On-demand murder

Dear Access member,

We have stopped sending morning emails to members on Mondays and Fridays. If you would still like to receive them, please contact me at jeremy@thechinaproject.com.

Also, mark our next Slack chat in your calendars: Paul French, who came on Sinica a few weeks ago to talk about his outstanding new book called City of Devils: A Shanghai Noir, the story of two foreigners who ruled the underworld of Shanghai in the 1930s, is scheduled to join us on Tuesday, September 11, at 11 a.m. EST.

Have a great week!

—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief

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1. Public outrage at Didi boils over with second passenger killing

In May, a 21-year-old female flight attendant used China’s leading ride-hailing app, Didi Chuxing 滴滴出行, and then disappeared. Police embarked on a manhunt for the Didi driver, suspected of raping and murdering the passenger, and Didi suspended and then only partially relaunched its carpool feature. The ride-hailing company was roundly criticized for its handling of the case, and the striking sexism in its PR both before and after the incident.

Over the weekend, it all happened again. The China Project has two reports on the latest tragedy:

• Didi reeling amid public anger after second female passenger murdered in three months, by Chauncey Jung.

• Public outrage at Didi boils over with second passenger killing, by Jiayun Feng.

Here’s a quick rundown of the details:

• A woman surnamed Zhao 赵 in the city of Yueqing, Zhejiang Province, took a ride using Didi’s Hitch service at 1pm on August 24.

• She cried out, “help,” in a text message to a friend at 2pm, before going silent.

• Her 27-year-old male driver, surnamed Zhong 钟, was arrested and admitted to raping and murdering Zhao a little over 12 hours later.

• Didi has fired two executives and once again suspended Hitch, its carpooling service, but many are saying these actions are too little, too late.

• Didi’s customer service was disturbingly slow in responding to complaints associated with this particular incident, by all accounts, but this is hardly an isolated case of bad customer service by Didi.

Other media reporting on the latest disaster for Didi:

• China clamps down on transport sector after Didi passenger killing / SCMP
  “China pledged to tighten oversight of its transportation sector, days after a Didi Chuxing passenger was raped and murdered by her driver, sparking social media outrage and forcing the firm to suspend its carpool service.”

• Didi suspends carpooling service in China after 2nd passenger is killed / NYT (paywall)
  Times reporter Sui-Lee Wee 黄瑞黎 commented on Twitter: “What stunned me while reporting this was the numbers. According to Southern Weekly, at least 53 women have been raped or sexually harassed by Didi drivers in the past 4 yrs?! Caixin says there are 14 rapes linked to Didi drivers, citing court docs.”

• 50 cases in four years: Didi’s latest scandal is just tip of the iceberg / TechNode

• Didi stops hitching service in China after second murder – and admits it was warned about accused driver / SCMP

• Autonavi suspends carpooling service as Didi Hitch murder chills China / TechNode

—Lucas Niewenhuis

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2. Trade war, day 53: American farmers get subsidies as both sides dig in

Since our last trade war update (day 50), only one piece of significant hard news has been reported.

• $4.7 billion will be given to American farmers by the U.S. federal government to offset the pain of tariffs, the Wall Street Journal reports (paywall), with soybean farmers “slated to get roughly three-fourths of the direct payments, or $3.6 billion, followed by producers of pork, cotton, sorghum, dairy and wheat.”

• Up to $12 billion in farm aid was promised in July (day 19), and the Journal notes that “officials said they could decide on a second wave of payments to farmers by December, if difficult market conditions persist.”

But the lack of hard news doesn’t mean the punditry and analysis has slowed down one bit. Specifically, even more articles have come out predicting a gloomy outlook for U.S.-China trade tensions for months to come.

• The U.S. hawks are winning versus compromise-minded officials, Bloomberg writes (paywall), citing in part the dismal results of trade negotiations last week (day 48, day 49), and also details such as that “on Friday, Trump’s officials were huddled in Washington with counterparts from Europe and Japan, discussing how to push China into changing course.”

