Links for Thursday, July 15, 2021

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:

Blanket Xinjiang product ban nears U.S. approval
U.S. Senate passes bill to ban all products from China’s Xinjiang / Reuters (porous paywall)
“The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act would create a ‘rebuttable presumption’ assuming goods manufactured in Xinjiang are made with forced labor and therefore banned under the 1930 Tariff Act, unless otherwise certified by U.S. authorities.”
China says U.S. measures on Xinjiang threaten global trade / AP

China’s second quarter growth numbers fuel anxiety
China’s growth slows as pandemic fears persist / NYT (paywall)
“Growth in the world’s second-largest economy lost steam as more expensive raw materials weighed on factories, though retail sales showed signs of stabilizing.”
China’s economic recovery loses some steam, investors eye more policy easing / Reuters (porous paywall)
China’s second-quarter GDP grows 7.9%, falling short of expectations / Caixin (paywall)
China to walk a fine economic line after posting second-quarter growth / WSJ (paywall)
China warns of economic uncertainty despite moderate recovery in Q2 / FT (paywall)

ByteDance goes into food delivery
ByteDance, the parent of short-form video app TikTok and Douyin, recently set up a team to test an in-app restaurant food delivery business, per TechPlanet (in Chinese).

• The tech giant has already experimented with the functionality through a mini-program it calls “Heartbeat Takeout.”
• ByteDance, which already works with many restaurants to promote their dishes, will invite those businesses already active on the app to integrate their services directly with the new mini-program.

Taiwan chip powerhouse eyes expansion following strong second quarter revenue
TSMC raises sales outlook, affirming global chip kingpin role / Bloomberg (paywall)
TSMC says Nanjing wafer fab expansion plans on track as second quarter revenue surges 28 per cent / SCMP (paywall)
“Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract producer of advanced chips, said on Thursday it will press ahead with its 28-nanometre fab expansion in Nanjing, defying speculation that the project could be affected by U.S.-China tech rivalry.”
TSMC is considering building a chip plant in Japan, CEO says / Bloomberg (paywall)
“Chief Executive Officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家 Wèi Zhéjiā) said the company is going through ‘due diligence’ to build a fabrication plant in Japan, a strategically important move for the country by the world’s leading chipmaker.”

EV battery maker CATL’s value surges
Tesla battery supplier CATL rides EV boom to $200 billion-plus valuation / WSJ (paywall)

• A week ago, Bloomberg reported that CATL’s CEO had surpassed Jack Ma in net worth, a symbolic milestone in the rise of China’s “green billionaires.”
• CATL’s shares are up 62% this year, making it the third-largest company listed in China.

China’s “dreamchild” is stealthily winning the battery race / Economist (paywall)
“Now comes the hard bit: geopolitics.”

Government verifies China’s first firefighting drone
EHang drone wins approval to fight fires / Caixin (paywall)
“EHang unveiled the EHang 216F in July 2020, describing it as the world’s first large-payload, self-flying vehicle for high-rise firefighting.”

Huawei is pivoting to cloud services
Huawei’s plan to snatch Alibaba’s cloud crown / Caixin (paywall)
Alibaba and Tencent “are now fielding a challenge from upstart Huawei, which is refocusing on the growing, lucrative market after its smartphone business was hobbled by U.S. sanctions.”

Four suspects detained in Hong Kong for crypto laundering
Hong Kong customs says it’s busted first money laundering syndicate involving cryptocurrency / Caixin (paywall)
Illegal funds processed by the syndicate of crypto launderers had topped $100 million, according to the Hong Kong government.
China’s share of bitcoin power usage drops as Kazakhstan surges / FT (paywall)
The Central Asian state catapulted to third place as its share of crypto mining increased sixfold.

SEC faces pressure to speed up delisting Chinese stocks
U.S. regulator under fire for delays to delisting Chinese stocks / FT (paywall)
“Pressure is building on the US Securities and Exchange Commission to finalize regulations to de-list Chinese companies that fail to comply with American auditing rules, after lawmakers discovered the agency might not begin enforcement until 2025 at the earliest.”

SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND ENVIRONMENT:

Tedros calls for COVID transparency from China
China should provide raw data on pandemic’s origins — WHO’s Tedros / Reuters (porous paywall)
WHO’s Tedros to set out follow-up study into COVID-19 origins – director Ryan / Reuters (porous paywall)
WHO clarifies details of early coronavirus patients in Wuhan / Washington Post (paywall
“In response to questions from The Washington Post, the WHO is changing the virus sequence IDs associated with three of the 13 early patients listed in a chart in the report and will clarify that the first family cluster was not linked to the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan, a spokesman said.”
Germany calls on China to allow further investigations into COVID origins / Reuters (porous paywall)
48 countries send letters to WHO, calling for stopping politicizing virus origins probe / Global Times

BioNTech vaccine to be rolled out in China soon, but only as a booster shot?
China plans to use BioNTech vaccine as booster shot, sources say / Caixin (paywall)
“Chinese drug regulators completed an expert panel review of a Covid-19 mRNA vaccine co-developed by Fosun Pharma with Germany’s BioNTech SE, and now the shot is in the administration review stage, according to Fosun…Chinese authorities plan to use the vaccine, with the brand name Comirnaty, as a booster shot for people who have received inactivated-virus forms of vaccines.”

