A bedtime story about massive infrastructure projects – China news from May 9, 2017

OBOR the friendly ogre

OBOR might sound like the name of a fairy tale ogre, but it is of course the acronym for One Belt, One Road — Xi Jinping’s signature initiative to connect Asia and Europe with commerce, infrastructure, and new trade routes. Now OBOR is the star of its own video “bedtime story” in English, featuring a foreign man explaining the Chinese government project to his daughter right before she goes to sleep. You can watch it on Youtube: episode 1, episode 2.

For more fun propaganda, see this rap video about the “six things close to Xi Jinping’s heart,” and this infomercial urging Beijingers to report on suspected spies in exchange for large cash rewards.

Over the Moon in Beijing and Pyongyang?

The Associated Press reports: “Moon Jae-in declared victory in South Korea’s presidential election Tuesday after his two main rivals conceded.” Writing in the Washington Post, The China Project editor-at-large John Pomfret writes that “Moon has pledged…to soften South Korea’s tough stance towards North Korea and seek closer ties with China,” and that his electoral success will be seen in Beijing and Pyongyang “as evidence that their hard-line policies toward South Korea have succeeded.”

Xinhua News Agency has reported on Moon’s victory, but not yet offered formal comment. Xinhua has however already noted Xi Jinping’s congratulatory phone call to Emmanuel Macron, winner of this week’s French presidential election.

Caixin-Sinica Business Brief: correct link

Dear reader, a thousand apologies — our website was down when some of you clicked yesterday through to the most recent episode of the Caixin-Sinica Business Brief. It should be working fine now.

We are still finalizing the format and some technical details — as soon as we’re happy with it, we’ll roll out the podcast to iTunes and other online venues so you can subscribe using your regular podcast software.

—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief

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.

The China Project’s conference in New York on May 18 will feature 20 women leaders in Chinese technology, business, and culture. Buy your tickets here.

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:

What people did on Mobikes over the May 1 holiday weekend

Technode reports on data released by bike share company Mobike analyzing user behavior during the Labor Day holiday weekend from April 29 to May 1. Some of the findings are:

• Usage of Mobikes was up 17.2 percent from the weekend before nationwide.
• The largest spikes in usage were in tourist destinations: bike use in the pleasant coastal city of Xiamen shot up 51 percent, while in scenic Hangzhou, it increased by 47 percent.
• The five places that attracted the most Mobike users were Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Chengdu.
• Many Mobike users who live in Beijing and Shanghai headed to Chengdu for the holiday weekend, while Guangzhou and Shenzhen residents head to Haikou and Xiamen.  

In March, The China Project published “Bike sharing done right: A real Chinese innovation” together with a video showing how the bikes work.  

• China’s exports remained resilient as global demand recovers / Bloomberg
  See this tweet for a summary of the numbers from Bloomberg journalist Haidu Lun and also a panda video.
• Tencent poised to launch virtual reality headset / Financial Times (paywall)
  “Taiwan’s HTC, which has linked up with Alibaba on VR shopping and cloud services, has emerged as a leading contender in China’s VR market… However, Tencent’s high profile in the gaming market and the vast reach of its WeChat messaging app would give its VR headset an advantage.”
• As China’s battle with leverage begins to bite, risk bites back / Reuters
• Cheap Chinese aluminum is a national security threat / Foreign Policy
• Buying spree brings attention to opaque Chinese company / NYT (paywall)
• The Kushner project touted in China is in trouble at home / Bloomberg

POLITICS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS:

Taiwan fights for inclusion at World Health Assembly

On May 9, Reuters reports that despite China’s objection, Taiwan will send a delegation to attend the World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva on May 22–31 without an invitation from the World Health Organization (WHO). Taiwan is not recognized as a member of the United Nations and has not taken part in any UN meetings since 1971, when the UN declared the People’s Republic of China as “the only legitimate representative of China to the United Nations.”

In the past few years, the island was, with Beijing’s acquiescence, granted observer status at some conferences. Last year, Beijing warned Taiwan that it can reserve its observer status only if it complies with the “one China” policy, which current Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen 蔡英文 has not clearly supported. To exert pressure on Taiwan, Beijing has taken other measures over the past months, including sending an aircraft carrier for a sail around the island, cutting back on tourist numbers from the P.R.C., and extraditing Taiwanese criminal suspects from other countries to the mainland.  

