Russia blocks WeChat – China news from May 5, 2017

WeChat blocked in Russia for ‘failure to discharge various responsibilities’

China’s internet giant Tencent is used to operating in an environment at home where it understands the government, and all its large foreign competitors are blocked. So having its popular social media and messaging app WeChat blocked abroad must have been quite a shock.

Russian state-owned Tass News Agency notes: “Russian telecom watchdog Roskomnadzor entered China’s WeChat messaging service into the register of prohibited websites, according to information posted on the regulator’s website on Friday.”

The short article says that “access to the resource was restricted” on the basis of a law that “stipulates sanctions for failure to discharge various responsibilities imposed by the law on organizers of information distribution in [the] internet.” The Global Times also has a short report on the block, which notes Tencent’s response: “WeChat said Friday that it feels sorry the app was blocked in Russia, adding that the company is communicating with Russian authorities on this issue.”

In addition, the Global Times says that “the block of the app…has triggered wide complaints from the Chinese living in Russia, who said it has affected their daily life and work.” Those who have lived in China and tried to use Facebook, Gmail, and other foreign internet services know this feeling well.

The flight of the C919

The top story (in Chinese) in central state media for May 5 is headlined “The Communist Party Central Committee and State Council send a congratulatory message on the maiden flight of the C919 passenger aircraft.” Caixin reports that “amid cheers and applause, the COMAC 919 flew into the hazy skies of Shanghai Pudong International Airport,” while “nearly 150 flights at Shanghai airport were delayed to make way” for the new plane’s test flight.

The plane was designed and constructed by state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC), and according to Caixin, “symbolizes the nation’s ambition to compete in commercial-aircraft construction.” The dream had to be postponed, since “the 158-seat narrow aircraft has been delayed at every step,” and the maiden flight was “behind schedule by nearly three years.” The aircraft still needs to undergo a series of tests and inspections before it can be licensed to fly in China and other countries, and COMAC does not expect to deliver any of its 570 orders (mostly from Chinese airlines) until after 2020.

Despite the fact that the new aircraft has, according to Caixin, been “touted as a mass achievement of China’s industrial capacity,” Bloomberg notes that “behind the celebrations of a Made-in-China jet is the reality that COMAC was able to build its new plane using a string of Western suppliers…such as General Electric, Safran, and Honeywell International.”

Sixth Tone has published a report about the “patriots and plane geeks” who flocked to Shanghai to witness the C919’s maiden flight.

One thing that does not seem to have been noted in media coverage of the C919 is its name: In Chinese, it connotes longevity, which is a good thing for a market that can obsess over lucky numbers.

Women and China:

A Forum on How Women Are Shaping the Rising Global Power

The China Project’s conference in New York on May 18 will feature 20 women leaders in Chinese technology, business, and culture. Please click here to learn more and buy tickets.

One cheesy military recruitment video

The People’s Daily YouTube account has published a video described as “The Power of China: China’s PLA army enlists [a] pop-style music video to recruit young soldiers.” The video has English subtitles.

Maps: Coal and oil shipments between China and North Korea

Reuters has published a series of maps, satellite photos, and explanations showing shipments of coal, oil, and other goods between China and North Korea.

—Jeremy Goldkorn, editor-in-chief

Viral video Friday

Jia Guo has your weekly roundup of Chinese viral videos. Buzzing in China this week: A martial arts controversy, a miraculous escape from a car accident, a quirky local festival in Hong Kong, and an escalator episode.

This week on The China Project:

• Sinica Podcast: Bill Bishop on what it takes to be a good China-watcher
• Video: Waiting for H-1B work visas in the time of Trump
• Video: Fun facts about Labor Day in China

This week’s news roundups are:

• May 1: Where does Anbang get its bucks?
• May 2: Internet news in censors’ crosshairs, again
• May 3: Détente with Duterte
• May 4: Chinese cosmocrats — from mission control to the governor’s office

This issue of the The China Project newsletter was produced by Sky Canaves, Lucas Niewenhuis, Jia Guo, and Jiayun Feng. More China stories worth your time are curated below, with the most important ones at the top of each section.

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:

Solar shines in China, but western provinces are left in the dark

China increased its total solar panel capacity by 80 percent in the first quarter of 2017 compared with the same quarter last year, according to a statement (in Chinese) on May 4 from China’s National Energy Administration. But despite the government’s determination that China dominate the world market for solar panels — the New York Times reported (paywall) last month that this may already have happened — many deficiencies remain. For instance, Bloomberg notes, “Central and eastern China accounted for about 89 percent of new capacity,” while PV-Tech pointed out that the western provinces of Xinjiang, Gansu, and Ningxia suffer from 39 percent, 19 percent, and 10 percent curtailment, respectively. Curtailment means “a shortage of transmission capacity to connect projects in remote regions to end users,” a long-standing problem for China’s electricity grid — see, for example, this Reuters report from October 2015.

Solar power still occupies a small space in China’s energy mix, and even as it sees strong growth, other types of energy generation are gaining. Energy Post has an article from earlier this year that puts China’s 2016 energy mix into context, while PV-Tech explains that curtailment issues contributed to the government’s downgrading of its 2020 solar panel capacity goal from 150 gigawatts to a more achievable goal of 110 gigawatts last November.

