Highlighted links for May 18, 2023

Below are links from our NewsBase to other noteworthy reports published in the last 24 hours from and about China.

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:

Youth unemployment
China’s youth unemployment hits record high in April in ‘worrying sign’ for economic recovery / SCMP (paywall)
“Unemployment among China’s youth rose above 20% for the first time in April, and the situation could continue to worsen, analysts said, presenting a growing economic and social risk for policymakers.”

Semiconductors
China’s semiconductor developers eye shift to RISC-V architecture amid growing chip demand in cars, data centers and AI, executive says / SCMP (paywall)
“China’s growing demand for semiconductors used in electric vehicles, high-end servers in data centers and artificial intelligence applications provides a vast opportunity for RISC-V processors to flourish, according to a proponent of the open-source, royalty-free chip design, even as integrated circuits (ICs) built on proprietary Arm and x86 architectures continue to dominate the global market.”

Automobile industry
Aston Martin stock soars as China’s Geely to become no.3 shareholder / Reuters
“Aston Martin’s shares jumped nearly 25% on Thursday after the luxury carmaker announced a 234 million pound investment by China’s Geely, doubling the automotive firm’s stake to make it the third-largest shareholder.”

Electric vehicles
BMW aims to also build new class of EVs in China from 2026 / Reuters
“German luxury carmaker BMW aims to produce its new class of electric vehicles in China as well as Europe from 2026, requiring an investment of around 1.3 billion euros, BMW production chief Milan Nedeljković said on Thursday.”

AI
China has too much invested in AI to smother its development / Nikkei Asia (paywall)
“The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) last month rolled out a draft policy on generative artificial intelligence, indicating its intention to impose strict regulations that may change the game for major players like Baidu, Alibaba Group Holding and ByteDance.”

Air travel
Chinese domestic air travel bounces back to pre-pandemic levels / Caixin (paywall)
“China’s aviation industry is picking up the pace of recovery as domestic air travel bounced back to pre-pandemic levels in April. The recovery for international travel continued to lag behind.”

Consultancy crackdown
U.S.-based Forrester Research to close China office amid Beijing’s crackdown of foreign advisories / SCMP (paywall)
“Forrester Research, a US technology research and advisory firm, is closing its office in mainland China and laying off most of its analysts in the country amid an intensifying government crackdown on multinational consultancies.”

Seed giant enters the stock market
Seed giant Syngenta moving forward with Shanghai IPO, sources say / Bloomberg (paywall)
“Syngenta Group is preparing to move forward with plans for its initial public offering, less than two months after the Shanghai stock exchange abruptly canceled the firm’s hearing to join the Nasdaq-like Star board.”

Microsoft
Microsoft works to fix problem with Skype calls to China / WSJ (paywall)
“Microsoft said Wednesday it was working to fix an issue that had prevented users of Skype, its internet-telephone and messaging service, from calling numbers in China.”

Development and real estate
Debt restructuring no panacea for Chinese developers as challenges loom / Reuters
“A shrinking land bank and sluggish property demand are likely to hamper the plans of a growing number of private Chinese developers who have defaulted on their debt and are restructuring it to win breathing room to revive their fortunes.”

Bond market
Court ruling sets off debate about bond fraud compensation / Caixin (paywall)
“A court verdict has triggered debate over two key issues in a fraud case involving a Chinese company’s two bond issuances — who should be allowed to sue for compensation, and how much they should be able to receive.”

Baidu
Chinese search giant Baidu reports better-than-expected earnings and looks to the future with ChatGPT-style services / SCMP (paywall)
“Baidu, which operates China’s biggest search engine and is an artificial intelligence (AI) pioneer, beat revenue estimates for the first quarter in the company’s first earnings report since it launched its alternative to ChatGPT in March.”

Tencent
Tencent Cloud plans price cuts as battle of industry giants intensifies / Caixin (paywall)
“Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s cloud business has unveiled plans to slash prices for some of its core services from June 1, following a similar move by bigger rival Alibaba Cloud in April.”

