China News 19 May 2020
International
World Health Assembly: Xi backs international Coronavirus probe - but only after pandemic. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director general, said he welcomed a proposal by more than 120 countries for an "impartial, independent and comprehensive evaluation". President Xi pledged $2bn in coronavirus aid for developing countries. CNN, 19 May. FT, 19 May. Twitter, 19 May. BBC News, 19 May
Zuckerberg urges West to counter China's 'dangerous' approach to internet regulation. CNBC, 18 May
Sylvester: Conservative MPs “united in the push to reduce Britain’s dependency on the bullying, authoritarian regime”. In the Times Rachel Sylvester looks at how a more critical approach to the Chinese government is uniting MPs from across the political spectrum. She quotes a cabinet minister saying, “we need to reduce dependency. Now is not the time… but long term it will rise up the agenda”. She says Labour will also move to a more critical stance. Times, 19 May
Kinnock: “we’ve been played” by Chinese government. Stephen Kinnock, Labour’s shadow Asia spokesman, discussing UK ties with China said, "we have been played", and the "UK has rolled out the red carpet and got very little in return". He said recent conversations with Chinese ‘wolf warrior’ diplomats has revealed aggression and very little respect. Twitter
Wuhan blogger disappeared by police. Zhang Zhan became the latest citizen journalist to be arrested after criticising the authorities. SCMP & RFA, 18 May
Fukuyama: west needs to disengage from China. “the United States and other liberal democracies need to begin a gradual economic disengagement from China…. Europe and North America have become dangerously dependent on the manufacturing capabilities of a hostile power. There are today plenty of other places around the world where supply chains can be located. Squeezing every drop of efficiency out of them needs to give way to consideration of resilience, diversity of inputs, and regard for capabilities that are better kept under the control of countries that share democratic values. The atrophy of Western providers of end-to-end 5G infrastructure is something that should never have been allowed to happen.” American Interest, 18 May
100 million face lockdown as CCP medical adviser warns China vulnerable to second wave of Coronavirus. CNN, 17 May and Bloomberg 18 May
Taiwan fears increased military activity from China. FT, 19 May
Huawei investing £5m in Imperial College. Mail on Sunday, 17 May
Hong Kong: Beijing mulls pushing through national security law, delayed by protests since 2003. SCMP, 18 May
Interview with Damian Green from CRG, on how under Xi, the CCP has moved to a stance that is “aggressive, more anti-western and determined to use their economic strength to exclusively promote their interests”. Formiche, 18 May
Economy
U.S. mulls paying companies tax breaks to pull supply chains from China. On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order that gave a U.S. overseas investment agency new powers to help manufacturers in the United States. The goal, Trump said, is to “produce everything America needs for ourselves and then export to the world, and that includes medicines.” Reuters reports on the debate within the US on how to do this, including the idea of a $25 billion reshoring fund. Reuters, 19 May
US/China chip dispute:
Huawei Braces for Latest U.S. Hit, but Some Say Loopholes Remain. WSJ, 18 May
TSMC halts new Huawei orders after US tightens restrictions. Nikkei Asian Review, 18 May
China working towards fully domestic chip making after US action on TSMC cuts off Huawei. XDA, 13 May
US Bureau of International Security says: “Huawei engages, clearly, in illegal activity, including intellectual property theft from U.S. companies and the evasion of U.S. sanctions... Huawei is an enabler for human rights abuses by the People’s Republic of China.” US State department briefing
Franco-German agreement on “European Health Sovereignty” and reshoring. Germany and France released a joint plan which does not mention China but calls for “the diversification of supply chains” … “a sovereign economy and industrial base” … “reciprocity for public procurement with third countries” … “investment screening towards non-EU investors in strategic sectors… while at the same time encouraging investments (re)located in the EU” … “adjust the Commission’s industrial strategy… and modernise competition policy.” The document says the ideas will be developed through the Conference on the Future of Europe, which runs 2020-22. Full text, video of joint press conference
“Poor Countries Borrowed Billions from China. They Can’t Pay It Back.” NY Times, 18 May
Nasdaq to tighten listing rules, restricting Chinese IPOs. Reuters, 19 May
Long Reads
Wired reports on state-backed voice-recognition firm iFlytech. The ability to identify individual speakers and understand idiom is being used to enable surveillance in Xinjiang, according to Human Rights Watch. Wired, 18 May
Globalisation, China and the Coronavirus - Civitas
Events
Today: Times Higher Education seminar on future of British education and 5G, sponsored by Huawei. (NB some criticism on twitter of the large number of Huawei-sponsored academics speaking)
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