• “We’re facing an escalating trade war over the next few months,” David Dollar, the former top U.S. Treasury representative in Beijing, predicted to Bloomberg. Dollar also points out that because of the U.S. economy’s overall health, the hard political impact of the trade war may not be felt until well into 2019.

• “I think we are in for a prolonged period of continuing escalating tensions,” Deborah Elms, executive director of the Singapore-based Asian Trade Centre, told CNBC.

• “Both sides think they have the upper hand in this debate,” Elms said, and neither has incentive to change their tactics right now because the economic pain from tariffs has not become unbearable.

• China has economic problems, but not because of U.S. tariffs, Andrew Polk of economic consultancy Trivium writes in Bloomberg (paywall), also giving it no urgency to change tactics — at least yet.

• Instead, “China’s growth woes are homegrown… Two factors are largely to blame: the government’s concerted effort over the last five quarters to tighten credit and stabilize China’s debt levels, and, relatedly, a dramatic drop-off in investment spending by local governments,” Polk writes.

Two more trade-war-related reports:

• Will art become a casualty of U.S.-China trade war? / NYT (paywall)
  “The latest list of targeted Chinese goods ran to 205 pages. It included sand blasting machines; eels, fresh or chilled (excluding fillets); hats; and, at the bottom of the last page, paintings and drawings executed entirely by hand, original sculptures, and antiques more than 100 years old.”
  “The tariffs would apply to all artworks that originated in China, regardless of how they entered the United States. That means American buyers could be required to pay 25 percent more for a Ming dynasty bowl sold by a British owner at an auction in New York, as well as for a painting by a young Beijing-based artist at a gallery in Hong Kong.”

• Chinese Communist Party is stepping up efforts to stifle dissent abroad, US officials are told / SCMP
  “China’s ruling Communist Party is pursuing an aggressive, covert infiltration of US educational and social institutions to quell dissenting voices and strengthen its soft power overseas, according to a report written for an influential US congressional body” — the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
  “Chinese analysts said it indicated that Beijing and Washington were clashing on a new front — over ideology — as well as on trade and security.”

—Lucas Niewenhuis

3. A long winter for Xinjiang and Tibet is coming

Three signs that the Chinese government is not planning on any softening of its policies on ethnic minorities:

1. Wang Yang talks tough on Tibet

Politburo member and fourth-ranking Party official Wang Yang 汪洋 is sometimes called a reformer. He was Party boss of Guangdong Province from 2007 until 2012. During his tenure, Chinese media compared his relatively laissez-faire economic policies and the statist approach of then Chongqing Party boss Bo Xilai 薄熙来 in what was called the Cake Debate.

In 2011, when Wang was in charge of Guangdong, he negotiated a settlement with the residents of the village of Wukan after a mass uprising in protest at local corruption. The settlement included an election in Wukan to choose the Party secretary. It was the first such election to use a secret ballot.

Wang is not exactly a hardliner. But Xinhua News Agency reports (in Chinese) that on a visit to Lhasa yesterday, Wang “emphasized that religious work is related to Tibet’s social stability and long-term stability.” He said Tibetan Buddhists must “better adapt to socialist society” and “bravely fight against separatist forces.”

The Associated Press has an English report on Wang’s remarks.

2. Mayor of Urumqi rewrites history

The mayor of Urumqi, the provincial capital of Xinjiang, is a Uyghur whose name in Chinese is rendered as Yasheng Sidike 牙生·司地克. (Tellingly, he is the deputy Party chief. The Party secretary, the most powerful job in the city, is a Han Chinese named Xu Hairong 徐海荣.)

Last week, the Urumqi Evening News published an article (in Chinese) by the mayor, which makes some extraordinary claims:

Uyghurs have been family members of the Chinese nation since ancient times. They are not descendants of Turkic people and have nothing to do with the Turks. We must polish our eyes, distinguish between right and wrong, and deeply understand that all ethnic groups in Xinjiang are members of the Chinese nation’s blood, and we cherish the hard-won harmony and stability… The Xinjiang region is not only the homeland of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang, but also an integral part of the common homeland of the Chinese nation… The “three forces” [of extremism, separatism, and terrorism] distort historical facts and promote fallacies such as “our country is East Turkestan” and “Uyghurs as natives of Xinjiang.”

