Links for Wednesday, October 7, 2020

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:

• Another bid for TikTok from U.S. investment firm
  Little-known investment firm Centricus circles TikTok with long-shot bid / WSJ (paywall)
  London-based Centricus Asset Management is positioning its bid “as a backup to a Oracle-led deal already on the table.”
• Brazil’s Huawei decision
  Brazil’s decision on Huawei 5G to help define relationship with China, senior official says / Bloomberg via SCMP
• iQiyi denies short seller’s fraud allegations  
  Chinese video streamer says internal review debunks fraud claims / Caixin
• China’s chipmaking tech
  Micron says emerging Chinese rivals pose no threat — for now / Nikkei Asia (porous paywall)
  “Micron Technology is confident that its Chinese rivals will not be able to challenge the largest U.S. memory chipmaker anytime soon.”
• The ultrarich get richer
  Chinese billionaires’ wealth soars 41% in post-lockdown resurgence / Nikkei Asian Review (paywall)
  China’s economic recovery helps drive its stocks higher / WSJ (paywall)
• Dodgy electric car company
  Cash-strapped electric vehicle startup Faraday plans to go public through SPAC deal / Caixin  
• Golden Week tourism
  ‘Golden week’ ghost town: Thailand’s Pattaya party zone struggles with no Chinese tourists / SCMP
  China’s tourist spots are full, but wallets are still light / WSJ (paywall)

SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND THE ENVIRONMENT:

• Flu vaccinations
  Flu vaccine shortages hit China after rush to avoid ‘twindemic’ / Guardian
• COVID-19 vaccine progress
  Chinese execs took firm’s COVID-19 vaccine pre-trials ‘to lead by example’ / SCMP
  China’s experimental COVID-19 vaccine appears safe: study / Reuters
  Chinese firm finds hostility and smears add hurdles to COVID-19 vaccine race / SCMP
  Sinovac vaccine trial said to be stalled in Bangladesh over funding / SCMP
• Space station
  China selects 18 new astronauts ahead of space station construction / SpaceNews

POLITICS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS:

• U.S. lifts ban on Indonesia defense minister
  ‘A loss for human rights’: With eye on China, U.S. opens its arms to Indonesia’s Prabowo / SCMP
  “[Prabowo Subianto], a former commander of the elite Kopassus troops, was denied a U.S. visa in mid-2000 when he wanted to attend his son’s university graduation in Boston. He told Reuters in 2012 he was still unable to get a US visa, due to accusations that he was behind riots that killed more than 1,000 people after the fall of the former dictator Suharto in 1998.
  “The U.S. has dithered over lifting the ban on Prabowo following his appointment as defense minister almost a year ago. During this period, he has been courted both by China and Russia.”
• Misinformation on Indian social media
  Misleading India-China claims being shared online / BBC
• Detained Uyghurs
  ‘It breaks my heart’: Uyghurs wrongfully held at Guantánamo plead to be with families / Guardian
  Xinjiang authorities jail prominent Uyghur comedian over ‘extremist and separatist’ songs / RFA
• Reckoning after deadly fire in Shanxi and car crash in Jilin
  Provincial authorities reprimanded over spate of deadly holiday incidents / Caixin
• Taiwan air force under “great” pressure
  Taiwan says has spent almost $900 million scrambling against China this year / Reuters
• Election turmoil in Kyrgyzstan
  China urges neighbor Kyrgyzstan to resolve election turmoil / SCMP
  China says concerned about Kyrgyzstan situation, hopes for stability / Xinhua
• COVID-19 and China’s loans to developing countries
  World Bank chief calls on China to cancel debt to coronavirus-hit poor countries / SCMP
• Hong Kong: Propaganda in the classroom and escape routes for activists
  Beijing wrestles for control of Hong Kong’s classrooms / FT (paywall)
  Canada grants asylum to Hong Kong pro-democracy activists — report / HKFP
• China embassy in Japan responds to Pompeo
  China urges U.S. to drop ‘Cold War’ mentality / Reuters
  The full statement is here (in Chinese).
  Yesterday, on The China Project: Can the U.S. convince Japan, India, and Australia to team up against China?

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

• Men’s place in the home
  China’s middle-aged dudes embrace ‘son-in-law’ lit / Sixth Tone
  “Cinderella-esque sagas of scorned male protagonists living in female-dominated households and striving to win the respect of their wives’ parents are resonating with China’s real-life sons-in-law.”
• Philistine art thieves
  Stolen Mao calligraphy worth millions found cut in half / AP
• Sex
  The sex therapist busting China’s bedroom taboos / Sixth Tone
  A “foreplay guru…wants to help the country’s couples loosen up.”
• Food
  What I learned from loving mapo tofu / NYT (porous paywall)