Links for Friday, November 27, 2020

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:

• Alibaba’s healthcare platform is in the black
  Alibaba’s healthcare unit finds tonic for profits / Caixin
  Alibaba’s healthcare subsidiary, the Hong Kong–listed AliHealth, which started as an online drug store but has branched out to become a marketplace for local healthcare providers and for telemedicine, “made a net profit of 279 million yuan ($42 million), in sharp contrast to a 7.6 million yuan ($1.16 million) loss in the same period last year, according to the company’s latest financial report.”  
• Another Chinese internet company wants to retreat from Wall Street
  Ruhnn, another U.S.-listed Chinese company looks to go private / Caixin
  Three founders of Ruhnn — an agency that manages and sells endorsements from social media talent, or “internet key opinion leaders” — want to take it private. In the third quarter of 2020, “Ruhnn saw its net revenue drop by 9% year-on-year to 248.5 million yuan ($36.6 million), which the company blamed on sluggish product sales, which slumped 38% year-on-year during the period, according to its latest earnings report.”
  See also: Wall Street blunts the ‘delisting’ hype and Ant Group underfoot — why U.S. markets aren’t dead yet on The China Project.
• China tames the internet, again
  Cowed by regulators, China’s tech giants toe the line / China Digital Times
• The industrial economy roars back, for now
  China’s industrial profits surge at fastest pace in nine years / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
  “Industrial profits rose for a sixth straight month, climbing 28.2% in October from a year ago, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed Friday,” but an economist at the bureau warned that “the growth rate of industrial enterprises’ accounts receivable has risen, and the pressure on cash flow has increased, which bodes ill for the continuous recovery of companies’ production and operation.”
• Corn and jet fuel demand
  China’s set to import more U.S. corn and squeeze global prices / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
  China seeks to import jet fuel ahead of Lunar New Year holidays / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
• Apple production to Vietnam
  Foxconn to shift some Apple production to Vietnam to minimize China risk / Reuters
  “Foxconn is moving some iPad and MacBook assembly to Vietnam from China at the request of Apple Inc, said a person with knowledge of the plan, as the U.S. firm diversifies production to minimise the impact of a Sino-U.S. trade war.”

SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND THE ENVIRONMENT:

• China plans base on the Moon
  China set to build lunar base prototype / Shanghai Daily
  “China plans to build a prototype for a lunar scientific research station in the fourth phase of the country’s lunar exploration program, said Wú Wěirén 吴伟仁, chief designer of the program.” No dates were announced.

POLITICS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS:

• India seeks regional influence
  India steps up efforts to draw neighbors closer to counter China / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
  “This week senior officials, including foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, are in Nepal and Sri Lanka respectively to discuss economic and security ties.”
  Opinion: The ball is in China’s court, writes Harsh V Pant / Hindustan Times 
  “With its strong response across spheres, India has shown that it has options and a willingness to exercise them.”
• Taiwan-American Belt and Road?
  U.S., Taiwan to push an alternative to China’s Belt and Road / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
  “An informal U.S.-led alliance to provide an alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative will provide greater transparency to countries seeking funding to develop their infrastructure, Taiwan’s finance minister said.”
• Guō Wénguì 郭文贵 henchmen now intimidating Chinese dissidents in Canada
  Chinese Communist Party protest in Surrey turns ugly / Vancouver Courier
  Context: Guo Wengui is sending mobs after Chinese dissidents / Foreign Policy (paywall)
• Uyghur internment camps
  Opinions adopted by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention at its eighty-eighth session, 24–28 August 2020 / UN Human Rights Council
  Comment tweeted by Darren Byler:

Important ruling from the UN Human Rights Council working group on Arbitrary Detention. The Kazakhstani detention of Serikzhan Bilash, the leader of the Kazakh group of former Xinjiang detainees AtaJurt, broke international law.  

This could have significant impact in protecting the rights of Kazakhs, Uyghurs and other Indigenous peoples from NW China who flee across the border. These protections will be crucial to documenting the effects of Xinjiang camps and forced labor for decades to come.

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

• Roadside attractions in rural China
  Chinese statue of Yang Asha, goddess of beauty, sparks debate / NYT (porous paywall)
  Is a statue of Yǎng Āshā 仰阿莎 in Guizhou “a tribute to the rich culture of the local people and…a big draw for sightseers” or “another white elephant in a country full of expensive monuments, gaudy tourist traps and wasteful vanity projects that draw money away from real problems.”
• Racist brand names
  Darlie toothpaste remains on shelves five months after Colgate vowed to rethink ‘racist’ brand / HKFP 
• China in comic art
  Bullshit jobs (in China) / Krish Raghav on Twitter
  A series by a Beijing-based cartoonist.