Links for Thursday, January 14, 2021

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:

• Founded in 2000, sued by Michael Jordan in 2012, Qiaodan finally forced to change its name
  Jordan slams dunk on copycat Chinese sportswear brand forcing them to change their name / Caixin
  “Chinese sportswear maker Qiaodan Sports has changed its name to Zhongqiao Sports two weeks after a Shanghai court ruled in favor of legendary basketball player Michael Jordan in a protracted trademark case related to the company’s unauthorized use of the Chinese characters that make up Jordan’s Chinese name.”

• Big tech in the crosshairs — signs of the coming crackdown
  Chinese courier sets fire to himself in protest over unpaid Alibaba wages / FT (paywall)
  “Mr Liu had been working for Ele.me, Alibaba’s food delivery platform… Mr Liu now faces more than 1 million yuan in medical bills to treat third-degree burns on 80 percent of his body, according to a crowdfunding page set up by his daughter.”
  Pushback against China tech giants grows with accusation of algorithmic ‘bullying’ / Caixin 
  “At a symposium on the topic held by the China Consumers Association (CCA) on Jan. 7, the group released a three-section, 14-point document outlining the ways data-driven algorithms impinge the rights of consumers in their interactions with large tech platforms, and calling for beefed up powers for regulators.”
  Pinduoduo under fire as China turns on its tech titans / CNN
  January 11 on The China Project: Pinduoduo worker dies by suicide while on leave, ex-employee’s video on disturbing work culture goes viral.

• Can Chinese cars get the chips they need?
  Chip shortage will continue to disrupt auto production in China, industry warns / Caixin (paywall)
  “Semiconductor chip shortage issues will continue to disrupt China’s production of automobiles in the coming months, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said.”

• Passenger drones
  EHang pioneers self-flying drones for tourists in Greater Bay Area City / Caixin  

• Smart roads, electric and autonomous cars
  China mulls giving green light to highway self-driving car tests / Caixin (paywall)
  China’s Huawei develops smart roads that talk to driverless cars / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
  Alibaba launches electric car in tie-up with SAIC / Nikkei (porous paywall)  

• Fake honey
  The honey detectives are closing in on China’s shady syrup swindlers / WIRED

SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND THE ENVIRONMENT: 

• COVID-19 investigation team
  Two members of WHO delegation to Wuhan held back over health screening / Reuters
  “Two members of a World Health Organization-led team that arrived on Thursday in China’s Wuhan city to investigate the origins of COVID-19 remained behind in Singapore after testing positive for coronavirus antibodies…It is the latest setback for a mission beset by delay as well as concern over how much access the team will get.”

• COVID-19: New outbreak and first death in eight months
  China records first COVID death since May as WHO team arrives in Wuhan / Guardian
  After pre-holiday outbreaks, workers paid to celebrate in place / Sixth Tone
  “Worried about the coronavirus, local authorities are resorting to gift vouchers and phone credit to persuade migrant workers to stay put during the Lunar New Year travel rush.”

• Water pollution
  ‘Forever chemicals’ found in tap water along Yangtze River / Sixth Tone
  “Cancer-causing chemicals emitted by textile, leather, and paper plants are polluting the water supply of several cities including Shanghai, a new study says.”  

• The next pandemic?
  The other virus that worries Asia / BBC
  “The death rate for Nipah virus is up to 75% and it has no vaccine.”

POLITICS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS:

• The first brick in Hong Kong’s Great Firewall
  New York Times reporter Paul Mozur on Twitter: “Mark it in the history books: HK Broadband confirmed what we saw last week, the first website block in Hong Kong: ‘We have disabled the access to the website in compliance with the requirement issued under the National Security Law.’”
  Hong Kong’s first website takedown under national security law confirmed / AFP via Yahoo
  Hong Kong internet provider blocks pro-democracy website / FT (paywall)
  See also: Hong Kong teenager returned by China appears in city court on protest-related charges / Reuters

• Laos to sell, not borrow?
  Laos shifts to China equity from loans as party congress starts / Nikkei (porous paywall)
  “Laotian Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith has signaled a change in tack to slow the communist-ruled country’s slide toward defaulting on its foreign debts: securing foreign financing through equity rather than more loans, the largest source of which has been China.”

• Village democracy “is not entirely dead”
  Why bother counting? — The West once dreamed of democracy taking root in rural China / Economist (porous paywall)
  “Democracy is not entirely dead. Some local regulations say ordinary villagers’ views should be solicited when choosing the party secretary.”

• Falun Gong’s Trumpeter
  MAGA-land’s favorite newspaper / The Atlantic
  A look at the Epoch Times and how it became a zealous pro-Trump media outlet. 

• News of Meng Wanzhou, but not the detained Canadians
  China demanded Meng Wanzhou’s return after bullets were sent to her Vancouver home, says security chief / SCMP (porous paywall)
  “China’s consulate demanded the immediate return of Huawei Technologies executive Mèng Wǎnzhōu 孟晚舟 after ‘threatening letters’ containing bullets were delivered to the home where she has been living in Vancouver under partial house arrest, the head of the private security team guarding her said in court on Wednesday.”
  For Meng Wanzhou, Huawei executive held in Canada, an opulent detention / NYT (porous paywall) 

• Locking up the lawyers
  Chinese police take away human rights lawyers trying to attend court hearing for fellow lawyer Lu Siwei / HKFP
  “A group of Chinese human rights lawyers were reportedly taken away by police when they tried to attend a hearing for fellow lawyer Lú Sī wèi 卢思位, who is facing the revocation of his practising license. Lu was involved in the case of the 12 Hong Kong ‘speedboat fugitives.’…His hearing was held in Chengdu, Sichuan on Wednesday morning, where he was expected to answer to the allegation of ‘publishing inappropriate speech online.’”

• Huawei in Europe
  “Wolf culture” – How Huawei controls its employees in Europe / netzpolitik.org
  “Former employees accuse Huawei of discrimination. How massively the company interferes in their private lives and how it keeps its staff in line is revealed by internal documents and covert audio recordings that netzpolitik.org and the media partners of The Signals Network have analysed.”
  DISTANT VWORP on Twitter: “There’s something quite funny about Europeans complaining about a Chinese company coming to Europe and parachuting loads of expats in to take the top jobs.”  

• Boris Johnson’s rhetorical flip-flops
  Britain’s Boris Johnson warns against ‘unthinking sinophobia’ in China ties / SCMP
  ‘Groundless speculation’: China refutes Boris Johnson’s talk of COVID originating from bats / ABC (Australia) 

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

• Branding Chinese liquor
  Will ‘Chinese baijiu’ name change propel it to global dominance? / Caixin
  “Despite its central importance to Chinese culture, until recently its English customs code read simply ‘Chinese distilled spirits.’ Officially recognizing the drink as Chinese Baijiu, using the Chinese for ‘white alcohol’ elevates it to the same level as Brandy, Whisky, Vodka, Rum and Gin.”

• Murder and patrimony
  Secret child claim rocks case of poisoned gaming magnate / Caixin (paywall)
  “A cloak-and-dagger tale of a gaming magnate who was poisoned to death by a colleague has taken a new twist with an online allegation that a woman who bore him a son out of wedlock is seeking to exercise the infant’s inheritance rights.”