Nationalist rag the Global Times translated part of the article, and added a few extra quotes from “experts” with Uyghur names who confirm that Uyghurs are not related to Turks.

Wikipedia has a more reliable guide to Turkic peoples that reflects scientific consensus that the Uyghurs, who speak a language closely related to Turkish, are of course Turkic.

3. Nice Belt and Road project there, hate to see something happen to it

Last week, the Global Times reported on a phone call between Foreign Minister Wang Yi 王毅 and his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu. The article notes the “raging dispute between Ankara and Washington” and that Cavusoglu “said Turkey is ready to strengthen strategic dialogue with China and deepen cooperation with Beijing based on mutual interests.”

“Beijing responded positively,” says the Global Times: “China and Turkey have new opportunities to deepen cooperation, especially with respect to the Belt and Road initiative.”

But, of course, there’s a warning (emphasis added):

Some people…believe that among all the Middle East countries, Turkey has caused China the most trouble during the last 50 years… What’s most unacceptable is that Turkey was adding fuel to the Xinjiang question. Some elements in Turkey encouraged separatist sentiment, helped some radicals from Xinjiang illicitly enter the Middle East, and made irresponsible remarks on the ethnic policy in Xinjiang…

Shaping Turkey as China’s strategic partner can prevent Ankara from intervening in Xinjiang.

Other reporting

Last week, The China Project published an explainer on the situation in Xinjiang: China’s re-education camps for a million Muslims: What everyone needs to know. New reports over the weekend are below:

• “People believe Chinese police in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are arresting Uyghur people because many disappeared suddenly and no one knows their whereabouts,” said one Uyghur exile to Emily Feng of the Financial Times (paywall). One exile in Turkey told her that with warming ties between Beijing and Ankara, Uyghurs in Turkey are also feeling “increasingly unsafe,” said Tursun, who fled to Turkey in 2016, and who declined to give his real name.

• An Ran 安然 is the pen name of a Hui (Muslim minority) blogger based in Jinan, Shandong Province. Last week, he was hassled by police for his postings on Twitter and Facebook about Xinjiang.

• “As China detains Muslim Uyghurs, its economic clout mutes world criticism” is the title of a Christian Science Monitor article on the global silence.

• “Measures taken by the local government of Xinjiang are even labelled as ‘secret camps,’ which are in fact continuous actions supported and embraced by all the people in China fighting against terrorism,” says the the Chinese ambassador to Ireland in a letter of complaint to the Irish Times about the Xinjiang and Hong Kong coverage by its correspondent Clifford Coonan.

4. Two things to read

• Is there an artificial intelligence (AI) bubble? The South China Morning Post says that a “funding squeeze” may be coming for 9 in 10 AI startups in China.

• “A global China must ask itself awkward questions. Is it ready?” asks historian Rana Mitter.

—Jeremy Goldkorn

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Our whole team really appreciates your support as Access members. Please chat with us on our Slack channel or contact me anytime at jeremy@thechinaproject.com.

—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief

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BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:

• Tech investment
  SoftBank Vision Fund to put $100m into China tech joint venture / FT (paywall)
  “The $100bn investment fund, which has shaken up the world of technology investing over the past three years, will own a majority stake in the business, with plans to use ZhongAn’s technology in a number of its global investments, such as in Uber and its Chinese rival Didi Chuxing. ZhongAn will also invest $100m in the joint venture.”

• Google
  Alphabet’s plans for a china comeback go beyond Google search / NYT (paywall)
  “Google’s interest in China appears to be far broader than just internet search; it’s planning a push into autonomous vehicles, has opened a center for artificial intelligence research and has invested in local companies.”
  Google complicity in Chinese censorship could endanger press freedom elsewhere / Committee to Protect Journalists

