Tag: Chinese

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Politics

Biden prohibits U.S. funding in 59 Chinese language firms

Biden prohibits U.S. investment in 59 Chinese companies

United States President Joe Biden speaks during a commemoration ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre at the Greenwood Cultural Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 1, 2021.

Almond Ngan | AFP | Getty Images

President Joe Biden on Thursday expanded restrictions on American investments in certain Chinese companies with alleged links to the country’s military and surveillance efforts, adding more companies to a growing blacklist.

In an executive order, Biden banned US investors for fear of ties to the Chinese government’s geopolitical ambitions, thereby continuing some parts of former President Donald Trump’s tough stance in talks with Beijing.

“This EO enables the United States to specifically and enrichingly prohibit US investments in Chinese companies that undermine the security or democratic values ​​of the United States and our allies,” a White House press release said.

The move will prevent US dollars from supporting the “Chinese defense sector” while expanding the US government’s ability to counter the threat posed by Chinese surveillance technology firms that – both inside and outside of China – monitor religious or ethnic minorities contribute to or otherwise facilitate repression and serious human rights violations, “added the government.

The 59 excluded companies include Aero Engine Corp. of China, Aerosun Corp., Fujian Torch Electron Technology and Huawei Technologies.

The bans go into effect on August 2 at 00:01 a.m. ET.

CNBC policy

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The move is one of the strongest yet against its leading U.S. rival, and yet another sign that the Biden administration could adopt or advance many of the Trump administration’s tactics to stay competitive with China.

Biden and his economic advisors also need to decide what to do with a range of tariffs and whether to increase sanctions against Chinese officials involved in the mass incarceration of mainly Muslim ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang region.

A representative from the Chinese State Department challenged the move by the Biden administration, telling press officials that the Trump administration’s original order was carried out “in complete disregard for the facts.”

“The US should respect the rule of law and the market, correct its mistakes and stop actions that undermine the global financial market order and the legitimate rights and interests of investors,” said spokesman Wang Wenbin to reporters in Beijing.

The previous order of the Trump administration created a list of 48 companies.

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World News

Chinese language rocket anticipated to plunge again to Earth

Chinese rocket expected to plunge back to Earth

WENCHANG, CHINA – APRIL 29, 2021: A long Y2 rocket dated March 5, 2017, carrying the Tianhe module for the Chinese space station, will be launched from the Wenchang spacecraft launch site in Wenchang on Thursday, April 29, 2021 south China’s Hainan Province.

Barcroft Media | Barcroft Media | Getty Images

The wreckage of a Chinese rocket is expected to land back on earth this weekend. Experts are trying to figure out exactly when and where the remains will touch down.

The Long March 5B was launched on April 29th at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in China. Their mission was to put a module with living quarters into orbit for a future Chinese space station.

But after completing this task, the rocket’s body is now orbiting the earth and will soon re-enter the lower atmosphere. The uncontrolled nature of its reentry has made experts concerned about the potential impact it could have upon landing. The large piece of space debris is 98 feet long and 16.5 feet wide and weighs 21 tons.

Federally funded research firm The Aerospace Corporation posted a tweet late Friday saying that the forecast for landing on Sunday morning was eight hours on either side of 4:19 GMT. It identified an area near New Zealand’s North Island as a possible re-entry point, but said it could happen anywhere in much of the planet.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a press conference on Friday that it was “common” around the world for the upper stages of rockets to burn as they reenter the atmosphere.

“China is closely following the re-entry of the upper stage into the atmosphere. To the best of my knowledge, the upper stage of this missile has been deactivated, which means that most of its parts will burn on re-entry and the likelihood of damage to aviation or ground facilities and activities extremely low” he said, according to a translation on the ministry’s website.

On Thursday, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told reporters that the United States had no plans to shoot it down, hoping it would land in a place where it would not harm anyone.

“I think this speaks to the fact that for those of us in space there is a requirement – there should be a requirement – to work in a safe and – and thoughtful mode and make sure we do These kinds of things are taken into account when planning and performing operations, “he said.

Indeed, it is common for rockets and space debris to fall back to Earth. Last year, an 18-ton Chinese rocket passed Los Angeles and New York’s Central Park before falling into the Atlantic.

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World News

‘Are You Like This Doggy?’ U.S. Embassy Requested Chinese language College students. It Backfired.

‘Are You Like This Doggy?’ U.S. Embassy Asked Chinese Students. It Backfired.

HONG KONG – The US Embassy in Beijing had good news to report: Student visa applications for Chinese nationals have resumed after a year-long hiatus.

“Spring has come and the flowers are in bloom,” the message wrote on Wednesday in a Chinese-language social media post that contained a video of a dog trying to jump over a fence. “Are you like that pooch who can’t wait to go out and play?”

It backfired, big time.

The post on Weibo, a Twitter-like platform in China, could be seen as an attempt to be cute. But at a moment of rising nationalism on the Chinese Internet, it sparked criticism – and allegations of racism – which were compounded by the ruling Communist Party’s formidable propaganda machine.

The embassy quickly removed the post and apologized, but the damage was done. The spit is the final thorn in a diplomatic relationship that is prickly at best and has recently been at its most delicate point in decades.

Some Weibo users wrote that the US State Department deliberately tried to offend Chinese students by comparing them to dogs. The Global Times, an English-language Chinese tabloid, accumulated criticism of the Post and criticized former President Donald J. Trump’s visa policy.

Fang Kecheng, a professor of journalism and communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said the response is a typical example of how nationalist news outlets and social media users in China are waging “public opinion warfare”.

“They pay close attention to what the US government and the media are saying and reinforce inappropriate language to discredit them,” he said.

Professor Fang said such campaigns sometimes drew attention to statements he believed should be criticized, such as Mr. Trump’s use of the term “China virus” to describe the coronavirus. This phrase has been widely criticized as racist and anti-Chinese in the United States and beyond.

