Economic challenges, South China Sea disputes, and tech wars
Economic challenges, South China Sea disputes, and tech wars
+ Zheng Qinwen wins China's first Olympic tennis singles gold
Welcome back to What’s Happening in China, your weekly update on the latest news and developments from the country.
I hope you’re having a fantastic weekend, hopefully not too hot.
Today's issue may be cut off in your inbox. Click here for the full content.
Before we begin, please remember to like, comment, restack, or share this newsletter with friends, family, and colleagues. Your support helps us grow and reach more people.
Let’s jump into it.
Was this forwarded to you? You can click here to get What’s Happening in China delivered straight to your inbox every Saturday.
THROUGH THE LENS
IN FOCUS
“The U.S. government should discourage Beijing from building a wall that can sanction-proof the Chinese economy.“
[…] Western leaders and policymakers would do well to understand the deeper forces driving China’s overcapacity and make sure that their own policies are not making it worse. Rather than seeking to further isolate China, the West should take steps to keep Beijing firmly within the global trading system, using the incentives of the global market to steer China toward more balanced growth and less heavy-handed industrial policies. In the absence of such a strategy, the West could face a China that is increasingly unrestrained by international economic ties and prepared to double down on its state-led production strategy, even at the risk of harming the global economy and stunting its own prosperity.
Read: China’s Real Economic Crisis
Related:
XINJIANG
US blacklists five more Chinese firms over Uyghur slavery
RFA
The United States has banned imports from five more Chinese companies accused of profiting from the slave labor of Uyghurs trapped in what Beijing calls “poverty alleviation” programs.
Americans are now explicitly banned from doing business with 73 companies on the 2021 Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act’s Entity List, although a broader prohibition on importing any goods produced even in part by the slave labor of Uyghurs is also in place.
POLITICS & SOCIETY
China’s third plenum highlights the quiet rise of political theorist Wang Huning
SCMP
Wang’s positions have given him sway in a long list of policy areas, including Taiwan, ethnic minority groups, the border regions of Xinjiang and Tibet, as well as Beijing’s courtship of the country’s private sector.
According to Neil Thomas, a Chinese politics fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Centre for China Analysis, Wang’s role on the drafting team “shows that his political influence exceeds what is normal for a CPPCC chairman”.
“Wang appears to still serve as Xi’s brains trust for his domestic reform agenda,” Thomas said.
Wang had gained Xi’s trust because he “is a believer in centralising power, fighting corruption, and prioritising hi-tech growth and has helped to make these issues central to Xi’s political agenda”.
“He is a political survivor who loyally served Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao but found his greatest supporter in Xi Jinping. Wang’s neo-authoritarian intellectual project is a perfect complement to Xi’s centralising political project,” he said.
How to Better Protect Procedural Justice for Criminal Suspects in China
Caixin
China’s legislature plans to amend its Criminal Procedure Law (CPL) to enhance procedural justice and address recent issues, with the draft scheduled for review within the 2023-2028 term.
Proposed reforms include ensuring trial-centered proceedings, increasing defendants’ litigation rights, particularly the right to remain silent, and regulating pre-trial detention measures to prevent abuses.
Experts suggest mandatory witness appearances in court, enhanced protection for defense rights, and better safeguards against interference by higher authorities in the judicial process.
Legal Scholars Urge Revisions to State Compensation Law to Boost Payouts
Caixin
Li Jin spent 22 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit.
In early July, months after he was exonerated, he filed a state compensation application to the Sichuan Provincial High People’s Court, seeking a total of 37.72 million yuan ($5.2 million).
The legal basis of his claim is China’s State Compensation Law, passed in May 1994 and enacted the following January.
Aimed at compensating victims whose personal rights have been infringed by the state, such as through the loss of freedom or property, the law has long been touted by officials as an “important milestone in the construction of democracy and rule of law” in China, as described by Xiao Jie, vice-chairman of the current National People’s Congress Standing Committee, at a May symposium.
Now, a third round of amendments to the 30-year-old law is underway, since it’s included in the National People’s Congress’ five-year legislative plan released in September.
Lawyers and legal scholars alike have called for a substantial increase in the payment standards outlined in the law and greater clarity in how compensation should be calculated to maximize the protection for individuals and organizations that have been wronged by public power.
Chinese network accused of stealing thousands of corpses to use bones for dental grafts
SCMP
A Chinese company has been accused of stealing more than 4,000 dead bodies from crematoriums and medical laboratories to use their bones for dental grafts.
The case caused widespread public anger after a well-known criminal lawyer published details of the case on social media on Thursday.
Yi Shenghua, president of Beijing Brave Lawyers – also known as Beijing Yongzhe Law Firm – said police in Taiyuan, capital of the northern province of Shanxi, were investigating allegations that the bones were being used to produce allogeneic bone grafts, which are usually made using bones removed during surgery.
A spokesman for the Taiyuan procuratorate confirmed that prosecutors were investigating allegations that a crime ring was “stealing and reselling corpses for profit”, when contacted on Thursday.
She Lost a Fight to Freeze Her Eggs in China—Because She’s Not Married
WSJ
On Wednesday, Teresa Xu, a 36-year-old freelance writer, said she lost a long-running court battle to freeze her eggs. The landmark case could have implications for China’s longer-term demographic trajectory.
At a time when many young people are forgoing marriage and childbirth, the ruling adheres to a strict conservatism on reproductive issues. In China, childbearing out of wedlock has long been taboo. Most Chinese hospitals require women to provide marriage certificates for fertility treatments. Regulations forbid unmarried women to freeze their eggs unless they have a health reason, such as cancer.
In its ruling, the court said the Beijing hospital that denied her request to have her eggs frozen complied with existing rules that haven’t been revised. The decision by the hospital, the court said, is “consistent with laws and regulations as well as common sense,” according to the written verdict from Beijing No. 3 Intermediate People’s Court. The verdict was released by Xu on social media Wednesday.
Number of Chinese couples getting married falls to 12-year low as economy slows
The Straits Times
The number of Chinese couples who got married in the first half of 2024 fell to its lowest level since 2013, as more young people deferred nuptials amid a slowing economy and a rise in living costs.
The number of marriages in China is closely tied to the number of births, and the decline is likely to upset policymakers trying hard to boost the population, which has been shrinking for two consecutive years.
Some 3.43 million couples tied the knot in the first six months of 2024, a drop of 498,000 from the same period a year ago, the data on marriage registrations showed.
Marriage is seen as a prerequisite for having children due to widespread incentives and policies, including a requirement for parents to present a marriage certificate to register their child and receive state benefits.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to What's Happening in China to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.