Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has warned against separatist inclinations and foreign meddling in Taiwan, which Beijing considers to be under its sovereignty. China wants to develop peaceful ties and ultimately reunify with the island, the official told an annual parliamentary session on Saturday. “All of us, Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, should come together to advance the great and glorious cause of China’s rejuvenation,” the premier said. The head of the Chinese cabinet made the remarks as he was delivering his working report to members of China’s National People’s Congress (NPC), which they are to approve. The NPC and a separate advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), launched their two-week annual sessions on Friday.
The annual sessions are usually used by the ruling Communist Party to outline economic and military plans for China. This year’s gatherings are remarkable since later in the year President Xi Jinping is expected to continue his leadership of the country for an unprecedented third term. Taiwan has been administering itself since the Chinese civil war of the 1940s, during which defeated nationalist forces retreated to the island. Taipei claims to be representing the will of the Chinese people, but most of the world recognizes Beijing in that role under the so-called “One China policy.” Tensions over Taiwan have been ramping up over the past few years amid new arms sales by Washington and visits of semi-official American delegations, which Beijing sees as undermining its claims to the island. China has ramped up military activities around Taiwan, stating that it was acting to balance similar moves by the US. Lately, there was speculation in Western media that Beijing may attempt to take over the island by force amid the security crisis in Europe caused by Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Beijing refused to condemn Moscow for its offensive and accused the US and NATO of paving the way for hostilities by ignoring Russian national security concerns. Moscow said its attack was necessary to curb threats emanating from Ukraine due to NATO’s creeping expansion into Ukraine. Other parts of Li’s remarks, which covered Beijing’s relationship with Hong Kong, were notably devoid of condemnations of foreign meddling, which have been common in speeches by Chinese officials since the mass anti-government protests and rioting that gripped the autonomous city in 2019. He instead focused on the potential of economic growth for Hong Kong, Macao and other Chinese cities in the Greater Bay Area.
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When Turkish finance minister Nureddin Nebati this week announced plans to encourage households to convert their gold holdings into Turkish liras in a bid to shore up Turkish central bank reserves, he was targeting people like Esra G. Ms. G., whose last name has been abbreviated to preserve her anonymity, has had a life-long troubled relationship with gold. When she was barely three years old, her distaste for it as an adornment was already so strong that she dumped all her gold rings, bracelets, necklaces, and earrings into the Bosporus.
Nonetheless, Ms. G. grew up to be an avid collector of gold, including an assortment of five- and 10-gram Credit Suisse coins. As a young woman, Ms. G. preferred antique silver jewelry and wouldn’t wear gold but kept her gold collection under her pillow. Huddled under blankets and thermal shields, dozens of elderly patients shivered on gurneys outside a hospital serving one of Hong Kong's poorest communities -- a grim tableau for the city as its health system buckles under an Omicron-fuelled coronavirus wave. "We call this the fever zone," a nurse in full-body protective gear told AFP, declining to be named. "Don't get too close." Hong Kong is in the throes of its worst coronavirus outbreak, and record new daily infections have pushed hospitals in the finance hub to the breaking point. On Monday, Caritas Medical Centre in Sham Shui Po district started setting up isolation tents outside its facilities -- initially limiting one Covid patient per tent. But by nightfall Wednesday, entire families were crammed into the tents, while about 50 others languished in the February chill on hospital beds wheeled outside. "Some of my colleagues say we are now in battlefield mode," said David Chan, an emergency room nurse at Caritas who is also the acting president of Hong Kong's Hospital Authority Employees Alliance. "We are worried that the patients' conditions will worsen later this week," he told AFP, calling the situation "very undesirable". One of Chan's big concerns was the forecast for wet weather. Later that evening, rain began to fall.
