Editor’s note for Friday, September 17, 2021

Dear reader,

These are the stories we’re following today:

“A trio of Chinese astronauts returned to Earth on Friday after a 90-day stay aboard their nation’s first space station in China’s longest mission yet,” reports the Associated Press.

No more male romances on TV: An official from broadcast regulator the National Radio and Television Administration warned (in Chinese) TV producers against “indulging in series that hype romance between male characters to seek profit,” in Sixth Tone’s words.

The official specifically mentioned dān gǎi 耽改, referring to dān gǎi jù 耽改剧, which means drama adapted from dān měi 耽美, a Chinese genre of youth literature that features romantic relationships between male characters.

The directive continues a heteronormative strain in recent official announcements about rectifying various aspects of the entertainment industry for “polluting society and youth” and promoting “sissy idols.”

The People’s Bank of China injected 90 billion yuan ($14 billion) of funds “into its banking system in a sign authorities are seeking to avert a funding squeeze amid a seasonal rise in financing demand and the intensifying debt crisis at China Evergrande,” per Bloomberg.

Evergrande is of course one of China’s biggest and dodgiest companies, and the possibility of it defaulting on debts is spooking China’s real estate industry and financial markets, as Bloomberg explains.

“The International Monetary Fund’s executive board is reviewing a report prepared for the World Bank that found that IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva in her previous senior role at the World Bank pressured staff to change data to favor China,” reports Reuters. “The Washington-based multilateral lender was seeking China’s support for a big capital increase at the time.”

Beijing has really cleaned up its skies since 2013, when the city became globally known for frequent bouts of choking air pollution that would smother the city for weeks on end, especially in the winter. Now some of the measures that helped clean Beijing’s air are being extended, reports Reuters, to cover “regions in northern Hebei, northern Shanxi, eastern and southern Shandong and some cities in the southern Henan Province.”

SHEIN, the Gen Z favorite fast-fashion app, has a business empire underpinned by “shady labor practices,” a Sixth Tone investigation found.

Meanwhile, China’s famously exploited gig workers who power the country’s ecommerce titans may be helped by the government’s “unionization push and new algorithm rule…but activists and scholars say Beijing’s ultimate aim is greater control,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

Workers in Hong Kong have a different set of problems, according to the South China Morning Post, which says that the Confederation of Trade Unions “took on Hong Kong tycoons over the decades [and has] finally met its match with Beijing.”

Have a great weekend!

—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief