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China is stepping up its diplomatic bravado, testing how arduous Biden will push again

China is stepping up its diplomatic bravado, testing how hard Biden will push back

Senior US government officials examine China’s growing diplomatic bravery and growing military assertiveness with the intensity of elite athletes pondering their most resourceful rival’s feature films.

From the CIA to the White House and from the Pentagon to Foggy Bottom, these officials report a far greater willingness on the part of China to go on the offensive in the first 100 days of the Biden administration. The Chinese stand ready to face real and imaginary problems facing the United States and its allies, even as warnings and military activity escalate in Taiwan.

The new message from Beijing was consistent: the Biden government is trying to undermine China’s rise and promoting a false and dangerous portrayal of competition between democratic and autocratic systems. Therefore, countries around the world must decide whether to follow the divisive but declining United States or embrace a rising, unified and nonjudgmental China.

Between the lines, Chinese President Xi Jinping says that human rights violations and democratic failures are internal issues that cannot be discussed. In addition, Chinese officials stand ready to publicly attack the US record for racism and democracy, as does Beijing’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi in an unprecedented 16-minute diatribe to mark the first high-level US-China talks of the Biden government in March to open 18 in Anchorage, Alaska.

“There has recently been a tendency to liken China and the United States to ‘democracy versus authoritarianism’ to … put labels on countries,” said Wang Yi, the Chinese foreign minister who built on the Alaska Embassy last week at the Council on Foreign Relations. “But democracy is not Coca-Cola, which tastes the same as syrup made by the United States around the world.”

Wang said: “If democracy and human rights are used to conduct value-based diplomacy, meddle in the internal affairs of other countries, or stir up confrontation, it will only lead to turmoil or even disaster.”

His use of the term “catastrophe” caught the attention of his audience and made it clear what he meant by that.

“The Taiwan issue is the most important and sensitive issue in China-US relations,” he said, arguing that it should also be in US interests to oppose Taiwan’s independence and separatist instincts. “Playing the ‘Taiwan Card’ is a dangerous move, like playing with fire.”

Such rhetorical and possibly strategic changes do not occur by chance in (yes) authoritarian China. So it is both urgent and necessary to understand their meaning and respond appropriately. Given the contradicting mix of hubris and uncertainty in recent Chinese policies and actions, this will not be easy.

On the one hand, President Xi Jinping predicts growing national confidence that this is China’s historic moment. Xi hopes to build on what he sees groundbreaking in this centenary year of the Chinese Community Party that emerged from the pandemic and declared the end of absolute poverty in the country.

At the same time, Xi is responding to new challenges posed by the Biden government, which is rapidly escaping Covid-19 by delivering a formidable vaccine distribution and pumping $ 4 trillion, as well as considering stimulus and infrastructure development in the economy. US growth this year could be equal to or greater than China’s at a remarkable 6.5%.

The leaders of the two countries seem to agree that “we are at a turning point in history,” as President Biden said at a joint congressional session this week. “We are in competition with China and other countries to win the 21st century.”

Put it differently earlier this year, President Xi spoke to a Communist Party school meeting: “The world is undergoing profound changes that have not been seen in a century, but the time and the situation are in our favor. Here comes our determination and our trust. “”

In Biden, however, Xi sees a more methodical and coherent leader than his predecessor, more willing to work within institutions and with allies.

Biden convened the first Quadruple Security Dialogue Summit on March 12, attended by Japanese, Australian and Indian leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga became the first foreign leader to visit the White House since Biden took office on April 16, and the two leaders made the first joint statement in support of Taiwan since 1969.

Chinese leaders were also surprised on March 22nd when the United States, European Union, Britain and Canada sanctioned Chinese officials for human rights violations against the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang. Beijing’s response was an immediate and seemingly counterproductive response to punitive measures against EU citizens that were broader. The price for his tough message is that the European Parliament has put the recently announced China-EU investment deal on hold.

There appear to be three immediate targets for China’s current approach: the domestic audience, US partners and allies, and the developing world.

The priority of any authoritarian leader is political survival. President Xi appears to have strengthened his hand within the Chinese Community Party and weakened potential rivals by rallying nationalistically around Hong Kong and Taiwan and portraying the United States as a power determined to reverse China’s rise.

The second goal for Chinese valor is a preventive effort to reach U.S. allies and partners before the Biden administration has had enough time to get a bigger common cause off the ground. Wherever necessary, it wants to show that there will be a heavy price to pay for those who accept Washington at Beijing’s expense.

A US official cites a Chinese proverb to explain this strategy: “Kill a chicken to scare the monkey.” President Xi’s third target is the developing countries, where China’s progress has been greatest. The aim is to portray China as a more reliable and consistent partner in its development, with its own inspiring track record of modernization and commitment to staying out of the domestic affairs of other countries (and indeed providing the monitoring tools to other authoritarians) at the Staying in power).

