Editor’s note for Thursday, November 19, 2020

My thoughts today:

Pharma and biotech are industries to watch in China, we’ve argued for years. Today comes more news from that front: Another Chinese biotech startup targeting cancer has raised money: D3 Bio 德昇济医药 “closed its Series A funding round at $200 million to support the development of the firm’s portfolio in oncology and immunology,” reports Eudora Wang of Caixin. Investors include big names such as Sequoia and Singapore state fund Temasek.

D3 Bio is so new that it does not appear to have a website. The founder and CEO is George Chen (陈之键 Chén Zhījiàn), an oncologist with an M.B.A. from Wharton, and experience at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, and AstraZeneca.

Related: Our top story today, about China’s progress with COVID-19 vaccines.

More on Trump-supporting Chinese dissidents and activists: This critical cartoon from Badiucao, Chinese-born Australian resident and frequent satirizer of the Chinese Communist Party.  

Correction: Yesterday, our word of the day was Whoever hung the bell on the tiger’s neck must untie it (解铃还须系铃人 jiě líng hái xū xì líng rén), meaning that those who have caused problems should be the ones to solve problems, a phrase used by “wolf warrior” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhào Lìjiān 赵立坚 in connection to tensions with Australia, and the 14 sins Beijing says Canberra has committed.

I commented that the last time that phrase was used by a Chinese official, it was Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 back in 2014, telling American journalists that it was their own fault they were having visa difficulties in China. Thanks to Access member Bernard for correcting me:

“They have used it several times against us Canadians in reference to the Mèng Wǎnzhōu 孟晚舟 case.” There are, in fact, thousands of Chinese-language reports based on Chinese state messaging that tell Canada to untie the bell on the tiger’s neck.

Our word of the day is another bon mot from Zhao Lijian. This is an exchange from today’s Foreign Ministry press conference (transcripts in English, Chinese):

Bloomberg: In a joint statement, the U.S., Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the U.K. called on the Chinese government to reconsider actions against Hong Kong’s elected legislature and immediately reinstate the Legislative Council members. Does the foreign ministry have any comment on this?

Zhao Lijian: You mean the Five Eyes Alliance, right?

The Chinese people will not provoke troubles, but we never flinch when trouble comes our way. No matter how many eyes they have, five or ten or whatever, should anyone dare to undermine China’s sovereignty, security and development interests, be careful not to get poked in the eye.

The phrase is perhaps better translated as: They should be careful not to get their eyes poked out (小心他们的眼睛被戳瞎 xiǎoxīn tāmen de yǎnjīng bèi chuōxiā). The word used for “poke” (戳 chuō) is similar to the English. In a different context, it has a vulgar meaning.  

See also: 

• Hong Kong: ‘Eyes will be plucked out,’ China warns West / BBC
• Australia ‘will always be Australia,’ PM responds to China grievances / Reuters
• There’s no sign of the Australia-China dispute getting better…Here’s how we got there / Twitter thread by Bloomberg reporter James Mayger

—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief