Links for Wednesday, July 22, 2020

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:

• Weaning off American semiconductors
  Semiconductor industrial park in central China seeks to secure supply amid foreign restrictions / Global Times
  “A semiconductor industrial park in Central China’s Hunan Province recently announced the start of construction, as part of the latest efforts by Chinese companies to extricate the industry from heavy reliance on foreign semiconductors, while the U.S. turns up the heat against Chinese companies by imposing restrictions on chip makers.”
• Central bank cuts off monetary easing
  China central bank to pause easing as economy recovers, wary of over-stimulus: sources / Reuters
• Fighting to keep IPOs in China
  Xi’s radical stock reforms shield China firms from U.S. / Bloomberg
  “The goal was mild in scale compared with other major stock markets, but radical by China’s standards: Minimize red tape and relax tight controls on what kind of companies could list, and how much their shares could move. More than 130 companies have raised a combined $30 billion from the board over the 12 months.”
• TikTok’s turbulent times
  Netflix names TikTok as a major competitor for first time / Caixin (paywall)
  TikTok ban threats are bad news for the Chinese tech industry / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
• Taxing Chinese citizens’ global incomes
  Why has China started taxing its citizens for global income? / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
  “Faced with a tax rate as high as 45% — up from about 15% previously — Chinese professionals across Hong Kong are considering moving back home to avoid getting squeezed by both the new levy and sky-high living costs in the former British colony, according to interviews with workers and recruiters.”
  China’s 45% tax shocks bankers in HK / Taipei Times
• A state-backed ecommerce challenger emerges
  State-backed UnionPay wants to challenge Alipay and WeChat / Caixin (paywall)
  “In the last few years, China has embraced third-party mobile payments and two names have come to dominate this massive market. However in the last few years, a challenger has emerged, offered by China UnionPay — China’s largest payment and settlement organization that operates under a central bank mandate.”
• iQiyi eyes Southeast Asia
  Chinese video giant iQiyi eyes Southeast Asian markets with three new hires / Caixin (paywall)
• Starbucks and Alibaba team up
  Coffee and online shopping – Starbucks and Alibaba team up has got China buzzing / Caixin (paywall)
  “China’s coffee lovers are now able to pre-order Starbucks drinks and food through Alibaba’s four flagship apps including e-commerce giant Taobao, digital mapping service Amap, local services app Koubei, and mobile payment tool Alipay.”
• Tech giants leapfrog banks in the loan business
  Want a loan? Forget the bank, China’s tech giants are at your service / Caixin (paywall)

If you aren’t attracted by Meituan Dianping’s “Monthly Delivery” or Didi’s “Dripping Water Loan,” you can take your pick from “Xiaomi Installments,” “360 IOU,” “Baidu Blooming Wealth,” or “JD.com IOU.”

• Online healthcare is a risky path to expand coverage
  How new mutual aid platforms fill a hole in China’s health-care coverage / Caixin (paywall)
  “Online health-care mutual aid programs have attracted more than 150 million participants in China in less than two years, but lack of clear regulation of the 5.4 billion yuan ($760 million) medical insurance-like industry may expose participants to operational, financial and legal risks, industry experts say.”
• As competitors arise, Tesla slashes deposit prices
  Tesla slashes deposit for China customers to just $143 / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
  “Tesla Inc. lowered the deposit that buyers in China have to put down on its cars, seeking to keep sales momentum in the face of intensifying competition and reductions in the government’s electric-vehicle subsidies.”
  Chinese electric car startup Hozon eyes Shanghai IPO by 2021 / Caixin (paywall)
• Beijing seizes Xiao Jianhua’s 1.2 trillion yuan empire
  China seizes billionaire’s assets worth around 1.2 trillion yuan / RFA
  “The ruling Chinese Communist Party has taken over an investment conglomerate run by kidnapped billionaire Xiāo Jiànhuá 肖建华 amid allegations of unauthorized lending, as General Secretary Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 announced moves to strengthen the domestic economy.”
• Film festival scalpers bleed film enthusiasts of cash
  Film festival tickets scalped for $215 on secondhand marketplace / China Film Insider

SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND THE ENVIRONMENT:

• The new space race
  China’s first Mars rover Tianwen-1 launches this week. Here’s what it will do. / Space
  “China’s Mars rover will likely attempt to land at a site in northeastern Mars, according to a new paper published just days ahead of the mission’s launch.”
  China moves massive rocket into place for ambitious Mars shot / Spaceflight Now
  “China’s heaviest rocket has rolled to its launch pad for liftoff Thursday with the country’s first Mars landing mission, an ambitious attempt to place an orbiter around the Red Planet and a robotic rover on the Martian surface in early 2021… The Chinese mission, named Tianwen 1, is the second of three probes taking aim on the Red Planet this month.”
  Mars is the latest arena in the U.S.-China rivalry, with both countries launching probes this month / CNN
• Negative test results are necessary to enter China
  China puts new virus test requirement on inbound air travelers / Caixin (paywall)