At the same time, of course, China is also testing the Biden government. The aim is not to win Washington, where consensus on the Chinese challenge has grown. Rather, it is about testing the Biden government’s willingness to act on a range of issues – from technology controls to human rights – but especially on Taiwan.

Beijing is betting from previous experience that President Biden’s bark will be worse than its bite. If you are convinced of this, you can count on even more Chinese bravery and assertiveness in the next four years.

Frederick Kempe is a best-selling author, award-winning journalist, and President and CEO of the Atlantic Council, one of America’s most influential think tanks on global affairs. He worked for the Wall Street Journal for more than 25 years as foreign correspondent, assistant editor-in-chief and senior editor for the European edition of the newspaper. His latest book – “Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Most Dangerous Place in the World” – was a New York Times bestseller and has been published in more than a dozen languages. Follow him on Twitter @FredKempe and subscribe here to Inflection Points, his view every Saturday of the top stories and trends of the past week.

More information from CNBC staff can be found here @ CNBCopinion on twitter.

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A Graying China Could Should Put Off Retirement. Staff Aren’t Completely happy.

A Graying China May Have to Put Off Retirement. Workers Aren’t Happy.

Retirement cannot come soon enough for Meng Shan, a 48-year-old city administrator in the Chinese city of Nanchang.

Mr. Meng, who equates to a lowly, unarmed law enforcement officer, is often forced to hunt down unlicensed street vendors, a job he finds physically and emotionally demanding. The pay is low. Retirement, even with a meager state pension, would finally be a break.

As a result, Mr. Meng was dismayed when the Chinese government said it would raise the mandatory retirement age, which is currently 60 for men. He wondered how much longer his body could handle the job and whether his employer would fire him before he was eligible for a pension.

“To tell the truth,” he said of the government’s announcement, “this is extremely unfriendly to us low-ranking workers.”

China said last month that it will “gradually delay” the statutory retirement age over the next five years to address one of the country’s most pressing problems. The rapidly aging population means a decline in the workforce. State pension funds run the risk of becoming scarce. And China has some of the lowest retirement ages in the world: 50 for women workers, 55 for white-collar workers, and 60 for most men.

However, the idea is deeply unpopular. The government has not yet released details of its plan, but older workers have already stated that they have been cheated of their promised deadlines, while young people fear the already fierce competition for jobs will intensify.

And workers with manual labor or physically demanding jobs like Mr. Meng’s, who still make up the majority of the Chinese workforce, say they will be worn out, unemployed, or both.

The announcement came during the national legislature’s annual session, and afterwards, retirement-related topics were covered for days on Chinese social media, generating hundreds of millions of views and critical comments.

Around the world, raising the retirement age has proven to be one of the toughest challenges a government can face. Russia’s attempt to do so in 2018 resulted in the lowest approval ratings for President Vladimir V. Putin in years. Mr Putin finally pushed the plan through but made concessions, a rare move for him.

A pension reform plan in France sparked a lengthy transport strike last year and forced the government to postpone the proposal.

The Chinese government itself, in the face of a similar outcry, abandoned previous efforts to raise the retirement age in 2015.

This time it seems determined to hold on. But it also recognized the game. Officials seem cautious, leaving the details vague for now, but suggest that the threshold be raised by just a few months each year.

“They talked about it a long time,” said Albert Francis Park, an economics professor at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology who studied China’s pension system. “You really need to exercise some determination to get it through.”

China has been plunging into a retirement age crisis for years. The current standards were set in the 1950s when the average person was expected to only live in their early 40s.

However, with the country’s rapid modernization, life expectancy has reached almost 77 years, according to the World Bank. The birth rates have also fallen, so that China’s population is clearly top-heavy. According to the government, more than 300 million people, roughly a fifth of the population, are expected to be over 60 years old by 2025.

The result is what experts call a serious threat to continued economic growth and competitiveness in China. In Japan and many European countries, residents aged 65 and over are entitled to a pension. At a recent press conference, You Jun, Deputy Minister for Human Resources and Social Security, said that China is risking “a waste of human resources.”

In business today

Updated

April 26, 2021, 6:10 p.m. ET

The backlash has highlighted a number of other concerns in Chinese society on issues such as job security, social safety net and income inequality.

The hypercompetitive environment that defines many employees in China is already weighing on Naomi Chen, a 29-year-old financial analyst in Shanghai. She has often spoken to friends about her desire to retire early to escape the pressures, even if it means living more modestly.

The government’s announcement only confirmed this wish. China is already struggling to create enough well-paid employees for its emerging ranks of university graduates. With fewer retirees, Ms. Chen feared, she would work just as hard, but with less prospect of a payoff.

