China to double the size of Tiangong Space Station

• The Tiāngōng 天宫 (“heavenly palace”) space station will expand to six modules from the current three in the coming years, a senior designer at the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) announced yesterday.
• However, even after expansion, the Tiangong will still only be 40% of the size of the International Space Station (ISS), led by the U.S.’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), in collaboration with the space agencies of Russia, Japan, the EU, and Canada.

Tiangong is a symbol of China’s growing influence and confidence in space.

• After being fully functional in late 2022, Tiangong has been advertised to space agencies around the world as an international hub for innovation and discovery.
• CAST yesterday also announced that the operational lifetime of Tiangong will exceed 15 years, more than the 10 years previously specified. The ISS is scheduled to retire in 2030, so China might then have the only functioning space station in orbit.
• Last week, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) opened up its upcoming Chang’e-8 moon mission, an unmanned lunar expedition slated to launch in 2028, to global cooperation on spacecraft launches, and exploration of the Moon.

Click here for all the details.

Zhao Yuanyuan

Taiwan will probe four local firms for allegedly helping Chinese tech giant Huawei to establish chipmaking technologies in China, a move that would violate U.S. sanctions imposed on Huawei and that would tighten up the island’s tech safeguards amid an intensifying battle over critical technologies.

China issued another warning to the Philippines over its resupply mission to troops stationed at the Second Thomas Shoal, part of the disputed Spratly Island archipelago in the South China Sea, after repeated attempts by the Chinese coast guard to block it.

Tensions between the two countries have risen over contested waters in recent weeks, after the Philippines removed a floating barrier constructed by China to block Philippine fishing boats entering the Scarborough Shoal, a separate territory claimed by both nations located further north in the South China Sea.

Hong Kong will form a special task force to crack down on crypto exchanges, as the digital-asset industry comes under greater scrutiny from city authorities. The working group, a collaboration between Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and law enforcement officials, will “enhance collaboration in monitoring and investigating illegal activities related to virtual-asset trading platforms,” according to a statement published yesterday by the SFC.

In the past few weeks, Hong Kong police have arrested a total of 18 people (as of September 30) over allegations of fraud at an unlicensed cryptocurrency platform JPEX, which impacted more than 1,600 investors and more than HK$1.5 billion ($191.6 million) in assets.

Offices in China’s top cities are even emptier now than they were under COVID-zero, with vacancy rates of top-quality office properties in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen growing as much as 27%, or 4.1 points, year-on-year for the April-June quarter, according to British real estate services provider Savills. The high vacancy rates have driven rents down across the board, pointing to more cautious corporate attitudes on China’s economic outlook. In June, Beijing’s office vacancy rates hit a 13-year high of 18.3%, up 1.5 percentage points from the previous quarter.

Notable read: Ananth Krishnan is India’s leading journalist covering China, and writes the India-China Newsletter. The latest issue looks at Indian police detention and questioning of journalists from Newsclick, a media organization, because of allegations that it was involved in a “terrorism” related case, and was being funded by China for misinformation purposes.

Chinese state media: The People’s Daily front page today celebrates the Golden Week holiday for Mid Autumn Festival and National Day with a photo spread on booming tourist attractions and an article about the estimated 2.5 billion trips by road, rail, ship, and plane that Chinese people will have taken by the end of the holiday. The top story however, highlights the people involved in construction, infrastructure management, healthcare, and other vital services who have had to work through the holidays.

Xinhua News Agency editors are still very much on their Golden Week holiday, and today lead with the fifth in a series of very similar infographics about Xi Jinping’s achievements and his thoughts on his love for the homeland (the earlier versions are here: 1, 2, 3, 4).

• Since August, miHoYo has tried — and failed — twice to set up payment methods that let it bill customers without paying Apple, which extracts a commission of up to 30% for every transaction made within its digital distribution platform, the App Store.
• The first was through ​​its official community forum app Mǐyóushè 米游社, and the second one was via a mini program on leading Chinese payment app and digital wallet, Alipay.

