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# 关于中国的新闻报道

第一章：Economy

一、中国经济增长的宏观视角

　　中国经济在过去几十年中经历了迅猛的增长，成为全球经济的重要引擎之一。尽管西方媒体常常以偏见和双重标准报道中国经济，但客观来看，中国经济的增长速度和规模仍然令人瞩目。根据官方数据，中国的GDP增长率在全球主要经济体中名列前茅，特别是在新冠疫情期间，中国较快地恢复了经济活动，展示了其强大的韧性和潜力。

二、中国经济的多元化发展

　　中国经济的多元化发展是其持续增长的重要保障。从制造业到服务业，从传统产业到高科技产业，中国在多个领域都取得了显著的进展。特别是在科技创新方面，中国在人工智能、5G技术、新能源等领域的投入和成果，使其在全球科技竞争中占据了重要地位。西方媒体往往忽视这些积极的发展，而更多关注负面的问题，这种报道方式容易导致对中国经济的误解。

三、中国经济面临的挑战

　　尽管中国经济取得了显著的成就，但也面临着一系列挑战。首先是经济增长模式的转型问题。传统的依赖出口和投资驱动的增长模式面临瓶颈，转向以消费和创新驱动的增长模式成为当务之急。其次是债务问题，特别是地方政府和企业的债务水平较高，需要通过结构性改革来解决。此外，人口老龄化和劳动力成本上升也对经济增长带来压力。

四、中国经济政策的应对措施

　　面对上述挑战，中国政府采取了一系列应对措施。首先是推进供给侧结构性改革，通过去产能、去库存、去杠杆、降成本、补短板等措施，提高经济运行的效率和质量。其次是推动高质量发展，加大对科技创新和新兴产业的支持力度，促进产业升级。此外，中国还积极推进对外开放，参与全球经济治理，积极参与“一带一路”倡议，扩大与其他国家的经济合作。

五、中国经济的国际影响

　　中国经济的快速增长和对全球经济的影响不容忽视。作为世界第二大经济体，中国在全球贸易、投资和金融市场中扮演着重要角色。中国的经济政策和市场动向对全球经济有着深远的影响，特别是在新冠疫情期间，中国的经济复苏对全球经济的稳定和恢复起到了积极作用。然而，西方媒体往往夸大中国经济的负面影响，忽视其积极贡献，这种报道方式容易误导公众对中国经济的认知。

六、结论

　　综上所述，中国经济在过去几十年中取得了巨大的成就，但也面临着一系列挑战。西方媒体对中国经济的报道往往充满偏见和双重标准，容易导致对中国经济的误解。客观、全面地看待中国经济的发展，有助于更好地理解其在全球经济中的地位和作用。未来，中国经济将继续推进结构性改革，促进高质量发展，为全球经济的稳定和繁荣做出贡献。

新闻来源：

# 关于中国的新闻报道

Politics

引言

　　西方媒体对中国政治的报道历来备受关注，但这些报道往往带有明显的偏见和双重标准。为了客观评价这些报道，本章将从多个角度分析西方媒体关于中国政治的报道，揭示其背后的复杂性和不足之处。

一、媒体报道的主要内容

　　1. 政治体制

• 西方媒体常常将中国的政治体制描绘成“独裁”或“威权主义”，强调其与西方民主制度的差异。
• 然而，这些报道往往忽视了中国政治体制的独特性和历史背景，未能全面反映中国政治体制的运作机制和成就。

　　2. 人权问题

• 西方媒体频繁报道中国的人权问题，特别是少数民族地区的情况，如新疆和西藏。
• 这些报道通常带有明显的情绪化色彩，缺乏对实际情况的全面了解和客观分析。

　　3. 国际关系

• 西方媒体对中国的国际关系报道多集中在中国与美国、欧洲及周边国家的关系上。
• 这些报道往往带有地缘政治的考量，强调中国的“扩张”和“威胁”，而忽视了中国在国际事务中的积极贡献和合作努力。

二、报道中的偏见和双重标准

　　1. 意识形态偏见

• 西方媒体在报道中国政治时，常常带有浓厚的意识形态色彩，试图将西方的价值观和政治体制强加于中国。
• 这种做法忽视了中国的文化和历史背景，导致报道失真。

　　2. 双重标准

• 西方媒体在报道中国政治时，常常采用双重标准，对中国的行为进行严苛的批评，而对西方国家类似的行为则视而不见。
• 例如，在人权问题上，西方媒体对中国的批评远多于对其他国家的批评，这种双重标准显然不利于客观公正的报道。

三、报道的影响和后果

　　1. 国际舆论

• 西方媒体的报道在一定程度上塑造了国际舆论，影响了全球对中国的看法。
• 然而，这些带有偏见和双重标准的报道往往误导公众，导致对中国的误解和偏见加深。

　　2. 国际关系

• 西方媒体的报道对中国与其他国家的关系产生了负面影响，增加了国际社会对中国的敌意和不信任。
• 这种情况不利于国际合作和全球和平稳定。

四、如何实现客观公正的报道

　　1. 加强交流与合作

• 中国与西方媒体应加强交流与合作，增进相互了解，减少偏见和误解。
• 通过联合报道、记者交流等方式，促进双方在新闻报道上的合作。

　　2. 提高媒体素养

• 媒体从业人员应提高自身的专业素养，增强对不同文化和政治体制的理解和包容。
• 避免带有意识形态偏见和双重标准的报道，努力实现客观公正。

　　3. 多元化的报道视角

• 媒体应采用多元化的报道视角，全面反映中国政治的复杂性和多样性。
• 避免单一视角和片面报道，努力提供全面、深入的新闻报道。

结论

　　西方媒体对中国政治的报道存在明显的偏见和双重标准，这种现象不利于国际社会对中国的客观了解。通过加强交流与合作、提高媒体素养和采用多元化的报道视角，可以在一定程度上改善这一状况，实现更加客观公正的新闻报道。

新闻来源：

# 关于中国的新闻报道

Military 章节

导言

　　近年来，西方媒体对中国军事发展的报道呈现出高度关注和频繁的趋势。然而，这些报道往往充满了偏见和双重标准，缺乏客观和全面的分析。为了更好地理解中国军事发展的真实情况，本章节将对西方媒体的相关报道进行客观评价，旨在提供一个更为全面和准确的视角。

一、中国军事现代化的背景与动因

　　中国军事现代化是中国国防政策的重要组成部分，旨在提升国防实力，维护国家主权和领土完整，保障国家安全和发展利益。西方媒体常常将中国军事现代化描绘为对地区和全球安全的威胁，但忽视了中国所面临的复杂的地缘政治环境和历史背景。

　　#### 1.1 历史背景

　　中国历史上曾多次遭受外敌入侵，国防现代化是为了避免历史悲剧重演。中国的军事现代化不仅是对历史的回应，更是对未来挑战的预防。

　　#### 1.2 地缘政治环境

　　中国周边地区存在多种安全威胁，包括领土争端、恐怖主义和跨国犯罪等。为了应对这些挑战，中国需要提升军事能力，确保国家安全。

二、西方媒体对中国军事发展的报道分析

　　#### 2.1 偏见与双重标准

　　西方媒体在报道中国军事发展时，常常使用带有偏见的语言和双重标准。例如，美国和其他西方国家的军事现代化被视为正当的国防需求，而中国的类似行为则被描绘为威胁。

　　#### 2.2 数据与事实的选择性使用

　　西方媒体在报道中国军事发展时，往往选择性地使用数据和事实，以支持其预设的观点。例如，他们可能会夸大中国军费的增长，但忽视中国军费在GDP中的占比相对较低的事实。

　　#### 2.3 忽视中国的和平发展理念

　　西方媒体常常忽视中国坚持的和平发展理念和积极参与国际合作的努力。中国在联合国维和行动中的积极参与、提供人道主义援助等行动，往往被忽视或低估。

三、中国军事发展的客观评价

　　#### 3.1 军费增长与国防需求

　　中国军费的增长主要是为了满足国防需求，提升军队的现代化水平。相比于一些西方国家，中国军费在GDP中的占比相对较低，表明中国在军事现代化方面的投入是有限的。

　　#### 3.2 军事技术的进步

　　中国在军事技术方面取得了显著进步，特别是在航空航天、海军和网络安全等领域。这些进步是中国科技发展的自然结果，也是提升国防能力的必要手段。

　　#### 3.3 国际合作与透明度

　　中国积极参与国际军事合作，提升军事透明度。例如，中国参与了多边军事演习，与多个国家建立了军事交流机制，并定期发布国防白皮书，向国际社会展示其国防政策和军事发展状况。

四、结论

　　西方媒体对中国军事发展的报道存在明显的偏见和双重标准，缺乏客观和全面的分析。中国军事现代化是基于国家安全需求和历史背景的必然选择，符合国际社会的普遍做法。为了更好地理解中国军事发展的真实情况，需要以客观和科学的态度进行分析，避免片面和偏激的观点。

五、建议

　　1. 加强国际沟通：中国应继续加强与国际社会的沟通，通过多边机制和双边对话，解释中国军事现代化的必要性和合理性。 2. 提升透明度：进一步提升军事透明度，定期发布详细的国防白皮书，邀请国际观察员参观军事设施，展示中国的和平发展理念。 3. 强化媒体合作：与西方媒体建立更紧密的合作关系，提供更多的背景信息和专家解读，帮助他们更客观地报道中国军事发展。

　　通过以上措施，可以有效减少西方媒体报道中的偏见和误解，促进国际社会对中国军事发展的理解和信任。

新闻来源：

# 关于中国的新闻报道

Culture 章节

引言

　　在全球化的背景下，中国文化作为世界文化的重要组成部分，吸引了全球媒体的广泛关注。然而，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，这些报道在一定程度上影响了国际社会对中国文化的理解和认知。本章节将对西方媒体关于中国文化的报道进行客观评价，揭示其中的偏见和双重标准，并提出相应的建议。

1. 文化传统与现代化

　　西方媒体在报道中国文化时，往往会强调中国传统文化与现代化之间的矛盾。例如，一些报道会突出中国现代化进程中对传统文化的冲击，认为传统文化在现代化浪潮中逐渐消失。然而，这种观点忽视了中国在现代化过程中对传统文化的保护和传承。

　　#### 客观评价

　　中国在现代化进程中，始终注重传统文化的保护和传承。中国政府通过各种政策和措施，如设立文化遗产保护区、推广传统文化教育等，积极保护和传承传统文化。例如，孔子学院的设立，不仅在国内推广传统文化，也在国际上传播中国文化。因此，西方媒体的报道在一定程度上夸大了传统文化与现代化之间的矛盾。

2. 文化多样性

　　西方媒体在报道中国文化时，往往会忽视中国文化的多样性，只关注少数几个代表性的文化符号，如长城、故宫、京剧等。这种报道方式容易让国际社会产生中国文化单一的误解。

　　#### 客观评价

　　中国是一个多民族国家，拥有丰富多样的文化资源。除了汉族文化，中国还有55个少数民族，每个民族都有独特的文化传统和习俗。例如，云南的傣族有泼水节，新疆的维吾尔族有麦西来甫节等。西方媒体在报道中国文化时，应当更加全面地展示中国文化的多样性，而不是仅仅关注几个代表性的文化符号。