“Getting promoted is definitely going to be slower because people above me don’t retire,” she said.

In reality, older workers can suffer more. China has modernized so rapidly that they tend to be much less skilled or educated than their younger counterparts, which some employers are reluctant to keep, Professor Park said. In several industries, including the technology industry, 35 is considered the age limit to be hired.

Delaying retirement can also undermine another important government priority: encouraging couples to have more children in order to slow the aging of the population.

Partly due to insufficient childcare resources, the vast majority of Chinese depend on grandparents to be the primary caregivers of their children. Now social media users are wondering what will happen if the older generation is still working.

Lu Xia, 26, said the prospect of retiring later made it impossible to consider a second child. After all, having more children would mean having more grandchildren to look after, even if she was expected to keep working.

“Given our late retirement, it’s hard to imagine what we can expect as grandparents,” said Ms. Lu, who lives in Yangquan City, southwest of Beijing.

If China doesn’t increase childcare support, new parents can leave the workforce or postpone childbirth until their parents retire, exacerbating labor shortages, said Feng Jin, an economist at Fudan University, a government-sponsored labor magazine .

However, experts claim that the cost of inaction would be too high. A 2019 report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences predicted that the country’s main pension fund would expire by 2035, in part due to the dwindling workforce.

This has alarmed some young people who are wondering where their own pensions are coming from if nothing changes.

“I think that’s pretty fair,” said Wang Guohua, a 29-year-old blogger in Hebei Province, of the retirement age postponement. “If people are still alive but there is no more money, this has an impact on social stability.”

Mr. Wang added that he hadn’t seen the excitement of retiring at 60 given the increase in life expectancy: “You will have nothing to do.”

In fact, Bian Jianfu, who recently resigned from his job as a manager at a state-owned company in Sichuan Province, said he would not have minded working a few more years. His pension would also have increased.

Mr. Bian receives about $ 1,000 a month, more than double the average for urban retirees. He praised the government for consistently increasing pension payments over the past decade, although some experts have recognized the burden it has put on the system. “The Chinese government treats retirees very well,” he said.

However, this security is unevenly distributed and is likely to remain so even if the government backs up its pension funds.

Mr. Meng, the city administrator, receives approximately $ 460 a month, one-tenth of which is paid for retirement and basic insurance funds. When he finally retires, he expects to be pulling out $ 120 to $ 150 a month.

He admitted it was barely enough to make a living from. But he said he could do it – even if he was now increasingly unsure of when the date would come.

“I can only hold on,” said Meng. “Hold on until I’m the right age.”

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As China forges international commerce ties, U.S. dangers falling behind

As China forges global trade ties, U.S. risks falling behind

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang attends the signing ceremony of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement following the fourth RCEP summit held on November 15, 2020 via video link. Chinese Trade Minister Zhong Shan signed the agreement on behalf of China.

Xinhua News Agency | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images

The biggest hole in the Biden government’s otherwise encouraging efforts to better compete with China – a loophole that could undermine all other parts – is the lack of an international trade strategy.

As President Xi Jinping’s China accelerates its efforts to negotiate multilateral and bilateral trade and investment agreements around the world, both Republicans and Democrats in the US have become allergic to such agreements.

“The Chinese firmly believe in the importance of the correlation of forces, and they believe the correlation is in their favor right now,” said Stephen Hadley, former national security adviser to President George W. Bush. If the US does not change this Chinese belief, it will not regain the leverage needed to deal with Beijing.

“The most important missing element in changing this Chinese rationale is a trade strategy,” says Hadley, which could gather global allies, create American jobs and growth, and counter the escalating Chinese efforts to organize the world economy around them.

Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright once called the US the “indispensable country” of the world, but Xi now positions China as the “indispensable economy” of the world.

By 2018, 90 countries in the world were trading twice as much with China as they did with the United States. By 2019, China surpassed the US as the world’s largest recipient of FDI. The underlying message now is that China’s market is so large, its liquidity so deep and its recovery from Covid-19 so dramatic (up 18% in the first quarter) that no sane country can resist its acceptance.

“In times of economic globalization, openness and inclusion are an unstoppable historical trend,” President Xi told the Boao Asia Forum this week. Without mentioning Washington by name, he said that “attempts to” build walls “or” decouple “are contrary to economic law and market principles. They would harm the interests of others without being of any use to yourself.”

It is far too easy to poke holes in Xi’s statement: China is still rich in market protection measures and government interventions at home and abroad are on the rise. Intellectual property theft and cybercrime continue.

But without a modern, future-oriented trade strategy, the US is entering this global crisis with one arm behind its back.