• Growth, and the state of the economy
  China stock fund that’s up 618% since 2008 says stay in cash / Bloomberg (paywall)
  “China’s struggling stock market isn’t bottoming out just yet, judging by the holdings of a fund that’s made a 618 percent return since it started in 2008. Beijing Longrising Asset Management Co., an equity-focused fund manager that oversees about 20 billion yuan ($2.9 billion), has 10 billion yuan of that in cash. The fund’s top executives are worried about China’s economic outlook and the trade conflict with the U.S., and expect that the extremely bearish sentiment toward equities may take years to recover.”
  Grab a shovel, China’s ready to build again / Bloomberg (paywall)
  Shuli Ren writes, “Infrastructure spending in China is heating up again…. Local governments are responsible for 90 percent of China’s infrastructure projects but lack reliable sources of income.”
  China suddenly has trouble building things / WSJ (paywall)
  “These days Beijing prefers that local governments borrow on-the-books, through the now legal municipal bond market. The problem is that lower-rated and smaller cities are mostly shut out, even though they do most actual capital spending. As a result, investment has kept slowing even though China’s net muni bond issuance in July was three times higher than it was in March.”
  The time is ripe to buy China sovereign debt, analysts say / Bloomberg (paywall)
  “The recent selloff in government bonds has made them attractive as the central bank is about to pour more liquidity into the financial system.”

• Planes and trains
  Plane or train: as high-speed rail link connects Hong Kong to 44 mainland Chinese cities, what are cheapest and fastest ways to get where you are going? / SCMP
  “Post analysis shows in most cases, flying is better than train travel, unless you are heading to destinations that have few or no air services.”

• Dodgy business
  A Chinese ex-billionaire went missing and his casino company’s stock plummeted / Bloomberg (paywall)
  “Caixin reported earlier that Yang is a target of investigators looking into ties with China Huarong Asset Management Company, a state-owned bad-debt manager whose former chairman… is under investigation for alleged corruption.”
  Three tonnes of mouldy cash show why China is taking action against Huarong’s debt burden / SCMP

• Lunar exploration and satellites
  China just set new national launch record while putting up two more Beidou navigation satellites / Spacenews
  “China’s launch of a pair of Beidou navigation satellites late Friday saw the country set a new annual launch record as its space activities ramp up.”
  China’s sending a probe to the moon’s far side. Here’s where it will land / Space.com

• Video games
  The International 2019 to take place in Shanghai, China / Cybersport

• Electric vehicles
  Nissan launches China-focused electric car / AP via Dayton Daily News
  “Nissan’s first electric sedan designed for China began production Monday at the start of a wave of dozens of planned lower-cost electrics being created by global automakers for their biggest market.”

• Post-Brexit trade deals
  Brexit: China looking at ‘top-notch’ trade deal with UK after EU withdrawal / Independent

• On-demand bikes
  China’s Mobike plans big push in India as rival Ofo pulls out / Nikkei Asian Review
  “China’s largest bicycle sharing start-up, Mobike, is planning to expand from the western Indian city of Pune to 10 other cities in the next 18 months.”

• Cryptocurrencies
  Chinese internet giants shut cryptocurrency forums and transactions amid government clampdown / SCMP
  SCMP reporter Zheping Huang commented on Twitter: “So all of the BAT companies have moved to crack down crypto-related activities on their platforms — Baidu on Post Bar, Tencent and Alibaba on their mobile payment services”

• Astronomy and tourism
  China built the world’s largest telescope. then came the tourists / Wired
  “Thousands of people moved to let China build and protect the world’s largest telescope. And then the government drew in orders of magnitude more tourists, potentially undercutting its own science in an attempt to promote it.”

• Pharmaceuticals
  China’s pharma boom / Seeking Alpha
  “During the second quarter, global biopharmaceutical companies reported accelerating sales in China… Demand could rise as the government introduces reforms to improve the country’s health care system and as China’s aging population accumulates more wealth.”
  China health reforms help global pharma groups despite price cuts / FT (paywall)
  “The two largest overseas pharma companies in China by sales, AstraZeneca and Pfizer, both said China sales rose 24 per cent in the last quarter compared to the same period last year.”

• Uniqlo and AI
  Briefing: Uniqlo’s AI solution provider receives Pre-A funding / TechNode
  Yunxiang Zhihui 云享智慧 makes a smart AI sales assistant. The company has announced a new round of funding and a formal partnership with Uniqlo –— “one of the largest price-for-value clothing retail brands in the world.”

