Links for Friday, January 22, 2021

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:

• Impact of Beijing’s pressure on Australian imports
  China trade row has cost Australia $3 billion in lost exports / Bloomberg (porous paywall)

• Regulating an increasingly cashless society, and the “digital divide”
  Cash may not be king in China anymore, but reject it at your peril / Caixin (paywall)
  “In the fourth quarter of 2020, the [People’s Bank of China] penalized 15 companies and one public institution, along with the individuals responsible for rejecting cash payments.”
  Related: China launches initiative to tackle senior tech gap as everything moves digital.

• The Orwellian downside of digital money
  Beyond Bitcoin: China’s surveillance cash / Ieee.org 

• Medical labs are beneficiaries of COVID-19 controls
  Tougher COVID-19 testing rules deliver shot in the arm for shares of diagnostics firms / Caixin (paywall)
  Yesterday, on The China Project: China’s new requirements for Spring Festival travel target migrant workers. 

• Price fixing in the cement industry
  Six cement-makers and industry association fined for price fixing / Caixin (paywall)

• Huawei founder June 2020 letter published
  Huawei founder praises U.S. tech in first word from company since Biden inauguration / Reuters
  “Ren’s letter said that U.S. actions had left Huawei ‘with a great mismatch between our strategy and our abilities, and that the company will have to reevaluate some product lines, and consider cutting some products and staff that are unproductive.’”

• Japan-China trade
  China passes U.S. as top Japanese export buyer, topping 20% / Nikkei Asia (paywall)

SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND THE ENVIRONMENT: 

• Pouring government money into renewable energy
  China’s CEIC, China Reform set up $1.55 billion new energy fund / Reuters

• COVID-19 response in Shanghai and Beijing
  Shanghai hotel marked as medium risk in new COVID outbreak / Caixin (paywall)
  Shanghai outbreak prompts 2 hospital lockdowns / AP
  Long queues as China’s capital launches mass virus tests / Reuters
  NetEase Beijing employee tests positive for COVID-19, company orders staff to work from home: local media / SCMP

• Vaccine diplomacy
  Turkey’s Erdogan says extra 10 million doses of Chinese vaccine due / AP
  Moderna lags China’s Sinovac, Sinopharm in WHO COVID vaccine approval / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
  Chile approves CoronaVac as Chinese manufacturer continues to defend its test results / SCMP
  China vaccine maker CanSino to offer Pakistan 20 million doses / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
  Augusta Saraiva on Twitter: “China signals that it will send vaccine inputs to Brazil under one condition: that Bolsonaro fires his foreign minister, the man who went around calling the coronavirus the ‘communist virus’”

• Politics of the vaccine rollout in Hong Kong
  COVID-19: Hong Kong experts recommend BioNTech vaccine as city records over 100 new infections on Mon / HKFP
  Pro-Beijing Hong Kong politicians to be vaccinated before city residents / FT (paywall)

• Cold chain COVID-19 controversies
  China’s disputed virus theory has shoppers shunning foreign food / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
  WHO caught between China and West on frozen-food coronavirus transmission / WSJ (paywall)
  “The WHO has been formulating new advice for the public on the issue. A draft sent to The Wall Street Journal warns that the virus could spread via the cold chain and be reintroduced into countries where the pandemic is under control…WHO officials say the draft wasn’t cleared for publication and was sent in error.”

• Wetlands protection
  China’s legislature takes first look at wetlands protection bill / Caixin (paywall)

• Swine fever vaccines used illegally?
  New China swine fever strains point to unlicensed vaccines / Reuters

POLITICS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS:

• When will Biden and Xi teams meet?
  China pushes for high-level meeting to ease tension with U.S. / WSJ (paywall)
  “Looking to reset the troubled U.S.-China relationship, Beijing is pressing for a meeting of its top diplomat [Yáng Jiéchí 杨洁篪] with senior aides to President Biden to explore a summit between the two nations’ leaders…Chinese officials have asked for the meeting in backchannel outreach, but haven’t made a formal request.” 

