Links for Wednesday, February 16, 2022

BUSINESS NEWS FROM SUPCHINA A.M.:

Chinese links:

• From AC to EV: One of China’s biggest air conditioner and white goods manufacturers, Midea 美的, is entering the electric vehicle industry with plans to invest 11 billion yuan ($1.73 billion) to build new plants in Anhui Province to make new-energy vehicle components.
• The real estate business is very far from dead: 171 companies listed on Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges have released their 2021 reports. The top performers:
  • Real estate conglomerate Greenland Holding (with operating income equivalent to $84.4 billion)
  • China Merchants Bank ($52.23 billion)
  • Poly Development, a real estate company that was spun out of the Chinese military ($44.95 billion)

English links:

• Alibaba affiliate Ant Group has founded a software-as-a-service unit as a pivot away from its core consumer finance business, which has increasingly brought trouble from regulators.
• Lithium from Everest? Chinese scientists are hailing a “breakthrough” discovery of lithium near the world’s tallest mountain.

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Additional business and technology links:

Hikvision, China’s surveilling eye
Eyes everywhere: China’s surveillance equipment spreads worldwide / Nikkei Asia (paywall)
Hikvision, a Chinese state-owned video surveillance maker, has more than 3 million cameras connected to the internet 24/7 in 33,000 cities around the world, according to data compiled by a host of organizations.

• As of December 2021, there were 33,636 Hikvision cameras in London, compared with 26,760 in Beijing.
• The number of Hikvision cameras installed in Asian cities include: Seoul (32,067), Ho Chi Minh City (72,269), and Bangkok (22,274).
• Though the U.S. makes over 60% of the semiconductors used in Hikvision’s surveillance equipment, the company is “rapidly increasing its procurement of Chinese-made products” amid the ongoing trade war with the U.S.

More on international regulations of Binance
Binance tie-up with payments network a concern, says UK watchdog / Reuters
SEC probes trading affiliates of crypto giant Binance’s U.S. arm / WSJ (paywall)
FCA ‘concerned’ over Binance deal to access UK payments network / FT (paywall)

Shein mass hires in Singapore
Chinese fashion firm Shein on Singapore hiring spree as it shifts key assets there / Reuters
“China’s Shein is aggressively expanding its Singapore office after making a Singapore firm its de facto holding company.”
Earlier on The China Project: A look inside Shein, the multibillion-dollar retail enigma upending the global fashion industry.

Tencent inks $284 million deal to stream 6,000 new movies and shows
Tencent signs US$280 million deal for streaming rights to 6,000 films and shows amid rivalry with short video apps / SCMP (paywall)

Meihua’s U.S. IPO signals a comeback from Didi
Meihua becomes China’s first U.S. IPO since Didi crackdown / Bloomberg (paywall)

Solar panel improvements to boost profit margins
China’s solar giants power up new panels to drive profits / Bloomberg (paywall)
China’s solar giants are investing in more powerful panels: Three of the world’s top five solar manufacturers have recently announced plans to build factories that each year can make more advanced solar cells to generate more power, as firms look to innovation to drive profits.

China’s rare earth metals are pricey with record highs
Rare earth prices hit record high in China / Caixin (paywall)
The prices of 21 rare earth materials have hit a new record high, skyrocketing 99% from about 340 last year to reach 426.75, according to an index published by the Association of China Rare Earth Industry.

The rich and their banks prepare for socialism
UBS sees China private banking revenue pool hitting $163 billion / Bloomberg (paywall)
“China’s private banks are poised to share a revenue pool of as much as 1.03 trillion yuan ($163 billion) by 2030 as a drive for common prosperity and the upheaval of the pandemic has fueled an appetite for wealth preservation among the nation’s wealthy, according to UBS Group AG.”

Fertilizer prices skyrocket
Fertilizer just got even more expensive as potash prices jump / Bloomberg (paywall)
“Canpotex has agreed to supply China with potash fertilizer shipments at $590 a metric ton through December, which is more than double the price from a year ago and the highest since at least 2013, according to data from Bloomberg’s Green Markets released Tuesday.”
Last week on The China Project: What a skirmish at a Laos potash factory tells us about Chinese activity on the frontier.

Audi, FAW to build $3.3 billion EV plant in Changchun
China greenlights Audi-FAW’s $3.3 billion electric vehicle factory / Caixin (paywall)

Beijing drafts rules to ban preschool tutoring apps
Beijing city’s draft rules ban preschool tutoring apps / Reuters

SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND ENVIRONMENT:

Can Chinese funds help the Global South go green?
Phasing down coal in the Global South / China-Africa Project (paywall)
Though China announced last year that it will no longer build new coal-fired power plants overseas, 60 coal plants funded by Chinese investment around the world are currently still running, according to data from Boston University’s Global Development Policy (GDP) Center. Policy attention should now shift to retiring them.

China ramps up biosecurity against alien species
China sets out plans to repel economically damaging alien plant species / Caixin (paywall)
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs published a draft of new guidelines to prevent the invasion and boost the management of alien species, which threaten the country’s biosecurity and cause annual damage of around $31.5 billion.

Bad news for Mount Everest?
China scientists discover huge lithium deposit in Everest region / Bloomberg (paywall)
A state-backed science news outlet in China has reported a “breakthrough” discovery of lithium in the same region as Mount Everest, with the potential to host the third-biggest mine of its kind in China.

China’s “war against pollution”
China makes Olympian effort to cut pollution but remains short of WHO standards / FT (paywall)
China’s Air Quality Monitoring Network has reported a 40% reduction in the country’s emissions since 2014. However, even though China has met its national air quality standard, its pollution levels still exceed World Health Organization guidelines, the Air Quality Life Index notes.