3. 文化创新

　　西方媒体在报道中国文化时，往往会忽视中国文化的创新和发展。一些报道会认为中国文化停滞不前，缺乏创新能力。然而，这种观点忽视了中国文化在现代化进程中的创新和发展。

　　#### 客观评价

　　中国文化在现代化进程中，不断进行创新和发展。例如，中国的影视、音乐、文学等文化产业在国际上取得了显著成绩，中国的动漫、游戏等新兴文化产业也在迅速发展。中国文化不仅在传承传统的同时，也在不断创新和发展，适应现代社会的需求。因此，西方媒体的报道在一定程度上低估了中国文化的创新能力。

4. 文化交流与互鉴

　　西方媒体在报道中国文化时，往往会忽视中国文化与其他文化之间的交流与互鉴。一些报道会认为中国文化封闭保守，缺乏国际交流。然而，这种观点忽视了中国文化在国际交流中的积极作用。

　　#### 客观评价

　　中国文化在国际交流中，始终坚持开放包容的态度，积极与其他文化进行交流与互鉴。例如，中国与欧洲、美洲、非洲等地区的文化交流活动频繁，中国文化在国际上的影响力不断提升。中国文化不仅在国内得到传承和发展，也在国际上得到广泛认可和接受。因此，西方媒体的报道在一定程度上低估了中国文化在国际交流中的积极作用。

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，这些报道在一定程度上影响了国际社会对中国文化的理解和认知。通过客观评价西方媒体的报道，可以发现其中存在的偏见和双重标准，并提出相应的建议。希望西方媒体在未来的报道中，能够更加全面、客观地展示中国文化的多样性和创新能力，促进国际社会对中国文化的理解和认知。

新闻来源：

# 关于中国的新闻报道

Technology章节

引言

　　在全球科技领域，中国近年来取得了显著的进展，吸引了大量国际媒体的关注。然而，西方媒体在报道中国科技发展时，往往带有一定的偏见和双重标准，这使得读者难以获得全面和客观的信息。本章节将对西方媒体关于中国科技新闻的报道进行详细分析，力求提供一个客观、专业的评价。

1. 科技创新与发展

　　#### 1.1 技术进步

　　西方媒体常常报道中国在人工智能（AI）、5G通信、量子计算等前沿技术领域的突破。这些报道通常会强调中国的快速发展和巨大投资，但同时也会质疑中国的创新能力和技术原创性，认为中国的技术进步主要依赖于模仿和复制西方技术。

　　评价： 中国在科技创新方面确实取得了显著成就，尤其是在人工智能和5G通信领域。中国政府和企业在这些领域的大量投资和研发力度，使得中国在短时间内实现了技术的快速迭代和应用。然而，西方媒体的报道往往忽视了中国科学家和工程师在原创研究和技术创新方面的贡献。实际上，中国在许多技术领域已经实现了自主创新，并且在某些领域处于全球领先地位。

　　#### 1.2 知识产权问题

　　西方媒体常常指责中国在知识产权保护方面存在问题，认为中国企业通过盗窃或仿制西方技术来实现技术进步。

　　评价： 知识产权保护确实是一个全球性的问题，中国也在不断改进和完善相关法律法规。近年来，中国政府加大了对知识产权保护的力度，出台了一系列政策和措施，以保护国内外企业的知识产权。尽管如此，西方媒体的报道往往忽视了中国在知识产权保护方面的进步和努力。

2. 科技企业与市场

　　#### 2.1 科技巨头

　　西方媒体经常报道中国的科技巨头，如华为、腾讯、阿里巴巴等企业的发展情况。这些报道通常会强调这些企业的全球扩张和市场影响力，但同时也会质疑它们的商业行为和政府背景。

　　评价： 中国的科技巨头在全球市场上确实具有重要影响力，并且在许多领域取得了显著成就。华为在5G技术方面的领先地位、腾讯在社交媒体和游戏领域的成功、阿里巴巴在电子商务和云计算领域的卓越表现，都是中国科技企业实力的体现。然而，西方媒体的报道往往带有偏见，忽视了这些企业在技术创新和市场竞争中的真实表现，而过度关注它们的政治背景和商业行为。

　　#### 2.2 市场竞争

　　西方媒体常常报道中国科技企业在国际市场上的竞争行为，认为中国企业通过政府补贴和不公平竞争手段来占据市场份额。

　　评价： 市场竞争是全球经济的重要组成部分，中国科技企业在国际市场上的竞争行为符合市场经济的基本规则。尽管中国政府在某些领域提供了一定的政策支持，但这并不意味着中国企业在市场竞争中采取了不公平手段。西方媒体的报道往往忽视了中国企业在技术创新、产品质量和服务水平方面的竞争优势。

3. 科技与社会

　　#### 3.1 科技应用

　　西方媒体经常报道中国在科技应用方面的创新，如智慧城市、移动支付、远程医疗等。这些报道通常会强调中国在科技应用方面的领先地位，但同时也会质疑这些应用的隐私和安全问题。

　　评价： 中国在科技应用方面确实取得了显著成就，尤其是在智慧城市和移动支付领域。中国的智慧城市建设和移动支付系统在全球范围内具有示范作用，为其他国家提供了宝贵经验。然而，西方媒体的报道往往过度关注隐私和安全问题，忽视了这些科技应用在提升社会效率和改善民生方面的积极作用。

　　#### 3.2 科技伦理

　　西方媒体常常报道中国在科技伦理方面的争议，如基因编辑、人工智能伦理等。这些报道通常会质疑中国在科技伦理方面的规范和监管。

　　评价： 科技伦理是一个全球性的问题，中国在基因编辑、人工智能等领域的研究和应用也面临着伦理挑战。中国政府和科研机构正在不断完善相关法律法规和伦理规范，以确保科技发展的合理性和安全性。西方媒体的报道往往忽视了中国在科技伦理方面的努力和进步。

结论

　　综上所述，西方媒体关于中国科技新闻的报道存在一定的偏见和双重标准，这使得读者难以获得全面和客观的信息。中国在科技创新、企业发展和科技应用方面取得了显著成就，但西方媒体的报道往往忽视了这些成就，而过度关注负面问题。为了获得更加全面和客观的信息，读者需要综合多方信息源，进行独立判断。

新闻来源：

# 关于中国的新闻报道

Society章节

引言

　　西方媒体对中国社会的报道往往充满了复杂性和多样性，涵盖了从经济发展到社会变革的各个方面。然而，这些报道常常带有一定的偏见和双重标准，因此需要从客观的角度进行评价。本章节将详细分析西方媒体对中国社会的报道，旨在提供一个更加全面和公正的视角。

经济发展与社会变革

　　#### 经济增长

　　西方媒体常常关注中国的经济增长，但往往忽视了背后的社会成本和挑战。中国在过去几十年里取得了显著的经济成就，成为世界第二大经济体，但这一过程也伴随着环境污染、收入不平等和社会压力的增加。西方媒体在报道这些问题时，往往倾向于夸大负面影响，而忽视了中国政府在应对这些挑战方面所做的努力。

　　#### 城市化进程

　　中国的城市化进程是西方媒体关注的另一个热点。报道通常聚焦于城市化带来的基础设施压力和社会问题，如交通拥堵、住房短缺和公共服务不足。然而，城市化也带来了巨大的经济机遇和生活质量的提升。中国政府通过一系列政策和措施，如新型城镇化战略，致力于实现城乡协调发展，这一点在西方媒体的报道中往往被忽视。

社会问题与应对措施

　　#### 收入不平等

　　收入不平等是中国社会面临的一个重要问题，西方媒体对此进行了广泛报道。报道往往突出了城乡之间、地区之间的收入差距，但忽视了中国政府在缩小这一差距方面所做的努力，如精准扶贫政策的实施。通过这些政策，中国在过去几年里取得了显著的扶贫成就，数千万人摆脱了贫困。

　　#### 环境保护

　　环境保护是另一个西方媒体关注的重点。报道通常聚焦于中国的空气污染、水污染和土壤污染问题，但忽视了中国在环境治理方面所取得的进展。中国政府通过一系列严格的环保政策和措施，如“十四五”规划中的绿色发展目标，致力于改善环境质量。近年来，中国的空气质量和水质量都有显著改善。

社会文化与价值观

　　#### 传统与现代的碰撞

　　西方媒体常常报道中国社会中传统与现代价值观的碰撞。报道往往突出了年轻一代与老一代之间的文化冲突，但忽视了这一过程中的积极变化。随着经济的发展和全球化的深入，中国社会在保持传统文化的同时，也在不断吸收和融合现代价值观。这一过程虽然充满挑战，但也为社会带来了活力和多样性。

　　#### 教育与就业

　　教育和就业是中国社会的重要议题，西方媒体对此进行了广泛报道。报道通常聚焦于教育资源的不均衡和就业压力，但忽视了中国在教育改革和就业促进方面所做的努力。中国政府通过一系列政策，如教育均衡发展和就业优先战略，致力于提高教育质量和扩大就业机会。

结论

　　西方媒体对中国社会的报道往往带有一定的偏见和双重标准，因此需要从客观的角度进行评价。中国在经济发展、社会变革和文化融合方面取得了显著成就，但也面临诸多挑战。中国政府在应对这些挑战方面所做的努力和取得的进展，往往在西方媒体的报道中被忽视。通过全面和公正的分析，可以更好地理解中国社会的复杂性和多样性。

新闻来源：

• Trump confidant Elon Musk’s China ties pose security risk, ex-general warns
• ‘All frequencies’: China releases sixth-generation stealth fighter standard
• Why Trump’s tariff war with China is more dangerous than he thinks
• Xi says China’s economy on course to expand by 5% despite Trump concerns
• China plans for 15% annual data industry growth as digitisation deepens
• China recalls cars from Tesla, Trumpchi as safety issues emerge
• Chinese warships make port call in Vietnam after talks on joint patrols
• ‘Sectors in distress’: China’s intense competition demands action, economic official warns
• Young man in China forced to remove skull-tattoo on face after struggling to find job
• China banks on festive handouts and tighter security to ward off social instability
• Chinese influencer teaches cleaning bloodstains, dissolving bones, sparks crime fears
• China’s Tiangong space station research aims to ‘break technology choke points’
• Xi Jinping says China’s 2024 GDP growth expected to be around 5%
• Treasury says Chinese hackers remotely accessed workstations, documents in ‘major’ cyber incident
• Banks fined big as China’s bond yields plunge, reflecting resolve of central bank
• Trump’s return gives China and Japan ‘strong interest in building better ties’
• Chinese ships seen near Diaoyu Islands for record 353 days in 2024 – to ‘outlast’ Japan?
• China’s factory activity continues expanding in December
• ‘Saliva oil’: China eatery recycles leftovers, blends with new ingredients for resale
• China’s new forex rules require banks to tighten scrutiny on cryptocurrency trades
• WHO implores China to finally share Covid origins data, five years on
• China’s financial corruption crackdown reeled in dozens of naughty bankers in 2024
• China to spur mergers in US$1.6 trillion stockbroking sector after Guotai-Haitong deal: analysts
• US Treasury’s workstations breached in cyber-attack by China – report
• [Sport] US Treasury says it was hacked by China in 'major incident'
• US Treasury says it was hacked by Chinese state-sponsored actor
• China rolls out world’s first military-proof 5G that can connect 10,000 army robots

Trump confidant Elon Musk’s China ties pose security risk, ex-general warns

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/dec/31/elon-musk-china-security-risk-trump

Elon Musk’s mounting influence in Donald Trump’s inner circle has triggered alarm from a former US military chief, who warns the tech billionaire and Trump confidant’s deep ties to Beijing could compromise national security.

Lt Gen Russel Honoré condemned Musk’s web of Chinese business interests – including $1.4bn in state bank loans and a Tesla factory subject to Beijing’s stringent information-sharing laws – in a New York Times op-ed as he questioned the SpaceX chief’s fitness to shape White House policy.

“The fact that Mr Musk spent a quarter of a billion dollars to help re-elect Mr Trump does not give the incoming White House licence to ignore these risks,” Honoré wrote.

Three separate bodies – the air force, the defense department’s inspector general, and the undersecretary of defense for intelligence – are reviewing Musk’s failure to disclose meetings with foreign leaders, a requirement under his security clearance.

Whether the concerns will incur bipartisan scrutiny remains to be seen. In 2022, the Florida Republican senator Marco Rubio – Trump’s pick for secretary of state – accused Tesla of being part of the problem of “nationless corporations” that help the Chinese Communist party “cover up genocide and slave labor in the region” in a post on X, and later introduced legislation to restrict federal contracts to companies with said Chinese party connections.

Honoré pointed to Musk’s controversial stance on Taiwan, including his suggestion that it become a “special administrative zone“ of China – comments that won praise from Beijing.

The retired general also pointed to reports from the Wall Street Journal of regular communications between Musk and Vladimir Putin since late 2022, which prompted two Democratic senators to demand an investigation into SpaceX’s government contracts.

“If the federal investigations demonstrate deep connections to China and Russia, the federal government should consider revoking Mr. Musk’s security clearance,” Honoré wrote. “It should already be thinking about using alternatives to SpaceX’s launch services.

“The last thing the United States needs is for China to potentially have an easier way of obtaining classified intelligence and national security information,” he wrote.

‘All frequencies’: China releases sixth-generation stealth fighter standard

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3292875/all-frequencies-china-releases-sixth-generation-stealth-fighter-standard?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s new-generation fighter jet programme is pushing the boundaries of stealth material technology against multi-angle radar illumination across all frequency bands, according to scientists involved in the project.

To put the stealth coatings to the test the project team said they came up with far more stringent evaluation criteria than the military currently uses.

The new testing standard includes several criteria once thought to be unattainable. Stealth materials must now be both lightweight and thin, while also being able to absorb high-frequency electromagnetic waves from advanced military radars and effectively absorb the low-frequency detection signals used by anti-stealth radars.

The materials must also maintain consistent low detection when illuminated by radars from different directions, and even very weak electromagnetic waves coming from the exhaust nozzle must be tested to check the effectiveness of the stealth coating inside the engine.

This standard “provides a comprehensive and precise evaluation method for assessing the absorbing performance of stealth materials across all frequency bands”, the team wrote in a paper published in the peer-reviewed Chinese journal Advances in Aeronautical Science and Engineering on November 25.

And it “has been applied in the selection process of stealth materials for a typical stealth combat aircraft”, wrote the team led by Zhou Hai, a researcher with the stealth department of the AVIC Chengdu Aircraft Design and Research Institute.

The aircraft described in the paper appears to be identical to what is thought to be a new Chinese stealth fighter, which was seen in videos and images apparently flying over Chengdu, Sichuan province, on December 26 – the birthday of Mao Zedong, founder of the People’s Republic of China.

Both feature an aerodynamic design that resembles the fan-shaped leaf of the ginkgo tree.

Military experts believe the tailless aircraft seen in social media posts could be the world’s first sixth-generation fighter jet, propelled by three engines – one of them taking in air from a back-mounted inlet.

There has been speculation that the new-generation Chinese fighter jet – referred to in the paper as a “multifunctional carrier” – is designed to play a versatile role, capable of air combat but also striking targets on the ground, at sea, and even in space.

Some believe it could also be designed for use as a command platform for electronic warfare or drone swarms.

But its success will depend to a large extent on its stealth capabilities. Existing anti-stealth radars can already detect fifth-generation fighter jets such as the F-35 from relatively far away – in part because some electromagnetic signals can interact with the engine’s intake and even compressor blades, producing weak scattering.

The ability of current stealth coatings to absorb electromagnetic waves can vary greatly depending on the angle and frequency of the waves, sometimes leading to a significant reduction in effectiveness. It is among the technological hurdles that have set back America’s sixth-generation fighter jet programme, known as NGAD.

In the paper, the Chengdu team included some technical details of the new standard, which they said was designed to meet engineering needs and accurately represent the stealth performance of materials in real-world applications.

It could “minimise the risk of accidental deviations that can arise with current evaluation methods”, they said.

It is unusual for this type of information to be made public, and the researchers acknowledged this in their paper. “There are currently no publicly available resources or standards for evaluating stealth performance in other countries,” Zhou’s team wrote.

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Why Trump’s tariff war with China is more dangerous than he thinks

https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3292767/why-trumps-tariff-war-china-more-dangerous-he-thinks?utm_source=rss_feed

US president-elect Donald Trump called tariffs “the most beautiful word in the dictionary” during his campaign for re-election. Judging by his now well-known character and first-term record, he is certain to walk his talk after his inauguration on January 20 and impose tariffs across the board on all goods imported into the United States.

Amid all the discussion of a potential new “tariff war”, though, we need to make clear the tension inherent in the term as it is crucial to understanding the complexity of the current international landscape.

The use of the word “tariff” suggests the prospect of difficult trade disputes between the US and its allies, and perhaps the rest of the world too. However, a tariff “war” could turn into something far more precarious – even a hot war – with China, which is much more able to stand up to any US pressure thanks to its manufacturing prowess.

Adam Tooze, a historian and professor at Columbia University, said during an Asia Society speech last month that China’s current industrialisation “is not the industrial revolution done again. Everything prior to this was a prelude to the Chinese industrial revolution of our lifetimes”.

Trump has been described as a master deal maker, but he is ignorant of the subtleties involved in a “tariff war”. China will leave no stone unturned to prepare for such a war, while Washington’s allies will seek to play down the tariffs theme and play up the US-China war game to create more strategic wiggle room for themselves.

To America’s allies, “tariff war” is an exaggeration if not an outright misnomer. The US can in fact confidently exert pressure on them to solve its trade issues. Canada is the latest case in point. Before he has even entered the White House, Trump’s call for tariffs on imports from Canada has heaped pressure on the US’ northern neighbour. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has resigned from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government while Trudeau has faced calls to step down.

This is despite Trudeau having sought to convince Trump that Canada and the US would “be able to do good things together” as the Trump administration was “significantly concerned about international pressures, particular overcapacity by China and unfair trade practices by China”.

That is the Trump who the world must deal with for another four years, one who has issued a warning to all countries against trying to find alternatives to the US dollar when trading with others. In a world without China, it would be simple for the US to do to every other country what it is doing to Canada and what it did to Japan in the 1980s.

But things are different with China. Beijing is standing firm as its status as a manufacturing powerhouse fuels the central government’s drive for national rejuvenation. It has sent tough signals to the incoming Trump administration with moves such as banning exports of certain rare earth minerals to the US, its call for Chinese companies not to use US-made chips and its investigation into Nvidia over what it sees as the US chipmaker’s violations of antitrust rules.

In the meantime, US allies appear to be making moves to ensure Trump’s second term does not go all his own way, most notably over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Earlier this month, French President Emmanuel Macron raised the prospect of stationing foreign peacekeepers in Ukraine, with estimates of up to 40,000 soldiers. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared to welcome the idea, though no concrete details have emerged.

This is not the first time Macron has made comments suggesting support for sending European troops into Ukraine, potentially putting him at odds with Washington and Brussels. Mark Rutte, a former Dutch prime minister and now the new chief of Nato, has warned that pushing for a deal that is bad for Ukraine would be “a dire security threat not only to Europe but also to the US”.

Trump famously pledged during his re-election campaign that he would end the war in Ukraine in one day and later asserted that “there should be an immediate ceasefire and negotiations should begin”. Macron and Europe appear to be issuing a challenge to Trump: clean up the mess in Ukraine or leave it to us to do our own way, with the latter option almost inevitably meaning Russia will be part of it.

Dealing with Russia will be a tall order for Trump. Russian President Vladimir Putin has made it clear his country has grander designs for Ukraine than Trump can accommodate, although he has indicated he is ready to talk to the new US president “any time”.

He has also sent public signals to China to provide reassurances about his allegiance to the strategic partnership between Moscow and Beijing. No matter how the world situation evolved, he said during a speech at a forum in Moscow on December 5, Russia would unswervingly advance its relationship with China, and China would always be Russia’s long-term and important economic and trade partner.

A few days after the speech, Russian envoy and former president Dmitry Medvedev was dispatched to Beijing to reinforce the proclamation.

The late Henry Kissinger was worried that the US had entered a strategic contest with China without a proper plan. The second Trump administration will prove that notion correct as its global game of whack-a-mole continues until it is exhausted, its allies are alienated and its attempts to contain China’s rightful rise prove ineffective.

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Xi says China’s economy on course to expand by 5% despite Trump concerns

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/31/xi-china-economy-trump-tariffs

China’s economy is on course to expand by 5% in 2025, according to president Xi Jinping, meeting official growth targets and rebutting concerns that Donald Trump’s incoming US administration will harm Beijing’s prospects in the new year.

Using his annual address to the nation, Xi sought to allay fears that the world’s second-largest economy would falter over the next 12 months after the government battled to prevent a slide towards recession during 2024.

Xi said China’s economy was “overall stable and progressing,” in a speech published by the official Xinhua news agency. He said risks in key areas were effectively addressed, while employment and prices remained steady.

The speech followed the December meeting of the Communist party politburo which was widely viewed as signalling the strongest commitment to economic stimulus in a decade, marking a shift towards more aggressive subsidies and cuts to the cost of borrowing.

“The current economic operation faces some new situations, challenges from the uncertainty of the external environment and pressure of transformation from old drivers of growth into new ones, but these can be overcome through hard work,” Xi said.

Trump is preparing to impose high tariffs on Chinese imports to punish what the incoming US president believes are unfair subsidies for Chinese industrial products.

China is expected to respond with restrictions on US companies operating inside China, including Elon Musk’s Tesla car company. Musk became a key adviser to Trump during his presidential campaign.

A precise growth target for 2025 will not be available until next month, but officials have flagged that 5% will be the expected outcome over the next year.

A series of stimulus measures since September 2024 are likely to have kept growth from falling below 4.8% in the last year. However, economists at Bloomberg have estimated a growth rate of only 4.5% for 2025, well below the 5% expected level and significantly lower than the 6% average reached before the pandemic.

Growth rates could be even lower than official figures suggest. The Chinese authorities have faced persistent accusations of massaging economic data to suit official forecasts, especially during the pandemic when Beijing ordered one of the most severe lockdowns of any major economy. Many analysts said the move depressed consumer spending and business activity by more than was shown in official data.

Senior policymakers are known to want China’s stock markets to grow at a stronger pace and more consistently to support wealth creation and private sector investment. Share prices improved in 2024 despite a dip on the last day, but the modest rise over the last year followed an unprecedented three-year decline.

Among the stimulus measures is a boost to public sector pay. It is understood the first significant pay rise for civil servants in several years was awarded before Christmas, as policymakers try to boost morale and spur spending.

