China News - 15 December 2021

International

Cyber review says UK and west in ‘clash of values’ with China and Russia. Ministers and spy chiefs have warned that Britain has to improve its offensive cyber capabilities – and its wider digital skills base – to meet the challenge of “systemic competition” with China and Russia over the rules governing the internet. The national cyber review is the first of its kind since 2016 and aims to bring a global threat analysis together with strategies to deal with it, including last year’s creation of a National Cyber Force, the first offensive hacking unit formally acknowledged by the UK. The Guardian, FT, 14 December

Documents link Huawei to China’s surveillance programs. A review by the Washington Post of more than 100 confidential Huawei presentations suggests that the company pitched how its technologies can help governments identify individuals by voice, monitor political individuals of interest, and manage ideological re-education. The Washington Post, The Times, 14 December

UK Government publishes latest six-monthly report on Hong Kong. The FCDO concluded that: “just over a year since the imposition of the National Security Law, the damage that this far-reaching law is doing to the way of life of the people of Hong Kong is clear." The report also reaffirmed the UK’s commitment to working with international partners to hold China to its legally binding obligations on Hong Kong. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said the report is an attempt to disrupt the city’s legislative polls on Sunday. Gov.uk, Reuters, HKFP, 14 December

US to blacklist eight more Chinese companies over Xinjiang abuses. The US Treasury will put DJI, the world’s largest commercial drone manufacturer, and the other firms on its “Chinese military-industrial complex companies” blacklist on Thursday, according to two people briefed on the move. US investors are barred from taking financial stakes in the 60 Chinese groups already on the blacklist. FT, 15 December

Biden team mulls new clampdown on China’s largest chipmaker. Bloomberg, 15 December

US bill to ban imports made with Xinjiang forced labour moves ahead. The bill creates a ‘rebuttable presumption’ that all goods sourced wholly or in part from the western Chinese region of Xinjiang are tainted with forced labour after lawmakers agreed on a compromise that eliminated differences between bills introduced in the House and Senate. SCMP, 15 December

China targeted Taipei's allies while US hosted democracy summit. Nicaragua's decision last week to cut ties with Taiwan was part of a deliberate move by China to target the island's diplomatic allies after it was excluded from the Summit for Democracy, Taiwan's foreign minister Joseph Wu said on Tuesday. Reuters, 15 December

French MPs arrive in Taiwan for visit amid China tensions. Independent, 15 December

China submits UN position paper on regulating military applications of AI. People’s Daily, 14 December

Emma Raducanu leads stars nominated for new awards for British-Chinese community. Evening Standard, 14 December

Economy & tech

China struggles to shrug off weak consumer spending and property woes. Retail sales rose just 3.9% year on year in November, well below economists’ forecasts of 4.7% as caution in consumer spending lingered. A slight improvement in industrial activity, which grew by 3.8%, was overshadowed by a drop in investment across the real estate industry. FT, The Guardian, 15 December

China offshore listings clampdown threatens Wall Street. Didi’s move to delist from the New York Stock Exchange and go public in Hong Kong over data security concerns has prompted talk of the end of Wall Street’s long and lucrative trade of taking fast-growing Chinese companies public in New York - and of whether US investment banks might lose out if Hong Kong becomes the only destination for Chinese offshore listings. FT, 15 December

China Mobile set to list in Shanghai. The world’s largest telecoms company by subscribers was forced to delist in New York following sanctions imposed by the Trump administration. FT, 14 December

HSBC puts pressure on clients to get out of coal. Europe’s leading banker to corporate Asia has set out its policy to cut exposure to thermal coal financing by at least 25% by 2025 and 50% by 2030 and said it expects all its clients to have a plan to abandon fossil fuels by the end of 2023. The Times, 15 December

Chinese smartphone maker Oppo unveils self-developed chip for phones. Reuters, 14 December

China’s goal for blue sky Beijing Winter Olympics set to cause ‘supply-side shock’ as factories close. SCMP, 14 December

China focus

Beijing issues local government borrowing quotas early. Whilst the early release of borrowing authorisations can help local authorities speed up infrastructure spending, several jurisdictions said their quotas for new special purpose bonds (SPBs) were smaller than expected. Caixin, 15 December

Xi stresses cultural confidence at major conference of artists, writers. Chinese President Xi called for producing literary and artistic works that convey modern Chinese values and present a lively and multi-dimensional China for the world. Xinhua, 15 December

Omicron: China’s Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine fails antibodies test in Hong Kong study. Both Sinovac and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines produced ‘inadequate’ responses and boosters may be needed, researchers say. SCMP, 15 December

Opinion & editorial

Beijing turns inward as decoupling gathers pace. SenseTime and Evergrande cases lead to a ‘Fortress China’ approach. Editorial board. FT, 14 December

The Guardian view on China’s Winter Olympics: remember the Uyghurs. The IOC says it stays out of politics- but what is happening in Xinjiang is a fundamental matter of human rights. The Guardian, 14 December

The US is not responsible for China’s rise. The west struggles to understand that the rest of the world has agency of its own. Janan Ganesh. FT, 14 December

Lithuania shows China’s coercive trade tactics are hard to counter. Beijing does not have to justify its actions under any laws and it is hard to prove government is behind punitive measures. Kathrin Hille. FT, 15 December

Long reads

China’s big new idea. Why Xi Jinping won’t stop talking about “common prosperity”. Michael Schuman. The Atlantic, 14 December

How Shein beat Amazon at its own game - and reinvented fast fashion. By connecting China’s garment factories with Western Gen-Z customers, Shein ushered in a new era of “ultra-fast” shopping. Rest of World, 14 December

In search of spirit in China’s wild west. Through history, culture, and contemporary China: A motorbike trip from Xi'an to Dunhuang. Anthony Tao. SupChina, 14 December