Xi Jinping calls for efforts to hit China annual growth target
China's top legislative body will meet from Nov. 4-8 and is expected to approve new fiscal support for the world’s No. 2 economy
Welcome back to What’s Happening in China, your weekly update on the latest news and developments from the country.
I hope you’ve had a great week. Personally, I’m feeling a bit anxious about the upcoming U.S. election. Kamala Harris is, to me, the only qualified candidate—it really should be a no-brainer.
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Let’s get into it.
— PC
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Through the Lens
In Focus
I. Food for thought
How could China so rapidly leapfrog established industries around the world without all those very well paid Western CEOs realizing what was happening until two minutes ago?
There are many possible answers to this question. They range from the obvious through the historical and cultural to the tin-foil hat variety. And they are well worth reviewing in an attempt both to understand where China is today, and to highlight the blind spots some investors still suffer from when looking at the world’s second largest economy and their implications for markets.
Read: Prejudice And China (Gavekal Research)
II. “Slam them together and make them deal with the consequences of the fact they don’t actually have all that much in common”
Although some commentators have recommended trying to pull the members of the axis apart, former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice leans in the opposite direction, proposing that policymakers seek to “slam them together and make them deal with the consequences of the fact they don’t actually have all that much in common.” There is much to be said for this approach. Any effort to pry Putin away from the axis will most certainly fail; he is too dependent on these partners for support in Ukraine. To try to separate North Korea or Iran from the axis would require concessions that no U.S. administration is likely to be willing to make.
But China may be a different matter. Unlike its axis partners, China is integrated into the global economy. The prospect of broad secondary sanctions—which have been limited and targeted to date—in the event that China crosses Western redlines by providing weapons to Russia could threaten to exact real economic costs. Meanwhile, the war on Israel being waged by Iran and its proxies threatens to disrupt China’s critical oil supplies and other trade with the Middle East. And North Korea’s increasingly bellicose attitude toward its neighbors has roiled China’s diplomatic and economic relations with South Korea and Japan.
More fundamentally, China has made its prestige hostage to the success of its axis partners. If they should be seen to be failing in their respective efforts to impose their will on their neighbors by force, it would become clear to the world that Beijing has cast its lot with losers. That would not only undermine China’s effort to project itself as the global leader of a new kind of international order; it would also damage Xi’s personal standing, at home and abroad.
Read: Xi Jinping’s Axis of Losers (Foreign Affairs)
III. Big dreams
Before appearing on “The Big Band,” Ba Nong had been making music with a rotating cast of friends under the name Varihnaz for almost 20 years, as a hobby. The group played for crowds of 30 or 40 people and had little desire for more.
But when the reality show, which has often highlighted less mainstream musicians, approached him, he readily agreed.
“It was the peak of the pandemic, there were all kinds of quarantines, and there was also the Russia-Ukraine war,” he recalled during an interview in Guangxi, while loading the last of his harvest into a winnowing machine. “Everything felt very divided and tense.”
He saw an opportunity to share a message of peaceful coexistence, inspired by natural farming techniques, which eschew chemicals.
Read: Part-Time Farmers, Part-Time Rock Stars: A Chinese Band’s Unlikely Rise (The New York Times)
Politics & Society
Chinese cities ease residency requirements as ‘war for people’ heats up (SCMP)
A fresh round of what has been called a “war for people” is spreading across China, with major cities taking it in turns to ease residency requirements amid stubbornly low fertility rates and an ongoing property market crisis.
Chengdu, a southwestern metropolis with a population of 17 million – twice that of New York, will allow migrants to change their residency status as long as they buy a home in the city, according to a plan the city government released for public comment this month.
In pursuit of a larger population, it is granting homebuyers the right to relocate their permanent residency – as recorded in an identity document known as hukou that is tied to an individual’s social benefits – and gain access to local public services.
A hukou registered in a major city has long been sought after, but it was previously difficult to obtain because the authorities in China used the rigid system to control population movement.
Chengdu’s potential policy change, with no planned implementation date yet announced, is the latest attempt at a “hukou for home” strategy adopted by city governments in the past couple of years as the competition for talent among localities becomes fiercer.
“The current competition is a continuation of the ‘war for talent’ that began in 2017 … cities must retain a certain scale of population to support modern industries such as finance and culture,” said Lu Mingtao, an associate professor of economics at Capital University of Economics and Business in Beijing.
Exclusive: Chinese researchers develop AI model for military use on back of Meta's Llama (Reuters)
Top Chinese research institutions linked to the People's Liberation Army have used Meta's publicly available Llama model to develop an AI tool for potential military applications, according to three academic papers and analysts.
In a June paper reviewed by Reuters, six Chinese researchers from three institutions, including two under the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) leading research body, the Academy of Military Science (AMS), detailed how they had used an early version of Meta's Llama as a base for what it calls "ChatBIT".
The researchers used an earlier Llama 13B large language model (LLM) from Meta incorporating their own parameters to construct a military-focused AI tool to gather and process intelligence, and offer accurate and reliable information for operational decision-making.
ChatBIT was fine-tuned and "optimised for dialogue and question-answering tasks in the military field", the paper said. It was found to outperform some other AI models that were roughly 90% as capable as OpenAI's powerful ChatGPT-4. The researchers didn't elaborate on how they defined performance or specify whether the AI model had been put into service.
"It's the first time there has been substantial evidence that PLA military experts in China have been systematically researching and trying to leverage the power of open-source LLMs, especially those of Meta, for military purposes," said Sunny Cheung, associate fellow at the Jamestown Foundation who specialises in China's emerging and dual use technologies, including AI.
CPC leadership reviews disciplinary inspection report (State Council of the People's Republic of China)
Based on the inspection findings, it was noted that Party building in central Party and state departments, as well as in centrally-administered financial institutions, has been strengthened, and new achievements have been made in various areas of work. Nonetheless, some problems still exist.
Rectification of problems identified in inspections must be carried out with seriousness and dedication, according to the meeting. It is essential to reinforce the political responsibilities of both "top leaders" and leadership teams of the inspected institutions. It is crucial to strengthen the organization, coordination and daily oversight of the rectification work. The necessity was noted at the meeting to align rectification work with ongoing reforms, with full and rigorous Party self-governance, and with the building of leadership teams and ranks of officials. The rectification work should also be made part of daily work and part of duties and job performance, so that outcomes of the rectifications will drive high-quality development.
It was stressed at the meeting that Party committees (leading Party members groups) at all levels should enhance political awareness, strengthen political responsibility in performing their duties, take bold and effective actions to overcome challenges, and take the initiative to share the Party's concerns and fulfill their duties to the country. They should also earnestly implement the decisions made at the third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, and effectively carry out reform tasks with unwavering determination, according to the meeting. Also, they are called on to be more mindful of potential dangers, make sound efforts to ensure both development and security, prevent and defuse risks in key areas, and see that the line is never crossed as far as security is concerned. The leadership teams should be strengthened, democratic centralism should be strictly practiced, leading officials should be prepared for promotion and demotion, and leadership teams' cohesion and ability should be continuously enhanced, according to the meeting.
It is essential to have a clear understanding of the battle against corruption, make significant advances in exercising full and rigorous Party self-governance, and combat corruption to the letter with the spirit of self-reform. It is imperative to take coordinated steps to see that officials do not have the audacity, opportunity or desire to be corrupt, address both the symptoms and root causes in a systematic way, and maintain tough actions against corruption. It is a must to keep improving the mechanisms for applying checks over the allocation and exercise of power, work hard to eradicate the breeding grounds and conditions for corruption, and make consistent and sustained efforts to prevent and address corruption.
The Art of War: PRC Weaponizes Culture to Galvanize the People (Jamestown)
Militaristic rhetoric pervades much of the Party’s language about art and culture. The theme of Monday’s Politburo session, “building a strong cultural nation (建设文化强国),” is indicative of this. Artists are referred to collectively as a “cultural talent force (文化人才队伍),” and are told that they must “have the heart of competing to win (要有竞胜之心),” while Xi argues that art criticism must have “combat power (战斗力)” to be persuasive (Qiushi, October 15a; October 15b; October 15c; Xinhua, October 28).
This is because the Party, at its core, remains an organization forged in war. Its insistence on promoting its own hagiographic cultural history underscores this. A separate Qiushi article in the issue highlights a concert that took place in Beijing in recent weeks to celebrate the country’s 75th anniversary, whose program included the Yellow River Cantata (黄河大合唱). Composed in 1939 during the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japan and first performed in Yan’an, the contemporary assessment of the work was that “one chorus is worth 100,000 Mausers (一曲大合唱，可顶十万毛瑟枪).” This line is still repeated today (Qiushi, October 15).
Leading human rights lawyer Xu Zhiyong on hunger strike in Chinese prison, family says (The Guardian)
Concerns are growing about the health of Xu Zhiyong, China’s most prominent imprisoned human rights lawyer, who is thought to have been on hunger strike for nearly a month.
Xu, a scholar and leading figure in China’s embattled civil rights movement, started his hunger strike on 4 October, according to Chinese Human Rights Defenders, an NGO. He is protesting against what he describes as inhumane treatment in prison, including lack of contact with his family and intensive surveillance by other prisoners, according to reports released through his relatives.
Xu has been detained since February 2020 after he attended an informal gathering of lawyers and activists who had met in December 2019 to discuss civil society and current affairs. Several of the meeting’s participants were arrested, including Ding Jiaxi, another human rights lawyer whose case was handled with Xu’s. The men were convicted of subverting state power. Last year, Xu was sentenced to 14 years and Ding to 12 years, lengthy punishments that the UN’s human rights chief criticised.
China warns of deep-sea spying devices, underwater 'lighthouses' that guide foreign submarines (Reuters)
China's Ministry of State Security said on Tuesday that it had retrieved spying devices both on the ocean surface and in the depths of the sea, including underwater "lighthouses" that could guide the transit of foreign submarines.
The ministry said it had uncovered devices that had been hidden on the ocean floor and were sending back information that could "pre-set the field for battle," in an article on its official WeChat account, China's most popular social media app.
South Korean man detained for alleged spying: China (HKFP)
China confirmed on Tuesday it had detained a South Korean citizen for alleged spying, as Beijing ramps up vigilance against perceived threats to national security.
South Korea’s Yonhap news service, citing diplomatic sources in Seoul, reported Monday that Chinese authorities had held the man in his 50s since late last year.
It said Chinese prosecutors had formally detained him “a few months ago” under a revised anti-espionage law, marking the first time that a South Korean national had been targeted in such a case.
Beijing’s foreign ministry confirmed on Tuesday that a South Korean citizen was arrested “on suspicions of espionage by relevant Chinese authorities in accordance with the law”.
AstraZeneca says its China operations president under investigation (Reuters)
AstraZeneca said its China president Leon Wang is under investigation and the drugmaker would cooperate with Chinese authorities.
The company did not say what the investigation was about or whether Wang has been detained by Chinese authorities. When asked about his whereabouts, a company spokesperson reiterated that the executive was under investigation.
The Anglo-Swedish company said in a statement on Wednesday that its Chinese operations were "under the leadership of the current general manager of AstraZeneca China," without providing further details.
[…]
Wang, who grew up in China and has been with AstraZeneca for more than a decade, is a high-profile executive who has often been quoted by China's business press and holds leadership positions in domestic business organisations.
Last year, during an event to celebrate AstraZeneca's 30th anniversary in the China market, he said his firm would seek to be a patriotic company in China that "loves the Communist Party".
In September, China detained a small number of AstraZeneca's current and former employees for questioning. At the time, Bloomberg News reported that five people were detained for questioning about potential illegal activities and that one of the investigations related to the firm's collection of patient data.
The company has not given details about the detention of staff in September and a spokesperson had no comment on Wednesday on the status of the employees being held.
According to reports in local Chinese media, AstraZeneca has been under investigation since 2021, suspected of fabricating genetic testing results related to the firm's lung cancer drug Tagrisso and of insurance fraud.
In China, Young Women Are Now More Educated Than Their Spouses (Sixth Tone)
Chinese women born after 1990 have on average a higher education level than their husbands, a dramatic reversal compared with previous generations, a new study has found.
The research also found that the shift in couples’ relative education levels has impacted family planning decisions, with women who are more educated than their spouse being statistically less likely to have more than one child.
The paper by Qing Shisong, director of East China Normal University’s Population Research Institute, was originally published in February but went viral on Chinese social media last week after domestic media outlet The Paper reported its findings.
China Unveils Policy Measures to Support Birth Rate (Yicai)
China plans to implement a broad range of measures, including bringing the cost of assisted fertility under regional medical insurance systems, with the aim of reducing the financial burden of childbirth amid a declining birth rate.
The State Council called on local governments to lower the costs associated with childbirth, child-rearing, and education in a policy document released yesterday. It includes guidance for regions to cover assisted reproduction technology expenses under medical insurance.
Provincial-level regions have been including assisted fertility in their medical insurance coverage since February, with full implementation across all provinces expected by year-end, according to local authority notices.