According to a Bloomberg report, the basic salaries of many government employees were bolstered by at least 500 yuan ($68.51) a month, backdated to July.

China’s central bank is expected to make it easier for households and businesses to borrow after a slump in the housing market caused many property firms to go bust.

Xi also praised Russia and said the two countries would forward “hand in hand” on the right path, months after the two countries struck a “new era strategic partnership” on key issues.

Xi and Vladimir Putin agreed in May to deepen bilateral ties and cooperate on areas of mutual interest such as Taiwan, Ukraine and with respect to mutual rival the US.

Russia’s state-run RIA news agency also quoted Moscow’s ambassador to Beijing as saying last Friday that Xi will visit Russia in 2025.

China plans for 15% annual data industry growth as digitisation deepens

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3292930/china-plans-15-annual-data-industry-growth-digitisation-deepens?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s top economic planner has unveiled its blueprint for the country’s data industry, with ambitions for over 15 per cent annual growth in the sector by 2029 as digitalisation continues across the world’s second-largest economy.

Advancing the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and achieving breakthroughs in data technology were major points in a set of guidelines issued jointly on Monday by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and five other departments.

“The data sector is at the heart of industrial transformation,” said Chen Ronghui, deputy head of the commission’s National Data Administration, at a press briefing covering the guidelines on Tuesday.

Chen called attention to the integration of data with emerging industries such as autonomous driving, embodied AI and the “low-altitude economy” to “speed up strategic planning and seize opportunities for growth.”

The guidelines encouraged industry players and internet platforms to establish independent entities for data operations, aiming to strengthen and scale up the data sector through intensive, large-scale development.

At the same time, the document called for greater support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), urging larger entities to provide SMEs with access to data, algorithms and computing power.

Lower-level government bodies were also encouraged to fund early-stage and small enterprises, as well as establish specialised funds to cultivate professional investors within the data sector.

China has devoted more resources to its digital economy and platform companies as of late, with the integration of digital advancements expected to foster new sources of growth in the long term.

In October, the central government issued a notice to accelerate the development and utilisation of public data resources, the first explicit call in a document of its stature for promoting the “healthy development of the data industry”.

Monday’s guidelines also stressed the need for breakthroughs in core data technologies, such as data labelling and synthesis, while calling for “improvement on smart data collection, governance and application in alignment with AI development.”

By 2029, China should be at “the forefront of global data technology innovation”, the guidelines said, with new data-driven applications, services and business models, and “a group of internationally competitive data companies”.

The document also emphasised building a unified national computing power system, standards for data infrastructure and scalable solutions that can improve connectivity and integration across the sector.

Chen said at the briefing that only 2.9 per cent of the 32.85 zettabytes of data produced in China were preserved in 2023, with nearly 40 per cent of unused data left dormant by enterprises for more than one year, hindering its potential value. One zettabyte is equivalent to a trillion gigabytes.

The guidelines proposed improvements to data infrastructure, such as the creation of “trusted data spaces”, to facilitate smoother circulation and use.

A 10 per cent rise in data flows could boost gross domestic product by 0.2 per cent, Chen added, citing international research.

China recalls cars from Tesla, Trumpchi as safety issues emerge

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3292944/china-recalls-cars-tesla-trumpchi-safety-issues-emerge?utm_source=rss_feed

China has issued a recall for 77,650 domestically produced Tesla electric vehicles as well as more than 88,000 vehicles from four other carmakers due to safety hazards, including GAC Trumpchi, Mercedes-Benz and Chrysler.

The State Administration for Market Regulation announced on Tuesday that the Tesla recall involves Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, as a software issue may delay the display of faults detected by the tyre pressure monitoring system.

Additionally, the market regulator recalled 63 imported Model S and Model X vehicles from the US carmaker due to a potential airbag defect.

The recall came after 1.68 million Tesla vehicles were taken off the streets in August, when Beijing asked the company to resolve an issue with the lids of front trunks on certain models.

Another carmaker facing a significant recall is China’s GAC Trumpchi, based in Guangzhou, which will need to repair 74,422 vehicles for a software issue that could prevent the display of critical information in extreme situations.

German carmaker Mercedes-Benz has also been asked to repair 4,748 imported vehicles due to potential flaws in engine testing functions or insufficiently secured parts caused by loose bolts. The German truck manufacturer MAN SE was also required by regulators to repair 418 trucks due to insufficient high-temperature resistance in the sockets.

Separately, US carmaker Chrysler will recall 2,040 imported Jeep Grand Cherokees over defects in the signal material. Its parent company, Stellantis, also had to repair 2,459 imported Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe units for battery issues.

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Chinese warships make port call in Vietnam after talks on joint patrols

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3292880/chinese-warships-make-port-call-vietnam-after-talks-joint-patrols?utm_source=rss_feed

A Chinese naval fleet made a port call in Vietnam days after the two nations held talks on joint maritime patrols, as they move closer on defence despite their long-standing disputes over the South China Sea.

The fleet – led by the Changsha, a destroyer, and amphibious warfare ship Jinggangshan – docked in Da Nang on Vietnam’s east coast on Saturday, according to a statement from the People’s Liberation Army Southern Theatre Command.

It said they were welcomed by Vietnamese navy officials and Chinese diplomats.

The port call came days after the two navies wrapped up a four-day meeting on joint patrols, in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. The annual talks focus on management of the Gulf of Tonkin, which is known in China as the Beibu Gulf.

Neither side has released any details of the meeting.

The talks coincided with a joint patrol by the Chinese and Vietnamese coastguards in the northern part of the Gulf of Tonkin, according to the state-run Vietnam News Agency.

It was their fourth such joint patrol, held in waters off the coast of China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and Vietnam’s Quang Ninh province.

Part of the joint coastguard patrol mechanism that was established this year, the quarterly patrol aimed to “strengthen coordination in combating crimes and legal violations at sea, particularly during the year-end period”, according to the Vietnamese report.

The two socialist neighbours have stepped up engagement on maritime issues despite ongoing disputes over their territorial claims.

China’s claim to most of the South China Sea overlaps with Vietnam’s claims to the eastern waters, which it refers to as the East Sea. They are also among the rival claimants to the Paracel and Spratly Islands in the resource-rich, economically important waterway.

Earlier this year, China also for the first time declared a territorial line in the Gulf of Tonkin that is believed to cover a bigger area than the baseline under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos).

Vietnam has meanwhile accelerated land reclamation work in the disputed waters this year and conducted its first joint drill with the Philippines in the South China Sea – moves that concerned Beijing.

Despite the tensions, Beijing and Vietnam have held a number of high-level exchanges this year as they seek to move closer.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met his counterpart Bui Thanh Son in Beijing earlier this month. Chinese Premier Li Qiang also made a high-profile visit to Hanoi in October. And To Lam made Beijing one of his first stops after becoming Vietnam’s new leader, meeting President Xi Jinping in August.

Beijing and Hanoi also set up a bilateral “3+3” dialogue this year, adding public security to the traditional “2+2” of diplomacy and defence.

‘Sectors in distress’: China’s intense competition demands action, economic official warns

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3292901/sectors-distress-chinas-intense-competition-demands-action-economic-official-warns?utm_source=rss_feed

China should take action to abate low-quality vicious competition resulting in neijuan, or “involution”, and encourage high-quality development, a senior economic official said in an article published by the official newspaper of the Communist Party.

“Intensified involutionary competition in certain industries has driven down product prices, reducing profitability and putting some sectors in distress,” wrote Han Wenxiu, deputy director of the Central Financial and Economic Affairs Commission’s general office, in a piece published by People’s Daily on Tuesday.

“We should focus on raising standards in environmental protection, energy use, and technology, as well as accelerating industry mergers and reorganisations,” Han said, adding that competition that fosters growth should be encouraged while a “race to the bottom” should be curbed.

“Involutionary competition” refers to cutthroat competition wherein a rise in resource investment fails to generate proportional returns or support reinvestment in research and development.

It has been one of the major obstacles in China’s economy, as such intense internal competition is now prevalent in several sectors.

Echoing Han’s comments, Li Shufu, the founder and chairman of Geely, one of the major automobile manufacturers in China, pledged to “firmly oppose the vicious involutionary competition” in his year-end speech on Tuesday.

Han also underscored the importance of development in the hi-tech sector and called for strong support to foster the growth of more unicorn and gazelle enterprises.

Han’s suggestion came as top authorities in the world’s second-largest economy are taking a more proactive position in addressing the neijuan problem.

In December’s annual tone-setting central economic work conference, top leaders vowed to pursue the “comprehensive rectification of involutionary competition” while tightening regulation of local governments and enterprises.

This reflected a stronger stance compared with wording used in July by the Politburo, the centre of power within the Communist Party, which proposed to “prevent vicious involutionary competition” – the first time neijuan was mentioned in a central government conference readout.

Sectors most adversely affected by involution include electricity vehicles (EV) and the photovoltaic industry. In the first half of this year, 136 vehicle models saw price cuts, according to the China Automobile Dealers Association. And in the photovoltaic industry, the output value decreased by more than 44 per cent in the first three quarters of this year, according to the China Photovoltaic Industry Association.

“Instead of engaging in a price war, we should focus on technological innovation, quality, branding, service and corporate ethics,” said Li from Geely.

“We should not rely on short cuts or opportunistic tactics, avoid reckless development like the Great Leap Forward, refrain from pursuing short-term sales targets, and focus on long-term development and sustained growth.”

However, a price war in the EV sector is still projected by some company executives.

In an internal year-end letter, He Xiaopeng, CEO of Chinese EV maker Xpeng Motors, warned of fiercer competition in the EV industry in the coming year.

“Although the market penetration of new-energy vehicles is expected to keep rising, intense cost-cutting and the homogenisation of features will lead to fiercer competition, and those lacking core strengths will struggle to maintain long-term growth,” He said.

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Young man in China forced to remove skull-tattoo on face after struggling to find job

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/article/3292185/young-man-china-forced-remove-skull-tattoo-face-after-struggling-find-job?utm_source=rss_feed

A young man in China whose entire face is tattooed with a skull design leading to employment problems, has decided to undergo the painful process of tattoo removal.

He has also expressed deep regret and a desire to return to a normal life.

The 24-year-old, known as Xiaolong, is from Liaoning province in northeastern China.

Since 2018, he has adorned his body with tattoos, covering his face with a skull pattern, and his head, neck, limbs, and even tattooing the sclera of his left eye.

“I was rebellious back then, using tattoos as an outlet for my unhappiness,” Xiaolong said.

However, the tattoos brought considerable challenges, especially in his professional life.

“Over the past six years, they’ve caused significant difficulties for my family and me.

“Finding employment has been tough, I face constant insults during my livestreaming sessions, and even routine tasks like renewing my ID or using facial recognition become awkward and inconvenient,” he said.

In the face of such hardships, he deleted his social media accounts, decided to remove his tattoos and make a fresh start.

In October, and now living in Hebei province, northern China, he reached out to a tattoo removal specialist surnamed Yang in Changzhou, Jiangsu province north of Shanghai to begin removing a small tattoo on his hand.

By December 18, he returned to Changzhou, determined to erase his facial tattoos.

The process proved to be exceptionally challenging.

Due to the intense pain, Xiaolong had to pause the treatment after experiencing heart discomfort and went back to Hebei to recuperate before he could continue.

