Highlighted Links for Wednesday, August 31, 2021

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:

• No recession for high-end Chinese booze brands
  China’s big brand baijiu-makers have a toast-worthy first half / Caixin (paywall)
  Despite the general gloom, “one commodity is still raking in cash: top-shelf baijiu…19 listed manufacturers of the world’s most popular alcoholic beverage had reported their first-half earnings as of Monday, with 16 posting growth in both revenue and profit.”

• Prominent China market analyst switches firms
  Outspoken China analyst to join hedge fund as chief economist / Bloomberg
  Hóng Hào 洪灝, an outspoken Hong Kong–based market strategist whose Chinese social media accounts were suspended in May after making negative remarks on COVID lockdowns, is joining the hedge fund GROW Investment Group as its chief economist.

• Local governments owe big bills after mass COVID testing
  Local governments’ COVID-19 testing bills pile up, corporate earnings show / Caixin
  “Dian Diagnostics Group…a clinical laboratory and major testing service provider, reported accounts receivable of 10.7 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) at the end of June, a 69.9% increase from six months ago and roughly equal to its total revenue for the period.”

• Stocks down
  COVID outbreak: China stocks hit four-week low as cases spread and factory output shrinks / CNN
  “Mainland China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.8% to close at its lowest level in four weeks. So far this year, the index has tumbled nearly 12%.”

• U.S. punishes Belgian firm for technology export to China
  U.S. suspends Belgian firm’s export rights over alleged China violations / Reuters
  “Hans De Geetere and Belgium-based Hasa-Invest bought or attempted to purchase accelerometers, which measures things like machine vibration and seismic activity, from a U.S. firm on behalf of clients in China, including an aerospace contractor, the department wrote in an export ban order.”

SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND ENVIRONMENT:

• 41 cities with COVID disruptions
  China’s Guangzhou, Shenzhen tighten COVID curbs as parts of north join in / Reuters
  “Capital Economics estimates 41 cities, responsible for 32% of China’s GDP, are grappling outbreaks — the highest number since April.”

• Plastic recycling challenges
  China’s plastic problem: Lack of circular economy stifling ‘necessary’ reform of high-pollution industry / SCMP
  “China’s plastic-packaging industry should move to an efficient and resource-saving circular economy from the current linear economic model, according to a report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Tsinghua University that was released last week.”

POLITICS AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS:

• German officials step up rhetoric on China
  Germany says it will expand military presence in Indo-Pacific / Reuters
  “Germany will expand its military presence in the Indo-Pacific by sending more warships and joining drills with allies as it keeps an eye on the ‘enormous’ build-up of China’s armed forces, the German defense chief told Reuters.”
  ‘This is outrageous’: German ambassador on China’s claim on Arunachal Pradesh / Hindustan Times
  “China’s claim on Arunachal Pradesh is ‘outrageous’ and its infringement on India’s northern border is unacceptable as it amounts to a violation of the international order, German ambassador [to India] Philipp Ackermann said on Tuesday.”

• China locks up the usual suspects in advance of October Party congress
  Chinese police crack down on petitioners, dissidents ahead of 20th Party congress / RFA
  “The Beijing police started rounding up petitioners more than 10 days ago — they’ve all been taken back to where they came from.”
  Yesterday: The Party congress that will change the world begins on October 16.

• Lukewarm obituaries for the death of Mikhail Gorbachev
  China offers tributes to late Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev for fostering Beijing-Moscow ties / SCMP
  China expresses condolences over death of Gorbachev / Xinhua
  “‘Mr. Gorbachev made positive contributions to the normalization of China-Soviet Union relations,’ Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhào Lìjiān 赵立坚 said at a daily news briefing.”

• Another Xi ally in another top job
  Official who led Wuhan pandemic response set to be China’s next top prosecutor, sources say / SCMP

  [Yīng Yǒng 应勇,] who led China’s response to the initial coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, is tipped to become the country’s next top prosecutor, according to several people familiar with the situation.

  Ying, 64, is already working at the Supreme People’s Procuratorate…The appointment would put Ying, who was a graft-buster and senior judge under Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 in the early 2000s, in one of the top positions in China’s legal apparatus.

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

• COVID rules stifle student life
  Chinese universities start new semester with old COVID rules / Sixth Tone
  “At Shanghai University, students are not allowed to leave the campus area ‘unless necessary’ and need to fill an application each time they leave. For many students in the city, such restrictions have evoked familiar feelings from the spring, when they were locked within the university premises for months as the city tried to contain its worst outbreak.”

• North Korean tourism dries up in Shenyang
  Lockdowns in China, and North Korea, deal double blow to Bridge City / NYT
  One business owner said, “Before, we’d have maybe dozens of North Korean customers every day. Now you don’t even get 10.”