Links for Monday, April 26, 2021

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:

• Chinese bike-sharing startup files for Nasdaq IPO, despite losses
  Chinese bike-sharing startup Hello Chuxing files for Nasdaq IPO / Yicai Global
  The value was unspecified, but the Alibaba-backed startup’s target is reported to be around $2 billion. Hello Chuxing has more than 400 million registered users across 460 cities, but reported losses of $174 million in 2020 (a narrowing of 25% from the year before), and is exploring new business lines such as delivery and ride sharing.
• China’s antitrust watchdog eyes Meituan next
  China antitrust regulator launches probe of Meituan / Nikkei Asia (paywall)
  After regulators slapped a record $2.8 billion fine on Alibaba for antitrust violations, State Administration for Market regulation is now investigating (in Chinese) Meituan, which operates food and grocery delivery apps, and group-buying platforms.
  China opens an inquiry into Meituan, a takeout-delivery titan. / NYT (paywall)
  China investigates Meituan for suspected monopolistic practices / Bloomberg (paywall)
  Context via Caixin Global: China gets serious about antitrust in cyberspace (paywall)
• Who is the shadow company behind a trucker’s suicide?
  Inside the system driving truckers to the edge — while monetizing their data / Caixin Global (paywall)
  In early April, a middle-aged trucker in Hebei Province commited suicide after being fined 2,000 yuan ($305) when local police found his transponder was disconnected. The transponder is a tracker made by an Alibaba-backed company named Sinoiv, and is required for all cargo trucks in China. It uses China’s equivalent to GPS, the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, to send continuous updates to a database managed by the Ministry of Transport.
• Chinese companies still love U.S. stock markets
  China stock sales in U.S. surge to record despite delisting threat / FT (paywall)
• The world’s biggest hydropower company to IPO
  China’s biggest IPO this year looks to be in renewable power / Bloomberg (paywall)
  “China Three Gorges Renewables Group Co. is set for an initial public offering that could be the biggest in the country this year after securing regulatory approval.”
  See IPO filing (in Chinese).
  Three Gorges is the world’s largest hydropower company. Total assets of renewables — mainly solar and wind farms and small hydropower plants — “are valued at more than 140 billion yuan” ($21.59 billion).
  Related:
  China’s green energy capacity set to top coal by year’s end / Caixin (paywall)
  As coal capacity cuts loom, teetering energy conglomerate gears up for restructuring / Caixin Global
  “State-owned Chongqing Energy Investment Group Co. Ltd. has set up a creditors’ committee to prepare for restructuring, sources told Caixin, as the miner faces difficulty in paying its debts amid a government drive to slash coal capacity.”
• Go, go times are back!
  China private jet use soars as economy hits pre-pandemic levels / FT (paywall)
  With COVID-19 alarms off, China eyes huge Labor Day travel rush / Sixth Tone
• Buzz about ByteDance
  How Bytedance could take a bite out of Tencent / WSJ (paywall)
  The owner of TikTok “has been attracting eyeballs to its viral apps. Now it’s eyeing an even bigger prize: success in games.”
  ByteDance pours cold water on blazing IPO speculation / Caixin
• China’s most distressed manager of distressed assets
  China Huarong delays 2020 results past April deadline / Bloomberg (paywall)
• New pork industry rules to change economies around the farms
  China’s swine fever lockdown reshapes $300 billion pig industry / Bloomberg (paywall)
  “The country will be split into five regions from May, the agriculture ministry said last week, and live pigs will not be allowed across the boundaries. The move will push down pork prices in the main producing areas in the north and increase the cost of the popular protein in demand centers in the south.”
• Domestic silicon chips and smart cars
  Beijing-based AI chip specialist Horizon Robotics to establish smart driving venture with Germany’s Continental / Caixin
  Tsinghua sets up school to support semiconductor self-sufficiency in China / Caixin
  TSMC to invest $2.8bn in China to ramp up auto chip production / Nikkei (paywall)
• Clothing brands and Xinjiang cotton
  Western brands tested by China in backlash over forced labor allegation / NBC
  China cotton group promotes Xinjiang crop with 361 Degrees / Nikkei (paywall)
• World Intellectual Property Day hoopla
  China says it’s almost done drafting intellectual property protections / Bloomberg via Caixin Global
  “Government is ‘implementing’ provisions in the first-phase trade deal with the U.S.”
  Xiplomacy: Xi’s remarks about IP protection / Xinhua

SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND THE ENVIRONMENT:

• Space exploration and development
  China names Mars rover for traditional fire god / AP
  “China’s first Mars rover will be named Zhurong [祝融 zhùróng] after a traditional fire god, the government announced Saturday…The rover’s title fits with the Chinese name for Mars — ‘Huo Xing [火星 huǒxīng],’ or fire star, the China National Space Administration said.”
  Official: China’s moon probe will carry French, Russian gear / AP
  China eyes asteroid defense system and comet mission / Nikkei Asia (paywall)
  China, Russia open moon base project to international partners, early details emerge / SpaceNews
  China’s state rocket company unveils rendering of a Starship look-alike / Ars Technica
  China’s commercial sector finds funding and direction / SpaceNews
• Beijing offers India unspecified COVID aid
  China offers to help India tackle COVID-19 outbreak after U.S. vaccine snub / SCMP (paywall)
  Chinese Embassy in India pledges to encourage, guide Chinese firms to cooperate with India to facilitate acquiring anti-epidemic supplies / Global Times
  Orders from India surge for Chinese medical suppliers / Global Times
• Vaccine development and diplomacy
  A gift to Damascus: 150,000 COVID-19 Chinese vaccines / AP
  SciClone Pharma tests hepatitis drug as COVID-19 vaccine enhancer / Reuters

POLITICS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS:

• Europe’s hardening China stance, and pressure from U.S. to be even harder
  EU blames China for endangering peace in South China Sea / Reuters
  “‘Tensions in the South China Sea, including the recent presence of large Chinese vessels at Whitsun Reef, endanger peace and stability in the region,’ a EU spokesperson said in a statement on Saturday.”
  EU slams China’s ‘authoritarian shift’ and broken economic promises / Politico
  “Only four months after Beijing and Brussels concluded the principles of a landmark investment agreement, a high-level internal report seen by POLITICO shows the EU is now increasingly pessimistic about keeping business interests separate from political concerns over what it calls President Xi Jinping’s ‘authoritarian shift’…The EU’s ‘progress report’ on China also slams Beijing for ‘little progress’ on economic promises made…particularly in regard to opening up digital and agricultural markets, addressing steel overcapacity and reining in industrial subsidies.”
  “Still trying to stay in Xi’s good books, France and Germany both rebuffed Biden’s idea that Europe should team up with Washington to create a united democratic front against China.”
  Biden will push allies to act on China forced labor at G7 – adviser / Reuters
  “U.S. President Joe Biden will attend a meeting of the G7 advanced economies in person in Britain in June, where he is expected to focus on what he sees as a strategic rivalry between democracies and autocratic states, particularly China…Daleep Singh, deputy national security adviser…said Washington has already taken strong actions against China over human rights abuses in Xinjiang, but would seek to expand the effort with G7 allies.”
• “When China feels it is being targeted, and it’s only about China, you get a lot of resistance”
  Targeting China with trade reforms will not work – WTO head / Reuters via Yahoo
  “WTO director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told a conference hosted by the European Commission…[that] China would be more receptive…if it saw the WTO addressing other types of subsidies [rather than industrial subsidies]. Beijing wants curbs on subsidies for agriculture, prevalent in developed and larger emerging markets often to the disadvantage of poor countries.”
• Xinjiang government dismisses testimony of academic institutes, scholars, and witnesses
  Chinese official in Xinjiang slams U.K. genocide declaration / AP
  “‘The motion adopted by the British side was totally groundless,’ Xu Guixiang, the deputy director-general of the Communist Party’s publicity department in Xinjiang, said Friday. ‘The decision was made on the basis of remarks by some politicians, some so-called academic institutes, some so-called experts and scholars and some so-called witnesses.’”
• Restricting freedoms in Hong Kong
  Activists fear HK immigration bill will allow arbitrary travel bans / Reuters
  “An immigration bill on Hong Kong’s legislative agenda for Wednesday would give authorities virtually unlimited powers to prevent residents and others entering or leaving the former British colony, lawyers, diplomats and rights groups say.”
  Beijing attacks head of Hong Kong Bar Assoc. over ‘politicized’ comments on peaceful protest / HKFP
  ‘Know your place’: Beijing accuses Hong Kong press club of being ‘external force’ interfering in China’s internal affairs / HKFP
• Agriculture tycoon and government critic formally arrested, details undisclosed
  China reveals charges against outspoken businessman Sun Dawu / NYT (paywall)
  “Sun, who has been held in the northern province of Hebei since November, faces charges of illegal fund-raising and obstructing public service, among other offenses…The authorities have said little about Mr. Sun’s alleged offenses. He and 24 other people were detained in November amid a land dispute between his company and a state-owned farm…The fates of the other people detained are not known.”

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

• Feminism and internet company censorship
  Women are battling China’s angry trolls. The trolls are winning. / NYT (paywall)
  “Several prominent Chinese feminists have had their accounts deleted from Weibo in the last two weeks following public complaints. According to the women, at least 15 accounts have been removed. The women say it is part of a growing online campaign to stamp out feminist voices in a country where the government controls the internet and social movements are swiftly cut down. Two of the women have filed lawsuits against Weibo.”
• Twelve-year-old university was fake the whole time
  ‘Chinese Traditional Culture University’ turns out to be fake / What’s on Weibo
  “The ‘China Traditional Culture University’ was found to have forged official documents and registration certificates. Besides its main location in Beijing, the institute has 70 branches in various cities across China, including in Tianjin, Guangzhou, Guangdong, and Shenzhen…According to its own former website, which has since been taken down, the institute was established in 2009.”
• When a three-day holiday is actually just one
  Chinese resent public holiday system that steals their weekends / Sixth Tone
  “Because of the upcoming five-day Labor Day holiday in early May, Su and millions of Chinese workers like her have to work two weekend days to compensate. With the second makeup work day scheduled for Saturday, May 8, the Saturday-to-Wednesday holiday yields just one ‘free’ day off.”