Alibaba
​​Alibaba fourth-quarter revenue rises 2% / Alibaba
“China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, said on Thursday that fourth-quarter revenue climbed 2%, missing expectations.”
Alibaba Jan.-March revenue misses expectations with 2% growth / Nikkei Asia (paywall)
Alibaba Cloud offers discounts of up to 40 pc for international clients as it continues overseas drive / SCMP (paywall)
“Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and cloud services unit of Alibaba Group Holding, is offering discounts of up to 40 per cent and technical support to its overseas partners as it seeks to accelerate its global expansion.”
Alibaba plans unit IPOs after sales disappoint in shaky economy / Bloomberg (paywall)
“Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. will begin exploring initial public offerings for its logistics and grocery arms, kicking off a long-awaited breakup that may help reverse anemic growth at China’s cloud and online commerce leader.”

Meituan
Meituan planning Hong Kong debut as soon as Monday, sources say / Bloomberg (paywall)
“Meituan is set to launch a sister app in Hong Kong as soon as Monday, taking the world’s largest food delivery service beyond mainland China for the first time.”

SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND ENVIRONMENT:

COVID-19
China’s delayed funeral data clouds extent of December COVID surge / Nikkei Asia (paywall)
“China has yet to release of marriage and death-related data for the last three months of 2022, spurring speculation that the government may still not have the full picture regarding the wave of new COVID-19 cases that hit the country toward the end of December.”

Climate change
‘It’s just crazy’: How the U.S.-China energy race imperils the climate fight / Politico
“Beijing’s control of the technology behind batteries and solar panels is complicating Washington’s efforts to make a swift transition from fossil fuels.”

POLITICS AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS:

The Communist Party, elite politics, and government
China deploys former Everbright chairman to new financial commission​​ / Caixin (paywall)
“Wáng Jiāng 王江, a former chairman of state-owned financial giant China Everbright Group Ltd., has been tasked with a key role in a new financial supervisory body within the Communist Party’s central committee.”

China’s loans
China’s loans pushing world’s poorest countries to brink of collapse / AP
“A dozen poor countries are facing economic instability and even collapse under the weight of hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign loans, much of them from the world’s biggest and most unforgiving government lender, China.”

Taiwan
Hoping for invitation to WHO meeting, Taiwan gathers more support / Reuters
“Taiwan said it still hoped to be invited to the World Health Organization’s annual assembly opening in Geneva on Sunday, as support for its participation was growing despite China’s efforts to isolate the democratically governed island.”

U.S.-China competition and tensions
How the U.S. wants to counter China in the Pacific / WSJ (paywall)
“China has slowly claimed and militarized disputed territory across the South China Sea, often at the expense of its neighbors. WSJ explains the economic repercussions for the U.S. and countries across the Indo-Pacific, and what the U.S. is doing about it.”
Why Xi is ghosting Biden / Foreign Policy (paywall)
“Beijing’s refusal to talk to Washington is part of a war of attrition against U.S. influence.”

South China Sea
Vietnam rebukes China, Philippines over South China Sea conduct / Reuters
“Vietnam on Thursday criticized recent conduct by a Chinese research ship and the Philippine coast guard in the South China Sea, accusing its neighbors of separate actions that were violating its sovereign rights.”
Asean, Beijing agree on next step for delayed code of conduct to regulate behavior in disputed waterway / SCMP (paywall)
“The South China Sea code of conduct will complete its second reading this year, following an agreement between Chinese and Asean negotiating parties in their first formal meeting since June 2021, China’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday.”

G7
Biden, G-7 partners to focus on China in Hiroshima gathering / Bloomberg (paywall)
“President Joe Biden and his G-7 counterparts will spend a considerable amount of time discussing China at their gathering in Hiroshima, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Thursday.”