“In this case, it amplifies a misstep,” he added, referring to the embassy’s social media post.

Earlier last year, Mr Trump imposed restrictions on travelers from China, including students, which sparked criticism from Beijing. The Weibo post of the US Embassy Consular Section on Wednesday announced that student applications under the direction of President Biden have resumed.

Not everyone who criticized the embassy post in China was outraged. Some Weibo users said they were more disappointed than angry, adding that the post was more deaf than intentionally malicious.

“It didn’t need the Weibo post to have that line about the dog,” said Susan Chen, a student from south China’s Guangdong Province, who returned to China last year after starting a master’s degree in Connecticut. “It could have simply said, ‘Spring has come and the flowers are in bloom, come and get the visa.'”

Recognition…US State Department

An embassy spokesman said Thursday that the United States has the greatest respect for all Chinese and that the social media post should be “lighthearted and humorous.” The spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity on the terms of the embassy, ​​said the staff had cut the post as soon as it became clear that many Chinese people saw the embassy differently.

The episode further shows how frayed US-China relations have become in terms of tariffs, human rights violations in China’s Xinjiang region and a technological cold war, among other things. Travel between the two countries has been largely frozen by strict visa controls, due to both Covid-19 protocols and acidic relations. Even attempts to restore diplomatic normalcy were fraught with problems.

There are also potential financial implications for the US education sector.

About one million international students enroll in American universities each year. According to the Institute of International Education, more than a third came from China in the 2019-2020 academic year.

However, experts say universities in the US and other English-speaking countries could lose billions of dollars in the coming years because Chinese students and parents are upset about what they believe to be a permissive stance on public health during the pandemic due to travel restrictions and anger.

Last year, the Trump administration abandoned a plan to visa-withdraw international college students if they did not attend at least a few classes in person. Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and attorneys general from 20 states had complained about the proposed policy, saying it was ruthless, cruel and pointless.

Paul Mozur contributed to the reporting and Lin Qiqing contributed to the research.

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Business

Europe Takes a More durable Line on Chinese language Companies: Stay Updates

Facebook banned President Donald J. Trump after he used social media accounts to incite a mob of supporters to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Here’s what you need to know:

Credit…Erin Schaff/The New York Times

A Facebook-appointed panel of journalists, activists and lawyers ruled on Wednesday to uphold the social network’s ban of former President Donald J. Trump, ending any immediate return by Mr. Trump to mainstream social media and renewing a debate about tech power over online speech.

Facebook’s Oversight Board, which acts as a quasi-court to deliberate the company’s content decisions, said the social network was right to bar Mr. Trump after he used the site to foment an insurrection in Washington in January, Mike Isaac reports for The New York Times. The panel said the ongoing risk of violence “justified” the suspension.

But the board also said that Facebook’s penalty of an indefinite suspension was “not appropriate,” and that the company should apply a “defined penalty.” The board gave Facebook six months to determine its final decision on Mr. Trump’s account status.

The board is a panel of about 20 former political leaders, human rights activists and journalists picked by Facebook to deliberate the company’s content decisions, explains Cecilia Kang of The Times. It began a year ago and is based in London.

The idea for the board was for the public to have a way to appeal decisions by Facebook to remove content that violates its policies against harmful and hateful posts. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s C.E.O., has said neither he nor the company wanted to have the final decision on speech.

The company and paid members of the panel stress that the board is independent. But Facebook funds the board with a $130 million trust and top executives played a big role in its formation.

At a General Motors assembly plant in Ontario.Credit…Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press, via Associated Press

General Motors said it made a $3 billion profit in the first three months of the year, but warned that its profit would be significantly smaller in the second quarter because of a global shortage computer chips.

Last year, G.M. made a profit of just $294 million in the first quarter as the coronavirus pandemic took hold and shut down much of the global economy.

The company forecasts net income for the first half of the year would total about $3.5 billion, implying a profit of around $500 million in the second quarter. It said it expected a rebound in the second half and predicted net income for the full year to range from $6.8 billion to $7.6 billion.

“This remains a challenging period for the company as we emerge from 2020, but the team continues to demonstrate its ability to manage complex situations,” G.M.’s chief executive, Mary Barra, said in a letter to shareholders.

Separately, Stellantis, the company formed by the merger of Peugeot SA and Fiat Chrysler, reported revenue of 34 billion euros ($41 billion) since the merger was completed on Jan. 17. Had the merger been completed earlier, the new company’s revenue for the full first quarter would have been 37 billion euros, up 14 percent over the same period a year ago.

Stellantis said its production in the first quarter was 11 percent lower than planned because of the chip shortage, and it also warned that the second quarter would be weaker than the first.

Valdis Dombrovskis, the European commissioner for trade. Efforts to approve an investment agreement between the European Union and China are on hold, he said.Credit…Pool photo by Yves Herman

The European Union’s administrative arm said Wednesday that it would take action against foreign companies that receive financial support from their governments, a move clearly aimed at China amid signs of deteriorating ties.

The tougher line against China comes only four months after Brussels and Beijing seemed to be moving closer, working out an agreement in December intended to make it easier for European companies to invest in what has become the bloc’s most important trading partner for goods.

But since then relations have gone downhill because of tension over Chinese policy toward minority groups in Xinjiang province.

Legislation proposed by the European Commission Wednesday would give it power to investigate and take measures against foreign companies that use government subsidies to get an unfair advantage over domestic competitors, an accusation often leveled at China. A separate proposal, also announced Wednesday, is intended to make Europe less dependent on China for crucial goods like semiconductors, drugs and batteries.

The proposals came a day after Valdis Dombrovskis, the European commissioner for trade, said that work on finalizing the December investment agreement with Beijing was on hold because of repressive Chinese policies.

In March, the European Commission sanctioned four Communist Party officials after accusing them of being responsible for human rights violations against members of the Muslim Uyghurs and other minority groups in Xinjiang.

