Links for Monday, November 9, 2020

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:

• Illegal student labor at Apple supplier
  Apple supplier Pegatron found using illegal student labor in China / FT (paywall)
  “Apple has publicly reprimanded one of its largest manufacturers after a Financial Times investigation found that thousands of student interns had worked overtime to assemble iPhones, in breach of Chinese law.”
  Apple suspends iPhone maker Pegatron over China labor abuses / NYT (porous paywall)
• Apple to face class-action lawsuit alleging CEO concealed falling demand in China
  Apple must face shareholder lawsuit over CEO Cook’s China sales comments / Reuters
• Ant IPO suspension updates
  Billionaire Jack Ma pays high price for challenging regulators / Caixin (paywall)
  Why Ant Group’s IPO may stay on ice for a while / Caixin (paywall)
  Ant faces tortuous path back to market as Beijing tightens rules / FT (paywall)
  China investors rethink market risk after Ant’s scuppered IPO / Nikkei Asia (paywall)
  Ant Group’s stalled IPO seen slashing its value by $140 billion / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
• Microlending restrictions hit entire industry hard, not just Ant Group
  Only four of China’s hundreds of online microlenders meet new requirements / Caixin (paywall)
• Evergrande Group ends plans for backdoor Shenzhen listing
  Evergrande investors give real estate giant breathing room after listing plan collapses / Caixin (paywall)
• Tim Hortons wants to be one of China’s top three coffee chains by 2028
  Tim Hortons eyes techie, mid-range coffee drinkers in rapid-fire China expansion / Caixin (paywall)
• JA Solar chairman detained
  Solar energy boss detained by authorities on Sunday / Caixin (paywall)
  “Shares in solar-panel maker JA Solar plummet as the company distances itself from the scandal.”
  China solar giant plunges after billionaire chairman detained / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
• Yuan expected to strengthen further after Biden win
  For investors, China’s yuan is the big winner from Biden victory / Reuters
  China’s yuan extends best week since 2017 on Biden’s victory / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
  Here’s what analysts say a Biden win means for China’s economy / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
• Electric vehicles and U.S.-China auto competition
  China car sales keep on trucking in pandemic recovery / WSJ (paywall)
  Better than expected sales send electric-car makers’ valuations skyward / Caixin (paywall)
  Tesla (TSLA) could surprise with over 500,000 cars produced in China next year, supply chain report says / Electrek
  In Biden, Detroit gets a ‘car guy’ with electric vehicles on his mind / WSJ (paywall)

SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND THE ENVIRONMENT:

• COVID-contaminated food packaging
  More cases of COVID-19 linked to frozen food emerge in China / Caixin
  “Northern city of Tianjin confirms two infections of logistics workers linked to contaminated food packaging.”
  German frozen pork prompts new coronavirus case in China / DW
  China to disinfect cold-chain shipments to avoid more infections / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
• Promising preventative product for nearsightedness
  Chinese-developed lens can slow childhood myopia by 60% / Sixth Tone
  “Together with Wenzhou Medical University in eastern China’s Zhejiang Province, French ophthalmic optics company Essilor Group has designed a new product — the Stellest lens — capable of dramatically slowing down the rate at which a child’s eyesight deteriorates.”

POLITICS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS:

• Bulgaria, Romania, and Poland consider nuclear-energy deals with U.S.
  U.S. goes nuclear to compete with Russia, China in Europe’s east / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
  “The former Cold War frontier of eastern Europe is becoming a battleground in the $500 billion business of building nuclear power plants.”
• Forced relocations
  China has rehomed 9.6 million people since 2015 under plan to eliminate extreme poverty, government says / SCMP
  Related The China Project coverage: In China’s countryside, housing complexes are built to be torn down; A Chinese province razes the countryside. Why?
• Australia-China tensions
  Opinion: Don’t let “rumor vending machine” hijack China-Australia relations / Xinhua
  Cyber-enabled foreign interference in elections and referendums / Australian Strategic Policy Institute
  “This research identified 41 elections and seven referendums between January 2010 and October 2020 where cyber-enabled foreign interference was reported, and it finds that there’s been a significant uptick in such activity since 2017. This data collection shows that Russia is the most prolific state actor engaging in online interference, followed by China, whose cyber-enabled foreign interference activity has increased significantly over the past two years. As well as these two dominant actors, Iran and North Korea have also tried to influence foreign elections in 2019 and 2020. All four states have sought to interfere in the 2020 U.S. presidential elections using differing cyber-enabled foreign interference tactics.”
• Hong Kong after the national security law
  Hong Kong’s pro-democracy lawmakers threaten to resign / AP
  “The announcement from the 19 opposition lawmakers came amid unconfirmed reports that China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee, which will meet on Tuesday and Wednesday, was preparing to disqualify four legislators.”
  Hong Kong democrats vow to collectively resign if Beijing seeks to oust any pro-democracy lawmakers over filibustering / HKFP
  U.S. citizen says he was turned away after seeking refuge in U.S. consulate in Hong Kong / WSJ (paywall)
  As Hong Kong law goes after ‘black sheep,’ fear clouds universities / NYT (porous paywall)
  PLA video shows armored personnel carriers driving through streets of Hong Kong before conducting live-fire exercise / SCMP

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

• The fourth annual Xi’an Marathon attended by 24,000 runners
  Gallery: Modern marathon in an ancient city / Caixin
• Food safety scandal
  Viral video exposes Wuhan canteen kitchen food malpractices / What’s on Weibo
• Feminine hygiene products
  ‘Stand by her’: In China, a movement hands out free sanitary pads in schools / NYT (porous paywall)