Unvaccinated elderly Like mainland China, Hong Kong has adhered to a zero-Covid strategy, which has largely kept the virus out but left the business hub cut off from the world. Until the most recent outbreak, all patients were treated in dedicated Covid isolation wards, and close contacts were sent to a quarantine camp. But the extremely contagious Omicron virus variant has left authorities scrambling and exposed shortcomings in plans to deal with a major outbreak. On Wednesday, the daily caseload hit a record 4,285 confirmed infections with a further 7,000 preliminary positives in the densely packed city of 7.5 million. Before the latest wave, Hong Kong had recorded just over 12,000 cases since the beginning of the pandemic. Health experts say the daily case numbers could rise to 28,000 by March. Especially vulnerable are Hong Kong's vaccine-hesitant elderly. Despite ample supplies, only 43% of those aged 70-79 and 26% of over-80s opted to get jabbed. Last week, the government said people with mild cases could isolate at home but by Wednesday, there were still 12,000 people waiting to be hospitalised. 'No plan' At Caritas, the wave of patients has left staff "exhausted, stressed out and helpless", Chan said. "It's so painful that we have been working non-stop but we still cannot take care of every patient properly," he told AFP, adding that the current crisis outpaced what they faced at the beginning of the pandemic. "Back then, we did not know the virus well and we were short of equipment," he said. "Two years on, we expected the Hospital Authority to have better plans -- but there turned out to be none." City leader Carrie Lam ruled out a hard, China-style lockdown on Tuesday. But the following day, Beijing-controlled newspapers carried an order from President Xi Jinping telling Hong Kong authorities to take "all necessary measures" to control the outbreak. Yet it remains unclear whether Hong Kong could ever make it back to zero Covid cases, given the rapidly increasing number of infections in the territory. 'Sandcastles in a tsunami' The government has opened temporary Covid clinics and plans to build a makeshift mega-hospital. It also plans to requisition 3,000 unoccupied public housing apartments and is looking into whether hotels can house some cases. But whether those measures will come in time remains to be seen. In the Caritas parking area past the "fever zone", a worried mother cradled her two-year-old -- trying to keep the toddler comfortable as they waited in the 15 degree Celsius chill. "I kept calling the (government Covid) hotlines but none of them connected," the woman, who provided just her surname Chau, told AFP, adding that her daughter was running a high fever. When they arrived two hours prior, nurses instructed her to get tested -- which could take hours as she joined some 120 people waiting outside Caritas. "They have no wards for you, so you have no choice but to go home," Chau said. Healthcare professionals have long warned that Hong Kong's public hospitals were underfunded and unprepared for a coronavirus surge. Even during previous flu outbreaks, hospitals had "buckled", said Siddharth Sridhar -- a microbiologist at the University of Hong Kong -- in a tweet Wednesday. "Now, with a disease that is more transmissible/severe than flu, and requires exposed staff to quarantine, HK's hospitals are sandcastles in a tsunami." China is one of world’s most polluting countries, a reality dating back to when this power emerged as a developing country and was already known as ‘the world’s factory’. But the government wants to change this situation, making use of regions such as Xiong’an New Area, a self-sufficient and sustainable city, in which priority is given to shorter supply chains for energy and materials. What is the Xiong’an New Area? The Xiong’an New Area will be a newly created city (very common in China) developed by the government and intended to take pressure off other nearby cities and conduct pilot projects aimed at innovation and sustainability.2016 saw the start of China’s 13th Five-year Plan (2016-2020), aimed at the construction of “a moderately prosperous society, prepared to tackle instabilities in the economy and established on a solid base of innovation, regional integration, sustainable development and openness”.The most important theme of this statement of intent was sustainable development, and the Xiong’an New Area announced in 2017 by Xi Jinping, a new mega smart city designed to be the perfect setting for the 19th Chinese district. A technological and responsible district acting as a bridge between Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei and which, simultaneously, would help regulate the growing population of the latter.This saw the start of a project with an estimated cost of 580 billion dollars and designed to “convert a rural area into the next Shenzhen”. As well as attracting talent with a message of self-sufficiency in resources, Zhongguancun (the Chinese Silicon Valley) will build a new scientific park and mobilize around 500,000 scientists, as well as dozens of major companies.The first phase consists of unifying and modernizing over 60 rural villages with a population of one million, which occupy an area of around 1000 km2, with the ultimate aim of having a population of around 25 million inhabitants by 2035 distributed over an area of around 2000 km2. A colossal and yet sustainable city. Why will Xiong’an be a green self-sufficient city?