In response, Taiwan’s top China policymaking officials said that Beijing’s approach to exclude it is “rigid and confrontational,” and may cause serious consequences. Meanwhile, to support its assertive stand on the issue, Taiwan is rallying other countries. The South China Morning Post reports that Japan has indicated some support.

• 11 children, several South Korean, die in bus crash in China / Reuters
  “Eleven young children — five South Korean and six Chinese — were killed along with their driver when their bus crashed and burst into flames in a tunnel in China’s eastern Shandong Province on Tuesday, the local government said.”
  The China Daily puts the death toll at 12.
•  Xinjiang shows Belt, Road needs specifics / Global Times
  “But now comes the critical part of actually transporting products, which is also the challenging phrase of the implementation. Recent data in Xinjiang suggest that trade has not improved significantly. In the first quarter of the year, trade in Xinjiang was $4.84 billion, according to the Urumqi Customs.”
• Tightened belt: China skimps on its grand trade plan / WSJ (paywall)
  “Scrutinizing figures put out by the China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China—the conduit for much of China’s massive lending to Africa and Latin America in recent decades—Mr. Dollar is unable to find evidence that they are now prioritizing Mr. Xi’s showcase endeavor…Meanwhile, Chinese companies are largely sticking to safer markets in the world’s rich nations.”
• China says North Korea sending delegation to new Silk Road summit / Reuters
• Who’s who in China’s ‘Belt and Road Initiative’? / SCMP
• Now, Beijing deletes envoy’s suggestion to rename China-Pakistan corridor / Hindustan Times
• Duterte the bridge builder to push infrastructure projects in Beijing / SCMP
• Australia’s remote Darwin courts China even with U.S. Marines / Reuters
• China’s smear campaign against a U.S. admiral backfires / Washington Post
• China urges for thaw in Pakistan-Afghanistan ties after border clashes / Asian Correspondent

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

Tsinghua loses star molecular biologist to Princeton

Nieng Yan (颜宁 Yan Ning) is one of China’s leading research talents in the life sciences whose work, according to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, “combines structural biology, biochemistry, and molecular biophysics.” The South China Morning Post reports that she has decided to leave Tsinghua University, where she has worked for more than a decade, to take up a professorship at Princeton University, where she did her doctoral and postdoctoral studies at the department of molecular biology. Yan began her academic career with a bachelor’s degree in biology from Tsinghua University, graduating in 2000. In 2007, she received a teaching offer from Tsinghua University and became one of the school’s youngest professors. During her time at Tsinghua, Yan led a research team that made groundbreaking discoveries about the physical structure of a protein related to several diseases, including cancer and diabetes. That same year, Yan posted an article on her personal blog about how the government-run National Natural Science Foundation turned down her team’s grant application, indicating that it is difficult in China to get funds for high-risk yet important research projects.

In an interview (in Chinese) with the Guangming Daily, Yan explained that she had received the job offer from Princeton in 2015. Asked why she wanted to relocate, she replied, “I am afraid of being in the same environment for too long and getting used to it. Changing to a new environment will give me pressure, inspire me, and help me to make more achievements.” Yan also added that she will help to promote collaborations between the two schools.

On the social media platform Weibo, many internet users linked Yan’s departure with her unpleasant experience with fund management officials. One commenter wrote (in Chinese), “Whether or not you can get research funding in China all depends on connections. Those who are doing real stuff don’t necessarily get money for their research.” However, other netizens blamed Yan for placing self-interest above the country. “Those who are unwilling to make contributions to their home countries can’t call themselves scientists,” another commenter stated (in Chinese).

• Five-year sentence for selling endangered parrot gets China talking / Caixin
  “A Shenzhen factory worker serving a five-year prison sentence for selling a type of parrot protected by an international endangered-species law is appealing his punishment as too tough — and he’s getting plenty of public support.”
• China’s autism schools a last resort for youth on the spectrum / Sixth Tone
• New Chinese game invites players to break ‘The Wall’ of online censorship / SCMP
• ‘Alien: Covenant’ scores China release date, cuts expected / China Film Insider
• ‘Drug War’ producer arrested for drugs / China Film Insider
• Take a look around China’s loneliest subway station / Shanghaiist