Search the Community

BEIJING - Chinese scientists have cloned three “super cows” able to produce 18,000 litres of milk per year and over 100,000 litres of milk in their lifetimes, a feat that may help reduce China’s dependency on imported dairy cows. The milk produced is no different from that produced by the clone’s originals, according to an expert involved in the experiment. Once the cloned calves reach two years of age, they can start producing milk for the market, he added. To clone the animals, scientists from the Northwest University of Agricultural and Forestry Science and Technology took somatic cells from the ears of highly productive Dutch Holstein Frisian cattle and placed them in surrogate cows, according to a news release from the university. The technique, known as somatic cell nuclear transfer, was the same used to create Dolly the sheep in 1996, the world’s first cloned mammal. The three calves were born in Lingwu city, Ningxia Hui autonomous region. The first calf was born on Dec 30 via caesarean section. It weighed 56.7kg and shared the same shape and patterning as the cow it was cloned from. After reaching maturity, the clone is expected to produce 18,000 litres of milk per year. In comparison, the average cow in the United States produces about 12,000 litres of milk annually, according to data from the US Department of Agriculture. Mr Jin Yaping, the project’s lead scientist, said that cloning “super cows” would allow China to preserve its best dairy breeds and avoid the biosecurity risk presented by importing live cows from other countries. China currently imports around 70 per cent of its dairy cows. https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/chinese-scientists-successfully-clone-super-cows

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Automobiles/China-s-BYD-starts-EV-sales-in-Japan-as-it-chases-Tesla?utm_campaign=GL_asia_daily&utm_medium=email&utm_source=NA_newsletter&utm_content=article_link&del_type=1&pub_date=20230131190000&seq_num=9&si=44594 China's BYD starts EV sales in Japan as it chases Tesla Elon Musk's company has global lead but affordable option has entered the race BYD, which has made a big name for itself in China, intends to catch up with Tesla in global electric vehicle sales. (Source photos courtesy of BYD and Getty Images) SAYUMI TAKE, Nikkei staff writerJanuary 31, 2023 18:15 JST YOKOHAMA, Japan -- Chinese automaker BYD began selling electric vehicles in Japan on Tuesday as it pursues its global ambitions to overtake more established nameplates. BYD's debut in the world's fourth largest auto market comes with it having secured its place as China's top EV seller and nipping at the heels of American EV giant Tesla in global EV sales. BYD also sells electric vehicles in Australia and Thailand, and has production plants in South America. "We're very excited to be bringing our cars to Japanese customers," said Atsuki Tofukuji, president of BYD Auto Japan, a marketing subsidiary. Tofukuji talked to reporters at BYD's first Japanese sales location, due to open on Thursday in Yokohama, the big port city south of Tokyo. While the Chinese automaker is gaining fame as an EV battery seller, its car sales remain largely dependent on domestic demand. This puts it considerably behind Elon Musk's top-running Tesla, which has penetrated many more global markets. BYD has been eager to close the gap and recently began exporting to India, home to a fledgling EV market, and to Thailand, where it plans its first ASEAN production hub. The Atto 3, which went on sale on Jan. 31 in Japan, has already attracted a "fair amount" of test-drive reservations from prospective buyers. (Photo by Sayumi Take) BYD is entering Japan with a key strength against Tesla, affordability, backed by its roots as a battery maker. The company's flagship Atto 3 midsize SUV, which today went on sale in Japan, goes for 4.4 million yen ($33,800), cheaper than Tesla and Nissan EVs. Government EV subsidies, if they continue, will lower the price. Deliveries are to begin around March. The Yokohama store is also "a good way to present new brands to Japanese customers" as they can actually familiarize themselves with EVs and consult professional dealers about purchases on the spot, Tofukuji said. It is the first of over 20 showrooms that BYD plans to establish across Japan this year. The company aspires to have over 100 dealerships in the country by the end of 2025. This contrasts with Tesla, which largely relies on internet sales. BYD's showroom in Yokohama only has the Atto 3 on display but later this year will exhibit two additional models. Visitors can also take the SUV out for test drives, and the store is already receiving a "fair amount" of reservations. Each BYD dealer in Japan will be equipped with 50-kilowatt quick chargers that can juice up the Atto 3 in about 60 minutes. Japan's EV market has been expanding, though notably slower than other countries. Domestic EV sales in 2022 came to about 59,000 units, a record and almost triple the previous year's total, according to industry groups. They accounted for 1.7% of Japan's passenger car market, surpassing 1% for the first time. But most of the growth is due to vehicles that fall into the kei car category. These microcars are considered to be easy to drive around crowded cities and require relatively low maintenance. And since they need little power, their makers have been able to more easily transition to electric drivetrains. The rest of the industry faces a relatively large obstacle: Many chargers in the country operate on such low power that it takes hours to sufficiently juice up a regular EV. BYD's strategy is to "introduce products that fit each country's charging environment," Tofukuji said, "unlike Tesla, which distributes chargers exclusive to its models." Despite Japan's slowly developing EV market, BYD faces a raft of competitors. Foreign luxury brands like Mercedes-Benz, Tesla and Audi are eager to take big shares of the young market. And although Japan's storied auto industry is filled with EV laggards, those dawdlers are moving to catch up. Toyota recently named a new president and CEO, tasking the relatively young executive with adapting to today's industry trends. "The Japanese EV market overall is getting bigger, and this is a good time to be entering [the competition]," Tofukuji said. "We hope to provide a rich EV life along with the development of Japan's EV environment."

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/China-tech/Teardown-of-DJI-drone-reveals-secrets-of-its-competitive-pricing?utm_campaign=RN Subscriber newsletter&utm_medium=daily newsletter&utm_source=NAR Newsletter&utm_content=article link&del_type=1&pub_date=20200901190000&seq_num=10&si=44594 Teardown of DJI drone reveals secrets of its competitive pricing High-performance Chinese device built from 80% commodity parts, many from the US DJI's Mavic Air 2 and its motherboard. (Photo courtesy of DJI and Fomalhaut Techno Solutions) NORIO MATSUMOTO, NAOKI WATANABE and YUSUKE HINATA, Nikkei staff writersSeptember 1, 2020 11:26 JST TOKYO/GUANGZHOU -- With drones finding their way into aerial photography, crop spraying and many other applications, China's DJI Technology has combined cost competitiveness and advanced technology to become the world's biggest manufacturer of unmanned flying machines. DJI, which holds an estimated 70% of the global market, produces drones at half the cost of rivals by using an array of off-the-shelf parts. Disassembling one of its latest models reveals that it is composed of 80% commodity parts by value. Although Chinese drone makers are expanding, helped by strong domestic demand, their future growth is clouded by the increasing friction between the U.S. and China. The DJI Agras, a large drone measuring more than 1 meter across, recently took to the air, its motor whining, over a farm in Kaiping, in southern China. Drones are an increasingly common sight on farms. In China and elsewhere, DJI machines were used to plant or spray crops over a total of 270,000 sq. kilometers, equal to 70% of Japan's land area. The farmland in Kaiping is fertile, but a good yield depends on controlling insects. Drones are a valuable weapon in the fight against pests: They can cover 50 to 60 times more ground than a human in a given period of time. Founded in 2006, DJI has grown quickly. It has offices in the U.S., Japan and three other countries outside China, and its annual revenue has grown to 18 billion yuan ($261 billion). Nikkei, together with Tokyo-based research specialist Fomalhaut Techno Solutions, conducted a teardown of the Mavic Air 2, DJI's newest lower-end model which is priced at about $750. Disassembly revealed that the vehicle, by estimate, is made of components worth around $135. DJI's Mavic Air 2 is the drone maker's latest lower-end model. The series ranges from industrial machines to those aimed at hobbyists. (Photo courtesy of DJI) The cost of components for the model, at around 20% of the retail price, is less than the 30% to 35% typical for smartphones. "It would cost us twice as much in materials alone as the price of the [DJI] to make a product with the same capabilities," said an executive with a Japanese drone maker. Many of the parts that give DJI drones their functionality are found in smartphones and personal computers. Such parts account for about 80% of the 230 components used in the Mavic Air 2. The camera has components found in a premium smartphone; the GPS receiver is made from parts found in smartwatches. "The semiconductors that control the propellers are the sole exclusive parts," said a Fomalhaut official. "Expensive parts costing more than $10 are limited to the battery, the camera and a few others." But the Mavic Air 2 is sophisticated despite its modest price. It can shoot ultra high-definition 4K video, automatically track objects and avoid obstacles. In Japan, the drone can be maneuvered by the pilot from up to 6 km away and send video five times farther than rivals. It is designed to be lightweight, weighing in at just 570 grams. The motherboard of the Mavic Air 2 is about 10 cm by 4 cm and is packed with 10 large and small chips. DJI's Mavic Air 2 drone packs sophisiticated chips onto a palm-sized circuit board. (Photo courtesy of Fomalhaut Techno Solutions) DJI drones also have advanced software that has been upgraded with each successive model, and they come out frequently. The company has drastically improved its flight-control technology over the past three years and is now much more sophisticated, according to a Japanese drone developer. According to Patent Result, a Tokyo-based company that analyzes patents, DJI had 185 of them in force in Japan as of January last year, a testament to its advanced technology. It is one of the biggest among patent holders in the business in Japan, with more than three times as many as its nearest competitor. Although the strengths of DJI and other Chinese manufacturers have helped China's drone industry leap ahead, trade friction between Washington and Beijing could dim their prospects. "DJI may become like Huawei," said Fumiaki Yamazaki, chief researcher at the Institute of Information Assurance for National Security Japan. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has reported a possible leak of information involving DJI, and the U.S. military has begun limiting the use of drones made by the Chinese company, Yamazaki said. While the Japanese government has held off from issuing a total ban on Chinese drones in its procurement, some organizations, such as the Japan Coast Guard, have stopped using them. Drones have many industrial uses, including inspecting bridges and towers, surveying construction sites, photographing buildings and verifying safety at manufacturing plants. But given the trade friction, an executive at a major manufacturing company said: "We worry about relying solely on Chinese drones." On the question of possible military utilization of its drones, DJI says it leaves the question of how its products are used to the customer. The teardown of the Mavic Air 2 found many U.S.-made parts. The IC chips that control the battery, for example, are made by Texas Instruments, while those that amplify radio signals and eliminate noise are made by Qorvo. In the absence of alternatives, DJI may have a hard time sourcing key components if it is subjected to new U.S. trade restrictions. The global market for drones is forecast to grow from $3.7 billion in 2018 to $103.7 billion by 2023, with Chinese manufacturers capturing half that value, according to U.S. researcher Frost & Sullivan. Industry insiders around the world are waiting to see whether strong domestic demand can keep DJI airborne, or whether it becomes the latest casualty in the U.S.-China trade war.

Kudos to @Stamfordtyres !

Angry man rams car through the doors of a hotel lobby in Shanghai after arguing with staff about a missing laptop. Please do not try this at home. Your car is expensive, COE is expensive! 😱

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Startups/China-startup-makes-large-flexible-solar-panels-in-industry-first?utm_campaign=GL_asia_daily&utm_medium=email&utm_source=NA_newsletter&utm_content=article_link&del_type=1&pub_date=20220719123000&seq_num=2&si=44594 China startup makes large, flexible solar panels in industry first Japanese-developed perovskite technology goes into mass production Pioneered by Tsutomu Miyasaka in 2009, perovskite cells are a bendable, lightweight alternative to conventional silicon solar cells. (Photo by Manami Yamada) YUKI MISUMI, Nikkei staff writerJuly 19, 2022 02:00 JST TOKYO -- A Chinese startup this month became the first in the world to mass-produce large, bendable perovskite solar panels, based on technology initially developed by researchers in Japan. DaZheng (Jiangsu) Micro-Nano Technologies invested 80 million yuan ($11.8 million) to build a production line with an annual capacity of 10 megawatts in Jiangsu Province. The 40 cm by 60 cm panels will be cut into smaller pieces and shipped to smartphone and tablet makers in China. DaZheng will invest 200 million yuan in 2023 to expand its annual production capacity to 100 MW, Chief Technology Officer Li Xin told Nikkei. Perovskite solar cells were pioneered in 2009 by Toin University of Yokohama engineering professor Tsutomu Miyasaka and his team. Although these lightweight cells have a power conversion efficiency of around 10% -- about half that of silicon cells -- they can be incorporated into windows, walls and more. Smaller perovskite cells have been mass-produced before, but DaZheng is the first to do so for large panels. While these cells currently cost three times as much to make as conventional silicon cells, this could potentially be brought down to half at a higher scale. Lightweight and bendable, perovskite cells are expected to have a variety of new applications. (Photo courtesy of DaZheng (Jiangsu) Micro-Nano Technologies) The technology is seen as a candidate to win a Nobel Prize. There is hope that the cells can eventually be applied by a printer, or be painted onto entire cars. The global market for perovskite solar cells is projected to expand to over $2 billion by 2027 with annual growth averaging about 29% starting in 2022, according to Indian research company Astute Analytica. Japanese companies like Kyocera and Sharp were once leading players in solar cells but downsized operations over the years as price competition ate into profits. Chinese and South Korean players now control much of the market. Japanese companies have little capacity to make new investments, allowing China to take the lead in large-scale perovskite panels. DaZheng's Li studied under Miyasaka and continued his research after returning to China. Miyasaka also provided development support.

Jiang Zemin, who succeeded Deng Xiaoping as China's leader, died from leukaemia and multiple organ failure. BEIJING: China's former leader Jiang Zemin, who steered the country through a transformational era from the late 1980s and into the new millennium, died on Wednesday (Nov 30) at the age of 96, state news agency Xinhua said. Jiang took power in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square crackdown and led the world's most populous nation towards its emergence as a powerhouse on the global stage. "Jiang Zemin passed away due to leukaemia and multiple organ failure in Shanghai at 12.13pm on Nov 30, 2022, at the age of 96, it was announced on Wednesday," Xinhua reported. When Jiang replaced Deng Xiaoping as leader in 1989, China was still in the early stages of economic modernisation. Jiang was president from 1993 to 2003. By the time he retired as president, China was a member of the World Trade Organization, Beijing had secured the 2008 Olympics, and the country was well on its way to superpower status. Analysts say Jiang and his "Shanghai Gang" faction continued to exert influence over communist politics long after he left the top job. He is survived by his wife Wang Yeping and two sons. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/former-china-president-jiang-zemin-dies-age-96-3111731

Watched a repeat of TopGear (episod in china) and the 3 men condemned whatever cars made in china. I think today, china's cars are not really up to international standard yet in terms of safety, performance, etc but since these B&B cars are for their domestic markets where the majority of buyers dont really know anything better, china car makers will continue to churn out millions of mediocre cars yet still find buyers queue up, end of the days making tons of money. Is there a incentive for them to make better cars, to match the quality/performance etc of say VW etc, let alone the highend conti/jap/korean cars? Those china buyers who have the taste / money for better cars, in typical chinese 'culture', will buy imported cars, coz no china car makers have the prestige / history / brandnames to attract buyers who want not only good cars, but also 'face'/status only brands like Merc/BWM (RR also) etc could provide. Patrioism is more or less non existent when it comes to the rich, except state owned companies buying mic highend cars for their bosses? Bottomline, will it be almost unforeseable china made cars will ever match the quality / status of highend foreign-made cars? not in the next 10/20 years? The expanding domestic B&B car markets are big enough to occupy them for a long time, export is hardly something they have time to think about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPzRPga6uDg

As I have mentioned in a few threads here, China is the leader in EV development and many big names in the automotive industry are trying hard to form JV with some of these well establish EV manufacturers. And I vividly remember 1 MCFer even asked for 'China Talk' folder to be removed from the forum, wait till you see the motoring trend in the next 3 - 5 years... BTW, noticed that it is BYD Toyota EV Technology instead of Toyota BYD EV Technology? BYD, Toyota Launch BYD TOYOTA EV TECHNOLOGY Joint Venture to Conduct Battery Electric Vehicle R&D Toyota City, Japan, April 2, 2020―BYD Company Ltd. (BYD) and Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) announced today that preparations have proceeded since they signed an agreement for the establishment of a joint venture company to conduct research and development of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) on November 7, 2019, and registration of the new company has been completed. Operations are scheduled to commence in May 2020. The name of the new company is BYD TOYOTA EV TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD. (BTET). Hirohisa Kishi from Toyota will serve as chairman, and Zhao Binggen from BYD will be the chief executive officer (CEO). New Chairman Hirohisa Kishi said with regard to the establishment of the company, "With the engineers from BYD and Toyota working together under the same roof, we aim to develop BEVs that are superior in performance and meet the needs of customers in China by merging the two companies' strengths and also through friendly rivalry." Newly appointed CEO Zhao Binggen commented, "This joint venture company will focus on the research and development of battery electric vehicles with technology and know-how from both China and Japan. The company is committed to promoting and populating high-quality technologies that make battery electric vehicles more environmentally friendly, safe, comfortable, and intelligent. Our vision is to create a future customer-first mobility style, and a harmonious society for humans and nature." BYD and Toyota will work together to meet the diverse needs of customers by researching and developing BEVs that appeal to customers and promoting their widespread adoption and also hope to contribute to improving the environment in China. Overview of the Joint Venture Company Name: BYD TOYOTA EV TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD. (BTET) Location: Head officePingshan District, Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province Chairman: Hirohisa Kishi (Senior Executive Vice President, Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing (China) Co., Ltd.) CEO: Zhao Binggen (BYD Company Ltd.) Directors: 6 (3 from Toyota and 3 from BYD) Auditors: 2 (1 from Toyota and 1 from BYD) Business Activities: Design, development, etc. of battery electric vehicles and their platforms and related parts Equity participation: Toyota Motor Corporation (50%), BYD (50%) Employees: Approx. 300

