Links for Friday, March 5, 2021

WORTH THINKING ABOUT

Pieces of news or analysis that caught our eye:

“China is not ten feet tall: How alarmism undermines American strategy” is the title of a piece by Ryan Hass of the Brookings Institution in Foreign Affairs this week. An excerpt:

During the Cold War, Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger cautioned against “ten-foot-tall syndrome”: the tendency among U.S. policymakers to view their Soviet competitors as towering figures of immense strength and overwhelming intellect. A similar syndrome has taken hold in the United States today, and the harms are not just analytical. Concentrating on China’s strengths without accounting for its vulnerabilities creates anxiety. Anxiety breeds insecurity. Insecurity leads to overreaction, and overreaction produces bad decisions that undermine the United States’ own competitiveness. Seeing China clearly is the first step toward getting China policy right.

See also, from Ryan Hass:

• How China is responding to escalating strategic competition with the U.S. / China Leadership Monitor
• Ryan Hass on the Biden administration’s China direction / Sinica Podcast

MORE NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:

• Investors pile in for the decade of the golden pig
  China’s first hog breeding ETF listing capitalizes on pork industry boom / Reuters
  华为跨界“养猪”？安防业务线改名“机器视觉” / Yicai
  China’s first hog breeding exchange traded fund (ETF) debuted on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Penghua Fund Management’s CSI Livestock Breeding ETF. Guotai Fund Management and Ping An Fund are expected to launch similar ETFs in the coming weeks. “The industry is expected to usher in the decade of the ‘golden pig,’” said the person tapped to run Ping An’s pork fund.
• More government oversight for fintech and tech giants
  China vows oversight of fintech, financial holding firms / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
  China to strengthen anti-monopoly push, prevent disorderly capital expansion / Xinhua
  China’s Premier Li Keqiang said China will step up oversight of financial holding companies and the fintech industry at the opening of China’s highest legislature –– the National People’s Congress — and promised the authorities would also strengthen the anti-monopoly push and “prevent disorderly capital expansion.”
• Foxconn is still going to make your iPhone in China
  Apple supplier Foxconn builds new plant in central China, plans to hire 30,000 / Yicai
  Apple supplier Foxconn has built a new industrial park in China’s central Henan Province that will manufacture key parts for iPhones, tablets, laptops, and other wearable devices. Foxconn invested 1.5 billion yuan ($231 million) in the production base, which will create up to 30,000 jobs.
• China’s unicorn workout app Keep rumored to plan U.S. IPO
  8轮融资估值超20亿美元，Keep再被传IPO，商业化之路却一路坎坷 / STCN
  Keep, a workout app under Beijing Calories Technology with a valuation of $2 billion, is rumored to be preparing (in Chinese) for an IPO in the U.S. as soon as the second quarter of 2021. The company earlier this year denied it had IPO plans.
• NDRC director calls for efforts to develop key technologies
  何立峰：“卡脖子”的重大攻关项目，将按揭榜挂帅的要求推进_财经上下游 / The Paper
• Chinese TikTok wants to attract more soccer fans
  TikTok’s Chinese version Douyin to sponsor Euro 2020 / Yicai
• Xiaomi benefits from Huawei’s loss
  Xiaomi breaks into top three smartphone brands in Latin America for first time as Huawei falls / Caixin (paywall)
  “In the three months through December, Xiaomi controlled 6.7% of Latin America’s smartphone market, up from 4.4% in the same period of 2019, marking the first time it has entered the top three.”
• Xinjiang-based Tianshan Cement to become China’s largest cement producer
  Massive merger will make little-known cement-maker a national giant / Caixin (paywall)
  “Tianshan Cement plans to acquire controlling stakes in four peers in a $15.2 billion deal that would make it China’s largest listed producer by capacity.”
• More energy consumption for China’s post-pandemic economy
  China’s demand for fuel accelerates amid swift factory rebound, more traffic / Bloomberg via Caixin
  “Gasoline and diesel consumption has extended its run above pre-COVID-19 levels this year as more people took to their cars to avoid being infected and continued to travel locally.”
• Will pandemic-boosted growth for diagnosis companies last?
  China’s COVID-test makers see 6,500% profit gains, but can it last? / Bloomberg via Caixin
• Chinese sovereign fund posts gains in the pandemic-hit 2020
  China’s $1 trillion wealth fund gains 12% in ‘unusual year’ / Bloomberg via Caixin
  “China Investment Corp. posted a return of more than 12% on overseas investments in 2020 after markets rallied on loose monetary policies, marking a breakout year for China’s $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund.”
• Beijing’s award leads to U.S. blacklist
  U.S. blacklisted China’s Xiaomi because of award given to its founder / WSJ (paywall)
  “U.S. officials blacklisted Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi Corp. as a company with military ties partly due to an award given to the company’s founder for his service to the state, the U.S. Department of Defense said in a legal filing.”

SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND THE ENVIRONMENT:

• WHO report on Wuhan expected “week of 14–15 March”
  WHO report on Wuhan, China mission due in mid-March: officials / Reuters
  “Mike Ryan, WHO’s top emergency expert, said, ‘To clarify, there was never a plan for an interim report, first of all.’”
  Related, in WSJ: WHO Investigators to Scrap Plans for Interim Report on Probe of Covid-19 Origins.
• Deep-sea exploration
  Chinese scientists unveil fish-like robot for deep-sea exploration / Sixth Tone
• Research on animal infection with COVID
  Chinese scientists identify 44 animals susceptible to COVID-19 / Sixth Tone
  “A key finding, the researchers said, was that being genetically closer to humans didn’t seem to make species more likely to contract COVID-19.”
• Over 900 dinosaur tracks discovered in Zhaojue, Sichuan
  Scientists confirm discovery of largest site of dinosaur tracks / China Daily
• Preparing for a future Moon base
  Chinese volunteers live in Lunar Palace 1 closed environment for 370 days / Phys.org

POLITICS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS:

• CGTN banned by Australian broadcaster
  Australian broadcaster SBS suspends use of content from China’s CGTN, CCTV after human rights complaint / SCMP (porous paywall)
• Xinjiang and Uyghurs
  U.S. congressmen seek bill to boost Uyghur refugee status / Reuters
  “A bipartisan pair of U.S. congressmen is writing a bill that would expedite refugee applications from Uyghurs, the first such legislative effort to support immigration of the largely Muslim ethnic group.”
• Taiwan
  China slams Lithuania’s plan to set up a representative trade office in Taiwan / SCMP (porous paywall)
  Biden gives support for Taiwan in national security guidance / Focus Taiwan
• U.S. military spending in the Pacific
  Austin wants to pivot to China. But can he pay for it? / Politico
  “The Pentagon’s pivot away from the Middle East and toward China will soon face its first major test: the massive budget request the department is set to submit to Congress this spring.”
  U.S. to build anti-China missile network along first island chain / Nikkei Asia (paywall)
  “The U.S. will bolster its conventional deterrence against China, establishing a network of precision-strike missiles along the so-called first island chain as part of $27.4 billion in spending to be considered for the Indo-Pacific theater over the next six years, Nikkei has learned.”
• Scrutiny of China-connected research in the U.S.
  Criminal initiative targeting scholars who allegedly hid Chinese funding and affiliations comes under growing scrutiny / Inside Higher Ed
  Maggie Lewis 陸梅吉 on Twitter: “There are many reasons for concern about PRC party-state activities, but FBI’s new China-related case ‘every 10 hours’ doesn’t tell whether they’re ‘complex counterintelligence cases’ or less sensational nondisclosure ones. There’s collateral damage to threat-inflating rhetoric.”
  Researcher under federal investigation for Chinese ties / AP
  U.S. doubles down on protecting university research from China / Reuters
  “A U.S. national security commission is recommending that American universities take steps to prevent sensitive technology from being stolen by the Chinese military, a sign of growing concerns over the security of academic research.”
• South China Sea
  Chinese military in South China Sea landing drill as Taiwan tension persists / SCMP (porous paywall)
  U.S. calls German warship’s plan to sail South China Sea support for rules-based order / Reuters

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

• “Social morality” rules for actors, musicians, dancers, opera performers, acrobats, etc.
  “Love the Motherland” – new moral guidelines for Chinese performers come into force / What’s on Weibo
• Social media obsession with Japanese table tennis celeb
  Ai Fukuhara’s rumored divorce: Weibo users show support to ‘China’s most favorite Japanese girl’ / What’s on Weibo
• Discussion of a new book on Chinese architecture
  Wang Shu on modern Chinese architecture / Wallpaper