China surrogacy abandonment case being investigated after online criticism (Reuters)
A 28-year-old woman who acted as a surrogate in China's southwestern city of Chengdu is said to have been abandoned by her surrogacy agency, fuelling tides of criticism on social media and prompting health authorities to investigate the situation.
Surrogacy is illegal in China and authorities said last year they would "severely crack down" on illegal activities related to the use of assisted reproductive technologies such as the buying or selling of sperm or eggs and surrogacy.
China has been trying to boost its birth rate after its population declined for a second consecutive year in 2023. The country's State Council this week detailed 13 measures to build a birth-friendly society to raise the country's fertility rate.
In this case, the surrogate, who was not named, had the embryo transplant three months earlier but had not shown any initial signs of pregnancy, according to a post on social media platform Weibo by Shangguan Zhengyi, who tracks surrogacy cases around the country.
The woman was sent home by the surrogacy agency but then later found out she was pregnant, Shangguan said. When she tried to get in touch with the agency, there was no response.
Less Controllable Bodies: How China’s New Population Growth Policy is Failing (China Observers in Central and Eastern Europe)
If Beijing wants its policies aimed at reversing the falling birth rates to succeed, it may need to consider including independent women’s voices. This is precisely what many social media posts that make comparisons between the domestic situation and similar issues in Japan and Taiwan, call for. More importantly, these examples from Northeast Asia suggest that falling birth rates are irreversible, requiring societies to adapt to entirely new economic and social models of development, some of which may include easing restrictions on foreign migrants.
China’s kindergarten numbers shrink as policymakers struggle to arrest falling birthrate (The Guardian)
The number of kindergartens in China fell by more than 5% last year, the second year in a row that preschool institutions were in decline, reflecting the country’s falling birthrate.
In 2023, there were 274,400 kindergartens across China, down from 289,200 in 2022, according to a Ministry of Education statistical bulletin published last week.
[…]
The number of children enrolled in kindergartens also fell. In 2023 there were 40.9 million children in preschool education, according to the government’s figures, a decrease of more than 11% from the previous year.
In 2022, the number of kindergartens fell by 1.9%, while the number of children enrolled in kindergartens fell by 3.7%.
Several kindergartens have been converted into elderly care facilities in order to cater for the increasingly greying population.
China's private tutoring firms emerge from the shadows after crackdown (Reuters)
China is quietly easing regulatory pressure on private tutoring operators as it looks to revive a flagging economy, spurring a nascent revival of a sector hit hard by a government crackdown three years ago, according to industry figures, analysts and data reviewed by Reuters.
There has been no formal acknowledgement of a change in policy. But there is now tacit consent from policymakers to allow the tutoring industry to grow, in a pivot by Beijing to support job creation, eight industry figures and two analysts familiar with the developments told Reuters.
The shift is evident in new growth among tutoring businesses and moves by Beijing to clarify its approach, as well as in Reuters interviews with five Chinese parents who described a gradual liberalisation in recent months.
[…]
Lee, who is based in southern China, spends 3,000 yuan a month, or about $420, on after-school classes for her son and daughter, including one-on-one mathematics tutoring and online lessons in English. She told Reuters that in recent months tutoring schools had been operating more openly than they have since 2021.
"When the policy first came out, I think those tutoring organisations were a little bit scared, so they kind of hid, like they would close the curtains during class," she said. "But it seems like they don't do that anymore."
In China's high-pressure educational environment, parents have little choice but to rely on outside tutoring just so their children can keep pace, Lee said, adding that she had "felt a huge sense of failure" as she tried to support her children's education.
China's education ministry did not respond to questions about its evolving approach to the tutoring industry.
Life on Call: Why Chinese Anesthesiologists Are Burning Out (Sixth Tone)
Chinese anesthesiologists face a triple threat of high technical demands, high risks, and high workloads while remaining undervalued in the health care system.
The conclusion of this study indicates a substantial improvement in the status of faculties’ employed universities for those who studied abroad, compared to their counterparts who did not. Moreover, this effect has strengthened over time. The results also exhibit variations among faculties with different levels of undergraduate degrees, with a notable increase in benefits for faculties from 985 universities, especially in recent years. This underscores Chinese universities’ strong preference and esteem for overseas academic qualifications. Despite the continuous growth in the number of returnees, the advantages of overseas education have not shown signs of reaching a diminishing inflexion point.
Signs of Unity: Can China’s Deaf Community Find a Common Language? (Sixth Tone)
With variations as distinct as dialects in spoken Chinese, sign language users often face communication gaps within their own community. While the government has been working to standardize Chinese Sign Language (CSL) for decades, early efforts resulted in systems that were difficult to learn and less intuitive than the natural signs developed organically by the Deaf community.
Though recent changes have made standardized signs more accessible, many deaf individuals remain wary of adopting them, preferring the familiar local signs they’ve used for years.
Language divides — especially between northern and southern regions — have made it challenging for a unified system to take hold, even as many deaf people hope for a more widely accepted national system.
China Intervenes to Prop Up Struggling Local Bus Services (Sixth Tone)
As some bus companies in China teeter on the brink of insolvency, the central government has passed new measures to prevent a wave of local bus routes from ceasing to operate.
The long-awaited Urban Public Transport Regulation, announced by the State Council on Oct. 23 and set to take effect on Dec. 1, will require local authorities to take direct responsibility for managing and funding public bus services.
“Without the consent of municipal governments, urban public transportation enterprises must not terminate services,” the document states.
The intervention by the central government follows reports of major cash flow issues at bus service operators across China, with a number of companies suspending services and falling behind on paying staff.
A knife attack near a school in Beijing injures 5 people, including 3 children (AP)
A knife attack near a school in China’s capital on Monday injured five people, including three children, police said.
The attack occurred at midafternoon in Beijing’s northwestern Haidian district. None of the injuries was life threatening, police said in a statement. A 50-year-old suspect surnamed Tang was detained at the scene and is under investigation, it said.
The location of the attack given by the statement is near a famous primary school.
Censors, Authorities Spooked by Halloween Celebrations (China Digital Times)
The specter of arrest has made Halloween extra spooky this year. In Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Wuhan, Halloween revelry has been marred by strict police curfews, the detention of costume-clad partygoers, and bans on organized festivities. Meanwhile, censors have been vigorously erasing discussion of the Halloween crackdown from social media. The repressive atmosphere is a major departure from last year’s Halloween celebrations in Shanghai, which featured costumes that poked fun at authorities and that were hailed as a sign of the city’s cultural tolerance.
[…]
Municipal authorities did not issue formal restrictions on the festivities. When asked why partygoers were being arrested, a Shanghai police officer told the Financial Times: “There is no why.”
The paradoxes of China's new era: cultural self-confidence, neijuan, and innovation. ()
Overall, my visit underscored to me the importance of “seeing things for how they are” to paraphrase the Chinese Marxist maxim of 实事求是. Of course, this is easier said than done in an age of fake news, misinformation, and online omnipresence. In my own view, seeing things for how they really are doesn’t mean there is one “correct” interpretation for a “thing” or for “Reality” at large—that is sometimes the implication of “Party speak”. But it also doesn’t mean adopting a Foucauldian or de-constructivist perspective in which there is no objective reality at all, and everything is subjective. For me it means taking in the vast paradoxical multitude and complexity of reality. Contemporary China, like anywhere, is full of that complexity. An era in which Chinese technologies are exported around the world coincides with a feeling of pessimism and anxiety within much of China, of course coupled with aspects of optimism and faith in the country’s progress.
Xinjiang
US blacklists 3 more Chinese textile firms over Uyghur slave labor (RFA)
U.S. customs authorities have added three more textile producers to a burgeoning list of Chinese companies banned from trading with Americans due to their use of Uyghur slave labor.
Goods produced by Esquel Group, Guangdong Esquel Textile Co., Ltd., and Turpan Esquel Textile Co. can no longer be imported into the United States after they were added to the Entity List, said a statement issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Thursday.
The statement says Esquel Group is based in Hong Kong, while Guangdong Esquel Textile is based in nearby Guangdong province. Turpan Esquel Textile, meanwhile, is based in Xinjiang, it says, where most Uyghurs live under strict surveillance by Chinese authorities.
We are in despair at the Labour party’s U-turn on Uyghur genocide ruling (The Guardian)
For six days in 2021 we attended the Uyghur Tribunal, during which numerous shocking testimonies were presented. We had been asked to provide psychological support to those giving evidence, in recognition of the emotional demands of participation. The courage of those who took part was breathtaking – many spoke of the risk to their lives and to their family members’ lives in participating. We heard accounts of forcible sterilisation, imprisonment and sadistic torture.
The tribunal ruled that the actions of the Chinese state amounted to genocide, crimes against humanity and torture in the Uyghur region. This offered crucial acknowledgment to the Uyghur community and provided robust evidence to democratic governments around the world.
We are in despair that Mr Lammy and the Labour party, who were clear about their intention to pursue legal routes in 2023, have changed position.
Hong Kong & Macao
Hong Kong opens doors wider to mainland Chinese as birth rate drops (Nikkei Asia)
Hong Kong is welcoming more mainland Chinese into the territory with the goal of admitting more than 1 million by 2046 as part of a push to offset a falling birth rate and an exodus of talent overseas.
During an annual key policy address earlier this month, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee outlined plans to turn the territory into a hub for high-caliber talent, including easing entry restrictions for university graduates from the mainland.
HK$520 million given to families under 'baby bonus' scheme (HKFP)
The Hong Kong government has distributed around HK$520 million under a “baby bonus” scheme that gives HK$20,000 to families with newborns in an attempt to boost the city’s low birth rate.
A total of 26,948 applications were received from last October to the end of September, according to a Legislative Council paper published on Tuesday. Money has been disbursed to more than 95 per cent of applicants.
Taiwan
How AI’s $1.3 Trillion Future Increasingly Hinges on Taiwan (Bloomberg)
When Jung Yoonseok was looking for an assembly partner for his AI chip startup, he had his pick of almost any country in Asia, including his native South Korea. Instead, the Rebellions strategy chief opted for Taiwan because of what he sees as an unparalleled combination of talent, cost and speed.
“Taiwan is small, and Taipei is small, and in that small area everything moves super fast,” the 35-year-old Harvard graduate said after one of his trips to secure production.
Jung reached the same conclusion as thousands of businesses, executives and entrepreneurs who rely on the island to turn their AI visions into reality. From Nvidia Corp. and Microsoft Corp. to OpenAI, the world’s AI frontrunners are increasingly turning to Taiwanese companies to fabricate their chips, build their servers and cool their devices. That in turn has made the island’s stock market the hottest major bourse in Asia over the past year, led by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.
Some investors think the $400 billion-plus rally is just the beginning. To the bulls, the world is witnessing the establishment of a ChatGPT-era manufacturing base concentrated in Taiwan. That would make the island a key beneficiary of the AI boom — and a critical determinant of its pace and direction.
China vows to take ‘countermeasures’ over US and Taiwan $2bn arms deal (The Guardian)
China will take “countermeasures” to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity, the government said, lambasting a $2bn arms sale package by the United States to Taiwan.
The Pentagon on Friday [Oct 25] said the United States had approved a potential $2bn arms sale package to Taiwan, including the delivery for the first time to the island of an advanced air defence missile system battle-tested in Ukraine, including advanced surface-to-air missile systems and radar. The deal awaits approval by Congress.
In a statement late on Saturday [Oct 26], China’s foreign ministry said it strongly condemned and firmly opposed the sales and had lodged “solemn representations” with the US.
Our Best Look At Taiwan’s New Uncrewed 'Smart Dragon' Submarine (The War Zone)
New imagery of Taiwan’s homegrown Huilong uncrewed underwater vehicle (UUV) — also known as the Smart Dragon — reveals more details of this intriguing craft, including what appears to be a pair of torpedo tubes, pointing to an expanded kinetic potential for the type. At this stage, it seems this relatively large drone submarine is intended as a testbed, rather than for an operational role, but its development does point to the growing ambitions of the Taiwanese Navy in terms of underwater warfare and the design, and certainly elements of it, could end up in a production form.
Exclusive: China's Xi pressed Biden to alter language on Taiwan (Reuters)
Chinese President Xi Jinping asked U.S. President Joe Biden last year to change the language the United States uses when discussing its position on Taiwanese independence, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the private conversation.
During last November's Biden-Xi meeting near San Francisco, Xi and his aides asked Biden and his team to tweak the language in U.S. official statements.
China wanted the U.S. to say "we oppose Taiwan independence," rather than the current version, which is that the United States "does not support" independence for Taiwan, said the people, who requested anonymity to speak about private diplomatic exchanges they participated in or were briefed on.
Xi's aides have repeatedly followed up and made the requests in the months since, according to two U.S. officials and another person familiar with the exchanges.
The U.S. has declined to make the change.
Senior US diplomat arrives in Taiwan as officials downplay Trump comments (Reuters)
A senior U.S. diplomat who helps manage ties with Taiwan has arrived in Taipei, the de facto U.S. embassy said on Tuesday, as Taiwanese officials sought to downplay Donald Trump's latest attacks of the island's crucial chip industry and defence needs.