Xiong’an Citizen Service Center (2019)[/caption]One of the main objectives of the Xiong’an area, which is still using vast amounts of coal for heating and cooking and for generating energy, is that the Xiong’an New Area uses 100% clean, emission-free energy. The State Grid Corporation of China opened a subsidiary to plan the growth of the future grid.As of 2020, thousands of companies have been closed down due to a breach of Xiong’an’s new pollution regulations. This sustainable city’s road map includes “exploring new [economic] growth models”, “creating a world-class smart city” prioritizing “green development and environmental protection”.To achieve all of these points, including sustainable farming, the city’s actual buildings will generate most of its energy, and grow all the food required in the area, minimizing exports and imports.Another point sought by the area is to become a completely electrified transport hub with five high-speed lines connecting the territory with other major cities, with the aim of minimizing and even eliminating the use of polluting vehicles
Of the $35 billion that the world’s 74 lowest-income nations will owe in debt service payments this year, about 37% — or $13.1 billion — is owed to Chinese entities, according to the World Bank. A similar amount, $13.4 billion, is owed to the private sector. Official bilateral debt to countries other than China accounts for only $8.6 billion, World Bank President David Malpass said Wednesday during an event hosted by the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Malpass said the Paris Club — the group of 22 mostly Western creditors — was once the main holder of lower-income countries’ debt. This allowed the group to reach deals on debt relief, creating solutions for nations that had trouble making payments on their loans.
However, reaching deals with major creditors outside the club, such as China and the private sector, is a more complex process, requiring each major creditor and bond-holder to enter into an agreement separately. The shifting nature of who has owned debt in the past decade effectively means no global system exists for dealing with a debt crisis. “The Paris Club portion of the debt that’s coming due — even for the IDA countries — is small, and so that poses a challenge for the world,” Malpass said, using an acronym for the International Development Association, the World Bank’s fund for the lowest-income nations. The $35 billion estimate for 2022 is a 45% increase over the total debt payments ultimately owed in 2020, according to the bank. “Many more countries are in a situation where their debt is unsustainable,” Malpass said. Often, these nations took on debt before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and now there is “just not going to be enough money for them to pay the debt service.” Additionally, more central banks have taken on de facto debt through swap lines, adding to countries’ burdens, he noted. The $35 billion that governments owe and have guaranteed during 2022 dwarfs the $24 billion that donors pledged in December for the most recent round of IDA funding, which is meant to last three years. Malpass said that Chinese-owned debt suffers from a lack of transparency around the loans, including nondisclosure agreements attached to lending packages. This makes the deals hard to track. Moreover, Beijing-controlled creditors have continued to take “full payments” during the pandemic, Malpass said, despite an effort to freeze such transfers with the world economy in turmoil. China’s most important holiday — the Spring Festival — falls between January 31 and February 6 this year and might appear a bit different than usual. Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s festival is unlikely to prompt the world’s largest human migration (millions of people travel thousands of miles across China to their homes during the Lunar New Year), unlike years past. In fact, this holiday’s travel rush is likely to be the least busy of the past seven years, with an estimated 280 million railway passenger trips. Locals who want to travel home will confront multiple challenges, including targeted pandemic prevention and control efforts aimed at securing the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games. As such, the Spring Festival certainly won’t be as lively this year. But will the economy suffer from it?
In the past, locals used to pay in-person visits to relatives and friends, bringing them presents to celebrate Spring Festival. However, China’s COVID-free plan is reshaping this tradition. Since local governments and businesses have encouraged residents to stay home to minimize a virus spread and keep supply chains stable, the country’s travel economy is likely to get dampened. But this could allow other industries to flourish. Shoppers might spend less money on presents and have more money for self-rewards. Therefore, personal care and luxury are likely to benefit from this trend. Meanwhile, the stay-at-home economy will see a boost, further fuelling livestreams, e-commerce sites, and takeaway options for people reducing time outside their homes. So, if Maisons want to celebrate positive Spring Festival sales, their marketing activities should reflect those trends by doubling down on digital and personal goods. Yet, the brands that give back to the community during this challenging time through initiatives that comfort families who cannot reunite are sure to fare very well in China this year.
