Links for Thursday, January 21, 2021

WORTH THINKING ABOUT

Pieces of news or analysis that caught our eye:

China’s booming private space industry: While the government’s ambitious space goals and missions to the Moon and Mars tend to deservingly receive press attention, the equally dynamic world of Chinese space startups tends to be undercovered. For MIT Tech Review, Neel V. Patel reports:

…there are now 78 commercial space companies operating in China, according to a 2019 report by the Institute for Defense Analyses. More than half have been founded since 2014, and the vast majority focus on satellite manufacturing and launch services…

To a large extent, China is following the same blueprint drawn up by the U.S.: using government contracts and subsidies to give these companies a foot up…

Venture capital is another tried-and-true route. The IDA report estimates that VC funding for Chinese space companies was up to $516 million in 2018 — far shy of the $2.2 billion American companies raised, but nothing to scoff at for an industry that really only began seven years ago. At least 42 companies had no known government funding. 

MORE NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:

• Video app Kuaishou to IPO in Hong Kong
  Tencent-backed video sharing app Kuaishou kicks off Hong Kong IPO targeting $5 billion / SCMP (porous paywall)
  Kuaishou, China’s second-biggest short-video platform after Duoyin (the Chinese version of TikTok), seeks to raise around $5 billion, which would value the company at around $50 billion. 
  What is the difference between Kuaishou and Douyin? See this informative Twitter thread from Lillian Li. 

• Ed tech bubble continues to inflate?
  Chinese edtech startup Erwan nets nearly $100 million in Series D, E funding rounds / Caixin
  Erwan Technology provides “wealth management and investment education services.”
  Tencent-backed Huohua Siwei picks banks for U.S. IPO / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
  “Chinese online education firm Huohua Siwei, backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Kuaishou Technology, has picked banks to work on its U.S. initial public offering which could raise as much as $500 million.”  

• Will Biden administration reverse Trump delistings?
  With Trump gone, China telcos appeal to stay listed in New York / Caixin (paywall, or see Reuters summary)
  “China Mobile Ltd., China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. and China Telecom Corp. Ltd. issued their appeals in similarly worded statements to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, where they are also listed, before the Thursday trading day began. Shares of all three companies fell sharply early in the trading day in Hong Kong before paring those losses later. China Mobile closed down a modest 0.1%, while Unicom and China Telecom fell 1.8% and 1.7%, respectively.”
  Related The China Project coverage: Whiplash on Wall Street after Chinese telecom delistings, Alibaba and Tencent investment ban threat.

• Antitrust enforcement continues
  China’s central bank defines monopoly for the first time in antitrust curb of world’s largest online payment services market / SCMP
  Crackdown on Jack Ma’s empire gathers pace despite reappearance / FT (paywall)

• Beijing to target Ericsson in retaliation for Sweden’s Huawei ban?
  China to take countermeasure against Sweden over excluding Huawei, ZTE from 5G rollout / Global Times
  Sweden faces Chinese blowback over Huawei ban / Politico
  “Sweden’s telecom regulator PTS banned the use of equipment from Huawei and ZTE in October. Huawei in January appealed against the decision, but the appeal was dismissed by a Swedish court last week…While China doesn’t specify what retaliatory measures it could invoke, the Chinese business of Ericsson would appear to be in the crosshairs.”

• Yet more money for electric cars
  Carmaker BYD to raise $3.9 billion through new share sale / Caixin

• Chips from Taiwan, chipmaking gear from Holland
  Chipmaker MediaTek launches new chipsets as smartphone-makers drive demand boom / Caixin (paywall)
  “Ramped up orders for company’s less pricey tech saw it become No. 1 maker of smartphone chips last year.”
  Chinese mainland speeds up chip equipment buying from ASML / Caixin

• China’s purchases in first year of trade deal
  China fails to meet U.S. trade deal target in 2020 amid pandemic / Bloomberg via Caixin
  “By the end of December, China had purchased about 58.1% of the $172 billion worth of goods it pledged to buy last year…It bought 60.4% of targeted manufactured products and 64.4% of agricultural goods, but lagged behind on energy, importing just 39% of the target.”
  Last week on The China Project: One year after the U.S.-China trade deal, high tariffs remain and American jobs suffer. 

