India problems

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

Top story: A trip to China by Malaysia’s new prime minister may bear a lot of economic fruit, but Kuala Lumpur will have to navigate Beijing’s growing tensions with the U.S. and shared territorial disputes in the South China Sea. Click through for the whole thing.

India rejected China’s attempts to rename eastern areas along their disputed border, as Beijing reiterates its claim on the region amid growing tensions. China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs released — in Chinese, Tibetan, and pinyin — the standardized names of 11 places in the state of Arunachal Pradesh to what it calls “Zangnan, the southern part of Xizang,” as well as precise coordinates of some residential areas and geographical features in the region.

Beijing has frozen visas for Indian journalists, according to The Hindu. Its own correspondent, the highly respected reporter and China veteran Ananth Krishnan, and the Prasar Bharati correspondent Anshuman Mishra, both of whom are presently in India, were told by “ a Chinese MFA official…that they should not return to China as their journalistic visas had been frozen’”.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and French President Emmanuel Macron arrive in China this week for meetings that will try to ensure lucrative China trade for the EU, while honoring von der Leyen’s recent pledges to “de-risk,” while not alienating Washington, D.C. Ahead of the trip, von der Leyen said Beijing should play a “constructive” role in resolving the Ukraine crisis. Meanwhile, Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 “is pulling out all the stops” for Macron “as China’s leader tries to create some distance between Europe and the U.S. in their approaches toward Beijing,” says Bloomberg.

African avocados are debuting in Chinese markets, along with raisins and sesame seeds, as China imports more and more agricultural products from the continent to deepen engagement and rebalance its trade deficit.

China is weaponizing antitrust reviews of mergers involving U.S. companies, says the Wall Street Journal. This is slowing down evaluations of acquisitions by U.S. chip makers Intel and MaxLinear. Even if mergers don’t involve Chinese companies, if two companies involved in a deal have revenues in China exceeding $117 million a year, the deal requires Beijing’s sign-off.

Two different stories about China’s economy: The Shanghai government says there were record-high annual imports and exports and actual use of foreign investment in the city for 2022. Meanwhile, Alibaba has launched 99 Temai, a budget shopping platform.

China’s surveillance balloon sent U.S. military data to Beijing in real time, according to a report from NBC News citing U.S. officials, though the Defense Department stated that any additional data gathered held “limited additive value” to what China was already able to access through satellites in low Earth orbit.