growth.

Reeves is expected to visit China in the second week of January, ahead of an expected visit by Starmer in 2025, which would be the first by a British prime minister in seven years.

There is growing unease about the government’s approach to China among some on the Labour benches and among trade unions. Five new Labour MPs have joined the China-sceptic group – the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC).

Labour MP Blair McDougall, a member of IPAC who sits on the foreign affairs select committee, said: “This is a reminder you cannot separate one aspect of the relationship with China from others. China is not only looking at the world in commercial terms. We cannot be the naive ones in the relationship with China.

“My view of relationships with authoritarian countries is that, if you give them an inch, they take a mile. What may seem like an overreaction is actually a warning. We’ve been here before with Russia, where we try and have a positive relationship, and we let relatively small kinds of acts of aggression or espionage go. We’ve got to learn that lesson in terms of our relationship with China.”

Duncan Smith, one of the co-chairs of IPAC, will submit an urgent question on the influence of the United Front Work Department – the shadowy organisation that is said to be connected to the alleged spy – described as one of the “magic weapons” of the Chinese Communist party (CCP). The purpose of the department is to befriend influential figures and win them over to China’s way of thinking.

“We want to know what’s happening to the risk register? Are you planning to continue with it? And are you going to put China in the upper tier? So they’re going to come under pressure,” Duncan Smith told the Guardian.

Tugendhat said he believed FIRS would have captured the activities of the alleged spy, had it been in force. He told the Guardian it was vital China was in the enhanced category in order to detect the work of the United Front.

“The FIRS scheme is specifically designed to understand and protect against the work of United Front Work Department actions in the United Kingdom. It’s essential that China is on the enhanced scheme, to protect against this kind of attempt at influence.

“This doesn’t make Chinese citizens or businesses illegal, it gives a starting point for investigations and gives our intelligence services the tools they need to protect against this kind of espionage.

Duncan Smith said he did not know if an attempt to name the alleged operative in parliament would be successful. “It is ironic if parliament becomes the only place globally where nobody is allowed to name the guy – and this individual has been spying on this country.”

It was revealed over the weekend that Prince Andrew had been pictured alongside the man now banned from Britain in photographs at St James’ Palace.

The businessman, who had roles at key UK-China business groups, was filmed for a Chinese television documentary where he showed photographs of himself alongside the former prime minister David Cameron, in Downing Street and alongside the former prime minister Theresa May and her husband, Philip May.

According to court documents, the businessman was so close to the Duke of York, he was authorised to act on his behalf in an international financial initiative with potential partners and investors in China.

When the businessman’s phone was searched, officials uncovered a letter from March 2020 from Dominic Hampshire, a senior adviser to Prince Andrew, which referred to him being invited to the duke’s birthday party that month and said: “Outside of his closest internal confidants, you sit at the very top of a tree that many, many people would like to be on.”

In a rare statement, issued through his office, Andrew insisted he “ceased all contact” with the alleged spy, known as H6, after concerns were raised, and that “nothing of a sensitive nature was ever discussed”.

The letter also suggested the relationship had a potentially secretive nature, and said: “We have found a way to carefully remove those people who we don’t completely trust … we found a way to get the relevant people unnoticed in and out of the house in Windsor.”

A document was also found on the businessman’s phone that had “main talking points” for a call with the duke, which said he was “in a ‘desperate situation and will grab on to anything’.”

In the judgment this month, which upheld the alleged spy’s exclusion from the UK, the judge found he had “won a significant degree, one could say an unusual degree, of trust from a senior member of the royal family who was prepared to enter into business activities with him.”

---

Economist Zhang Yansheng on how China can survive Trump threats, avoid Japan’s mistakes

https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3290720/economist-zhang-yansheng-how-china-can-survive-trump-threats-avoid-japans-mistakes?utm_source=rss_feed

Economist Zhang Yansheng is a researcher with the China Academy of Macroeconomic Research. He is also a former secretary general of the academic committee of the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top economic planner. Zhang has presided over or taken part in research projects for several of the country’s five-year plans, and published more than 20 books on international finance and trade.