• Diamonds
  Russia’s Alrosa chases China diamond market growth / FT (paywall)
  “The world’s largest diamond producer, Russia’s Alrosa, is increasing its marketing spend in China as it attempts to catch up with rival De Beers in a market that has returned to strong growth.” The article notes that Alrosa is testing a rouble payment system “as both countries turn sceptical” on the dollar.

POLITICS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS:

• Propaganda and the Shouguang floods
  Xu Lin takes the helm at Information Office / China Media Project
  “In coverage — or lack of coverage — of the floods in Shandong province this week by traditional media outlets in China, we have further illustration of the changing nature of the media environment. No longer are magazines and newspapers pursuing in any way in-depth reports or analyses, as they might have done before the Xi Jinping era, and social platforms are taking the lead, to the extent that coverage is available at all.”
  Minitrue: Strengthen Control on Shouguang Floods / China Digital Times
  “Amid severe storms across China, the Shandong city of Shouguang was inundated last week, causing damage worth a reported US$1.34 billion and wrecking 10,000 homes and 200,000 greenhouses in the area, China’s biggest domestic vegetable producer. As is often the case after natural disasters—itself a frequently contentious designation—scrutiny of the preparedness or responses of local officials has become politically sensitive.”

• Population policy
  Big changes ahead?! Draft of china’s civil code no longer includes “family planning” / What’s on Weibo
  “Family planning policies are no longer included in a draft of the Civil Code, which is considered for review at the fifth meeting of the 13th National People’s Congress Standing Committee this week. The draft also introduces a ‘cool-off’ period of a month after filing for divorce.”

• Australia, Huawei, and ZTE
  Australia’s new foreign minister Marise Payne supports blocking Chinese telcos from 5G network, citing national security / SCMP

• Crushing dissent in Hong Kong
  Mainland Chinese university bars two Hong Kong human rights lawyers from teaching regular course there / SCMP
  Chinese state police seized members of Hong Kong political party during mainland visits – claims Demosisto founder Joshua Wong / SCMP

• Taiwan
  Tsai Ing-wen calls for ‘normalisation’ of arms sales as Taiwan, US seek closer military ties / SCMP
  US and China spar over El Salvador / Axios
  “White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said on Thursday the country’s ‘receptiveness to China’s apparent interference’ in its politics ‘is of grave concern…and will result in a reevaluation of our relationship with El Salvador.’ China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Lu Kang pushed back, per Politico, asking countries to respect El Salvador’s decision, and saying it’s ‘obvious who is politically interfering in the region.’”
  China’s embassy in Spain coerced the University of Salamanca regarding Taiwan. / Sociopolítica de Asia Pacífico
  “On October 2017 Taiwan Studies Area within the Master Program in East Asia Studies organised “Taiwan Cultural Days” at the University of Salamanca (Spain) School of Social Sciences.” But then the university’s president and the dean of the school of social sciences both received a warning email from the Chinese embassy in Spain, and the event was quickly cancelled.

• South China Sea
  Japan to send helicopter destroyer for rare long-term joint exercises in South China Sea and Indian Ocean / Japan Times
  “The Maritime Self-Defense Force will hold joint military exercises with five Asian navies and the U.S. during a rare long-term dispatch to the South China Sea and Indian Ocean, the Defense Ministry’s Maritime Staff Office has said, in a move certain to stoke anger in Beijing.”
  South China Sea is ‘on low boil,’ analysts warn / VnExpress
  Flying the South China Sea: Snooping and cinnamon buns / CNN

• Belt and Road woes
  Xi Jinping says belt and road plan isn’t about creating a ‘China club’ / SCMP
  “Analysts said Xi’s remarks… indicated that China was adjusting its tone and strategy to address rising concerns over its global ambitions and fears of ‘debt trap diplomacy’.” Xi’s speech was top story on both English and Chinese websites of Xinhua News Agency.
  Mahathir’s pushback against Chinese deals shows Belt and Road plan needs review / SCMP
  Wang Xiangwei writes, “Xi Jinping’s signature strategy has shown significant progress, but Malaysia’s decision to shelve two China-financed mega projects is the latest sign improvements are required.”
  The lesson of the Pakistan suicide attack: China will have to pay a high price for its infrastructure plan / SCMP
  China embarks on belt and road publicity blitz after Malaysia says no to debt-heavy infrastructure projects / SCMP

