Highlighted Links for Tuesday, August 9, 2022

Below are links to other noteworthy reports published in the last 24 hours from and about China. Click through to our China NewsBase to see all the other stories we collected today.

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:

• China’s chip plans are failing
  China graft probes stem from anger over failed chip plans / Bloomberg (paywall)
  “China’s top leadership has grown increasingly frustrated with a years-long failure to develop semiconductors that can replace US circuitry, an embarrassment capped by a flurry of anti-graft probes into top industry officials and the $9 billion rescue of Tsinghua Unigroup.”
  • Last week on The China Project: Mayhem in China’s semiconductor industry as ‘chips madmen’ are arrested.

• Sign of the times: City near Beijing stimulates property market
  Chinese city drops all home purchase restrictions to boost demand / Reuters
  “Langfang city has recently dropped all curbs on home purchases to boost buyer interest, the Beijing Daily reported on Tuesday, the first Chinese city to publicly make such an announcement since the onset of the country’s property crisis last year. The city of 5.5 million people also urged banks to cut minimum down payments for housing provident funds, used to help fund home purchases.”

• Is a crackdown on trust firms coming?
  China orders surprise audit of $3 trillion trust industry / Bloomberg (paywall)
  “In an unscheduled move, the National Audit Office — which previously led an examination of bank exposures to Jack Ma’s Ant Group Co. — has for the past month been inspecting the books of at least 20 trust firms, including the top five, to gauge the risks they pose to financial stability, according to people familiar with the matter.”

• Cycling is popular again and China’s bike-sharing companies raise prices
  Pandemic fuels sports biking boom in cycling nation China / AP
  “Bicycles have long been a means of transport in China and once outnumbered cars on city streets. Now cycling is increasingly also seen as a sport by an urban middle class that has benefited from China’s growth into the world’s second largest economy.”
  Can bike-sharing in China turn a profit? Survivors Meituan, Ant-backed Hello try by raising fees / SCMP (paywall)

• Pent-up demand for travel to Hong Kong
  Flight bookings to Hong Kong surge 249% after quarantine cut / Bloomberg (paywall)
  “Hong Kong’s decision to reduce the number of days arrivals must spend in hotel quarantine triggered an immediate surge in flight bookings to the city, said China’s largest travel online agency.”

• COVID means travel is still a risky business in China
  COVID lockdown angers tourists in China beach resort city / WSJ (paywall)
  Escaping Shanghai’s COVID lockdown only to get trapped in Hainan / Reuters
  China’s getaway beach destination becomes COVID-19 hotspot / Sixth Tone

SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND ENVIRONMENT:

• Climate change: Drought
  China’s largest freshwater lake sees record early dry season / Sixth Tone
  “China’s largest freshwater lake in the eastern province of Jiangxi has entered its dry season at the earliest date since records began in 1951, as heat waves continue to grip large parts of the country.”

• Climate change: Heat
  The big thaw: almost 6,000 of China’s glaciers have disappeared / Sixth Tone
  “On July 13, Shanghai’s temperature reached 40.9 degrees Celsius. It was the city’s highest temperature since 1873. In the past 30 years, Shanghai’s average annual temperature has increased by two degrees Celsius. However, the biggest increase in temperature across China has not been in Shanghai. It’s been in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.”

POLITICS AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS:

• Xi Jinping has become even more powerful
  Xi Jinping grasps ‘knife’ of internal security to complete grip on power / FT (paywall)

Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 finally has something that eluded him for almost a decade: a trusted confidante at the top of China’s police ministry.

Wáng Xiǎohóng’s 王小洪 appointment as public security minister in June marked another breakthrough for Xi in his relentless consolidation of power since being appointed head of the Chinese Communist party and its Central Military Commission in 2012.

Over the past week, China’s president has wielded his authority over the latter to historic effect, launching unprecedented military exercises that have irrevocably altered the status quo in the Taiwan Strait.

• Chinese survey ship delays Sri Lanka visit after India voiced concern
  Sri Lanka asks China to postpone research ship’s port call / AP
  “Sri Lanka has asked China to defer a port call of a scientific research ship after security concerns were reportedly raised by neighboring India.”
  Sri Lanka asks China to postpone ship visit after India protests / Al Jazeera
  Sri Lanka asks China to defer military ship visit after India protests / Reuters

• Schmoozing South Korea
  South Korea, China foreign ministers to discuss North Korea, K-pop / Reuters
  “The foreign ministers of South Korea and China will hold talks on Tuesday as Seoul explores ways to reopen denuclearization negotiations with North Korea and resume cultural exports to China.”

• Another trial to begin in Hong Kong in September
  Cardinal Zen and 5 others to stand trial in Sept. over alleged failure to register protester relief fund as society / HKFP
  “Cardinal Joseph Zen, barrister Margaret Ng, singer-activist Denise Ho and three others will stand trial next month after denying charges over an alleged failure to register a defunct protester relief fund as a society.”

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

• Chinese women reconsider having children after COVID lockdowns
  More Chinese women delay or give up on having babies after ‘COVID zero’ ordeal / Japan Times
  “During the April-May lockdown, the hashtag ‘we are the last generation’ briefly went viral on Chinese social media before being censored. The phrase echoed the response of a man who was visited by authorities in hazmat suits threatening to punish his family for three generations for noncompliance with COVID-19 rules.”

• China’s elderly population battles with depression
  Why it’s hard to reach China’s depressed seniors / Sixth Tone
  “People aged 50 and over most often show symptoms of depression in China. But doctors find it hard to connect with them.”