The United States is Chinese-claimed Taiwan's most important international supporter and arms supplier despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties.
The American Institute in Taiwan, which manages the unofficial relationship, said its Washington Office Managing Director Ingrid Larson was visiting Taiwan for meetings from Oct. 28 to Nov. 1.
The trip is "part of the United States' strong commitment to Taiwan and to advance growing U.S.-Taiwan partnership", it said in a brief statement.
U.S., Taiwan to begin talks on double taxation deal: Treasury Department (Nikkei Asia)
The United States and Taiwan will begin negotiations in the coming weeks to work on an agreement to address double taxation issues, the U.S. Treasury Department said on Tuesday.
Both sides have said such an agreement will foster more investment, and Taipei has long pushed for it. The move was announced as a senior U.S. diplomat who helps manage ties with Taiwan arrived in Taipei on Tuesday.
China blasts deer offer, pushes ‘1992 consensus’ (Taipei Times)
It would be better for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to engage practically rather than make symbolic moves, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokesperson Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) said as she rejected the Straits Exchange Foundation’s (SEF) gift of two Formosan sika deer.
[…]
Instead of gifts, both sides should sincerely adhere to the so-called “1992 consensus” and recognize that Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) are one country, Zhu told a news conference in Beijing.
Once the two sides agree to that principle, it would be possible to restart cross-strait communication, exchanges and cooperation, she added.
The “1992 consensus” — a term that former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) in 2006 admitted making up in 2000 — refers to a tacit understanding between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party that both sides of the Taiwan Strait acknowledge that there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
Taiwan’s Race for Secure Internet Detours Around Musk’s Starlink (WSJ)
Taiwan’s digital ministry said it “welcomes all sorts of international satellite systems to enter the Taiwanese market.” Any company can apply if it complies with Taiwanese law, the ministry added, without naming Starlink. Applications from four companies, three based in Taiwan and one in the U.S., have been approved, the ministry said.
But in Taiwan, potential barriers to Starlink go beyond regulations.
One senior Taiwan official described concerns about Musk’s business ties in China, where the Tesla chief executive is looking to sell more electric vehicles and has enjoyed a warm welcome from the Chinese leadership. China claims Taiwan as its territory and has vowed to absorb it by force if necessary.
Other senior officials said Taiwan couldn’t trust Musk because of his political views—noting his description of Taiwan as China’s equivalent to Hawaii. That Musk comment last year drew a pointed response from Foreign Ministry spokesman Jeff Liu: “We can’t tell whether or not Musk’s free will is for sale. But Taiwan is not for sale, that’s for sure.”
Musk didn’t respond to a request for comment for this article.
Musk was asked by Russian President Vladimir Putin at one point to not activate Starlink in Taiwan as a favor to Chinese leader Xi Jinping, The Wall Street Journal recently reported.
South Africa to discuss ties in wake of office relocation order: MOFA (Focus Taiwan)
South Africa has decided to hold discussions with Taiwan on bilateral relations after Taiwan declined to comply with a request that it move its representative office in Pretoria outside the city by Oct. 30, a Taiwan government spokesman said Tuesday.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) spokesman Jeff Liu (劉永健) said that after Taiwan had repeatedly made clear it would not relocate its de facto embassy as "unilaterally demanded" by South Africa, South Africa said it was willing to engage in talks on "bilateral relations going forward" with Taiwan via existing channels.
Liu would not say, however, if that meant South Africa would walk back from the Oct. 30 deadline, which it previously said was "non-negotiable."
Taiwan cleans up after Typhoon Kong-rey leaves two dead (HKFP)
Workers cleared fallen trees and shop owners swept up debris in Taiwan on Friday after one of the biggest typhoons to hit the island in decades claimed at least two lives.
Typhoon Kong-rey was packing wind speeds of 184 kilometres an hour (114 miles per hour) when it slammed into eastern Taiwan on Thursday, uprooting trees, triggering floods and landslides, and knocking out power as it swept over the island.
A 48-year-old motorcyclist was killed by a falling power pole in the capital Taipei on Thursday, taking the storm’s death toll to two, with 580 injured, the National Fire Agency said.
A search was also underway for four people who went hunting in the mountains of central Taiwan on Wednesday and have not been heard from since that evening.
World
Asia
China built a $50 billion military stronghold in the South China Sea (The Washington Post)
China has spent tens of billions of dollars turning farm fields and commercial seaports into military complexes to project power across thousands of miles of ocean it claims as its own.
The military buildup has a variety of motives, experts say: Beijing’s quest for global power. Protection of sea routes that fuel China’s economy. Resource exploitation. And the ability to defeat the United States and its allies if they try to thwart a Chinese attack on Taiwan.
Over two decades, the People’s Liberation Army has more than tripled the value of its military infrastructure on Hainan and on reclaimed reefs in the South China Sea, according to an exclusive analysis of some 200 military sites by the Long Term Strategy Group (LTSG), a defense consultancy commissioned by the Defense Department that was authorized to share its analysis of open-source data with The Washington Post.
Overall, the value of the military infrastructure on Hainan and in the South China Sea exceeded $50 billion as of 2022, according to the researchers. That’s more than the value of all U.S. military facilities in Hawaii, LTSG said.
Chinese navy holds first dual aircraft carrier drills in South China Sea (SCMP)
The Chinese navy’s two active aircraft carriers – the Liaoning and the Shandong – have completed their first dual carrier exercises in the South China Sea, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Thursday.
The report did not give details of the drills, but it included footage showing multiple J-15 fighter jets taking off from the Liaoning, with at least a dozen of the warplanes taking part in live combat drills.
The two aircraft carriers were also shown sailing side by side.
Bullied by China at Sea, With the Broken Bones to Prove It (The New York Times)
China’s aggressive policing of disputed territory has produced the latest clash in a long, complex relationship. China ruled Vietnam for a millennium, leaving an indelible cultural mark, but Vietnam’s national identity and fierce independence spring from its resistance to Chinese empire-building, as its school students learn from a young age.
And the South China Sea is where Vietnam’s defiance is being tested — on its own and alongside other countries, including the Philippines and Indonesia, which are also struggling to hold on to parts of the sea that China seeks to control.
If Beijing succeeds and bullies the region into submission, China would effectively own one of the most important waterways for global trade, giving it the power to disrupt supply chains and punish countries that do not fall in line with its demands, and also mine for resources below the ocean floor.
Breaking the bones of foreigners is visceral geopolitics, and the latest dark omen.
Vietnam urges China to free detained fishermen in South China Sea (Reuters)
Vietnam has protested against China's alleged detention of its fishermen and fishing vessels in the contested Paracel Islands in the busy South China Sea, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Thursday.
Vietnam urged China to "immediately release the fishermen and fishing vessels that were illegally detained", the spokesperson told a regular press conference, without saying how many had been held or when.
In Beijing, a foreign ministry spokesperson urged Vietnam on Friday to beef up the "education and management" of its fishermen, to ensure they keep out of waters claimed by China.
US Ally Scrambles Fighter Jets Against Chinese Military Flights (Newsweek)
U.S. treaty ally Japan said it scrambled fighter aircraft on Monday to intercept Chinese military planes and at least one spy drone operating near its southwestern islands.
The Joint Staff Office within Japan's Defense Ministry said it detected two Chinese Y-9 aircraft and a BZK-005 unmanned aerial vehicle throughout the day. The Y-9 is a versatile airframe that has been developed into a dozen variants for China's air force and navy, while the BZK-005 is a medium-altitude, long-range reconnaissance drone.
China says "unexpected obstruction" led to Aug. Japan airspace breach (Kyodo News)
China informed Japan that an "unexpected obstruction" was what caused one of its military planes to breach Japanese airspace in August, diplomatic sources said Saturday, seemingly attributing the blame to the Japanese defense force's activities prior to the unprecedented intrusion.
Beijing has not acknowledged any wrongdoing or outlined measures to prevent a recurrence, the sources said. The "obstruction" may be a reference to the tracking of Chinese military planes by Japanese Self-Defense Forces aircraft.
This marks the first time China's explanation for the airspace breach has been disclosed.
Beijing and KL stress close ties amid territorial dispute, controversy over Chinese flag march (The Straits Times)
Malaysian and Chinese officials focused on their healthy trade ties and the countries’ building of mutual trust at a high-profile forum on Oct 30.
This came amid tensions caused by the ongoing South China Sea territorial dispute and the recent incident of Chinese citizens waving their national flag while marching in Perak.
The Chinese Ambassador to Malaysia, Mr Ouyang Yujing, and Malaysia’s Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Chang Lih Kang headlined the forum – Ambassadorial Reflections Symposium: Celebrating 50 Years of Malaysia-China Relations – in Kuala Lumpur.
[…]
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is scheduled to attend the CIIE in Shanghai, coinciding with his third visit to China since taking office just two years ago.
He will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang during his visit from Nov 4 to 7.
India, China complete troops pull-back from border face-off points, Indian official says (Reuters)
India and China have completed pulling back their troops from two face-off points on their disputed Himalayan frontier as planned, an Indian defence official said on Wednesday.
The nuclear-armed neighbours reached a deal last week on patrolling the frontier in the Indian territory of Ladakh to end a four-year military stand-off, paving the way for improved bilateral political and business ties.
The disengagement that began last week has been completed and verification of the process is in progress, the Indian official told Reuters.
New Zealand’s tech warning reflects ‘significantly hardened’ stance towards China: analysts (SCMP)
New Zealand’s technology warning for companies and citizens working in China marks a “significantly hardened” stance, according to observers, who note the latest move is part of a “gradual overall deterioration” in ties between Wellington and Beijing.
The warning also points to a growing rift between China and the West in the tech space, and Wellington’s reluctance to be seen as “a point of vulnerability” when it comes to transferring technology, experts say.
On Tuesday, New Zealand intelligence agencies launched new security guidance to help protect emerging technology companies from a range of threats, particularly those posed by foreign-state actors.
The New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) and the Government Communications Security Bureau’s National Cyber Security Centre published the report “Secure Innovation: Security Advice for Emerging Technology Companies”.
In it, the report warned that New Zealanders should be aware of China’s strict laws in relation to national security “which may be interpreted broadly”, adding that key concepts such as “state security”, “national interest”, and “state secrets” have wide-ranging definitions in Chinese law.
The other November 5 election: China and the US look on as Palau votes (The Guardian)
Flanked by a turquoise lagoon, a newly rebuilt US military runway slices through forest in southern Palau. Completed just months ago, the airfield is the latest example of a push by the United States to build its presence in the Pacific as concerns around China’s reach in the region grow.
The small Pacific country is one of 12 in the world that has diplomatic ties with Taiwan instead of China and will head to the polls on 5 November, the same day as the US.
Voters are mostly concerned about a weak economy and cost of living crisis. But outside Palau, the election symbolises the growing tussle for influence by Washington and Beijing playing out across the Pacific.
Hardly an inducement: tourism from China gets up Palau’s nose (The Strategist)
In a leaked letter this year, the president of the country of 18,000 people, Surangel Whipps Jr, told an unidentified US senator that China had offered to ‘fill every hotel room’ and build as many more as Palau wanted.
To Palauans, that sounds more like a threat than a promise. A senior official sums up the general assessment of tourism from China: ‘The negative impacts [are] more than the value of the tourism itself.’
China has already put Palau through a cycle of what it thought was economic inducement and punishment. Last decade, it ramped up tourism numbers to the country but then knocked them down again by revoking Palau’s status as an approved destination, punishing it for continued diplomatic recognition of Taiwan. Arrivals from China peaked at 90,000 in 2015 and slumped to 28,000 in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic crushed tourism globally.
Now tourism from China is rising again: 8000 visitors from the country arrived in the five months to May.
Americas
US finalises restrictions on AI, semiconductor investments in China (Al Jazeera)
The United States has finalised rules that limit investments in critical technology sectors in China such as artificial intelligence on national security grounds, the Treasury Department has announced.
The restrictions will bar US citizens and permanent residents, as well as US-based companies, from engaging in transactions involving technologies including AI, semiconductors and quantum computing, the Treasury said in a statement on Monday.
US investors will also be obligated to inform the Treasury about investments in some less advanced technologies “that may contribute to the threat to the national security of the United States”, the Treasury said.
Fab Whack-A-Mole: Chinese Companies are Evading U.S. Sanctions ()
While the conventional wisdom is that China cannot build AI supercomputers due to chips limitations, this isn’t true. There are enough chips being shipped to China + manufactured domestically to create the world’s largest AI training cluster. For the most part, AI chips are decentralized in China with the largest known clusters 1/3 the size of the largest US ones, but a concentration of efforts could lead to cluster sizes that dwarf those in the US in less than a year.