• Labor activism
  “No One Can Resist the Tides of History”: Detained Activist Yue Xin on the Jasic Workers / China Digital Times
  China Digital Times compiles stories about the labor activist Yue Xin, and translates her open letter, “Open Letter from Solidarity Group Representative Yue Xin to CCP Central Committee and General Secretary Xi Jinping”
  Student activists disappear in southern China after police raid / Reuters via Asahi Shimbun
  “Police in riot gear stormed an apartment in southern China on Friday where about 40 student activists and others supporting factory workers seeking to form a labor union were staying, according to activists who said they received a video of the raid as it was taking place.”

• Sri Lanka
  China aims to build houses, roads in Sri Lanka north to extend sway / Reuters via Asahi Shimbun  
  China’s plan to build houses in Sri Lanka hits a hurdle / Economic Times of India
  “While China wanted to build houses made of concrete in the conflict-ravaged area, the locals want homes made of bricks in the traditional fashion. India has stepped in to negotiate for this project, ET has learnt.”

• Deadly fire in Harbin
  China hotel fire kills 19 on eve of international marathon / NYT (paywall)
  “A predawn hotel fire killed at least 19 people on Saturday in a northeastern Chinese city just a day before an international marathon that attracts tens of thousands of visitors.”
  Harbin hotel where fire killed 19 ‘had failed 5 safety inspections’ / SCMP

• Drones, rockets, and armies
  Battle stations: Asia’s arms race hots up / FT (paywall)
  “China’s military expansion and an unpredictable White House are sparking increased defence spending in the region.”
  China ‘developing electromagnetic rocket with greater fire range’ / SCMP
  “China is developing the world’s first electromagnetic surface-to-surface rocket that offers greater fire range and could give its military an advantage in high-altitude regions like the Himalayas and Tibetan plateau, according to state media.”
  The drones that have become part of China’s military strategy / SCMP

• Germany cools to Chinese money
  Once welcoming, why Germany is wary of Chinese investment amid Trump’s trade war / SCMP

• Africa
  Opinion: The Chinese model is failing Africa / FT (paywall)
  Luke Patey writes, “Struggling infrastructure projects are leading to a debt crisis”

• History of India-China relations
  India-China relations enriched by Vajpayee’s legacy / Asia Times
  A “long view of India-China relations” focusing on the role of late former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

• Party discipline
  Political rumours and religious beliefs targeted in China’s revised rules for cadres / SCMP
  China’s ruling Communist Party has issued a revised set of regulations governing members’ behaviour, threatening punishment for spreading political rumours and recommending those who cling to religious beliefs be asked to leave the party.

• Opioids made in China
  Fentanyl for sale to UK users through Chinese websites / Guardian
  “Websites based in China are selling the dangerous opioid fentanyl,” says the article. The only site named is Weiku.com, where a search for “pain relief” turns up a variety of pharma suppliers who don’t seem too picky about what they sell and to whom.  

• Disease outbreaks — dengue fever
  Two more people diagnosed with dengue fever in Hong Kong, raising total to 26 cases this year / SCMP

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

• Sexual harassment and abuse of children
  University lecturer’s career on hold while China #MeToo claims are investigated / SCMP
  “The latest person to be accused in China is Non Arkaraprasertkul, a Harvard-trained anthropologist who has worked at the University of Sydney and New York University Shanghai.” – a joint venture between NYU and East China Normal University. He denies the claims.
  The public education project that targets the ‘taboo’ subject of child sexual abuse in China / SCMP

• Class divide
  Elite school literally divided over incoming migrant students / Sixth Tone  
  “A century-old primary school in eastern China has divided its campus in two… One side is for 800 children from migrant families, the other for 400 children whose parents own expensive apartments within the elite school district.”
  The bitter regrets of a useless Chinese daughter / NYT (porous paywall)
  A personal essay by a writer living in the U.S. who is helpless when her mother in Shanghai falls ill. Times reporter Li Yuan tweeted: “Such a moving essay. Despite calling itself a socialist country, China has among the world’s biggest gap in income, access to education and healthcare. Hundreds of millions of Chinese face similarly helpless situations as the author’s family.”