China retaliated with sanctions against numerous members of the European Parliament, several scholars, and employees of human rights organizations and think tanks which have been critical of China.

In light of the sanctions war, Mr. Dombrovskis told Agence France-Presse on Tuesday that “it’s clear the environment is not conducive for ratification of the agreement.”

This is what @VDombrovskis told @AFP on the ratification of #CAI with China – not first time he’s said it & not breaking news.

To be clear: this is not a formal suspension decision, just means there’s no political outreach right now to promote the agreement – see end of quote. pic.twitter.com/P1CgzkMu8e

— Vanessa Mock (@vanessamock) May 4, 2021

Europe’s tougher line toward China brings it closer to the stance adopted by the Biden administration, which objected to the investment agreement. But Europe remains divided over how to approach an important trading partner that is also a geopolitical rival.

Markus J. Beyrer, director general of BusinessEurope, a leading business lobby, said in a statement Wednesday that the proposal on subsidies is “a step in the right direction in addressing existing legal loopholes and preventing market distortions.”

But a prominent business group in Germany, which is highly dependent on exports to China, was critical.

“The proposed regulation is very complex and there is a risk that its implementation will lead to considerable additional bureaucracy and legal uncertainty for our member companies,” said Ulrich Ackermann, managing director of foreign trade at V.D.M.A., which represents German makers of industrial equipment.

Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency that started as a joke, is on a tear. A surge in the past day pushed it to another record, sending it some 14,000 percent higher than it started the year.

One theory is that the upcoming appearance of Elon Musk, the Tesla chief executive and noted Dogecoin superfan, as the host of “Saturday Night Live” on May 8 could get more people interested in trading the crypto token. It’s as good a reason as any for those who try to rationalize its movements.

The latest bout of Dogecoin mania has somewhat overshadowed what’s going on in Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency, which also set records this week and made its 27-year-old co-creator, Vitalik Buterin, a billionaire (in dollars). The price of Ether, the crypto token built on the Ethereum blockchain, is up more than 350 percent for the year to date, outpacing Bitcoin’s relatively pedestrian 90 percent gain — which, for context, outpaces every stock in the S&P 500 over that period.

  • Stocks on Wall Street rose on Wednesday, following European markets higher, and rebounding from a decline the day before.

  • The S&P 500 rose about half a percent, while the Stoxx Europe 600 index rose 1.5 percent. The FTSE 100 in Britain rose 1.2 percent.

  • In oil markets, Brent crude gained 1.1 percent, to $69.61 a barrel, and West Texas Intermediate rose 1 percent to $66.32 a barrel.

  • New data on the European economy from IHS Markit reflected continued strengthening. The eurozone composite purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for April grew for the second consecutive month. Significantly, the service sector grew after seven months of contraction.

  • “The updated services PMIs for April confirmed that the worst for the eurozone economy should be over,” said Nicola Nobile, the lead eurozone economist for Oxford Economics, in a note to clients. “The vaccination progress and the gradual reopening of some of the economies point to” an increase in economic output already underway, she added.

  • Stellantis, the name for the merger of Fiat Chrysler and PSA, the maker of Peugeot, said the semiconductor shortage caused an 11 percent decline in production of automobiles in the first quarter, representing about 190,000 vehicles.

  • Dealer inventories were down in all areas, “primarily due to the semiconductor shortage,” the company said. Despite that, Stellantis reported net revenue up 14 percent. Shares gained 3 percent in European trading.

President Biden signing a law in March to extend the Paycheck Protection Program through May 31, with Vice President Kamala Harris, left, and Isabel Guzman, the administrator of the Small Business Administration.Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times

Four weeks before its scheduled end, the federal government’s signature aid effort for small business ravaged by the pandemic — the Paycheck Protection Program — ran out of funding on Tuesday afternoon and stopped accepting most new applications.

Congress allocated $292 billion to fund the program’s most recent round of loans. Nearly all of that money has now been exhausted, the Small Business Administration, which runs the program, told lenders and their trade groups on Tuesday. (An earlier version of this item misstated that the actions it described occurred Wednesday.)

While many had predicted that the program would run out of funds before its May 31 application deadline, the exact timing came as a surprise to many lenders.

“It is our understanding that lenders are now getting a message through the portal that loans cannot be originated,” the National Association of Government Guaranteed Lenders, a trade group, wrote in an alert to its members Tuesday evening. “The P.P.P. general fund is closed to new applications.”

Some money — around $8 billion — is still available through a set-aside for community financial institutions, which generally focus on lending to businesses run by women, minorities and other underserved communities. Those lenders will be allowed to process applications until that money runs out, according to the trade group’s alert.

Confirming that the program is out of funds, a spokeswoman for the Small Business Administration said that the S.B.A. is “committed to delivering economic aid through the many Covid relief programs it’s currently administering and beyond.”

Some money remains available for lenders to finish processing pending applications that were already submitted to the agency, according to S.B.A. officials and lenders. But people whose applications had not yet been sent in for approval are at risk of being shut out.

Since its creation last year, the Paycheck Protection Program has disbursed $780 billion in forgivable loans to fund 10.7 million applications, according to the latest government data. Congress renewed the program in December’s relief bill, expanding the pool of eligible applicants and allowing the hardest-hit businesses to return for a second loan.

Lawmakers in March extended the program’s deadline to May, but they have shown little enthusiasm for adding significantly more money to its coffers. With vaccination rates increasing and pandemic restrictions easing, Congress’s focus on large-scale relief effort for small businesses has waned.

But Senator Ben Cardin, Democrat of Maryland and the chair of the Senate’s small business and entrepreneurship committee, “remains open to a bipartisan agreement to add funds to the program,” a spokesman for Mr. Cardin said.

Representative Nydia M. Velázquez, a New York Democrat who chairs the House of Representative’s small business committee, is also open to a deal to extend the program, her office said.