Who is Cai?
Cai Niangniang is a pseudonym for the model, who is 28 years-old and from Leshan in the western province of Sichuan. And in her weibo statement, she said she did not deserve to be cyber-bullied because of her appearance. “My looks were given to me by my parents,” she wrote. “I’m just an ordinary worker doing my job.” Netizens had attacked her for days, with some accusing her of being “unpatriotic” and “uglifying Chinese people”. Such was the public interest that Three Squirrels removed the ads online and apologised, saying the model’s makeup had been chosen to suit her features, not to make her appear in a certain way. “Regarding the opinion that the model does not fit the mainstream’s aesthetic taste and makes the public feel uncomfortable, we are sincerely sorry,” the company pleaded. What’s the problem? Angry Chinese netizens users have recently accused several – mostly Western – companies of promoting racist stereotypes through their ads. Prominent fashion photographer Chen Man was forced to apologise for her “ignorance” in November amid a similar controversy over an ad for the French luxury brand, Dior, that featured another ‘narrow-eyed’ model. Mercedes-Benz and Gucci have also been targeted for similar situations. State media has often weighed in too – as did the China Daily, the official English-language newspaper, in an opinion piece on the Cai Niang Niang saga in late December. “As a domestic brand, Three Squirrels should have known about the sensitivity of Chinese consumers to how they are portrayed in advertisements,” it said. “For too long, Western criteria for beauty, and Western likes and dislikes have dominated aesthetics.” Many netizens have argued that ad campaigns should feature models with rounder eyes and fairer skin – more typical ideals of beauty in China. Others, however, expressed an alternative view: that such ‘ideals’ are themselves Western imports and that narrower eyes should be considered equally beautiful. Armed riot police in southern China have paraded four alleged violators of Covid-19 rules through the streets, state media reported on Wednesday (Dec 29), leading to criticism of the government's heavy-handed approach. China banned such public shaming of criminal suspects in 2010 after decades of campaigning by human rights activists, but the practice has resurfaced as local governments struggle to enforce the national zero-Covid policy.
Four masked suspects in hazmat suits - carrying placards displaying their photos and names - were paraded on Tuesday in front of a large crowd in Guangxi region's Jingxi city, state-run Guangxi News said. Photos of the event showed each suspect held by two police officers - wearing face shields, masks and hazmat suits - and surrounded by a circle of police in riot gear, some holding guns. The four were accused of transporting illegal migrants while China's borders remain largely closed due to the pandemic, the newspaper said. Jingxi is near the Chinese border with Vietnam. The public shaming was part of disciplinary measures announced by the local government in August to punish those breaking health rules. Guangxi News said the parade provided a "real-life warning" to the public and "deterred border-related crimes". But it also led to a backlash, with official outlets and social media users criticising the heavy-handed approach. Although Jingxi is "under tremendous pressure" to prevent imported coronavirus cases, "the measure seriously violates the spirit of the rule of law and cannot be allowed to happen again", Communist Party-affiliated Beijing News said on Wednesday. Other suspects accused of illicit smuggling and human trafficking have also been paraded in recent months, according to reports on the Jingxi government website. Videos of a similar parade in November showed a crowd of people watching two prisoners being held while a local official read out their crimes on a microphone. They were then seen marching through the streets in their hazmat suits, flanked by police in riot gear. And in August, dozens of armed police were seen marching a suspect through the streets to a children's playground.
