Links for Monday, May 3, 2021

WORTH THINKING ABOUT

Pieces of news or analysis that caught our eye:

The “uncontrolled reentry” of the spent Long March 5B rocket: SpaceNews reports that after the successful launch to orbit of the core module of the Chinese Space Station last week, the rocket “core stage” is “now also in orbit and is likely to make an uncontrolled reentry over the next days or week as growing interaction with the atmosphere drags it to Earth”:

Where and when the new Long March 5B stage will land is impossible to predict. The decay of its orbit will increase as atmospheric drag brings it down into more denser. The speed of this process depends on the size and density of the object and variables include atmospheric variations and fluctuations, which are themselves influenced by solar activity and other factors…

The Long March 5B core stage’s orbital inclination of 41.5 degrees means the rocket body passes a little farther north than New York, Madrid and Beijing and as far south as southern Chile and Wellington, New Zealand, and could make its reentry at any point within this area.

The “most likely event will see any debris surviving the intense heat of reentry falling into the oceans or uninhabited areas, but the risk remains of damage to people or property,” according to SpaceNews.

MORE NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:

• Mutual societies step to insure seniors with chronic diseases
  国内首个老龄慢病人群专属普惠保险保障计划发布 / Xinhua
  China’s first mutual insurance agency, Zhonghui Property Mutual Insurance (众惠财产相互保险社), has released the country’s first “insurance plan for elderly people with chronic diseases,” reports Xinhua.
  • Zhonghui is a nonprofit mutual insurer, i.e., the company is (supposed to be) owned by its policyholders.
  • Chronically ill elderly people find it nearly impossible to get commercial health insurance, and many have no access to state-funded healthcare.
• Online insurance tech company to list in New York
  China’s Waterdrop aims to raise $360 million in New York IPO / Reuters
  Tencent-backed “Chinese online insurance technology firm Waterdrop Inc aims to raise up to $360 million in an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange.”
• Half a billion express delivery parcels in two days
  国家邮政局：“五一”假期前两天全国邮政快递业共揽收4.94亿件、投递近5亿件 / 36Kr
  The express parcel delivery industry in China continues its rapid, ecommerce-fueled growth. For April 29 and 30, the two days before the May 1 Golden Week, companies reportedly collected 494 million express parcels and delivered nearly 500 million express parcels, year-on-year increases of 26% and 22% respectively.
  In the whole year of 2016, 31.3 billion packages were delivered in China.
• Androids dream and electric cars don’t sleep on Labor Day weekend
  Baidu to roll out driverless robotaxis in Beijing in May / Caixin
  Tesla challenger Nio shrinks losses as sales surge / Caixin
  NIO delivered 20,060 cars, compared with 3,838 vehicles in the same period of last year.
• Tesla struggles with end of China honeymoon
  Tesla, under scrutiny in China, steps up engagement with regulators / Reuters
  Tesla crash protest brings Elon Musk up against China power / Bloomberg (paywall)
• The deflation of Ant Group
  Fidelity halves its Ant Group valuation after Beijing’s clampdown / WSJ (paywall)
  “The Boston-based asset manager, which was among an elite group of global investors that bought into Ant three years ago, marked Ant shares in several of its funds at prices that implied a $144 billion valuation for the company at the end of February…[the new prices] reflect a big comedown from last August, when Fidelity’s marks pinned the company’s valuation at $295 billion.”
  See also, last week in Bloomberg: Ant valuation seen falling to $29 billion in worst-case scenario.
• Other news from China’s Big Tech crackdown
  China’s internet watchdog finds 33 mobile apps broke data privacy rules / Reuters
  China hits more internet businesses with antitrust fines / Caixin
• China’s quest for domestic silicon chips
  TSMC’s Nanjing plan tweaks cross-strait nerves amid US-China tech war / SCMP (paywall)
  “TSMC says expansion will help it address chip shortage, particularly for automotive sector…One analyst says move could stifle domestic chip development on the mainland.”
• Sketchy companies, sketchy loans
  Patchy risk disclosure earns Shanghai Pudong Development Bank a slap on the wrist / Caixin (paywall)
  China Huarong seeks to reassure investors that it can repay debt / Bloomberg (paywall)
  HNA units’ $15 billion in losses show the challenges in store for restructuring China’s profligate conglomerates / Caixin (paywall)
• Industries that are hostage to China
  EU Lists dozens of weak points where industry’s hostage to China / Bloomberg (paywall)
  Australian winemaker looks to sidestep China’s 218% tariffs / FT (paywall)

SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND THE ENVIRONMENT:

• Vaccine diplomacy
  Russia turns to China to make Sputnik shots to meet demand / AP
• Endangered animal preservation
  Saving the lonely skywalkers / Caixin (paywall)
  A feature on the Skywalker hoolock gibbon, one of the 25 most endangered primates in the world — “there are fewer than 150 Skywalkers living in China, mainly in the tropical rainforests of Yunnan.”
• Statistics on adverse drug reactions
  China reports more than 1,700 deaths from adverse medical reactions in 2020 / Caixin (paywall)
  “Pharmaceuticals caused by far the largest number of accidental fatalities among patients.”

POLITICS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS:

• Chinese official accounts support, mock India on social media
  Chinese envoy’s update on support to India following Bollywood actor’s tweet underlines China’s help for neighbor / Global Times
  A Chinese Communist Party-linked account mocked India’s COVID crisis on social media. It backfired / CNN
  “On the micro-blogging platform Weibo, the account posted a photo of the Chinese Long March-5B carrier rocket blasting off, alongside a picture of cremation pyres burning at night in India under the watch of people in hazmat suits…‘China lighting a fire versus India lighting a fire,’ the caption read…
  “The account that posted the photos is linked to the Central Commission for Political and Legal Affairs, a powerful organ of the ruling Communist Party, overseeing the country’s courts and law enforcement bodies.”
  Last week on The China Project: China offers to help India deal with catastrophic COVID-19 surge.
• New Zealand highlights “grave” human rights concerns with China
  New Zealand leader Ardern takes tougher stance on China / AP
  “New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern…said New Zealand has raised ‘grave’ concerns with China on human rights issues, including the situation of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region and people who live in Hong Kong…‘And it will not have escaped the attention of anyone here that as China’s role in the world grows and changes, the differences between our systems – and the interests and values that shape those systems – are becoming harder to reconcile,’ Ardern told the audience.”
  Opinion: Ardern’s speech was not an attack on China, or even a shift away from Beijing / Guardian
  Written by Bryce Edwards, a senior associate at the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies at Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand.
• Details on U.S. border reopening to Chinese students
  U.S. Embassy in China to resume student visa processing May 4 / Caixin (paywall)
  “An hour after opening for in-person appointments, embassy website receives 3,000 applications as Americans promise to deploy more than 1,000 visa officers.”
  Last week on The China Project: U.S. relaxes COVID travel curbs and lets Chinese students back in.
• Blinken talks tough on CBS…
  Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the threat posed by China / CBS News
  Blinken says China acting ‘more aggressively abroad’ – ’60 Minutes’ interview / Reuters
• …and in London
  Blinken pushes back against China as he reaffirms U.K. ties / Bloomberg (paywall)
  “‘What we are trying to do is to uphold the international rules-based order that our countries have invested so much in,’ U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a briefing in London alongside U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.”
• Australia
  Australia reviews Darwin Port lease to Chinese firm: media / Reuters via Nikkei Asia (paywall)
  “Australia is reviewing the 99-year lease of a commercial and military port in the country’s north to a Chinese firm, a government source said on Monday, a move that could further inflame tensions between Beijing and Canberra.”
  Australia reviews Chinese ownership of Darwin port over security risks / FT (paywall)
  Darwin Port’s Chinese owner says it will cooperate with Australian defense review / Guardian
  Shut out from the country, this is how the Australian media covers China / Sydney Morning Herald
• Extreme thunderstorm hits Nantong, Jiangsu
  Extreme weather kills 11, injures 66 in eastern China / AP

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

• Labor Day holiday
  People Mountain, People Sea: China’s Labor Day holiday, in photos / Sixth Tone
• Return of the Wuhan Strawberry Music Festival
  Thousands of revelers attend Wuhan music festival / Reuters
  “A representative for the organizers told Reuters that numbers were being restricted this year, adding that around 11,000 people were there on Saturday. Barriers were set up in front of each stage and security personnel restricted numbers in those areas. Some spectators wore masks, but many did not.”
• Review of translation of Xinjiang travel memoir
  The Kazakh herders of Xinjiang / The Diplomat (paywall)
  “When Winter Pasture was first published in 2012, the travel memoir became a literary sensation in China. Set in the Altay region of Xinjiang, the book describes a herding family’s journey into the wilderness for one eventful season…The long-awaited English translation was released earlier this year, and it doesn’t disappoint.”