Links for Friday, July 31, 2020

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:

• Apple and Huawei have a great quarter
  Apple blockbuster quarter boosted by strong sales in China / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
  Huawei and Apple shine in China’s smartphone market during second quarter / Caixin
• Domestic markets first: Politburo on economic strategy
  CPC leaders analyze economy, to convene Central Committee plenum in October / Xinhua
  China’s top leaders lay out economic agenda as focus shifts from pandemic support / Caixin (paywall)
  “The meeting reiterated a strategy laid out in May that the country should focus more on stimulating domestic demand to fuel economic growth, what has been officially termed as a ‘dual circulation’ or ‘dual loop’ growth model.”
  Xi speeds up China’s inward economic pivot in more hostile world / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
  China’s factories accelerate recovery in July as demand perks up / Reuters
• Medical glass supply
  With COVID-19 vaccines in the pipeline, attention turns to medical-grade vials / Caixin (paywall)
  “Medical glass is tough to make and barriers to entry are high — China relies mostly on imports for its supply.”
• Uber sticks with Singapore for its regional headquarters
  Uber abandons plan to move regional headquarters to Hong Kong / Caixin
• The international ambitions of iQiyi
  Video streamer iQiyi eyeing Southeast Asian, Middle East expansion, executive says / Caixin
• Nasdaq welcomes Chinese EV company…
  Electric-SUV maker Li Auto has strong first day on Nasdaq / Caixin (paywall)
  Li Auto’s offering price was up 43% at the end of its first day. It is the second Chinese electric vehicle company to list on American markets, after Nio in 2018.
• …as another EV company raises Qatari money
  Chinese electric vehicle maker Xpeng raises another $300 million, sources say / Reuters
  “Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker Xpeng Motors has raised an additional $300 million from investors including Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund.”
• Wind power investment rises 150% in H1
  Wind powers China’s latest electric investment wave / Caixin (paywall)
• Farm goods purchased
  U.S. sells record amount of corn to China as tensions rise / Reuters
• NBA reacts to ESPN investigation
  NBA re-evaluating training programme in China after abuse allegations / Reuters
  The ESPN investigation: ESPN investigation finds coaches at NBA China academies complained of player abuse, lack of schooling / ESPN
  And also: Chinese state TV maintains blackout of NBA games as season resumes / Guardian
  Steve Kerr says he regrets past China comments, should have backed Daryl Morey / SFGate
• The seed mystery
  Morning glories and mustard: U.S. investigates unsolicited seed mystery / Reuters

SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND THE ENVIRONMENT:

• Is the Party the planet’s worst enemy?
  The Chinese Communist Party is an environmental catastrophe / Foreign Policy (porous paywall)
• COVID-19 daily cases still on the rise
  China reports 127 new coronavirus cases, highest since March 5 / Reuters
  “Of the total, 112 were in the far northwestern region of Xinjiang, up from 96 a day earlier. Another 11 were in Liaoning Province in the northeast, up from five the previous day.”
  China’s Urumqi imposes COVID-19 restrictions on people coming in and out of the city / Reuters
  More than 18,000 people quarantined in China as COVID-19 cases rise in Asia / NBC
• Drug price control
  China to add 56 drugs to price-slashing bulk-buy programme / Reuters
• Hangzhou water pollution
  Hangzhou village’s water supply polluted by compost plant runoff / Sixth Tone

POLITICS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS:

• New Zealand does not want to be the “soft underbelly” any longer
  New Zealand’s relationship with China is at a tipping point / Guardian
• The old, new nationalism
  ‘China is powerful now’: Beijing’s aggressive global stance sparks wave of nationalism / Guardian
  Hope, despair, control: The 1950s China my father saw, echoed today / NYT (porous paywall)
• Chinese-funded Baltic infrastructure hits objections
  Baltic sea rail tunnel from Finland to Estonia is dealt a setback / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
• Another Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 speech commanding China’s military to modernize
  Xi stresses advancing modernization of national defense, armed forces / Xinhua
  习近平在中央政治局第二十二次集体学习时强调 统一思想坚定信心鼓足干劲抓紧工作 奋力推进国防和军队现代化建设 / Xinhua
• WeChat surveillance
  WeChat, and the Communist Party watches what you do / Australian
• African debt to China
  Concerns rise in Nigeria over Chinese loans / Daily Nation (Kenya)
  China-Africa relations enter new era as easy money dries up / African Business Magazine
• Chinese hacking
  China rejects accusations of hacking attempt on U.S. vaccine developer Moderna / Reuters
  China-backed hackers ‘targeted COVID-19 vaccine firm Moderna’ / Reuters
  European Union hits Chinese ‘hackers’ with sanctions / SCMP
• U.S. campaign against Chinese academics and spies
  U.S. professor Simon Ang indicted over China links, faces 44 counts of fraud / SCMP
  University of Texas in FBI probe over claims Chinese government tried to illegally obtain coronavirus research / SCMP
  China researcher left consulate expecting arrest, lawyer says / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
• Suppression of dissidents
  Veteran democracy activist evicted, harassed in China’s Sichuan / Radio Free Asia
  Wife of jailed dissident who stood up for Uyghurs calls for his release / Radio Free Asia

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

• A Kikuyu guy in China
  A George Floyd moment and the reality of being African in China / The Elephant

The hierarchy of races in China is ordered from the top in this way: white English speakers, white Western Europeans, white Eastern Europeans, white South Africans followed by Black Americans, South Americans, black South Africans, East Asians, Middle Easterners, Southeast Asians, Pacific Islanders, blacks from the Caribbean and, at the very bottom, the African, the generic term for sub-Saharan Africans.

• Pop idol culture and business
  Dance dance arbitration: Why China’s idols want out of their deals / Sixth Tone
• Homophobia
  Chinese student files lawsuit over homophobic textbook / RFA  
• What they used to call domestic economics
  Trending in China: Undergraduate degree in housekeeping — valuable asset or waste of resources? / Caixin