Links for Wednesday, November 4, 2020

WORTH THINKING ABOUT

Pieces of news or analysis that caught our eye:

Xi’s speech at the China International Import Expo: The address (full text available in English and Chinese) to the third annual gathering designed to promote an image of China as open to the world included these notable quotes:

• “What we envision is not a development loop behind closed doors, but more open domestic and international circulations.” This appears to be pushing back on the interpretation of Xi’s “dual circulation” as import substitution.
• “The vastly huge China market is the most promising in the world. Total import into China is estimated to top 22 trillion U.S. dollars in the coming decade.”
• “We will introduce a negative list for cross-border services trade and open still wider in areas like the digital economy and the internet.”
• “China stands ready to conclude high-standard free trade agreements with more countries in the world. We will work for the early signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and speed up negotiations on a China-EU investment treaty and a China-Japan-ROK free trade agreement.”

“The U.S. has left the Paris climate deal — what’s next?”, asks Nature. The answer is no one knows for sure, and it depends on the U.S. election result, which has not been settled yet. But it is worth thinking about what effect this deal has, and what the U.S. rejoining it could mean. See also in Caixin: Trending in China: U.S. formally quits the Paris Agreement.

MORE NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:

• Ant IPO suspension updates
  Retail investors in halted Ant Group IPO still saddled with margin loan costs / Caixin (paywall)
  ‘It’s a joke’: retail investors shocked as China halts Ant Group’s IPO / Reuters
  Explainer: What’s next for Ant after China suspends $37 billion listing? / Reuters
  ‘Jack Ma is tamed’: How Beijing showed tech entrepreneur who is boss / Guardian
  Exclusive: Trump administration shelves bid to blacklist China’s Ant Group — sources / Reuters
  Beijing says it halted $37 billion Ant IPO to protect market stability / FT (paywall)
  Derailing of Jack Ma’s mega Ant IPO shows Xi Jinping’s in charge / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
  Ant founder Jack Ma faces backlash from regulators / WSJ (paywall)
• Three major state-owned cargo firms to IPO
  China’s freight carriers race to market, putting end to merger speculation / Caixin (paywall)
  “Eastern Air Logistics Co. Ltd., which was spun off of China Eastern Airlines Corp. Ltd. in 2017, is expected to go public this month on Shanghai Stock Exchange…It is being closely tailed by two other major airlines’ cargo units: China Southern Airlines received regulatory approval Tuesday to spin off its freight unit, and Air China Cargo Co. Ltd., which was a unit of Air China until 2018, is also seeking to list.”
• Lenovo high-end smartphones gain traction
  Lenovo’s long-ailing smartphone arm cuts losses by half / Caixin (paywall)
  “Losses from the company’s smartphone business narrowed 56% in the third quarter to $22 million. This came as Lenovo rolled out more expensive handsets, with its phone prices as a whole rising 10% from the preceding quarter.”
• Pharma is effervescent
  China’s Fosun kicks off biggest pharma IPO in India / Bloomberg via Yahoo
  Chinese startup helps medical firms cut high marketing costs / 36kr via Nikkei Asia
  China Grand Pharmaceutical to acquire 7.6% stake in Telix / Bloomberg
  Chinese biopharmaceutical firm CARsgen bags $186m Series C led by Loyal Valley / Caixin
• Electric cars and fossil fuels
  Nissan to sell only electric and hybrid cars in China by 2025 / Nikkei Asia (paywall)
  Chinese electric vehicle startup Xpeng reports solid sales growth in October / Caixin
  Shell acquires full control of Chinese gas station joint venture / Bloomberg
• World’s highest-earning mobile game now has 100 million users
  Tencent’s mobile game ‘Honor of Kings’ amasses 100 million daily active users / Caixin
• Luxury is back
  $400 hairy crabs are selling out in China as consumers splurge / Bloomberg
  Luxury vehicles, booming sales in China boost BMW profits / AP
• Robotics
  Former Google exec’s VC invests $30m into Chinese robotics startup MegaRobo / Tech in Asia

SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND THE ENVIRONMENT:

