Canada doesn’t want China to mine its minerals

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

Canada doesn’t want China to mine its minerals: Ottawa has ordered three Chinese companies to divest their stakes in critical mineral projects in Canada over national security concerns, as Western-allied economies ramp up protections over key resources used to power a booming electric vehicle industry.

Meanwhile, Canada’s public broadcaster CBC is shutting its China bureau after more than four decades of operation, claiming that Beijing has ignored repeated requests to grant their journalist a work visa.

• “While there was no dramatic expulsion or pointed public statements, the effect is the same. We can’t get visas for our journalists to work there as permanent correspondents,” Editor-in-Chief Brodie Fenlon said in a blog post. “There is no point keeping an empty bureau when we could easily set up elsewhere in a different country that welcomes journalists and respects journalistic scrutiny.”

“As China changes, the way that we deal with China must change, too,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in an op-ed for Politico, as his upcoming delegation to China continues to cause rifts at home and abroad.

• The U.S. has “no position to attack or even meddle” in the Hamburg port deal, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhào Lìjiān 赵立坚 said, after Washington warned Germany over the approval of a 24.9% stake of a port terminal to Chinese shipping giant Cosco.
• Meanwhile, executives from some of Germany’s biggest companies — including BASF SE, Volkswagen AG, Deutsche Bank AG, and BioNTech — are joining Scholz’s visit to China this week in a bid to strengthen economic ties, despite calls from a slew of European officials to change course.

Guangdong enters “9 trillion GDP club”: According to the National Bureau of Statistics, in the first three quarters, the top five provinces in terms of GDP growth were were Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shandong, Zhejiang, and Henan, with Guangdong’s GDP exceeding 9 trillion yuan ($1.23 trillion) for the first time. See today’s Business briefs from the Chinese media, with more links and info on:

• Yum China’s excellent quarter.
• A year in jail for counterfeiting Moutai.

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