The “Red Mansion” case, in which dozens of sex slaves were detained in Shanghai, became a hot topic on Weibo but was quickly deleted. The Shanghai media have avoided the issue. However, the incident has raised concerns about the involvement of many high-ranking CCP figures behind the scenes. In November of this year, the judge who tried the “Xiao Hong Lou” case was fired, attracting netizens’ attention. As a result, it became a new hot search keyword on Weibo in early December. The topic “#beginning and ending of the Xiao Hong Lou case in Shanghai#” received more than 600 million clicks in just a few days. But by the early morning of Dec. 5, 600 million streams were said to have disappeared.
As previously reported by mainland media, the “Little Red House” case took place from 2000 to 2019. When Zhao Fuqiang, a seamster born in a rural area, started his business by running a barbershop in Shanghai to sell sex. The company used bribery, alcohol, and sex to bring in officials of all levels to grow the business. Zhao Fuqiang first forced his wife into prostitution, then forced other women he tricked to satisfy his lust by teaching, imprisoning, and beating them. They provide sexual services to the public, even taking female eggs through a surgical procedure, selling them, and offering surrogacy for Zhao Fuqiang and officials. Zhao Fuqiang married several female victims, then trained them to become sex slave managers in the “Red Mansion.” He also hired the husbands or family members of many sex slaves as security guards or staff. Zhao Fuqiang also installed many hidden cameras in the “Red Mansion” to record photos and videos of officials who came to indulge in debauchery and used them to blackmail. The report also mentions that the female victims called the police for help. Still, they were not accepted, and that some of the women who managed to escape from the “Red Mansion” were brought straight back by the police. In 2019 and 2020, the Shanghai Second Intermediate Court sentenced Zhao to death, and 37 Red Villa managers and other employees received various jail terms. In addition, political, legal, and police officials of the Yangpu District were also convicted. The incident sparked a heated debate on Weibo. Many netizens are shocked that such a horrible forced prostitution case has appeared in today’s society. They question how much the degradation of public power has allowed Zhao Fuqiang to do anything he wants. Others argued that the sentence for Zhao Fuqiang and local officials was too light. An article quoted a former police officer at the Shanghai Public Security Bureau saying that Zhao Fuqiang spent a long time doing business in the Yangpu district. Through money and sex transactions, he had a strong relationship with internal government agencies. Finally, as these relationships were strengthened, he felt that he was then unstoppable. The most senior official convicted in the “Red Mansion” case is Lu Yan, a Standing Committee of the Yangpu CCP District Party Committee and Secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission in Shanghai. But public opinion has questioned the accuracy of the amount of money generated by Zhao Fuqiang, said to be around $156 million. When the “Red mansion” case was reported on Weibo, hardly any media in Shanghai reported it. Shanghai is the political seat of Jiang Zemin’s faction in the Chinese Communist Party. It is currently dominated by Xi’s close associate Li Qiang. Therefore, public opinion speculates that the “Red Mansion” case may be related to a power struggle within the CCP. Mianzi, or face is something that Chinese people think about more than any other. Be it the nation's leaders, or its common citizens, the consideration of saving face is always the first thing they think about before they act. Since face is so important, it's worth asking, what exactly is it?