The government’s recent efforts have been focused on the most devastated industries. Two new grant programs run by the Small Business Administration — for businesses in the live-events and restaurant industries — began accepting applications in recently, though no grants have yet been awarded.

Tim Sweeney, the head of Epic Games, on Tuesday in Oakland, Calif. He testified in court that he did not know how a verdict against Apple would affect other types of apps.Credit…Ethan Swope/Getty Images

Last May, Epic Games was making plans to circumvent Apple’s and Google’s app store rules and ultimately sue them in cases that could reshape the entire app economy and have profound ripple effects on antitrust investigations around the world.

Epic’s chief operating officer, Daniel Vogel, sent other executives an email raising a concern: Epic must persuade Apple and Google to give in to its demands for looser rules, he wrote, “without us looking like the baddies.”

Apple and Google, Mr. Vogel warned, “will treat this as an existential threat.” To prepare, Epic formed a public relations and marketing plan to get the public behind its campaign against the tech giants.

Apple seized on that plan in a federal courtroom in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, the second day of what is expected to be a three-week trial stemming from Epic’s claims that Apple relies on its control of its App Store to unfairly squeeze money out of other companies.

Judge Yvonne Gonzales Rogers of California’s Northern District, who will decide the case, also asked Epic’s chief executive, Tim Sweeney, a series of pointed questions about its potential consequences. She asked whether he had any understanding of the economics of other types of apps, including food, maps, GPS, weather, dating or instant messaging.

“So you don’t have any idea how what you are asking for would impact any of the developers who engage in those other categories of apps, is that right?” the judge asked.

“I personally do not,” Mr. Sweeney said, in his second day on the witness stand.

Apple’s lawyers argued that Epic had attacked App Store fees to shore up a slowing business. Gross revenue on Fortnite, Epic’s flagship video game, shrank in the last three quarters of 2019 compared with 2018, according to an Epic presentation to its board of directors about its plan to fight Apple. The presentation was disclosed in court on Tuesday, along with the executive’s emails.

Under questioning from Apple’s lawyers, Mr. Sweeney said Epic’s own game store was not expected to turn a profit until at least 2024.

Epic’s lawyers said the lawsuit was not just about Epic and Fortnite but about fairness for all apps that must use Apple’s App Store to reach consumers.

“Our contention in this case is that all apps are at issue,” said Katherine Forrest, a lawyer at Cravath, Swaine & Moore.

Epic is not asking for a payout if it wins the trial; it is seeking relief in the form of changes to App Store rules. Epic has asked Apple to allow app developers to use other methods to collect payments and open their own app stores within their apps.

Apple has countered that these demands would raise a world of new issues, including making iPhones less secure.

On Tuesday afternoon, Benjamin Simon, founder of Yoga Buddhi, which makes the Down Dog Yoga app, testified about his company’s problems with Apple’s policies. Mr. Simon said that he had to charge more for subscriptions on the App Store to make up for the 30 percent fee that Apple charged him, and that Apple’s rules prevented him from promoting inside his app a cheaper price that is available on the web.

Mr. Simon said Apple warned app developers against speaking out about its policies in guidelines for getting their apps approved. “‘If you run to the press and trash us, it never helps,’” he said. “That was in the guidelines.”

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle. Its $50 billion endowment cannot be removed or divided up as a marital asset, a philanthropy scholar said.Credit…David Ryder/Getty Images

When Bill and Melinda Gates announced filed for divorce in Washington State on Monday, grant recipients and staff members alike wondered what would happen to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The message from the headquarters in Seattle was clear: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation isn’t going anywhere.

The foundation’s $50 billion endowment is in a charitable trust that is irrevocable, Nicholas Kulish reports for The New York Times. It cannot be removed or divided up as a marital asset, said Megan Tompkins-Stange, a professor of public policy and scholar of philanthropy at the University of Michigan. She noted, however, that there was no legal mandate that would prevent them from changing course.

“I think there may be changes to come,” she said. “But I don’t see it as a big asteroid landing on the field of philanthropy as some of the hyperbole around this has indicated.”

The foundation, which set a new standard for private philanthropy in the 21st century, has given away nearly $55 billion, giving the couple instant access to heads of state and leaders of industry.

The couple’s prominence has also brought a fair share of scrutiny, throwing a spotlight on Mr. Gates’s robust defense of intellectual property rights — in this case, specific to vaccine patents — even in a time of extreme crisis, as well as the larger question of how unelected wealthy individuals can play such an outsize part on the global stage.

“In a civil society that is democratic, one couple’s personal choices shouldn’t lead university research centers, service providers and nonprofits to really question whether they’ll be able to continue,” said Maribel Morey, founding executive director of the Miami Institute for the Social Sciences.

Categories
World News

Chinese language electrical automotive makers goal Europe as competitors heats up

Chinese electric car makers target Europe as competition heats up

Nio plans to begin delivering its ET7 electric sedan from 2022.

Evelyn Cheng | CNBC

SHANGHAI – After the final year of growth in the world’s largest auto market, China’s electric car startups are ramping up their plans to take over Europe.

The Chinese authorities have only begun lifting restrictions on full foreign ownership of local automobile production in the last few years. More than a decade ago, Beijing spent billions of dollars developing its own electric vehicles.

This has helped local players get a head start in making battery powered cars that they are now looking to sell overseas. Goldman Sachs analysts predict that in four years’ time, due to new government guidelines, electric cars will have a larger share of auto sales in Europe and the US than in China, despite the fact that this is the largest market.

The US-listed company Nio has announced that it will enter Europe in the second half of the year. And on Monday, co-founder and president Lihong Qin said the company expected to make an official announcement of such an expansion within a month.

He did not name a specific country and stated that after Europe, Nio still intended to enter the US market.