In this interview, Zhang discusses Beijing’s response plan for tariffs and trade encirclement during Donald Trump’s second White House term and what Chinese companies should look out for when expanding overseas. This interview first appeared in SCMP Plus. For other interviews in the Open Questions series, click .

Next year is crucial to the Chinese economy, as it marks the transition from the 14th to the 15th five-year plan. The combination of a more proactive fiscal policy and moderately loose monetary policy, along with “unconventional” countercyclical adjustments, suggests that despite the numerous policies introduced since September, the market, businesses and academics believe these measures have been insufficient.

Next year’s focus will be on increasing central fiscal spending and adjusting the deficit ratio, which is essential for addressing financial shortages among local businesses and the public. This year’s fiscal deficit ratio in the US was estimated to be 7.8 per cent compared to China’s 3.8 per cent, indicating room for a potential increase in China - though not implying we need to immediately catch up to the US.

There will be a stronger emphasis on local transfer payments and the use of special local government bonds as capital to help improve local government asset and liability conditions. This is vital for resolving debt problems among businesses, which can stimulate the national economic cycle.

The core issue with the “moderately loose” monetary policy is how to effectively utilize both broad and targeted monetary policies. Targeted policies will likely focus on sectors like technological innovation and green transformation. Fiscal measures are seen as crucial because they directly inject capital into the economy, while monetary policies need to address currency stability and deflationary pressures.

Expanding domestic demand comprehensively is also a priority, especially if external conditions worsen, such as potential tariffs or the removal of China’s most favored nation trade status. Reducing dependency on external demand and bolstering domestic demand are key. Developing new productive forces through innovation and demand-driven strategies is critical. Increasing citizens’ incomes and addressing their concerns will also be important for boosting the middle-income group’s growth.

As regards stabilizing the real estate and stock markets, the focus is on preventing systemic risks similar to Japan’s real estate bubble, which led to prolonged economic stagnation. For real estate, the emphasis will be on resolving issues like ensuring the completion and delivery of housing projects.

For the stock market, maintaining confidence and expectations is essential as it impacts personal finance, innovation incentives and corporate financing. The government is expected to continue refining and targeting its policies in these areas.

In my understanding, [the Politburo’s phrase] “unconventional tools” refers to solving specific problems. These might include enhancing consumption by ensuring stable incomes, which relates to wages, property, business and transfer incomes. Policies should aim to establish mechanisms that sustain consumption, address short-term consumption deficiencies and remove major cost burdens like education, healthcare and housing.

Trump, in my view, has a great deal of contradictions. For example, he recently said that he would impose a 10 per cent levy on China, 25 per cent levy on Canada and Mexico respectively. He blames Mexico and Canada for being irresponsible, they don’t control the drugs, they don’t control the illegal immigrants. While for China, he said raw materials for drugs come from China. But what we don’t know is whether such a statement is a negotiating move, or a threat of what he will actually do. This remains to be seen.

This reminds me of his investigation into steel and aluminium in 2018. At that time, China only ranked 11th in terms of steel exports to the US, after Japan, South Korea and some countries in Europe. But he began the 301 investigation targeting China, and then the trade war escalated. So that was his first move. Looking at the current threat, it’s very much like what happened in 2018.

Regarding his election vow of a 60 per cent tariff on China and a 10 per cent tariff on the world, this is much like the Smithsonian Agreement from the early 1970s. This was the cancellation of the convertibility of the US dollar to gold at US$35 [an ounce]. The US at that time demanded the other major countries either appreciate their currencies or pay tariffs. These big countries said, “Well, who am I to pay you a tax in the form of a tariff?” They chose to devalue. Finally, Bretton Woods went bankrupt.