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Caixin/The-double-squeeze-on-China-s-sandwich-generation The double squeeze on China's 'sandwich generation' 'Little emperors' grow up to be overburdened caregivers to parents and children Yin Fan is a single mom in her late 30s. When she was pregnant with her daughter, her father living in another city was diagnosed with the nervous system disorder multiple system atrophy and quickly lost his ability to walk. As the family's only child, she had to take care of her baby and her father alone. Yin belongs to China's first generation under the old one-child policy, those born between 1976 and 1985, also known as the "sandwich generation." Now they are trapped with the obligations of caring for their children and aging parents, putting them in financial and emotional binds. China has more than 170 million such sandwich generation families, according to Feng Xiaotian, a demographic sociology professor at Nanjing University. Growing up in the 1980s, they were often called "little emperors" as they got all the attention at home. But now they have become the most burdened generation, said Mu Guangzong, a professor at the Institute of Population Research of Peking University. In the past three decades as this generation grew up to have their own families, China has experienced a profound shift into an aging society with fewer children. From 1990 to 2021, Chinese people's average life expectancy increased from 68.6 years to 78.2. The proportion of people over 65 more than doubled to 13.5% from 5.3%. China's birthrate dropped below 1% in 2020, and the country is expected to enter a period of negative population growth by 2025. With parents living longer and with couples having their own children at an older age, the challenges facing sandwich generation families affect not only their own lives but also have ramifications for the rest of society. A family of three generations in Tianjin on July 6, 2016. Because of high housing costs, many Chinese urbanites cannot afford to bring their aging parents to the city they now call home. Expensive child care China implemented the one-child policy in 1980 to put a brake on population growth and facilitate economic expansion in a planned economy that faced severe shortages of capital, natural resources and consumer goods. The authorities eased the limit in 2016 to allow each family to have two children. Last year, after a new census showed the birthrate had stalled, China raised the cap to three children. Money, time and energy deficits are the most common worries sandwich generation families face. Childbirth, especially of a second child, is often the starting point of such crises. "This is the most stressful time for me," said Liu Li, a 37-year-old employee of a state-owned enterprise. With his wife working at a bank, they take home 20,000 yuan to 30,000 yuan ($2,900 to $4,300) each month, a decent middle-class income in a small town. But since the birth of their second child, they live paycheck to paycheck. In today's China, more and more families with stable jobs and reasonable savings are trapped in financial problems, time crunches or health difficulties due to the burden of raising children, said Zang Qisheng, a professor at Soochow University. The average cost of rearing a child until the age of 18 was 485,000 yuan in China in 2019, which was 6.9 times China's per capita GDP, much higher than in many developed countries including the U.S., France, Germany and Japan, according to a report by the YuWa Population Research Institute. The think tank was established by a group of demographers and economists, including economics professor Liang Jianzhang at Peking University. Child-rearing costs are even higher in large cities, reaching more than 1 million yuan in Shanghai and 969,000 yuan in Beijing. The pressure of raising children is mainly an economic matter, while caring for the elderly is more of a time and energy issue, said Wang Guangzhou, a researcher at the Institute of Population and Labor Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. In the next decade, as the parents of the first generation of single-child families enter their 70s and 80s, the elder-care pressure will grow more prominent, he said. People walk by a big housing ad in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, on May 8, 2014. With the trend of late marriage and late childbearing, the double pressure of caring for the elderly while raising young children is more likely to come at the same time. According to the 2019 China General Social Survey, 27% of urban families in China include members who are 60 or older as well as children who are 14 or younger, meaning that one in four families faces this double pressure. Children first As it cares for young children and elderly parents, how will the sandwich generation allocate the family's money, time and human resources? "Children first" was the conclusion in a study based on a telephone survey of 2,439 urban families in the provinces of Guangdong, Jiangsu and Shaanxi by Sun Yat-sen University and Guangzhou University. The sandwich generation usually shows a strong sense of responsibility and urgency for its children, said Zhong Xiaohui, a professor at Sun Yat-sen University. However, in terms of elder care, most families lack clear planning and often have to respond on the fly when a parent falls seriously ill. There is a sharp contrast between their rich knowledge of childhood development and their relative ignorance of the elderly, the survey found. Children become the center of families, and parenting styles tend to be intensive or even excessive, said Yang Juhua, a professor of ethnology and sociology at Minzu University of China. As family resources are limited, it is often the elderly who make concessions, Yang said. Not only parents but also grandparents often actively shift resources to the children. To cope with the high costs of child care, the sandwich generation normally needs help from parents. Yang Mo, 61, came to Beijing from her hometown in Anhui province after retirement to help her daughter take care of her newborn. She spends 12 hours a day from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. feeding, bathing and playing with the baby as well as cooking and cleaning before handing the child off to her daughter after work, Yang told Caixin. "I dare not get sick," she said. "Who would take care of the baby?" There were about 42 million infants under the age of 3 in China in 2021, and the nursery enrollment rate was only about 5.5%, according to the National Health Commission. The big gap means most families with infants have to rely on grandparents for child care. Child care costs account for nearly 50% of the average Chinese family's income, and 80% of children under the age of 3 are cared for by grandparents, said Yang Wenzhuang, director of the commission's Department of Population Surveillance and Family Development. As China encourages people to have more children to counter the lowest birthrate since the 1950s, this child care model of relying on grandparents might no longer work. Several studies have found that grandparents are less involved in the care of their second grandchild than the first. More and more elderly people have their own plans for retirement and are not willing to devote themselves to caring for grandchildren, said Yang at Minzu University of China. Even if they want to, aging makes them unable to, the professor said. Without grandparents' help, the burden on the sandwich generation increases, which in turn makes these families unwilling to have more children. In a 2016 survey, 60.7% of mothers who already had one child said they didn't plan to have a second because of a lack of child care. From caregivers to care receivers The more serious challenge is what happens when grandparents are not only unable to help but transition from caregivers to needing care. For the sandwich generation, the worst scenario is that their parents suddenly become severely ill or disabled, physically or mentally. "It's not only expensive but also very stressful on your mind," said Wang at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. "It's not like raising a child, with hope growing every day. Once an elderly person can't take care of oneself in daily life, the hope is fading every day." According to an estimate by the World Bank, China is expected to have 93 million people over the age of 75 by 2030, accounting for 6.6% of the population. By then, there will be more than 77 million disabled elderly in China, who will experience 7.44 years of disability on average, estimated Zheng Xiaoying, director of the Institute of Population Studies at Peking University. A nursing home in Jincheng, Shanxi province, on Aug. 17, 2022. Empty nesters Can a single child afford the costs of caring for two elderly parents? According to the 2020 census, 70% of the urban elderly population's income is from pensions and 17.3% from family support. Parents of the first generation of one-child families living in cities thus generally come close to supporting themselves financially, and their children's burden is not obvious, said Wu Haixia, a researcher at the Institute of Population Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. But elderly people living in rural areas are not so lucky. In 2019, the annual pension and other income of the rural elderly was about 3,500 yuan. Most rural elderly people have to rely on family support and continue to work to get by. With the reduction of family size, the proportion of family support the elderly can rely on has been decreasing, said Nie Riming, a researcher at think tank Shanghai Institute of Finance and Law. All the data show that the rural regions are the "disaster areas" in China's aging population challenge. Nearly half the nation's over-65 population live in rural areas, according to the latest census. The trickier question is who will take care of the rural elderly. A 2014 survey by researchers at Renmin University of China found that nearly half of rural elderly were empty nesters, and 12.54% of them needed various degrees of care. The main reason for the high proportion of empty nesters in rural areas is that a large number of young and middle-aged people leave their hometowns to work in cities. When these living-alone elderly become seriously ill, half of them do not seek medical treatment because of mobility problems, being unaccompanied or because they live too far from hospitals -- in addition to financial reasons -- according to a survey by Wu at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Empty nesters in cities face similar difficulties. According to Feng Xiaotian at Nanjing University, the proportion of empty nesters among the parents of first-generation only children in cities was about 60%, based on a 2015 national survey of 12 cities and a 2016 survey of five towns in Hubei Province, If a married couple's parents live in two different cities, that makes it even harder to care for all four parents at the same time, said Nie at Shanghai Institute of Finance and Law. Such cases are particularly common in megacities such as Beijing and Shanghai, where high housing cost is the first problem when children want to bring their parents to live with them, Nie said. Even for those who are able to live with their elderly parents, inadequate care is a common problem. The primary caregivers for 60% of the disabled elderly in urban areas in China are their children, but more than half of them receive care for less than 36 hours a week, according to a 2019 survey by Li Yunhua and Liu Yanan at Wuhan University's School of Politics and Public Administration. Meanwhile, it is difficult for families to find affordable professional care for disabled elderly, Zhong at Sun Yat-sen University and Peng Minggang at Guangzhou University said in a report. China provides few public elderly care services for the average family and few support measures such as subsidies and tax rebates to help families purchase market-oriented care services, they said. "Honestly speaking, it is almost a problem without a solution for the generation of only children to care for their elderly parents," a sociology scholar told Caixin. "This is the sorrow of our generation, and our parents." An elderly paralyzed person in bed at a nursing home in Shaoguan, Guangzhou province, talks to a caregiver in March 2022. Turning old themselves As the public discussion focuses on child and elder care, the needs and risks of those in the sandwich generation themselves are often overlooked. To care for their parents, many people have to quit their jobs or choose a lower-paying job with more flexibility. As a result, they suffer a sharp drop in income and the loneliness of social disconnection, Huang Chenxi, deputy dean of the School of Social Development of East China Normal University, found in interviews with caregivers for disabled and mentally ill elders in Shanghai. Elder care reduces rural women's access to nonfarm jobs by 13.5%, a negative effect that will continue to expand as the intensity of elder care increases, Fan Hongli and Xin Baoying at Shandong University of Finance and Economics found in a study. By the time their parents are in their 80s and 90s, the sandwich generation will be in their 50s and 60s. "When they bury their parents, who can they rely on?" asked Jin Jun, a sociology professor at Tsinghua University. In 2020, China's social insurance fund, which includes the basic state pension funds run by provincial-level governments, reported the first annual deficit on record. The deficit is expected to grow to 11.28 trillion yuan by 2050, when the peak of the retirement of the sandwich generation hits. Scholars have long suggested measures by the government to ease the burden on the sandwich generation. Ma Chunhua, a professor at the Institute of Sociology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, called for the government to play a more active role in providing child care. "Children should be taken care of jointly by the whole society so they can grow up to take care of the whole society in the future, so as to maintain the overall operation of the economy and the continuity of the social security system," she said at a forum on the aging society. Supportive policies can't be achieved overnight, said Chen Jia, a professor at the School of Sociology of Shanghai University. For example, it took decades for Japanese families to accept a long-term care insurance system and fully reap the benefits of the system, Chen said. At the request of the interviewees, the names of Yin Fan and Yang Mo are pseudonyms.

