Links for Wednesday, April 7, 2021

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:

• Social ecommerce giants aim for billions in 2021
  美团优选2021年目标2000亿GMV，橙心优选估值已达50亿美金 / 36Kr
  Social ecommerce, or “community group buying,” is a new business model whereby members in a community pool their orders through a social network to get a lower price. Four major social ecommerce platforms — Meituan Premium, Pinduoduo, Orange Heart Premium, and Xingsheng Premium — are starting the Year of the Ox with bullish targets:
  Meituan Premium is shooting for total sales of $30.5 billion, selling 50–60 million units a day. Meanwhile, Pinduoduo has its eyes set on a $23 billion sales target; Orange Heart, at $15 billion; and Xingsheng, at $12 billion. Each of these targets are at least double that of the year before.
• China’s ride-hailing giant hops on the EV bandwagon
  滴滴正式启动造车 / Late Post
  Didi Chuxing, the mobile transportation platform that pushed Uber out of China, is building its own electric vehicles following a similar announcement by smart-appliance maker Xiaomi last week. The project will be headed by Didi’s vice president, Yáng Jùn 杨峻.
  Last year, Didi unveiled an electric vehicle built for ride sharing, but it was created by a joint partnership with Chinese automaker BYD, in which Didi owns only a 35% stake.
• Beijing worries about smart car spying, Tesla makes soothing noises
  Auto makers, smart transport system providers need to protect data: Ministry / Global Times
  Tesla tells China car cameras not activated outside North America / Reuters
• Smart projectors and laser TVs: There’s gold in home entertainment
  Smart projector and laser TV startup Xgimi predicts big profits / Caixin
  Founded in 2013, Chengdu Xgimi Technology makes smart projectors and laser TVs. Xgimi listed on Shanghai’s Nasdaq-style STAR market last month and now has a market cap of about $26 billion.
  The company’s latest filing (in Chinese) estimates expected revenues for Q1 2021 at $95 to $112 million, generating a net profit of as much as $13 million.
• Reducing financial risk by raising finance executive qualification requirements
  China raises the bar for financial holding firms’ top brass / Caixin (paywall)
  In the latest move to regulate fintech more like traditional banking, the People’s Bank of China has specified new qualifications (in Chinese) for top executives who “have a big impact” on decision making in financial holding firms.
• Debtors want their money from troubled auto giant Brilliance
  Bond defaulter Brilliance Auto faces lawsuits over $457 million / Caixin (paywall)
• Hong Kong tycoons take Beijing’s preferred medicine
  Hong Kong executives choose China COVID vaccine to get mainland visas / FT (paywall)
• Where there’s a boom, there’s a scam
  Dozens face prison over gang’s scheme to monopolize EV battery recycling / Caixin (paywall)
• China-designed silicon chips
  Chinese company launches the country’s first homegrown 7nm GPGPU chip / CGTN
• See no evil
  Xinjiang cotton: Western brands blurred on China TV / BBC

SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND THE ENVIRONMENT:

• COVID origins inquiry
  W.H.O. and critics look at what’s next to investigate virus origins / NYT (paywall)
  Scientists call for new probe into COVID-19 origins: with or without China / Reuters
• Vaccine diplomacy
  Taiwan says India helped Paraguay get vaccines after China pressure / Reuters
• International scientific research
  China gives foreign scientists access to world’s largest radio telescope / Caixin (paywall)

POLITICS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS:

