News Briefing for Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Here’s what else you need to know about China today:

Will China shorten quarantine for international travelers? At least three cities, Beijing, Nanjing, and Wuhan, are testing out a “7+7” trial to shorten the quarantine period to days for international arrivals, per the Global Times, citing local policy statements and COVID hotlines.

• Beijing again reduced the centralized quarantine time from 10 days to seven, with another seven days quarantined at home.
• Nanjing, in eastern Jiangsu Province, confirmed a similar trial arrangement.
• Wuhan, in central Hubei Province and the origin place of the COVID pandemic, has cut centralized quarantine time by one week, down from 14 days to seven.

Hong Kong’s Jumbo Floating Restaurant sinks at sea: The nearly 50-year-old floating landmark — which has hosted high-profile guests, including Queen Elizabeth II and Hollywood celebrity Tom Cruise — capsized from “adverse weather” in the South China Sea just days after it was towed away due to bankruptcy.

Social media is up in arms over the BBC’s new documentary, called Racism for Sale, that investigates a Chinese man’s racist exploitation of African children for personalized videos, which are then sold for up to $70 on online platforms in China.

• Some on Weibo have claimed that the man has “hurt the friendship between Africa and China,” while others argue that the news agency is “maliciously hyping up the issue.”
• The man in question has been arrested in Zambia and is currently in the process of being returned to Malawi to continue the investigation.
• “I just reached an agreement with Malawian FM that both China and Malawi have zero tolerance for racism. China has been cracking down on those unlawful online acts in the past [years]. We’ll continue to crack down on such racial discrimination videos in the future,” Wú Péng 吴鹏, the director general of the Department of African Affairs, wrote on Twitter.

China’s “staggering” collection of personal data is more expensive than previously assumed, a New York Times investigation has found. The report, whose journalists spent a year analyzing government bidding documents from ChinaFile, a digital magazine published by the Asia Society, reveals the ways in which China uses surveillance technology to collect personal information.

UN biodiversity talks will move from China to Canada, after Beijing withdrew its hosting role “due to the continued uncertainties related to the ongoing global pandemic,” per an official statement.

China has half of global installed EV battery capacity: According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in 2021, the total installed capacity of electric vehicle (EV) batteries in China was 154.5 gigawatt hours (GWh), a year-on-year increase of 142.8%, which accounts for 52.1% of total global installed capacity.

• Meanwhile, electric vehicle exports are exploding, with car manufacturers in China shipping $1.2 billion worth of electric passenger vehicles in May, up 122% from a year earlier and almost triple the level in April.

China’s first methanol dual-fuel vessel: Yesterday, China State Shipbuilding Corporation 中国船舶集团 delivered China’s first green methanol and diesel dual-fuel vessel, a 49,900-ton oil tanker. In order to adhere to emissions regulations, the shipping industry is turning to methanol as a cost-effective marine fuel.

China Mobile releases 6G implementation plan: State-owned telecom operator China Mobile 中国移动 has today released a 6G network architecture and technology white paper, China’s first 6G implementation plan.

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