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/06/23/economy/china-bank-runs-protests-intl-mic-hnk/index.html Small banks in China are running into trouble. Savers could lose everything By Laura He, CNN Business Updated 0305 GMT (1105 HKT) June 24, 2022 Hong Kong (CNN Business)Peter had put his life savings of about $6 million into accounts at three small banks in China's central Henan province. He says he hasn't been able to access them since April. The 45-year-old entrepreneur asked us to call him Peter for security reasons. He's from the eastern city of Wenzhou and is just one of thousands of depositors who have been fighting to recover their savings from at least six banks in rural provinces in central China. "I'm close to having a nervous breakdown. I can't sleep," Peter told CNN Business. When he tried to access his accounts online, a statement would pop up on the homepage informing him that the website was under maintenance and services would be unavailable for a while, Peter told CNN Business. Two months later, those services have not been restored. The trouble began in April, when four banks in Henan suspended cash withdrawals. In China, local banks are only permitted to obtain deposits from their home customer base, but authorities say that "third-party platforms" were used to acquire funds from depositors outside the region. In Peter's case, for example, his hometown is over 700 miles away from the banks in Henan. The national banking regulator has accused a major shareholder of the four banks of illegally attracting money from savers. "Henan New Fortune Group, a shareholder of the four village banks, has illegally absorbed the public's funds through internal and external collusion, the use of third-party platforms, and fund brokers," the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission told state-run Xinhua News Agency in May. Depositors protest in front of the Henan branch of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, demanding their money back after their funds were frozen. "The police have opened a case for investigation into the matter," it added. Runs on small Chinese banks have become more frequent in recent years and some have been accused of financial improprieties or corruption. But experts worry that a much bigger financial problem could be looming, caused by fallout from a real estate crash and soaring bad debts related to the Covid-19 pandemic. There are no official estimates yet on the total amount of funds that bank depositors are unable to withdraw. CNN Business did not receive a comment from the local police or the national banking regulator. As many as 400,000 banking customers across China were unable to access their savings, according to an estimate in April by Sanlian Lifeweek, a state-owned magazine. That's a drop in the ocean of China's vast banking system, but about a quarter of the industry's total assets are held by around 4,000 small lenders, which often have opaque ownership and governance structures and are more vulnerable to corruption, say experts, and the sharp economic slowdown. "The scope of the bank scandals where bank officials embezzle and steal funds from depositors is alarming, and what is exposed could only be the tip of the iceberg," said Frank Xie, a professor at University of South Carolina Aiken who studies Chinese business and the economy. "As the Chinese economy slows down further, the fiscal shortage worsens, and the debt repayments become more widespread among Chinese companies, especially in the real estate sector, bank runs could become more often and on a larger scale," he said. Many savers have had enough. Late last month, hundreds of depositors traveled to Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan, to protest outside the office of the banking regulator and to demand their money back, to no avail. Another protest was planned in June. But as the depositors arrived in Zhengzhou, they were stunned to find that their health codes — which were green upon departure — had turned red, according to six people who spoke with CNN and social media posts. Anyone with a red code — usually assigned to people infected with Covid or deemed by authorities to be at high risk of infection — immediately becomes persona non grata. They are banned from all public venues and transport and are often subject to weeks of government quarantine. CNN has reached out to the Zhengzhou government for comment. The Henan Provincial Health Commission told state-run news website thepaper.cn it was "investigating and verifying" the complaints from depositors who received red codes. What's behind the problem in Henan In Henan, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission has put the blame on the private investment firm that holds large stakes in all four lenders. Last week, the Henan police said that a criminal gang headed by the investment firm's controller "has been suspected of using village banks to commit serious crimes." Police say several suspects have been arrested. The Henan New Fortune Group no longer has a website. CNN tried to reach the company for comment on the phone and by email without success. The company has made no public statements and it's believed to have been annulled. Later on Monday, the four Henan banks said they would start collecting information from customers who have been affected by the shutdown of their online transaction systems. The move was required by financial regulators, the banks added in separate statements on their website, without elaborating further. That's of little comfort to the banks' customers. Deposits up to 500,000 yuan (almost $75,000) are guaranteed in the event of bank failures, but that's not enough for some — like Peter — and if the government's investigation finds that their savings are "non-compliant" transactions, they could lose everything. "I'm quite worried about how they [authorities] are going to deal with our money," said Ye, who asked CNN Business to only use his surname. Ye is a 30-year old tech worker from the city of Dongguan in Guangdong province — about 1500 km (900 miles) from the banks he used in Henan. He said he has a total of 160,000 yuan (about $24,000) worth of deposits with them. "We were told by the banks that the deposit products were legal, and that they were protected by the deposit insurance scheme," he said. "We just want to get our money back." The four banks — Yuzhou Xinminsheng Village Bank, Shangcai Huimin County Bank, Zhecheng Huanghuai Community Bank, New Oriental Country Bank of Kaifeng — have not replied to requests for comment. Risky liabilities In early 2021, Beijing banned banks from selling deposit products via third party online platforms, fearing that the rapid expansion of the fintech sector could increase risks in the wider financial system. The People's Bank of China called such practices "illegal financial activities." So why were small local banks in Henan apparently ignoring the ban and raising deposits from savers — like Ye, who live on the other side of the country? China's national banking and insurance regulator says third party online platforms allowed them to bypass these geographical restrictions and grow their business nationwide. In the Henan case, various state-run media are reporting that the deposit products were sold via platforms affiliated with, or owned by, giants of China's tech scene such as Baidu (BIDU) and JD.com. (JD) Those platforms — Du Xiaoman Financial, which is the financial affiliate of Baidu, as well as JD Finance — have not responded to requests for comment. "The central government regulators seem to be incapable of enforcing those regulations aimed at preventing this kind of bank run from occurring," said Frank Xie, the Chinese economy expert. He added that corruption was "rampant" at local levels of financial institutions. "Perpetrators such as the person stealing millions from the depositors often get shielded by accomplices in governments and in the upper-level management of the banks," Xie said. "The core problem is that China's financial system simply expanded far too fast relative to the size of the economy over the previous decade," said Logan Wright, director of China markets research at Rhodium Group. China's banking sector has increased sixfold in size since 2008, with total assets reaching over $50 trillion, according to government statistics. The funding structure of small lenders also makes them more risky, say experts. Compared with big banks, they are more reliant on deposits for funding. Many of them offer high interest rates to attract commercial and interbank deposits. But as the slowing economy means borrowers struggle to repay the banks, it becomes difficult for them to deliver the returns they offered savers. "The funding structure of liabilities in many of China's mostly smaller and regional banks is most likely still vulnerable to deposit runs, lender caution, and deteriorating economic performance and rising unemployment," said George Magnus, an associate at the China Centre at Oxford University and former chief economist at UBS. Deteriorating financial health The Henan crisis arrived at a time when public confidence in China's banking system was already waning. In the past decade, Beijing has been clamping down on "shadow banking" activities — which means unregulated, off-the-book lending by financial institutions — on worries that most of the funds had been diverted to property developers and local government infrastructure projects, leading to a rapid run-up in debt and growing financial risks. In 2019, China seized control of Baoshang Bank, based in Inner Mongolia, citing serious credit risks posed by the lender. It was the first bank seizure in China in more than 20 years and the lender was declared bankrupt. The following year, there were at least five bank runs at small lenders, mostly triggered by public fears following reports of financial distress at the banks or anti-graft investigations into bank executives. "Financial institutions are still grappling with some of the losses that have resulted, particularly in China's northeast, central provinces, and western regions, where shadow banking activities had expanded the fastest over the past decade," Wright said. Making matters worse, "the ongoing slowdowns in the economy during the Covid-19 pandemic have further exposed financial institutions to new credit risks as well," Wright added. Spillover effects Investors are closely watching the government's investigation into the Henan bank run. Analysts are gauging possible spillover effects to other banks. "The economy is a key reason why affected banks might be experiencing difficulties, and it is quite possible that other banks will be affected, perhaps even larger banks, given that the fate of the property market and real estate prices hang in the balance," said Magnus from Oxford University. The Chinese economy has been struggling with the country's zero-Covid policy. Many cities have been placed under full or partial lockdowns since March, wreaking havoc on activity. Analysts are worried that the economy could contract in the second quarter. "This could have multiplier effects given that real estate as an asset class could be compromised now for a few years," Magnus said. China's gigantic real estate sector, which accounts for as much as 30% of its GDP, is in a worsening downturn. Sales by the country's top 100 developers collapsed 59% in May from a year ago, according to a recent survey by property research firm Cric China. Evergrande — one of the country's biggest developers — is undergoing a huge restructuring after it defaulted on its debts late last year. Analysts have long feared Evergrande's collapse could have ripple effects across the property industry and spill over to the financial system. Property loans accounts for nearly 30% of outstanding loans with China's financial institutions. Analysts aren't yet worrying about a financial crisis — because the PBOC is likely to ensure that larger and systemically more important banks are protected. But the discontent triggered by the bank runs could be a major concern for the government. When Covid health codes of depositors turned red early last week, derailing a planned protest in Zhengzhou, it sparked a massive outcry on social media. "Now (the authorities) can stop you from petitioning by directly putting digital shackles on you, aka giving you red codes," said one comment on Weibo, China's Twitter-like platform. Dozens of depositors were taken into a quarantine hotel guarded by police and local officials, before being sent away on trains bound for their hometowns the next day; others were "quarantined" at several other locations in the city, including a college campus, according to the witnesses and online posts. "Many people lost their lifetime savings because of this and [if] more incidences like this takes place, and [if] a bank run is met with a government crackdown, social unrest will be the only end result," Xie said.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Emerging-Asia-growing-faster-than-China-for-1st-time-in-30-years?utm_campaign=GL_asia_daily&utm_medium=email&utm_source=NA_newsletter&utm_content=article_link&del_type=1&pub_date=20220921123000&seq_num=2&si=44594 Emerging Asia growing faster than China for 1st time in 30 years Indonesia, Philippines are bright spots but India, Pakistan faltering, says ADB Vegetable vendors at a roadside market in Jakarta on Sept. 12. Indonesia is one emerging Asian economy that is forecast to grow faster than expected this year. © EPA/Jiji CLIFF VENZON, Nikkei staff writerSeptember 21, 2022 09:01 JSTUpdated on September 21, 2022 16:16 JST MANILA -- China's COVID lockdowns mean its economic expansion this year will be slower than the rest of emerging Asia for the first time in more than three decades, the Asian Development Bank projected in a new report. In an updated Asian Development Outlook report published Wednesday, the organization downgraded its forecast for China's 2022 growth to 3.3% from 5.0% in April. The bank also cut its projection for next year to 4.5% from 4.8%. Under its zero-COVID strategy, the region's largest economy imposed lockdowns to fight outbreaks, even as other countries loosened restrictions to reopen their economies. Those lockdowns, the ADB said, add to other economic challenges the region faces. These mainly stem from Russia's drawn-out invasion of Ukraine, which has pushed up global food and fuel inflation and led advanced economies to raise interest rates. Developing Asia as a whole is forecast to grow 4.3% in 2022, down from a 5.2% estimate in April. Excluding China, the region is projected to grow 5.3%, the ADB said. The ADB defines developing (or emerging) Asia as one of its 46 regional members in Asia and the Pacific -- basically all of the region's economies except Japan. For 2023, the emerging Asian region is forecast to grow 4.9%, instead of 5.3%. "Developing Asia continues to recover, but risks loom large," ADB Chief Economist Albert Park said in a statement. "A significant downturn in the world economy would severely undermine demand for the region's exports," Park said. "Stronger-than-expected monetary tightening in advanced economies could lead to financial instability. And growth in [China] faces challenges from recurrent lockdowns and a weak property sector." The ADB projects regional inflation to accelerate to 4.5% this year, from 3.7% in its earlier forecast. Price increases are expected to stabilize at 4.0% next year, but that is still higher than the previous forecast of 3.1%. The bank said rising inflation is expected to dent the recovery of South Asia, which is predicted to grow 6.5% this year, instead of 7.0%. The growth forecast for India, South Asia's largest economy, has been cut to 7.0%, from 7.5%, with a 7.2% expansion predicted next year. The economy of crisis-hit Sri Lanka is expected to shrink 8.8% this year, before the contraction eases to 3.3% in 2023. Pakistan, which grew 6% in its 2022 fiscal year ended June, is predicted to expand at a slower pace of 3.5% in 2023 as International Monetary Fund-backed efforts to fix the country's fiscal deficit curtail economic activity, the ADB said. Still, there are bright spots in other parts of the region. Southeast Asia's growth forecast for this year has been raised to 5.1% from 4.9%, and a 5.0% expansion is projected for 2023. This year's improved forecast comes amid stronger domestic demand in Indonesia, Southeast Asia's largest economy, which is predicted to grow 5.4%, up from 5.0%. The Philippines is now estimated to expand 6.5%, rather than 6.0%.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/Taiwan-tensions/Taiwan-report-sounds-alarm-over-China-hybrid-warfare-capabilities?utm_campaign=GL_asia_daily&utm_medium=email&utm_source=NA_newsletter&utm_content=article_link&del_type=1&pub_date=20220901123000&seq_num=11&si=44594 Taiwan report sounds alarm over China hybrid warfare capabilities Taipei warns it will counterattack if Chinese forces enter territorial waters or airspace This Taiwanese air base on the Penghu Islands in the Taiwan Strait is on high alert amid China's ongoing provocations. (Photo by Yu Nakamura) YU NAKAMURA, Nikkei staff writerSeptember 1, 2022 00:09 JST TAIPEI -- China plans to use hybrid warfare, including cyberattacks and disinformation along with conventional armed forces, in its efforts to unify Taiwan with the mainland, the Taiwanese defense ministry warns in a new report. The annual report on Chinese military capabilities finds that Beijing is already capable of using electronic warfare to damage Taiwanese infrastructure and cut off some military communications. It also expresses concern over military buildup around the Taiwan Strait and notes that China has been expanding military airfields along the coast within its Eastern Theater Command, which covers Taiwan, and the Southern Theater Command, which includes the South China Sea. The report was submitted Wednesday to the Legislative Yuan. In a news conference that day, the ministry discussed the recent state of so-called gray zone operations by China -- tactics that aim to harm Taiwan without going as far as an armed attack. It confirmed that Chinese drones have repeatedly flown near areas including the Kinmen Islands -- Taiwan-controlled islets near the Chinese mainland. If Chinese military aircraft or ships come within 12 nautical miles of Taiwan, Taipei will "exercise the right of self-defense," said Maj. Gen. Lin Wen-huang, head of planning at the defense ministry. Taiwan fired warning shots Tuesday at Chinese drones flying near the Kinmen Islands -- a first for Taipei in this context. Amid mounting pressure from Beijing, Taiwan's government proposed Aug. 25 a record defense budget of 586.3 billion New Taiwan dollars ($19.3 billion) for 2023, a 13.9% increase from this year.

