Links for Thursday, May 13, 2021

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:

Netizens sour on electric bikes after battery explosion
On May 10 in Chengdu, Sichuan, an e-bike battery burst into flames in an elevator as it was being brought down from an apartment. Several victims are currently in the hospital, two with life-threatening burns, per Caixin Global.

• On Weibo, the hashtag (in Chinese) “E-bike caught fire, multiple people burned” received 160 million views.
• E-bike battery explosions are common causes of household fires: Of the 300 million two-wheeled EVs in China, two-thirds will fail to meet new safety standards by 2024.

Tencent-backed telemedicine startup aims for $500 million IPO
Miaoshou Doctor, an online platform that allows patients to consult with doctors remotely, is hoping to raise $500 million in a Hong Kong initial public offering, per Caixin Global.

• The company is backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Qiming Venture Partners, and is working with Goldman Sachs on the potential share sale.
• Miaoshou Doctor is part of a bevy of digital healthcare startups looking to transform China’s health system. Others include Yuanbao, Tencent-backed Waterdrop, and WeDoctor.

U.S.-China tech war
Taiwan’s TSMC joins American chip coalition in another blow to China’s self-sufficiency drive / SCMP (paywall)
U.S. Senate panel approves tech bill to address China / Reuters
“A U.S. Senate committee voted 24-4 to pass a compromise measure authorizing more than $110 billion for basic and advanced technology research over five years in the face of rising competitive pressure from China.”

Commerce Ministry welcomes lifting of Xiaomi blacklisting
China says Xiaomi removal from U.S. blacklist “beneficial” / AP
Yesterday on The China Project: Chinese mobile phone leader Xiaomi removed from Pentagon blacklist.

Alibaba took a hit, but it’s still in the game
Alibaba revenue tops expectation on pandemic-driven online boom / Reuters
Anti-monopoly fine pushes Alibaba to first operating loss as public company / Reuters

Electric and self-driving cars
China’s WeRide secures more funding, pushing valuation to $3.3 billion / TechCrunch
China seeks to clamp down on auto data collection by Tesla and others / Nikkei Asia via Caixin

U.S.-China trade and market access
U.S. tariffs drive drop in Chinese imports / WSJ (paywall)
American Chamber of Commerce in China: Unequal access for U.S. business / CNBC
“AmCham China’s members face longstanding structural challenges in the China market that conspire to tilt the playing field against (foreign-invested enterprises) and foreign investors.”

Xinjiang and the apparel industry
Asked about Xinjiang, Burberry says pleased with China performance / Reuters

More business and technology links:

• Plant-milk maker Oatly aims for $1.6 billion Nasdaq listing, though Chinese backing could prove a problem / Caixin (paywall)
• Apple peels off China market share from sinking Huawei / Caixin (paywall)
• Tencent brings in nearly $500 million from ‘Honor of Kings’ and ‘PUBG Mobile’ in April / Caixin (paywall)
• Leshi and fugitive founder Jia Yueting sued for fraud / Caixin (paywall)
• China’s April auto sales rise 8.6%, up for 13th straight month / Reuters

SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND ENVIRONMENT:

India asks China to facilitate more cargo flights for COVID-19 supplies
India envoy asks China to help stop price surging of COVID-19 supplies / SCMP (paywall)
“India’s envoy in Hong Kong Priyanka Chauhan said price instability and transport disruptions had affected moves to ramp up production in India to deal with its recent surge in coronavirus cases, and the Chinese government could step in…Chauhan said a phone conversation between Chinese Foreign Minister Wáng Yì 王毅 and his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in April had helped with the clearance and approval of cargo flights, but they had not returned to the same frequency as before the second wave.”
Context on The China Project: China offers to help India deal with catastrophic COVID-19 surge.

Did Bolsonaro’s lab conspiracy comments hold up Brazil’s vaccine material supply from China?
Sao Paulo authorities plead with China to release vaccines / AP
“The factory that produces the vaccine locally, at Sao Paulo’s state-run Butantan Institute, has slowed production due to lack of raw material, and Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro and his economy minister, Paulo Guedes, made statements critical of China this month. Sao Paulo’s Gov. João Doria — an adversary of Bolsonaro’s — implied their comments may have created the bottleneck…Hours after speaking to China’s ambassador to Brazil, Doria said in a press conference that Bolsonaro and Guedes should apologize to the Asian nation for their recent comments so China can resume exports…Bolsonaro suggested on May 5 that China had benefited economically during the pandemic and echoed a conspiracy theory that the disease may have been created in a laboratory, without providing evidence.”