While the US is trying to prevent this through export controls on advanced technologies throughout the AI supply chain from chips to wafer fabrication equipment. A cat-and-mouse dynamic between U.S. regulators and the Chinese domestic chip supply chain has ensued: in general, the regulations capture the low-hanging fruit which has slowed Chinese progress. China has significantly fewer H100’s then they would like, but they are still available in relevant quantities from multiple clouds and marketplaces in China due reexportation by various bad actors.
But the U.S. also left loopholes that are routinely exploited. For example, Huawei has been able to scoot around TSMC’s weak end customer checks and secure thousands of leading edge wafers through Bitmain / Sophgo, and many other established Chinese design firms. While this is a huge failure in enforcement of the export controls, it’s also relatively low volume compared to domestic fabrication of the Ascend 910B. Huawei has been relying on primarily SMIC to produce their domestic AI chip and they have run tens of thousands of wafers of the main compute chiplet on their domestic SMIC N+2 (~7nm) and N+3 (~6nm) process nodes.
Chinese sanctions hit US drone maker supplying Ukraine (Financial Times)
Skydio, the US’s largest drone maker and a supplier to Ukraine’s military, faces a supply chain crisis after Beijing imposed sanctions on the company, including banning Chinese groups from providing it with critical components.
Skydio is rushing to find alternative suppliers after Beijing’s move, which also blocks battery supplies from its sole provider, said people familiar with the situation.
The drone maker has sought help from the Biden administration. Chief executive Adam Bry last week met US deputy secretary of state Kurt Campbell and held discussions with senior officials at the White House.
American officials are concerned about China disrupting US supply chains and provision to Ukraine of drones used in intelligence gathering.
“This is a clarifying moment for the drone industry,” Bry wrote in a note to customers obtained by the Financial Times. “If there was ever any doubt, this action makes clear that the Chinese government will use supply chains as a weapon to advance their interests over ours.
China’s ‘mind-boggling’ space capabilities worry US, says Space Force chief (Politico)
China's rapid development of space-based military systems is more concerning to Washington than possible Russian space nuclear weapons, U.S. Space Force chief General B. Chance Saltzman told POLITICO.
"The pace with which they put counterspace capabilities into play is mind-boggling," Saltzman said in an interview, referring to systems deployed against satellites and spacecraft. He added it is "concerning" that Beijing is launching "hundreds of satellites" as part of a targeting system that can be used to aid missions on Earth.
Saltzman said attention has often focused on Russia and its development of a kind of space nuclear weapon as the "closest alligator to the boat" when it comes to European security, but the bigger challenge is posed by China.
Why the U.S. Military Has to Hitch a Ride on Commercial Ships (WSJ)
China’s rise has exposed America’s shipping weakness. Beijing isn’t just Washington’s biggest military rival. It is also by far the world’s biggest logistics operation.
Within China’s centrally directed economy, the government controls commercial shippers, foreign port facilities and a globe-spanning cargo-data network that in a conflict could be repurposed for military aims or to undermine the U.S., including on home soil.
Transcom’s fleet of planes and cargo ships, meanwhile, is aging and insufficient.
In conflict with China, the Pentagon would send roughly 90% of its provisions by sea. Among 44 government-owned ships for moving vehicles that Transcom can tap, 28 will retire within eight years. Replacements have faced repeated delays.
US released a Chinese detainee to free imprisoned American (Politico)
The Biden administration brokered the release last month of David Lin, a U.S. citizen jailed in China for 16 years, by trading him for an unidentified Chinese citizen in U.S. custody, according to three people familiar with the deal.
The State Department hasn’t publicly disclosed that it exchanged Lin for a Chinese national and declined to answer questions about how it negotiated his freedom after his Sept. 15 release. That’s a marked difference from the very public prisoner exchanges that the U.S. has brokered with Russia in recent years.
State alien land laws drive some China-born US citizens to rethink their politics (AP)
Mostly Republican legislators have pushed the land laws amid growing fears of intelligence and economic threats from China. At the time of the Florida law’s signing, Gov. Ron DeSantis called China the “greatest geopolitical threat” to the U.S. and said the law was taking a stand against the Chinese Communist Party.
Some China-born people with American citizenship are now feeling alienated by the laws to the point that they are leaning Democratic. Many are afraid of being treated wrongly because of their ethnicity.
This report focuses on attempts by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (S.A.R.) government to build ties with American civil-society actors and local governments, tying these efforts to comprehensive attempts by the Chinese Communist Party (C.C.P.) to influence American politics.
The contents of this report are a summary of findings about efforts by S.A.R. government entities and their cutouts to influence the American public and politics at the subnational level.
They cover the activities of three different types of organizations involved in these efforts: S.A.R. government entities, Hong Kong Associations, and C.C.P.-affiliated organizations from mainland China. The relevant entities and activities form the “S.A.R. Network.”
The U.S. Army Prepares for War With China: New Vehicles, Face Paint and a 1,200-Foot Fall (The New York Times)
Forget the Marines, who can get anywhere quickly, because they travel light. Or the Navy, which practically lives in the Pacific. Those services, which featured heavily in the Pacific during World War II, have the planning for a conflict in Asia baked into their DNA.
But now, as the chances of war with China increase, the big and cumbersome Army is trying to transform itself after two decades of fighting terrorism in Afghanistan and the Middle East. Unlike the Taliban or other insurgents, China will have satellites that can see troop formations from the sky. The Army must, in essence, learn how to fly under the radar.
[…]
Troops worked on new maneuvers patched together from watching Ukraine fight Russia. They dismantled and moved large and cumbersome command and control operations in 20 to 30 minutes, and communicated with one another without using Army satellites, so that an adversary would not be able to pick up their conversations.
Learning how to advance in small teams that can attack and then dissipate into thin air was key. The Army sent to the troops 96 new rainforest-green infantry squad vehicles that can quickly move up to nine soldiers each through jungle terrain.
“It is so powerful to be able to send a company’s worth of personnel, which is about 130 people, on those vehicles, along multiple routes, and then at a point bring them together to attack the enemy, and then disappear in different directions,” said Maj. Gen. Marcus Evans, the 25th Infantry Division’s commander.
US boosts scrutiny of foreign land deals near military bases amid China concerns (SCMP)
The Biden administration on Friday finalised a new rule expanding its authority to review foreign purchases of real estate near US military bases for national security threats.
The US has become increasingly concerned about the national security risks posed by Chinese-linked purchases of property near sensitive military sites.
The US Treasury Department rule, which was first proposed in July, adds nearly 60 facilities across 30 states to its review list and would expand the jurisdiction of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to about 227 military installations.
China seeks 'new Henry Kissinger' as ties with United States worsen (The Washington Post)
As the U.S. election approaches, China is on the hunt for the “new Henry Kissinger” — someone who is a friend of Beijing but has the ear of the incoming president. Someone who Chinese officials hope can cut through the bipartisan hostility toward China and encourage Washington to engage — as Kissinger did for five decades.
[…] Isaac Stone Fish, founder of Strategy Risks, a consulting firm that analyzes companies’ exposure to China, described Beijing’s search for a new Kissinger as one for a “new top useful idiot.”
Chinese leaders “seem to understand how advantageous it is for them to have this be something that only happens on the American side,” Stone Fish said, arguing that it makes the United States more responsible for improving the diplomatic relationship.
China 'compromised' Canadian government networks and stole valuable info: spy agency (CBC News)
Threat actors sponsored by China "compromised" Canadian government networks over the past five years and collected valuable information, says a new report from Canada's cyber spy agency.
The Communications Security Establishment, responsible for foreign signals intelligence, cyber operations and cyber security, released its updated national cyber threat assessment on Wednesday. The assessment flags threats the agency sees as the most pressing ones facing individuals and organizations in Canada.
"We're often asked, what keeps up at night? Well, pick the page," Caroline Xavier, CSE chief, told a news conference in Ottawa.
CSE's latest report, which casts ahead to the 2025-2026 fiscal year, names the People's Republic of China (PRC) as "the most comprehensive cyber security threat facing Canada today" and says the scale, tradecraft and ambitions China demonstrates online are "second to none."
The report says Chinese state-sponsored actors repeatedly conduct cyber espionage campaigns against federal, provincial, territorial, municipal and Indigenous government networks in Canada.
Air Canada Plans to Add More China Flights (Caixin)
Canada’s largest airline plans to add more flights to China in the latest sign that air travel between the two countries is gradually returning to its pre-pandemic normal. Air Canada plans to restart its daily route between Vancouver to Beijing on Jan. 15 and resume daily flights between Vancouver and Shanghai starting Dec. 7. The airline’s announcement came after the Canadian Transportation Agency rescinded pandemic-era rules on Monday that had capped the number of flights that Chinese airlines could fly to the country. There is still a long way to go before flight numbers get back to pre-pandemic levels. In October, direct flights between the two countries were still more than 90% below where they were in the same month in 2019.
China’s $3.6bn megaport in Peru rings alarm bells in Washington (The Times)
Chancay is not the largest investment to derive from President Xi’s legacy project, the Belt and Road initiative, under which Beijing funds infrastructure in developing and middle-ranking countries to tie them into China’s trade and political orbits. It has, however, become one of its most controversial.
It appeared to be a straightforward commercial enterprise, in which a company owned 60 per cent by Cosco, China’s biggest state-owned port and shipping company, and 40 per cent by Volcan, a Peruvian mining company, would build a gateway to the Pacific. Peru, and hopefully other parts of Latin America, would then export minerals and food such as soya beans to China and the rest of Asia, and import consumer goods.
The Peruvian government woke up late to the fact that the construction contract also gave Cosco exclusive rights to run the port — breaching a policy that all ports must be run by the state. When it tried to escape the clause this year, Cosco went to court, and the government backed down.
That rang alarm bells in Washington. All Chinese companies, particularly state-owned ones, are legally bound to accede to Beijing’s security demands and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in times of crisis such as a war with the United States.
Europe
China, Russia discuss Ukraine crisis, Beijing reaffirms strong ties (Reuters)
China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko discussed the Ukraine crisis in talks on Wednesday and Wang reaffirmed Beijing's strong ties with Moscow, the Chinese foreign ministry said.
Both exchanged views on the crisis but the ministry statement did not disclose details of the discussion.
Wang reiterated China and Russia's strong relations, that were not affected by "changes in the international situation".
"Both sides should make joint efforts to coordinate cooperation in various fields and exchanges at all levels," he said, without elaboration.
US cracks down on Russia sanctions evasion in fresh action (Reuters)
The action, taken by the U.S. Treasury and State departments, imposed sanctions on nearly 400 entities and individuals from more than a dozen different countries, according to statements from the departments.
The action was the most concerted push so far against third-country evasion, a State Department official told Reuters. It included sanctions on dozens of Chinese, Hong Kong and Indian companies, the most from those countries to be hit in one package so far, according to the official.
[…]
China's Washington embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said Beijing was firmly opposed to "illegal and unjustifiable unilateral sanctions."
"The U.S. makes false accusations against China's normal trade with Russia, just as it continues to pour unprecedented military aid into Ukraine. This is typical double standard, and extremely hypocritical and irresponsible," Liu said.
[…]
A second senior State Department official told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday that more than 70% of the high-priority goods getting to Russia was from China, more than an estimated $22 billion worth since the start of the war.
"That's over 13 times the next largest supplier," the official said, which as of the end of 2023 was Turkey.
Among those targeted on Wednesday were Hong Kong and China-based companies involved in the shipment of tens of millions of dollars worth of high-priority items to Russia-based companies or end-users, the State and Treasury departments said.
U.S. Turns to China to Stop North Korean Troops From Fighting for Russia (The New York Times)
The consequences of North Korean troops fighting in Europe could be far-reaching. Besides possibly bringing Europe deeper into East Asian security discussions, it would most likely reinforce the growing military coalition of Japan, South Korea and the United States, which is aimed at countering both China and North Korea.
On the other hand, any reservations Chinese officials might have about the North Korean troops could be minor next to the nation’s foreign policy priorities. Mr. Xi and Mr. Putin have formed a strong personal bond over the years, and China has given Russia diplomatic and economic aid throughout the Ukraine war, while stopping short of sending weapons directly to the Russian military.
“North Korea’s provision of troops to Russia supports this top-tier priority, even though it also complicates Beijing’s efforts to stabilize relations with Seoul and Tokyo,” said Ryan Hass, a China expert at the Brookings Institution who was on the National Security Council during the Obama administration.
“Any American judgment that the Russia-North Korea collaboration will create space to drive a wedge between China and Russia would be built on hope, not evidence,” he added. “China is deeply invested in its relationship with Russia. North Korea’s dispatch of troops is not going to diminish China’s decision to stand firmly behind Putin.”
Finland warns Xi of 'provocation' by N Korea in Ukraine war (Reuters)
Finnish President Alexander Stubb said he told China's President Xi Jinping that North Korean activities with Russia were an escalation and provocation in a message on behalf of NATO and the EU during talks in Beijing on Tuesday.
Stubb and Xi met as North Korea's foreign minister arrived in Russia, with Western military alliance NATO and South Korea warning that Pyongyang's troops could soon be entering the Ukraine war on Moscow's side.