Sixty per cent is actually a big threat to China, and I would assume Trump would think the US is losing out as the trade deficit is too big. There is also the argument that China’s most favoured nation status should be revoked. How will this play out with his other threats? It doesn’t make any sense. It’s like a war.

There is a lot of ambiguity in Trump’s threats, and he looks very random.

Of course, judging from his previous run for the presidency, he has a trait called “talking the talk”. He’s a businessman, not a politician. So this is one aspect where we have to be on higher alert.

There is also a theory that the tariff may be a bargaining process, but what will emerge at the end of the day? In my view, there’s a consensus that we don’t take countermeasures. As a famous Chinese saying goes, “A gentleman settles a dispute through communication instead of a fight.” So we can take the moral high ground.

Some studies show China may suffer a huge loss without countering. But no countering from China does not mean that China will not circumvent them. Countering is tit-for-tat action, while circumventing is what companies can do to avoid tariff barriers.

For Trump, one concern is the administrative costs to carry out the tariffs. In terms of trade, we see hundreds of thousands of traders with goods coming from all directions, how can he know the origins? That could involve lawsuits, which can drag on for years or decades. So he has to figure out if he can actually do that. He needs to think about the cost of acquiring and processing information. It’s almost impossible.

Will Mexico listen to you? You’re going to put 100 per cent tariffs on Mexico, and the Mexican president immediately said she’s countering it. China’s investment in Mexico can bring technology, tax revenue and jobs. It’s impossible for Mexico to hurt their own interests just for Trump. He thinks of himself as God.

I think China will respond by saying free trade, free investment and free movement of labour and factors of production are good. China will tell the US, “If you are unkind to me, I won’t fight you. You are doing wrong, why should I do wrong?”

From this perspective you can see that China's response to protectionism is not to follow. “You think you’re the only country in the world?” Over time, we can see that extremism will be crushed little by little.

The next step for China is we need to ensure the economy will be good. The most important card to play is further deepening reforms in a comprehensive manner and promoting modernisation, with the most critical part being a high level of institutional opening up.

We will also be open to the United States market because the US business sector wants to do business with us. We can distinguish between the vast American business and academic community from the few extremists in the government.

For China, if there is political pressure to retaliate, then we have to do the work on that. I think the probability of us countering as the next step is small.

Some people see the devaluation of the yuan as a strategy to hedge against tariffs, but I personally don’t think this is effective. With tariffs as high as 40 per cent or 60 per cent, you can’t devalue the yuan enough to offset them. And what can you do if the US establishes limits on Chinese exports or changes rules to restrict purchases?

So you have another strategy, which is to retain the market. Liberalise the businesses and let them explore.

Don’t think about regulating day in and day out. Focus on expanding domestic demand, how to expand our market with its 1.4 billion people. We want our economy to be good, for people to have confidence and dare to spend. Chinese people work very hard. Nobody wants to live on subsidies if they have choices, and what they want is to earn money through hard work.

First, the era of the past 45 years – when China participated in international circulation and divisions of labour – is over. In that era, China’s outward-oriented economy was characterised by exporting, serving other people’s markets and developing ourselves by utilising other markets. If you are a small economy, you can do that. But if you are a big economy, the world will give you a hard time. That is why a big country should expand its imports, not its exports.

China is not a country with a heavy foreign dependence. China’s foreign trade dependence was 64 per cent in 2006, 34 per cent in 2021, and I believe it will probably be 24 per cent in the next 10 years. This means the numerator – the growth rate of imports and exports – is decreasing, and the growth rate of GDP in the denominator is increasing. China is becoming more like a big economy.

So if we focus on the domestic economy and expand non-US trade investment and business dealings, then we won’t have that much to lose. You can cry wolf – or cry tariff – to drive domestic restructuring and build the people’s wages up, help the people live a good life.

If we can drive up domestic consumption, that means imports can go up. Imports mean a trade deficit, which means outflow of the yuan, because foreign merchants sell Chinese customers goods and settle more payments in yuan. When this happens, we need to leverage Hong Kong, Singapore and London and actively develop an offshore yuan market.

