China Newsbase
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The China News Database was last updated at 01:50PM on November 9, 2023.
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4,639 articles matching the search query.
China Adds E-Cigarettes to Tobacco Monopoly Law
China’s tobacco regulator is now in charge of e-cigarettes, giving some certainty to the industry eight months after draft rules about vapes sent it into free fall.
As U.S. Hunts for Chinese Spies, University Scientists Warn of Backlash
“A chilling effect has taken hold on American campuses,” the New York Times reports in the aftermath of the prosecution and acquittal of nanotechnology professor Hú Ānmíng 胡安明 of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Hu told the NYT that the trial was “the darkest time of my life,” adding, “My basic human rights were invaded, my reputation was destroyed, my heart was deeply hurt, my family was hurt.” Scientists and university administrators say that the U.S. government targeting of ethnic Chinese scientists “has slowed research and contributed to a flow of talent out of the United States that may benefit Beijing.”
China says zero-Covid policy will protect it against Omicron variant
Will Omicron extend China’s COVID-zero policy? The newly identified variant, whose name was chosen to avoid “Xi” and “Nu,” has already been identified in three COVID-19 cases in Hong Kong. Beijing sees the emergence of the potentially high-risk variant as “vindicating” for its strict COVID policies, the Financial Times reports, citing comments from infectious disease expert Zhāng Wénhóng 张文宏. Meanwhile, a study by Peking University researchers that was published in China CDC Weekly said that the country is “not ready to embrace ‘opening-up’ strategies…as advocated by certain western countries,” which the authors said would cause a “great disaster” and hundreds of thousands of cases a day.
Evergrande Founder Cuts Stake to Raise $344 Million
Evergrande’s founder reduced his stake in the debt-laden property giant to raise $344 million, in what seems to be the first attempt to use his private wealth to bail out the company.
Chengdu Is First Chinese City to Relax Rules for Property Developers
Chengdu became the first city to begin easing real estate restrictions such as caps on borrowing and limits on using pre-sales proceeds, policies that have roiled the property sector in recent months.
U.S. invites Taiwan to its democracy summit; China angered
China is “firmly opposed” to the “Summit for Democracy” that the Biden administration invited Taiwan to last week. The virtual gathering of 110 governments on December 9 and 10 is aimed at preventing democratic backsliding and the erosion of rights and freedoms around the world. In recent meetings with Russia, India, and Iran, Chinese Foreign Minister Wáng Yì 王毅 has criticized the summit as divisive, in what Nikkei Asia interprets as concern “that the virtual meeting will lead to Taiwan’s recognition by the international community.”
China’s Liu He Calls For Stable Property Prices, Speculation Curbs
China’s Vice Premier Liú Hè 刘鹤 doubled down on stabilizing housing prices while sticking with curbs on speculation even as anxieties over Evergrande’s debt woes exact a toll on the economy.
拉夏贝尔被申请破产清算，拉夏贝尔市值仅剩8亿，曾被称中国版ZARA
Fashion brand La Chapelle, sometimes called the Chinese version of Zara, has filed for bankruptcy after a strategic shift in emphasis from offline to online sales led to severe cash flow problems.
Samsung Orders U.S. Chips, With a Side of Geopolitics
Samsung invested $17 billion for a semiconductor plant in Texas, reports the Wall Street Journal, at a time where “increasing rivalry between China and the U.S. means that basing so many advanced chip-making plants in China’s neighborhood is becoming more risky.” Meanwhile, Washington is blocking “South Korean chip firms from moving advanced equipment to China, analysts say,” reports the South China Morning Post.
Hong Kong Jails Activist for 3 Years, 7 Months in Secession Case
“Hong Kong jailed a student activist for three years and seven months after pleading guilty to secession, as authorities use a Beijing-drafted national security law to crack down on political dissent,” reports Bloomberg.
关于进一步加强娱乐明星网上信息规范相关工作的通知-中共中央网络安全和信息化委员会办公室
Celebrities are in the crosshairs again, this time targeted by the Cyberspace Administration of China, which has promised to harshly regulate “extravagant displays of wealth” and “vulgar activities for the sake of seeking attention” and other ills of the online fan culture. See Reuters for more, or this What’s on Weibo report on a separate crackdown, a blacklist of online influencers who will be banned from livestreaming.
Kuaishou Revenue Climbs 33% Despite China Tech Crackdown
Kuaishou had a great Q3, unlike most other tech giants. It beat revenue expectations with 33% growth, and also had narrower-than-expected losses; shares rose 15% on the news.
Box.Game raises $5 million to tap metaverse trend · TechNode
Box.Game, a coding platform for kids and a subsidiary of edtech firm Codemao, raised $5 million to build one of China’s first youth-focused metaverses.
British Chamber of Commerce warns China's data policies could slow innovation
“China’s policy regarding data transfer and localization are causing companies to cancel projects due to fears of compliance issues, according to a report from the British Chamber of Commerce in China published on Tuesday,” per Reuters.
How China Became Jihadis’ New Target
Is China the next terrorist target? “International terrorist organizations long considered Beijing a secondary focus. That’s changed,” argues Raffaello Pantucci in Foreign Policy.
Choose a side, China tells Taiwan firms as it punishes conglomerate
Did China punish a Taiwanese firm for political infractions? Far Eastern Group, a conglomerate with diverse interests, was fined 36.5 million yuan ($5.72 million) by Chinese law enforcement agencies “for a series of problems, from tax to fire safety,” Reuters reports. But one of the group’s listed units “said its textile operations in China had been inspected by law enforcement in the second quarter” with no such problems being flagged. The law enforcement action came two weeks after Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office pledged to hold pro-Taiwanese-independence individuals and companies criminally liable and prevent them from being “allowed to profit from the mainland.”
BYD Chairman Predicts Rapid Shift to NEVs in China
More than one in three cars sold next year in China could be electric or another type of new energy vehicle (NEV), according to Wáng Chuánfú 王传福, the founding chairman of BYD. Some 3.3 million NEVs could be sold in China this year, Wang said, adding that the market penetration of NEVs in China is rising faster than in other markets — more than tripling from 6% to 20% so far this year, and potentially topping 35% next year.
Shares of Evergrande’s Electric Car Unit Jump 11% on Fundraising Plan
Evergrande’s electric vehicle startup plans to mass produce its first model using $347 million worth of stock sales. Shares jumped 11% after the announcement.
How Hunter Biden’s Firm Helped Secure Cobalt for the Chinese
Did Biden’s son help China secure supplies of cobalt? Hunter Biden, the son of U.S. President Joe Biden, was “part owner of a venture involved in the $3.8 billion purchase by a Chinese conglomerate of one of the world’s largest cobalt deposits” in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the New York Times reports. A separate NYT story describes a bare-knuckled great power contest between the U.S. and China over the Congo’s cobalt resources, and “a hidden history of the cobalt acquisitions in which the United States essentially surrendered the resources to China, failing to safeguard decades of diplomatic and financial investments in Congo.”