The U.S. estimates 10,000 North Korean troops have been deployed in eastern Russia.
What do North Korean troop deployments to Russia mean for geopolitics? (Brookings)
China has avoided comment when asked whether North Korean troops are in Russia. Publicly, Beijing has offered diplomatic platitudes calling for de-escalation in Ukraine and peace on the Korean Peninsula. Privately, however, Beijing remains worried about the risks that it cannot directly control, potential instability on its doorstep, and likely increased security cooperation between South Korea, Japan, and the United States and emerging coordination between NATO and Seoul as a response to Pyongyang’s military adventurism.
While Beijing has provided diplomatic and economic cover for Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, Beijing’s relationship with Pyongyang has been tepid lately. The communication gaps between the three governments have put China in the uncomfortable position of trying to prevent further regional destabilization, given its geopolitical and economic challenges.
Slovakia keen to join China-led group on Ukraine war, visiting leader tells Xi Jinping (SCMP)
Slovakia is ready to join the “Friends of Peace” group launched by China and Brazil at the United Nations to resolve the war in Ukraine, the Central European country’s prime minister said on a trip to Beijing.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico met Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday. During the meeting, Fico said that “China’s position on the Ukrainian crisis is fair, objective and constructive”, according to a Chinese government statement.
“Slovakia is willing to join the ‘Friends of Peace’ group on the Ukrainian crisis and work with China to contribute to promoting a political solution to the crisis,” it continued.
China, Slovakia forge closer ties amid EU trade disputes (Reuters)
China and Slovakia said on Friday they would boost trade and investment ties and spoke of the need for peace in Ukraine during a visit to Beijing by Prime Minister Robert Fico to launch a new strategic partnership.
Chinese President Xi Jinping said he would encourage "powerful" Chinese enterprises to invest in Slovakia, and he invited Slovak firms to explore China's market.
Under Fico, Slovakia has been keen to build closer bilateral and economic ties and alliances with non-European Union countries, including China, its biggest trading partner outside of the 27-state bloc, as well as Russia.
Xi said China would strengthen cooperation with Slovakia in areas such as new energy, transport and logistics as well as infrastructure construction, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
The EU is imposing duties on electric vehicles from China after trade talks fail (AP)
The European Union is imposing duties on imports of electric vehicles from China starting Wednesday after talks between Brussels and Beijing failed to find an amicable solution to their trade dispute.
Electric vehicles have become a major flashpoint in a broader trade dispute over the influence of Chinese government subsidies on European markets and Beijing’s burgeoning exports of green technology to the bloc.
“By adopting these proportionate and targeted measures after a rigorous investigation, we’re standing up for fair market practices and for the European industrial base,” European Commission Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis said on Tuesday.
“In parallel, we remain open to a possible alternative solution that would be effective in addressing the problems identified and (World Trade Organization)-compatible,” he added. The duties would stay in force for five years, unless an amicable solution is found.
China decries new EU tariffs on its electric vehicles (DW)
The European Union (EU) increased tariffs on electric vehicles made in China to as much as 45.3% on Wednesday after unsuccessful negotiations with the country.
The bloc formally approved on Tuesday tariffs ranging from 7.8% to 35.3%, in addition to the EU's standard 10% car import duty.
Beijing said it had lodged a complaint with the World Trade Organization over the move.
Exclusive: China tells carmakers to pause investment in EU countries backing EV tariffs, sources say (Reuters)
China has told its automakers to halt big investment in European countries that support extra tariffs on Chinese-built electric vehicles, two people briefed about the matter said, a move likely to further divide Europe.
The new European Union tariffs of up to 45.3% came into effect on Wednesday after a year-long investigation that divided the bloc and prompted retaliation from Beijing.
Ten EU members including France, Poland and Italy supported tariffs in a vote this month, in which five members including Germany opposed them and 12 abstained.
Chinese automakers including BYD, SAIC, and Geely were told at a meeting held by the Ministry of Commerce on Oct. 10 that they should pause their heavy asset investment plans such as factories in countries that backed the proposal, said the people.
They declined to be named, as the meeting was not public.
Several foreign automakers also attended the meeting, where the participants were told to be prudent about their investments in countries that abstained from voting and were "encouraged" to invest in those that voted against the tariffs, the people said.
China's SAIC to file lawsuit countering EU's ruling on EVs (Reuters)
China's SAIC Motor said it intends to file a lawsuit at the European Union's Court of Justice to protect its rights and interests after the EU ruled to hike tariffs on Chinese-built electric vehicles to as much as 45.3%.
The automaker said the European Commission's countervailing investigation was "wrong in determining subsidies" and had "inflated subsidy rates" by ignoring key information and the firm's counter arguments.
China confirms EU delegation visit for EV tariff talks (Reuters)
China's commerce ministry on Friday confirmed that the European Union will send representatives to the country for negotiations regarding price commitments in the electric vehicle tariff dispute.
The EU indicated they would come to China to continue consultations on the specifics of the price commitment proposal after intensive communications, the ministry said in a statement.
Why Europe’s car crisis is mostly made in China (Financial Times)
The problems of European carmakers begin at home. Vehicle sales in Europe have not recovered to pre-pandemic levels and higher interest rates are hurting demand.
This pressure comes at a time when manufacturers are grappling with the green transition. Under current legislation, it will be impossible to sell a petrol or diesel car in the EU, and in other markets such as the UK, after 2035.
Electric cars are still expensive to produce in Europe, mostly because of the high cost of batteries, making them expensive to buy. Consumers want cheaper EVs and more charging stations, and many are holding off buying until they get them. As a result, sales are slowing just as tougher EU emissions rules from next year mandate a faster shift to cleaner vehicles.
Vavassori points out that Europe’s carmakers can no longer export their way out of trouble either. Last year, China replaced Japan as the world’s largest exporter of new cars as its own producers looked to diversify away from their overcrowded domestic market.
China is a problem for European carmakers in other ways. Chinese manufacturers such as BYD, Nio, MG-owner SAIC, Great Wall and Chery are building more advanced electric cars with costs 30 per cent lower than those of European carmakers, according to Tavares and others. On Chinese showrooms, EVs are nearing price parity with petrol cars.
French minister to confront China over ‘unacceptable’ retaliatory tariffs in Shanghai (Politico)
The French government plans to directly confront China over what Paris calls “unacceptable” retaliation against the European Union’s decision to slap tariffs on the heavily subsidized electric vehicles Beijing exports to the bloc.
A French diplomat told reporters on Tuesday that junior minister for trade, Sophie Primas, will press her counterpart Wang Wentao during a visit to Shanghai on China’s decision to enact duties on brandy imports and new probes targeting the dairy and pork sectors.
EU to pursue Temu for alleged sale of illegal products (Financial Times)
Brussels is preparing to launch an investigation into Temu, the Chinese online shopping business, amid concerns that the ecommerce platform is failing to crack down on sales of illegal products.
The probe could be launched in coming days under the bloc’s Digital Services Act, according to two EU officials familiar with the matter. It could result in fines of up to 6 per cent of Temu’s global annual revenue.
The European Commission earlier this month asked Temu to provide information about its actions to curb sales of illegal items “as well as risks relating to consumer protection, public health and users’ wellbeing”, it said.
Temu replied on Friday, said a commission spokesperson. The company’s answers were being analysed and could lead to an official probe being launched, but no final decision had been made to date, the spokesperson added.
Volvo Cars to buy out Northvolt from jointly owned gigafactory in Sweden (The Guardian)
Volvo Cars plans to buy out the struggling battery maker Northvolt from their jointly owned gigafactory in Sweden in another blow to Europe’s hopes of creating a homegrown electric car battery.
Novo Energy, a joint venture between Volvo and the Swedish battery company, was launched in 2021 with a plan to create a “fully integrated and frictionless environment” for developing new battery technologies with a staff force of 3,000 to start production in 2025.
Watching China in Europe with Noah Barkin—November 2024 Edition (German Marshall Fund of the United States)
It pains me to say it, having lived in Berlin for two decades and observed how the debate on China has progressed in recent years, but Germany is now seen in key capitals across Europe as the biggest obstacle to confronting the strategic issues that count most. In conversations with French, Dutch, and eastern European officials in recent weeks, I have been pressed repeatedly to explain German moves, small and large, that have left other capitals scratching their heads in disbelief. Why, for example, was regional Social Democratic leader Manuela Schwesig, the tainted architect of a dubious plan to sidestep US sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, invited to a reception with Joe Biden in Berlin and seated next to the president? Why are senior government officials celebrating the 75th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China alongside disgraced former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder?
How can the government credibly speak of diversification and de-risking—joint declarations with India notwithstanding—when its biggest companies are setting new records for investment in the Chinese market? Why, moreover, at a time when G7 allies are mulling new restrictions on Chinese technology in connected vehicles, are the CEOs of German carmakers on a mission to deepen their technology partnerships with Chinese counterparts? And why is the chancellor tacitly endorsing this push, whether he realizes it or not, at a time when these same carmakers are cutting thousands of jobs and closing factories in Germany? It is enough to make the head spin.
China won’t like the sound of EU commissioner hearings. Here’s why. (Politico)
Europe's view on China has taken a negative turn in the last five years. It's not just the age-old concerns about human rights or economic imbalance. Beijing's widened support for Moscow after the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine — allowing the Russian economy to maintain a critical lifeline despite unprecedented Western sanctions — has angered Europe as well.
From Beijing's perspective, there's always a strategic value in keeping Europe happy — especially if it drives a wedge between Washington and Brussels. U.S.-China relations, already fraught, are expected to become even more unpredictable if Donald Trump wins the presidential election on Nov. 5.
That ship, however, seems to have sailed. As Ursula von der Leyen prepares to start her second term as president of the European Commission — the EU's executive body — POLITICO takes a look at how critical her incoming commissioners are on China, according to written statements they've submitted to the European Parliament, which will conduct nomination hearings over the next two weeks.
Europe’s tech security czar-to-be faces China fight at home (Politico)
Henna Virkkunen, the European Union’s tech and security commissioner nominee, wants the bloc to cut back its dependencies on Chinese technology.
She might as well start at home.
The Finnish pick for the European Commission knows all too well the struggle for Europe’s tech industries to reconcile global competition with security concerns: Finland is home to one of the continent's few true global tech brands, Nokia, but has a 5G network comprising large amounts of equipment from China’s Huawei — a fierce Nokia rival.
[…]
Europe needs to avoid “critical dependencies on single suppliers and de-risking our supply chain from high-risk suppliers,” including by effectively “enforc[ing] the implementation of the 5G toolbox,” Virkkunen told European Parliament members in written responses to questions released this week, ahead of a Nov. 12 Parliament hearing that could make or break her candidacy.
Russia and China are "intensifying" cyber attacks on the Netherlands, NCTV warns (NL Times)
Russia and China are stepping up their cyber attacks on the Netherlands and its allies, warned the National Coordinator for Counter-Terrorism and Security (NCTV). They are “intensifying and broadening” their attacks. China is no longer limiting itself to espionage but also seems to be preparing for sabotage. In addition, new countries are joining the cyber risks front.
Aggressive countries like Russia and China are using an increasingly broad arsenal of cyber weapons, said NCTV Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg in his annual review of the Netherlands’ digital security. Moreover, according to this Cybersecurity Image, they are increasingly hiring companies and hacktivists.
The Europe-China Resilience Audit: Insights for advancing European resilience (MERICS)
Key findings
Improving resilience, defined here as the ability to manage risks without compromising long-term development, is crucial for Europe to maintain interconnectedness amid growing geopolitical volatility. It is also key for the readjustment of its relationship with China.
Brussels has led Europe’s resilience-building efforts toward China, but its capacity is limited due to the division of competences with member states. As China-related risks are becoming more acute, stronger member state involvement is needed to extend resilience-building efforts beyond economic security.
There is great variation in the resilience-building measures that European countries have in place, as mapped in this audit across four categories—economy, security, politics, and society— and based on 98 indicators. This lack of coherence weakens the EU’s position and overall resilience towards China.
The Netherlands and Sweden are frontrunners in resilience building, though no single country offers a perfect model. There are practices in some countries, however, that offer valuable lessons for the EU as a whole.
Resilience-building efforts must extend beyond policy tools; stronger political leadership and better strategic communication are also crucial to making the EU's defensive measures more credible and effective.
EU warns of China aggression against Taiwan, calls for Indo-Pacific contingency (Focus Taiwan)
The European Union (EU) has warned of the "staggering" impact on its member states of potential Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for the bloc to adopt "a major contingency in the Indo-Pacific."
A report issued on Wednesday by the European Commission, the EU's executive body, noted Beijing's "long-held ambitions to take over Taiwan" and warned that the "potential economic and security impact of Chinese aggression against Taiwan or in the South China Sea would be staggering for Europe and the world."
The report raised concerns over Beijing's gray-zone tactics -- coercive actions that stop short of war -- through measures such as seizing Taiwan's outlying islands, restricting maritime traffic to and from the country under the guise of shipment inspections, or launching a full blockade of Taiwan.