Apple’s notoriously high commission rates have long been a source of frustration for game developers and publishers around the world.

• Prior to miHoYo, major Chinese gaming companies such as NetEase and Perfect World have tried to skirt the fee, which is infamously known as the “Apple tax,” but none of them has succeeded.
• By eliminating Apple as the middleman in in-game transactions and replacing it with a third-party service that charges less, miHoYo, the Chinese developer behind juggernaut mobile game Genshin Impact, would see a significant increase in revenue, despite adding friction to the payment process.

Is there trouble for Apple ahead?

Zhao Yuanyuan

• China’s erasure of BL audio dramas started in 2021 when the internet watchdog, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), launched “Operation Qinglang” (清朗行动 qīnglǎng xíngdòng), a nationwide campaign aimed at creating a “clear and bright” internet environment.

Fearing regulatory punishment, some major audio streaming services began shortening or deleting male-male sex scenes in the drama hosted on their platforms.

• Leading Chinese podcast site MissEvan altered its interface to reduce the visibility of queer content, while making efforts to produce and promote dramas featuring heterosexual couples.

But, as Forest Li and Tingting Hu report, Chinese BL audio drama remains resilient despite the heavy censorship.

Forrest Song

• Uyghur writer and educator Yalqun Rozi tried to preserve his people’s history and culture for kids, previously with state backing. But now he is serving 15 years in prison for “splittism” and “extremist ideas.” This Banned Books Week, the Uyghur Bulletin examines his work, and how the Chinese government is suppressing it.
• Red Star Over China was a massive coup for the young American journalist Edgar Snow. The book is still a gripping read, but it is also an abject lesson in the pitfalls of access in China, and a reminder to try to understand when you’re seeing the wider picture and when you’re being fed a line, writes Paul French in this week’s installment of his Ultimate China Bookshelf.

Below are links from our NewsBase to other noteworthy reports published in the last 24 hours from and about China.

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:

Electric vehicles
China’s EV threat: A carmaker that loses $35,000 a car / NYT (paywall)
“Nio, a Chinese electric car company that competes with Tesla, employs 11,000 people in research and development, but sells a mere 8,000 cars per month.”

Real estate and property development
China office vacancies worse than zero-COVID levels in top cities / Nikkei Asia (paywall)
“Office vacancy rates in China are now higher than they were under the country’s severe zero-COVID restrictions, delivering a further blow to the nation’s struggling property sector.”

Evergrande
Evergrande crisis tests Beijing’s fallout management as creditor jitters mount / Reuters
“As developer China Evergrande Group lurched from one crisis to another over the past two years, Beijing avoided directly intervening to rescue what was not too long ago considered one of the country’s ‘too big to fail’ enterprises.”

Huawei
Taiwan to probe 4 firms accused of helping Huawei build chip plants / Nikkei Asia (paywall)
“Taiwanese authorities will investigate four local companies over reports that they are assisting Huawei Technologies in establishing chipmaking infrastructure in China.”

Alibaba
Alibaba accused of ‘possible espionage’ at European hub / FT (paywall)
“Belgium’s intelligence service has been monitoring Alibaba’s main logistics hub in Europe for espionage following suspicions Beijing has been exploiting its growing economic presence in the west.”

SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND ENVIRONMENT:

China’s energy supply
China steps up managing peak power demand, energy regulator proposes new gas usage policy / Caixin (paywall)
“China has published new measures aimed at better managing power demand from consumers to ensure energy supply.”

China’s space station
China to double size of space station, touts alternative to NASA-led ISS / Reuters
“China plans to expand its space station to six modules from three in coming years, offering astronauts from other nations an alternative platform for near-Earth missions as the NASA-led International Space Station (ISS) nears the end of its lifespan.”
Scientists from China, Europe to target gamma rays from Tiangong space station / SCMP (paywall)
“Scientists in China are working with their European peers to develop the most sensitive space telescope of its kind, in a bid to monitor the most violent explosions in the universe.”