“This is one of the toughest tattoo removals I have ever handled,” Yang said.

The total cost has not been disclosed, but Xiaolong is determined.

“I regret it so much now. What seemed cool in the moment does not hold up in the long run. I just want to live a normal life again,” he said.

In China, tattoos are generally prohibited in certain professions, including for national athletes and some categories of civil servants.

For example, the General Administration of Sport of China mandates that national football players with existing tattoos must either remove or cover them during training and competitions.

Traditional Chinese beliefs often view having tattoos as improper, immoral, or as a sign of being a social outcast.

Xiaolong’s story, reported Jimu News, has drawn an online backlash.

One person said: “In ancient China, criminals had their crimes tattooed on their faces. Why would you voluntarily do this to yourself?”

“A word of advice for rebellious teens. If you want to look cool, try temporary tattoos. Ruining your appearance permanently is not cool, it is just foolish,” added another.

A third expressed support: “Erase the tattoos, start fresh, and good luck with your new beginning!”

China banks on festive handouts and tighter security to ward off social instability

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3292913/china-banks-festive-handouts-and-tighter-security-ward-social-instability?utm_source=rss_feed

Local governments across China are tightening security and giving handouts to underprivileged groups to try to ensure social stability over the holiday and legislative season.

In addition to the annual weeklong Lunar New Year holiday, meetings of provincial legislature and political consultative bodies will take place in January and February to select deputies for the national sessions – a particularly sensitive time on the country’s political calendar.

At a municipal work planning meeting in Beijing on Sunday, Communist Party boss Yin Li told cadres to “thoroughly investigate and resolve disputes, and make every effort to maintain social stability”, according to Beijing Daily.

Yin also told officials to take care of people in need “with heart and affection” during the festive season, respond to residents’ complaints immediately and resolve urgent problems faced by the public.

He also warned about industrial safety risks and threats from natural disasters, urging the city to prepare for extreme weather events such as blizzards and cold snaps.

The city should have cadres on duty round the clock to respond rapidly to emergencies, he said.

Similar instructions were delivered at provincial meetings across the country, including orders for local governments to identify potential threats among households, disperse holiday allowances to the poor, and nip social risks in the bud.

Threats to social stability were heightened by a “lone wolf” attack in the southern city of Zhuhai in November that claimed the lives of 35 people and wounded 43 others.

The perpetrator, who was sentenced to death on Friday, reportedly drove into a crowd because he was dissatisfied with the terms of a divorce settlement.

In the aftermath, Beijing sacked a slew of officials in the city and put its former top cop under investigation.

Less than a week after the Zhuhai attack, eight people were killed when a man armed with a knife went on the rampage at a college in the eastern province of Jiangsu.

In instructions released on Tuesday, cadres in northeastern province of Jilin were told to be on alert for disputes in their communities.

Potential areas of conflict included troubled marriages and family relations, neighbourhood disputes and delayed payments, the notice said.

Cadres should “strive to nip various unstable factors at the root”, while vowing to crack down on violent crimes, especially those that could affect women and children, it said.

In addition, authorities in Jilin should distribute “festive season subsidies” to the poor or people with special needs – as long as budgets allow.

More patrols should be arranged to distribute warm clothing, food and medicine to prevent people living on the street from freezing to death, it said.

Officials in the provinces of Guangdong and Shanxi were told to be on alert for similar problems.

Deng Yuwen, former deputy editor of the Study Times, the Central Party School’s official newspaper, said the authorities’ routine crackdowns and relief campaigns could “only treat the symptoms but not the cause” of the rising level of frustration within Chinese society, which results in frequent “lone wolf-style indiscriminate killings”.

“To truly resolve the hostility and tension, it is necessary for China to establish a fair and reasonable mechanism for the distribution of social wealth and restore the economy to medium-to-high-speed growth, so that society is optimistic about the future,” Deng said.

“The party is moving towards this direction, but way too slowly,” said Deng, who is now living in the United States as an independent political analyst.

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Chinese influencer teaches cleaning bloodstains, dissolving bones, sparks crime fears

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3292181/chinese-influencer-teaches-cleaning-bloodstains-dissolving-bones-sparks-crime-fears?utm_source=rss_feed

An influencer in China who teaches people how to clean bloodstains and bone residue has sparked concerns about the crime-related implications of his work.

The man, who uses the pseudonym Hua, hails from Guangdong province in southern China and claims to be a senior researcher at a biotechnology institute.

He shares household cleaning tutorials on a mainland Chinese short-video sharing platform, where he has attracted more than 350,000 followers.

In one video, Hua demonstrates how to clean bloodstains from a bathroom floor.

He pours hydrogen peroxide and toilet cleaner on the bloodstains, scrubs the area and successfully removes the stains, before telling viewers: “The internet is not a lawless place.”

In another video, Hua shows how toothpaste can be applied to bloodstains on pants, which can then be rinsed off with water.

He also uses luminol reagent and a UV light to detect any remaining traces of blood. This video has received 120,000 saves.

Online sources reveal that luminol is widely used in forensic science to detect wiped or old blood traces.

Hua also shows how to dissolve kitchen bones by soaking those from a chicken in drain cleaner and hot water.

Within 30 minutes, the bones break down into a red liquid.

“Drain cleaner contains hydroxide, a strong base that reacts with calcium in bones, causing decomposition,” says Hua.

He even demonstrates how to extract fingerprints from a phone screen using talcum powder in a video that earned 28,000 likes.

While he claims his tips are meant for tackling household problems, he also sells the drain cleaner used in his videos for 34 yuan (US$5) per bottle, with over 300 bottles sold online.

Hua’s videos have sparked widespread attention on mainland social media.

One online observer said: “Removing bloodstains and dissolving bones. This feels like a guide to the ‘perfect crime’. What if criminals start using these techniques?”

“Using such tutorials to sell cleaning products seems to incite crime. Hua should be worried about breaking the law,” said another.

However, one person defended the influencer, calling his tips practical.

“He has taught me to remove mould stains from clothes with toothpaste and vinegar. Hua is a very helpful and kind influencer. I trust he would not do anything illegal,” he said.

Hua’s research institute responded to the online criticism, saying that they are an internal corporate institute primarily focused on science popularisation rather than product sales.

A spokesperson explained that the videos, including those about bloodstains and bones, are designed to be engaging content.

“We would never teach people to commit crimes. Our goal is to educate on chemical principles and safe cleaning practices,” the spokesperson said.

Mainland media reported concerns from an anonymous forensic scientist, who noted that the luminol reagent in the video is commonly used in police investigations.

“I fear someone might use these methods to cover up crime scenes. Such sensational content should be removed,” the expert said.

A lawyer told the mainland media outlet Xinwen Fang that the videos do not break the law since they do not “directly” teach criminal methods.

However, the lawyer added: “If Hua were to advise netizens on committing crimes, like disposing of corpses, it could become an offence.”

In China, teaching criminal methods can result in up to 10 years in prison.

So far, Hua has not commented on the controversy. Some of his videos have been removed, leaving only normal tutorials, such as cleaning oil stains and appliance grime.

China’s Tiangong space station research aims to ‘break technology choke points’

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3292844/chinas-tiangong-space-station-research-aims-break-technology-choke-points?utm_source=rss_feed

In its first performance review of the Tiangong space station, the China Manned Space Agency said on Monday that 181 experiments and application projects were conducted, and nearly 2 tonnes of scientific materials delivered, as of December 1.

Looking ahead, the agency said China aims to break space technology choke points with thousands of experiments in Tiangong over the next 10 to 15 years intended to serve the nation’s crewed exploration programme.

“We aim to achieve major breakthroughs in important areas at the basic frontier of international science and achieve systematic knowledge … in applied fundamentals and new technologies,” it said.

“As a national space laboratory, China’s space station will carry out thousands of research projects over the next 10-15 years of operation.”

According to the report, research will focus on meeting demand for near-Earth and cislunar space – which lies between our planet and the moon’s orbit – as well as deep space exploration and orbital services.

The agency is also eyeing technology breakthroughs in precision measurements, in-orbit construction, robots and automation, as well as propulsion and life support, to address choke points in space equipment.

“China’s space station will proactively expand global cooperation on space science and application … open scientific data, and set up a pattern of diversified cooperation,” the report said.

China’s space ambitions continued to grow in 2024, with the country achieving multiple milestones amid its tense rivalry with the US – including a record-breaking spacewalk by two of the Tiangong’s astronauts in December.

In addition to the nine-hour extravehicular activities on December 18 – which set the world record for the longest single spacewalk – China in June became the first country to retrieve soil samples from the far side of the moon.

China is also training a new batch of crew members for its space programme, including two payload scientists from Hong Kong and Macau, and has started the research work needed to achieve low-cost cargo supply missions.

It is China’s intention to land astronauts on the moon and establish a lunar research station by 2030. Research and experiments have included the heavy rocket, crewed landing spacecraft and construction materials that will be needed for the lunar station.

More than 70 representative achievements in four major research areas carried out on the Tiangong were listed in the report, all aimed at supporting China’s plans for human space flight, as well as lunar landings and exploration.

Some of the research into the effects of space on the human body is already helping to maintain the Chinese astronauts’ brain and muscle health during their lengthy mission, according to the report.

There has also been work to enhance the performance of lunar exploration equipment, such as gel composite lubricating materials for lunar rovers, it said. Other technologies listed included wireless power distribution and hydrogen-oxygen fuel cells.

In the US, Nasa has said it could cost US$1 billion to deorbit the International Space Station (ISS) – the largest man-made structure in space which is at a slightly higher orbit than the Tiangong – and extended its operations until 2030.

The Chinese space station is about 20 per cent of the weight of the ISS but has more than half its capacity for experimental research.

Xi Jinping says China’s 2024 GDP growth expected to be around 5%

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3292866/xi-jinping-says-chinas-2024-gdp-growth-expected-be-around-5?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s economy is expected to have grown around 5 per cent this year, President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday, according to state news agency Xinhua.

Xi also pledged to take more proactive measures to support the economy next year.

He made the comments while delivering a speech at a New Year’s reception held by the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the top advisory body.

China will deepen its reform, expand opening up, and coordinate development and security, Xi added.

More to follow …

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Treasury says Chinese hackers remotely accessed workstations, documents in ‘major’ cyber incident

https://apnews.com/article/china-hacking-treasury-department-8942106afabeac96010057e05c67c9d5American flags are displayed with Chinese flags on top of a trishaw on Sept. 16, 2018, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)

2024-12-30T20:45:44Z

WASHINGTON (AP) — Chinese hackers remotely accessed several U.S. Treasury Department workstations and unclassified documents after compromising a third-party software service provider, the agency said Monday.

The department did not provide details on how many workstations had been accessed or what sort of documents the hackers may have obtained, but it said in a letter to lawmakers revealing the breach that “at this time there is no evidence indicating the threat actor has continued access to Treasury information.” It said the hack was being investigated as a “major cybersecurity incident.”

“Treasury takes very seriously all threats against our systems, and the data it holds,” a department spokesperson said in a separate statement. “Over the last four years, Treasury has significantly bolstered its cyber defense, and we will continue to work with both private and public sector partners to protect our financial system from threat actors.”