Amid tensions with the US and attempts to secure an investment deal with Europe, China exported 63,500 all-battery electric vehicles in the first eleven months of last year. This comes from a January report by the China Chamber of Commerce for the Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products. While Saudi Arabia and Egypt were the top travel destinations for Chinese cars overall last year, the report saw significant growth in vehicle exports to the UK, Belgium and Germany.

The US-listed company Xpeng is already testing the waters in Norway, where the start-up delivered 100 units of its G3 electric SUV in December.

Later this year, Xpeng hopes to see how customers in Northern Europe react to its P7 electric sedan, said He Xiaopeng, chairman and CEO. He is recruiting new employees and planning to start a business in the region before venturing into Western and Eastern Europe.

Another Chinese electric car startup, Aiways, said it exported more than 1,000 vehicles to Israel and Europe in the first three months of this year.

“It’s no secret that most Chinese EV startups have global ambitions,” said Tu Le, founder of Beijing-based consulting firm Sino Auto Insights. “This will continue as these companies pursue growth and value and see opportunities because there are no viable electric vehicle products in the region.”

He said that with enough local research, some of the Chinese companies in Europe could thrive.

However, the growth in Chinese electric car sales to Europe remains a tiny part of the market.

China accounted for less than 2% of the EU’s car imports in 2019, and the value of 865 million euros means a year-on-year growth of 79%, according to the Association of European Automobile Manufacturers.

In contrast, EU-owned automakers produced nearly 6 million passenger cars in China in 2018, accounting for nearly a quarter of total Chinese automobile production, the association said.

Increasing competition in China

The overseas Chinese startup company comes in when the home market warms up. Nios Qin said the entry of tech companies like Apple and Huawei into the industry creates fierce competition for the automaker.

Tesla is the market leader in the automotive sector and is expanding local production. According to the China Passenger Car Association, the Model 3 was the top-selling electric car in China last year.

With the exception of two mini-electric cars, the association said the next best vehicle in this category would be Aion’s S model, a new energy brand that was spun off from Chinese state-owned automaker GAC. A more expensive model from Nio took ninth place, while Xpeng did not make the top ten list.

“Chinese consumers are increasingly understanding new energy vehicles,” said Qiu Liangping, Aion’s planning director, according to a CNBC translation of his Mandarin-language remarks. In addition to making battery charging easier, Chinese buyers are looking for a better driving experience than fossil-fuel cars with internet-enabled features.

The brand also has its eye on the international market, said Qiu. Prior to the spin-off, Aion and GAC’s Trumpchi brand were already selling cars in Israel, the Middle East and South America.

As the automotive industry continues to move into the electrical space, traditional US and German auto companies are launching their own electric vehicles – many in the Chinese market first.

For example, General Motors’ Cadillac brand presented its Lyriq electric car at the Shanghai Auto Show. According to the company, pre-orders in China will start later this year.

Ford also used the show to unveil its locally made version of the Mustang Mach-e electric car, as well as an Evos SUV developed largely in China that will only be available in the country.

Volkswagen unveiled a third electric car for China, the ID.6, in Shanghai. The German automaker aims to have at least 70% of its cars sold in Europe and at least 50% in North America and China by 2030.

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Business

Alibaba Faces $2.eight Billion High quality From Chinese language Regulators

Alibaba Faces $2.8 Billion Fine From Chinese Regulators

China announced on Saturday that it had fined e-commerce titan Alibaba a record $ 2.8 billion for monopoly business practices. This was the government’s toughest move to date in its campaign to tighten regulation of the country’s internet giants.

Beijing’s market watchdog began investigating Alibaba for possible antitrust violations in December, including preventing vendors from selling their goods on other shopping platforms. On Saturday, the regulator said its investigation found that Alibaba was hindering competition in online retail in China, affecting innovation in the internet economy and harming consumer interests.

The fine on Alibaba, one of China’s most valuable private companies and the foundation of the business empire of Jack Ma, the country’s most famous tycoon, exceeds the $ 975 million antitrust fine imposed by the Chinese government on American chip giant Qualcomm in 2015.

The Chinese authorities left little doubt on Saturday about the signal they wanted to send to other internet giants. In a comment posted online a minute after the fine was announced, People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official newspaper, described regulation as “a kind of love and care.”

“Monopoly is the great enemy of the market economy,” the comment said. “There is no contradiction between legal regulation and support for development. Rather, they complement and reinforce each other. “

The fine is unlikely to materially affect Alibaba’s assets. The state market regulator, the Chinese agency that imposed the fine, said the amount represented 4 percent of Alibaba’s domestic sales in 2019. The group reported profits of more than $ 12 billion in the last three months of 2020 alone.

Overall, the fact that Beijing has not asked Alibaba to make any major additional concessions makes the decision “good news for the firm,” said Angela Zhang, associate professor and director of the Center for Chinese Law at Hong Kong University.

When Qualcomm was fined six years ago, it also agreed to offer Chinese customers significant discounts on patent fees. On Saturday, the market regulator said only that Alibaba would have to curb its anti-competitive behavior and submit reports of its compliance for three years.

“I would think the market should respond positively,” said Professor Zhang, although she warned the government could conduct additional research on other aspects of Alibaba’s business at any time.

In a statement, Alibaba said it would “sincerely” accept the punishment and strengthen internal systems “to better serve our responsibility to society”.

“The penalty imposed today was to alert and catalyze businesses like ours,” Alibaba said. “It reflects the thoughtful and normative expectations of regulators for the development of our industry.”

Over the past decade, Alibaba’s business has expanded beyond shopping to include logistics, grocery, entertainment, social media, travel booking, and more. Like its peers on the Internet, Alibaba has said that the breadth of its business helps make each of its services more useful. However, critics say the size of the company worsens the playing field for competitors and limits consumer choice.

