Another espionage case, and China’s diplomatic tightrope between Russia and Ukraine

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

Top story: China sentenced a U.S. citizen to life in prison today on espionage charges. John Shing-Wan Leung (梁成运 Liáng Chéngyùn), a 78-year-old Hong Kong permanent resident who holds a U.S. passport, was convicted on spying charges and stripped of his political rights for life. He was earlier detained in April 2021 by local security services in the southeastern city of Suzhou. Click through for the whole thing.

China is sending a special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, as well as to Poland, France, and Germany, to discuss a “political settlement to the Ukraine crisis,” the Chinese foreign ministry said on Friday. Lǐ Huī 李辉, China’s special representative for Eurasian Affairs, will depart for his trip today to help China “​​play a constructive role and build more international consensus on ending hostilities.” He previously served as the ambassador to Moscow for a decade until 2019.

Japan’s Foreign Minister warned of stronger military collaboration between China and Russia near areas surrounding Japan and in Asia. “Since the aggression of Russia to Ukraine, the security situation here in Europe and the security situation in the Pacific are not separable,” Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said upon arriving in Sweden to meet with his European and Indo-Pacific counterparts. His statements come as Japan and other members of G7 are expected to show a unified front at their annual meeting in Hiroshima, the site of the first atomic bombing during World War II, from Friday to Sunday, in an effort to ramp up pressure on China and Russia.

The U.S. charged a Boston man for acting as a foreign agent on behalf of the Chinese government. Liáng Lìtáng 梁利堂, 63, was arrested last Tuesday for tracking Chinese activists and dissidents in the area who were calling for pro-democracy reforms in China. He was released on bail on Thursday after pleading not guilty.

Fast fashion retailer Shein has opened a regional headquarter office in Dublin for operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. This follows a similar move in early May by PDD Group, the company behind China’s discount ecommerce giant Pinduoduo and its global version Temu, which moved its global headquarters to Dublin but told Chinese media that its heart will forever be in Shanghai. With a corporate tax rate of 12.5% (compared to 21% in the U.S. and 25% in China), Ireland is regarded as a tax haven.

China has surpassed Japan to become the world’s leading exporter of vehicles. In the first quarter of 2023, China exported a total of 1.07 million units, an increase of 58.1% year-on-year, surpassing Japan’s total of 954,000 units. In 2022, China became the world’s second-largest auto exporter with 3.11 million units (including 679,000 electric vehicles), surpassing Germany’s 2.61 million units.

State media: Xinhua News Agency’s top story today is the state visit of Eritrea’s President Isaias Afwerki and meeting with Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 in Beijing. Party paper the People’s Daily continued its coverage of last week’s tour of Hebei province by with a front page story about a meeting on the coordinated development of the cities of Beijing and Tianjin and the province of Hebei (京津冀 jīng jīn jì). Xinhua’s English website also covers that meeting.