Links for Thursday, April 22, 2021

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:

• New funding for cross-border ecommerce
  对标市值 1400 亿美元的 Shopify，进口供应链平台行云集团要做供应链加独立站 / Late Post
  Investors are now very bullish on service providers that help merchants sell goods to people outside their country in what is known as “cross-border” ecommerce.
  • Xingyun Group (行云集团), a cross-border service provider, received a $600 million financing round in April, which sets its value at more than $2 billion. The company is similar to Shopify, offering merchants a suite of services, including marketing, payment, shipping, and overseas customer acquisition.
  • Yiwang (易网), which helps merchants tailor their products for new markets, received a $15 million funding round yesterday, per 36Kr (in Chinese).
• Tesla’s China honeymoon is over
  Tesla to hand data to Chinese authorities after mishandling owner complaint / Yicai Global
  The Shanghai auto show putters along. Tesla is still caught in the fallout from day one, when a disgruntled protester jumped atop a Model 3 to bring attention to its brake issues. Tesla’s combative reaction to the customer buyer triggered a backlash, following which the State Administration for Market Regulation requested the automaker to hand over data on vehicles involved in accidents.
  Tesla should brace for impact in China / WSJ (paywall)
• Greenpeace says China’s cloud centers aren’t green enough
  China’s cloud firms show how big tech is far from green, Greenpeace says / Caixin (paywall)
  Greenpeace says the cloud computers and data centers that power China’s internet giants are still heavily reliant on polluting energy sources. Tencent ranked first in its use of renewable power among nine of China’s biggest cloud providers, yet still only received a score of 61 out of 100. Alibaba, the country’s largest cloud provider, fell from the top this year to fourth place.
• Jack Ma is still in the doghouse…
  Jack Ma shows why China’s tycoons keep quiet / NYT (paywall)
  “High-profile business leaders have been detained, sidelined or silenced as the Communist Party moves forcefully to keep companies in line. Today, the best strategy is to lie low.”
  Jack Ma’s Ant shrinks money market fund as Beijing cracks down / FT (paywall)
• …But Ant Group is far from dead
  Alibaba fintech arm agrees to buy 5% stake in Brazilian loyalty program Giant Dotz / Caixin (paywall)
• Not all Chinese ecommerce firms are gold
  Struggling ecommerce firm Ruhnn taken private by founders / Caixin (paywall)
• An enormous investment in enormous batteries?
  China plans to double energy storage capacity within five years / Caixin (paywall)
  “China would rapidly expand its energy storage sector over the next five years under a new draft plan, in promising news for the country’s battery manufacturers.”
• The clash of the Clubhouse clones
  Audio apps rise in China, as Beijing listens in / Caixin (paywall)
• Silicon chips
  TSMC founder Morris Chang says China’s semiconductor industry still five years behind despite decades of subsidies / SCMP (paywall)
  TSMC’s supplier, Jiangxi Hantang System, expects to equip U.S. plant in September 2022 / TechnoSports
• TikTok in trouble in Europe?
  TikTok sued for billions over use of children’s data / BBC
  ByteDance’s “TikTok is facing a legal challenge from former [U.K.] children’s commissioner for England Anne Longfield over how it collects and uses children’s data…filed on behalf of millions of children in the UK and EU who have used the hugely popular video-sharing app.”
• Coffee beans
  Can Ugandan coffee be the next “coffee success” story in China? / China-Africa Project

SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND THE ENVIRONMENT:

• China promises to “strictly limit” coal consumption for next five years before beginning phase-down
  Full Text: Remarks by Chinese President Xi Jinping at Leaders Summit on Climate / Xinhua (in Chinese here)
  Key quotes include:
  “China welcomes the United States’ return to the multilateral climate governance process…China has committed to move from carbon peak to carbon neutrality in a much shorter time span than what might take many developed countries, and that requires extraordinarily hard efforts from China…We are now making an action plan and are already taking strong nationwide actions toward carbon peak. Support is being given to peaking pioneers from localities, sectors and companies. China will strictly control coal-fired power generation projects, and strictly limit the increase in coal consumption over the 14th Five-Year Plan period and phase it down in the 15th Five-Year Plan period. Moreover, China has decided to accept the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol and tighten regulations over non-carbon dioxide emissions. China’s national carbon market will also start trading.”
  The Chinese for the bolded phrase: 中国将严控煤电项目，“十四五”时期严控煤炭消费增长、“十五五”时期逐步减少。
  China to cut coal use share below 56% in 2021 / Reuters
  “China aims to cut its coal use to below 56% of energy consumption in 2021, the National Energy Administration (NEA) said in a statement on Thursday, but said the fuel would still play a vital role in ensuring the nation’s energy security.”
  Biden summit draws climate vows from sparring global leaders / AP
  The U.S. has a new climate goal. How does it stack up globally? / NYT (paywall)
  China’s green bonds can no longer be used to fund certain fossil fuel projects / Caixin (paywall)
  “PBOC explains the move aims to make standards stricter, more in line with international norms.”
  ‘The whole atmosphere has changed’: China’s ambitious plan to solve the climate puzzle / Sydney Morning Herald
  Mǎ Jūn 马军, “who has been a critic of the Chinese government’s environmental policies and a key driver of the public’s growing environmental awareness from the early 2000s, says the ‘whole atmosphere has changed’ since September.”
• Chinese scientist slams WHO chief for saying lab leak did not have ‘extensive enough’ assessment
  Coronavirus: Chinese expert rails against WHO chief and Wuhan lab leak theory / SCMP (paywall)
  ‘Extremely irresponsible’: Chinese scientist slams WHO chief / Yahoo News Australia
  “Hubei Media Group, from the province in which Wuhan is the capital, has now published comments from an unnamed scientist on the investigation team suggesting Tedros himself had ignored the investigators’ scientific approach.”
  Context on The China Project: After inconclusive WHO report, China says next step of COVID origins search should include U.S. military lab.
• China offers unspecified aid to India amid huge COVID-19 surge
  China willing to help India control COVID-19 surge: foreign ministry / CGTN
  “India marked a grim milestone in the COVID-19 pandemic on Thursday, reporting 314,835 new daily cases, the highest one-day tally anywhere.”
  China willing to help India in COVID-19 fight / Reuters
  “‘China is willing to provide the necessary support and help,’ [a foreign ministry spokesperson] said, without giving details of what such assistance might consist of.”

POLITICS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS:

• British parliament and American Congress take harder China line
  ‘Diplomatic boycott’ of Beijing Olympics added to China bill / Bloomberg (paywall)
  Momentum grows in Congress for legislation confronting China / Bloomberg (paywall)
  MPs unanimous in declaring China’s treatment of Uyghurs as genocide / FT (paywall)
  U.K. MPs declare China is committing genocide against Uyghurs in Xinjiang / Guardian
• Beijing criticizes Australian national government for canceling state foreign policy initiatives
  China vows response to Australia’s cancellation of Belt and Road deals / Caixin (paywall)
• Patriots ruling Macau and diminishing press freedom in Hong Kong
  Macau unveils national security education exhibition as city’s chief speaks of ‘patriots ruling Macau’ / HKFP
  “The exhibition — partially available in Portuguese and set to last until May — showcases videos and photography based on China’s successes in battling the Covid-19 pandemic, Macau’s economic development and ‘the road to national security with Chinese characteristics.’ A virtual tour is available on the exhibition’s official website.”
  Hong Kong security law cited as ‘grave threat’ in new Reporters Without Borders 2021 Press Freedom Index report / HKFP
  “In its latest index, Hong Kong’s ranking remained at 80 out of 180 countries and territories. The city had fallen seven places to 80th in the index last year, marking a dramatic fall from its place at 18th on the index in 2002. It now ranks below Togo and Kyrgyzstan.”
  Hong Kong gov’t ‘appalled’ at warning that security legislation threatens press freedom, says nobody is above the law / HKFP
  Hong Kong journalist improperly accessed public records, court rules / Reuters
  Choy Yuk-Ling (蔡玉玲 Cài Yùlíng, a.k.a. Bao Choy), a freelance journalist with RTHK, was found “guilty on Thursday of making false statements to obtain data for a documentary on the police handling of a mob attack on pro-democracy protesters, reporters and bystanders in 2019.”
• The never-ending extradition trial of Meng Wanzhou
  Canada judge delays Huawei CFO’s extradition hearing / Nikkei Asia (paywall)
  The legal team of Huawei CFO Mèng Wǎnzhōu 孟晚舟 has won time “to review HSBC documents.”
• Five Eyes and China, after New Zealand statement
  Australia and New Zealand play down differences over China and the ‘Five Eyes’ / SCMP (paywall)
  New Zealand says Five Eyes security alliance remains strong / AP
  Context: Editor’s note for Monday, April 19, 2021.

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

• History of Chinese exclusion in America
  The forgotten history of the campaign to purge Chinese from America / New Yorker
  By Michael Luo, the editor of the New Yorker website.
• Competitive culture and “involution”
  The concept of ‘involution’ on Chinese social media / What’s on Weibo
  The neologism “involution” (内卷 nèijuǎn) “describes the economic situation in which as the population grows, per capita wealth decreases. Since recently, this word has come to be used to represent the competitive circumstances in academic or professional settings in China where individuals are compelled to overwork because of the standard raised by their peers who appear to be even more hardworking.”
• Experimental library architecture in Hainan
  MAD completes amorphous Cloudscape of Haikou library in China / Dezeen