• Biden appointees and policy moves
  Biden sends important foreign-policy signal with Taiwan inauguration invite / WSJ (paywall)
  “Taiwan envoy formally attends presidential swearing-in for first time since 1979; China restrained in response.”
  Newly installed senior counterintelligence official names China as top long-term threat / Yahoo News
  Biden’s defense secretary pick promises laser-like focus on China / Nikkei Asia (paywall)
  Challenger to the throne: A Biden China doctrine emerges / Politico
  “At least one other China hand will be joining Indo-Pacific Coordinator Kurt Campbell as well as Laura Rosenberger and Rush Doshi on the National Security Council. Sources tell China Watcher that departing Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow…Julian Gewirtz will become a China director.”

• Alliance of democracies?
  Johnson fuels G-7 fears of rival alliance to counter China / Caixin (paywall)
  “British prime minister has invited South Korea, India and Australia as guests to this year’s meeting as he tries to establish a coalition of democracies.”
  Jenny Leonard on Twitter: “On the first full workday of the Biden administration, [national security adviser Jake Sullivan] held separate calls with European and Japanese counterparts to underscore the importance of these alliances and talk about working together on global challenges, including China.”

• EU-China relations
  China deal damages EU’s human rights credibility, MEPs to say / Guardian
  China blasts ‘gross interference’ by EU lawmakers on Hong Kong / AFP via HKFP
  Stuart Lau on Twitter: “Here’s what China agreed with the EU on forced labor: That it ‘shall make continued and sustained efforts on its own initiative [**subtext: without EU pressure**] to pursue ratification of the fundamental ILO Conventions No 29 and 105.’”

• Sanitizing the COVID-19 response narrative
  ‘Heroic hymn of the people’: Chinese government film marks year since Wuhan lockdown / Reuters
  Coronavirus: China calls for revisions to reports at WHO, defends early response / SCMP
  Wuhan coronavirus lockdown leaves trauma and search for answers one year later in China / Washington Post
  “While state media hail tales of sacrifice from Wuhan, the ‘Hero City,’ censors on Weibo appear to have blocked searches related to the lockdown anniversary. On Saturday, a WeChat group of almost 100 relatives of coronavirus victims…was shut down without explanation.”

• Will COVID-19 interfere with Beijing 2022 Olympics schedule?
  Japan and IOC deny that Olympics will be canceled / Reuters
  Xi charges toward Beijing Olympics as Tokyo flame flickers / Nikkei Asia (paywall)

• Looking back on the stricter-than-Wuhan COVID-19 lockdown in Xinjiang
  In Xinjiang, rare protests came amid lockdown / ChinaFile
  Related The China Project reporting: Sealed doors and ‘positive energy’: COVID-19 in Xinjiang. 

• Cracking down on journalists who opened social media accounts “without authorization”
  New journalist rules target social media conduct / China Media Project

• Maritime moves
  China authorizes coast guard to fire on foreign vessels if needed / Reuters
  Japan weighs in on South China Sea dispute, adding to pressure on Beijing / SCMP

• Until 2017, the Islamic State was vocally pro-Uyghur
  The Islamic State stopped talking about China / War on the Rocks
  Elliot Stewart argues that the “Islamic State seems to have determined that a less provocative approach to China is more advantageous. Specifically, the group believes an unprovoked China can play a constructive role in achieving an overriding objective: ending the U.S. military presence in the Middle East and South Asia.”

• WeChat censorship lawsuit
  California plaintiffs sue Chinese tech giant Tencent, alleging WeChat app is censoring and surveilling them / Washington Post

• A Peking University professor’s defense of Trump deplatforming
  Translation: He Weifang on Trump’s social media ban and free speech / China Digital Times

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

• Middle school attack in Kunming, Yunnan
  Chinese police shoot dead hostage taker in school siege / SCMP

• Outrage over conduct of a local official in Jiyuan, Henan
  High-ranking local official fired after reportedly slapping underling / Caixin (paywall)
  “The party secretary of a city in Central China has been removed from his post following an argument over whether a subordinate was allowed to eat with him in the same cafeteria.”

• Tibetan masculinity stereotypes
  Ding Zhen and the myth of the true Khampa Man / Sixth Tone
  “The young viral video star looks nothing like the burly, red-blooded men his home region is famous for producing. But who set those standards in the first place?”