BEIJING: A major fire broke out in a skyscraper in the central Chinese city of Changsha, state media reported on Friday (Sep 16), adding that the number of casualties was "currently unknown". "Thick smoke is spewing from the site, and several dozen floors are burning ferociously," state broadcaster CCTV reported. "Firefighters have begun work to extinguish the flames and conduct rescues at the scene," it added. The blaze consumed a tall building that housed an office of state-owned telecommunications company China Telecom, the report said. A photograph released by CCTV showed orange flames searing through the building in a built-up area of the city, as black smoke billowed into the sky. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/china-telecom-building-fire-changsha-city-cctv-hunan-2943481 How to put out a fire this huge? Praying for all the first responders and those trapped in the building.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Asia-Insight/Laos-debt-pressure-raises-specter-of-a-China-vassal-state?utm_campaign=GL_asia_daily&utm_medium=email&utm_source=NA_newsletter&utm_content=article_link&del_type=1&pub_date=20220906190000&seq_num=2&si=44594 Laos owes more than half its foreign debt to China, including "hidden obligations," and experts say the Southeast Asian country could end up bartering away land and resources for relief. © Illustration by Hiroko Aida Laos' debt pressure raises specter of a China vassal state Echoes of Sri Lanka on the Mekong as muzzled public seethes over economic woes MARWAAN MACAN-MARKAR, Asia regional correspondentSeptember 6, 2022 06:00 JST NONG KHAI, Thailand -- At gas stations in Nong Khai, a quiet Thai town on the western banks of the Mekong River, streams of vehicles pulling up reveal the troubles across the waterway in Vientiane, the capital of Laos. The drivers with Laotian license plates come with two requests: a full tank, and extra fuel for the 20-liter containers they have on board. Many roll up in high-end SUVs or sleek Mercedes-Benzes, popular among the wealthy few in their impoverished country. "Some of the drivers are regulars, known to us, and they complain about the high price or short supply" of gas back in Laos, said Kiri Malaya, a station attendant, as he filled up a black Range Rover and a blue jerrycan. Kiri has been busier since June. By that month, Laos' gasoline prices were up by 107.1% on the year. But fuel is not the only item on the shopping lists of Laotians who cross the nearby bridge connecting the two countries. An office worker from Vientiane said she comes for household staples like soap, detergent, clothes and even food, since "some are not available in the shops or are now more expensive than before." A baker, struggling with rising costs of ingredients, said, "I have to find new supplies that are cheaper." Living under a communist regime notorious for its oppression and opaqueness, they and other Laotians avoid complaining openly, apart from whispers and rare outbursts of anger on social media. Nong Khai, however, offers a vantage point on their hardships and the risks their China-reliant country faces. Experts have warned the strongmen of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party that there are multiple economic land mines in their midst. The $18 billion economy's depleted foreign reserves and its unsustainable foreign debt -- much of it owed to China for large-scale infrastructure projects like a multibillion-dollar railway -- have prompted some to compare Laos to Sri Lanka. The bankrupt South Asian island ran out of dollars to service its foreign obligations in April, becoming the first country in the region to default in decades. A view of the Mekong river bordering Thailand and Laos is seen from the Thai side at Nong Khai in 2019. The town offers a vantage point on the Laotian economic crisis. © Reuters In Laos, "the macroeconomic situation is very challenging," said Alex Kremer, country manager at the World Bank. The bank warned in May that many in the nation of about 7 million were "at risk of falling into poverty, especially in towns and cities," as prices rise faster than incomes. Overall inflation hit 25.6% in July, according to official statistics. Kremer said that structural weaknesses "have been exacerbated by the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, a deteriorating global macroeconomic environment and the rapid depreciation of the Lao kip," the local currency. A year ago, the exchange rate was about 9,400 kip to the dollar. By mid-2022, some exchange outlets in Vientiane were listing rates of about 15,000 kip per dollar. On the black market, the figure was even higher, at about 19,000 kip. The crumbling local currency has prompted Thai analysts to sound the alarm over a severe shortage of foreign reserves in Laos, currently estimated to be roughly $1.3 billion. That is enough to cover only 2.2 months of imports, and will make it a squeeze to service $1.3 billion in foreign debts this year. The country is "suffering from twin deficits -- fiscal deficit and current-account deficit -- amid thin foreign exchange reserves," said Sathit Talaengsataya, a senior economist at Thailand's Krungsri Research. He said that over the past decade, Laos has run fiscal deficits equivalent to 3% to 4% of gross domestic product annually, requiring substantial external financing and resulting in the current-account deficit averaging more than 10% of GDP. Sathit called this a "chronic problem" necessitating an immediate "reset of the economy." Some shaken Laotian leaders have made rare admissions about the country's dire straits. Bounleua Sinxayvoravong, who was appointed central bank governor in June after his predecessor was fired, hinted at the panic in an address to party apparatchiks in the National Assembly. "From the start of 2021 to the first quarter of this year, Laos should have received $9.81 billion, however, only 32% of this entered the banking system of our country," he said, according to local reports. Yet the leadership is coy about how deeply their country is indebted to China, and the potential implications. AidData, a research lab at William & Mary college in the U.S., calculates that Laos racked up $5.57 billion in official debts to China during a borrowing spree from 2000 to 2017. Even that "is only the tip of the iceberg," said Bradley Parks, executive director at AidData. "Laos also has an unusually high level of hidden public debt exposure to China -- an additional $6.69 billion," he said, or about 35% of GDP. AidData defines hidden debts as those contracted by entities wholly or partially owned by the government of Laos but without an explicit sovereign repayment guarantee. Consequently, Laos' total "debt exposure to China is worth approximately $12.2 billion, or 64.8% of GDP," Parks told Nikkei Asia. The World Bank estimated that total public and publicly guaranteed debts stood at 88% of GDP in 2021. But since the World Bank's figure excludes Laos' hidden public debts to China, Parks said, "the country's true level of public debt exposure to all creditors is most likely north of 120% of GDP." "There is no other country in the world with a higher level of public debt exposure to China as a percentage of host country GDP," he added. Not surprisingly, the danger of Laos following Sri Lanka into default has grown, since its annual foreign debt bill averages $1.3 billion until 2025, according to the World Bank. In June, global ratings agency Moody's lowered Laos' credit rating further into junk territory. "Default risk will remain high given very weak governance, a very high debt burden and insufficient coverage of external debt maturities by foreign exchange reserves," Moody's said. This has sparked a diplomatic scramble by Laotian leaders seeking help from China as well as Vietnam and longtime ally Russia, according to seasoned observers familiar with politics in Vientiane. In May, the government invited ambassadors from the three countries for a discussion with relevant agencies and private banks to "resolve the current economic crisis," said Japanese scholar Norihiko Yamada, a Laos specialist who has worked in many government ministries there. "The results and the content of the consultations are not yet known, but it is possible that not only China but also Vietnam and Russia [may get involved] in assisting Laos," he said. Other experts think Laos may benefit from a shift in China's thinking on the debt loads of developing countries. While Beijing has appeared reluctant to restructure Sri Lanka's debt, observers note that it has thrown lifelines to some African countries straining under loan obligations -- largely owed to China for Belt and Road Initiative infrastructure projects, as in Laos. A high-speed railway linking Vientiane with China's Kunming, launched last December, has contributed to Laos' mountain of debt to China. © Reuters "Interest-free loans, especially to African countries, have been cancelled several times," Mengdi Yue and Christoph Nedopil Wang of the Green Finance and Development Center, a think tank at Shanghai's Fudan University, said in an email exchange with Nikkei. "China has officially expressed its stance on several occasions that it will work with other multilateral and bilateral creditors to tackle debt crises in developing countries." Some argue that countries like Laos -- one of 17 "least developed" countries where China is the single largest bilateral lender, according to the Green Finance and Development Center -- are so enmeshed with Beijing's interests that it has no option but to help. Patrick Mendis, a visiting professor of global affairs at the National Chengchi University in Taiwan and a former U.S. diplomat, said Chinese lending under the "Beijing Consensus" development model is designed on "connectivity" to China's national and security interests. Failing to assist Laos "is not an option for Beijing," Mendis said. Yet any relief efforts are also under wraps. "The Chinese offered $800 million in debt relief to Laos over the past two years, and that gave the Laos government breathing room for external financing pressures," said Jeremy Zook, Hong Kong-based director of sovereign ratings and the lead analyst for Laos at Fitch, the ratings agency. "There are other discussions going on between Laos and China about the nature of future debt relief or debt restructuring to ease the near-term burden, but it is difficult to get an accurate read." The handling of Laos' unpaid debts to China in the past may provide clues -- and hint at a bailout that could turn the Southeast Asian country into an economic vassal state. Previous debt-relief options have ranged from swaps for equity in Laotian state entities to carving out land to pacify Chinese creditors. "There is certainly some historical precedent for bartering land and natural resources to repay foreign debts in Laos or to support domestic infrastructure," said Keith Barney, an academic at the Australian National University in Canberra. Vientiane boasts of such a swap. Laos' government handed over a marsh to build a special economic zone as part of a deal to repay the Chinese, who had built a $100 million National Stadium in time for the 2009 Southeast Asian Games, which Laos hosted. "This is part of the idea of 'turning land into capital,' which was a key development slogan of Laos and implicit policy through the 2000s," Barney said. Laos' government handed over a marsh to build a special economic zone as part of a deal to repay the Chinese, who had built a $100 million National Stadium for the 2009 Southeast Asian Games in Vientiane. © AP But will the Laotian public remain silent spectators if their country is carved up by China, debt by debt? Public sentiment has already turned sour against the one-party, socialist state as the mismanaged economy and dollar crunch make it increasingly difficult to pay for essential imports like fuel and cooking gas. "The word on the street among Laotians in business is that the country is becoming a failed state," a Thai investment consultant who has clients in Vientiane told Nikkei. "Never before has the Laotian public been so angry with the government. ... Its legitimacy to rule is being shredded."

