Editor’s note for Friday, January 8, 2021

My thoughts today: 

China as India’s biggest military threat? In a new article, former Indian army colonel and journalist Ajai Shukla describes the quiet diversion of an Indian strike corps to the border with China as “a powerful strategic signal.” Most of the country’s military forces are still facing Pakistan, but China has become a significant concern for Delhi.    

The Chinese embassy in the U.S. has attracted attention on the internet, as usual for the wrong reasons, with a tweet that read:

Study shows that in the process of eradicating extremism, the minds of Uyghur women in Xinjiang were emancipated and gender equality and reproductive health were promoted, making them no longer baby-making machines. They are more confident and independent.

For more on gendered propaganda about Uyghurs, see this 2019 piece on The China Project by Yi Xiaocuo, who grew up in Xinjiang.   

Don’t talk about Jack! The Financial Times reports: “China’s government has told the country’s media to censor reporting on an antitrust probe into tech group Alibaba, whose founder Jack Ma (马云 Mǎ Yún) has disappeared from public view as misfortunes mount for his business empire, according to people familiar with the matter.”

Our word of the day is oppressing Chinese companies 打压中国企业 dǎyā zhōngguó qǐyè, which is how the Chinese foreign Ministry described (in English, Chinese) U.S. moves to delist Chinese companies from U.S. stock exchanges and remove them from international indices. 

Upcoming events:

• On January 12, join the China Corner Office Podcast for a live interview with James Chou, managing director and CEO of Microsoft for Startups, North Asia.  
• On February 4, celebrate with us at the virtual Serica Annual Gala.

—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief