Links for Monday, April 19, 2021

WORTH THINKING ABOUT

Pieces of news or analysis that caught our eye:

Did China’s former premier Wēn Jiābǎo 温家宝 just subtly criticize the president? CNN asks:

…in an essay published this week, ostensibly a tribute to his late mother, former Premier Wen Jiabao appeared to issue what many have interpreted as a coded criticism of Xi: calling for fairness, justice, humanity and liberty, all while remembering a period of history the Communist Party would rather forget.”

Wen’s words took Chinese social media by the storm. His essay was shared hundreds of thousands of times — before censors stepped in to stop people spreading it…

The essay was published in an obscure newspaper in Macao [in Chinese], perhaps indicating no mainland Chinese outlet was willing to publish it.

MORE NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:

• Ex-Tesla staffer settles with Tesla over Autopilot source code theft
  Tesla, ex-staffer reach settlement over alleged Autopilot source code theft / Yicai
  The U.S. electric carmaker reached a settlement today over a lawsuit that accused one of its former engineers of taking its proprietary Autopilot source code to rival Xpeng Motors.
• Crypto mining
  Bitcoin mining hash rate drops as blackouts instituted In China / Bitcoin Magazine
  “Local news outlets have tied a recent dip in the bitcoin mining hash rate to government-instituted blackouts in China.”
• Coke needs China (and India)
  2021 Q1 Earnings Release / The Coca-Cola Company
  Net revenues grew 5%. Global unit case volume — how much sweet water the company sold — was “even,” but volume grew 9% in Asia-Pacific, largely thanks to China and India, while sales of sparkling soft drinks grew 4%, with “solid growth” in China, including the orange juice drink Minute Maid Pulpy.
• Meituan’s driverless delivery vehicles get rolling
  美团发布新一代自研无人配送车 将在外卖等多场景规模化落地 / Security Times
  Meituan, one of China’s largest ecommerce and consumer services companies, has already rolled out driverless delivery vehicles in select cities. Today, a new generation — smarter, safer, with longer ranges and greater carrying capacities — hit the streets in Beijing.
• Ant Group denies Reuters story about Jack Ma
  China’s Ant explores ways for Jack Ma to exit / Reuters
  Ant Group on Twitter: “The facts of this Reuters article are inaccurate and the entire story is untrue and baseless. Divestment of Mr. Ma’s stake in Ant Group has never been the subject of discussions with anyone.”
• Huawei security issues in Europe
  Huawei ‘may have eavesdropped on Dutch mobile network’s calls’ / Guardian
• Electric and self-driving cars
  Honda partners with AutoX to develop self-driving tech for China’s road and traffic / Caixin
  China’s Didi to use Volvo vehicles in self-driving tests / Caixin
  Tesla faces new China test after woman’s auto-show protest goes viral / WSJ (paywall)

SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND THE ENVIRONMENT:

• Hong Kong border restrictions in response to more transmissible COVID-19 variant
  Hong Kong bans flights from India, Pakistan and the Philippines for 2 weeks / Reuters
  “Hong Kong will suspend flights from India, Pakistan and the Philippines from April 20 for two weeks after the N501Y mutant COVID-19 strain was detected in the Asian financial hub for the first time.”
• Wind power growing in China, but “unlikely to dominate” abroad
  Wind-power equipment-makers post record sales as subsidies die down / Caixin (paywall)
  “Rush to build wind farms before government incentives expire delivers a boost, but strong competition curbs profit growth.”
  Chinese wind industry growing competitive, but unlikely to dominate / MacroPolo
  “Even though China has a strong position in the wind supply chain, in the foreseeable future there will still be regional concentration of supply chains outside the country. There are several reasons why the wind power supply chain is more diffuse, chief among them how the industry operates and local market policies. These dynamics make it difficult for Chinese firms to replace current wind turbine equipment suppliers in other markets.”