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Markets/China-debt-crunch/Disappearance-of-deposits-triggers-distrust-in-Chinese-banks?utm_campaign=GL_one_time&utm_medium=email&utm_source=NA_newsletter&utm_content=article_link&del_type=3&pub_date=20220731093000&seq_num=8&si=44594 Disappearance of deposits triggers distrust in Chinese banks Scandal at a regional bank undermines confidence in entire system Customers of a rural Chinese bank have found that their deposits disappeared into thin air. (Source photos by Reuters/AP) NORIYUKI DOI, Nikkei staff writerJuly 27, 2022 13:45 JST SHANGHAI -- Customers of a rural Chinese bank have found that their deposits disappeared into thin air. Lies told by the lender, supposed to be under strict supervision of financial authorities, are inviting distrust and shaking public confidence in the country's banking system. The bank's call center kept giving false explanations to a typical customer. April 17: "Customers need to make a reservation by phone if they want to withdraw more than 100,000 yuan ($14,800) from their online account." April 18: "Our system is under renovation. Customers cannot withdraw their deposits until the work is complete." April 19: "There is no deposit record with the name, mobile phone number and ID number you've given." The lender in question is Yu Zhou Xin Min Sheng Village Bank, a small bank based in Xuchang, Henan Province, that serves rural populations. A man in Shanghai who had deposited 2 million yuan at the bank realized the grave nature of the problem on April 19, when a call center worker told him that his deposit didn't exist. Hardly believing what he had been told, he contacted the center two more times, only to get the same answer. He first learned of the bank, virtually unknown outside its home, when a friend told him it offered high interest rates. He opened an account via its official app, called Mini-programs, on the social media platform WeChat and put the 2 million yuan into the account -- or so he believed. "I thought I could withdraw the money immediately if the bank seemed to be in trouble," he said. People protest over the rural bank scandal outside a People's Bank of China building in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, on July 10. © Reuters Where has his money gone? An investigation by public security authorities in Xuchang found that the bank collected money illegally through "fake deposits." According to the authorities, a criminal group led by a mastermind named Lu Yi brought Yu Zhou Xin Min Sheng Village Bank and several other regional banks under their control through Henan Xincaifu Group Investment Holding from 2011. Lu also founded Junzheng Zhida Tech, whose main business is to develop banking systems, and had the company develop online systems for the lenders to enable them to accept deposits via the internet. The banks solicited "deposits" to their online services, but investigators believe they didn't actually put customers' money into their accounts. That was the reason the Shanghai man was told that his deposit didn't exist. The authorities in Xuchang say the banks transferred the money to Henan Xincaifu Group Investment Holding, disguising it as loans. Lu established another tech firm, Chenyu Information Technology, which tampered with the banks' data to conceal the illegal activities from authorities. The group had controlling stakes in five banks, all small and regional. But the misconduct affects 1 million people who have become unable to access deposits totaling 10 billion yuan, Chinese media Caixin reports. The unprecedented scandal is threatening to undermine China's banking system as a whole. "Debt has created a huge hole in the Bank of Nanjing's finances. I recommend customers withdraw their deposits," wrote Fu Mingfei, an analyst at the major Chinese brokerage Western Securities, on WeChat on June 30. His post went viral. The bank rejected Fu's argument as "malicious rumors," and his employer fired him. In the evening of July 3, public security authorities in Nanjing announced that they had penalized a 39-year-old man for "spreading false information on WeChat that posed negative impact on the Bank of Nanjing." After an analyst recommended that customers withdraw their deposits at the Bank of Nanjing, the bank called his viral post "malicious rumors." (Photo by Noriyuki Doi) According to the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the ratio of nonperforming loans stood at 1.35% among large commercial banks at the end of March. The highest ratio is seen among rural commercial banks, at 3.37%. The government boasts of the financial health of lenders, but the assessment of bank assets is largely left to financial authorities' discretion. That is at the root of the unspecified public distrust in banks. One typical example is Baoshang Bank in Inner Mongolia, dissolved by the central government in 2020. The bank was effectively controlled by Tomorrow Holding, led by tycoon Xiao Jianhua, who went missing in Hong Kong in January 2017. Its ratio of nonperforming loans was 1.41% in 2015 and 1.68% in 2016. But as it concentrated its loans on Tomorrow Holding, the ratio surged to 98% by the time it was dissolved. More than 1,000 people held a protest on July 10 in Zhengzhou in Henan over the village bank scandal. The central government announced the following day that it would reimburse affected customers, and the rescue plan is expected to help calm the situation. But the fact that a criminal group controlled banks and authorities failed to detect the wrongdoing is shaking public confidence in the banking sector.