“The US and China are in a strategic competition that will determine the shape of world politics this century,” former US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson Jr. wrote in the Wall Street Journal. “But when it comes to trade, a critical dimension of this competition, America is stepping down.”

This undermines the early successes of the emerging Biden approach to China.

First, Biden has benefited from a bipartisan consensus, rare in Congress these days, on the urgency to face the Chinese challenge.

Second, Biden has started gathering friends and allies in Asia and Europe who share his concerns about China.

In March, Biden called the first meeting of the heads of state and government of the “Quad”, in which the US, India, Australia and Japan participated, in order to balance China in the region. To address China’s far-reaching vaccine diplomacy, countries agreed to distribute 1 billion doses of vaccines by 2022.

Last week, Biden welcomed Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga as the first head of government to visit Washington. Their joint statement made no mention of China, but did promise that “free and democratic nations that work together” could act to withstand “challenges to the free and open rules-based international order”. You also spoke of ensuring cross-strait peace. This is the first mention of Taiwan by a Japanese prime minister in a joint statement with a US president since 1969.

And for the first time, on March 22, the EU imposed economic sanctions on China for human rights abuses in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region, which acted alongside the US, Canada and the UK.

Third, the Biden government’s $ 1.9 trillion Covid-19 stimulus plan and its upcoming $ 2.3 trillion infrastructure-related investment will keep the US competitive through investment in human capital, physical infrastructure and advanced Improve technology.

The problem is that the same bipartisan consensus in Congress on the Chinese challenge comes with a bipartisan allergy to the kind of multilateral and bilateral trade and investment deals that are required to address Beijing’s dynamic.

Last November, China was one of 15 Asia-Pacific countries, accounting for 30% of global GDP, to sign the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). It was China’s first free trade agreement with its US allies Japan and South Korea, which formed the largest trade bloc in history.

China has also expressed an interest in joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (CPTPP). This was the trade deal that eleven countries signed after the Trump administration pulled out of the effort as one of its first acts of government.

Should the RCEP agreement enter into force, which is expected to be before January 2022, and should China be able to join the CPTPP, the international trade agreement in Asia would have largely ended and China would have won.

At the same time, China is making progress on other fronts.

In January, it signed the EU-China Comprehensive Investment Agreement (CAI), much to the dismay of incoming Biden administration officials. (The conclusion of this agreement has stalled in the European Parliament due to new Chinese sanctions against the EU.)

Whatever happens in Brussels, most European countries are eager to sign trade and investment deals with China, which became the EU’s largest trading partner for the first time last year.

The real problem lies in Washington’s lack of alternatives – fueled by the misrepresentation by both parties that globalization has worked against American interests and jobs.

When the Republican Party transformed into the Trump Party, it abandoned the kind of free trade policy that President Ronald Reagan saw as “one of the keys to our nation’s great prosperity.”

While President Barack Obama was negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership during his presidency, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton rejected the deal in 2016 after calling it the “gold standard” only three years earlier.

“Both Democrats and Republicans are now advocating ‘a trade policy for the middle class,'” writes Adam Posen of the Peterson Institute in a convincing foreign policy that exposes this approach. “In practice, this appears to mean tariffs and ‘Buy American’ programs aimed at saving jobs from unfair foreign competition.”

Instead, he writes: “Washington should conclude deals that increase competition in the United States and raise tax, labor and environmental standards. It is the self-deceptive withdrawal from the international economy that has failed American workers for the past 20 years , not globalization itself. “

While the Biden government has put its trade agenda on hold, China marches forward – closing deals and setting the standards that will shape the future.

Frederick Kempe is a best-selling author, award-winning journalist, and President and CEO of the Atlantic Council, one of America’s most influential think tanks on global affairs. He worked for the Wall Street Journal for more than 25 years as foreign correspondent, assistant editor-in-chief and senior editor for the European edition of the newspaper. His latest book – “Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Most Dangerous Place in the World” – was a New York Times bestseller and has been published in more than a dozen languages. Follow him on Twitter @FredKempe and subscribe here to Inflection Points, his view every Saturday of the top stories and trends of the past week.

More information from CNBC staff can be found here @ CNBCopinion on twitter.

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Skilled calls on China, Japan to finish financing of abroad coal vegetation

Expert calls on China, Japan to end financing of overseas coal plants

Rich countries like China and Japan must stop funding coal-fired power plants in poorer countries in the fight against climate change, according to Rachel Kyte, who previously served as the UN Secretary-General’s special envoy and Sustainable Energy’s chief executive officer for All.

Kyte, who is now the dean of the Fletcher School at Tufts University, said that “coal has no place in the race for zero carbon emissions by 2050”.

“We need those countries that have coal to manage their own energy transition. And we have to stop funding coal in countries, especially in low-income countries,” she told CNBC’s Street Signs Asia on Friday.

