Links for Monday, March 29, 2021

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:

• Chinese tech stocks hit by $35 billion market sell-off
  Block-trade bevy wipes $35 billion off stock values in a day / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
  A series of block trades on Friday rattled financial markets, erasing $35 billion in value from major Chinese tech giants including Baidu, Tencent, and Vipshop. GSX Techedu, a tech education company The China Project recently investigated, was hit particularly hard.
  Following the slump in share prices, Tencent Music announced a buyback of $1 billion, 2.9% of the company’s value. Citigroup Inc. set buy ratings on the Chinese tech companies hit hardest because they were “reassured that none of the sell-down is fundamental related” per Bloomberg, and Chinese stock markets traded mostly positive today.
• State agency announced 40,000 recall in electric vehicles
  新华社聚焦新能源汽车行业发展隐忧：这些毛病，得治！ / Sina
  China’s State Administration of Market Supervision has recalled more than 40,000 vehicles — most of them electric cars. State media reports on the recall castigated the NEV market for false advertising and warned of “companies valued at tens of billions without having sold a single product.”
• Cross border ecommerce startup bags $20 million Series A funding
  跨境电商服务商马帮软件完成1.5亿A轮和A+轮融资，助力中国成为世界商店 / 36Kr
  Mabang ERP, a cross-border service provider helping Chinese sellers connect with global ecommerce platforms, completed a Series A and Series A+ fundraising round of 150 million yuan ($22.85 million).
• Beijing pressures companies to pick sides on Xinjiang
  China warns firms not to engage in politics over Xinjiang / Reuters
  “Chinese officials on Monday said Sweden’s H&M and other foreign brands should not make rash moves or step into politics after the companies raised concerns about forced labour in Xinjiang, sparking a furious online backlash and boycotts.”
  H&M stores shut by Chinese landlords as Xinjiang backlash grows / Caixin
  “At least six stores in lower-tier cities have been shut down by the owners of the properties.”
  How China’s outrage machine kicked up a storm over H&M / NYT (porous paywall)
  “Chinese officials are being careful not to let the anger get out of hand. According to tests conducted by China Digital Times [in Chinese], internet platforms have been diligently controlling search results and comments related to Xinjiang and H&M since last week.”
  “Support Xinjiang mianhua!” – China’s social media storm over Xinjiang cotton ban / What’s on Weibo
  Last week on The China Project: H&M faces boycott in China over year-old Xinjiang cotton ban, Everyone is in a rush to escape the dumpster fire that is the Xinjiang cotton crisis.
• Didi in South Africa
  Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi drives into Africa via Cape Town / Caixin
• Alibaba and Tencent’s domination of China’s digital wallets is over
  Huawei buys digital payments license, joining rush to challenge Alipay and WeChat / Caixin (paywall)
• Booming electric car business
  Chinese EV maker BYD profit up 162% in 2020 / Reuters
• Phone charger on-demand company ownership fight ahead of IPO
  Alibaba-backed Energy Monster caught in legal dispute ahead of U.S. listing / Reuters
• Evergrande, ever raising debt
  China Evergrande to raise $2 billion in pre-IPO for property, car marketplace unit / Reuters

SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND THE ENVIRONMENT:

• Little new revealed in WHO report on COVID-19 origins
  WHO says virus origins report will be released on Tuesday / Reuters
  WHO draft report says animals likely source of COVID-19 / AP
  “A joint World Health Organization-China study on the origins of COVID-19 says that transmission of the virus from bats to humans through another animal is the most likely scenario and that a lab leak is ‘extremely unlikely,’ according to a draft copy…The findings offer little new insight into how the virus first emerged and leave many questions unanswered, though that was as expected.”
  China refutes Antony Blinken’s accusations regarding COVID-19 origin tracing / Xinhua
  Virus origins remain unclear in W.H.O.-China inquiry / NYT (porous paywall)
• China still the world’s coal capital
  China generated over half world’s coal-fired power in 2020: study / Reuters
  “China generated 53% of the world’s total coal-fired power in 2020, nine percentage points more that five years earlier, despite climate pledges and the building of hundreds of renewable energy plants, a global data study showed on Monday.”
• Month-long anti-pollution campaign after second Beijing sandstorm
  Beijing enveloped in hazardous sandstorm, second time in two weeks / Reuters
  Beijing launches air pollution crackdown after sandstorms engulf city / Reuters
• Vaccine production deals
  Russia’s RDIF signs deal to produce Sputnik V vaccine in China / Reuters
  Abu Dhabi launches new COVID-19 vaccine plant with China’s Sinopharm / Reuters
  UAE firm to manufacture Chinese Sinopharm vaccine from April / Reuters

POLITICS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS:

