News Briefing for Thursday, September 15, 2022

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

A top TikTok executive pushed back against U.S. senators who grilled the company over its ties to China and handling of American users’ data at a nearly three-hour hearing that took place in Washington on Wednesday. The Chief Operating Officer at TikTok, which is owned by Beijing-based technology giant ByteDance, repeatedly declined to commit to cutting off all data and data flows to China, instead insisting that it was working on an agreement with the U.S. government that would “satisfy all national security concerns.”

Typhoon Muifa made landfall in eastern China on Wednesday, grounding planes and stopping trains in metropolitan Shanghai and shutting down some of the country’s busiest commercial ports. The storm is the strongest tropical cyclone to hit Shanghai since record-keeping began in 1949.

The Chinese megacity of Chengdu has finally allowed most of its 21.2 million residents to leave their homes starting on Thursday, after a two-week lockdown that left many locals scrambling to access food and other essential items.

200 billion yuan’s worth of loans for factory upgrades: The State Council has announced a special loan support policy of 200 billion yuan ($28.73 billion) for manufacturing and services companies to upgrade equipment in the fourth quarter, the latest stimmie from Beijing. For more, see today’s Business briefs from the Chinese media, also with links and info on the following:

• China makes half the world’s ships and the Chinese state-owned company that buys many of them wants to become the biggest marine transporter on the planet.
• The government has released a plan to bolster China’s raw materials supply chain for critical industries including semiconductors.

EU’s draft ban on forced labor has received major support from European lawmakers. Although it does not explicitly mention Xinjiang, the proposal is widely seen as being aimed at China, which has been accused of forcing Uyghurs in camps in Xinjiang.

Internet companies are shifting focus to the physical economy. ByteDance, owner of TikTok, has launched two new services in China: an offline real estate agency and a home renovation business.

Spreading “illegal information” on China’s internet could result in fines of up to 50 million yuan ($7.17 million) if draft legislation proposed by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) is passed. The law is aimed at increasing the pressure on big tech companies to toe the Party line. One official last month said that” internet law enforcement should ‘grow teeth’ and the punishments should ‘make one’s heart jump.’”

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