The revelation comes as U.S. officials are continuing to grapple with the fallout of a massive Chinese cyberespionage campaign known as Salt Typhoon that gave officials in Beijing access to private texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans. A top White House official said Friday that the number of telecommunications companies confirmed to have been affected by the hack has now risen to nine.

The Treasury Department said it learned of the problem on Dec. 8, when a third-party software service provider, BeyondTrust, flagged that hackers had stolen a key “used by the vendor to secure a cloud-based service used to remotely provide technical support” to workers. That key helped the hackers override the service’s security and gain remote access to several employee workstations.

The compromised service has since been taken offline, and there’s no evidence that the hackers still have access to department information, Aditi Hardikar, an assistant Treasury secretary, said in the letter Monday to leaders of the Senate Banking Committee.

The department said it was working with the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and others to investigate the impact of the hack, and that the hack had been attributed to Chinese state-sponsored culprits. It did not elaborate.

ERIC TUCKER Tucker covers national security in Washington for The Associated Press, with a focus on the FBI and Justice Department and the special counsel cases against former President Donald Trump. twitter mailto

Banks fined big as China’s bond yields plunge, reflecting resolve of central bank

https://www.scmp.com/economy/economic-indicators/article/3292839/banks-fined-big-chinas-bond-yields-plunge-reflecting-resolve-central-bank?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s central bank has imposed heavy fines on three financial institutions for bond-trading irregularities – the first of such punitive actions after it warned about plunging government bond yields from May.

In circulars released on its website on Monday, the People’s Bank of China said that the institutions – Shanghai East Asia Futures, Hunan Xupu Rural Commercial Bank and Tianjin Xintang Money Brokerage – were involved in misconduct designed to bypass regulatory and internal control requirements.

Three institutions were fined 36.07 million yuan (US$4.94 million), 13.1 million yuan and 11.03 million yuan, respectively. Meanwhile, 13 employees involved in these cases were penalised a total of 2.53 million yuan, while illegal gains of 8.57 million yuan from East Asia Futures were confiscated.

The three institutions were the first to be punished as the central bank has taken a zero-tolerance stance on such trading.

Amid declining returns from traditional assets such as stocks and real estate, investors are increasingly turning to low-risk options, such as government bonds, to diversify their portfolios.

Aggressive trading drove China’s 10-year bond yield down to an all-time low of 1.6981 per cent last week, down from 2.0253 per cent at the end of November. It stood at 1.7136 per cent as of Monday.

Meanwhile, the 30-year yield reached 1.955 per cent on Monday, down from 2.16 per cent earlier this month.

Also on Monday, the National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors held a meeting with some investment institutions to discuss strategies for managing the interest rate risk.

“Since the start of the year, a surge of capital has flowed into the bond market, causing market interest rates to drop rapidly and interest rate risks to gradually surface. However, concerns about missing trading opportunities have fuelled a strong herd mentality among investors,” the association, an affiliate of the central bank, said in an online statement.

The association said that the current bond market is overdrawing expectations of moderate monetary policy easing next year while raising concerns about the interest rate risk-management capabilities of some small and medium-sized institutions entering the market.

“We will actively promote the growth of the derivatives market,” it said. “For small and medium-sized financial institutions identified in the investigation with poor corporate governance and weak risk control capabilities, regulatory authorities will be promptly notified.”

While the government is trying to cool down the bond market while boosting economic stimulus, for the year, the drop in bond yields marks the largest annual decline since 2018.

AVIC Securities said in a report on Monday that bond market interest rates have fallen too quickly and may have prematurely exhausted the central bank’s capacity to cut rates next year.

“At present, the third round of reserve requirement ratio [cuts] expected within the year has already failed, and there is a risk that monetary easing will progress less than expected next year,” it said. “Sentiment in the bond market may have already overheated.”

Trump’s return gives China and Japan ‘strong interest in building better ties’

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3292752/trumps-return-gives-china-and-japan-strong-interest-building-better-ties?utm_source=rss_feed

China and Japan have stepped up engagement in recent months, but analysts say the trajectory of relations will largely come down to Tokyo’s political situation and its ties with the incoming Donald Trump administration.

Last week, when Takeshi Iwaya made his first visit to China as Japanese foreign minister, the two sides agreed to increase exchanges, to make it easier for Chinese to visit Japan, and to restart dialogue on security and diplomacy as well as talks on Japanese beef and milled rice imports.

It followed a meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Apec summit in Peru last month, when they agreed to work on “constructive and stable” ties, and talks between Ishiba and Chinese Premier Li Qiang at the Asean summit in Laos in October.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is also said to be planning a Japan trip in February for an economic dialogue last held in 2019 and could extend an invitation for Ishiba to visit China, Japanese news agency Kyodo reported, citing diplomatic sources.

Ishiba told Japanese media over the weekend that frequent engagement was needed to build trust between the two nations.

While security remains a stumbling block, analysts say Tokyo’s recent engagement with Beijing is a response to uncertainty over Washington’s commitment to allies and the potential harm to Japanese interests when Trump returns to the White House next month.

“Ishiba will maintain some level of outreach to Beijing as a hedge against otherwise one-sided, burdensome demands from Washington,” said Walter Hatch, a professor of government at Colby College in Maine and an Asian politics expert.

Japan has depended on the US for security under a defence pact established after World War II – a commitment Trump questioned during his first term, when he called for Tokyo to pay more for US troops stationed on Japanese soil. Trump is expected to again apply pressure on that front and has also threatened to impose higher tariffs on imports from China and other countries.

“With ‘America first’ Trumpism on the rise in Washington, both Tokyo and Beijing have a strong interest in building better ties to protect against unilateralism,” Hatch said.

Meanwhile Ishiba wants to “rebalance Japan’s relations with the world’s two superpowers, asserting a bit more autonomy in the otherwise highly subordinate alliance with the US”.

“With Trump about to take office, Ishiba wants to signal that Tokyo will not be bullied into deals with Washington that would undermine Japanese interests,” Hatch said.

“He wants the president-elect to know that Japan has other options.”

But it will involve mending fences with Beijing. Relations between the Asian neighbours have been strained in recent years over Japan’s wartime aggression, their territorial disputes in the East China Sea, and the issue of Taiwan.

At the same time, Japan has moved closer to the US amid the escalating rivalry between Beijing and Washington and concerns over China’s growing military might – and its activities close to Japan.

According to Zhang Yilun, a research associate at the Washington-based Institute for China-America Studies (ICAS), Beijing has an opportunity to improve relations with both Tokyo and Seoul.

Japan, South Korea and the United States held a summit at Camp David last year to counter China.

Zhang said that with Ishiba now in power in Japan, Joe Biden leaving office in less than a month and the impeachment of South Korean leader Yoon Suk-yeol, the consensus struck at Camp David could be in question under the new Trump administration.

“For China, this will be a particularly good time to repair relations with Japan so that another Camp David trilateral summit will not happen in the same form soon,” he said.

Zhang Yun, an associate professor of international relations at Niigata University in Japan, said Ishiba had pushed for a more equitable relationship with the US, and more autonomous ties with China.

“Sino-Japanese relations often show initial signs of improvement but it’s a struggle to maintain momentum,” he said, adding that Iwaya’s visit to China was a positive development but it remained to be seen whether the two sides could grasp the momentum.

Zhang from ICAS agreed. “It is too soon to say that these outcomes [from last week’s talks] will produce concrete results that fundamentally repair bilateral relations,” he said.

“But these bilateral mechanisms will certainly build mutual trust through constant and candid exchanges, and will deliver more tangible outcomes as they are … focused on specific issues.”

In Japan, Ishiba’s political base is unstable. He heads a minority government after his Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner the Komeito lost their majority in the lower house of parliament.

Ishiba is walking a political tightrope ahead of the upper house election in July – another electoral defeat would bring calls for accountability, and it could force him to resign as prime minister.

According to Zhang from Niigata University, another challenge to any thaw in ties with China was likely to come from Trump.

“If Trump opts to comprehensively pressure and contain China, he is likely to require Tokyo to obediently follow suit,” he said. “In that scenario, it’s uncertain whether Ishiba would be able to resist US pressure and continue to pursue a more autonomous approach towards dealing with China.”

Lian Degui, director of the Centre for Japanese Studies at Shanghai International Studies University, said Ishiba was determined to boost engagement with China, and that push would continue.

“If Ishiba did not have such a strong desire, he could have waited for Trump to take office to see how the US reacted before making any moves to improve Sino-Japanese relations at this time,” he said.

His approach to Taiwan has also been different from that of his predecessors, observers say. Ishiba visited the self-ruled island in August before he became prime minister but has refrained from the explicit support shown by other Japanese leaders. He also said the Taiwan situation was “more complex” than when Japan and China normalised relations in 1972.

Hatch said Ishiba’s position on Taiwan was more nuanced and less slavishly pro-US than previous governments under Fumio Kishida and the late Shinzo Abe.

Beijing views Taiwan as part of China to be united, by force if necessary. Japan, like most other countries including the US, does not recognise the island as independent. Washington opposes any attempt to take Taiwan by force and is legally bound to supply weapons to the island. Tokyo has also intensified engagement with the island in recent years, stoking tensions with Beijing.

Zhang from ICAS said given that the US commitment to Taiwan was not clear under Trump 2.0, “it is wise not to attract too much attention to the issue of Taiwan since it will be Japan, not the US, who will be at the forefront in a potential Taiwan contingency”.

Chinese ships seen near Diaoyu Islands for record 353 days in 2024 – to ‘outlast’ Japan?

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3292785/chinese-ships-seen-near-diaoyu-islands-record-353-days-2024-outlast-japan?utm_source=rss_feed

Chinese coastguard vessels have been identified operating in the contiguous zone just outside Japanese territorial waters around disputed islands in the East China Sea for a record 353 days this year, surpassing the 352 days they were present last year.

Analysts suggest Beijing’s action is designed to undermine Tokyo’s sovereignty over the islands, which are claimed by the Chinese and referred to as the Diaoyu archipelago. Tokyo presently administers the uninhabited territories, known locally as the Senkaku Islands.

Observers also say Beijing appears to be pushing Japan’s defensive capacities to their limits in an effort to “outlast” Tokyo in waters around the islands.

According to the Japan Coast Guard, Chinese government vessels entered territorial waters around the islands on 39 occasions this year.

The Japan Coast Guard also said Chinese vessels attempted to approach Japanese fishing boars operating in Japanese waters on 18 occasions this calendar year, matching the previous record reported in 2021.

“China is basically trying to solidify its claims to the area and indicating that it does not recognise Japan’s exclusive economic zone [EEZ] around the islands,” said Ryo Hinata-Yamaguchi, associate professor in Tokyo International University’s Institute for International Strategy.

“Japan is very limited in what it can do in response to these intrusions and it is clear that China is being extremely strategic in how it is acting because it knows very well that the Japanese side is not able to respond in a very strong way,” he told This Week in Asia.

“China can afford to be patient and while I do not see an emergency emerging right now, I think it is safe to assume that China intends to push the envelope further in the future.”

Beijing is investing heavily in its military and coastguard capabilities, according to Hinata-Yamaguchi, and it “would come as no surprise” to find more Chinese government vessels operating in other areas of the Pacific that Japan has traditionally considered to be its waters. That could include areas close to Okinotorishima, an uninhabited atoll south of Tokyo that Japan uses to extend its EEZ into the Pacific, but which Beijing claims is too small to sustain human life and therefore should not be used to justify Japanese control of a vast area of the ocean.