But we need to figure out one thing: what is the purpose of the internationalisation of the yuan?

I believe the long-term goal of internationalisation is development of the yuan into a super-sovereign currency, a process which will slowly unite more currencies.

First of all, I believe the trade-in programme for durable goods is valid. If you look at the latest consumption data, the effect of the programme is quite obvious – especially in appliances and automobiles – but overall consumption is weak.

Consumption downgrades are still the trend. Once I asked a young man: are you getting paid less? “Not really.” Is your job security at stake? “Not really.” I said, then how come your consumption has downgraded? He said because confidence has downgraded. I asked but why, if nothing has changed? He said almost every day there’s news about lay-offs or bankruptcies.

So there’s a massive impact from the downsizing of big foreign firms, big private firms, big internet firms or big state-owned enterprises. Why? They may want to prepare for tough times. Even though they have strong financial positions right now, they may think they can’t make it through the next three to five years.

So how can the government reform so these companies can see the coming spring? The government has to address issues like the financing of the stock market, which now doesn’t work. How can you make it work? That’s why one of the central government’s policies is to boost the capital market. I think the core issue is still a question of confidence.

But our government is not very good at managing expectations, which means our government is not very good at communicating with the market. I’ve been asked what the policy package is about. Does it work? This is something where the government is in the best position to articulate, right? But there are always questions. First, why doesn’t the government talk to the market? Secondly, why doesn’t the government talk to the market in human language?

When I was conducting research on Wall Street, the Wall Street people said: if your government learns to talk to the market, the market will cooperate. The market will know if it goes against you, it loses money, and if it goes with you, it makes money. We are now on the opposite side. We all know the famous saying “don’t fight the Fed”.

Why doesn’t China learn? The Hong Kong side is very good in this aspect. The mainland has to learn from Hong Kong.

Another important point is deflation. The government hasn’t stepped in over the past few years, not until recently. So it takes time for the economy to turn around. People have to see to believe, see things are serious this time around and then people’s confidence can go up. They dare to invest, dare to consume and develop the economy.

The problem with China’s economy right now is that there is a lack of money at the local level, a lack of money for businesses and a lack of money for the people. There is no shortage of projects. Local governments don’t want projects, as they view projects as liabilities.

Let’s look at how the pivot played out. The government held back large-scale stimulus until September, but started with – especially with special bonds – an emphasis on the national strategic projects. This, in local governments’ eyes, had nothing to do with them.

The Politburo meeting at the end of September sent two clear messages: first, we must have effective fiscal support; second, policies can’t only be limited to the national level, we must get localities, enterprises and individuals involved.

China needs to solve problems. These are a lack of demand in the short term, a lack of endogenous momentum in the medium term and in the long term, [external] resistance to high-quality development like Trump 2.0.

I personally still think that China’s economy can get out of this predicament. But the next five years, 2026 to 2030, are likely to be more difficult than in the past. The reason is the uncertainty that comes with Trump.

Development comes first, but high-quality development is the core of the new era. This is [in official rhetoric] about innovation becoming the driving force, coordination becoming endogenous, [the green transition] becoming universal, opening up becoming the way forward and sharing becoming the fundamental purpose.

This suggests that China’s economy is no longer speed-oriented, it is quality-oriented.

China’s innovation drive is growing fast. We have seen intense research and development, patent application and robust applications of technology. As a result, Chinese goods are becoming higher quality and providing more value for money. But obviously the real problem now is the downgrading of demand for quality products and downgrading of consumption.

That is why the economy is fundamental to the problem. There are only two ways to get the economy going; one is to speed up at all costs, and the other is to get quality up at all costs. Our government hopes to improve quality. For me, a gross domestic product growth rate of 4.5 per cent is acceptable.

Now China has reached a new stage, which is how it can reaccelerate total factor productivity through a multipronged approach.

In terms of mobilising national resources, let’s look at the approach the US has taken.

The change of strategy towards technological development started from 1945, when US President [Franklin] Roosevelt’s adviser [Vannevar Bush] told the government science is the ultimate source of economic growth. Over the next 70 years, the US – which had previously been a follower in science and technology – started to surpass others.

The second major milestone was in 1957, during the technological competition between the US and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union launched the Sputnik satellite and the US realised it was falling behind in space technology.

The US therefore made two critical decisions: First, it decoupled on tech, forcing the Soviet Union to rely on itself. Second, the federal government invested heavily in science and technology, focusing on original innovations from “0 to 1.” This funding went through the Department of Defense. Thus, US technological innovation was not driven by companies or the market, but by government agencies.

And then the US reflected on why its technological progress has stagnated since 1980. Under neoliberalism, most funding for innovations came from companies. Companies invest in innovation for returns and shareholder profits. As a result, since 1980, the US has seen a significant decline in scientific breakthroughs.

Today, in the competition with China, the US is thinking about what China excels at and what the US lacks. The US realises that China’s strengths are industrialisation, engineering, and application scenarios – areas where the US is weakest. Therefore, the US is now preparing to set up national industrial innovation platforms to compete with China and address weaknesses.

How can China respond? First, we need to figure out the issue of “having or not having.” The US is treating China like an enemy in war, cutting off supplies. In such a situation, we must solve the problem of dependency. However, if we focus only on self-reliance and import substitution, China risks becoming another Soviet Union.

If we follow a mercantilist approach, “winner takes all,” China risks becoming another Japan. Japan’s problem was dominating certain industries, leading to trade conflict with the US – textiles in the 1950s, steel in the 1960s, cars in the 1970s and semiconductors in the 1980s. When Japan’s semiconductor industry became the world’s leader, it accounted for 83 per cent of the market, triggering a strong reaction from the US.

If China’s exports threaten America’s core industries, such as aviation, the US will go all-out to fight back. In this case, China must avoid the path of the Soviet Union or Japan. Instead, China should explore an open, inclusive and shared ecosystem for innovation, allowing the world to collaborate with us.

Last year, China invested 3.3 trillion yuan (US$454 billion) in scientific innovation. If we allocated just 5 per cent, 165 billion yuan, to create an international cooperation fund, why not seek global partnerships?

What did China do right in the past? First, reform and opening up. Second, seeking truth from facts. Third, focusing on development. No matter whom we face, if we stick to these three principles, we are unstoppable. Look at the US and its past competitors – none were defeated by the US; they all fell because of their own mistakes. If we lose to the US in the future, it will only be because we deviated from the right path.

What does “seeking truth from facts” mean? It means not blindly following authority or books but focusing on reality. If we can mobilise the passion of every Chinese person and inspire them, who can beat us? Can the US, Europe, Japan or South Korea compete with us?

The key is that we must not make mistakes ourselves. Let them worry about their issues, while we focus on doing our work well. That is the most important thing.

The most urgent issue is systemic reform. That’s the reason the Central Committee in the third plenary session called for the further comprehensive deepening of reforms. For example, we are ranked 11th in the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Global Innovation Index, but our innovation system lags behind.

The US faced a similar problem. After 1980, it passed the Bayh-Dole Act, which allowed achievements resulting from federal funding to be attributed to the inventors’ organizations. Shortly after the act took force, the conversion rate of scientific and technological achievements increased substantially.

There are four criteria for Chinese companies expanding overseas. The first is the presence of a market. The second is cost, they go where land and labour are cheaper. The third is efficiency, places with talent and innovation. The fourth is resources. Now, a fifth has emerged: geopolitics.

Companies move to places with more favourable geopolitical conditions. For example, if the US doesn’t allow them to enter, they might go to Mexico; if Mexico doesn’t allow them, they might go to Mauritius. Who can say no to China in Mauritius? If the US says to the world, “I’m going to impose 100 per cent tariffs on all of you”, then the world will rebel, so how can it still be hegemonic?