• Regulator in China takes aim at Anbang Insurance Group / NYT (paywall)
  The China Insurance Regulatory Commission announced “that it had taken disciplinary measures against the Anbang Insurance Group, a financial behemoth that has tried to invest tens of billions of dollars overseas, for the improper sale of two investment products.” For more on Anbang’s recent travails, including its announcement of legal action against Caixin magazine, see The China Project’s recent roundup.
• China’s booming service industry can’t keep up with college grads / Bloomberg
  “Despite government incentives, the economy isn’t creating enough high-skilled service jobs for software programmers, financial advisers, brand managers, and others.”
• Food giant COFCO looks to shed money-losing assets / Caixin
  “State-owned food giant China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corp. (COFCO) is looking for buyers of some money-losing assets…including instant-noodle brand Wugudaochang, instant-food producer COFCO Jiangxi Natural Cereal Foods and grain and oil maker COFCO Tianhai Grain and Oil Industry.”
• China commodities rout continues as iron ore, coking coal tumble / Financial Times (paywall)
  The price of iron ore hit a six-month low on May 5.
• China’s war on debt causes stocks to drop, bond yields to shoot up and defaults to rise / WSJ (paywall)
• Investors rush to develop rental housing as Chinese home prices surge / Reuters
• China to let firms tap stock markets for new Silk Road projects / Reuters
• Warren Buffett has many fans in China but few true followers / The Economist (paywall)
• This startup is shooting for a Pixar moment in China’s fragmented but huge VR space / Tech in Asia
• To expand in China, Airbnb is eyeing Japan and its aging population / CNBC

POLITICS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS:

Anxiety lingers in India over the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor

The Times of India has published an article titled “Contradictory views on Kashmir emerging from China,” which says, “There are signs one section of the Chinese elite wants to persuade India to join China’s Belt and Road plan while another section wants to play the bully.” The article also cites various views from China on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a transport and infrastructure project to connect China’s far west with Pakistan’s ports, which runs right through parts of the disputed region of Kashmir that are administered by Pakistan but claimed by India.

We noted the rising anxiety in India over CEPC, China, and its coziness with Pakistan in January. Those tensions aren’t going away.

• The U.S.-China 50: Meet the people powering the world’s most complex and consequential relationship / Foreign Policy (paywall)
  Includes journalist Mei Fong, author of One Child, and previous guest on the Sinica Podcast.
• China faces resistance to a cherished theme of its foreign policy / The Economist (paywall)
  A look at the problems facing China’s One Belt, One Road (OBOR) project to forge transport and commercial links across Eurasia. On May 4, The China Project reviewed a range of other views on OBOR.
• On campuses far from China, still under Beijing’s watchful eye / NYT (paywall)
  A look at chapters of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association on American university campuses, and the influence or control the Chinese government has on them.
• Why the Communist Party has created a new bureau for Xinjiang / SCMP
  The Communist Party “has created a new bureau to improve intelligence and policy coordination in Xinjiang.… A key function of the bureau is to provide Xinjiang-related advice and policy proposals to China’s top leaders.”
• The extraordinary ways in which China humiliates Muslims / The Economist (paywall)
  “Bans on ‘abnormal’ beards and even the name ‘Muhammad.’”
• China’s independent think tanks told to toe the Communist Party line / SCMP
  “New ‘guidelines’ were issued on Thursday by nine ministerial agencies and are designed to promote ‘healthy development’ of the sector, according to the document.”
• China’s military tech is becoming less of a joke and more of a threat / Quartz

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

The pros and cons of building a city from scratch

When the government announced in April that it would create the Xiongan New Area 60 miles south of Beijing, it triggered a property-buying frenzy as speculators looked to profit from the expansion of the planned annex city to the capital. Xiongan is planned to grow to three times the size of New York City and will incorporate education facilities, institutions, and residents from nearby big cities.

The Guardian has taken a sympathetic look at plans for Xiongan, and concludes that the concept of an integrated city cluster might actually make sense as a way to avoid population  overload, traffic jams, environmental destruction, and other ills of megacities. There are, of course, problems: The article says that “China’s stride toward the promotion of megaregions comes many years after the UN condemned the environmental and social impacts of such ‘endless cities.’” In the short term, challenges include the establishment of public services to new migrants and fair compensation to original residents who refuse to relocate. In the long term, despite the stated intention for the new development to be ecologically sound, “environmentalists have raised a red flag on plans to include most of Northern China’s largest wetland” in the Xiongan New Area, according to a Caixin report in April.

• Chinese entrepreneur stumps up ¥10 million purse to defeat MMA fighter Xu Xiaodong / SCMP
  On May 4, we noted the online controversy stirred up by a video of mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter Xu Xiaodong 徐晓冬 destroying tai chi master Lei Lei 雷雷 in 10 seconds in an exhibition fight held on April 27. On May 5, the South China Morning Post reported that a “Chinese tycoon is offering a total of 10 million yuan to people who can defeat the mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter who sparked a storm over the merits of traditional martial arts versus modern combat.”
• The man behind China’s Ebola vaccine / Sixth Tone
  “Out of the blue, little-known Chinese company CanSino Biologics announced that it would be able to mass-produce a vaccine based on the 2014 Ebola strain that could save millions of lives… The man who made it all possible was Yu Xuefeng 宇学峰, who founded CanSino in 2009 after more than two decades of experience at international biotechnology companies.”
• South Korea and China chasing hockey dreams / The Diplomat
  “As the next two hosts of the Winter Olympics, both countries are pushing to improve their ice hockey performances.”
• Watch the news or we’ll dock your pay, Chinese firm tells staff / SCMP
• Burton Watson, 91, influential translation of classical Asian literature, dies / NYT (paywall)