Links for Wednesday, January 13, 2021

WORTH THINKING ABOUT

Pieces of news or analysis that caught our eye:

“Understanding a foreign language is desirable, but takes resources that not everyone can afford. What is more important is the ability to hold foreign people in the same regard as one’s own.” Yangyang Cheng writes a must-read essay in the Guardian about the politics of the Chinese and English languages and China “expertise.”

The “Indo-Pacific strategy” that Trump undermined: Axios reports that the “Trump administration has declassified a report which lays out its Indo-Pacific strategy, including ‘accelerating India’s rise,’ blocking China from establishing ‘illiberal spheres of influence,’ and maintaining ‘U.S. strategic primacy’ in the region.” The ten-page report was written in early 2018. 

• But as Axios notes, “The goal of showcasing the benefits of American democratic values as a counterbalance to China in the region also suffered a major blow with the recent armed insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.”
• The Sydney Morning Herald adds: “While the declassified document aims for ‘a strengthened Association of Southeast Asian Nations,’ Trump regularly snubbed ASEAN summits. Despite the document calling for the US to deepen its connections in the region, Trump withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and threatened to pull troops out of Japan and South Korea.”

MORE NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:

• Steven Mnuchin blocks Alibaba/Tencent/Baidu blacklist
  Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu spared from US investor blacklist / FT (paywall)
  Americans won’t be banned from investing in Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu / WSJ (paywall)
  “The decision caps off a weekslong battle that pit Treasury officials, who feared widespread selloffs and economic fallout, against State Department and Pentagon officials seeking a tougher line against Beijing. Up until Wednesday morning, many in the State Department and Pentagon believed that they had a compelling case…In the end, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin prevailed.”
  Related on The China Project: Whiplash on Wall Street after Chinese telecom delistings, Alibaba and Tencent investment ban threat. 

• Exploited delivery workers
  Takeout delivery driver sets self on fire over withheld pay / Caixin (paywall)
  “Case involving a deliveryman for Ele.me’s Fengniao service spotlights the difficult conditions faced by millions of workers in China’s thriving sector for low-end services.”

• Hong Kong listings
  3 US-listed China tech companies seek over $6bn in Hong Kong / Nikkei Asia (paywall)
  “Tencent Music, Vipshop and Joyy seek hedge against potential New York delisting.”

• Shanghai STAR listings
  Lenovo plans China listing, sending stock soaring / WSJ (paywall)
  Chinese facial recognition unicorn Megvii prepares China IPO / TechCrunch
  “The move came more than a year after Megvii, known for its computer vision platform Face++, filed to go public in Hong Kong in August 2019. At the time, Reuters reported that the company could raise between $500 million and $1 billion. However, the firm’s IPO application in Hong Kong has lapsed for undisclosed reasons and its focus is now on Shanghai’s STAR board.”

• Data privacy
  China tightens oversight of personal data collection as privacy concerns mount / Caixin (paywall)

• GMO business booming
  Chinese biotech giant’s stock surges on approvals for genetically modified crops / Caixin (paywall)
  “Dabeinong Technology received biosafety certificates for two of its corn and soybean strains from China’s agriculture ministry.”

• PayPal completes purchase of Gopay
  PayPal becomes first foreign company to offer digital payments in China / Caixin
  “PayPal acquired a 30% stake in Gopay, a Chinese provider of electronic payment services, a little more than a year after its purchase of 70% of Gopay, making it the sole owner.”

• Fire at Nanjing factory producing 6% of China’s rubber output
  Sinopec rubber factory goes up in flames / Caixin (paywall)
  “Oilchem China expects the incident will lead to a decline in domestic rubber production as regulators usually increase the number of safety inspections into a sector following major incidents, which can cause some operations that had previously been deemed safe to halt operation.”

• Chip shortage stops work for two days at Guangzhou car factory
  Toyota suspends Chinese assembly line due to global chip shortage / Caixin (paywall)

• Car sales in 2020
  China’s car sales fell 6.8% in 2020, but that still likely beats other markets / WSJ (paywall)
  Ford sold 602,627 vehicles in China in 2020, up 6% year-on-year / Reuters

• Smartphone shipments in 2020
  Smartphone shipments in China fell 20.4% in 2020: government data / Reuters
  China’s smartphone shipments fall nearly 13% in December amid virus flare-up / Caixin

• Jack Ma speculation
  Primavera chairman believes Ma ‘safe and sound,’ upbeat on Ant / Reuters

SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND THE ENVIRONMENT: 

