Links for Monday, September 21, 2020

WORTH THINKING ABOUT

Pieces of news or analysis that caught our eye:

“China worries that Trump, facing a tough election, may provoke a new fight,” the Washington Post reports. “Given the intensity of Trump’s anti-China approach, the possibility of a limited American attack on such islands in the South China Sea or the prospect of the Trump administration forging official diplomatic relations with Taiwan suddenly seem plausible,” Chinese analysts told the paper.

The legacy of the “responsible stakeholder” speech, delivered by former U.S. deputy secretary of state Robert Zoellick in 2005, is examined in this South China Morning Post piece: U.S.-China relations: the pre-Trump warning shot that signaled trouble ahead.

See also a 2018 piece in Macro Polo by Evan Feigenbaum, a former senior adviser to Zoellick: Reluctant stakeholder: Why China’s highly strategic brand of revisionism is more challenging than Washington thinks.

MORE NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:

• Can China employ so many returnee students?
  China’s overseas graduates return in record numbers into already crowded domestic job market / SCMP
• Sweden to stop space collaboration with China
  Swedish space agency halts new business helping China operate satellites / Reuters
  China to lose access to Swedish-owned satellite trackers in Australia due to ‘complex’ market / Australian ABC
• Guolian Securities proposes a tie-up with Sinolink
  Size now matters for Chinese brokerages as foreign competition looms / Caixin (paywall)
• New free trade zones in Beijing, Hunan, and Anhui
  China adds three areas to its ever-expanding list of free-trade zones / Caixin (paywall)
• Hikvision cameras in the U.K.
  Chinese cameras blacklisted by US being used in UK school toilets / Guardian
• Hydrogen vehicles — Beijing likes
  China rolls out fresh policies to boost hydrogen vehicle sales / Reuters
• Ant’s enormous stock market listing
  Ant Group raises IPO plan to $35 billion / PingWest

SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND THE ENVIRONMENT:

• Draft plan to restructure the urban employee basic medical insurance system
  China moves to alter medical coverage of 300 million / Caixin (paywall)
• Mental health crisis among healthcare workers
  Wuhan nurse’s apparent suicide highlights profession in crisis / Caixin (paywall)
• Flights halted from Manila, Philippines
  China Eastern halts two routes that brought in COVID-19 / Caixin (paywall)

POLITICS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS:

• Xinjiang government “didn’t dispute the rise in sterilizations”
  China’s Xinjiang government confirms huge birth rate drop but denies forced sterilization of women / CNN
• Uyghur repression
  The Trump administration sanctioned China for detaining 1 million Uyghurs. Here’s what Americans think. / Washington Post
  Missing Uyghur confirmed dead by UN working group on disappearances / RFA
• Japan’s China policy to remain unchanged
  New Japanese prime minister to stick with Abe’s approach to China / Nikkei Asian Review via Caixin
  “Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has signaled with his cabinet picks that he will follow predecessor Shinzo Abe’s path on foreign policy, including an approach to China that balances economic ties with a tough response to perceived provocations.”
  Former Japanese PM Abe visits controversial Tokyo shrine / AP
• India-China tensions
  Indian police arrested a local journalist alleging spying for China / Reuters
  India, China commanders meet again on ending border standoff / AP
  Villagers help Indian troops face Chinese forces in Himalayas / Guardian
  Pakistan’s ‘upgrade’ of Gilgit-Baltistan is linked to the India-China stand-off / ThePrint (India)
  New Delhi ‘expects Beijing to stand down first’ as top military chiefs meet / SCMP
• Australian journalists hounded out of China
  I was ‘berated’ for negative China coverage — and then officials invited me in for a ‘cup of tea’ / Australian ABC
  Chinese authorities threatened to detain ABC journalist’s 14-year-old daughter / Guardian
• Canada stops free-trade talks
  Canada abandons free-trade talks with China in shift for Trudeau government / The Globe and Mail
• Saber rattling in the Taiwan Strait
  Taiwan Strait: Almost 40 Chinese warplanes breach median line / CNN
  Taiwan military to allow forces to fire back after mainland Chinese air incursions / SCMP
• U.S. House report blames China for pandemic
  Congressional report reveals how China could have prevented COVID-19 / New York Post
• PLA pirates Hollywood clips for propaganda
  China air force video appears to show simulated attack on U.S. base on Guam / Reuters
  China military PR film mocked over ‘Hollywood clips’ / BBC

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

• COVID-19 lockdown protest
  Students at a Xi’an University scream over quarantine conditions / Caixin
  “Students of Xi’an International Studies University held a 30 minute ‘collective scream’ protest Sunday from their dorm room windows [after being] locked onto campus with access to a supermarket selling substandard goods.”
• Public awareness of endangered plants
  Reality TV goes viral for all the wrong reasons as star picks endangered flower / Caixin
  “In the latest episode of the television series Go Fighting, a Chinese reality show promoting customs and cultures of Western China, a celebrity picks a flower in the wilds of Tibet, only for netizens to later point out it was an endangered plant, arousing criticism from environmentalists.”
• 2020 Pingyao International Photography Festival
  Gallery: Photo festival offers glimpse of frontline pandemic fight / Caixin