What is there not to like about this latest flagship from Xiaomi! From these press photos and spec, it seems to be even better than the new Samsung Fold 4. Price 256GB / 12GB RAM: RMB8,999 512GB / 12GB RAM: RMB9,999 1TB / 12GB RAM: RMB11,999

(Warning: Graphic content) Attacker rips out man's heart and bites it Jun 28, 2014 4:25pm 4 0 0 4 A 40-year-old boat owner attacked a man with a knife. When the victim collapsed on the ground, the attacker dug out his heart and intestines. An argument over a bowl of noodles ended up with the most gruesome of murders. A 39-year-old boat owner with the surname Ma spotted a 40-year-old fisherman enjoying a bowl of noodles for breakfast on Wednesday (June 25) at a shop in Suizhou, in China's Hubei province. For reasons unknown, the pair started arguing over the dish, which cost 5 yuan (S$1), reported Shanghaiist. Chinese website Bastille Post reported that Ma suddenly picked up a watermelon knife and slashed at the victim's neck. Blood started flowing from the wound and the victim collapsed on the ground. But what came next was even more horrifying. Ma used the knife to cut open the man's chest and dig out his heart. He then put the heart in his mouth and started biting it. The attacker, however, was not done. He used the knife to cut open the chest further and removed the man's intestines. Horrified witnesses watched from a distance, with none daring to approach Ma. The attacker did not leave the scene after the attack. Instead, he paced up and down while biting the heart, before pausing to sit down at the scene. Police arrived 40 minutes later and arrested him. - See more at: http://www.tnp.sg/news/warning-graphic-content-attacker-rips-out-mans-heart-and-bites-it?utm_content=buffer879ab&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer#sthash.DjqKoVP6.dpuf

How To Watch The Decade’s Final Rocket Launch, China’s Game-Changing ‘Long March 5’ https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2019/12/26/how-to-watch-chinas-mars-mission-hinges-on-long-march-5-success-the-decades-last-rocket-launch/#50c57ab75da9 Launch this evening @ 8:45pm SGT from Wenchang space facility in Hainan island...on the final Friday of 2019. astastast

https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/Indo-Pacific/Kishida-Japan-to-fundamentally-strengthen-defense-in-5-years?utm_campaign=GL_JP_update&utm_medium=email&utm_source=NA_newsletter&utm_content=article_link&del_type=4&pub_date=20220611090000&seq_num=5&si=44594 Kishida: Japan to 'fundamentally' strengthen defense in 5 years At Shangri-La Dialogue, PM vows $2bn in Indo-Pacific aid for 'new era' of realism Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida delivers the keynote speech to the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on June 10. © Reuters TSUBASA SURUGA, Nikkei staff writerJune 10, 2022 22:32 JST SINGAPORE -- Japan will "fundamentally reinforce Japan's defense capabilities within the next five years," Prime Minister Fumio Kishida vowed in Singapore on Friday, delivering a keynote address to open the Shangri-La Dialogue security summit. Kishida pledged to "secure a substantial increase" in the country's defense budget to back this up, stressing that Japan has adopted a new type of "realism diplomacy for a new era." His more than 30-minute speech to the forum, where defense ministers and delegates from 42 countries are gathering, came in the shadow of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and as China's rise shifts the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific region. Kishida also promised to provide maritime aid to Indo-Pacific countries -- at least $2 billion over the next three years for maritime security equipment, including patrol vessels, and to support maritime transportation infrastructure. "We will strengthen our support to each country, utilizing cooperation of the Quad and frameworks of international organizations," he said, referring to Japan's loose security partnership with the U.S., Australia and India. In May, the Japanese leader had told visiting U.S. President Joe Biden in Tokyo that his government would reinforce Japan's defense capabilities and raise its budget. On Friday, Kishida pointed to the Ukraine war as part of the rationale for doing so. "I myself have a strong sense that Ukraine today may be the East Asia [of] tomorrow," he said. "I will seek to build a stable international order through dialogue, not confrontation," he promised. "At the same time, however, we must be prepared for the emergence of an entity that tramples on the peace and security of other countries by force or threat without honoring the rules." The groundwork for a defense buildup was laid on Tuesday, when the Japanese cabinet approved the first annual economic policy road map since Kishida took office last year. The blueprint for next fiscal year's budget said Japan aims to drastically increase its defense outlays over the next five years, without specifying exactly by how much. The road map did refer to the defense spending commitment made by NATO members -- 2% of gross domestic product. Japan currently spends close to 1% of its GDP. While Kishida highlighted the Ukraine war, and did not single out China by name, he alluded to longstanding concerns about Beijing's assertive behavior especially in the maritime domain. On the South China Sea -- where China has overlapping claims with several Southeast Asian countries -- Kishida said that international law and in particular the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, along with arbitration decisions based on that convention, are not being "complied with." He went on to warn that "unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force in violation of international law are continuing." He also touched on tensions in the Taiwan Strait, saying that "peace and stability" in the waterway are "of extreme importance." Russia's invasion has raised fears of China one day trying to take Taiwan -- which it regards as a renegade province -- by force. Just ahead of Kishida's speech, the U.S. and Chinese defense chiefs had a face-to-face meeting in which they exchanged views on Taiwan. The Japanese destroyer Inazuma is pictured in the Indian Ocean in 2018: Tokyo intends to ramp up defense spending at a time of high regional tension. © Reuters In 2021, Japan's military spending was estimated at a record $54.1 billion, ranking ninth globally. The total came to less than a fifth of China's $293 billion, which ranked second behind only the U.S., at $801 billion, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. India came in third at $76.6 billion. Still, the rate of increase in Japanese defense spending was notably high, at 7.3% on the year. The government allocated an additional $7 billion to defense in a supplementary budget, resulting in the highest annual growth rate since 1972. Despite Kishida's insistence on adding muscle to Japan's forces, he also offered reassurance in his speech. "I stress that Japan's posture as a peace loving nation will remain unchanged," he said. "Our efforts will proceed within the scope of our constitution and in compliance with international law, in a manner that does not alter the basic roles and missions shared between Japan and U.S. under our alliance." The U.S. and Japan have traditionally divided their roles in their alliance as that of a "spear" and a "shield." Japan has focused on being the shield, or defending Japanese territory, while leaving all attack roles to the U.S. Some in Washington have been hoping that Japan might expand its role to that of a spear, however short that spear may be, to strengthen deterrence. Kishida's point that the "roles" will be unchanged is likely an attempt to ease fears that Japan may be speeding ahead too fast, ahead of the upper house elections next month. But his remarks could be met with disappointment stateside.