Kyte’s comments come after South Korea’s President Moon Jae announced at a climate summit convened by US President Joe Biden Thursday that the country would stop all new overseas coal-fired power plant financing.

“To become climate neutral, it is imperative for the world to downsize coal-fired power plants,” said Moon, adding that developing countries facing challenges due to their reliance on coal should be given due consideration and access to adequate support. “”

Kyte marked South Korea’s step in the right direction and urged China and Japan to do the same.

“That is good with Korea’s announcement that it will stop overseas funding,” she noted. “That leaves Japan and China, as the two countries are still saying they will fund coal overseas. It will take us this year for both of them to find a way to get out of this commitment.”

Both China and Japan are heavy coal consumers and have been criticized by environmental groups for failing to take stronger steps to end their reliance on coal and other fossil fuels.

Even if the US and Europe make significant commitments to reduce their carbon emissions, according to Kyte, western countries still lack efforts to help less developed countries make their transition from coal.

“Also important is that the rest of the world has some kind of big deal on the table to help countries that may have been coal-fired in the past transform renewable and green energy,” said Kyte.

“We haven’t fully seen these types of financial commitments at this summit, so there is a lot to be done at the G-7 in the UK and the G-20 in Italy later this year,” she added.

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Journey.com up greater than 4% in Hong Kong IPO, bullish on China journey in Might

Trip.com up more than 4% in Hong Kong IPO, bullish on China travel in May

Online travel agency Trip.com made a strong debut in Hong Kong on Monday. The shares rose by around 4.55% compared to the issue price.

The China-based company is now joining other US-listed Chinese tech heavyweights like Alibaba, JD.com and Baidu, who have moved closer to their homeland via second deals in Hong Kong. The IPO was valued at $ 268 Hong Kong per share and $ 8,478 million (US $ 1.09 billion) was raised unless the over-allotment option is exercised.

The secondary listing comes as Chinese tech companies continue to face the risk of being delisted in the US, which clouded investor sentiment.

This May vacation we already have … some of the inbound people and we’re seeing a record number of travelers in China – likely double digit growth from pre-Covid levels.

James Liang

Chairman of the Board of the Trip.com Group

James Liang, CEO of Trip.com Group, told CNBC that the “main reason” for listing the company as a secondary listing in Hong Kong was to make it easier for global investors in Asia and China to trade stocks.

“Most of our customers are in Asia. I think it’s pretty natural for us to be listed in Hong Kong,” he said in an interview with CNBC’s Street Signs Asia on Monday.

“Very optimistic” about the May vacation

Even if much of the global travel market continues to stall due to the coronavirus pandemic, Trip.com expects a “record number of travelers in China” for the long vacation ahead in May.

“This May vacation, we already have … some of the numbers that are coming in, and we’re seeing a record number of travelers in China – likely double-digit growth from pre-Covid levels,” Liang said. Labor Day holidays are May 1-5 in China.

In particular, upscale accommodations like resorts and short-haul travel are expected to see “very, very rapid growth” that could actually more than offset the decline in international travel, Liang predicted.

An employee walks through the reception area at the headquarters of Trip.com Group Ltd. on Thursday, February 4, 2021. in Shanghai, China.

Qilai Shen | Bloomberg via Getty Images

“The money people save by buying international airline tickets is what people are spending on hotels, especially high-end hotels and cars, you know, on local transport,” he said. “While the total transaction amount may not hit record levels, we are very optimistic about the number of travelers and margins.”

China was the first country to report on the coronavirus pandemic. After tight lockdown measures launched across the country weeks after the earliest Covid-19 cases occurred in Wuhan city in late 2019, the country largely managed to contain the spread of the virus and stepped as one of the few major economies in 2020 that expanded this year.

In contrast, authorities in other countries continue to struggle to vaccinate their populations in the face of increasing viral infections and potential mutations.

One example is India, which has seen a second wave of coronavirus infections since February and overtook Brazil last week to become the second worst affected country after the US, just behind the US

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China is beginning scientific trials of a Covid vaccine that may be inhaled

China is starting clinical trials of a Covid vaccine that can be inhaled

China’s CanSino Biologics will begin clinical trials next week for a Covid-19 vaccine administered by inhalation, the company’s co-founder and chief executive officer Xuefeng Yu told CNBC on Sunday.

The effectiveness rates for China’s Covid vaccines have been found to be lower than those developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. Earlier this month, the director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control publicly admitted that Chinese vaccines “don’t have very high protection rates” and that they are considering giving people various Covid shots to make the vaccine more effective.

Yu told CNBC that an inhaled vaccine could be more effective than the injected one because the coronavirus enters the human body through the respiratory tract.

