Draft rules for AI prescriptions and telemedicine

• The focus of the new rules drafted by the Beijing Municipal Health Commission is on telemedicine (or online consultation), and the use of AI to generate prescriptions.

The draft rules “strictly prohibit” the use of AI to automatically generate online medical prescriptions without human supervision. Other provisions include:

• Doctors who offer online diagnosis must have practiced clinical medicine for at least three years. They must also register with their real names before seeing patients online.
• Patients are also required to identify themselves formally, and doctors must refer patients to physical clinics if there are any suspicions.
• Medical records of online consultations need to be kept for at least 15 years, and documentation of the process of diagnosis, including audio and video records, must be kept for at least three years.
• Internet medical services are required to clearly publicize their prices.

Chinese authorities have recently stepped up a sweeping anti-corruption campaign in the healthcare sector, in a bid to clean up a history of dubious ties between pharmaceutical companies, hospital chiefs, doctors, and other services in the industry.

• The rules will add to a body of laws and regulations that China is implementing to govern the use of AI, including the most recent rules on ChatGPT-type generative AI.

Click through for more details and links.

Jeremy Goldkorn

The U.S. lifted restrictions on 27 Chinese entities ahead of U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s planned visit to Beijing next week.

Chemical manufacturer Guangdong Guanghua Sci-Tech and sensor maker NanJing GOVA Technology were among the firms removed from the U.S. “unverified list,” after they successfully completed regulatory checks that established their “legitimacy and reliability,” the U.S. Department of Commerce announced yesterday.

The news comes after Chinese Premier Lǐ Qiáng 李强 said that U.S.-China relations and trade cooperation were “facing certain difficulties” during a meeting yesterday with a delegation of the U.S.-China Business Council (USCBC). He also announced a revision by the State Council to “further cancel and adjust unreasonable fines, promote transformation of government functions, and improve the law-based business environment,” Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua reported yesterday.

China fined U.S. due diligence firm Mintz Group about $1.5 million for doing “unapproved statistical work,” the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics said in a ruling dated July 5 that was reported this week.

In March, Mintz’s offices in Beijing, the only ones in operation in the country, were raided and closed by Chinese authorities for suspected “illegal business operations.” All five Chinese nationals working there were detained. Similar raids were carried out at the China locations of expert network Capvision and American consultancy Bain around the same time, fanning concerns over the business environment in the world’s second largest economy.

A North Korean passenger flight landed in Beijing Capital Airport this morning from Pyongyang. The flight — run by state carrier Air Koryo, the only airline in North Korea — is the first international flight from the country since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The Chinese Foreign Ministry yesterday announced it had approved to resume flights with Air Koryo.

Hong Kong will ban some imports of Japanese seafood over Tokyo’s controversial plan to begin releasing treated wastewater from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean starting on August 24, the city’s authorities announced today.

Chinese President Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 got all the pomp and circumstance for his arrival in South Africa yesterday for his fourth state visit to the country, as the two sides celebrate the 25th anniversary of establishing diplomatic ties this year. Xi’s visit also coincides with the 15th BRICS Summit from August 22-24.

Xi was received by his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa, who wrote yesterday in his weekly column that his country’s “bilateral relationship with our largest trading partner is almost as old as our democracy.”

Chinese state media: Xi’s arrival in South Africa and meeting with Rampahosa is the lead story on Xinhua News Agency’s website today, and also on the front page of the People’s Daily.

Another People’s Daily front page story notes that China’s imports and exports to other BRICS countries in the first seven months of 2023 increased by 19.1% year-on-year to 2.38 trillion yuan ($330 billion), accounting for 10.1% of China’s total foreign trade.

• In early August, the Chinese coast guard turned a water cannon on a Philippine ship ferrying supplies to the Sierra Madre, a rusty battleship deliberately run aground by the Philippine government in 1999 to stake their claim in the contested South China Sea (or West Philippine Sea, as the Philippine government has called it since 2011).
• “China, my friend, how politely can I put it? Let me see… O… GET THE F*** OUT,” then-Philippine Foreign Minister Teodoro Locsin tweeted in 2021. (President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. earlier this month appointed Locsin as his special envoy to Beijing after this most recent skirmish.)

Despite these skirmishes — both diplomatic and very real ones on the high seas — China and the Philippines have partnered since 1975.

• Rodrigo Duterte’s presidency (2016 to 2022) was about getting closer to China. “I need China, more than anybody else at this time,” he said in 2018.
• China is the Philippines’s biggest trading partner: Total trade is worth double that with the Philippines’s second-biggest trading partner, Japan.

In his latest China Ties column, Alex Colville takes a look at the Chinese-Philippine relationship.

Alex Colville

• The “dictator’s dilemma” arises from the incapacity of authoritarian leaders to calibrate repression and concessions because they cannot or are not willing to access information about elite dissatisfaction or popular discontent.

The two also discussed the various ways in which Chinese Communist Party leaders retain power, and how the Party handled the protests against COVID zero last year.