U.K.
Rishi Sunak backtracks on promise to ban Confucius Institutes in the U.K. / FT (paywall)
“Rishi Sunak has backtracked on his promise to ban Confucius Institutes from operating in Britain, in the latest sign of the U.K. prime minister trying to improve relations with Beijing.”
Rishi Sunak open to following U.S. lead over curbs on Chinese investment / FT (paywall)
“U.K. prime minister Rishi Sunak is considering following Washington’s lead by imposing new restrictions on domestic companies making investments into critical industries in China.”

Australia
China to resume Australian timber imports, talks under way for PM visit / Reuters
“China is set to resume imports of Australian timber from Thursday and talks are under way about a visit by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to Beijing, China’s ambassador to Canberra said on Thursday.”

Russia and Ukraine
​​China says Ukraine envoy met with Zelenskyy during talks in Kyiv / AP
“China said Thursday its special envoy met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during talks in Kyiv earlier this week.”
Visiting Ukraine, China’s envoy urged all sides to create space for peace talks / Reuters
“Beijing’s special envoy noted there was no panacea to the war in Ukraine during a visit to Kyiv earlier this week, but urged all parties to create conditions for peace talks, China’s foreign ministry said on Thursday.”
Chinese envoy says Ukraine, Russia must ‘start with themselves’ to create space for peace talks / SCMP (paywall)
Macron’s labeling of Russia as ‘vassal state’ goes viral in China / Nikkei Asia (paywall)
“French President Emmanuel Macron’s comments that Moscow is, in effect, becoming a vassal state of China have reverberated across China.”
Chinese peace envoy meets Zelenskyy in Ukraine / Caixin (paywall)
Ukraine, China meeting shows no breakthrough to end Russian invasion / WSJ (paywall)

Europe and Taiwan
Europe has begun weighing response to Taiwan crisis: Lithuania FM / Nikkei Asia (paywall)
“When Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, Europe was caught off guard, Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis told Nikkei Asia…This should not be the case for a potential Chinese military action against Taiwan, Landsbergis said. The sanctions that would be imposed on China should be clearly defined, as should the type of aid to help Taiwan defend itself, he said.”

Central Asia
Central Asia forges ties with China as Xi touts ‘enduring’ friendship / Reuters
“Central Asian heads of state converged in China’s historic city of Xian on Thursday for one-on-ones with Chinese leader Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 to seal pledges of ‘enduring’ friendship, paving the way for a summit expected to result in a regional pact with Beijing”
China to convene Central Asian leaders to counter G-7 summit / Nikkei Asia (paywall)
As the U.S. attends the G7, China hosts a summit of its own / NYT (paywall)

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

Population crisis
‘We don’t need a baby, we have a cat’: Hong Kong women say no to having children as experts scratch their heads at ways to reverse trend / SCMP (paywall)
“The impact of Hong Kong’s low birth rate hit home this month with the news that five primary schools faced the ax in the next academic year because of vanishing enrolment.”
‘Make having a baby a gainful job’: expert in China proposes ‘salary’ to motivate couples to have children amid birth rate crisis / SCMP (paywall)
Beijing’s economic growth anxiety on show as mouthpiece focuses on demographics for 3 days / SCMP (paywall)
“A series of editorials in a key mouthpiece newspaper are seen to represent concerns from Beijing that China’s demographics crisis could impact economic growth, with the latest highlighting the need to ‘improve confidence in population development’ and focus on the cultivation of high-quality talent.”

Jewish history in Shanghai
The Shanghai museum keeping memories of Jewish refugees alive / Sixth Tone
“Established in 2007, the city’s Jewish Refugee Museum is dedicated to telling the stories of Holocaust survivors.”

Theater
A beloved Chinese classic gets a weightless adaptation / Sixth Tone
“Kunqu opera has made a commercial comeback over the past two decades, but a recent adaptation of ‘Six Records of a Floating Life’ misses the mark.”