China started taking a closer look at its tech giants last year. The market regulator proposed updating the country’s antimonopoly law with a new provision for large internet platforms like Alibaba’s. In November, officials put an end to plans by Alibaba’s sister company, finance-focused Ant Group, to go public and tighten control over internet finance.

In December, it opened the antimonopoly investigation against Alibaba – an astonishing twist for Mr. Ma, whom the people of China had long held up as an icon of entrepreneurial plucking.

In the USA and Europe too, skepticism about the power of large Internet companies has increased. Western regulators have repeatedly fined Goliaths like Google over the past few years for various antitrust violations. But such penalties have not changed the nature of businesses in general enough to allay concerns about their power.

China began tightening oversight of big tech later than the West. But his efforts are already beginning to affect the way Chinese internet giants operate. This reflects the extent to which all private companies in China must remain in the good grace of the government in order to survive.

For many years, Alibaba and its arch-rival, gaming and social media giant Tencent, have competed fiercely in a variety of companies, including by preventing their own users from spending time on the other company’s services. That could gradually change. In a first for the company, Alibaba recently applied for two of its trading platforms, Taobao Deals and Xianyu, to be present on WeChat, Tencent’s ubiquitous social app.

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World News

Chinese language T.V. Exhibits Censor Western Clothes Manufacturers

Chinese T.V. Shows Censor Western Clothing Brands

HONG KONG – Viewers of some of China’s most popular online variety shows were recently greeted by an odd sight: a blur of pixels obscuring the marks on sneakers and t-shirts worn by attendees.

As far as the audience could tell, the clothing showed no signs of profanity or indecency. Instead, the problem was with the overseas brands that made them.

Since late March, streaming platforms in China have been carefully censoring the logos and symbols of brands like Adidas that adorn items worn by participants performing dance, singing, and stand-up comedy routines. The phenomenon followed a feud between the government and well-known international companies that said they would avoid using cotton from western China’s Xinjiang region, where authorities are accused of having launched a widespread campaign of repression against ethnic minorities, including Uyghurs.

While the anger in China against Western brands has been palpable and lingering on social media, the sight of cast members transforming into fast-moving patches of censored shoes and clothing has a rare, if unintentional, view for Chinese viewers in a heated global argument Comic relief brought. It has also exposed the unexpected political trip wires that non-political entertainment platforms face as the government continues to armed Chinese consumers in their political clashes with the West.

Most of the brands were undetectable, but some could be identified. Chinese brands didn’t seem blurry. It is not clear whether Chinese government officials specifically ordered the shows to disguise the brands. However, experts said the video streaming sites appeared to feel pressured or obliged to publicly distance themselves from Western brands amid the feud.

Ying Zhu, a media professor at the City University of New York and Hong Kong Baptist University, suggested that the censorship was a response to both state and grassroots patriotism, especially as the opinions of nationalist viewers became more prominent and louder.

“The pressure is both top-down and bottom-up,” said Professor Zhu. “It is not necessary for the state to issue a guideline that companies can base themselves on. The nationalist mood is high and powerful and drowns out all other voices. “

The censorship campaign can be traced back to an argument that broke out last month when Swedish clothing giant H&M was suddenly scrubbed by Chinese online shopping sites. The move came after the Communist Youth League and state news media resurfaced a statement H&M made months ago expressing concerns about forced labor in Xinjiang.

Other Western clothing brands had also said they would avoid using Xinjiang cotton, and one by one, many Chinese celebrities parted ways with them. Since then, the loyalty test seems to have expanded to include streaming shows.

Fang Kecheng, an assistant professor of journalism at the Hong Kong University of China who studies media and politics, believed the platforms were most likely censoring the brands to prevent viewers from backlashing.

“If someone is not happy with these brands on the shows, they could launch a social media campaign targeting the producers, which could attract government attention and ultimately lead to punishment,” he said via E on Thursday -Mail.

As the blurring spread to clothing brands, shows started to hiccup. The video platform iQiyi announced that it would be delaying the release of an episode of “Youth With You 3”, a reality show for aspiring pop idols. The reason was not disclosed, but internet users suspected it had something to do with Adidas, which had supplied t-shirts and sneakers that participants could wear as a kind of team uniform.

Some internet users made mocking predictions about what the upcoming episode would look like and took photoshopping images to turn the contestants vertically so that their Adidas t-shirts read “Sabiba” instead.

When the episode was streamed two days later, pixelated rectangles obscured the t-shirts and sports jackets of dozens of dancers and the distinctive triple stripes on their Adidas sneakers. Internet users happily observed that none of the shirts had been spared, except for the one candidate who had worn his shirt backwards. Many expressed their condolences to the video editors for their lost sleep and the blurring of the T-shirts.

Other shows have performed similar blurring in post-production. Participants in another reality show for entertainers, “Sisters Who Make Waves”, practiced cartwheels in sneakers that flashed into imperceptible blurring. So many shoes were erased in the stand-up comedy series “Roast” that when a group gathered on a dais, the space between the floor and its long seams seemed to merge into a mist.

A representative for Tencent Video, which hosts Roast, declined to comment on why some brands have been censored. The streaming platforms iQiyi and Mango TV, which host “Youth With You 3” and “Sisters Who Make Waves” respectively, did not respond to requests for comments. Adidas did not respond to questions asked by email.

The blurring or cropping on the screen is hardly new in China. Male pop stars’ ear lobes have been airbrushed to hide earrings that are considered too feminine. A contemporary drama with cleavage typical of the Tang Dynasty was pulled from the air in 2015 and replaced with a version that cut out much of the costumes and awkwardly enlarged the speaking heads of the actors. Football players were instructed to cover arm tattoos with long sleeves.

The on-screen censorship shows the difficult line that online video platforms, regulated by the National Radio and Television Administration, must follow.

“The fuzziness is likely the platforms’ self-censorship to be sure,” said Haifeng Huang, associate professor of political science at the University of California at Merced and scholar of authoritarianism and public opinion in China.