• New COVID hotspots continue to rage
  As China COVID-19 cases rise, millions more placed under lockdown / Reuters
  “On Wednesday, the National Health Commission reported a total of 115 new confirmed cases on the mainland, compared with 55 a day earlier, the highest daily increase since July 30… Hebei, the province that surrounds Beijing, accounted for 90 of the cases, while northeastern Heilongjiang province reported 16 new cases.”
  Chinese city of Langfang goes into lockdown amid new COVID-19 threat / Reuters
  Coronavirus in China: Heilongjiang declares state of emergency as outbreak spreads / SCMP
  China places over 22 million on lockdown amid new COVID wave / NYT (porous paywall)

• WHO team to spend multiple weeks in Wuhan
  China says WHO team will fly from Singapore to Wuhan on Jan. 14 / Reuters
  ‘No limit’ for WHO delegation in month-long Wuhan mission, team member says / Reuters
  “A global team of scientists led by the World Health Organization to investigate the origins of the novel coronavirus will spend around a month in the Chinese city of Wuhan, including two weeks in quarantine, a team member said on Wednesday.”

• China bets on carbon capture technology
  China pushes technical solutions in race to meet climate goals / Reuters

POLITICS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS:

• Xinjiang sanctions tightening in U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia
  U.S. bans Xinjiang cotton products, tomatoes on forced labor / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
  Adrian Zenz on Twitter: “U.S. announces full and total ban on all cotton and tomato products from Xinjiang (not just XPCC). This bars 20% of the world’s cotton from entering the U.S. HUGE. Note: the U.S. first mulled this ban in September 2020 but then pulled out.”
  Toughening stance on China’s Xinjiang, Britain introduces new company rules / Reuters
  U.K. to use fines to target forced labor in China’s Xinjiang / AP
  Australia urged to tighten anti-slavery laws as UK cracks down on Chinese forced labour / Guardian
  Feds to crack down on companies using forced Uyghur labour in China’s Xinjiang region – National / Globalnews (Canada)

• Indian foreign minister emphasizes depth of rift with China
  India says trust with China ‘profoundly disturbed,’ US ties on upswing / Reuters
  “India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Tuesday that trust with China had been deeply impaired after last summer’s border clash which resulted in the first combat deaths in 45 years.”
  India’s imports from China drop 20% as border tensions simmer / Nikkei Asia (paywall)
  China pulls 10,000 troops from India border, source says / SCMP

• American ambassador to UN won’t visit Taiwan after all
  U.S. cancels ambassador’s controversial trip to Taiwan / AP
  Taiwan expresses ‘understanding and respect’ after U.S. envoy visit canceled amid threats from Beijing / HKFP

• Australia blocks Chinese acquisition with new foreign investment rules
  Australia cites national security to block China buying local builder / FT (paywall)
  “The decision to block China State Construction Engineering Company from acquiring Probuild on ‘national security’ grounds is the first negative assessment made by Canberra since tough new foreign investment (Firb) rules came into force on January 1.”

• Repression “deepened across the country,” says Human Rights Watch
  China in darkest period for human rights since Tiananmen, says rights group / Guardian
  Human Rights Watch slams China’s ‘appalling year’ of violations / Reuters

• The EU wants to compete in space
  EU seeks space alliance to defend against U.S. and Chinese ambitions / Reuters

• Second killing of a court judge in two months
  Police detain suspect in killing of high court judge / Caixin (paywall)
  “Police have taken a suspect into custody in the case of a Hunan People’s High Court judge who was stabbed to death… The 45-year-old judge was the second to be killed in a legal dispute over the last two months in China.”

• Rescue operation in Shandong Province
  Rescuers try to reach 22 trapped after Chinese gold mine blast / Reuters

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

• YouTube comedian apologizes on Weibo for association with Beijing critic
  ‘Uncle Roger’ comedian sparks China censorship row with deleted video / AFP
  Jeannette Ng 吳志麗 on Twitter: “Even if you don’t think this is a cancel-able offence and you feel sympathy for the pressure on diaspora creators like Uncle Roger (Nigel Ng) to conform and perform, this shouldn’t be swept under the rug. It is illustrative of the boundaries of our speech when it comes to China.”

• The aftershocks of a graduate student killing in Chicago
  Yiran Fan, Ph.D. student ‘beloved by all who knew him,’ 1990-2021 / University of Chicago News
  Chuxin Liu on Twitter: “Yiran Fan’s death left a huge scar for Chinese students studying and working in the USA. We are in a generation of single child of our parents. We overcome barriers and barriers to come to US (Yiran was once rejected by all his PhD applications). This is NOT JUST ANOTHER GUN DEATH.”

• The complicated business of surrogacy
  Nobody’s Baby? Chinese girl in canceled surrogacy case has no birth certificate, no hukou / What’s on Weibo