POLITICS AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS:

Chau Chak Wing denies buying off Australian election candidates
Chinese-Australian billionaire denies trying to influence election on behalf of foreign power / AFP via HKFP
Chinese billionaire and property developer Chau Chak Wing (周泽荣 Zhōu Zéróng), who was naturalized in Australia, rebuked allegations that he bought off potential election candidates on behalf of the CCP as “baseless and reckless.”

Australian broadcaster hits out at Beijing’s media influence in the Pacific
Beijing pushes Pacific media to use China content, ABC boss says / Bloomberg (paywall)
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) director David Anderson has accused Beijing of putting “pressure” on public broadcasters across Pacific Island countries to carry Chinese government-produced content, as the two nations battle for influence in the region.

• ABC is seeking an additional $8.6 million in government funding to step up Australia’s news presence in the Pacific, after Anderson cited the move was made “particularly with concerns, frankly, over the Chinese government.”
• China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Wāng Wénbīn 汪文斌, said Anderson’s remarks contained “nothing but disinformation” and don’t represent the opinion of Pacific Island countries.

Hong Kong–based U.K. law firm “pivots to China”
Norton Rose directs Hong Kong office to make China pivot / FT (paywall)
“Norton Rose Fulbright, one of the oldest UK law firms in Hong Kong, has laid out plans to ‘pivot to China’ as the city comes under increasing pressure from Beijing to align with the mainland.”

U.K. and Russia take the Ukraine crisis to Weibo, China says the U.S. is exaggerating
China’s Weibo is new front in UK-Russia war of words over Ukraine / SCMP (paywall)
The Russian embassy in China called British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s statement “absurd” on Weibo, after he used his Chinese social media account to urge Russian President Vladimir Putin to think again about invading Ukraine.
China says U.S. is exaggerating Russian threat to Ukraine / Reuters
“China accused the United States of ‘playing up the threat of warfare and creating tension,’ as U.S. President Joe Biden warned that more than 150,000 Russian troops were still massed near Ukraine’s borders following Moscow’s announcement of a partial pullback.”

Tibetans are eerily quiet during the Winter Olympics
This time, Tibet stands silent as Olympics return to China / AP
Tibetans have been quiet this Winter Olympics, a stark difference compared with the protests of violence, hunger strikes, and self-immolation when Beijing first hosted the Olympics 14 years ago. The answer, AP has concluded, is that “in many ways Beijing’s plan to tame Tibet is working.”

Olympics talk: Record-breaking Chinese viewership and more
Beijing got all ready for Olympic curling. But about the ice… / NYT (paywall)
“The ice makers of Olympic curling are part physicist, part meteorologist, part engineer. They know that creating a stage for a world-class event is all about the process.”
Beijing visitors go hi-tech to avoid getting lost in translation / Reuters
“Businesses at the Beijing Olympics are getting around the language barrier by using high-tech apps and a smartphone-like device to translate from Mandarin Chinese and keep the tills ringing.”
The Olympians caught up in the U.S.-China rivalry / NYT (paywall)
China’s best performance at Beijing Winter Games helped by top foreign coaches / FT (paywall)
China crafts a carefully curated slate of Olympic spectators / AP
It takes a village to stage a pandemic-era Olympics—and for a few, the toll is too much / WSJ (paywall)
Chinese viewers flock to Olympics even as the world tunes out / Bloomberg (paywall)

France and China agree to ramp up Iran nuclear deal
France says Macron and China’s Xi agreed to step up efforts on Iran nuclear deal / Reuters

Pacquiao’s run for Philippines president includes a “peace panel” with China
Pacquiao wants China peace panel if elected Philippine president / Bloomberg (paywall)
“Philippine boxer-turned-presidential candidate Manny Pacquiao said he will form a ‘peace panel’ that will negotiate with Beijing on the South China Sea dispute if elected to the top post, while also deepening defense ties with the U.S.”

Chinese students stranded abroad
‘My heart is numb’: Chinese students stranded in U.S. by coronavirus / NBC
“Lack of flights, strict quarantine requirements and their own COVID-19 infections are making it difficult for Chinese students abroad to travel home.”

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

Tracing Shanghai’s coffee addiction
China’s bean town: How Shanghai brewed up a cafe craze / Sixth Tone
Shanghai’s addiction to coffee began nearly 200 years ago in 1843, when the city opened to international commerce. Now, new coffee shops “spring up like mushrooms.”
Earlier on The China Project: The rise and fall of Shanghai’s ‘coffee king’ and the rise of Manner Coffee.

Nixon’s historic visit to China
Nixon in China, 50 years on / Nikkei Asia (paywall)
“Nixon’s visit to China, the first by a sitting U.S. president, broke a standoff between the two nations that had frozen ties since the Communist Party victory in 1949 and helped reset the geopolitics of the Cold War.”

The tao of rampant commercialism
China’s Taoist temples try a little marketing 101 / Sixth Tone
Taoist temples are producing new talisman lines, but many critics within the community say that the commercialized Tai Sui talismans are “mass-produced sacrilege.”

China’s niche — and expensive — archeology fever
Readers say Chinese archeology books are pricier than others / Sixth Tone
“A search on various ecommerce platforms Wednesday showed that although archeology books varied widely in price, many cost more than average books on the whole.”

Art auctions
From Taiwanese white goods entrepreneurs to the Nanking shipwreck cargo: Colin Sheaf on the meteoric growth of the Asian auction world / Art Newspaper
An interview with Colin Sheaf, the deputy chairman of Bonhams and its global head of Asian Art.