POLITICS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS:

• Was U.S.-Japan statement on Taiwan meaningful, or “bland” and “vanilla”?
  U.S.-Japan Joint Leaders’ Statement: “U.S.-JAPAN GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR A NEW ERA” / The White House
  “We oppose any unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the East China Sea. We reiterated our objections to China’s unlawful maritime claims and activities in the South China Sea…We underscore the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and encourage the peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues. We share serious concerns regarding the human rights situations in Hong Kong and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.”
  Taiwan in U.S.-Japan statement: Show of resolve or diplomatic calculus? / Nikkei (paywall)
  “This was the first time since 1969 that the island was mentioned in a post-summit document by the leaders of the two nations. At the same time, it is a bland, vanilla collection of nonemotional words calling for peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait…Kazuhiro Maeshima, a professor at Sophia University, noted…‘The statement shunned more specific language like “defend Taiwan” to avoid unnecessarily provoking China.’”
  Japan vows to support U.S. in opposing ‘coercion’ from China / FT (paywall)
  “Michael Green, a Japan expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies…added that Suga’s statement about opposing unilateral efforts to change the status quo mirrored a phrase that the U.S. has used about Taiwan since the George W Bush administration.”
  China says U.S.-Japan actions are stoking division / AP
  “‘It cannot be more ironic that such attempt of stoking division and building blocs against other countries is put under the banner of “free and open,”’ the spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington said in a statement Saturday.” (See Chinese version of this statement here.)
  Foreign Ministry spokesperson’s remarks on negative content concerning China in U.S.-Japan joint leaders’ statement / Ministry of Foreign Affairs (in Chinese here)
• Crimes against humanity but no “genocidal intent” in Xinjiang, says Human Rights Watch
  China: Crimes against humanity in Xinjiang / Human Rights Watch
  “The Chinese leadership is responsible for widespread and systematic policies of mass detention, torture, and cultural persecution, among other offenses. Coordinated international action is needed to sanction those responsible, advance accountability, and press the Chinese government to reverse course.”
  China’s crimes against humanity targeting Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims / Human Rights Watch
  “Human Rights Watch has not documented the existence of the necessary genocidal intent at this time. Nonetheless, nothing in this report precludes such a finding and, if such evidence were to emerge, the acts being committed against Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang — a group protected by the 1948 Genocide Convention — could also support a finding of genocide.”
• Women’s rights groups censored as demographic trends to show falling childbirths
  China stresses family values as more women put off marriage, childbirth / WSJ (paywall)
  “During Mr. Xi’s time in power, new party slogans emphasizing ‘family, family education and family virtues’ or ‘pass on the red gene’ have been coupled with efforts to censor voices on women’s rights…In recent days, more than a dozen accounts used by women’s-rights groups were deleted from the Weibo social-media platform as well as cultural-discussion site Douban.com.”
  China’s births may fall below 10 million annually in next five years – expert quoted / Reuters
  “China’s total population may also fall in a few years, Dong Yuzheng, director at the Guangdong Academy of Population Development, told Yicai, a Chinese financial news outlet.”
• EU-China relations
  China’s Xi ready to step up climate change cooperation with France, Germany / Nikkei Asia
  “Issue ‘should not become a geopolitical bargaining chip,’ president tells Macron and Merkel.”
  EU sets out Indo-Pacific plan, says it’s not ‘anti-China’ / Reuters
  “The bloc ‘considers that the EU should reinforce its strategic focus, presence and actions in the Indo-Pacific…based on the promotion of democracy, rule of law, human rights and international law,’ EU foreign ministers said in a statement. Diplomats said the plan was not ‘anti-China’…The 10-page document will now be followed by a more detailed strategy in September.”
• World-class universities, but without full academic freedom?
  Xi stresses building world-class universities to serve nation in visit to Tsinghua / Xinhua (more detailed Chinese version here)

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

• Chinese diaspora
  Stephen Yip’s historic bid to become first Chinese mayor of Liverpool / HKFP