Links for Wednesday, December 2, 2020

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:

• Money for the biggest diabetes drug market in the world
  Chinese biopharma firm Pegbio nets $122m in pre-IPO round from YF Capital, Yingke, others / Caixin
  Pegbio is “a Suzhou-based biopharmaceutical company that specialises in innovative drugs for diabetes and obesity.” China is disproportionately afflicted by diabetes.
• Big tech clampdown continues
  China drafts rules on mobile apps’ collection of personal data / Reuters
• Could China’s WeWork for residential property also be a scam?
  After landlords and tenants demand cash from rental giant, workers join the fray / Caixin (paywall)
  “With a business model based on rental arbitrage that has been compared to WeWork, the money-losing firm [Danke] is accused of failing to make monthly and quarterly payments to the landlords from whom it rents properties, even after it encouraged tenants to pay rent up front using long-term loans from a partner bank, and invested the difference.”
• Trans-Pacific flights suspended
  United Airlines, American halt non-stop flights to Shanghai / Reuters
  “The plan to pause operations comes following reports of lengthy waits facing airline crews upon arrival, limited local accommodations and restrictions on their movement in China.”
• Skincare product false advertising case
  Chanel in hot water in China over false beauty claims / Jing Daily
• Ant Group to sell 30% stake in Indian digital payment company?
  China’s Ant considers Paytm stake sale amid tensions with India / Business Standard (India)
• No Tesla effect for electric car startups, despite good sales
  NEV makers Nio and Xpeng keep revving up sales, but investor unimpressed / Caixin
•  Massive mobile maker fund raise  
  Xiaomi shares slide 7.1% after finalising $3.9 billion in equity deal / Reuters

SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND THE ENVIRONMENT:

• A victory for traditional Chinese medicine skeptics
  Beijing drops plan to criminalize criticism of Chinese medicine / Caixin
  “Multiple experts interviewed by Caixin said certain sections of the draft law could have left citizens criminally accountable for expressing criticism of a set of traditional practices known to lack strong scientific foundations.”
• China ready to send “hundreds of millions” of COVID-19 vaccines to the world
  China has promised millions of coronavirus vaccines to countries around the world. And it is ready to deliver them / CNN

POLITICS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS:

• The geo-economic divide
  Beijing is China’s only shining northern city as center of economic gravity moves south / SCMP (porous paywall)
  “All Chinese cities north of the Yangtze River, except Beijing, are in relative decline…adding to an already complex regional imbalance between eastern coastal provinces and western regions.”
• Australia’s China nightmare clusterfuck
  Social media platform WeChat censors Scott Morrison’s post directed at Chinese community / ABC (Australia)
  China’s ‘Wolf Warrior’ diplomats slam Australia, win fans at home / Bloomberg via Straits Times
  How much of Australia does China own? / News.com.au
• Water trouble in Southeast Asia
  China faces uphill struggle to win over Mekong neighbors / SCMP
  “China has tried to calm the dispute about dam-building and water resources management along the Mekong with a number of conciliatory gestures, but observers say it faces an uphill struggle to win over its neighbors.”
• Border tensions with India
  China’s military trains in Tibetan plateau amid border dispute with India / SCMP
  “China’s military has been carrying out training in the mountains of Tibet as it tries to get soldiers used to the region’s extreme conditions amid a protracted border dispute with India.”
• New food security measures
  China to protect farmland as pandemic disrupts food security / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
  “Farmland designated for grain has been switched to different crops or used for other purposes, which could potentially threaten the country’s food security, particularly at times like these when the pandemic has interrupted international supply chains, the agriculture ministry said [in Chinese].”

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

• Anti-marriage activism
  China’s ‘self-comb women’ never smashed the patriarchy. So what? / Sixth Tone
  “Some anti-marriage activists are trying to lay claim to the self-comb legacy [a southern Chinese tradition of women ‘marrying’ themselves instead of a husband]. They’re missing these women’s real significance.”
• Child sexual abuse
  Death sentence for Harbin man who raped 4-year-old girl / Sixth Tone