Links for Friday, September 25, 2020

WORTH THINKING ABOUT

Pieces of news or analysis that caught our eye:

China’s fusion energy ambitions: Depending on how the development of this technology progresses, it could have a large impact on energy production in China and around the world later this century. A report in Caixin today discusses the state of affairs: “Experimental international reactor powers China’s dreams of limitless energy.”

The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), started in 2006 in France, has a 45% stake from the EU, and a 9% stake each from the United States, China, India, Japan, Russia, and South Korea. The goal of Chinese scientists in the project is “not only to participate, but also learn alongside their peers to help China create its own thermonuclear fusion reactor,” Caixin reports.

A team of scientists built a “smaller and more flexible” experimental fusion reactor in Hefei, Anhui, called the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), and they “managed to run the machine at 100 million degrees Celsius for up to about 10 seconds” in April this year.

“The next stop on China’s roadmap for fusion-generated power is to build a test reactor in 2021 called the China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR), and start to build the commercial plants by 2050.”

Related, on The China Project: Xi promises carbon-neutral China by 2060 in UN speech.

MORE NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:

• Agriculture and rural areas to get 50% of land-use sale profits by end of 2025
  Neglected rural areas to get bigger share of China’s land sales windfall / Caixin (paywall)
• Miniso files to list on NYSE
  Chinese Muji lookalike files for U.S. IPO / Caixin (paywall)
• Trip.com reported revenue down 64% YOY April–June
  Chinese online travel agency Trip.com sees revenue plummet as COVID-19 fallout lingers / Caixin
• Automation in factories
  China far outpaces America in bringing robots to factories / Bloomberg via Caixin
  “China added 140,500 new robots [in 2019] and now holds almost one-third of the global stock, according to a new report published Thursday by World Robotics.”
• Opening up to foreign investment
  China expands investment scope for foreign investors under combined scheme / Reuters
  China’s finance world opens up to foreigners, sort of / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
• Fire at Huawei facility
  Fire at Huawei facility in southern China put out, no casualties: local government / Reuters
  “The building, which was close to a Huawei research lab, was a steel structure that was under construction and was not being used when the incident happened.”

SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND THE ENVIRONMENT:

• China claims it gained “understanding and support” from WHO for preemptive vaccine distribution
  China says it got WHO support for coronavirus vaccine emergency use / CNN
  Related, on The China Project: China has been vaccinating essential workers since July 22.
• Mass vaccine production
  China aims to make 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses a year / AP
  An official with the National Health Commission said that China is expected to produce 610 million vaccine doses by the end of this year, and more than 1 billion doses in 2021. Pfizer and Moderna similarly aim to produce a billion doses each in 2021.
• Two Qingdao port workers get COVID-19
  Two more coronavirus infections in China linked to imported seafood / Caixin (paywall)

POLITICS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS:

• Japan and regional diplomacy
  Japan PM Suga and China’s Xi agree to pursue high-level contacts in first talks / Reuters
  Japan finance minister urges G7 to pressure China to abide by debt relief initiative / Reuters
  Japan’s new PM says stable Japan-China ties key to region / AP
  Japan’s UN Ambassador on China: “We cannot completely decouple” / GZERO Media
• India-China border standoff
  China, India send in supplies for thousands of border troops ahead of brutal winter / SCMP
  Crumbling China-India relations suggests escalation will continue / SCMP
  Shadow force apart, India needs a China plan / The Hindu
  Attempt to overrun troops will be met with fire: India to China / Economic Times of India
• Taiwan
  Taiwan says 46 incidents involving Chinese planes in last 9 days / Al Jazeera
  Hawk or dove? Birdwatching world’s feathers ruffled over Taiwan independence / Guardian
  Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen vows to bolster island’s global supply chain in semiconductors / SCMP
• Hong Kong updates
  China rebuked by West at U.N. rights forum on Hong Kong, Xinjiang / Reuters
  Hong Kong leader supports police decision to recognize only gov’t-registered journalists despite pledge last October / HKFP
  Hong Kong police refuse to allow mass march, citing COVID-19 restrictions and threat of ‘violent acts’ / HKFP
• Congress pushes back on Trump administration influence on Voice of America
  Shakeup of Voice of America, other outlets undercuts policy, lawmakers say / WSJ (paywall)
  “A bipartisan group of House lawmakers said Thursday that the removal of senior officials at taxpayer-funded media outlets aimed at overseas audiences has put Washington’s foreign-policy agenda in Belarus, China and Iran at risk.”
• Controversy over Three Body Problem adaptation by Netflix
  U.S. senators, citing Uyghurs, urge Netflix to drop planned Chinese sci-fi series / Reuters
  U.S. senators urge Netflix to drop Chinese sci-fi series, citing writer Liu Cixin’s comments on Xinjiang / SCMP

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

• The photography of Xu Guanyu
  Temporarily censored home / Neocha
• Henan University feasts on 4,000 watermelons after social media campaign
  Trending in China: One of China’s weirder poverty alleviation programs goes viral with 100m plus views / Caixin