What is face? If you check a dictionary, you'll see that the original intended meaning of mianzi (面子) was a noun for the face, surface, or exterior of something. Later, the meaning of the word extended to include someone's feelings or the face value of something. Finally, the word came to mean "fame", "prestige" or "reputation". In the daily lives of Chinese people, the meaning of face is particularly complicated, as giving face (or not) to someone oftentimes isn't communicated directly through words, but is instead something that must be perceived through actions. The absolute concern over saving face (sometimes taken to the extreme) has truly remained a cultural phenomenon unique to Chinese people, and today it's one of the few social elements left that is still inextricably linked with Chinese traditions that are thousands of years old. Unsurprisingly, foreigners upon seeing face-saving measures in action sometimes cannot help but shake their heads and judge it wholly excessive. "Do not wash your dirty linen in public" There's a common saying in China that you "do not wash your dirty linen in public" (家丑不可外扬). This saying is synonymous with that of saving face. When something disgraceful happens that could be harmful to the family name or the family, such as an unruly child, domestic abuse, a uxorious husband etc., Chinese would rather repress their feelings inwardly than speak out, for fear that if others knew that they would lose face, and be ridiculed (in broader terms, such "disgraceful" events that happen within China being leaked internationally can also be considered as losing face). This absolute concern about outward appearances can be taken to such extremes that people’s lives become a living hell. For example, when Chinese mediate their domestic disputes, you'll oftentimes hear the following phrase: "swallowing a broken front tooth" (打破门牙往肚里咽), which is to say that they'd rather swallow their own tooth than spit it out and lose face in front of others. Face as moral integrity? Saving face can also manifest itself as a form of moral integrity, as seen in such phrases as: "I'd rather starve to death than be disloyal" (饿死事小,失节事大) or "It's better to be destroyed than give up your principals, it's better to die in glory than live in dishonour" (宁为玉碎,不为瓦全). Although equally extreme, concern over this kind of mianzi is at least somewhat admirable. However, more often than not, Chinese people’s concern of saving face really only refers to the concern of saving their own, their family’s or their friend's face, and they could care less about the face of strangers, perhaps even intentionally hurting it. There’s a saying for that too: "good deeds don't leave the house, bad deeds travel thousands of miles" (好事不出门,坏事行千里). Stories from day-to-day life seem to confirm this point: some people are so bored that they cause others to lose face just to pass the time. Saving face, taken to extremes 1) The happily married couple Long ago, I was told a near-ridiculous story. An old married couple, who had been together for many decades, had never argued with each other. They had no children, and no one had ever seen either of them do anything unseemly. Nearly all of the people who lived in the area thought that they were the textbook definition of a "harmonious couple" (夫妻和睦), and that their life together must be quite happy. In fact, since their wedding day, this happy old couple had never slept in the same bed, and had never been able to express their feelings to one another. Yet, the vanity for both sides was so strong, and they cared so much about saving face that they never let any of this known, and they absolutely refused to get divorced, so life just dragged on, and on. All for the sake of saving face, they each wore a smile in front of others, while they dried their tears in private. 2) "Treating" and "gifting" To save face, Chinese people often "treat" others, trying to act bigger than they truly are (打肿脸充胖子). Regardless of whether it is to please a single person or a room full of people, they’ll always usher the waiters to fill teapot or bring another dish out to the already full table, all the while repeatedly apologizing that "there's not enough food". To save face, it is said that Chinese people must "break the pan to sell the iron" (摔锅卖铁) to afford constantly giving gifts to others, and the number of gifting occasions is seemingly endless: weddings, a baby's first month, a 10th birthday, a 40th birthday, a school graduation, enlisting in the military, receiving a job promotion, moving into a new house, birthdays etc. That is to say, saving face causes Chinese people to "eat losses"; they must constantly grin and bear it, for fear that if they don’t, others will gossip about them being stingy. This concern over saving face can even lead people to break the law, get arrested and be carted off to jail. 3) Face and business All Chinese people are aware that some will "use dirty tricks to mislead their friends" (鬼迷熟人). This saying describes when a consumer continues to buy something from an acquaintance or friend despite being deceived and taken advantage of constantly (via paying for defective, inferior, sub-standard or even dangerous products). Why do such situations keep happening? In short, because Chinese people are so concerned about saving face, they'd rather let their friends cheat them, than yell at them and have people think that they have no self-restraint or lack class. Of course, many businesspersons thoroughly understand this, and make money by deliberately deceiving their friends. China's problematic "debt