These scenarios may cause "severe disruption in [the EU's] critical sectors," given the bloc's deep economic ties with China and dependency on Taiwan's supply of advanced semiconductors, the report said.
Middle East & North Africa (MENA)
Crises on the periphery of China’s Middle East Interests ()
China’s “development as peace” approach has, however, largely overlooked conflict regions in favor of energy-rich countries. BRI funds have dried up in the Levant region—Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria—and migrated to the Arab Gulf. For low- and middle-income countries, like Jordan, many BRI projects never materialized, despite lofty rhetoric. Those that did have been complicated by competing expectations of local labor participation, growth, or economic development. Instead, the pandemic and its correlating domestic economic implications has pushed Beijing to reduce BRI lending and reprioritize investment to Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) markets, where it can reap higher returns. For example, Saudi Arabia was the largest global recipient of BRI funding globally in 2022—$5.5 billion, and the two are expected to rapidly expand bilateral trade and investment by an estimated $20 billion.
China’s focus on long-term development through its Belt and Road Initiative underscores its selective approach to Middle East engagements. In contrast, Western countries and regional actors often pursue a combination of immediate humanitarian aid and long-term stabilization efforts. This gap leaves conflict-ridden countries without immediate assistance from one of the world's most powerful economies, pushing regional humanitarian burdens onto already stretched Western donors and local governments.
Saudi Tourism Minister Pushes for Visa-Free Travel With China (Caixin)
Saudi Arabia’s tourism minister suggests Beijing and Riyadh could do more to enable visa-free travel as the oil-rich country looks to make Chinese visitors central to its plan for tourism to become a much bigger part of its economy.
The two governments should further relax visa requirements, Ahmed Al Khateeb said in an Oct. 17 interview during a trip to China. Al Khateeb called on the two governments to discuss how to make it possible for their citizens to travel to each other’s countries without a visa.
Sub-Saharan Africa
China Endorses ‘Small and Beautiful’ Projects in Africa Despite Challenges (The China-Global South Project)
The definition of “small and beautiful” projects varies. The maximum size of a small-scale hydropower plant can range from 10 to 50 megawatts (MW), depending on the criteria used. In the power-generation sector, distributed projects—which generate power near the point of use—may be considered small, while utility-scale projects—which sell power into the electricity grid—are not.
Regardless of the threshold adopted, small and beautiful projects complement the larger-sized projects that China’s collaboration with Africa has focused on in the past. Data shows that after 2013, the average size of a newly China-financed hydropower project in Africa is 402 MW and 107 MW for solar projects.
More than just about size, small and beautiful projects in the sustainable energy sector can also reconcile mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions with local environmental and other development goals.
PRC-Manufactured Weapons Abound Among African Militant Groups (Jamestown)
Weapons manufactured in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) are increasingly falling into the hands of militant groups across Africa as PRC defense contractors expand their influence in the region. Many African governments have signed arms deals with Beijing, with the PRC becoming the continent’s leading supplier of weapons this year. It is unclear how weapons are falling into the hands of militants, though corruption is likely playing a part in the influx of PRC-manufactured arms on the continent. Corruption has been rampant in recent years within the PRC’s military-industrial complex, reaching right to the top of the system. At the same time, the likelihood of corrupt activities by PRC arms companies in Africa—that operate far from regulatory oversight by Beijing—is high, as is the involvement of Chinese criminal groups that are also active in the region.
Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman Wants US Tech to Take on China in Africa (Bloomberg)
When it comes to technology, the major source of Chinese influence is Huawei Technologies Co., which for years has been aggressively forming partnerships with African governments. In Kenya, Huawei has developed—and in many cases helped finance—telecommunications and internet networks, as well as a sprawling surveillance camera system and parts of a new industrial city housing the tech industry. The company is vital to the so-called Digital Silk Road, China’s long-term effort to spread its tech and influence across Africa and the Global South.
When President Joe Biden chose Whitman in late 2021, the US had already begun to lay the groundwork for its response. In 2019 the Trump administration launched the International Development Finance Corp. (DFC) to provide strategic lending overseas; the following year, the DFC pledged $300 million to Johannesburg-based developer Africa Data Centres for projects in Kenya and South Africa. The agency has since invested $11 billion in sub-Saharan Africa, including contributing to a $225 million investment into the parent company of Africa Data Centres to build fiber cables for data centers in seven countries.
Since starting its own dedicated effort in December 2022, the US Trade and Development Agency has provided grants for 15 digital projects in Africa. “Our goal is helping to support a level playing field for US industry,” says Lisa Coppé, the agency’s senior manager for sub-Saharan Africa.
[…]
The Chinese government argues that it isn’t the one playing politics in Africa. “The starting point and goal of China-Africa cooperation has always been to help Africa’s development and enhance the well-being of the peoples of China and Africa,” a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. “Africa should not become a battleground for great power competition.”
Global Institutions & Multilateral Relations
Brazil backs away from joining China’s belt and road but keeps funding door ajar (SCMP)
Brazil has decided against joining China’s Belt and Road Initiative, instead seeking alternative ways to collaborate with Chinese investors, a top government adviser said on Monday.
Celso Amorim, special presidential adviser for international affairs, told Brazilian newspaper O Globo that Brazil wants to “take the relationship with China to a new level, without having to sign an accession contract”.
“We are not entering into a treaty,” Amorim said, explaining that Brazil does not want to take Chinese infrastructure and trade projects as “an insurance policy”.
Establishing New Financial Frameworks: BRIC by BRIC (China Observers in Central and Eastern Europe)
The BRICS+ initiative carries extensive implications for Western countries across geopolitical, economic and financial vectors; nonetheless it is crucial to approach this development with a degree of skepticism. After all, despite the ambitions to reshape the international banking system, the US dollar continues to dominate global financial transactions.
Moreover, the substantial gaps in the development of financial infrastructure among BRICS+ countries will undoubtedly act as a perennial problem for the framework in terms of its implementation. Given that the digital architecture and coding driving the initiative are disproportionately produced within China, the disparity amongst the member states highlights the uneven playing field within the BRICS+ bloc, raising questions regarding the practicality of a unified payment system. Finally, from a strategic perspective, the project appears to be fundamentally at odds with China’s attempts to grapple with the arduous task of increasing renminbi market share whilst maintaining strict capital controls, suggesting that the initiative may be predominantly driven by Russian diversification interests rather than a collective BRICS+ agenda. Tellingly, whilst the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has offered comparatively muted expressions of general support for reforming the international financial architecture, it is the Russian state media that has been the clear and vocal proponent of this initiative.
China-Russia cooperation blocks Antarctic conservation proposals (VOA)
Lynda Goldsworthy, a research associate at the University of Tasmania's Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, said one of China’s objectives in increasing its fishery footprint in the Southern Ocean is to “increase geopolitical influence in the Antarctic region.”
But since Russia is not as invested in the Southern Ocean as before, Goldsworthy said its decision to block marine conservation efforts in Antarctica is driven by an attempt to challenge the rules-based world order.
[…]
Goldsworthy said the growing synergy between China and Russia in Antarctica could create potential challenges for the Antarctic Treaty System.
“There had been blockages for the protection of penguins on the Antarctic continent, and I do think both Russia and China are positioning themselves for [mineral mining] when or if the current mining ban is lifted,” she told VOA.
While Beijing and Moscow have been consistently blocking CCAMLR’s proposals, Rothwell said it is unclear whether that trend has “totally infected decision-making within the Antarctic Treaty,” which designates the continent as a demilitarized zone for peaceful purposes and scientific research.
Even if China and Russia can’t easily challenge the treaty, Rothwell said that China "will find it advantageous to align itself with Russia,” in order to fulfill its aspirations to exercise control and influence in Antarctica.
Goldsworthy added that if China and Russia maintain their “combative approach” in the Antarctic Treaty System, which includes CCAMLR, it could turn “a safe and secure region” into a “much less peace-oriented” continent.
Charting China: the international reach of China’s policing activities (IISS)
China’s global policing activities have been identified in at least 100 countries.
As part of the Global Security Initiative, these activities form security relationships with partnering countries that help China protect its citizens and businesses abroad as well as advance its proposed reform of global security mechanisms, norms and operational practices. The following infographics illustrate the expanding reach of China’s international policing activities.
Business, Economy & Finance
Xi Calls for Efforts to Hit China Growth Target Before Key Meeting (Bloomberg)
Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterated a call to achieve the country’s annual economic target, signaling a growing sense of urgency ahead of a key legislative meeting expected to approve new fiscal support for the world’s No. 2 economy.
The Chinese leader told senior party officials on Tuesday to fully implement a package of existing and new policies in the next two months, the People’s Daily reported. It was at least the fourth time in two months Xi openly emphasized a need to reach the goal of expanding the economy around 5% this year.
The exhortations suggest the party is intent to draw a line under the slowdown. The latest call represents Xi’s first comments on the economy after third-quarter data released this month showed the economy grew the least since March 2023 and extended its worst deflation streak since 1999.
Exclusive: China considers over $1.4 trillion in extra debt over next few years (Reuters)
China is considering approving next week the issuance of over 10 trillion yuan ($1.4 trillion) in extra debt in the next few years to revive its fragile economy, a fiscal package which is expected to be further bolstered if Donald Trump wins the U.S. election, said two sources with knowledge of the matter.
China's top legislative body, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), is looking to approve the fresh fiscal package, including 6 trillion yuan which would partly be raised via special sovereign bonds, on the last day of a meeting to be held from Nov. 4-8, said the sources.
The 6-trillion-yuan worth of debt would be raised over three years including 2024, said the sources, adding the proceeds would primarily be used to help local governments address off-the-books debt risks.
The planned total amount, to be raised by issuing both special treasury and local government bonds, equates to over 8% of the output of the world's second-largest economy, which has been hit hard by a protracted property sector crisis and ballooning debt of local governments.
China stimulus should go hand in hand with reforms, ex c.bank adviser says (Reuters)
China's stimulus efforts could come with a cost and they must be carried out alongside reforms to ensure sustainable economic growth, Liu Shijin, a former central bank adviser, said in remarks published on Wednesday.
"Stimulus could come with a cost and we should combine stimulus with reforms," Chinese media outlet Yicai quoted Liu as saying at a forum on Tuesday. Liu said funds should be used for enhancing areas that are critical for long-term economic development.
China should prioritise improving basic healthcare services for the country's 300 million internal migrant workers as it faces a significant public healthcare shortfall, Liu said.
China Investors Scour Protest Data for Clues to Next Stimulus Moves (Bloomberg)
To figure out how far President Xi Jinping will go to revive his struggling economy, a growing number of money managers are taking cues from a once-jailed Chinese dissident now living in Canada.
From a basement in Calgary, often accompanied by his pet cat, Lu Yuyu spends 10 hours a day scouring the internet to compile stats on social instability before they are scrubbed by China’s censors. The 47-year-old exile won’t reveal his exact method because it risks jeopardizing the overall goal of the project called “Yesterday,” which documents cases of group protests.
“These records provide an important basis for people to understand the truth of this period of history,” said Lu, who started the effort in January 2023 but didn't make it public until he arrived in Canada a year ago. “I didn’t want to go to jail again,” he explained.
While Lu’s interests are political, his database — available for free — is among a growing number of metrics tracking dissent in China that investors are watching to figure out when Xi will open up the spigots to bolster growth. And some banks are now starting to develop similar products.
[…]
With the precise contours of China’s fiscal plans expected to take shape in early November at the next meeting of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s legislature, the market remains split over the odds of a bigger stimulus. A historic rally in Chinese stocks has meanwhile pared some of those gains as the wait drags on.
Investors who spoke with Bloomberg made clear they’ve been looking much more closely at metrics on social pressure since earlier this year by tracking findings from groups such as US-based Freedom House’s China Dissent Monitor, which began incorporating researcher Lu’s data in June this year.
China’s top 100 developers report better October home sales, other signals remain weak (SCMP)
Sales of new homes at China’s biggest home builders grew from a year earlier for the first time this year last month, aided by Beijing’s surprise blitz of policy stimulus to halt a four-year slump in the property market.
Residential sales by the nation’s top 100 developers rose 7.1 per cent in October from a year earlier to 435.5 billion yuan (US$61.1 billion), according to data published by China Real Estate Information Corp (CRIC) on late Thursday. They surged 73 per cent from September.
“The latest data reflects a positive trend, showing signs of stabilisation and recovery that are effectively halting the downward trajectory,” said Yan Yuejin, vice-president of the Shanghai-based E-House China Real Estate Research Institute. Including second-hand home deals, a fundamental shift is gaining traction, he added.
China’s property market shows signs of recovery as deals surge in top cities (SCMP)
China’s property market is on the mend, with transactions in the top cities surging following a number of measures introduced late last month to stimulate demand and shore up confidence.
The secondary market in Shanghai has recorded more than 20,000 transactions so far this month, a month-on-month jump of 52.3 per cent, according to data published by Shanghai Real Estate Trading Centre, an official platform, on Sunday. On Saturday alone, 1,301 deals were transacted, the second-highest daily figure this year.