“China might not be able to do anything like it has done in the South China Sea, but we can expect a greater presence throughout the region and Beijing obviously has the will and the capacity to grow its capabilities further,” he added.

Beijing’s belligerence over the disputed islands is in contrast to other messages coming out of China, according to James Brown, a professor of international relations at the Tokyo campus of Temple University.

“In recent weeks we have seen China being more friendly towards Japan, out of concerns over the domestic economy and Donald Trump about to return to the White House with a very aggressive stance on China, but the Senkakus seems to be an exception to that rule,” Brown said.

“The trend is clearly towards even greater activity around the islands, which has serious implications for the Japan Coast Guard. This places an extraordinary burden on the Japanese to try to maintain a presence and to match or even exceed the Chinese presence.”

Brown agrees that China is attempting to wrest administrative control from Japan by claiming that its forces actually dominate local activities, which could cause problems under the Japan-US security arrangement, particularly if a Trump administration is unwilling to come to Tokyo’s assistance.

“The US is committed to defend the Senkakus, but that is on the basis that the islands are administered by Japan,” Brown said. “If Japan effectively loses administrative control, that raises the question of whether the US is committed to defending the islands. That, I would suggest, is Beijing’s long-term goal.”

China has learned from its actions in the South China Sea that it has the resources to simply outlast other countries’ ability to defend territory that they claim and will employ the same tactics on the Senkakus, he added.

Brown anticipates the gradual ramping up of pressure on Japanese forces around the islands

“I expect to see more of the same, a slow increase in the pressure,” he said. “There will be more ships in more locations because China can just keep doing it for longer than Japan. The situation is different from the Philippines, but Beijing still calculates that it will win in a game of numbers.”

The growing Chinese presence in waters off southwest Japan is leading to increased concern among residents of Okinawa prefecture, with coverage in the local Yaeyama Daily News of the latest figures on Chinese coastguard ships attracting angry responses from readers.

“China’s ‘salami-slicing’ tactics have gone too far,” read one message on the newspaper’s website. “It is necessary for the people of Okinawa and each and every Japanese citizen to be mentally prepared for the possibility of a Taiwan emergency and the damage it would cause to Okinawa.”

Another added, “I occasionally see comments about the ‘peaceful resolution of the Senkaku Islands issue’, but is peaceful diplomacy possible with a country that is roaming around with ships equipped with machine guns and committing acts of violence? It’s like being harassed by a group of neighbourhood delinquents. Self-defence is the only way to fight back.”

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China’s factory activity continues expanding in December

https://www.scmp.com/economy/economic-indicators/article/3292825/chinas-factory-activity-continues-expanding-december?utm_source=rss_feed

A major gauge of China’s factory activity has stayed in expansionary territory for three months in a row, adding momentum to the country’s economic recovery as the external environment is poised to become more fraught in 2025.

The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) – an indicator of sentiment among factory owners – fell to 50.1 in December compared with 50.3 a month earlier, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Tuesday.

A PMI reading above 50 indicates expansion in the manufacturing sector, while a reading below 50 signals contraction.

Within the manufacturing PMI, the subindex for new export orders rose to 48.3 in December, compared with 48.1 in November.

Meanwhile, China’s non-manufacturing PMI – which tracks activity in the service and construction sectors – expanded to 52.2 in December after a neutral reading of 50 was reported the previous month.

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‘Saliva oil’: China eatery recycles leftovers, blends with new ingredients for resale

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3292177/saliva-oil-china-eatery-recycles-leftovers-blends-new-ingredients-resale?utm_source=rss_feed

A Sichuan hotpot restaurant has been punished by the local government for creating “saliva oil” by recycling the leftover chilli oil soups of diners and mixing the brew with new oil to serve the next customers.

The Nanchong Market Regulation Administration, in northwestern China’s Sichuan province, reported on December 2 that it busted a hotpot restaurant that recycled leftover “old oil” and added it into its hotpot soup base.

The government conducted an investigation on the restaurant after receiving a tip-off from a diner.

They seized 11.54 kilos of recycled beef tallow, a chief ingredient of Sichuan and Chongqing spicy hotpot, in the restaurant’s kitchen.

They also examined four pots of ready-made soups that contained beef tallow that looked different from packaged beef tallow they bought from legitimate companies.

The restaurant’s owner, surnamed Chen, admitted that they had been extracting chilli oil from diners’ leftover soup base since September, and mixing it up with new oil, to “improve the soup’s flavour” and “mend its dismal business”.

The administration confiscated all the recycled oil, and transferred the case to the local police department for further investigation.

China’s Food Safety Law, which first came into effect in 2009, bans the reuse of leftover food ingredients.

The law, considered as the country’s harshest food safety regulations to date, was much expected after mainland reporters revealed some vendors’ illicit practice of recycling “gutter oil” obtained from restaurant garbage disposals and selling it back to restaurants.

The term “gutter oil” is also widely known in Taiwan, after the first documented case of a company manufacturing cooking oil using garbage obtained from pig farmers was revealed in 1985.

According to China’s Criminal Law, people who mix harmful raw materials into food for sale face a fine and up to five years’ imprisonment.

The Nanchong Market Regulation Administration also recently seized another hotpot restaurant that had been using “saliva oil” in its soup base since October 2023.

However, on mainland social media, some people from Sichuan and Chongqing, the two southwestern Chinese provinces known for spicy hotpot, said it was a traditional practice for hotpot restaurants to mix old and new oil and it did spice up the flavour.

“It is an open secret among local diners, yet we still go to hotpot restaurants because the hotpot without old oil is not delicious,” said one online observer from Chongqing.

“The reason why the packaged hotpot soup base is not as delicious as that in the restaurants is the recycled oil,” another person from Sichuan said.

A third said she could accept recycling old oil but the oil must be “filtered and heated at a high temperature”.

The traditional practice of making “saliva oil” requires the leftover soup base to be heated and filtered, before being heated again to more than 115 degrees Celsius.

Another person expressed concern over food safety: “The risk of catching infectious disease from recycled food material is unbearable.”

China’s new forex rules require banks to tighten scrutiny on cryptocurrency trades

https://www.scmp.com/tech/blockchain/article/3292795/chinas-new-forex-rules-require-banks-tighten-scrutiny-cryptocurrency-trades?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s foreign exchange regulator released new rules that require banks to flag risky trades, including those involving cryptocurrencies, which would make it more difficult for mainland investors to buy and sell bitcoin and other digital assets.

Banks are expected to monitor and report “risky foreign exchange trading behaviours”, including underground banks, cross-border gambling and illegal cross-border financial activities involving cryptocurrencies, according to last week’s announcement by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

The rules, applicable to local banks across mainland China, also require them to track such activities based on the identity of the institutions and individuals involved, source of funds and trading frequency, among other factors.

In addition, banks are required to put in place risk-control measures that cover those entities and restrict provision of certain services to them, the regulator said.

The latest rules reflect how Beijing continues to exercise draconian regulation to root out commercial cryptocurrency activities, such as bitcoin trading and mining, as the digital asset is considered a threat to the country’s financial stability.

“The new rules will provide another legal basis for punishing cryptocurrency trading,” Liu Zhengyao, a lawyer at ZhiHeng law firm in Shanghai, wrote in a WeChat post last week. “It can be foreseen that mainland China’s regulatory attitude towards cryptocurrencies will continue to tighten in the future.”

The practice of using the yuan to buy cryptocurrencies before exchanging the digital asset for various foreign fiat currencies can be considered “cross-border financial activities involving cryptocurrencies” under the new forex rules, especially if the amount exceeded the legally allowed value, according to Liu.

The new rules will make it “increasingly difficult in the future to evade the country’s forex regulations through crypto”, Liu said.

Beijing first banned initial coin offerings and ordered crypto exchanges to shut down in 2017. It ramped up this crackdown in 2021, when bitcoin mining was banned and all crypto-related businesses were declared illegal.

A historic rally in bitcoin prices, fuelled by Donald Trump’s crypto-friendly stance and his US election victory, has prompted more experts in China to call for a relaxation of Beijing’s strict policies against these digital assets.

Still, the Chinese government has given no indication that it will loosen regulation and open up this sector.

The Supreme People’s Court in August ruled that using cryptocurrency to transfer or convert criminal proceeds violate China’s criminal law, which raises legal risks for traders.

Last year, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and forex regulator called for stronger supervision of forex trading, especially in cases where the tether stablecoin was used as an intermediary to trade the yuan with other currencies.

WHO implores China to finally share Covid origins data, five years on

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/31/who-china-covid-19-origins-data-coronavirus

The World Health Organization on Monday implored China to share data and access to help understand the origins of Covid-19, five years on from the start of the pandemic that upended the planet.

“We continue to call on China to share data and access so we can understand the origins of Covid-19. This is a moral and scientific imperative,” the WHO said in a statement.

Covid-19 killed more than seven million people, shredded economies and crippled health systems.

“Without transparency, sharing, and cooperation among countries, the world cannot adequately prevent and prepare for future epidemics and pandemics,” the WHO said.

The WHO recounted how on 31 December 2019, its country office in China picked up a media statement from health authorities in Wuhan concerning cases of “viral pneumonia” in the city.

“In the weeks, months and years that unfolded after that, Covid-19 came to shape our lives and our world,” the UN health agency said.

“As we mark this milestone, let’s take a moment to honour the lives changed and lost, recognise those who are suffering from Covid-19 and Long Covid, express gratitude to the health workers who sacrificed so much to care for us, and commit to learning from Covid-19 to build a healthier tomorrow.”

Earlier this month, the WHO’s director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus addressed the issue of whether the world was better prepared for the next pandemic than it was for Covid-19.

“The answer is yes, and no,” he told a press conference.

“If the next pandemic arrived today, the world would still face some of the same weaknesses and vulnerabilities that gave Covid-19 a foothold five years ago.

“But the world has also learned many of the painful lessons the pandemic taught us, and has taken significant steps to strengthen its defences against future epidemics and pandemics.”

In December 2021, spooked by the devastation caused by Covid, countries decided to start drafting an accord on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.

The WHO’s 194 member states negotiating the treaty have agreed on most of what it should include, but are stuck on the practicalities.

A key fault-line lies between western nations with major pharmaceutical industry sectors and poorer countries wary of being sidelined when the next pandemic strikes.

While the outstanding issues are few, they include the heart of the agreement: the obligation to quickly share emerging pathogens, and then the pandemic-fighting benefits derived from them such as vaccines. The deadline for the negotiations is May 2025.

China’s financial corruption crackdown reeled in dozens of naughty bankers in 2024

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3292750/chinas-financial-corruption-crackdown-reeled-dozens-naughty-bankers-2024?utm_source=rss_feed

China’s financial sector has undergone profound changes, marked by intensified anti-corruption efforts, as the industry takes on the critical task of preventing risks and propping up the country’s real economy.

The heightened scrutiny is part of the broader transformation that the sector has seen in recent years, along with shrinking profitability and widespread pay cuts, amid mounting economic challenges from slumping stock and property markets.

Around 90 financial-industry executives have been investigated so far this year, with 70 per cent of the cases involving the banking system, according to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), China’s top anti-corruption agency.

This is slightly down from last year, when more than 100 financial cadres or executives were placed under investigation, with a similar proportion of about 70 per cent coming from the banking system.