• U.S.-China relationship “increasingly adversarial,” as tariffs remain and Biden invites Xi to climate summit
  Blinken says aspects of U.S.-China ties are ‘increasingly adversarial’ / Reuters
  New trade representative says U.S. isn’t ready to lift China tariffs / WSJ (paywall)
  “Every good negotiator is going to keep all of their options open,” said new U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, who “indicated some interest in suggestions by free traders such as former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and the Business Roundtable, a big-business group, that lifting tariffs should come as part of new negotiations with China over issues of subsidies, state-owned businesses and other structural issues.”
  Biden invites Russia, China to first global climate talks / AP
  “The president is seeking to revive a U.S.-convened forum of the world’s major economies on climate that George W. Bush and Barack Obama both used and Donald Trump let languish. Leaders of some of the world’s top climate-change sufferers, do-gooders and backsliders round out the rest of the 40 invitations being delivered Friday. It will be held virtually April 22 and 23.”
• Xinjiang sanctions and counter-sanctions
  China sanctions U.S., Canadian citizens over criticism of treatment of Uyghurs / AFP via HKFP
  “Two members of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, Gayle Manchin and Tony Perkins, as well as Canadian MP Michael Chong, and a Canadian parliamentary committee on human rights, are prohibited from entering mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, the foreign ministry said.”
  United States condemns China’s sanctions in dispute over Uyghurs / Reuters
  U.S. religious-rights official says she is ‘flattered’ to be target of China sanctions / Reuters
  U.K. chambers removes Xinjiang genocide opinion reference after China sanctions / FT (paywall)
  Statement by sanctioned scholar Jo Smith Finley / The China Collection
  Last week on The China Project: China sanctions U.K. for Xinjiang ‘lies,’ continuing more aggressive pushback on Western criticism.
• More Xinjiang-related news
  Guterres says UN negotiating with China on unfettered access to Xinjiang / Reuters
  “The United Nations is holding ‘serious negotiations’ with China on gaining unfettered access to the Xinjiang region to verify reports that Muslim Uighurs are being persecuted, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said.”
  Chinese digital art mocks Western criticism of labour conditions in Xinjiang / Reuters
  “A digital illustration by a prominent Chinese propaganda artist mocking Western governments, media and businesses critical of labour conditions in Xinjiang has gone viral on China’s social media.”
  These children escaped Xinjiang, but their parents are in China and cut off from the world / CNN
  China to step up use of Mandarin in Xinjiang schools in face of growing international outcry over policies / SCMP (porous paywall)
  Kazakhs staged a marathon-style protest outside the Chinese consulate to demand an answer of their missing family members in Xinjiang / William Yang on Medium
• Biden wants an American Belt and Road?
  Biden says he suggested to U.K.’s Johnson a plan to rival China’s Belt and Road / Reuters
• Japan to take harder line on China?
  Japan faces pressure to join China sanctions ahead of U.S. trip / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
  “While Japan has long resisted putting economic penalties on its largest trading partner, some in Suga’s ruling party are calling for him to take a more radical line — particularly with the Group of Seven summit in the U.K. coming up in June…Suga is set to become the first foreign leader to visit Biden at the White House, with media reports saying the summit may take place as soon as April 9. China is likely to be on the agenda there…”
• Taiwan
  Taiwan reports large incursion by Chinese air force / Reuters
  “Ten Chinese military aircraft including fighter jets entered the southwestern corner of Taiwan’s air defence identification zone on Monday, the island’s defence ministry said, in a further escalation of tension across the sensitive Taiwan Strait.”
  Taiwan says tracks intruding Chinese aircraft with missiles, not always scrambling / Reuters
  “Taiwan’s air force is no longer scrambling each time Chinese aircraft encroach on its air defence identification zone but tracks the intruders with ground based missiles instead to help save resources, a senior official said on Monday.”
• China’s influence in Zambia and Zimbabwe
  Zambia: Under Chinese influence / France 24
  “Our reporters, Nicolas Germain, Roméo Langlois and Yi Song, gained unprecedented access to Chinese businesses in Africa…their documentary ‘Zambia: Under Chinese influence’…will be published online in its full-length version in April 2021.”
  Chinese firm snatches lucrative aviation deal / The Zimbabwe Independent
  Zimbabwe “has awarded a multi-million dollar tender to a Chinese firm to replace a redundant aviation system following pressure exerted by the Joint Operations Command (JOC) to award the deal to a company drawn from a friendly nation,” i.e. China.
• Censorship in Hong Kong
  Oscars won’t show in Hong Kong for first time since 1969 as state media rails against protest film nomination / HKFP
  World Press Photo exhibition opens in Hong Kong after being nixed over ‘safety and security’ fears / AFP via HKFP
  Hong Kong festival cancels opening film due to ‘technical reasons’ / Variety
  “The Hong Kong International Film Festival has announced the cancelation of its world premiere screening of crime thriller ‘Where the Wind Blows.’”
  New Hong Kong M+ art museum will not show Ai Weiwei’s Tiananmen photo – official / HKFP
  Exclusive: Hong Kong tells foreign governments to stop accepting special British passport / Reuters
• Brazil-based Chinese diplomat bashes Canadian prime minister on Twitter
  Chinese diplomat calls Justin Trudeau ‘running dog of U.S.’ as tensions escalate / Guardian
  Li Yang on Twitter: “Boy, your greatest achievement is to have ruined the friendly relations between China and Canada, and have turned Canada into a running dog of the U.S. Spendthrift!!!”

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

• Sex, corruption, and a new #MeToo moment in China?
  In China sex scandal, many see a #MeToo moment / NYT (porous paywall)
  Xǔ Yàn 许艳 “was only 19 years old when she started a sexual relationship with a local police chief. Soon, she had trysts with other local leaders, including police and hospital officials…Xu offers further proof that powerful men in China use their positions to gain sexual favors…”
• Profiles of Atlanta shooting victims
  For Atlanta shooting victims, American life was often a lonely struggle / WSJ (paywall)
  “Seven days after Daoyou Feng was shot and killed at the spa where she worked, her body lay unclaimed in a morgue in the Atlanta area. The 44-year-old, originally from China, died alone in a foreign country that knew little about her. Officials here couldn’t find a family member to claim her body, even though her name made international headlines.”