• Dog poisonings
  It’s war on man’s best friend: a spate of dog poisonings hit China as frustration with owners turns murderous / SCMP

• Kidnapping
  5-year-old girl goes missing in Yunnan, is found 9 hours later with shaved head and changed clothes
  “The little girl was saved from a child trafficker after her parents’ cry for help went viral on WeChat.”

• Odd hobbies
  Dreamers, crackpots or realists? The diehards on the trail of China’s ‘Bigfoot’ / SCMP

• Trees
  Uprooted: old tree transplants for China’s new cities – in pictures / Guardian
  A gallery of photos of transplanted trees.

VIDEO OF THE DAY

Click HereVideo post: This scanning makes stealing easy!

Cash has become obsolete in much of China. Mobile payments, which generated $98 billion last year, have transformed the daily lives of many in the country. Yet while apps such as Alipay or WeChat help make transactions efficient, they are also prone to security risks and can sometimes lead to crimes.

Viral on Weibo: Dog gets rescued thanks to teamwork

If one person sets out to save a dog trapped under slabs of stone, it can be a daunting task. But when a dozen rescuers are on the scene? Here’s what happened on August 27 in Gansu Province, when a group of people banded together to save a puppy.

Wanna eat fast? Try eating while standing

Students from the Henan Shangqiu County High School in China have to eat their lunch while standing — there are no chairs in the cafeteria. This new rule has been enforced by the school to shorten the students’ eating time so that they have more time to study.

ON SUPCHINA

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Kuora: The greatness that could have been for the Song Dynasty

Could the Song Dynasty have been the greatest one in China’s history if there was no invasion from the North? Little doubt remains that had its nomadic neighbors left it alone, the Song would have stood out as the paramount Chinese dynasty.

Sinica Podcast Early Access: Legendary diplomat Chas W. Freeman, Jr., on U.S.-China strategy and history

This week on Sinica, it’s part 3 of Kaiser and Jeremy’s interview with Chas W. Freeman, Jr. This week, Ambassador Freeman talks about U.S.-China military cooperation in the 1980s and discusses some aspects of that cooperation that might really surprise you. He also shares his unconventional take on the “three Ts” – Tibet, Taiwan, and Tiananmen.

• Subscribe to early access Sinica by plugging this RSS feed directly into your podcast reader.

Didi reeling amid public anger after second female passenger murdered in three months

The rape and murder of a Didi Chuxing passenger on August 24 — the second such incident in three months — has left China’s largest ride-hailing app reeling amid public anger. Didi has fired two executives and once again suspended Hitch, its carpooling service, but many are saying these actions are too little, too late.

Asian Games update, and the NBA in Xinjiang

Sun Yang — the bad boy of swimming — has been at it again, winning gold medals at the Asian Games while drawing controversy by clashing with Chinese sports officials over his personal sponsorship commitments. Meanwhile, Wang Shanshan scored nine goals (!) against Tajikistan, and the NBA finds itself the target of criticism for having a training center in Urumqi.

The Caixin-Sinica Business Brief, episode 60

This week on the Caixin-Sinica Business Brief: Next month’s forum on China-Africa Cooperation, the downfall of Chinese monk Shi Xuecheng, China’s online population, Doug Young on Tencent’s abrupt removal of its highly anticipated game, and more.

• Subscribe to the Business Brief on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, or Stitcher.

PHOTO FROM MICHAEL YAMASHITA

Potala Palace

Built in 1645, the Potala Palace in Lhasa was the residence of the Dalai Lama until 1959 but now serves as a popular tourist attraction and is a World Heritage Site. It sits at an altitude of 3,700 meters (12,100 feet) in the center of the Lhasa Valley.

—Jia Guo