Vaccine diplomacy in Central Asia
China offers vaccines, projects in bid to shore up relations with Central Asian neighbors / SCMP (paywall)
“Foreign Minister Wáng Yì 王毅 offered to deepen regional cooperation on Covid-19 vaccines and the development of Chinese-funded infrastructure projects with his counterparts from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in the second meeting with the grouping on Wednesday in Xian, in northwestern China’s Shaanxi Province.”

U.S.-China climate diplomacy
Kerry says trusting China on climate would be ‘stupid and malpractice’ / Politico
U.S. climate envoy John Kerry, testifying yesterday in front of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, emphasized that climate targets needed to be verifiable. He also “noted talks with China last month grew ‘very heated’ over the nation’s financing of overseas coal-fired power plants, which would wreck chances at meeting the 1.5 degrees C goal.”
Last month on The China Project: U.S. and China commit to ‘taking enhanced climate actions’ after Kerry’s negotiations in Shanghai.

More science, health, and environment links:

• Chinese with rare diseases face painful predicament — affordable yet unavailable drugs / Caixin (paywall)
  “Many of these drugs are cheap and readily available outside of China, but lagging regulations and the cold logic of the market economy has made them difficult to come by inside the country.”
• Xi stresses developing traditional Chinese medicine / Xinhua via People’s Daily Online
• COVID-19: Student residents at Chinese University of Hong Kong must get jabs or take tests / HKFP

POLITICS AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS:

Australia-China relations remain fraught, as PM Morrison flails under pressure
Australian court upholds laws against foreign interference / AP
Chinese-born political adviser John Zhang (張智森 Zhāng Zhìsēn) “lost his challenge in Australia’s highest court against laws banning covert foreign interference in domestic politics…[he] also lost his High Court challenge in a unanimous decision of seven judges to the validity of search warrants executed by police at his Sydney home and offices last year as part of an investigation into illegal foreign interference on behalf of China.”
Australia-based NGO shut down in SW China for conducting activities without registration / Global Times
Scott Morrison denies his ‘one country two systems’ reference to Taiwan and China was an error / Guardian
“After referring to policy that actually governs Hong Kong, PM appears to again incorrectly describe Australia’s one-China policy.”
Senator Penny Wong on Twitter: “Either Scott Morrison has substantially shifted Australia’s policy on Taiwan, adopting Beijing’s position and ending 50 years of bipartisanship — or he’s lying to cover up his mistake. Given his form, my assumption is it’s the latter.”
Kevin Rudd on Twitter: “This is extraordinary. Morrison is so unwilling to admit his basic factual errors on Taiwan and Hong Kong that he’ll junk decades of consistent, considered, balanced Australian China policy. He is totally out of his depth.”

Chinese ambassador to Bangladesh gives “aggressive” warning against joining Quad
The South China Morning Post reports on Bangladeshi politics, noting that the Chinese ambassador to India’s neighbor appeared to be heightening a “strategic contest between Beijing and New Delhi for influence in South Asia.”

China’s ambassador Lǐ Jímíng 李极明 on Monday told Bangladeshi and Chinese reporters that Bangladesh participating in the Quad [the informal India-Australia-Japan-U.S. alliance] would “substantially damage our bilateral relationship.” His comments prompted a rebuke from Bangladesh’s foreign minister A.K. Abdul Momen, who said Li’s message was “regrettable” and “aggressive.”

“We’re an independent and sovereign state. We decide our foreign policy,” Momen said, adding that China should not interfere on this front.

Related, in the SCMP: China says Japan’s military drills with France, U.S. are a waste of fuel.

Kiribati says remote airstrip is for “high-end niche tourism destination,” not Chinese military
Kiribati says China-backed Pacific airstrip project for civilian use / Reuters
The Pacific island government “said that the Chinese government had provided grant support for a feasibility study.”

Honduras: The next country to break ties with Taiwan?
Taiwan says China seeking political gain with Honduras vaccine move / Reuters
“Taiwan condemned China on Wednesday for seeking to use vaccines for political gain after Taipei’s diplomatic ally Honduras said it was considering opening an office in China in a bid to acquire much needed COVID-19 shots.”