chain" phenomenon (such as in Wenzhou) is also closely related with company bosses saving face: they'd rather borrow money from multiple parties at increasingly unsustainable interest rates than have others know that their company is broke. Face throughout history Chinese people have long held face in the highest regard. As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, there was the "Lintong Dou Bao" story (临潼斗宝), now used as an idiomatic phrase meaning "to show off one's wealth". In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, there were the "Shichong Doufu" and "Guojiu Doufu" stories (石崇和国舅斗富) about competing with each other for wealth. The last emperor of the Sui Dynasty, Yang Di had trees bound in expensive silks and frequently treated guests to fine meals to exert his face-ness. And in more modern times, the list of extravagant face-saving gestures is simply too long to mention. Is it worth it? Ostensibly, the act of giving or not giving face – regardless of time, place, or situation – is a unilateral decision. But in reality, face is a bilateral affair. If one person doesn't pay attention to the other person's face, then that other person will not be obligated to return the face, or deal with the constraints of doing so. That is to say, the ones who lose are invariably the ones who are concerned about face: even if you think that suffering financial losses is unimportant as compared to the loss of face, other people will still think that you're stupid and foolish. Fitch has become the first rating agency to declare that China Evergrande’s overseas bonds are in default after the world’s most indebted developer failed to make a crucial interest payment this week. The announcement marked the most significant moment yet in the developer’s marathon liquidity crisis that has spread to other businesses across the country’s vast real estate sector and fuelled global concerns about the potential impact on China’s economy. Evergrande, which has liabilities exceeding $300bn, missed a Monday deadline to repay bond coupons totalling $82.5m. The group had still not transferred the funds as of Wednesday in New York, according to people familiar with the matter. Fitch stated that the company did not respond to a request for confirmation on the coupon payments, and it was therefore assuming they had not been made. Neither the company nor the Chinese government has confirmed that Evergrande has defaulted on its debts, though the company said on Friday there was “no guarantee” it could meet its debt repayments as it entered a restructuring process with assistance from local government officials. Fitch also stated on Thursday that Kaisa, another heavily indebted developer that failed to repay a $400m bond that matured on Tuesday, was in restricted default. A person familiar with the situation said that Kaisa was close to signing non-disclosure agreements with advisers to investors.
Evergrande’s debt crisis has for months transfixed international bond markets, where it has borrowed heavily and has about $19bn outstanding, compared with $12bn for Kaisa. Evergrande has missed a series of interest payments since late September, but until this week had avoided default by transferring the funds before the end of 30-day grace periods. Separately on Thursday afternoon, Yi Gang, governor of the People’s Bank of China, told a seminar in Hong Kong that Evergrande’s failure to meet its obligations was a market event and that the rights of investors would be respected. One of China’s largest and most pervasive surveillance networks got its start in a small county about seven hours north of Shanghai. In 2013, the local government in Pingyi County began installing tens of thousands of security cameras across urban and rural areas — more than 28,500 in total by 2016. Even the smallest villages had at least six security cameras installed, according to state media.
Those cameras weren’t just monitored by police and automated facial recognition algorithms. Through special TV boxes installed in their homes, local residents could watch live security footage and press a button to summon police if they saw anything amiss. The security footage could also be viewed on smartphones. In 2015 the Chinese government announced that a similar program would be rolled out across China, with a particular focus on remote and rural towns. It was called the “Xueliang Project,” or Sharp Eyes, a reference to a quote from communist China’s former revolutionary leader Mao Zedong who once wrote that “the people have sharp eyes” when looking out for neighbors not living up to communist values. Sharp Eyes is one of a number of overlapping and intersecting technological surveillance projects built by the Chinese government over the last two decades. Projects like the Golden Shield Project, Safe Cities, SkyNet, Smart Cities, and now Sharp Eyes mean that there are more than 200 million public and private security cameras installed across China. Every five years, the Chinese government releases a plan outlining what it looks to achieve in the next half-decade. China’s 2016 five-year plan set a goal for Sharp Eyes to achieve 100% coverage of China’s public spaces in 2020. Though publicly available reports don’t indicate whether the program has hit that goal — they suggest that the country has gotten very close. China’s modern surveillance scheme started in 2003, according to Dahlia Peterson, research analyst at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology, with the creation of the Golden Shield Project. The Golden Shield Project, run by