Links for Monday, December 7, 2020

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:

• Surging exports and trade, even with Australia
  China exports generate record trade surplus / WSJ (paywall)
  “With November exports up 21% from a year earlier and import growth slowing, surplus hit $75.42 billion.”
  China’s record exports are the flipside of the pandemic in the U.S. / WSJ (paywall)
  China’s exports surge on hot demand for PPE, remote working tech / Reuters
  Australia upgrades forecast for agricultural exports despite China tensions / Reuters
  “Australia upgraded its forecast for agricultural exports for the 2020/21 season as heavy rains boosted production, even as mounting trade tensions with China have hurt demand for several commodities this year.”
  China’s U.S., Australia trade continues to grow in record-breaking month despite ongoing geopolitical spats / SCMP
• Landlords and tenants protest Danke
  Picking up the pieces as one of China’s biggest apartment rental platforms crumbles / Caixin
  “Apartment rental specialist Danke is rapidly coming undone, with landlords and tenants protesting on the streets of China’s biggest cities and unpaid employees threatening to sue. After starting the year on a high following a Nasdaq IPO, the 5-year-old company is bidding farewell to 2020 on a more somber note, with shuttered offices and a loan partnership with Tencent-backed WeBank in tatters.”
  Crisis at Danke has China worrying about out of control fintech / TechNode
  Chenchen Zhang on Twitter: “A young graduate in Guangzhou, who was a Danke apartments tenant faced with eviction bc of Danke’s financial problems, committed suicide on Thursday. He was just graduated and was looking for a job.”
• PBOC considers giving Pudao Credit personal credit-reporting powers
  Central Bank mulls issuing a second personal credit reporting license / Caixin (paywall)
  “China’s credit reporting capacity is straining under the pressure of a retail finance boom.”
• Fallout from November 12 Trump executive order on military-linked stocks
  FTSE Russell to drop eight Chinese firms after U.S. blacklisting / Reuters
• Ant Group makes Singapore inroads
  Ant Group among four firms set to clinch Singapore digital bank license / Straits Times via Caixin (paywall)
• Has the U.S. given up on banning TikTok?
  TikTok divestiture deadline passes but talks will continue / Nikkei Asia (paywall)
  “The Trump administration on Friday opted not to grant ByteDance a new extension of an order requiring the Chinese company to divest TikTok’s U.S. assets, but talks will continue over the short video-sharing app’s fate, two sources briefed on the matter said.”
  TikTok gets more time (again) / Axios
• Digital currency development
  JD.com becomes first online platform to accept China’s digital currency / Reuters
  China hands out $3 million of digital yuan as JD.com becomes first online platform to accept it / CNBC
  China digital currency: Suzhou to hand out 20 million yuan million of virtual red packets as part of trial / SCMP
• Box office
  China box office: ‘End of Endless Love’ wins weekend after ‘Monster Hunter’ yanked from cinemas / Hollywood Reporter
  Monster Hunter film pulled from China after scene sparks backlash / Guardian

SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND THE ENVIRONMENT:

• Second coal mine accident in Chongqing in two months
  Coal mine accident leaves 23 dead in southwest China / Caixin (paywall)
  “Deaths come just two months after 16 people died in a similar accident involving poisonous gases at another mine in Chongqing.”
• Lunar probe to return to Earth with rocks
  Chinese probe orbiting moon with Earth-bound samples / AP
  China displays its space ambitions with flag on moon / Nikkei Asia (paywall)
• Mount Everest measurement
  Everest gets an altitude adjustment: Nepal and China agree on height / WSJ (paywall)
  “The world’s tallest peak this week will get a new, unified official height from the two nations it straddles. After yearslong surveys, China and Nepal will announce the peak’s stature Tuesday, Susheel Dangol, the man in charge of Nepal’s Everest-measurement project, said Sunday.”

POLITICS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS:

• More U.S. sanctions over Hong Kong, and other moves against Beijing
  U.S. slaps sanctions on 14 Chinese officials over Hong Kong crackdown / Reuters
  Designations of National People’s Congress officials undermining the autonomy of Hong Kong / U.S. Department of State
  “We are designating 14 Vice-Chairpersons of the NPCSC [National People’s Congress Standing Committee] in connection with developing, adopting, or implementing” the national security law.
  China says firmly opposes U.S. interference in its domestic affairs / Reuters
  U.S. ends 5 cultural programs with China in further escalation / AP
  Termination of PRC-funded propaganda programs / U.S. Department of State
• India-China border conflicts
  India accuses China of helping rebel groups on Myanmar border / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
  “Armed groups in Myanmar — including the United Wa State Army and the Arakan Army, which was designated a terrorist organization this year — are acting as Beijing’s proxies by supplying weapons and providing hideouts to insurgent groups in India’s northeastern states, according to Indian officials with knowledge of the situation.”
  Exclusive: China sets up 3 villages near Arunachal, relocates villagers / NDTV (India)
• Hong Kong dissenters and new exiles
  HSBC re-freezes accounts belonging to family of exiled democrat Ted Hui amid Hong Kong police money laundering probe / HKFP
  HK applicants for residency surge over 70% / Taipei Times
  Hong Kong police confirm 8 arrested for unlawful assembly and ‘inciting secession’ during peaceful CUHK campus demo / HKFP
  Exiled Hong Kong legislator calls for action after HSBC bank accounts frozen / Guardian
• Xinjiang and Uyghurs
  ‘Do you know that I am with you?’: Uyghur poetry preserves culture under attack / Guardian
  Uyghurs forced to eat pork as China expands Xinjiang pig farms / Al Jazeera
• China’s arms sales increase, but still distant second behind U.S.
  Chinese arms industry ranks second behind U.S., report says / WSJ (paywall)
  Arms sales by China’s four biggest companies in the sector rose by 5% in 2019: SIPRI think tank / Reuters
• “Havana syndrome” caused by microwave energy?
  Report finds microwave energy likely made U.S. diplomats ill / AP
  Report points to microwave ‘attack’ as likely source of mystery illnesses that hit diplomats and spies / NYT (porous paywall)
• Trade with North Korea
  Covert Chinese trade with North Korea moves into the open / WSJ (paywall)
  “China is no longer trying to hide smuggling activity as it seeks to help Pyongyang endure sanctions, U.S. officials say.”

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

• Profile of a young Chinese climate activist
  Ridiculed in China, Ou Hongyi wages a lonely climate crusade / NYT (porous paywall)
  “Ōu Hóngyì 欧泓奕 stopped going to school after watching Al Gore in An Inconvenient Truth.”
• The virtual assistant that has beguiled hundreds of millions of Chinese men
  The AI girlfriend seducing China’s lonely men / Sixth Tone
  “Xiaoice was first developed by a group of researchers inside Microsoft Asia-Pacific in 2014, before the American firm spun off the bot as an independent business — also named Xiaoice — in July… According to Xiaoice’s creators, the bot has reached over 600 million users. Her fans tend to be from a very specific background: mostly Chinese, mostly male, and often from lower-income backgrounds.”
• Grassroots love for India, despite geopolitical tensions
  The young Chinese people cultivating a love for India on social media / Radii China