“But it still implies the power of the state and the nationalist part of society, which is probably the message that the audience receives: These big platforms have to censor themselves, even without being explicitly stated.”

The blurry episodes also reveal how the platforms seem willing to sacrifice the quality of the viewing experience to avoid political clashes, even if they get the buttocks of audience jokes.

“In a social setting where censorship is commonplace, people become desensitized and even treat them as a different form of entertainment,” said Professor Huang.

Albee Zhang and Joy Dong contributed to the research.

Categories
Politics

U.S. Joins Allies to Punish Chinese language Officers for Human Rights Abuses

U.S. Joins Allies to Punish Chinese Officials for Human Rights Abuses

WASHINGTON – The United States on Monday imposed sanctions on top Chinese officials as part of a multinational effort to punish Beijing for human rights abuses against the largely Muslim Uighur minority that American officials have labeled genocide.

The penalties – in coordination with the European Union, the UK and Canada – come days after the Biden government’s heated encounter with Chinese officials in Alaska and will most likely heighten tensions between Washington and Beijing.

“Amid increasing international condemnation, the PRC continues to commit genocide and crimes against humanity,” Foreign Minister Antony J. Blinken said Monday in a statement referring to the People’s Republic of China.

“The United States reiterates its call on the PRC to end the suppression of predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang, including by releasing all those arbitrarily detained in detention centers and detention centers,” he added.

The United States sentenced Wang Junzheng, secretary of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Party Committee, and Chen Mingguo, director of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau, for their roles in the detention and serious abuse of Uighur Muslims and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang said the finance department.

The sanctions were imposed under the Global Magnitsky Act, which allows the executive branch to use economic penalties to punish officials from other nations for human rights violations. The action will freeze any assets these officials hold in the United States.

The US move came hours after the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada imposed their own sanctions on Chinese officials and organizations for human rights abuses in Xinjiang. The European Union, along with the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau, reached out to four Chinese officials. The UK has done the same. Canada has not published the names of its destinations.

In response to the European Union’s action on Monday, Chinese officials imposed sanctions on 10 Europeans, including members of the European Parliament.

“This move, based on nothing but lies and disinformation, ignores and distorts facts,” said Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, in a statement condemning the European Union’s actions, adding that the efforts made “which severely affects China’s internal affairs” and “seriously undermines China-EU relations. “

Mr Blinken said the joint action was an effort by the United States to “work multilaterally to advance respect for human rights.” A joint statement by top diplomats representing the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, among others, called for Beijing to “end and arbitrarily release its repressive practices against Uighur Muslims and members of other ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang and arrested . “

China’s crackdown on Uyghurs has included forced sterilization and the sending of hundreds of thousands – if not a million or more – to indoctrination camps to promote loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party and break adherence to Islam.

In a separate action on Monday, the United States, in coordination with the European Union, announced sanctions naming military officials and other units in Myanmar for their violent suppression of democratic protests.

US action against Beijing appears to be in line with the diplomatic vision of Mr Blinken and Jake Sullivan, National Security Advisor to President Biden, at their first face-to-face meeting with Chinese officials in Alaska last week. Mr Sullivan said the United States remained “divided” over the challenges facing the world’s two largest economic and technology powers.

The penalties also follow the Biden administration’s decision to impose sanctions on 24 Chinese officials for undermining democratic freedoms in Hong Kong, and are similar to the Trump administration’s strategy of using sanctions as a means to punish Chinese officials for violating human rights.

Omer Kanat, the executive director of the Uighur Human Rights Project, praised the coordinated efforts of many nations to punish Chinese officials.

“Unprecedented cooperation between governments like this will end the genocide,” Kanat said in a statement on Monday. “This is what Uyghurs have asked – the dam has broken and the reaction has finally begun.”

Ana Swanson contributed to the coverage.

Categories
Politics

US sanctions two Chinese language officers for human rights abuses towards Uyghurs

US sanctions two Chinese officials for human rights abuses against Uyghurs

Chinese and American flags outside the building of an American company in Beijing, China January 21, 2021.

Tingshu Wang | Reuterss

WASHINGTON – The Biden government on Monday sanctioned two Chinese officials for their role in serious human rights violations against ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.

China’s Wang Junzheng, secretary of the Xinjiang Manufacturing and Construction Corps Party Committee, and Chen Mingguo, director of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau, have been punished against Uyghurs for their links to “arbitrary detention and aggravated physical abuse, including serious human rights violations,” said the Treasury Department in a statement on Monday.

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Beijing previously denied US allegations that it committed genocide against the Uyghurs, a Muslim population native to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwest China.

China has also said the allegations of the use of detention centers are unfounded and that it is instead using vocational training facilities to stamp out Islamist extremism and separatism.

The sanctions imposed by the Biden government complement measures taken today by the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada.

The sanctions follow a dispute between Foreign Minister Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan as well as top Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi and State Councilor Wang Yi in Alaska.

Blinken has already accused China of coercion and aggression at home and in the region.

This story evolves. Please try again.

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Business

Inter Milan Is Threatened by Challenges at Suning, Its Chinese language Proprietor

Inter Milan Is Threatened by Challenges at Suning, Its Chinese Owner

HONG KONG – The new, high profile Chinese owner should take Inter Milan back to its glory days. A lot of money was spent on successful goalscorers like Romelu Lukaku and Christian Eriksen. After five years of investment, the famous Milan football club is in the immediate vicinity of its first Italian championship title in ten years.

Now the bill is due – and Inter Milan’s future is suddenly in doubt.

Suning, an electronics retailer who is the club’s majority owner, is dependent on cash and is trying to sell its stake. The club is bleeding money. Some of its players have agreed to defer payment, such as someone close to the club who has asked for anonymity because the information is not public.

Inter Milan have held talks with at least one potential investor, but the parties have not been able to agree on a price with knowledge of the negotiations, according to others.