Chinese weddings are going green
E-invites to bike rides, weddings in China get a green makeover / Sixth Tone
“Amid increased awareness among the youth about climate change, carbon-neutral weddings, which promote eco-friendly products, cost money, and recycling, are gaining traction and popularity.”

POLITICS AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS:

Espionage
Why Russian and Chinese spy scandals are a threat to us all / Nikkei Asia (paywall)
“Russian and Chinese espionage against the west has entered a hyperactive mode. In the past few months, several suspected intelligence officers and agents have been uncovered by police in Britain, Norway and the US. In return, Russia and China have begun seizing random westerners on flimsy espionage charges. A dangerous cycle is unfolding.”

Military
Analysis: Inside Xi Jinping’s great military purge / Nikkei Asia (paywall)
Katsuji Nakazawa writes: “A great military purge is underway in China. The absence of key military figures at a dinner reception to celebrate the founding of modern China last week made that fact clear and left Beijing’s political circles pondering what President Xí Jìnpíng’s 习近平 intentions are.”

• Earlier this week on The China Project: Lessons from the black box of Chinese politics

Tibet
China’s foreign minister criticizes ‘lies’ about Tibet / Reuters
“China’s Foreign Minister Wáng Yì 王毅 said lies fabricated by ‘some western forces’ about Tibet are untenable and based on ideological bias.”

Taiwan
Taiwan to tighten tech safeguards against China this year / Nikkei Asia (paywall)
“Taiwan is set to announce this year a list of critical technologies it wants to protect from the reach of China, a top Taiwanese official told Nikkei Asia.”
How China is fighting in the grey zone against Taiwan / BBC
“The 103 fighter jets that China flew near Taiwan — 40 of which entered the island’s Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) — were yet another escalation in Chinese war games.”

India
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi pushes Himalayan neighbors on ‘territorial integrity’ at forum near disputed border with India / SCMP (paywall)
“Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi pushed Himalayan nations for stronger cooperation on environmental issues while urging them to respect ‘territorial integrity’ as he hosted diplomats near China’s disputed border with India.”

Philippines
China condemns Philippine re-supply mission to disputed atoll / Reuters
“China has condemned a mission by four Philippine ships to re-supply Philippine troops on a disputed South China Sea atoll, saying the vessels had entered its waters in the Spratly Islands without its permission.”

Europe
With eye on China, EU maps out de-risking, economic security strategies / Reuters
“The European Union wants to retain its industrial edge and competitiveness in a world shifting more to digital and green products, but has found itself worryingly dependent on others, particularly China for critical minerals.”

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

Feminism
After crackdown, China sees new wave of ‘everyday feminism’ / WSJ (paywall)
“With Beijing having snuffed out public advocacy, a growing interest in gender issues can be seen in the popularity of books and podcasts.”

Bangkok shooting kills Chinese national
Chinese national killed in Bangkok mall shooting / Caixin (paywall)
“One Chinese national was killed and another injured in a central Bangkok mall shooting Tuesday, the Chinese Embassy in Thailand has confirmed.”

Tourism
Opinion: Why are tourists not returning to mainland China? Experts cite a host of reasons but it’s anyone’s guess as to when ‘normality’ will resume / SCMP (paywall)
“Mainland China’s tourism sector saw a 70 percent drop in international travelers in the first half of this year compared with pre-COVID levels.”

Demographics
Opinion: Can China overcome its demographic deficit? / FT (paywall)
Martin Wolf writes: “How big a role will China’s demographics play in its economic prospects? Inescapably, a big one. Indeed, it must be one of the most important factors in determining China’s economic prospects.”

Photography
Snapshots of a nation: How Guangdong pioneered Chinese photography / Sixth Tone
“Spanning two centuries, ‘History of Photography in Guangdong: 1844-2020’ delves into the history of Chinese photography. The book chronicles its journey from early daguerreotypes to the prominence of digital imagery in modern times.”