Bird flu in Sichuan
China reports a human case of H5N6 bird flu / NYT (paywall)
“The man, 55, was hospitalized in Bazhong, a city in the southwestern province of Sichuan…[state media] cited unnamed experts as saying that the risk of large-scale transmission among humans was low.”

POLITICS AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS:

Bus explosion might have been bomb, Pakistan says after initial denial
Pakistan says traces of explosives detected in bus blast probe / Reuters (porous paywall)
Ch Fawad Hussain on Twitter: “Initial investigations into Dassu incident have now confirmed traces of explosives, Terrorism cannot be ruled out, PM is personally supervising all developments, in this regard Govt is in close coordination with Chinese embassy we are committed to fight menace of terrorism together”
Yesterday on The China Project: ​​Pakistan bus explosion kills at least nine Chinese; Beijing blames bomb.

More witness testimony of horrors in Xinjiang
One by one, my friends were sent to the camps / Atlantic (paywall)
“The following articles are [Tahir Hamut Izgil’s] firsthand account of one of the world’s most urgent humanitarian crises, and of one family’s survival.”

India and China at impasse as foreign ministers meet in Tajikistan
India tells China continuing border tensions not in either side’s interests / Reuters (porous paywall)
Border dispute: China tells India we’re partners not rivals but ‘relations still at low point’ / SCMP (paywall)

The Strategic and Economic Dialogue is not coming back, but maybe Biden will have a hotline to Xi
Biden, Yellen to maintain Trump’s halt in U.S.-China economic talks / Bloomberg (paywall)
“The Trump administration halted those talks in 2018, after the group met in 2017 at the Treasury Department under then-Secretary Steven Mnuchin and were unable to produce a joint statement.”
Henry Gao on Twitter: “MOFCOM: ‘The U.S.-China Phase 1 deal is good for China, good for US, and good for the whole world.’ In response to the Q at the press con today noting China’s imports of US agricultural goods were up by 120% for the first half of 2021, while imports of corn are up 318%.”
Biden administration looks to set up ‘red phone’ to China for emergency communications / CNN
“The Biden administration is examining the possibility of setting up an emergency hotline with the Chinese government similar to the so-called ‘red phone’ established between the U.S. and the Soviet Union during the Cold War…the concept is still in its infancy and has yet to be formally raised with the Chinese.”

Increasing recognition that China’s diplomatic messages are too tailored for domestic audiences?
Beijing’s ‘China story’ strategy misses its global targets, think tank says / Caixin (paywall)
The Beijing-based think tank Center for China and Globalization warned that “global communications can ‘fall into populism’ and become ‘hostage to domestic online sentiment.’”

Rules for thee, hotpot for me — Hong Kong officials
Hong Kong hotpot scandal angers democracy activists for ‘double standards’ / Bloomberg (paywall)
“Over the past year, Hong Kong has threatened protesters with jail for holding demonstrations banned due to virus-control measures. Now, a decision to forgive three senior officials for attending a dinner in violation of COVID rules has provided a new rallying cry for pro-democracy activists.”
Top officials who violated COVID rules ‘sacrificed family time’ for work-related hotpot dinner, security chief says / HKFP

“Moral paternalism” in video game censorship
No cults, no politics, no ghouls: how China censors the video game world / Guardian
“Many of the rules come down to the ‘moral paternalism’ of Beijing’s leadership, says Lokman Tsui, an expert on Chinese censorship. ‘They really see themselves as moral authorities – not just the authority on the truth, but also the authority on morality.’”

China threat rhetoric in Washington
China becoming ‘evil empire’ warns U.S. ex-VP Mike Pence / AFP via HKFP
“‘The Chinese Communist Party is the greatest threat to our prosperity, security and values on the face of the Earth,’ the former U.S. official said during a speech at the Heritage Foundation think tank.”

Investigation on Shenzhen skyscraper scare
Swaying of Chinese skyscraper attributed to wind on mast / AP

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

Tokyo Olympics
China sending more than 400 athletes to Tokyo Olympics / AP
“China expects to win gold medals in table tennis, badminton, gymnastics, weightlifting, shooting and diving, Xinhua said.”
China’s ‘ugly’ Tokyo 2020 Olympic uniforms mocked, compared with ‘stir-fried tomatoes and scrambled eggs’ outfits from 2016 / SCMP (paywall)

Social media witch hunt for LGBT+ groups’ connections with “anti-China forces”
Red Vs are after China’s queer community / Protocol

When mobile social platform WeChat shut down nearly 20 accounts run by campus LGBTQ+ clubs and nonprofit organizations on July 6, the Chinese queer community home and abroad were sad and enraged — but mostly perplexed. No one knew what might have triggered the bans. It was only in the following week, when nationalist influencers, or Red Vs, launched a campaign targeting China’s LGBTQ+ community for ties with ‘anti-China forces’ that queer students realized that they have been pulled into a nationalist frenzy.