Moderna strikes an mRNA vaccine deal for China

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

U.S. pharma firm Moderna struck a deal aimed at producing mRNA vaccines for China despite rising tensions between Washington, D.C. and Beijing. Moderna signed a memorandum of understanding and a related land collaboration agreement yesterday to work toward researching, developing, and producing mRNA vaccines in China, according to a statement sent to global news outlets.

“Any medicines produced under this agreement will be exclusively for the Chinese people…and will not be exported,” the statement said. Moderna has also signed an agreement with authorities in Shanghai to set up its mRNA pipelines in the city’s Minhang District, along with a production plant and its main headquarters, according to Chinese state media outlet Xinhua.

Chinese media outlet Yicai first reported on July 4 that Moderna was slated to make an investment in China that could be worth around $1 billion, citing unnamed sources. Yicai also reported that Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel was visiting Shanghai.

Hong Kong will slash the number of directly elected seats in local polls, after the city’s “patriots-only” legislature unanimously voted today to overhaul district level elections. Under the District Councils (Amendment) Bill 2023, the proportion of directly elected representatives will drop from nearly 95% to 19%.

Only 88 seats would be directly elected by the public, down from 452 seats in an election that saw a landslide victory by the democracy camp in 2019. The number of overall seats would also be reduced from 479 to 470.

“The chaos is a wake-up call for us. We must plug the institutional loopholes and completely exclude those anti-China and destabilizing forces” from the District Council members, Chief Executive John Lee (李家超 Lǐ Jiāchāo) said today.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong police arrested four men accused of sedition yesterday, according to a statement from the city’s National Security Department (NSD), two days after issuing warrants and offering rewards of up to HK$1 million ($127,600) for information leading to the arrest of eight foreign-based activists.

The four unnamed men, aged 26 to 29, are “suspected of receiving funds from operating companies, social platforms, and mobile applications to support people who have fled overseas and continue to engage in activities that endanger national security,” the statement said.

They also stand accused of “repeatedly publishing posts with seditious intention” on social media, including content which “provoked hatred towards the Central Authorities and the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and advocated ‘Hong Kong independence.’”

The South China Morning Post reported that the four men belonged to the now-defunct political party Demosisto. Another man allegedly involved in the group was arrested today, NSD police said in a separate statement, bringing the total number of arrests to five.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen arrived in Beijing today on a four-day trip aimed at finding areas of “common ground” and opening communication channels with China, amid an increasingly fraught relationship between the world’s two biggest economies.

China released OpenKylin, its first homegrown open-source desktop operating system, according to Chinese state media, in a bid to reduce the country’s dependence on U.S. technologies such as Microsoft Windows, Google Android, and Apple Mac OS.

Chinese state media: The People’s Daily print edition today highlights the role of “strategic emerging industries” such as “information technology, high-end equipment, and new energy vehicles” which now account for more than 13% of China’s GDP, according to new official data.

Xinhua News Agency leads with a story (English, Chinese) on Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 sending a letter to the U.K.’s 48 Group Club on the the 70th anniversary of its “Icebreaking Mission” to open trade between Britain and China.