• Mass testing continues in Kashgar, finds 116 new asymptomatic cases on November 3
  Mainland China reports 17 new coronavirus infections, asymptomatic cases surge / Reuters
  “Kashgar launched its fourth round of mass testing on Wednesday, after completing three rounds since Oct. 27, unprecedented in China.”
• The race for a vaccine
  China’s Fosun to seek approval for BioNTech’s COVID-19 second vaccine, ends trials on first / Reuters
  International funding boost for Chinese vaccine maker Clover / SCMP
• Satellite boom year
  China has sent more satellites into space this year than U.S. and Russia, report says / SCMP

POLITICS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS:

• New U.S. visas for Chinese students grind to a halt
  U.S. visas for Chinese students tumble 99% as tensions rise / Nikkei Asia via Caixin (paywall)
  “The number of F-1 student visas granted to applicants on the Chinese mainland came to just 808 in the six months through September, down 99% from 90,410 in the same period a year earlier, according to data released by the U.S. Department of State.”
• Trouble for Uyghurs in exile
  Man ‘forced’ to inform on fellow Uyghurs for China is shot in Turkey / AFP via Yahoo
  “An Uyghur man who claimed to have been forced to inform on fellow Uyghurs to Chinese authorities has been hospitalized in a serious condition after being shot in Istanbul.”
  Uyghur scholar fears deportation from Saudi Arabia / Middle East Eye
• Xinjiang propaganda in Africa
  China takes its messaging on Xinjiang to Nigeria, the world’s 5th largest Muslim country / China-Africa Project
• China’s punishment of Australian imports and reactions from Canberra
  China says its importers choosing voluntarily to cut back on Australian goods / Reuters
  China trade body urges ‘retrospective tariffs’ on Australian wine / Reuters
  Timeline: Tension between China and Australia over commodities trade / Reuters
  Australia calls for China to ‘play by the rules’ after reports of multibillion-dollar trade bans / Guardian
  Federal Government demands answers from China over trade delays, potential wine tariffs / Australian ABC
  Australia sends signal to China as it rejoins US, Japan and India for Malabar naval exercise / SCMP
• Taiwan and South China Sea tensions
  Philippines greenlights oil drills in disputed sea without China / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
  A “further sign of the Southeast Asian nation’s tougher stance against Beijing”?
  Chinese flyovers towards Taiwan peaked in October amid rising tensions / Guardian
• Organized crime crackdown in Yunnan
  Lawyer to challenge conviction for giving legal advice to mob boss / Caixin (paywall)
• Hong Kong after the national security law
  Producer of doc about police bailed on charges of making false statements to get public records / HKFP
  “Documentary producer Choy Yuk-Ling [蔡玉玲 Coi3 Juk6 Ling4 Cài Yùlíng] posted bail on Tuesday night, after being charged with two counts of making false statements to obtain vehicle records for a TV documentary which uncovered new details about the mob attack in Yuen Long last July 21.”
  Canada makes plan to evacuate its citizens from Hong Kong / Guardian
• China and the Tanzanian election
  Two totally different reactions from the U.S. and China about Tanzania’s recent elections / China-Africa Project
  China, the U.S. and two opposing takes on Tanzania’s presidential election / SCMP
• Chinese scientist non-disclosure case
  Judge refuses to dismiss charges against Kansas researcher / AP
  “A federal judge refused Monday to throw out the indictment against a researcher accused of concealing work he was doing for China while employed at the University of Kansas.”
• Censorship: Keeping cadres in line
  China intensifies crackdown on officials who bring banned books back home / RFA

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

• Feminism in rural Sichuan
  How Liangshan’s runaway brides are upending centuries of patriarchy / Sixth Tone
  “In some rural parts of the prefecture, Yi wedding customs call for marriage as young as 14 or 15. But a new generation of young women wants control over their love lives.”
• Urban angst and anomie
  How one obscure word captures urban China’s unhappiness / Sixth Tone
  “Originally used by anthropologists to describe self-perpetuating processes that keep agrarian societies from progressing, involution [内卷化 nèijuǎnhuà] has become a shorthand used by Chinese urbanites to describe the ills of their modern lives.”