• Unemployment in Hong Kong
  Hong Kong unemployment rate hits 6.6%, highest in 16 years, as the city struggles with COVID-19 / HKFP

SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND THE ENVIRONMENT: 

• COVID-19 controls
  China orders boost to disease controls in rural areas ahead of holiday / Caixin (paywall)
  China to test Lunar New Year travelers for COVID-19; Shanghai reports new cases / Reuters
  COVID-19 test required for Spring Festival travel, China says / Sixth Tone
  China barricades part of capital as outbreak escalates / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
  South China city’s digital currency test aims to keep migrants from heading home for the holidays / Caixin (paywall)
  “A district in China’s southern megacity of Shenzhen will hand out 20 million yuan ($3.1 million) worth of digital currency to migrant workers who stay in the city over the coming Chinese Lunar New Year holiday.”

• Easing up on meat import bans?
  Brazil’s JBS says China lifted pandemic-related bans on two meat plants / Reuters

• Renewable energy and carbon neutrality
  China breaks record for new wind power capacity, just before subsidies expire / Caixin (paywall)
  China doubles new renewable capacity in 2020; still builds thermal plants / Reuters
  China’s top steelmaker Baowu Group vows to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 / Reuters

• Vaccination rollout continues
  Shanghai kicks off mass COVID-19 vaccination drive / Sixth Tone
  15 million people given COVID-19 vaccines in China as Spring Festival nears / SCMP

• COVID-19 in Taiwan
  Taiwan reports two new imported COVID-19 cases / Focus Taiwan
  Taoyuan hospital completes mass evacuation of patients / Focus Taiwan

POLITICS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS:

• Twitter punishes Chinese embassy for “dehumanizing” tweet about Uyghur women
  Twitter locks account of China’s U.S. embassy over its defense of Xinjiang policy / Reuters
  “The tweet was removed by Twitter and replaced by a label stating that it was no longer available. Although Twitter hides tweets that violate its policies, it requires account owners to manually delete such posts. The Chinese embassy’s account has not posted any new tweets since Jan. 9.”
  China concerned over locked Twitter account of its United States embassy / Reuters

• Xinjiang and Uyghurs
  China’s Xinjiang more than doubled its U.S. exports in 2020, despite Trump’s sanctions and bans / SCMP
  Pompeo accused China of genocide. experts say that term is complicated / NPR
  U.S. declaration of China’s ‘genocide’ in Xinjiang, explained / NYT (porous paywall)
  Opinion by Owen Jones: The right condemns China over its Uyghur abuses. The left must do so too / Guardian
  Opinion by Nury Turkel: I grew up witnessing forced labor. U.S. companies must step up. / NYT (porous paywall)
  Related The China Project coverage: U.S. says China is committing ‘genocide’ against Uyghurs. 

• Laos and Vietnam
  Xi calls for closer exchanges with Laos (Chinese version here) / Xinhua
  Laos’ new leader in balancing act between China and Vietnam / Nikkei via Caixin
  “As he steps into his role as the supremo of Laos’ communist party, Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith faces a diplomatic brief with a twist: continuing to appear loyal to older ally Vietnam even as the economy of his impoverished, debt-ridden country is being underwritten by China, the increasingly assertive giant to its north.”
  Wanted: Communist Party leadership to keep Vietnam in sweet spot amid U.S.-China tensions / Reuters
  “Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party gathers for a congress next week that will help shape the country’s global role for the next five years, selecting new leaders and setting policy as tensions bubble with Beijing and Joe Biden settles in at the White House.”

• Trapped miners in Shandong
  At least 15 more days to reach trapped miners, say Chinese officials / AP via Guardian
  Shandong miner trapped by explosion believed dead from head injury / Sixth Tone

• Hong Kong national security law enforcement
  British barrister acting for Hong Kong gov’t to withdraw from case against high profile democrats / HKFP
  Foreign native English teachers at gov’t schools could be made to swear loyalty to Hong Kong as oath requirement expands / HKFP

• Debt postponement for Kenya
  China delays $245 million of Kenyan government debt payments / Bloomberg (porous paywall)

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

• More details of gaming executive murder
  Yoozoo murder suspect loved ‘Breaking Bad,’ had a poison lab / Sixth Tone
  In depth: The troubled movie project lurking behind Yoozoo founder’s fatal poisoning / Caixin (paywall)

• Chinese-African identity
  “I can be 100% Congolese and 100% Chinese” social media star Zhong Feifei tells Teen Vogue / China-Africa Project

• Parenting and education
  China proposes new parenting law to better protect children / Sixth Tone
  Shenzhen introduces 7-day trial period for early education classes / Sixth Tone
  From the trenches of China’s school admission wars, a bestseller / Sixth Tone