POLITICS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS:

• Huawei struggles for survival in Europe
  Huawei decision ‘may delay 5G by three years and cost UK £7bn’ / Guardian
  “Small towns and rural areas across the UK will be hardest hit by delays of up to three years in the rollout of 5G mobile technology, experts have said after ministers announced that Huawei will be stripped from networks by 2027.”
  French limits on Huawei 5G equipment amount to de facto ban by 2028 / Reuters
  Despite Communist Party newspaper the People’s Daily suggesting that France has committed to let Huawei invest in French 5G networks, Reuters says that “French authorities have told telecoms operators planning to buy Huawei 5G equipment that they won’t be able to renew licences for the gear once they expire, effectively phasing the Chinese firm out of mobile networks, three sources close to the matter said.”
• Despite global opposition, China moves forward with Hong Kong security law
  National security law: Hong Kong activist Nathan Law says he has warned Pompeo of Beijing ‘meddling’ in city’s coming elections / SCMP
  “One of Hong Kong’s most prominent young opposition leaders said he called on the global community to closely monitor the city’s coming legislative elections for ‘meddling’ by Beijing when he met a top diplomat from the United States in London on Tuesday.”
  When Big Brother moved in next door: How Chinese state security brought fear to a Hong Kong neighborhood / HKFP
  “Police stand guard outside the 33-story building on Tung Lo Wan Road overlooking Victoria Park, the city’s iconic protest rallying site. Windows that once advertised the hotel’s services are papered up and the frontage bears China’s national emblem. A newly installed flag-pole flies China’s national flag.”
  Britain unveils details of citizenship offer for Hongkongers with BN(O) passports / SCMP
• Taiwan allows international students to finish their studies
  Taiwan to allow return of all final year international students / CNA via Focus Taiwan
  Final year foreign students who have been stranded abroad due to Taiwan’s border restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic will be permitted to return, with immediate effect, the Ministry of Education (MOE) said Wednesday.
• The horrors of Uyghur interment
  The ‘perfect Uyghur’: outgoing and hard working — but still not safe from China’s camps / Guardian
  “As Uyghur men have disappeared into prison or forced labor compounds while mosques and other religious sites have been demolished, Uyghur women are being forcibly sterilised, given abortions and IUDs. Many Uyghurs abroad fear that speaking out will incur retaliation against their family members back home.”
  France says China’s repression of Xinjiang Uyghurs unacceptable / Bloomberg
  “France renewed its criticism of China over the treatment of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang on Wednesday, calling for human rights observers to be allowed into the region and demanding that internment camps be closed.”
• China uses Pakistan as a backdoor to Kashmir
  China’s investments in Pakistan-administered Kashmir seen as ‘blow’ to India / Voice of America
• Opinion: China’s European influence operations
  Is Sweden ready to combat China’s influence operations? / Diplomat
  “The trial and acquittal of Lindstedt have now created more questions than they have answered. Above all, it raises the question of whether foreign ministries and legal systems in Western countries are equipped to face the growing threat from Chinese intelligence and influence operations.”
• China reiterates its Bhutanese territorial claims
  China repeats claim on Bhutan’s east / The Hindu
  “China said that it has offered Bhutan a ‘package solution’ to its boundary dispute, reviving a reference to its 1996 proposal for a territory swap to give Bhutan the disputed areas in its north in exchange for the disputed western areas, including Doklam.”
• U.K.-China relations continue to plummet
  How strong are Britain and China’s economic ties? / BBC
  “Trade between the two countries hit a record high last year, with large infrastructure projects and education playing major roles… But as tensions rise between London and Beijing — following the UK government’s U-turn on using Huawei telecoms 5G equipment in the country’s networks — the ties that have benefited both nations may now be under threat.”
• Opinion: The U.S.’s China containment policy is misguided
  The United States has gotten tough on China. When will it get strategic? / CSIS
  Jude Blanchette, Freeman Chair in China Studies at CSIS, writes that the Trump administration’s latest anti-China measure is one in a long series of mistakes:

On Wednesday, the New York Times reported the Trump administration is weighing a ban on all members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and their families from traveling to the United States. We do not know the full details of the proposal, and we do not need to. The move, however it might eventually be worded or implemented, would be a mistake.

• The U.S. blames China for a cybersecurity breach
  U.S. accuses two hackers of stealing secrets from American firms for China / WSJ (porous paywall)
• Flooding threatens China’s aging dams
  Dam collapse in China could point to a ‘black swan’ disaster / Reuters India
  “The dam at a small reservoir in China’s Guangxi region gave way last month after days of heavy rain in a collapse that could be a harbinger of sterner tests for many of the country’s 94,000 aging dams as the weather gets more extreme.”

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

• Anti-Chinese racism is on the rise in the U.K.
  British Chinese, long low-profile, worry about place in U.K. society / Nikkei Asian Review
• A Go champion’s war on feminism
  China’s Go champion Ke Jie is at the center of a feminist backlash / Quartz