Links for Friday, March 26, 2021

WORTH THINKING ABOUT

Pieces of news or analysis that caught our eye:

The “U.S. raised India ties during Alaska talks,” Ananth Krishnan reports at The Hindu.

The Joe Biden administration highlighted the strength of U.S.-India ties in its March 19 meeting with Chinese officials in Alaska, underlining how it has increasingly come to view India as central to its broader objectives in dealing with China in the Indo-Pacific region.

The reference to India, it is learnt, was not favourably received by China’s two officials in Alaska…and is being seen as reflecting how U.S.-India relations, only two months into the new administration, are developing robustly.

…

The context in which India was brought up in Alaska — as a key partner of the U.S. and a country that shared similar values, a message that the Chinese side did not welcome — reflected the marked change from 2009, when a joint statement following talks in Beijing between Barack Obama and Hu Jintao said both sides “support the improvement and growth of relations between India and Pakistan” and were “ready to strengthen communication, dialogue and cooperation on issues related to South Asia and work together to promote peace, stability and development in that region”. That brought a sharp response from Delhi, telling both countries that “a third country role cannot be envisaged nor is it necessary”.

Related, on The China Project:

• Icy U.S.-China relations and a hot spat in Alaska
• After successful disengagement at Pangong Lake, India-China tensions are easing
• U.S., Japan, and Australia to help India compete with China’s vaccine diplomacy

MORE NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:

• Smart cars from China’s biggest appliance maker
  SAIC and Haier said to unite in latest push into smart cars / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
  Chinese carmaker SAIC Motor Corp. and appliance giant Haier Group Corp. have signed a preliminary agreement to make smart “transportation systems and smart homes,” according to Bloomberg sources. The news follows announcements that smartphone maker Xiaomi is going to make electric cars.
  Related:
  Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi to make EVs using Great Wall’s plant / Reuters
• Chinese apparel brands rally in support of Xinjiang cotton
  Chinese apparel brands rally on support for Xinjiang cotton sourcing / FT (paywall)
  Shares in Chinese apparel groups such as Li Ning and Anta Sports, the two largest domestic sportswear brands, climbed 19% and 14% respectively on Thursday on the back of Chinese domestic support for cotton sourced from Xinjiang.
  Related:
  H&M faces boycott in China over year-old Xinjiang cotton ban / The China Project
  Everyone is in a rush to escape the dumpster fire that is the Xinjiang cotton crisis / The China Project
  Hugo Boss tells Chinese customers it will continue to purchase Xinjiang cotton, whilst own website says it has never used it / HKFP
• Philips to sell low-end appliance unit to private equity giant
  China’s Hillhouse picks up Philips’ home appliance unit in $5.2 billion deal / Caixin (paywall)
  Dutch electronics giant Philips AG is selling its home appliance unit to major Chinese private equity firm Hillhouse Capital for about $5 billion. Philips is focusing on its high-end healthcare business, and getting out of low-end electronics.
  Caixin says that the deal might result in the “future resale of the division to a large field of Chinese manufacturers in the mature, lower-margin space.”
• More H&M backlash
  Chinese apps join celebs in backlash against Western fashion brands over Xinjiang / Reuters
  “Search results for H&M in the Didi Chuxing ride-hailing app for all of China’s major cities yielded no results on Friday.”
  Burberry becomes first luxury brand to suffer Chinese backlash over Xinjiang / Reuters
• ByteDance former employee sentenced to six years in prison for corruption
  字节跳动前员工获刑6年，3年受贿一千多万用于理财和购房 / The Paper
  字节跳动前餐饮主管敛财逾千万获刑六年 曾在北大创办网红餐厅 / Caixin
• Xiaomi to release self-developed chip next week
  澎湃芯片回归？小米官微为新品发布会预热：我们做了个小芯片 / The Paper
• China’s second-largest logistics firm, SF Express, to pilot commercial use of self-driving trucks
  SF Express selects self-driving truck company plus for China’s first commercial freight pilot using supervised autonomous trucks / Business Wire
• China bans unskippable ads on smart TVs
  Smart TVs can’t carry unskippable ads, Chinese court rules / Yicai
• More natural gas supply for China
  France’s Total teams with Shenergy to sell LNG in China to boost cleaner energy supply / Yicai
  More on traditional energy:
  China oil giant CNOOC’s annual profit plunges 59% / Caixin
  中国石油2020年净利降六成 未来着力发展天然气业务 / Caixin
• Bilibili copying Baidu’s listing prospectus
  Bilibili roasted for ‘copy pasting’ parts of Baidu prospectus / Caixin
• Crowdfunding platform shut down
  Tencent-backed mutual aid platform Qingsong Huzhu abruptly shuts down / KrAsia
• Financial risk control
  Regulators suspend new debt product on risk concerns, source says / Caixin (paywall)
  “Less than a year after they started issuing standardized commercial paper, banks have been given ‘window guidance’ to stop, an industry participant told Caixin.”
• Auto chip shortage
  China EV maker Nio halts production for 5 days on chip shortage / Bloomberg via Caixin
• An Alibaba-Tencent partnership?
  Alibaba looks to bring budget shopping platform to Tencent’s WeChat / Caixin (paywall)
  “E-commerce titan has applied to set up a mini program for its Taobao Special Edition, which targets rival Pinduoduo’s clientele of lower-end buyers.”
• Tencent-backed fintech firms set for HK IPO
  Tencent-backed Linklogis seeks $1.1 billion in Hong Kong IPO / Bloomberg (porous paywall)

SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND THE ENVIRONMENT:

• Domestic vaccine rollout
  China gave 91.35 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine by Thursday / Reuters
  Beijing rolls out vaccination program for foreign residents / Caixin
  “Beijing’s announcement follows a similar vaccination program for foreign residents in Shanghai announced on Monday, where foreign nationals will be able to apply for vaccination starting on March 29.”
  Coronavirus: China piles on pressure to get vaccinated as country targets 10 million injections a day / SCMP (porous paywall)
• Vaccine diplomacy
  100 million doses of China Sinopharm’s COVID-19 vaccines supplied globally / Reuters
  China’s CanSino says European vaccine order talks are underway / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
• Beijing attempting to preempt WHO report findings?
  China outlines COVID-origin findings, ahead of WHO report / AP
  “Chinese officials briefed diplomats Friday on the ongoing research into the origin of COVID-19, ahead of the expected release of a long-awaited report from the World Health Organization…The briefing appeared to be an attempt by China to get out its view on the report.”
  Politicizing COVID-19 origin-tracing “extremely immoral”: official / Xinhua
  Trump CDC chief: Coronavirus ‘escaped’ from Chinese lab / Politico
  Robert Redfield, former CDC director, says his support of a lab-leak hypothesis was his “own view” and “only an opinion” — he did not even try to claim that his hunch was based on secret evidence that the U.S. government had collected.
• Three Tangshan companies held responsible for evading emission-cutting measures
  12 arrested in Hebei for fabricating emission data / Sixth Tone

POLITICS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS:

• Beijing flies air force near Taiwan as U.S. enhances maritime coordination
  Taiwan reports largest ever incursion by Chinese air force / Reuters
  “Twenty Chinese military aircraft entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone on Friday, in the largest incursion yet reported by the island’s defense ministry and marking a dramatic escalation of tension across the Taiwan Strait.”
  Taiwan, U.S. to strengthen maritime coordination after China law / Reuters
  “Taiwan and the United States have signed their first agreement under the Biden administration, establishing a Coast Guard Working Group to coordinate policy, following China’s passing of a law that allows its coast guard to fire on foreign vessels.”
  China denounces U.S.-Taiwan coast guard cooperation agreement / AP
  Mainland spokesperson refutes so-called “memorandum” between Taiwan, U.S. / Xinhua
• Japan national security and military moves
  Japan approves bill to oversee land deals near defense bases, border islands / Reuters
  U.S., Japan agree to work together in event of Beijing-Taiwan military clash, sources say / SCMP (porous paywall)
• Chinese media seize on old U.S. army officer video
  China state media claim Xinjiang conspiracy hidden in old video of retired U.S. colonel / SCMP (porous paywall)
  “A WeChat account managed by Beijing Daily published an article titled “H&M is just a puppet; a bigger conspiracy is behind it!” on Thursday…The article quoted a 2018 speech by Lawrence Wilkerson, a career army officer, who said if the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency wanted to destabilise China, the best way to do so would be to mount an operation using Uyghurs in the country’s far-west region.”
• Hong Kong crackdown on dissent
  Hong Kong police charge activist Andy Li under security law after release from Chinese prison / HKFP
  ‘Insult to the country’: Hong Kong targets art deemed critical of China / NYT (porous paywall)
  “Pro-Beijing lawmakers have called for work by the dissident artist Ai Weiwei to be removed from a new museum, and accused local arts groups of undermining national security.”

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

• Another step forward for sexual harassment awareness
  Shenzhen sets sexual harassment standard for schools, workplaces / Sixth Tone
  “The southern Chinese city of Shenzhen has issued a new guidebook for preventing and punishing sexual harassment at schools, businesses, and government institutions, with local authorities calling the document the first of its kind in the country.”
  Related, on The China Project earlier this month: China’s largest bank sends half a million employees a memo on workplace sexual misconduct.
• Ten years of photographing unfinished and abandoned buildings
  China, unfinished: The skeletal cityscapes of photographer Meng Wei / Sixth Tone
• The “Sanxingdui gold mask photo editing competition”
  China: 3,000-year-old gold mask sparks online memes / BBC