• Small nations take bold anti-Beijing stances
  ‘It’s the tone’: Palau president explains his China mistrust / AFP via Yahoo
  “The Pacific nation of around 21,000 people is one of just 15 countries that still recognise Taiwan over China, something Whipps is adamant will not change under his watch despite Beijing’s pressure campaign.”
  Joe Moschella on Twitter: “Your piece also reminded me of this from Nauru a few years ago. Another Pacific island nation with a stiff spine.”
  ‘We will not be intimidated.’ Despite China threats, Lithuania moves to recognize Uyghur genocide / LRT
• Strained EU-China relations
  China-EU relations face challenges, Xi tells Germany’s Merkel / Reuters
  See readouts of the Xi-Merkel call in Xinhua (English, Chinese).
• Xinjiang propaganda push at foreign embassies
  Uyghur community leaders in Australia appalled and outraged the government allowed a Chinese Communist Party propaganda parade / Australian ABC
  “Their comments come after the Chinese embassy in Canberra held a press conference where journalists were played five propaganda videos about conditions in Xinjiang in China’s far west…Australia is reportedly the fourth country that has had this presentation organized by a Chinese embassy.”
  ‘We will respond in kind’: China’s ambassador warns Australia not to join Xinjiang sanctions / Guardian
• Warships and warplanes around Taiwan
  China flanks Taiwan with military exercises in air and sea / CNN
  “The Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning and its escorts were conducting maneuvers around Taiwan, China’s military said in a statement Monday…Meanwhile, at least 10 People’s Liberation Army warplanes, including four J-16 and four J-10 fighter jets, a Y-8 anti-submarine warfare aircraft and a KJ-500 early warning aircraft, entered Taiwan’s self-declared air defense identification zone (ADIZ), according to Taiwan’s Defense Ministry.”
  U.S. warship transits Taiwan Strait amid China tensions / Reuters
  See also:
  Taiwan says may shoot down Chinese drones in South China Sea / Reuters
  U.S. military cites rising risk of Chinese move against Taiwan / Reuters
  Opinion: China-Taiwan conflict could come sooner rather than later / Bloomberg (paywall)
• U.S. tech in Chinese hypersonic missiles?
  China builds advanced weapons systems using American chip technology / Washington Post (paywall)
  “In a secretive military facility in southwest China, a supercomputer whirs away, simulating the heat and drag on hypersonic vehicles speeding through the atmosphere — missiles that could one day be aimed at a U.S. aircraft carrier or Taiwan…
  The computer is powered by tiny chips designed by a Chinese firm called Phytium Technology using American software and built in the world’s most advanced chip factory in Taiwan, which hums with American precision machinery, say the analysts.”
• Beijing warns of “robust Chinese response” to Olympic boycotts
  China warns Washington not to boycott Winter Olympics / AP
  U.S. broaches boycott of Beijing Winter Olympics / FT (paywall)
  “An official from a U.S. ally said the Biden administration had raised the idea in preliminary talks about the Beijing Olympics on several occasions, as part of broader discussions about tackling China.
  But the official stressed that there had been no detailed — or high-level — talks about how the allies would treat the event, or whether a boycott referred to government delegations or a move to stop athletes from taking part in the games. An official from a second U.S. ally also said there had been some early discussions about a coordinated move.”
• More Xinjiang-related news
  China condemns 2 ex-Xinjiang officials in separatism cases / AP
  China accuses Turkish politicians of ‘inflating the arrogance of terrorists’ in row over Xinjiang tweets / SCMP (paywall)
  Tumaris Yalqun on Twitter: “We have all seen the CGTN propaganda video, let’s hear what the chief editor of Uyghur textbooks, Yalqun Rozi’s son Kamaltürk Yalqun has to say about the video.”
• Hong Kong jails dissidents, gives tax breaks to the rich
  Hong Kong activists plead guilty to joining democracy rally / AP
  “Three veteran Hong Kong pro-democracy activists, including well-known publisher Jimmy Lai, pleaded guilty Wednesday to taking part in an unauthorized rally that led to violence between police and participants. The charges carry prison terms of up to five years.”
  With a big tax break, Hong Kong tries to soothe the rich / NYT (paywall)
  “To entice the wealthy, Hong Kong is completing work on a big tax break that will primarily benefit private equity, hedge funds and other investors. Officials are moving to make it easier to connect the city’s money managers with affluent mainlanders. Chinese companies are selling tens of billions of dollars’ worth of shares in Hong Kong, padding the profitability of Wall Street banks.”
• State-encouraged doxxing of critical China researchers
  China researchers face abuse, sanctions as Beijing looks to silence critics / Washington Post (paywall)
  “The online onslaught against [Vicky Xǔ Xiùzhōng 许秀中], named in countless headlines as the unexpected ‘black hand’ behind the West’s anti-China campaign, has continued with tacit if not outright support from Chinese state media. ‘Even as a Chinese person, she insists on going against China; the doxing of Xu Xiuzhong and trashing of her reputation are in no way undeserved,’ said an editorial in the state-run China Daily.”

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

• Why short videos don’t easily produce lasting celebrity
  Where are the Douyin generation’s pop stars? / Sixth Tone
  “The idea that Douyin has deprived China’s Generation Z of truly classic songs is not a new one. In online discussions, music fans born in the 1980s and 1990s frequently reminisce over the so-called golden age of Chinese pop music.”
• Orientalized typography in the U.S.
  Karate, Wonton, Chow Fun: The end of ‘chop suey’ fonts / CNN
  “For an older generation of Asian Americans, spotting the faux brushstroke lettering can trigger past traumas.”
• Asian-American activism
  Violence spurs many Asian-Americans to activism for first time / WSJ (paywall)
  “Some first-generation Asian immigrants are speaking openly with their children for the first time about racism and what it means to be a minority in the U.S., a change after years of espousing an immigrant ethos that dictates that they work hard and stay out of trouble.”