CanSinoBIO is developing the inhalation vaccine together with the Beijing Institute of Biotechnology. The company’s injected adenovirus type 5 vector vaccine – or Ad5-nCoV – has already been approved for use in China and several other countries.

Speaking to CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal at the Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan Province, China, Yu explained that an inhaled vaccine could theoretically provide additional protection by producing antibodies or T cells – white blood cells that are vital to the immune system. activates airways in the EU.

People who received Covid-19 shots at a temporary vaccination site in Kunming, Yunnan Province, China, on April 15, 2021.

Liu Ranyang | China News Service | Getty Images

If that protective layer fails and the virus penetrates deeper into the body, other parts of the immune system could keep fighting the Covid virus, Yu added.

“So you add more layers – makes sense, doesn’t it? That’s why we’re going the mucosal path,” he said.

The CEO said the company used the same concept to develop an inhalation vaccine for tuberculosis, or TB. Studies conducted in Canada showed that the inhaled dose for the TB vaccine needed to protect it “is much, much less than the actual injection,” he said.

Increase the effectiveness of the vaccine

CanSinoBIO’s single-dose injected Covid vaccine has been approved for use in several countries including China, Pakistan, Mexico and Hungary.

The company said preliminary data from third-phase clinical trials overseas showed its vaccine was 68.83% effective at preventing symptomatic Covid-19 disease two weeks after an injection, while the rate after four weeks Fell 65.28%, Reuters reported.

By comparison, updated data showed the Pfizer BioNTech shot was 91% effective at preventing infection, while Moderna said its vaccine was more than 90% effective six months after the second shot.

According to Yu, CanSinoBIO investigated adding a booster shot six months after the first injection, which could improve the immune response to the coronavirus.

“This also suggests that our vaccine could be improved – whether mixed with others or made by ourselves, I think that really requires a scientific study. We actually need data to show which way could be better,” said the CEO.

Reuters reported Monday that Chinese researchers are testing blending Covid vaccines developed by CanSinoBIO and a unit of Chongqing Zhifei Biological Products. The process, which is ongoing in the eastern city of Nanjing, is expected to involve 120 participants, the report said.

China was the first country to report cases of Covid-19 in late 2019 and appears to have largely contained the outbreak. The country has announced that it will vaccinate 40% of its population by June.

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Shake Shack has ‘large plans for Asia’ because it expands in China, Macao

Shake Shack has 'big plans for Asia' as it expands in China, Macao

The New York burger chain Shake Shack has “big plans for Asia,” said the CEO as the company embarks on a regional expansion drive.

Southern China and Macau are top priority for new branches – with locations in Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Macau’s casino resort The Londoner Randy Garutti, set to open in the coming months, told CNBC on Thursday.

Singapore and Beijing are also preparing for new store openings, according to the company’s website.

Our business in Asia has been incredibly robust.

Randy Garutti

CEO, Shake Shack

The CEO said the rollout responds to strong demand over the past year and will cement Asia as “one of the most important positions” in the company.

“Our business in Asia has been incredibly robust,” Garutti told Street Signs.

“We opened in Shanghai. Even last year, due to the pandemic, we opened in Beijing in August. We now have Macau and the south in our sights, starting in Shenzhen.”

Overall, the company plans to open 35 to 40 new locations worldwide in the 2021 financial year. Another 45 to 50 new openings will be added in 2022. Garutti didn’t say how many of them would be in Asia.

An order of fast food meal (hamburgers, fries and soft drink) in a Shake Shack restaurant in Sanitun on August 13, 2020 in Beijing, China.

VCG | Visual China Group | Getty Images

Shake Shack already has at least 48 locations in Asia, including Japan, South Korea and the Philippines.

Garutti said the brand will continue to work with Maxim’s Caterers in Hong Kong to facilitate its rollout in Greater China.

He insisted that customers would continue to enjoy the classic taste of Shake Shack, but added that specialty shakes, such as Shenzhen and Macau, as well as localized artwork would be offered in some new locations.

“People want us to be Shake Shack from New York,” Garutti said. “They don’t want us to change the menu. But we’re finding ways to have these little cameos.”

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Xpeng Motors launches P5 Lidar electrical automotive to rival Tesla in China

Xpeng Motors launches P5 Lidar electric car to rival Tesla in China

GUANGZHOU, China – Chinese electric vehicle maker Xpeng Motors on Wednesday unveiled the P5, a sedan with new self-driving features that is set to lead the way in the highly competitive Chinese auto market.

The P5, Xpeng’s third production model and second sedan after the P7, adds another competitor to Tesla’s Model 3 in China’s increasingly crowded field of electric car manufacturers.

The Chinese company, a rival of local players Nio and Li Auto, announced that it will release its prices at the Shanghai Auto Show on April 19th.