Chinese companies going overseas are primarily avoiding geopolitical risks. Also, some companies have reached the stage of internationalisation. This is especially true for the second and third generations of entrepreneurs. Once, I took 10 second-generation entrepreneurs to Suzhou for research. Afterward, I asked them how far they were from internationalisation. They said 3 to 5 years.

I may be old-fashioned, but my children have a clear view of the US and the world. My grandchildren will likely find it much easier to communicate with Americans, Europeans and Japanese. Internationalisation is an innate part of their DNA.

What we can see is that there are top levels of development in the world. The first level is the UK and the US, which are top-tier in finance and technology, as well as in discourse power, pricing power and rule-making power. Their national strength and market roles are also top-tier. Hong Kong belongs to this tier. The second level includes continental Europe – France, Germany, Italy – and major East Asian countries, such as Japan and South Korea. [Mainland] China is still in the third tier.

China still lags behind Japan and South Korea in terms of internationalisation. They began their global expansion earlier than us. The Meiji Restoration happened in 1868, and the “Black Ships” event – [the forcible opening of Japan to trade by US warships] – took place in 1853. Furthermore, they seized opportunities in the 1950s. This means they are [at least] 30 years ahead of us.

From this perspective, China has made significant progress. The rapid progress of China is due to its national strength and its market’s role in going abroad. China is now increasingly catching up with continental Europe, Japan and South Korea.

In terms of how to look at China, I would classify them into three groups in terms of research and development [intensity], with aggregate R&D expenditure as the numerator and GDP as the denominator.

First-tier cities [and provinces] include Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Last year’s data shows that Zhejiang [province] had the lowest, but its R&D intensity was already 3.2, clearly surpassing the average for Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries.

Their momentum is innovation-driven, and their internationalisation is accelerating. The second tier includes 12 provinces and cities, such as Anhui, Shandong and Hunan [provinces], which have an R&D intensity lower than the OECD average. If you look at this indicator over eight years, they are very close to the OECD average. Their momentum is still investment-driven, relying on economies of scale, but they are progressing very quickly.

The third tier includes 13 provinces and autonomous regions whose yearly investment is less than half of Guangdong’s annual investment. Their momentum is resource-driven.

Therefore, China is a large country with developed regions, moderately developed regions and developing regions. China’s overseas expansion from the first tier is accelerating. Outstanding enterprises in the second tier are also beginning to expand abroad. The third tier is only sporadically starting to expand abroad.

The peak of China’s outbound direct investment was in 2016, reaching around US$160 billion. Its enterprises are still in an early stage of going abroad, an exploratory phase. However, internationalisation is accelerating rapidly.

With internationalisation, marketisation and rule of law, Hong Kong is in the top tier. Hong Kong’s advantages here are stronger than those of continental Europe, Japan and South Korea.

On the other hand, Hong Kong’s economy and industries are focusing on the most profitable parts of different businesses. But without being deeply embedded in the soil of the real economy, without a root, you will float in the sea or be blown by the wind. Therefore, its characteristics are “short, quick and fast”. When you can seize an opportunity, you do it quickly. Secondly, you focus on the most profitable part and never do the rest on a large scale.

From this perspective, Hong Kong must make these characteristics serve the mainland’s larger economy under the “one country, two systems” framework. The large economy is primarily about scale.

To maintain the foundation of “one country, two systems” in Hong Kong, it is important to figure out how to make Hong Kong understand the mainland, and the mainland understand Hong Kong. Mainland enterprises, institutions and regions need to understand Hong Kong to make the best use of it.

Personally, I think it will take some time, as the mainland is also exploring how to manage “one country, two systems.” In this new phase, the challenge is how to preserve both systems while serving one country. This model needs to be explored. I think the core issue is that the mainland should get to know Hong Kong, and then set off again in accordance with the principle of “Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong”.

