Lucas Niewenhuis is the Newsletter Editor at The China Project. Previously, he has researched China-Africa relations at the Social Science Research Council, interned at the Council on Foreign Relations, and studied Chinese language and culture in Shanghai and Beijing.
CoronaVac, a vaccine by Sinovac Biotech, may only be a little more than 50% effective in preventing COVID-19, according to clinical trial results in Brazil. While this clears the threshold for regulatory approval, it is a disappointing result for countries that already bought tens of millions of doses of the product.
While the dramatic move was of a piece with earlier diplomatic bombs thrown at China by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, there are indications the change was in the works for some time.
After the New York Stock Exchange twice reversed course on whether to delist major Chinese telecom companies, the Trump administration added further regulatory uncertainty by floating an investment ban on Alibaba and Tencent.
The death penalty โ rare for white-collar crimes โ was given to Lai Xiaomin, a former top Chinese banking official, as four other former senior officials had their corruption cases transferred to prosecutors.
Chinese regulators gave approval for a mass public rollout of a COVID-19 vaccine by Sinopharm on December 30, 2020. Meanwhile, authorities worked to expand an emergency use authorization program that has already delivered millions of experimental vaccine doses.
Chinaโs initial failure to respond quickly to COVID-19 as it emerged in Wuhan was due to a โpolitical logjam,โ the New York Times reports. But the AP reveals that political controls have only tightened in the time since, with new research on the origins of COVID-19 monitored and subject to approval by a task force set up by Xi Jinping.
In order to clinch an investment deal with the EU, China reportedly said it would make โsustained effortsโ to ratify international conventions against forced labor. Meanwhile, BuzzFeedย reported that at least 135 detention camps in Xinjiang have factories where forced labor likely occurs.
Zhang Zhan, a freelance video journalist who documented the early days of Wuhanโs lockdown and criticized the governmentโs response, was convicted of โpicking quarrels and provoking trouble.โ
The EU and China are reportedly very near to signing an investment deal that has been in negotiations since early 2014. However, hesitancy from the U.S., Poland, and the European Parliament present obstacles.