If this has been posted or lurking in old thread apologies . . . . . SG Widow and China Tour Guide Asset Tussle . .. . http://www.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/courts-crime/story/tussle-over-widows-40m-assets-turns-ugly-20140903 A seven-hour stand-off between an 87-year-old Singaporean widow and a 34-year-old woman from China ended yesterday after the younger woman agreed to leave the widow's $30 million bungalow, where she had stayed for a year without rent. It was the latest twist in a saga that began in 2008, after the widow, retired physiotherapist Chung Khin Chun, met the Chinese woman's tour guide husband while on holiday in China. The 40-year-old man, Mr Yang Yin, later got close to Madam Chung and, in 2009, moved into her Gerald Crescent bungalow, allegedly took over her assets worth $40 million and brought his family to live with him there. Madam Chung's niece, 60-year-old travel agency owner Hedy Mok, started court proceedings to revoke Mr Yang's guardianship of her aunt's $40 million assets earlier this year

Flight data shows China Eastern jet deliberately crashed: Report https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/flight-data-shows-china-eastern-jet-deliberately-crashed-report

https://asia.nikkei.com/Editor-s-Picks/China-up-close/Analysis-Xi-risks-stumbling-with-Putin-if-he-plays-his-cards-wrong?utm_campaign=GL_china_up_close&utm_medium=email&utm_source=NA_newsletter&utm_content=article_link&del_type=9&pub_date=20220407213007&seq_num=2&si=44594 Xi risks stumbling with Putin if he plays his cards wrong If Russia fails in Ukraine, questions would arise over long-term authoritarian leadership KATSUJI NAKAZAWA, Nikkei senior staff writerApril 7, 2022 04:00 JST Katsuji Nakazawa is a Tokyo-based senior staff writer and editorial writer at Nikkei. He spent seven years in China as a correspondent and later as China bureau chief. He was the 2014 recipient of the Vaughn-Ueda International Journalist prize. Chinese President Xi Jinping's personal alliance with Russian President Vladimir Putin is hampering China's diplomacy. That is becoming clearer as the war in Ukraine rages on. Both men have laid the groundwork to stay in power until the middle of the 2030s. Both have territorial ambitions: reestablishing the former Soviet Union's sphere of influence for Putin, Taiwan for Xi. But the association comes with significant risk. Mere weeks ago, Chinese foreign and security officials were beaming with confidence. After Xi and Putin met in the Chinese capital on Feb. 4 and promised friendship with no limits, China was aware that the clock was ticking on a Ukraine operation. It had gathered intelligence through its official and behind-the-scenes connections in Russia, established over many years. But China had expected Russia to refrain from any such military action until the Beijing Winter Paralympics had closed on March 13. This judgment was based on Putin's remarks to Xi in a private conversation. Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Feb. 4. © Kremlin/Reuters China's expectations proved to be wishful thinking. Putin only went halfway toward being considerate to Olympic host Xi. The Ukraine invasion began after the Winter Olympics closed on Feb. 20 but before the Paralympics began on March 4. Still, Beijing had hoped the attack would be swift and that by the opening of the Paralympics, Russian forces would have established control in Ukraine. Instead, more of the unexpected came, and rather than driving a wedge between the U.S. and Europe, the Russian invasion strengthened Western solidarity. Washington would not become bogged down in Eastern Europe, and there would be no geopolitical windfall for Beijing. In fact, China now finds itself with the weaker hand. When Xi held a virtual meeting with leaders of the European Union on April 1, he asked that they make their own diplomatic decisions on China "independent" of the U.S. But the request fell on deaf ears. The EU, in turn, urged China not to provide military and economic support to Russia. The Europeans showed no sign of moving toward an investment pact with China, which is a pending issue. Chinese President Xi Jinping and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speak with European Council President Charles Michel and European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell via video conference during an EU China summit at the European Council building in Brussels on April 1. © Reuters A month and a half into the Ukraine war, Xi is now concerned about "the subtle impact it may have on Chinese domestic politics," a Chinese political source said. A nightmare scenario for Xi, who seeks to secure an uncustomary third term as China's top leader this fall, would be for Putin's operation to fail and spread the impression that an authoritarian leader in office for too long tends to make the wrong calls at crucial moments. This would cause immeasurable damage to Xi ahead of the Chinese Communist Party's national congress. Even if Xi wins reelection this time, a Russian failure in Ukraine could all but ensure that he won't stay beyond the next national congress in 2027. In this case, Xi would immediately become a lame duck, all but erasing his yearslong effort to cement his path into the next decade. Xi and Putin are strange bedfellows. Both have no choice but to stay in power after making so many enemies. They need to prevent their respective boats from capsizing until they reach their destinations in the 2030s. Former U.S. President Donald Trump had good intuition about Xi's position when he visited Beijing in November 2017. "You're president for life, and therefore you're king," he told Xi at the Forbidden City, where Chinese emperors once lived. The Forbidden City is one of Beijing's most popular tourist destinations and a UNESCO World Heritage site, but it was closed off for the day as Xi entertained the American president and first lady. Former U.S. President Donald Trump had good intuition about Xi's position when he visited Beijing in November 2017. © Reuters This exchange happened four months before Xi pushed through a surprise revision of the national constitution the following March, scrapping the limit of two five-year terms for a Chinese president. For Xi to stay head of state for life, he needs to be reelected as the party's general secretary every five years. Aiming for a third term this year is the first step toward an ultralong-term reign. The year 2035 has been set as the target for catching up with the U.S. Most of China's current long-term plans and visions of nation-building have 2035 in mind. And indications are that Xi intends to run the government until 2035. A shortcut to Xi's goal is to create a new top post for life. It would be similar to the post of party chairman, which Mao Zedong held until his death. But that may be difficult under the current party ban on stoking personality cults. Further, it would be impossible if Putin fails in Ukraine and the masses begin to question the ultralong rule of any one leader. Soldiers walk amid destroyed Russian tanks in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine on April 3. © AP Meanwhile, in Russia, Putin also pushed through a constitutional revision in 2020, following in Xi's footsteps and paving the way for the Russian president to stay in office until 2036. If Putin lasts that long, he would be 83. If Xi reigns until 2035, he too would be 83, at least in traditional Chinese age. It is also the age when Mao Zedong died, as the incumbent leader of China. Are there any measures Xi can take? When the time is ripe for a Russia-Ukraine cease-fire, China has the option of participating in a security framework to ensure peace. Xi could hold a phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to facilitate such a scenario. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's phone call earlier this week with Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba, the second since Russia's invasion, was likely a step in that direction. "It is China's historical and cultural tradition as well as our consistent foreign policy to safeguard peace and oppose war," Wang said. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks during a remote video press conference held on the sidelines of the annual meeting of China's National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing on March 7. © AP But Wang carefully avoided any remarks that could be taken by Russia as unreasonable pressure from China. Not knowing Putin's entire game plan, it is too dangerous for China to take a clear stance. And bound by the Xi-Putin joint statement of Feb. 4, in which both specified opposition to further NATO expansion, China cannot fully side with Ukraine. Xi needs Putin to survive. There is a risk that if his Russian comrade falls, Xi could fall with him. Putin's survival is crucial for Xi, but not necessarily for China.