In an interview with CNBC on Wednesday, Xinzhou Wu, vice president of autonomous driving at Xpeng, said the price of the P5 will be lower than the P7.

“In this price range with the functions that we have built into the car, it will be very convincing for our customers,” he said.

Xpeng Motors will unveil the P5 sedan on April 14, 2021 at an event in Guangzhou, China. The P5 is the third series model from Xpeng and has what is known as Lidar technology.

Arjun Kharpal | CNBC

The P7 starts at 229,900 yuan ($ 35,192) after subsidies. By comparison, Tesla’s Model 3 starts at 249,900 yuan in China.

Wu said the P5 will be rolled out to customers in China in the third or fourth quarter of this year. Xpeng has also expanded into Norway, its first international market. Wu said the company would expand its presence in Northern Europe and eventually the P5 would be rolled out there. He didn’t give any schedules when this might happen.

Driverless technology

Xpeng has tried to drive the advancement of its self-driving features to differentiate itself from its competitors.

The P5 is equipped with what is known as lidar or light detection and ranging technology. Lidar systems send out lasers that can bounce back and measure distances. These returning rays are processed by an algorithm to create a three-dimensional representation of the surrounding objects – a key technology for autonomous vehicles to understand their surroundings.

Xpeng claims that lidar can help the P5 differentiate between pedestrians, cyclists and scooters, as well as road works – even at night and in low light.

On Wednesday, the Chinese automaker also released a new version of XPILOT, its so-called advanced driver assistance System (ADAS). This refers to a system with some autonomous functions, but for which a driver is still required.

XPILOT 3.5 has an updated version of a feature called Navigation Guided Pilot or NGP that allows users to autonomously perform tasks such as changing lanes or overtaking cars. Some of these functions are working for the first time on city streets. Previously, NGP was designed for highways only.

Xpeng’s XPILOT is an attempt to compete with Tesla’s own ADAS system called Autopilot, as well as other competitors like Nio with its Nio Pilot.

“In P7 we introduced NGP … only on freeways. However, freeway driving is only about 10% of people’s driving time. Getting the technology and ability to cities to do the function is very important Chinese people to make more user-friendly and more convincing customers, “said Wu.

In the city, Wu said the situation is getting “exponentially” and cited challenges to ensure the car can accurately and reliably detect objects in its path. “We believe with Lidar … it will help us achieve our goal much faster and give us an edge over our competitors.”

The competition is heating up

China’s electric car market is expected to pick up this year. According to research firm Canalys, 1.9 million units are expected to be sold, an increase of 51% over the previous year.

Various government incentives such as subsidies have made China the largest electric car market in the world. With that, some startups like Xpeng, Nio and Li Auto have grown quickly.

However, these players are competing against traditional automakers who are honing their electric vehicle capabilities, as well as other tech companies entering the fray.

We’re definitely one step ahead, you know, compared to most of our competitors. So we’re pretty confident that we can win this race with more newbies in this area.

Xinzhou Wu

Vice President for Autonomous Driving, Xpeng

Chinese search giant Baidu has teamed up with Geely to create a standalone electric car company, while smartphone giant Xiaomi announced plans to start an electric car business.

Last year, Xpeng delivered 27,041 vehicles, more than double that in 2019. In comparison, the Tesla Model 3 alone sold more than 137,000 units in China in 2020.

Wu said Xpeng developed a lot of technology that he believes will give the company an edge.

“We’re definitely one step ahead, a few steps ahead, you know compared to most of our competitors. So we’re pretty confident that we can win this race with more newbies in the field,” Wu told CNBC.

“We believe that with this kind of focus on the Chinese market, the Chinese customers, the Chinese road conditions and also the various technologies that we are bringing together to better adapt the technology to the Chinese market, we have an advantage over Tesla the Chinese market. “

Categories
Politics

Intelligence Report Calls China Greatest Menace to U.S.

Intelligence Report Calls China Biggest Threat to U.S.

China’s efforts to expand its growing influence pose one of the greatest threats to the United States, according to a major annual intelligence report released Tuesday that also warned that Beijing is capable of cyberattacks affecting the critical infrastructure in the United States Temporarily disrupt the United States.

In the report, China’s quest for “global power” ranks first on the list of threats, followed by Russia, Iran and North Korea. There are usually few general revelations in the annual reports that are a collection of approved reviews, although the ranking of intelligence threats and how they change over time can be meaningful.

“Beijing, Moscow, Tehran and Pyongyang have demonstrated the ability and intent to advance their interests at the expense of the United States and its allies despite the pandemic,” the report said. “China is increasingly a peer-to-peer competitor, challenging the US in a variety of areas – particularly economic, military, and technological – and pushing to change global norms.”

