Links for Friday, October 30, 2020

WORTH THINKING ABOUT

Pieces of news or analysis that caught our eye:

China’s rush to distribute experimental vaccines, even before all the data from Phase 3 trials is collected and fully analyzed, is detailed in a Los Angeles Times piece this week. A key source is an anonymous oil company worker who is “usually based in a Persian Gulf country but has been stuck in Beijing since January.”

The oil company worker wondered why he had to keep his vaccination a secret. Questions raced through his head as he read the confidentiality agreement, which threatened he would be disciplined if he told anyone outside company management about the COVID-19 shot he was waiting to get.

What if something went wrong? Who would take responsibility?…

The worker said he received the vaccine in September as a requirement for all staff working abroad. He worried about the lack of transparency or scrutiny in China’s mass vaccination of state-owned company employees and other citizens. There was no written document forcing them to receive the vaccine, he said, but workers were not being cleared to return to their jobs abroad unless they were vaccinated…

It was “politically incorrect” to question the vaccine at his company, he said. Most of his colleagues were eager to get it. They were more afraid of catching COVID-19 abroad than of safety concerns with the vaccine.

Some project managers were rushing the vaccinations, he said, by encouraging employees to receive two shots at once instead of waiting the recommended 14 or 28 days between injections.

The Washington Post also has a new article that quotes several people on their experience receiving experimental vaccines. The obvious point: “Beijing has taken an immense gamble in rolling out coronavirus vaccines before they are confirmed safe and effective… If serious side effects emerge, China’s government could face backlash at home and abroad.”

Read more on The China Project: China might be weeks away from a COVID-19 vaccine.

MORE NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:

• Fintech giant Lufax IPOs in New York
  Ping An-backed Lufax defies geopolitical tension with $2.4 billion U.S. IPO / FT (paywall)
  Related The China Project coverage: Chinese fintech giant Lufax aims for $3 billion New York listing.
• No jobs for university grads despite GDP growth
  As China’s economy picks up, new university grads are still looking for jobs / CNBC
  Navigating a post-pandemic world: Portraits of China’s class of 2020 / Sixth Tone
• Samsung beats Huawei to become world’s No. 1 smartphone maker, Xiaomi gains No. 3 spot from Apple 
  Huawei loses smartphone crown as U.S. sanctions bite / Caixin (paywall)
  “Shipments of the company’s core product plunged 22% in the third quarter, as hometown rival Xiaomi moved the other way with a 42% surge, new data show.”
  Huawei eyes ‘not made in America’ chip supply chain as stockpiles dwindle / Caixin (paywall)
  “Insiders tell Caixin embattled telecom giant is working to develop domestic sources for 28-nanometer chips that can power its less-advanced devices as U.S. sanctions threaten its existence.”
  China’s Xiaomi surpasses Apple as world’s No. 3 smartphone maker / Nikkei Asia (paywall)
  “Xiaomi still faces competition from compatriots Oppo and Vivo, which have grown to cover a wide range of price bands in Southeast Asia. They are now pushing into Europe…Huawei’s ranking could continue to fall, according to many market watchers.”
• Over 15,000 imported pigs “arrived by air in the first nine months of the year”
  Record planeloads of live hogs flown into China to boost herds / Caixin (paywall)
• Japanese government may stop buying Chinese drones
  Japan government set to stop buying Chinese drones / Japan Times
• Hong Kong economy levels out
  Hong Kong recession shows signs of slowing as China economy expands / Reuters
  “The economy shrank 3.4% in July-September from a year earlier, its fifth straight quarterly contraction, government advance estimates showed on Friday. That compared with a year-on-year contraction of 9.0% in April-June.”
• China Southern Airlines “recorded a net profit of 711 million yuan ($106 million)” for Q3
  China’s top airline returns to profit as domestic routes bloom / Nikkei Asia (paywall)
• Japan opens to regional travel
  Japan eases travel curbs for China and eight other locations / Nikkei Asia (paywall)
• Australia challenges barley tariffs
  Canberra lashes out at China’s barley duties at WTO / SCMP
• Hong Kong challenges U.S. labeling regulations
  Hong Kong gov’t to take US to WTO over ‘Made in China’ regulations / HKFP
• The return of GDP targets?
  China GDP targets may resume for 2021-25, state planner says / SCMP

SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND THE ENVIRONMENT:

• Mass COVID-19 testing: Results and propaganda
  Organized ‘overkill’: China shows off rapid lockdown system after latest outbreak / Reuters
  “The tests in Kashgar this week revealed around 38 positive cases for every million people tested… But the mass testings are also a key piece of political theatre for Beijing… ‘After the nucleic acid test screening, the people and administrative officials felt at ease,’ said Wú Zūnyǒu 吴尊友, chief epidemiologist for the Chinese Centre for Disease Control, in an interview with local media.”
  U.S. says virus can’t be controlled. China aims to prove it wrong. / NYT (porous paywall)
  “China’s approach to keep COVID-19 at bay has helped restore confidence and allowed businesses to reopen. But it is a strategy steeped in authoritarianism.”
• Greenpeace calls for better battery recycling
  China’s embrace of electric vehicles poses battery reuse puzzle / Sixth Tone

POLITICS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS:

• Analyzing militaristic language in Party documents
  Preparing for war? / China Media Project
  “If the phrase ‘war preparation,’ bèizhàn (备战), appears in the full text of the 14th Five-Year Plan, which will not emerge until after next year’s ‘two sessions,’ this will mark the first time in 55 years that the phrase has figured so strongly in CCP planning.”
• Pompeo wraps up “anti-China” Asia tour
  U.S. Sec. of State Mike Pompeo says Beijing ‘gravest threat’ to religious freedom / AFP via HKFP
  Pompeo wraps up anti-China tour of Asia in Vietnam / AP
  Indonesia deported three Uyghurs to China before Pompeo visit, security source says / SCMP
• Pushback to overregulation of charities
  Experts call to loosen the rules strangling China’s charities / Caixin (paywall)
  “Open letter advocates for overhaul of Charity Law, with over 60 high-profile signatories.”
• Zhāng Yùhuán 张玉环 receives compensation of 4.96 million yuan ($739,000)
  Man wrongfully imprisoned for 27 years wins record-breaking compensation / Caixin (paywall)
  Related New York Times coverage from August: He spent 26 years in a Chinese prison. then he was cleared of murder.
• Reporters on government tour in Tibet
  In Tibet, China preaches the material over the spiritual / Reuters
  “‘This house is possible because of good government policies. My heart is wholly with the party, not even one bit with religion,’ said Dzekyid, whose family was showcased to a group of reporters on a government-organized tour of Tibet, an area where access to foreign journalists is normally barred.”
• U.S. asks NATO allies to pressure China to join arms control talks
  Trump administration pushes allies to pressure China over its nuclear program / CNN

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

• Southern California kidnapping
  Guilty plea entered in deadly kidnapping of Chinese national / AP
• The audiovisual art of Taipei-based Aka Chang (張方禹 Zhāng Fāngyǔ)
  Tangible light / Neocha