Christopher Marquis

Welcome to the Jing is a photobook project shot by French photographer Laurent Hou (罗鸿 Luó Hóng) between 2013 and 2017. The photobook captures a special moment in the city’s history: after the Olympics and before the citywide demolition of illegal buildings that began in 2017, Hou snapped around 100,000 shots, mostly of quirky people and happenings inside the city center.

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

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:

Economic gloom or boom
China urgently needs to address economic uncertainty — EU business group chief / Reuters
“The head of an influential European business lobby in China said Beijing needs to send a clear message on how it plans to revive its economy and provide clarity on a national security crackdown that is unnerving the foreign business community.”
Opinion: How scary is China’s crisis? / NYT (paywall)
Paul Krugman writes: “China — the world’s biggest or second-biggest economy, depending on how you measure it — seems to be teetering on the edge of a crisis that looks a lot like what the rest of the world went through in 2008.”

Banking and interest rates
Pressure to revive economy muddies earnings outlook for China’s top banks / Reuters
“A scramble by Chinese policymakers to tackle a debt crisis in the property sector and shore up the economy is set to deal a blow to the earnings prospects for its big banks as they are pressed into the task of boosting credit demand.”
China’s half-measure rate cut protects banks’ profit margins and ensures financial stability, analysts say / SCMP (paywall)
“The Chinese central bank’s underwhelming rate cuts this week may have taken the markets by surprise, but it will help to preserve the profit margins of commercial banks, the linchpin of the nation’s financial stability, according to analysts.”
China’s rate caution shines light on $56tn banking system / FT (paywall)
China’s central bank faces dilemma: save bank profits or property / Nikkei Asia (paywall)
Three banks fined $15.9 million for loan-related breaches / Caixin (paywall)
“China’s financial regulators slapped fines totaling 115 million yuan ($15.9 million) on three major commercial banks for loan-related violations.”

The wine business
The perils of investing in a boutique winery in China / FT (paywall)
“To decide to buy a winery in China today, thinking it offers rich returns, is not the reasoning of a sober person.”

Flights to China
Deal to double China flights signals U.S. airlines’ stronger hand / WSJ (paywall)
“The U.S.’s decision to double the number of direct flights it allows from China casts a rare glimmer of light on an otherwise gloomy relationship. It also underscores how far the two sides must go before their bilateral links return to pre pandemic levels.”

Real estate and property development
Why it’s so hard for China to fix its real estate crisis / NYT (paywall)
“Beijing has often addressed economic troubles by boosting spending on infrastructure and real estate, but now heavy debt loads make that a hard playbook to follow.”
Yang Huiyan, the Country Garden scion trying to stave off collapse / FT (paywall)
Yáng Huìyán 杨惠妍, the “chair and majority shareholder of China’s biggest property developer was once Asia’s richest woman.”

Taiwan and Chinese real estate
Taiwan not planning new risk control for China property exposure — sources / Reuters
“Taiwan’s top financial regulator has no plan to impose strengthened risk control rules for Taiwan banks and insurers exposed to the Chinese real estate market due to high loan loss provisions, two sources briefed on the matter said on Tuesday.”

Trust company in crisis
Missed payments by China’s Zhongzhi hit listed companies / Nikkei Asia (paywall)
“The failure of one of China’s largest trust companies to pay interest on its investment products has hit the books of at least six listed companies, in a sign that the turmoil in the nation’s property market is spreading to the wider economy.”

Alibaba
Alibaba returns to ecommerce roots as competition heats up / Nikkei Asia (paywall)
“Alibaba Group Holding is shifting its focus back to e-commerce in a push to revive earnings, tapping content creators and cheap prices to compete in an increasingly crowded market.”

SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND ENVIRONMENT:

Coal
China falls back on coal to meet summer peak demand / Sixth Tone
“Experts say grid upgrades and demand-side management are needed to meet loads made greater by AC during [an] extremely hot summer.”

POLITICS AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS:

BRICS
BRICS leaders meet in South Africa as bloc weighs expansion / Reuters
“Leaders of the BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — converged on Johannesburg on Tuesday for a summit where they will weigh expanding the bloc as some members push to forge it into a counterweight to the West.”
The BRICS club of emerging nations debates letting others in / NYT (paywall)
“China wants to expand the five-nation bloc, but the members’ conflicting interests may get in the way.”
Why China and Russia want to expand the BRICS group / WSJ (paywall)
“The BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — is considering an expansion, with more than 40 countries looking to join. The WSJ analyzes the membership frenzy and whether an enlargement can ultimately challenge the powerful G-7.”

China’s global influence
China’s blueprint for an alternative world order / FT (paywall)
“Beijing is using its economic muscle to rally developing countries and reduce the west’s influence over the UN.”

Corruption
Why China is targeting the corruption tumor at the heart of its ailing health system / SCMP (paywall)
“Beijing has launched a crackdown on bribery and other forms of graft that have long plagued hospitals and driven up medical costs.”
China’s anti-corruption watchdog vows crackdown on misuse of flood relief funds / SCMP (paywall)
“China’s top anti-graft body has pledged to crack down on corruption in the use of reconstruction funds on Tuesday after more than 9 billion yuan ($1.25 billion) was distributed to flood-hit areas.”
Cigarette industry crackdown nets another top executive / Caixin (paywall)
“A businessman who controls a Shanghai-traded cigarette packaging materials supplier became the latest target on investigators’ radar in a corruption crackdown sweeping China’s tobacco industry.”