Population questions and projections
China census called into question over 14m ‘mystery’ children / Nikkei Asia (paywall)

The National Population Census for 2020, released Tuesday, shows the country had 253.38 million children 14 and younger. Meanwhile, new births between 2006 and 2020 — the period during which these youngsters were born — total about 239 million, based on data from the National Bureau of Statistics. This gap of over 5% means slightly more than 14 million children somehow joined the 0-14 age group.

The once-a-decade count was slammed as “the most unreliable census” by Yi Fuxian, a reproductive science researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the U.S. and a critic of China’s population control system.

China’s people problem swings from too many to a ‘decline that sees no end’ / WSJ (paywall)
“Some foreign economists and individuals writing online in China appeared to question aspects of the data, which were released weeks later than originally scheduled and came in rosier than expected. For one, it was a surprise that nearly 18% of China’s population is age 14 or younger, up from 16.6% in the 2010 report.”
China’s population will peak in the latter half of this decade, expert says / Caixin
“‘The period of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) is expected to be the last in which the population will grow,’ Zhái [Zhènwǔ 翟振武, director of the Center for Population Development Studies at Renmin University in Beijing,] said in the article [in Chinese]. ‘The population will reach a ‘turning point’ during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030).’”
Chinese foreign ministry refutes U.S., European media hyping up population crisis / Xinhua via People’s Daily Online
China’s households shrink to fewer than three people for first time / Yicai
The average household size in China has fallen to 2.62, from 4.42 in the 1960s.
Context on The China Project: China census results show six-decade low in number of births.

More politics and foreign affairs links:

• How China views the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan / War on the Rocks
  Yun Sun writes, “Beijing has long criticized the American presence in Afghanistan and the prospect of a destabilizing withdrawal. The foreign policy community in China remains deeply skeptical about U.S. intentions in the region as it withdraws its troops and harbors serious concerns about the prospect of chaos and instability along its western frontier.”
• Chinese county bans birthday parties in bid to be frugal / BBC
  “The rules in Funing county [in Yunnan] only apply to all communist party members, civil servants and village organisation leaders – not to most residents.”
• Hong Kong legislators pass ‘patriotic’ oath law / Reuters
  “A new law that tightens patriotic loyalty tests for Hong Kong politicians will take effect later this month after being passed by the city’s legislature on Wednesday.”
• Police chief refuses to rule out ban on biggest protest group in Hong Kong / HKFP
• Hong Kong gov’t submits plan to outlaw doxxing — offenders may face up to 5 years in jail / HKFP
• Ex-assistant to pro-Beijing party chief and volunteer worker convicted of bid to buy votes / HKFP

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

Two Senegalese men caught trespassing onto undeveloped part of Mutianyu Great Wall
Two foreign tourists banned from China’s Great Wall after trespassing on undeveloped section / CNN
“According to the state-run Global Times newspaper, this may be the first time foreigners have been added to a tourism ban list, which have been rolled out by many attractions around the country to encourage more ‘civilized’ behavior at scenic sites.”

Feminism and online nationalistic vitriol
How Chinese nationalists weaponized ‘anti-China’ accusations to silence feminists / NBC News
“While the internet has long been a fraught space for women, the efforts to silence feminists have taken on a new political dimension in China, with critics accusing the women of expressing anti-China sentiment.”
China’s feminists protest against wave of online abuse with ‘internet violence museum’ / Guardian
“After collecting more than 1,000 of the abusive messages posted to feminists and feminist groups, a group of young women artists stuck them on a hill, creating a temporary ‘internet violence museum.’”

Footage of Chengdu student right before death released
Police release surveillance video footage of student just before his deadly fall / Caixin
“Police said there were no school surveillance cameras that covered the connecting platform because the area was not often used, the report said. Thus the victim was seen most of the time by the school’s surveillance cameras from 6:16 p.m. to the time of his fall ― except the 10 minutes from 6:39 p.m. to 6:49 p.m. on Sunday evening when he was on the platform.”
Context on The China Project: Death of Chinese high schooler ruled as suicide, leaving family skeptical and questions unanswered.

Comedian in Austin, Texas, hurls racist slurs at Chinese peer
Netizens call for boycott of U.S. comedian after racist video insulting Chinese people goes viral / Global Times
“A video clip showing U.S. comedian Tony Hinchcliffe calling Chinese comedian Dang Peng a ‘filthy fucking little chink’ and verbally abusing a Chinese audience member went viral on social media platforms…[according to Dang,] both he and Hinchcliffe were invited to attend a stand-up comedy show in Austin, Texas on May 6, with Dang performing right before Hinchcliffe.”