Bain in China, Belt and Road in Italy

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

Top story: A single 35-year old Chinese woman is fighting for the right to freeze her eggs, after being banned from doing so due to her marital status. The decision of her appeal, a landmark case for female reproductive rights in the country, might define what mothers can be, and who can be a mother in China.

Bain is offering its employees in China six months of voluntary leave with partial pay, after Chinese police paid a visit to the U.S. consulting company’s offices in Shanghai and questioned its staff. The news comes amid concern that Beijing is ramping up scrutiny on foreign firms in China, after similar visits paid to Mintz and Capvision, which the media has claimed has chilled the business environment in the country. But those fears may be overblown, notes The China Project’s CEO Bob Guterma, who previously worked as Capvision’s inaugural Chief Compliance Officer from 2012 to 2015: “Those visits are totally standard operating procedure for an information-centered business in China. To call the Bain inspection a ‘raid’ is disingenuous.”

Will Italy exit China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)? Rome is the only G7 government that has participated in Beijing’s multi-trillion infrastructure project ever since it joined in 2019. But Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has previously called that decision a “big mistake,” and said yesterday that the debate to terminate Italy’s participation is still ongoing. “Given the state of relations between the U.S. and China, we cannot remain an ally of the U.S. and at the same time remain in the BRI,” said Stefano Stefanini, Italy’s former ambassador to NATO. “We have to try to negotiate a peaceful — or [the] least damaging possible — exit with the Chinese.”

Tokyo lodged a diplomatic protest with Beijing over comments made by the Chinese ambassador to Japan Wú Jiānghào 吴江浩 on Japan’s policy towards Taiwan. Late last month, Wu gave a speech at a press conference in Tokyo, in which he stated that the Japanese people “would be dragged into the fire” if Japan linked Taiwan to its own security. The comments were “extremely inappropriate,” Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said yesterday.

China’s $5 billion investments in Sudan are at risk as the conflict that erupted between two rival factions last month rages on. While China has evacuated most of its citizens, the violence is a significant blow to China’s billions worth of loans in Sudan, and to its broader lending practices in Africa.

A total of 471,000 electric vehicles were sold in China in April, a significant jump of 103.7% year-on-year but a slight drop of 3.9% from March. In other industry news, EV startup Li Auto announced a profit of 933.8 million yuan ($134.6 million) for the first quarter of the year.

China’s consumer price index (CPI) in April rose 0.1% year-on-year, which is the lowest rate since February 2021, per the National Bureau of Statistics. The low level of consumer inflation suggests that the extent of demand in the domestic economy is still weak and more stimulus may be required.

State media: Party paper the People’s Daily has a full front page special on a visit by Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 to one of his pet projects, the new city of Xiong’an, about 60 miles south of Beijing. (See also this English report from Xinhua, or last week’s Sinica Podcast, which is all about Xiong’an.) Xinhua News Agency today highlights Xi’s visit to nearby Cangzhou, Hebei province, where he inspected some fields and a port used for shipping coal.