Unemployed youth join the army
 military academies enroll ‘record 17,000 high school graduates’ as youth joblessness soars / SCMP (paywall)
“As many as 17,000 high school graduates joined China’s military academies this year, the highest enrollment tally since the completion of reforms in 2017 aimed at training a more modernized armed force.”

Hong Kong national security law
Hong Kong court upholds minimum sentences for breaching Beijing-imposed security law / AP
“A jailed university student who pleaded guilty to inciting secession in Hong Kong lost his bid to reduce his five-year sentence in a court ruling Tuesday that is expected to set the bar for other cases brought under the national security law Beijing imposed on Hong Kong.”

Hong Kong universities look to mainland pupils
Hundreds of pupils expected to sit Hong Kong’s DSE university entrance exams across the border, as schools apply for new status / SCMP (paywall)
“Hundreds of pupils are expected to sit Hong Kong’s university entrance exams in mainland China after at least four schools across the border applied to serve as assessment centers, according to sector leaders.”

U.S.-China competition and tensions
U.S. commerce secretary to visit China amid efforts to stabilize relations / AP
“U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo will meet with Chinese officials and American business leaders next week amid efforts to stabilize relations that have sunk to historic lows.”
U.S. commerce secretary to visit China next week for talks / Reuters
Commerce secretary to visit China next week in bid to steady ties / NYT (paywall)
China ties become a fundraising hurdle for startups in the U.S. / Nikkei Asia (paywall)
“Having a Chinese background was once a selling point for startup founders pitching to investors in the U.S., as it allowed them to cite valuable connections to and knowledge of Asia’s biggest economy.”
Spreading state restrictions on China show depths of distrust in the U.S. / NYT (paywall)
“Businesses fear that efforts to look tough on Beijing, which have the potential to be more expansive than moves by the federal government, could have unintended consequences.”
Opinion: GOP presidential candidates need to talk about China / WSJ (paywall)
Mike Gallagher writes: “The 2020s are now calling for a new foreign policy to deal with a cold war that’s been going on for a decade.”
U.S. eases export restrictions on 27 Chinese entities / Caixin (paywall)
“The U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) said Monday that it is removing 27 Chinese entities from its Unverified List after it successfully completed end-use checks.”

Germany
German Foreign Minister says China a challenge to ‘how we live together’ / Reuters
“Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Tuesday China posed a challenge to the ‘fundamentals of how we live together in this world’ and Germany would work with mid-sized nations like Australia to de-escalate tension in the Indo-Pacific.”

The Philippines
Philippines completes mission to disputed shoal after Chinese water cannon incident / Reuters
“The Philippines said it completed a resupply mission to its grounded warship on a contested atoll in the South China Sea on Tuesday, two weeks after it had to abort a similar attempt when a China Coast Guard vessel fired water cannon at its boats.”
China firmly opposes Philippines transporting construction materials to grounded warship / Reuters
Philippines says resupply mission reaches remote outpost, China firmly opposed / SCMP (paywall)

Sri Lanka
Chinese research ship Shi Yan 6 requests Sri Lanka port call, raising possible security concerns in India / SCMP (paywall)
“China has requested permission for a research ship to dock in Sri Lanka, Colombo said Tuesday, following a visit by a spacecraft-tracking vessel last year that sparked security concerns from neighboring India.”

Japanese seafood after Fukushima water dump
Japan to dump Fukushima waste water on Thursday, as China slams ‘extremely selfish’ move / SCMP (paywall)
“Japan will start releasing more than 1 million tonnes of treated radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant on Thursday, putting into motion a plan that has drawn strong regional criticism.”
Hong Kong to ban some Japanese seafood from August 24 / Reuters
“Hong Kong’s leader said on Tuesday he strongly opposed Japan’s release into the sea of treated radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant and the city would ‘immediately activate’ import controls on Japanese seafood.”
Hong Kong to ban Japanese seafood imports from 10 prefectures after country announces plan to release Fukushima waste water starting Thursday / SCMP (paywall)

Chinese exports to Russia
Booming trade with China helps boost Russia’s war effort / WSJ (paywall)
“Chinese exports to its neighbor have risen sharply, as Beijing sends everything from microchips to trench-digging excavators.”

Middle East
China looks to shore up belt-and-road deals with Middle East cash and partnerships as Western investment wanes / SCMP (paywall)
“Beijing’s charm offensive to lure the capital from the Middle East appears to be paying off, as a Dubai-based chamber of commerce welcomes business cooperation with open arms and vows to become a ‘natural cooperative partner’ in the China-led Belt and Road Initiative.”

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

Preservation
CCTV report sparks outcry over heritage preservation in Gansu / Sixth Tone
“An investigative report exposed inadequate oversight in preserving Ming and Qing dynasty buildings; local authorities announce probe.”