Additional reporting by Daisy Wu

From blind box toys to snacks, Chinese venture capital firm finds growth in niche spending

https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3290674/blind-box-toys-snacks-chinese-venture-capital-firm-finds-growth-niche-spending?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese consumer spending is so weak that even Starbucks is considering selling a stake in its China franchise, but one venture capital firm is bucking the trend by finding growth in niche sectors despite overall weakness.

Shanghai-based company BA Capital, a long term backer of China’s “blind box” toy franchise Pop Mart and jeweller Laopu Gold, is finding promising firms from small cities in China’s “county-level economy”, as well as digging up gems in the “nighttime” and “silver” economies, which refer to activities after sunset and those involving senior citizens, respectively, as well as rejuvenating traditional brands.

“Consumer businesses can be categorised into two types: experience-driven or efficiency-driven. Top companies excel by reaching the pinnacle of one dimension,” Michael Zhang Peiyuan, founder of the firm, said in a recent interview with the South China Morning Post.

BA Capital was established in 2016 by David He Yu, a former strategic investment head at ByteDance and vice-president of Orchid Asia, along with Zhang and serial entrepreneur Chen Feng, who later left BA to start his own venture. At the time, it was taken for granted that China’s consumer market would take off, driven by a rising middle class.

However, the pandemic hurt consumer spending, which has remained subdued as Beijing’s policies continue to pivot to investment and exports. According to data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics, retail sales in October rose 4.8 per cent year on year. Yet, the consumer price index edged up just 0.3 per cent, signalling concerns about deflationary pressures and weak demand.

BA Capital, meanwhile, was able to tap into niche areas to grow into a firm with both US and Chinese yuan funds, with in total 10 billion yuan (US$1.38 billion) under management.

Its latest bet is Kaida Hengye, a frozen French fries and crisp supplier with potato farms in Inner Mongolia’s Ulanqab city. The company, which is able to cut prices by double-digit percentages compared with industry averages, received 4 billion yuan in a funding round led by BA Capital.

Zhang said local players are increasingly replacing foreign brands in the consumer market, as well as in the supply chain upstream. “Consumers are becoming more sophisticated in choices rather than blindly trusting in foreign brands,” he said.

In another example, Yuanji Yunjiao, a dumpling chain backed by BA, has expanded to over 4,000 locations, generating 4.7 billion yuan in revenue last year thanks to its self-established production and logistics network. Similarly, MMHM Group, a snack retailer targeting lower-tier cities, has grown to more than 13,000 stores this year by providing a wide range of affordable goods.

Zhang said the key to bucking the downward growth trend was enhancing efficiency and lowering costs, thereby offering consumers more affordable goods without compromising quality.

At the same time, Zhang noticed that Chinese consumers are increasingly willing to spend on items of “emotional value”. One example is British toymaker Jellycat’s cafe-inspired pop-up in Shanghai. It created a buzz because staff would create and package the food or beverage items during checkout, providing a theatrical-like experience which drew long lines of shoppers outside the store every day.

The success of Hong Kong-listed Pop Mart, which offers collectible toys in “blind” packaging to maintain surprise, also underscores this trend. The blind-box toy retailer reported 4.56 billion yuan in revenue in the first half of the year, a 62 per cent increase from a year earlier, driven by an expanded portfolio of licensed intellectual properties and finely tuned operations.

In the third quarter, its overseas revenue grew to more than four times that of the previous year. Shares in Pop Mart have soared by more than 366 per cent this year, giving the company a market capitalisation of HK$124.83 billion (US$16 billion).

Compared with capital-intensive hi-tech start-ups, Zhang sees consumer-focused businesses as having relatively lower risks. He also opts for companies with healthy cash flows and leveraged capital to help speed up growth.

“While initial public offerings remain the most desirable exit strategy, often offering the highest potential returns, we’ve also seen alternatives such as dividends, mergers and acquisitions, and buy-backs,” he said.

---