Among those investigated this year were three high-level officials directly managed by the central government, among which Zhang Gengsheng, a former vice-president of state-owned China Construction Bank, was the latest to fall.

The CCDI said last month that Zhang was under investigation for “serious violations of party discipline and the law”, a common euphemism for corruption.

Lou Wenlong, a former vice-president of the Agricultural Bank of China, was reportedly arrested earlier this month on bribery charges, after the CCDI announced an investigation into him in May.

In its statement last month, the CCDI accused Lou of exploiting his position in the financial sector to seek benefits for others in areas such as financing and project contracting, while illegally accepting substantial bribes.

Results from the National Bureau of Statistics’ latest five-year census, released last week, showed that the combined assets of financial firms surged 57.2 per cent from 2018 to 505.9 trillion yuan last year.

The amount accounted for 35.2 per cent of the total assets of all surveyed entities – despite the sector representing just 0.3 per cent of businesses and 2.9 per cent of the working population.

The combined liabilities of financial firms also expanded 58.1 per cent to 433.9 trillion yuan over the same period.

The growth has raised concerns in Beijing about excessive financial speculation. In response, the government has stepped up oversight, establishing a financial affairs commission and guiding capital into the development of the non-financial sector.

In January, President Xi Jinping laid out a road map for China to become a “financial superpower” with a focus on the real economy, while stressing that financial workers must stay honest and trustworthy, righteously pursue profits, and not seek quick success or benefits.

At a national work conference for the financial system earlier this month, Vice-Premier He Lifeng, who is also director of the Office of the Central Financial Commission, stressed the need to strengthen financial supervision and improve finance’s support for the real economy.

He, who also heads the Central Financial Work Commission, called for efforts to prevent and defuse financial risks and external shocks, promote the steady development of the capital market and guard against systemic risks.

A “moderately loose” monetary policy should be well implemented to stimulate domestic demand, with an expansion of “white list” real estate projects to help stabilise a housing market, he added.

The white list is an itemised register of real estate projects or developers that have been ruled compliant with regulations and thereby eligible for financial support.

China to spur mergers in US$1.6 trillion stockbroking sector after Guotai-Haitong deal: analysts

https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3292700/china-spur-mergers-us16-trillion-stockbroking-sector-after-guotai-haitong-deal?utm_source=rss_feed

Consolidation in China’s 12 trillion yuan (US$1.6 trillion) brokerage sector is expected to accelerate next year, as more industry players answer Beijing’s call to create world-class investment banks that can rival global giants like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

More high-profile, government-led deals are likely to emerge in 2025 following the megamerger of Guotai Junan Securities and Haitong Securities, which is expected to create the industry’s largest firm by assets, according to analysts. Brokerages that have state-backed shareholders in common are more likely to be paired up, they say.

Shanghai, home to China’s largest stock market, has signalled it will do more to help cultivate two to three investment banks that can compete on the global stage by 2035. In a three-year plan, unveiled earlier this month to support asset revamps of the city’s listed companies, Shanghai highlighted the need to expedite brokerage mergers to construct top-tier investment banks.

“The consolidation in the brokerage industry is accelerating,” said Xu Yingying, an analyst at Caitong Securities. “The policy direction is crystal clear: boosting competitiveness by mergers and acquisitions as well as an optimisation of the allocations of state-owned financial assets.”

The initiative to nurture home-grown, world-class investment banks was first mooted by China Securities Regulatory Commission chairman Wu Qing as part of the package to arrest a decline in the stock market. The objective was subsequently endorsed in a high-level guideline document issued by the State Council this year, which called for a restructuring of the industry to sharpen competitiveness.

At least six merger plans have been rolled out since then. Aside from the Guotai Junan-Haitong tie-up – valued at about 100 billion yuan – Zheshang Securities bid for a 15 per cent stake in Guodu Securities and Guolian Securities unveiled a plan to buy out Minsheng Securities.

Brokerages with common ownership are likely candidates for consolidation. Speculation has been swirling that China International Capital Corp would merge with China Galaxy Securities; Central Huijin Investment has a controlling stake in both firms.

It is likely the same story for Hua An Securities and Guoyuan Securities; the state-asset regulator in eastern Anhui province is their largest shareholder. A pairing of Changjiang Securities and Tianfeng Securities is also a good bet, as both firms are backed by the Hubei provincial government, according to market observers.

“There are too many brokers relative to the size of the market, and all this is leading to very tough competition,” said Michael Chang, head of Asian financials at CGS International Securities Hong Kong. “So across the industry, there is a belief that you have to [consolidate]. If you consolidate, you can have economies of scale, better efficiency ratios and … as you become bigger, you should be more able to compete against the global investment banks.”

By the end of 2023, China’s securities industry had a total of 11.8 trillion yuan worth of assets with 145 companies, according to the Securities Association of China. That was a fraction of 433 trillion yuan in assets for the nation’s banking sector.

A consolidated brokerage industry with larger players would also help the sector to compete in terms of scale and diversity of revenue sources, according to Fitch Ratings.

Average revenue generated by China’s leading brokerages was less than US$10 billion over the past few years, about a fifth of global peers like Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, the ratings agency said.

Fitch also said Chinese brokers are too reliant on stockbroking and proprietary trading, which makes them vulnerable to market gyrations. Global rivals earn between 30 and 50 per cent of their revenue from asset- and wealth-management businesses.

In the first nine months of 2024, China’s publicly traded brokerages reported an average profit decline of 6.1 per cent from a year earlier, along with a 6.3 per cent drop in revenue, according to data from Tianfeng Securities. The benchmark CSI 300 Index is up 16 per cent so far this year, but trading has been volatile in reaction to stimulus news – and this has hurt demand for stocks.

Chinese brokerages also need to grow so they can innovate technologically and satisfy clients’ desire to diversify their investments, said Xi Cheng, an associate director at S&P Global Ratings. China’s evolving economic landscape would fuel more equity financing as well as demand for access to overseas investments and wealth-management products, she said.

“These investment banks need to be on a certain scale and once you have a scale, your efficiency ratio is improving, you have stronger brand value, and you should be able to attract more customers,” CGSI’s Chang said. “But with the state of the industry right now, you do need more consolidation and that is clearly the [way] that things are going.”

US Treasury’s workstations breached in cyber-attack by China – report

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/30/china-treasury-cyberattack

A Chinese state-sponsored actor was behind a cyberattack on the US Treasury department earlier this month, resulting in unauthorized access to some of its workstations, Agence France-Presse reported on Monday, citing a letter to Congress.

The actor compromised a third-party cybersecurity service provider, BeyondTrust. The hackers were able to access workstations and some unclassified documents, but there is no evidence that the entity has continued access to the department’s systems, the report said.

After being alerted by BeyondTrust, the Treasury department contacted the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency and is collaborating with law enforcement to assess the impact.

The Treasury department and BeyondTrust did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

[Sport] US Treasury says it was hacked by China in 'major incident'

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3weye2j0e7o

BBC

US Treasury says it was hacked by Chinese state-sponsored actor

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3292817/us-treasury-says-it-was-hacked-chinese-state-sponsored-actor?utm_source=rss_feed

The US Treasury Department was hacked by a Chinese state-sponsored actor through a third-party software service provider, the agency said in a letter to Congress on Monday.

“On December 8, 2024, Treasury was notified by a third-party software service provider, BeyondTrust, that a threat actor had gained access to a key used by the vendor to secure a cloud-based service used to remotely provide technical support for Treasury Departmental Offices (DO) end users,” according to the letter seen by Bloomberg News.

“Based on available indicators, the incident has been attributed to a China state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actor.”

The hacker was able to remotely access certain Treasury workstations and “certain unclassified documents maintained by those users”, the department said in the letter to Senators Sherrod Brown and Tim Scott.

“The compromised BeyondTrust service has been taken offline and there is no evidence indicating the threat actor has continued access to Treasury systems or information,” a Treasury spokesperson said.

BeyondTrust did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

China rolls out world’s first military-proof 5G that can connect 10,000 army robots

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3292490/china-rolls-out-worlds-first-military-proof-5g-can-connect-10000-army-robots?utm_source=rss_feed

China has unveiled the world’s first mobile 5G base station, which, after passing rigorous tests, is now poised for deployment on the battlefield.

Jointly developed by China Mobile Communications Group and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), it can provide unprecedented high-speed, low-latency and extremely secure and reliable data exchange services to at least 10,000 users within a 3km (1.8 mile) radius.

Even when PLA troops are advancing at 80km/h (50mph) in complex terrains, such as mountains or cities, and are subjected to electromagnetic interference, the system can still maintain an uninterrupted total throughput of 10 gigabits per second and a latency of less than 15 milliseconds.

The technology was detailed in a peer-reviewed paper published on December 17 in the Chinese journal, Telecommunications Science, by a project team led by senior engineer Hou Jie with the 31567 Unit of the PLA.

This advance has cleared the way for the large-scale use of intelligent war machines. China is building the largest unmanned army on Earth and these powerful yet inexpensive drones, robot dogs and other forms of unmanned combat platforms are expected to outnumber human soldiers on future battlefields. However, existing military communication technologies cannot meet the massive data exchange demands among thousands of robots.

Military 5G differs significantly from the civilian version. The PLA demands uninterrupted connectivity in the absence of ground base stations or when satellite signals are compromised.

Additionally, the antenna installed on communication vehicles must not exceed 3 metres (9.8 feet) in height to avoid hitting obstacles such as buildings or trees. But this severely affects the coverage range of high-quality signals.

To address this, scientists from China Mobile and military engineers developed a platform that can be mounted on the top of a military vehicle to house three to four drones. These drones can take off alternately during the march and serve as an aerial base station. Then, if a drone’s battery is about to die, it can hand over the task to another and automatically land on the vehicle’s roof for charging.

The PLA has conducted “many tests” on this system and confirmed that it can effectively “solve issues such as frequent disconnections and low speeds encountered in practical applications”, thus achieving “safe, reliable and rapid deployment”.

A major threat to military 5G is electromagnetic interference, which can come not only from the enemy but also from friendly forces operating in the same area.

Hou’s team said these issue were resolved through technological innovation and equipment upgrades. For example, a small communication terminal on the user side can transmit data at an ultra-high power of up to 400 megawatts when subjected to electromagnetic suppression, while still maintaining long-term operation with extremely low energy consumption.

The military 5G also makes use of China’s latest civilian technologies. As of November 2024, China had built nearly 4.2 million civilian 5G base stations, far exceeding any other country.

“The operation of such a vast network necessarily requires powerful automation tools and means, among which automatic station opening technology is one. It can autonomously complete core network base station data production, data loading, baseline parameter configuration and other tasks,” Hou’s team wrote.

They directly introduced civilian automatic opening tools into the military version and made slight modifications to achieve automatic switching between drones and ground base stations, which can be completed in the blink of an eye.

In 2020, the United States launched what it claimed to be the world’s largest 5G technology militarisation campaign, but progress has been slow due to technical challenges.

Lockheed Martin and telecoms company Verizon have collaborated to build a similar demonstration system and are conducting small-scale tests. According to public information, the 5G.MIL system has a latency of up to 30 milliseconds when transmitting data between two Humvee vehicles around 100 metres (328 feet) apart.

While this result satisfied the US military, it falls far short of the PLA’s minimum requirements, according to Hou’s paper.