Links for Friday, August 28, 2020

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:

• Investors love new electric vehicle darling Xpeng
  Alibaba-backed Xpeng surges on New York stock debut / FT (paywall)
• Boom time in China…  
  China’s IPO mania creates three new billionaires in one week / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
  China conglomerate Fosun sees profit rebound next year / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
• …But some will go bust
  China’s banks expect biggest profit drop in over 10 years / Nikkei
• Dodgy data
  World Bank halts report on national competitiveness rankings amid concerns of data manipulation / WSJ (paywall)
  “Data about four countries — China, Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia — appeared to have been inappropriately altered.”
• French mobile company to remove Huawei gear 
  Telecom operator Bouygues to dismantle 3,000 Huawei antennas in France by 2028 / Caixin
• TikTok: Walmart and Microsoft, or Oracle?
  Why does Walmart want TikTok? Looking to China may explain / NYT (porous paywall)
  TikTok’s Chinese version, Douyin, is also “an ecommerce destination with the kind of reach among young buyers that Walmart would love to have.”
  TikTok is said to wrestle with two competing offers / NYT (porous paywall)
  Walmart wants to go viral with TikTok, Wall Street thinks it can / Reuters via CNA
• KFC China owner wants to raise money in Hong Kong
  Yum China applies for Hong Kong debut amid U.S.-China tensions / Reuters via CNA
• Bitcoin merchants play on Hongkongers’ worries about getting their money out
  Bitcoin ads bash banks as fears mount over sanctions restricting access to U.S. dollar payment system / SCMP
• Herbalife China corruption case
  Herbalife to pay $123 million to resolve China bribery cases / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
• State-owned companies avoid borrowing from U.S.
  Chinese bond issuers bypass U.S. investors / WSJ (paywall)

SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND THE ENVIRONMENT:

• Crime and recycled plastic 
  Crime networks profit from China plastic trash import ban — Interpol / Reuters

POLITICS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS:

• Making friends on the Belt and Road 
  Bangladesh in negotiations for $1 billion Chinese loan to finance Teesta River dredging project / RWR Advisory Group 
  China launches first of four advanced naval warships ordered by Pakistani navy / RWR Advisory Group
• Who will watch the watchers?
  China plans hi-tech supervision of police officers and judges as Party tightens grip on domestic security / SCMP
  “China is planning to use blockchain, artificial intelligence and big data technologies to help monitor its police officers and judges.”
• The new minority language policy: Speak Chinese!
  Ethnic Mongolian parents strike over China’s new language policy in schools / Radio Free Asia
• Hong Kong denies foreign journalist visa, surveils local activists
  With hacks and cameras, Beijing’s electronic dragnet closes on Hong Kong / NYT (porous paywall)
  “Under a new national security law, the police are targeting the social media accounts of executives, politicians and activists. American internet giants are struggling to respond.”
  Visas ‘weaponized’: Gov’t denies Hong Kong Free Press editor a work visa, without explanation, after 6-month wait / Hong Free Press
  Hong Kong news site says Irish journalist rejected for visa / AFP via Straits Times
• Another U.S.-China military flashpoint
  China says US U-2 spy plane disrupted its military exercises / CNN 
  Location: China’s Northern Theater Command.
• Beijing influence and harassment of critics in Australia, and anti-Chinese sentiment
  Sydney Uni targeted in government foreign influence crackdown / Sydney Morning Herald
  Immigration minister accused of fueling distrust of Chinese Australians / ABC (Australia)

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

• LGBT+ parenting
  As China’s schools reopen, LGBT families feel pride — and prejudice / Sixth Tone
  “Across China, Sixth Tone found same-sex couples and their children having to grapple with additional challenges that emerge as early as kindergarten admissions: from a 41-year-old gay man who plans to identify himself at school only as a single parent, to a lesbian mother who moved to Hong Kong for her son, and a 22-year-old who, when younger, said he has a biological father and a ‘godfather.’”
• When Beijing ‘cleans up’ the old parts of town
  “Before/After”: An architectural documentation of urban changes in hutongs / ArchDaily
  In 2017, Fangjia Hutong, one of Beijing’s more charming alleyways, was “renovated.” This web page, based on a 2019 exhibition at Pingshan Art Museum, in Shenzhen, documents the uncharming changes.