Suning’s football wishes are also crumbling at home. The company abruptly closed its national team four months after winning the Chinese national championship. Some stars, many of whom would rather play there than Chelsea or Liverpool, have said they went unpaid.

China has failed in its dream of becoming a global player in the world’s most popular sport. Driven in part by the ambitions of China’s frontrunner and passionate soccer fan, Xi Jinping, a new generation of Chinese tycoons plowed billions of dollars into marquee clubs and star players, changing the game’s economics. Chinese investors spent $ 1.8 billion buying stakes in more than a dozen European teams between 2015 and 2017, and China’s cash-soaked domestic league paid the highest salaries ever awarded to foreign recruits.

But the grandeur has exposed international football to the specifics of the Chinese business world. The deep involvement of the Communist Party makes companies vulnerable to sharp changes in the political winds. The freelance tycoons often lacked international experience or sophistication.

Discussions about default settings, fire sales, and hasty exits now dominate discussions about boardroom tables. A mining tycoon lost control of AC Milan when he asked questions about his business empire. The owner of a soap maker and food additive company gave up his stake in Aston Villa. An energy conglomerate lost its stake in Slavia Prague after its founder disappeared.

Suning’s plight mirrors “the whole rise and fall of this era of Chinese football,” said Zhe Ji, director of Red Lantern, a sports marketing company that works for top European football teams in China. “When people started talking about Chinese football and all the attention it got in 2016, it was very quick, but it was also very quick.”

Suning paid $ 306 million in 2016 for a larger stake in Inter Milan. Suning is a household name in China, with stores stocking computers, iPads, and rice cookers for the country’s growing middle class. While it was hurt by China’s e-commerce revolution, Alibaba, the online shopping titan, is among its top investors.

Zhang Jindong, the billionaire founder and chairman of Suning, raised a champagne glass on a brightly lit stage and talked about how the famous Italian team, which has won 18 championships since 1910 but none since 2010, would help its brand internationally and contribute to Chinese sports industry.

Mr. Zhang boasted of Suning’s “abundant resources” and promised that the club would “return to its glory days and become a stronger property that can attract top stars from around the world.”

Led by Mr Zhang’s son Steven Zhang, now 29, the club spent more than $ 300 million on stars like Lukaku, Eriksen and Lautaro Martínez, an Argentine striker nicknamed The Bull for his relentless pursuit of goals.

Suning also agreed to pay the English Premier League $ 700 million for the rights to broadcast games in China from 2019, which impressed the industry.

Suning spent money on a domestic club that he bought in 2015. He spent $ 32 million to acquire Ramires, a Brazilian midfielder, from Chelsea and € 50 million on Alex Teixeira, a young Brazilian striker who picked the Chinese side versus Liverpool of the most popular franchises in football.

The recruits were hired to sell air conditioners and washing machines. In an advertisement, Mr. Teixeira urged viewers to buy a Chinese brand of equipment. “I’m Teixeira,” he says in Mandarin, adding, “come to Suning to buy Haier.”

The money, said Mubarak Wakaso, a Ghanaian midfielder, helped make China attractive. “The money I will earn in China is far better than in La Liga,” he said in an interview last year in a mixture of Twi and English, quoting the league in Spain where he once played. “I don’t tell lies.”

Suning’s soccer betting had a bad time. The Chinese government began to worry that large conglomerates would borrow too much and threaten the country’s financial system. A year after the Inter Milan deal, Chinese state media criticized Suning for its “irrational” takeover.

Then the pandemic hit. Even when Inter Milan won on the field, they lost goal revenue from their San Siro stadium, one of the largest in Europe. Some sponsors left because of their own financial pressures. The club lost around $ 120 million last year, one of the biggest losses any European football club has reported.

Back in China, Suning was hit by both e-commerce and the coronavirus. Problems accelerated in the fall when the company decided not to call for repayment of a $ 3 billion investment in Evergrande, a real estate developer and China’s most indebted company.

Suning’s burden is getting heavier. This year, It has to make $ 1.2 billion in bond payments. The company declined to comment.

Suning began to take drastic steps. Last year he gave up his broadcasting contract with the Premier League.

Then, in February, it closed its national team, Jiangsu Suning, almost four months after the team won China’s Super League title against an Evergrande-controlled team. At least one of the team’s overseas recruits has hired lawyers to recoup their unpaid salary, according to one implicated person.

A former Suning player, Eder, a Brazilian-born striker, got the football world going after media reports quoted him as saying that Suning hadn’t paid him. On Twitter, Eder said the comments were taken from a private online chat without his permission. His agent did not respond to requests for comment.

To save himself, Suning took a move that could complicate Inter Milan’s fate. On March 1, the company sold shares valued at US $ 2.3 billion to affiliates of the Shenzhen city government. The deal gave the Chinese authorities a say in the fate of Inter Milan.

For Inter Milan there is a threat of greater financial pressure. It has to pay off a $ 360 million bond over the next year. A minority investor in Hong Kong, Lion Rock Capital, which acquired a 31 percent stake in Inter in 2019, could exercise an option that would require Suning to buy its stake for up to $ 215 million, according to a related party.

Inter Milan representatives are looking for funding, a new partner or a sale of the team valued at around $ 1.1 billion.

The club was in exclusive talks with BC Partners, the UK private equity firm, until recently, but they could not agree on the price, said people knowledgeable about the talks.

Without fresh capital, Inter Milan could lose players. If it can’t pay salaries or transfer fees for outgoing players, European football rules say it could be banned from top competitions.

“We’re concerned but we’re not scared of this situation yet – we’re just waiting for the news,” said Manuel Corti, a member of an Inter Milan fan club based in London.

“As Inter fans,” he said, “we are never sure until the last minute.”

Alexandra Stevenson reported from Hong Kong and Tariq Panja from London. Cao Li contributed to the coverage from Hong Kong.