China News - 13 December 2021
International
China and Russia dominate G7 Foreign and Development ministers meeting. As Chair of the meeting held in Liverpool over the weekend, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said that the leaders discussed a range of challenges involving China, such as the situations in Hong Kong and Xinjiang, the East and South China Seas and the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and Beijing’s coercive economic policies. A first virtual meeting between the G7 and ASEAN ministers also took place, and the G7 programmes and initiatives aimed at improving infrastructure in developing countries were laid out in detail. Gov.uk, Reuters, 12 December
UK spy chief raises fears over China’s digital renminbi. In an interview with the Financial Times, Sir Jeremy Fleming, the director of GCHQ, warned China’s digital renminbi risks becoming a tool to surveil users and exert control over global currency transactions, despite digital currencies presenting a “great opportunity” to democratise payment systems. FT, 11 December
Hong Kong: Jimmy Lai sentenced to 13 months in jail over Tiananmen vigil. Lai, the media tycoon and one of the city’s most high-profile critics of Beijing, has been sentenced to 13 months in prison for inciting others to take part in a banned assembly last year to commemorate the Tiananmen Square massacre. Seven other activists involved in organising the vigil also received prison terms. FT, 13 December
Hong Kongers warn of 'social conflict' as new arrivals to UK struggle to find jobs, housing and school places. The UK has opened its doors to millions of Hong Kongers - but many are worried that new arrivals will stretch local resources and facilities and that risks alienating local people. Sky News, 12 December
Envoy says China will forego many 'developing country' benefits at WTO. China's ambassador to the World Trade Organization, Li Chenggang, said on Friday that Beijing would remain a "developing" country at the global trade body but would forego many of the benefits, signalling an important shift to trading partners. Reuters, 10 December
UN human rights office to publish assessment of abuses in Xinjiang ‘soon’. Reuters reported that the office of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet hoped to publish its report in the coming weeks and that there had been "no concrete progress" in long-running talks with Chinese officials on a proposed visit. Reuters, 11 December
North Korea looks across the border for its biggest threat. Analysts argue that Pyongyang’s dependence on Beijing is deeply uncomfortable for North Korean officials who have long seen China - not the US - as the principal threat to the regime’s long-term survival. FT, 12 December
Nicaragua receives China vaccines after cutting ties with Taiwan. Local media broadcast clips showing an Air China plane landing with the first 200,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine. BBC, 13 December
Beijing Winter Olympics
Olympic boycott: Uyghurs and Hong Kongers react. Protesters at the US Capitol welcomed the diplomatic boycott of the Beijing games, but say more is needed. BBC, 12 December
Beijing Olympic diplomatic boycott: EU foreign ministers aim to carve out ‘common approach’. SCMP, 11 December
Senior Japanese officials set to skip Beijing Olympics. MSN, 11 December
Blinken heads to Southeast Asia to deepen cooperation on China. Reuters, 12 December
China’s CPTPP application allays South Korea fears of joining accord. FT, 12 December
China building new hypersonic plane based on prototype rejected by Nasa. The Telegraph, 12 December
Economy & tech
Private equity cuts back on China property as Evergrande hits stocks. Coller Capital, a London-based private equity specialist, said in a report on Monday that almost a third of groups with exposure to China would decrease their investments in the country’s real estate sector over the next three years. FT, 13 December
Show us the numbers on China’s economic risks, former finance minister says. At a forum held by the China Centre for International Economic Exchanges in Beijing on Saturday, outspoken former finance minister Lou Jiwei said China’s main indicators failed to fully show the economic problems the country was facing. SCMP, 12 December
SenseTime postpones US$768 million IPO in Hong Kong after US blacklisting. Washington blacklisted SenseTime over alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang, which the AI firm called ‘unfounded,’ based on a fundamental misperception of the company. SCMP, Reuters, 13 December
Taiwan chipmakers hint at decoupling from the US. Taiwan’s chip fabricators signed an agreement to create their own semiconductor equipment industry, opening an “option to decouple from the West,” in the view of prominent US semiconductor research firm VSLI. Asia Times, 11 December
China tech crackdown: Beijing declares initial victory in cleaning up mobile apps. The country’s internet watchdog has reviewed more than 1,000 apps for data privacy violations, says a government report. SCMP, 11 December
Toy sellers ponder reliance on China as supply problems bite. FT, 11 December
Chinese EV firms face slower growth, as higher metal prices push up battery costs. SCMP, 12 December
Opinion & editorial
Telegraph view: Putin and Xi won't lose sleep over the G7. Democratic leaders seem well aware of the threat from Russia and China, but have few ideas for how to tackle it. The Telegraph, 13 December
Chinese high achievers who displease the party become the ‘disappeared’. The Orwellian notion of the ‘unperson’ has turned into reality for the once-favoured tycoons, actresses and sports stars who are seen as a threat to the all-powerful state. Richard Lloyd Parry. The Times, 10 December
In China’s new era of global ascendancy, Xi Jinping gives thumbs down to democracy. Simon Tisdall. The Observer, 12 December
Why young Chinese have so little interest in democracy. Zhou Xin. Nikkei Asia, 12 December
Long reads
How the West invited China to eat its lunch. China's admission to the WTO changed the game for America, Europe and most of Asia, and indeed for any country in possession of industrially valuable resources. Faisal Islam. BBC, 11 December
China’s super-rich and the fall of Evergrande, the property giant. Last year Evergrande started building the world’s biggest football stadium. Now it’s on the brink of bankruptcy. What went wrong? Emma Duncan. The Times, 13 December
In Asia, China’s long game beats America’s short game. Beijing’s focus on economic ties will outlast Washington’s on military alliances. Kishore Mahbubani. Foreign Policy, 12 December
Your life depends on bits of paper’: The Chinese adoptees raised in the UK on the search for their identities. Georgina Littlejohn. iNews, 12 December
The hardest working man in Chinatown: the retired chef who became the beating heart of his community. Sirin Kale. The Guardian, 11 December