In Beijing, 11,699 pre-owned homes were sold between October 1 and 24, according to a report published last week by Centaline Property Agency. The agency expects overall transactions this month to cross 16,000, a 19-month high.
“The rebound in home sales in major cities signals a broader recovery in China’s housing market,” said Yan Yuejin, vice-president of the Shanghai-based E-House China Real Estate Research Institute. “It also reflects a recovery pattern, where higher-tier cities experience a rebound earlier than lower-tier markets.”
China's property market is expected to stabilize in 2025 (CNBC)
After months of incremental measures, Chinese President Xi Jinping in late September led a top-level meeting that vowed to “halt the real estate market decline.” Earlier this month, the Finance Ministry introduced more measures aimed at stabilizing the real estate sector.
“We are finally at an inflection point of the ongoing downward spiral in the housing market on the back of a comprehensive and coordinated easing package,” Goldman Sachs analysts said in an Oct. 22 note titled “China real estate 2025 outlook: Bottoming in sight.”
“This time is different from the previous piecemeal easing measures,” the report said.
The analysts expect property prices in China to stabilize in late 2025, and rise by an average of 2% two years later. Property sales and new home construction are unlikely to stabilize until 2027, Goldman forecast.
After months of incremental measures, Chinese President Xi Jinping in late September led a top-level meeting that vowed to “halt the real estate market decline.” Earlier this month, the Finance Ministry introduced more measures aimed at stabilizing the real estate sector.
“We are finally at an inflection point of the ongoing downward spiral in the housing market on the back of a comprehensive and coordinated easing package,” Goldman Sachs analysts said in an Oct. 22 note titled “China real estate 2025 outlook: Bottoming in sight.”
“This time is different from the previous piecemeal easing measures,” the report said.
The analysts expect property prices in China to stabilize in late 2025, and rise by an average of 2% two years later. Property sales and new home construction are unlikely to stabilize until 2027, Goldman forecast.
Why China Won’t Give Up on a Failing Economic Model (Foreign Affairs)
Xi is not averse to abrupt policy reversals, as shown by his sudden abandonment of the “zero COVID” policy in late 2022 and his shifting economic initiatives during his tenure. Yet one constant of his leadership has been his aversion to cash handouts, which, he has suggested, could entrench a welfare state. He has cautioned party members against “falling into the trap of ‘welfarism’ that feeds lazy people.” Xi’s rhetoric should not be misinterpreted as endorsing an ideology of rugged individualism in China. Rather, his top-down approach to governance privileges ideological unity over populist concessions and favors state-led investment over individual fiscal support.
Xi has made it clear that his top priority is to transform China into a self-reliant global superpower. He aims to be the leader who definitively leaves China’s “century of humiliation”—a reference to the long era of China’s perceived subservience to Western powers—behind. In this context, the government’s current GDP growth target of around five percent and the stimulus package it has announced to help achieve it are merely means to an end. By contrast, a direct stimulus to individual households would shift spending power from the government to consumers, potentially leaving fewer resources for Xi’s grand ambitions—and giving him less control over the country’s overall direction.
The government’s announcements regarding the stimulus package have deliberately emphasized rhetoric over substantial policy changes aimed at increasing consumption. This approach aligns with Xi’s goal of boosting confidence in the economy without diverting resources from the pursuit of Chinese self-sufficiency. The capital injected into the financial system to prop up stock prices and stabilize banks is likely to be redirected to the same strategic industries that are supposed to enable China to leapfrog the United States in technology and military capabilities.
Local government has become a chokehold for Chinese business (Financial Times)
In recent years, however, struggling local authorities have increasingly targeted private businesses with a wide range of punitive legal actions, from fines to criminal prosecutions for offences such as tax evasion, bribery, fraud and product safety violations. Their need to raise funds means the helping hand of local government has turned into a chokehold.
Beijing is promising change from such interference. As part of a massive stimulus package to revitalise the sluggish economy, the government unveiled a draft law in October that promised to improve conditions for private business. It pledged a more friendly investment environment, increased support for technological innovation and greater protection for the private sector.
But this promise may come with an unsettling price. In an authoritarian regime, the helping and grabbing hands are often two sides of the same coin.
Over the past three decades, China has developed a sophisticated legal regime governing private business, granting local agencies extensive sanctioning power and broad legal discretion. Meanwhile businesses, previously bolstered by close relations with local government, have often operated in a legal grey zone, skirting regulations to boost profits.
Chinese business was thus vulnerable to regulatory crackdowns, prompting some to enter into profit-sharing arrangements with local bureaucrats in exchange for legal protection. This dynamic — part legal manoeuvring, part implicit bribery — entrenched a system of crony capitalism.
But China’s sweeping anti-corruption campaign over the past decade has triggered widespread bureaucratic inertia. Local officials — once eager to spur economic growth — are now hesitant to taken action.
Chinese turning to casual work to supplement wages amid economic slump (The Straits Times)
Workers in China are picking up side jobs amid an economic malaise in the world’s second-largest economy that has left many – particularly the young – anxious about their employment prospects.
They are hoping that their side hustles can top up the income that they have lost through delayed wages and salary cuts of as much as 30 per cent as companies, including state-owned ones, struggle to stay afloat.
Some are even hoping that they can ditch their current jobs – which they say have become increasingly unstable in recent months – if their side gigs take off.
A 2023 survey showed that workers in industries such as education, construction, media and advertising are most likely to engage in casual work.
China's manufacturing activity expands for the first time in six months (Reuters)
China's manufacturing activity expanded for the first time in six months and services picked up in October, indicating that Beijing's latest stimulus measures are helping the battered economy turn a corner.
The National Bureau of Statistics purchasing managers' index (PMI) on Thursday rose to 50.1 from 49.8 in September, just above the 50-mark separating growth from contraction and beating a median forecast of 49.9 in a Reuters poll.
In a further encouraging sign, the non-manufacturing PMI, which includes construction and services, rose to 50.2 this month, after it dropped to 50.0 in September.
Bond Interest Costs Chinese Localities Over CNY1 Trillion for First Time in January to September (Yicai)
Interest payments on China’s local government bonds exceeded CNY1 trillion (USD140.4 billion) for the first time in the January to September period because of rising debt levels and slower fiscal revenue growth, while remaining manageable and within a safe level.
Local administrations paid a record-breaking CNY1.04 trillion of interest on bonds in the nine months ended Sept. 30, with their total debt rising to almost CNY45 trillion (USD6.28 trillion) from about CNY21 trillion in late 2019, according to data released by the finance ministry yesterday.
Since most principal payments can be rolled over, the debt servicing pressure on localities mainly takes the form of interest payments, where administrations need to rely on their own fiscal funds.
China’s Steel and Oil Industries Bear Brunt of Tepid Economy (Bloomberg)
Chinese commodities producers centered on the old economy are still bearing the brunt of the nation’s economic slowdown, with steelmakers and crude oil processors in particular continuing to rack up losses.
Cumulative losses in the world’s biggest steel industry swelled to 34 billion yuan ($5 billion) over the first nine months of the year, according to data for September released by the statistics bureau on Sunday. The oil refining sector saw losses deepen to 32 billion yuan over the period. Profits at industrial firms more broadly declined at a faster pace than a month earlier.
Steel mills have been forced to slash output to protect margins hammered by China’s protracted property crisis. Bankruptcies could beckon. Oil refiners are also cutting runs, with weak demand for fuels exacerbated by the country’s rapid uptake of electric vehicles. China wraps its third-quarter earnings season this week, with releases due from both its biggest steelmakers and oil and gas companies.
EU investments in China soar to new quarterly record of US$3.9 billion (SCMP)
Despite calls by European Union political leaders to “de-risk” economic ties with China, EU businesses’ greenfield investments there surged to record levels in the second quarter of 2024, led by German carmakers.
Greenfield investments – the creation of a new company or establishment of new facilities – soared to €3.6 billion (US$3.9 billion) in China from April through June, according to the Rhodium Group consultancy.
This was the highest quarterly level on record and well above the average quarterly EU investment of €1.8 billion since 2022. German companies accounted for 57 per cent of the total EU greenfield investment in China over the first half of the year.
The top five EU corporate investors were Germany’s Volkswagen, BMW and chemicals giant BASF, Sweden’s Ingka Group – which owns furniture retailer Ikea – and Dutch-incorporated tech company STMicroelectronics.
According to the Rhodium Group analysis, car makers have accounted for roughly half of all EU investments in China since 2022. The splurge on greenfield sites is likely driven by companies’ desire to localise their production; in a bid to protect their Chinese supply chains from geopolitical tensions, more firms are manufacturing “in China for China”.
Top Chinese airlines' profits fall as flagging economy pressures fares (Reuters)
China's top three state-owned airlines reported profit declines in the third quarter despite record summer passenger numbers and fuller planes than last year, as a slowdown in domestic economic growth pushes flyers to seek cheaper fares.
Beijing-headquartered Air China on Wednesday reported a net profit of 4.14 billion yuan ($581.34 million) in the quarter, down from 4.24 billion yuan a year earlier.
China Eastern Airlines on the same day posted a net profit of 2.63 billion yuan, down 28.2% year on year.
The country's largest airline China Southern said on Monday there was "strong demand in the aviation market" but reported a 23.9% year-on-year drop in third-quarter net profit to 3.19 billion yuan.
China Southern added 11% more capacity to its operations over the quarter compared to the year before and planes were on average fuller than last summer, airline data shows. However, operating revenues for the quarter rose just 4.6%, indicating a decline in ticket prices.
China pivot from US farm imports bolsters it against trade war risks (Reuters)
Since Trump was in the White House, China has slashed its dependence on U.S. farm goods in a concerted effort to beef up national security, including food self-sufficiency.
The pivot began in 2018, when Beijing slapped 25% tariffs on imports of U.S. soybeans, beef, pork, wheat, corn and sorghum, retaliating against duties imposed by the Trump administration on $300 billion worth of Chinese goods.
The move led to a reshaping of global agriculture trade flows, despite Trump and then-Chinese Vice Premier Liu signing a pact in January 2020 under which Beijing promised to boost purchases of U.S. goods and services, including farm products.
Instead, China has decreased U.S. purchases, buying more grain from Brazil, Argentina, Ukraine and Australia, even as it boosts domestic production.
"Beijing feels much safer knowing the U.S. has less leverage over China's food security in the event of a major conflict," said Even Pay, agriculture analyst at Beijing-based consultancy Trivium China.
"That reduction is by design," she said.
[…]
In anticipation of post-election tensions, Chinese buyers have boosted agricultural imports, including American soybeans and corn, traders and analysts say.
Imports of soybeans, used mainly for animal feed, are up 8% in the first nine months of the year, with barley purchases increasing 63% and sorghum shipments climbing 86%.
"This time is different. China is well stocked up on most of its needs," said a trader at an international trading company in Singapore which sells grains and oilseeds to China and declined to be named as they were not authorised to speak with media.
"There won't be any supply shock immediately and it will give China time to plan and redirect purchases," he said.
Breakingviews: BYD's outpacing of Tesla has only just begun (Reuters)
One electric-vehicle challenge Elon Musk saw coming in his rear-view mirror has just edged past him. On Wednesday, BYD clocked quarterly sales that handily beat Tesla. The next worry is that his Chinese rival will keep pulling further ahead.
BYD's top line was neck and neck with Tesla's in last year's fourth quarter. But it powered ahead in the latest results, with a record 201 billion yuan ($28 billion) in revenue in the three months to the end of September, some $3 billion more than its U.S. rival's.
[…]
China accounted for the vast majority of BYD's deliveries and growth in the first nine months of the year, helped by consumers' taste for homegrown brands. Local badges accounted for nearly two-thirds of industry sales this year, compared with one-third in 2020, per consultancy Automobility.
Exports made up roughly 10% of the total in the first three quarters, despite a pushback against the influx of Chinese electric cars from Brussels to Washington. International markets could become the growth engine as the company is readying factories in Hungary, Thailand, Turkey, and Brazil. For the first time in August, monthly sales filings showed BYD sold more cars abroad than it exported, indicating overseas production is already making a contribution.
Tesla still beats BYD on some other counts. Its vast Shanghai factory achieved its lowest-ever cost of goods per vehicle in the third quarter. That helped bag a net profit of $2.2 billion, higher than BYD’s $1.6 billion bottom line, even though Musk's outfit does not produce higher-margin hybrids like Wang's does. Tesla's so-called “full self-driving” system, whilst not quite living up to its name, is also more advanced than many competitors’.
China’s Comac Global Expansion Plans Take Off with New Singapore Office (Caixin)
China’s commercial aviation ambitions took a significant leap as its state-owned aircraft manufacturer Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China Ltd. (Comac) opened its Asia-Pacific office in Singapore Tuesday, to promote domestic aircrafts like the ARJ21 and C919 internationally.
The new office will serve as a hub for coordinating with airlines, maintenance providers, suppliers and other partners across the Asia-Pacific region, the company said. Comac’s director Tan Wangeng emphasized that the Singapore office will bring the company closer to international customers.
