Links for Friday, February 26, 2021

WORTH THINKING ABOUT

Pieces of news or analysis that caught our eye:

Jiangxi leads in hukou reform, though it has no first-tier cities: Sixth Tone reports that Jiangxi Province has become the first to scrap residency restrictions that make rural laborers second-class citizens:

Earlier this week, authorities in Jiangxi announced [in Chinese] that people from rural areas would be able to obtain household registration in the cities they’ve moved to with no restrictions. Previously, such people were required to live and work in a particular city for a set period of time before this document was granted.

Sixth Tone points out that “Jiangxi’s reform, though groundbreaking, is also in line with a national urbanization plan from 2014 that called for the country’s 100 million rural residents to be living in cities, with urban hukou, by 2020. As of last year, 60.6% of China’s population was living in urban areas, though only 44.4% held urban hukou.”

See also:

• China to further relax residency restrictions, but not in the biggest cities / Caixin (paywall)
• China’s poorly planned cities: Urban sprawl and the rural underclass left behind / The China Project

The global problem of forced labor: A bill in Australia singles out China for forced labor connected to Xinjiang-made goods, leading some critics, including human rights groups, to suggest a more holistic approach. The South China Morning Post reports:

Human Rights Watch and the Australian Council of Trade Unions have expressed support for the bill’s aims, while suggesting the proposals be expanded to all goods linked to forced labour, regardless of country of origin. India was home to the largest number of people living in modern slavery in 2018, with an estimated 8 million slaves, followed by China, Pakistan, North Korea and Nigeria, according to the Global Slavery Index produced that year by the Walk Free Foundation.

MORE NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:

• Everyone wants to make electric cars
  China’s Huawei, reeling from U.S. sanctions, plans foray into EVs – sources / Reuters
  Investment gains boost Tesla challenger Li Auto to first profit / Caixin
  Geely-backed smart vehicle tech startup eyes global expansion with new funding / Caixin
  Foxconn deepens push into electric car manufacturing with Fisker partnership / Caixin
  In China, an electric car maker [Nio] loses money but thinks big / NYT (porous paywall)
  Shanghai wants half of new car sales to be pure electric vehicles by 2025 / Caixin (paywall)
• Slightly sunny outlook for U.S.-China trade and American companies in China?
  China living up to trade deal promises, Biden’s agriculture secretary says / CNBC
  China will extend tariff exemptions for 65 U.S. products / Reuters
  AmCham South China: 94% of U.S. Companies optimistic towards 2021 business outlook in China / PR News Wire
  U.S.-China relations: companies in South China have no appetite for decoupling, but expect tensions to grow, says AmCham / SCMP (porous paywall)
• Trump tech restrictions to go ahead
  U.S. to impose sweeping rule aimed at China technology threats / WSJ (paywall)
  “Biden administration plans to let the Trump-era rule on technology purchases and deals take effect, despite U.S. business objections about its scope.”
• Greater Bay Area infrastructure
  China considers high-speed maglev linking Guangzhou and Hong Kong / Bloomberg via Caixin
  “Super-fast train could slash travel time to 20 minutes in project linked to Greater Bay Area infrastructure construction.”
• Taiwan says China gave no warning over pineapple ban
  China bans Taiwanese pineapples over biosafety fears / SCMP (porous paywall)
  Forbidden fruit: Taiwan urges people to eat more pineapples after China ban / Reuters
• Canadian coffeeshop to expand in China
  Tim Hortons China raises fresh cash, plans to add 200 shops in 2021 / Reuters
  Tim Hortons marks two years in China with Tencent investment / TechCrunch
• Cleaning up ChiNext
  Shenzhen bourse wants to shine a light on shady IPO shareholders / Caixin (paywall)
  “ChiNext board raises disclosure requirements in an effort to expose secret investors and cheap share deals.”

SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND THE ENVIRONMENT:

• Climate ambition still lacking, says UN official
  China, U.S. urged to step up as UN warns world ‘very far’ from meeting climate goals / Climate Home News
  UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa “urged major emitters to ‘step up’ and commit to ‘much more radical’ emissions reductions cuts this year. China, the U.S. and India — the world’s top three emitting countries — have yet to reveal their plans.”
• COVID-19 vaccinations in Hong Kong
  Hong Kong’s vaccination programme begins as three centres are switched to China-made vaccine / HKFP
• Mysteries of the early weeks of COVID in Wuhan
  In hunt for COVID-19 origin, patient zero points to second Wuhan market / WSJ (paywall)
  “The putative patient zero met the WHO investigators during their recent four-week visit to Wuhan, and told them that his parents had visited another local community food market…they were unable to identify the market or obtain further details.”
• China CDC to build new labs and training facilities
  China’s CDC set for $270 million expansion to address COVID-19 failings / SCMP (porous paywall)

POLITICS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS:

• China’s ‘campaign to crush democracy’ in Hong Kong
  China’s campaign to crush democracy in Hong Kong is working / WSJ (paywall)
  Hong Kong’s lesson to schoolchildren: Love China, no questions asked / NYT (porous paywall)
  Two rights groups quit Hong Kong as security law sends shudders through NGOs / Reuters
• Uyghur internment camps and birth rates
  U.N. rights chief decries arrests in China, abuses in Xinjiang / Reuters
  UN rights chief cites ‘need’ to assess rights in Xinjiang / AP
  Translation: “Goodbye, Ilham,” by Huang Zhangjin / China Digital Times
  Chinese gov’t figures show sharp decline in Xinjiang birth rate amid mounting claims of Uyghur ‘genocide’ / HKFP
• Two Sessions expectations
  China expected to unveil hike in military budget as tensions rise / Reuters
  China’s economy could grow 8-9% this year from low base in 2020 — central bank adviser / Reuters
• EU-China investment deal
  Xi and Macron call for prompt ratification of China-EU investment pact / Caixin
  Stuart Lau on Twitter: “No doubt to Beijing’s pleasure, Macron refrained from mentioning Xinjiang in his call with Xi just a day after his foreign minister excoriated China for what he called the ‘institutionalized repression’ of the Uyghur minority at the UN Human Rights Council.”
• Beijing Olympics
  U.S. has not made ‘final decision’ on participating in Olympics in China / Reuters
  Rights groups target sponsors like Airbnb for Beijing Games / AP
• Speech crimes
  A spreadsheet of China’s censorship shows the human toll / NYT (porous paywall)
  “Their punishment might have gone unnoticed if it weren’t for an online database of speech crimes in China. A simple Google spreadsheet open for all to see, it lists nearly 2,000 times when people were punished by the government for what they said online and offline…The list — which links directly to publicly issued verdicts, police notices and official news reports over the past eight years — is far from complete. Most punishment takes place behind closed doors.”
  Chinese woman spent six months behind bars for COVID-19 social media post, court document shows / SCMP (porous paywall)
• South China Sea tensions
  Chinese bombers in strike exercises after U.S. escalation in South China Sea / SCMP (porous paywall)
  China’s new coast guard law and implications for maritime security in the East and South China Seas / Lawfare

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

• When dating apps encourage educational background discrimination
  China’s dating apps are swiping right on snobbery / Sixth Tone
  “On Chinese social media, commenters regularly joke that [popular Chinese dating platform] HIMMR’s oddly formal match-making process — with account holders forced to submit reams of paperwork and write a personal statement — resembles a job interview.”
• Anti-Asian violence in the U.S.
  Asian-American violence plagues Xi’an Famous Foods during COVID / NYT (porous paywall)
  “Unfortunately, there has been more aggression toward our Asian-American employees over the last few months,” writes Xi’an Famous Foods CEO Jason Wang. “Two of my employees got punched in the face.”
  ‘Alarming surge’ in anti-Asian violence across U.S. terrifies community members / Guardian
  “Stop AAPI Hate, a national coalition documenting anti-Asian bigotry during the pandemic, said the organization had received more than 2,808 ‘firsthand accounts of anti-Asian hate’ from 19 March to 31 December.”