The section on Iran could influence negotiations on the re-entry of the United States into the nuclear deal. It is important that the intelligence services assess that Iran “is not currently engaged in the most important nuclear weapon development activities” required to build a nuclear device. However, according to the report, Iranian leaders will most likely be reluctant to hold talks with the United States without relieving sanctions.

The intelligence rating also offered a grim assessment of Afghanistan, just days before President Biden will announce when he will be pulling the last troops out of the country. Intelligence agencies believe the prospects for a peace deal remain slim and the Taliban are likely to make profits on the battlefield, the report said. Over the past few weeks, officials who said American troops should stay longer have used the assessment to reinforce their arguments.

China’s strategy, according to the report, is to drive wedges between the United States and its allies. Beijing has also used its success in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic to promote “system superiority”.

The report predicts that China will urge the Taiwanese government to move forward with unification and will criticize the United States’ efforts to step up engagement with Taipei. However, the report did not predict any direct military conflict.

China is using its electronic surveillance and hacking capabilities not only to suppress dissent within its country, but also to intervene that affects people outside its borders, the report said. China also poses a growing threat from cyberattacks against the United States, and intelligence agencies assess that Beijing “can at least cause localized, temporary disruptions to critical infrastructure in the United States.”

There are few surprises when it comes to assessing the secret service in Russia. It makes it clear that American spy agencies still view Moscow as a pre-eminent threat, despite many viewing Moscow as a declining power. They discover that a Russian supply chain hacking operation has created vulnerabilities in around 18,000 computer networks around the world. The assessment said that while Russia would avoid direct conflict with America, it would use campaigns of influence, mercenary operations, and military exercises to advance its interests and undermine those of the United States.

While the report highlights the traditional types of national security threats the nation faces, it gives a nod to the challenges of climate change and global pandemics that the Biden government has announced that intelligence agencies will investigate more closely. The threats are largely long-term, but can also have short-term effects, the report said.

“The American people should know as much as possible about the threats our nation faces and what their intelligence agencies are doing to protect them,” said Avril B. Haines, the director of the national intelligence agency whose office wrote the report published.

The new report is followed by statements from Congress by Mrs Haines; William J. Burns, the CIA director; and other senior intelligence officials on Wednesday and Thursday.

Categories
World News

China fines Alibaba $2.eight billion in anti-monopoly probe

China fines Alibaba $2.8 billion in anti-monopoly probe

The front of Alibaba’s Wangjing office in Beijing on December 24, 2020.

Costfoto | Barcroft Media | Getty Images

Chinese regulators fined Alibaba 18.23 billion yuan ($ 2.8 billion) in the tech giant’s antimonopoly investigation, claiming it abused its dominance.

Regulators launched an investigation into the company’s monopoly practices in December. The main focus of the research was on a practice that forces traders to choose one of two platforms rather than being able to work with both.

In a statement on Saturday, the Chinese State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said the policy suppressed competition in China’s online retail market and “harmed retailers’ businesses on platforms and the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, according to a CNBC translation. a Chinese-language statement.

The government said the “choose one” policy and others allowed Alibaba to strengthen its position in the market and gain unfair competitive advantage.

In addition to the fine, which represents around 4% of the company’s 2019 sales, regulators are required to file Alibaba self-assessment and compliance reports with the SAMR for three years.

The company said in a statement that it had accepted the penalty and would comply with the SAMR’s decision. Alibaba said it had fully cooperated with the investigation, conducted a self-assessment and already made improvements to its internal systems.

“Alibaba would not have achieved our growth without solid government regulation and service, and the critical scrutiny, tolerance and support of all of our constituencies have been vital to our development,” the company said.

The company added it would hold a conference call at 8 a.m. Hong Kong time on Monday to discuss the fine.

The announcement is the latest development in China’s crackdown on its technology companies. Regulators are increasingly concerned about the power of China’s tech giants, especially those in the financial sector.

Much of this heightened scrutiny has tightened in the business empire of billionaire Jack Ma, who founded both Alibaba and Ant Group.

Ant’s much-anticipated IPO was abruptly suspended in November, shortly after Chinese regulators released new draft rules on online microcredit, an integral part of the company’s business. The China Securities Regulatory Commission also cited Ma and other Ant executives ahead of the announcement.

Ma appeared to have come under fire for criticizing China’s financial regulators. The country’s financial system is “the legacy of the industrial age”.

After the Ant went public, Ma fell out of the spotlight and fueled speculation about his whereabouts. In January, the eccentric billionaire reappeared briefly in a video as part of an initiative by his charity foundation.

Ant has since committed to listing, saying it would help employees monetize stocks.

– CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal, Evelyn Cheng and Eunice Yoon contributed to this report.