Huawei Technologies reports 13.7% drop in 9-month profit (CNBC)
Chinese tech giant Huawei reported a drop in net profit despite a jump in revenue on Thursday for the first nine months of the year, a statement to the Shanghai Clearing House showed.
The firm recorded a 13.7% drop in nine-month net profit to 62.9 billion yuan ($8.83 billion) for the January-September period, the telecoms giant and smartphone maker said in the statement.
Revenue rose to 585.9 billion yuan from 452.3 billion.
Huawei did not give an earnings breakdown for individual units, but its mainstay consumer business, which includes smartphones and PCs, as well as its smart car components unit, had performed strongly.
Chinese smartphone maker Honor announces new investors (Reuters)
Chinese smartphone maker Honor announced on Thursday new investors that included China Telecom and a unit of CICC Capital Corp, almost a year after it said it was planning an initial public offering (IPO).
Honor, a former unit of Huawei Technologies (HWT.UL), did not disclose the amount of the investment.
Other backers include China's Cornerstone, the Shenzhen city government's SDG Group, and Jinshi Xingyao, an investment platform for Honor's channel partners, Honor said.
Apple's China sales dip despite overall iPhone 16 sales boost (Nikkei Asia)
Apple reported a record revenue for the July-September quarter on Thursday, reflecting early signs of the AI-powered iPhone 16's strength. But China sales continued to decline as it remains unclear when the artificial intelligence feature will become available there.
For the three months ended Sept. 28, Apple's total revenue grew 6.1% on the year to $94.9 billion. Its main revenue driver, the iPhone, grew 5.5% to $46.2 billion, a September quarter record.
Apple (APPL) Ships $6 Billion of iPhones From India in Big China Shift (Bloomberg)
Apple Inc.’s iPhone exports from India jumped by a third in the six months through September, underscoring its push to expand manufacturing in the country and reduce dependence on China.
The US company exported nearly $6 billion of India-made iPhones, an increase of a third in value terms from a year earlier, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named as the information is private. That puts annual exports on track to surpass the about $10 billion of fiscal 2024.
Apple is expanding its manufacturing network in India at a rapid clip, taking advantage of local subsidies, a skilled workforce and advances in the country’s technological capabilities. India is a crucial part of the company’s effort to lessen its reliance on China, where risks have grown along with Beijing’s tensions with the US.
Three of Apple’s suppliers — Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group and Pegatron Corp., and homegrown Tata Electronics — assemble iPhones in southern India. Foxconn’s local unit, based on the outskirts of Chennai, is the top supplier in India and accounts for half of the country’s iPhone exports.
Some companies change tack in China with no recovery in sight (Reuters)
Companies around the world are starting to cut prices and costs and scale back activity in China, as the world's second-biggest economy continues to flag despite Beijing's efforts to turn things around.
Big names including Hermes, L'Oreal, Coca-Cola, United Airlines, Unilever and Mercedes said Chinese customers are curbing spending as a property crisis drags on and youth unemployment stays high.
Some are already shifting their China strategies.
French carbon graphite maker Mersen said last week it would close a factory making power transmission products in China because it cannot compete with local rivals.
International food companies such as Danone and Nestle have meanwhile deepened price cuts or are seeking to boost online shopping volumes.
Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey said on an Oct. 23 earning call that the operating environment in China remained challenging.
"The economy is kind of not taking off," he told investors.
Zhang Yiming, billionaire founder of TikTok owner ByteDance, tops China's rich list (Euronews)
Zhang Yiming, the founder of TikTok owner ByteDance, has topped the list of China's richest people, according to the Hurun Research Institute, although many of those on the list have seen their net worth plunge over the past year.
The institute, which publishes the annual Hurun China Rich List, found that the total wealth of entrepreneurs on the list this year was $3 trillion (€2.8 trillion), down 10 per cent from the previous year.
The number of billionaires based on their net worth in US dollars was also down 142, to 753. Hurun tallied 1,185 billionaires since 2021.
Hurun Report - Info - Hurun China Rich List 2024 (Hurun Research Institute)
The Hurun Research Institute today released, in association with premium baijiu brand Hengchang Shaofang, the Hurun China Rich List 2024, a ranking of the richest individuals in China. The cut-off was CNY 5 billion (equivalent to US$700 million), and wealth calculations were from 30 August. This is the 26th year of the list.
Tech & Media
US Efforts to Contain Xi’s Push for Tech Supremacy Are Faltering (Bloomberg)
Since Donald Trump hit Xi Jinping’s government with punitive tariffs in 2018, his push to cut the trade deficit has snowballed into a full-scale bipartisan effort to stop China from becoming the world’s biggest economy and obtaining technology that threatens American military superiority.
At a glance, the campaign appears successful. China’s economy is no longer on pace to overtake the US and is actually falling further behind. Its tech giants face difficulty obtaining advanced chips to develop artificial intelligence. And US allies are complying with requests to deny China access to the best chip-making equipment, including one-of-a-kind machines from Netherlands-based ASML Holding NV.
But despite more than six years of US tariffs, export controls and financial sanctions, Xi is making steady progress in positioning China to dominate industries of the future. New research by Bloomberg Economics and Bloomberg Intelligence shows that Made in China 2025 — an industrial policy blueprint unveiled a decade ago to make the nation a leader in emerging technologies — has largely been a success. Of 13 key technologies tracked by Bloomberg researchers, China has achieved a global leadership position in five of them and is catching up fast in seven others.
That means the world outside the US is increasingly driving Chinese electric vehicles, scrolling the web on Chinese smartphones and powering their homes with Chinese solar panels. For Washington, the risk is that policies aimed at containing China end up isolating the US — and hurting its businesses and consumers.
HarmonyOS NEXT: Beijing’s Bid for Operating System Independence ()
HarmonyOS NEXT reflects Beijing’s technological ambitions and drive for digital sovereignty. As such, it serves as a reminder of the extent to which the United States has enabled Beijing to engineer the splintering of the global digital commons. Its development holds the potential to reshape the global tech landscape and impact future US-PRC relations. The extent to which the platform is accepted in international markets may prove a bellwether for other PRC tech companies that hope to expand globally. As Huawei refines its ecosystem and prepares for international expansion, its success could influence how other nations pursue technological independence in an increasingly fragmented digital world.
Reddit Bans Forum for Chinese Dissidents, Chinese Government Influence Suspected ()
As early as 2016, ByteDance tried to acquire Reddit through a stock swap, which ultimately failed. However, in February 2019, Reddit received $300 million in Series D financing, of which Tencent provided $150 million. Then in 2020, Tencent once again participated in Reddit’s Series E round of financing. So far, Tencent's total investment in Reddit has reached $417 million. It holds 11.5% of Reddit's shares, and has become its second largest shareholder.
Science, Health & Environment
China declares success as its youngest astronauts reach space (BBC)
A Chinese spacecraft with a three-person crew, including the country's first female space engineer, has docked after a journey of more than six hours.
The crew will use the homegrown space station as a base for six months to conduct experiments and carry out spacewalks as Beijing gathers experience and intelligence for its eventual mission to put someone on the Moon by 2030.
Beijing declared the launch of Shenzhou 19 a "complete success" - it is one of 100 launches China has planned in a record year of space exploration as it tries to outdo its rival, the United States.
China’s national health insurance regulator has kicked off the latest round of medicine pricing negotiations this week, as drugmakers bid to get their pricey innovative medications included in the country’s basic health insurance program.
From Sunday to Wednesday, big-name pharmaceutical firms Merck, Bayer, Sanofi and AstraZeneca, as well as local outfits such as Hengrui Pharma, Innovent Biologics and Haisco, are meeting in Beijing with the National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA).
This year, a total of 162 medications made it to the negotiation table. That’s a slight decrease from last year’s 168, despite the fact that the number of drugs that passed the regulator’s initial review increased to 440 this year from 390 last year.
As the country’s health insurance program strains to keep up with the aging population’s growing demand, participating companies have been encouraged to prepare different bidding plans, an employee from a Beijing-based company at the negotiation scene told Caixin.
[…]
This year marks the seventh round of talks since the system was introduced in 2018. The results will be released in November and the updated version of the reimbursement catalog will take effect on Jan. 1, 2025.
Arts & Culture
A Wuhan punk classic turns 20 + Ghostmass ()
In this issue: a post-punk ode to Beijing, a classic record from one of China’s most outspoken bands turns 20, a Chinese folk act in the New York Times, a load of great noise and experimental releases, an update on the availability of those Kind of Shoegaze compilations, and a music video that tackles security cameras’ intrusion of personal space.
Chinese Shoegaze: An Introduction ( & )
So this week, we’re giving you what you need, not more election takes but a fantastic deep dive into Chinese shoegaze. This episode comes courtesy of ChinaTalk columnist Alexa Pan and Jake Newby of the Concrete Avalanche Substack. They put together a wonderful radio hour playing some amazing tracks and walking you through the genre.
Gong Gong Gong & Mong Tong Fuse Styles in Imagined Kung-fu Soundtrack (RADII)
Two bands entered the eighth floor of a notorious Kowloon building and only one emerged.
Well, in a sense. The bands in question were Taiwanese psychedelic duo Mong Tong and Gong Gong Gong, an experimental rock duo based in Beijing and Montréal, with roots in Hong Kong. And the building was Sincere House, a labyrinthine 1960s-era complex in Hong Kong’s Mong Kok district, packed with mobile phone resellers, sex shops, and cheap hostels. It’s also home to President Piano Co., a legendary rehearsal studio opened by Lee King-yat in 1978 that has played host to many notable Hong Kong musicians. Gong Gong Gong and Mong Tong were there for a jam session and ended up leaving with a full new album they are now touring through Greater China to support.
Chinese Post-Punk Rock Band Re-TROS Kicks Off European Tour in November (RADII)
Chinese post-punk band Re-TROS recently announced their first European tour dates in years. Following their performance at the Youth+Music Festival in Paris on November 16, the band will travel across the English Channel and play headlining shows in London and Manchester.
Don’t Write Off the Mao Dun Literature Prize (China Books Review)
The Mao Dun Literature Prize (茅盾文学奖) is arguably the biggest book award that most people haven’t heard of. Apart from an anodyne bulletin on the English website of China Daily, coverage of last year’s winners in languages other than Chinese has been all but nonexistent.
The prize, awarded roughly every four years since 1982 to three to seven titles, has the power to transform the fate of a book. It has sealed the canonical status of works by Jia Pingwa and Wang Anyi, and this year it nudged a dense modernist brick from obscurity to bestseller, then ignited a bidding war for the film rights to an experimental espionage novel. Meanwhile, controversy over the award’s lack of transparency and its state-affiliated official patronage has doomed some of the awarded works to popular ridicule.
‘I wanted those 828 men not to be forgotten’: the Chinese documentary raising wartime ghosts (The Guardian)
The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru tells the story of a Japanese ship that was used to transport 1,816 British prisoners of war from Hong Kong to Japan during the second world war. In October 1942, as the unmarked vessel was sailing through the East China Sea, it was torpedoed by the US navy. Hundreds of prisoners drowned or were shot by Japanese troops as they tried to escape. But more than 300 were rescued by Chinese fishers who spotted the smoke and debris from an archipelago on China’s east coast (most were later recaptured by the Japanese).
Fang, a businessman turned film director, first learned about the incident when he overheard a fisher on Dongji island, part of the Zhoushan archipelago that more than 80 years ago was the site of the rescue mission, mention the existence of a sunken ship from the second world war in the nearby waters. Fang set out to find the ship’s remains, but soon the project became about telling the stories of the people on board. “I wanted all those 828 men to not be forgotten,” says Fang, the film’s director, producer, and host, referring to the men who didn’t survive.
Sports
Zheng Qinwen defeats wild card Sofia Kenin to win in Tokyo and clinch WTA Finals berth (AP)
Top-seeded Zheng Qinwen of China claimed the Toray Pan Pacific Open title with a 7-6 (5), 6-3 win over American wild card Sofia Kenin on Sunday and clinched her place in the WTA finals next month.
The No. 7-ranked Zheng, who won gold at the Paris Olympics, fired 16 aces and only faced a single break point throughout the 1 hour, 52 minute victory in Tokyo over the 2020 Australian Open champion.
The 22-year-old Zheng earned her third title of the year and first on hardcourt since winning at Guangzhou last year. She has gone 28-4 since Wimbledon, including a 12-2 run in the tour’s Asian swing.
Yao Ming, China’s Giant of Basketball, Steps Down as Head of CBA (Caixin)
Yao Ming, the former NBA superstar, has stepped down as president of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) after a seven-year tenure that has been marked with both success and regrets.
The association Thursday said it has accepted Yao’s resignation and vice chairman Guo Zhenming was named as his successor.
Yao, 44, said he decided to resign “after careful consideration” and “based on considerations for the development of China’s basketball and personal planning.” He was quoted in a statement as saying: “Basketball is a career I have always adored, whether in the past, present or future.”
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