the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), is, in part, responsible for the country’s strict internet censorship. But the program also included physical surveillance. The MPS created databases that included 96% of China’s citizens, with one titled the National Basic Population Information Database. That database includes household registration information, called “hukou,” as well as information on past travels and criminal history, according to a report from the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. Local population databases were also created, according to a paper published in the American Journal of Political Science. These local databases allowed for blacklists, which barred the use of public transportation. Police would be dispatched if someone who had been blacklisted tried to book a bus, train, or airline ticket. Following Golden Shield, China launched two other surveillance projects focused on the installation of cameras. Safe Cities, launched in 2003, focused on disaster warnings, traffic management, and public security. SkyNet focused on installing cameras connected to facial recognition algorithms. “Chinese state-run media has claimed Skynet can scan the entire Chinese population in one second with 99.8 percent accuracy, yet such claims ignore glaring technical limitations,” Peterson wrote. Observers should take these figures with a grain of salt: Accurate and up-to-date information about China’s surveillance initiatives isn’t easily available, and what is publicly known is mainly generated by academics and journalists with some access to government officials or surveillance equipment manufacturers. It’s also unclear which cameras are exclusively viewed by village, city, and provincial governments, and which feed data back to the central government. Just like Golden Shield, the SkyNet program still exists today, and benefits from 16 years of A.I. research, as well as the tech industry’s boom. According to the New York Times, SkyNet data is used at building complexes that use facial recognition to open security gates. The photos from those security gates are then shared with local police to build a database of the local population. Ongoing stress in China’s property sector is likely to slow down the country’s economic growth next year, a government think-tank has warned. The world’s second-largest economy is expected to have expanded by about 8 percent this year, according to the annual blue book on the economy from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), a top government think-tank. It warned that the property downturn was likely to persist and weigh on the expenditures of local governments next year. China’s economy is expected to grow about 5.3 percent in 2022, bringing the average annual growth rate forecast for 2020-2022 to 5.2 percent, CASS said on Monday.
Advisers to the government will recommend that authorities set a 2022 economic growth target lower than the target set for 2021 – or “above 6 percent” – Reuters reported, amid growing headwinds from a property downturn, weakening exports and strict COVID-19 curbs that have impeded consumption. It urged the central government to proactively engineer a soft landing for the property sector, to avoid failed land auctions in big cities and to fend off risks of quickly falling property prices in smaller cities, the report said. China’s move to wean property developers away from rampant borrowing has translated into loan losses for banks and pain in credit markets, as cash-strapped builders fall into distress, increasing risks across the economy. Property behemoth China Evergrande is facing one of the country’s largest defaults, prompting the authorities to step in and oversee risk management at the company. Peng Shuai has been “disappeared” by the Chinese Communist Party that holds a monopoly on government power and financial success in the nation. Peng is one of the top female tennis stars in China. It can be assumed she’s being dealt with similarly to other critics of the state like billionaire Jack Ma who went missing for months only to pop up acting like a grey shell of his former self and abstaining from normal business.
A few weeks ago Peng posted to the social network Wiebo accusing a former deputy prime minister of China of sexually assaulting her and a host of other manipulative and unethical behavior. The social media website, closely controlled by the CCP, deleted her post within minutes and Peng hasn’t been seen publicly since. The editor in chief of China’s central news agency posted videos of a forlorn-looking Peng having dinner with her friends several days ago. If you believe those videos are organic, please find my email on my author page because I have an Ostrich farm in Altoona to sell you. If the CCP can abduct and beat down the most famous people in China, then what hope does an ordinary citizen have to disobey the regime? My heart goes out to the Chinese people, but this isn’t exactly breaking news, this is normal operating procedure for a system driven by fear of dissent. My alma mater Loras College, like thousands of other colleges, has a deal with Nike to supply sports gear and branded merchandise. Nike is well known for using abusive labor practices. More than 20 years ago, a Catholic soccer coach at St. John’s University in Minnesota resigned from his position in order to investigate where his team's practice gear was made. Proving the sweat shop rumor true, the coach documented his findings in the documentary “Behind the Swoosh.” Nothing has really changed since it’s premiere. American celebrities are still honored to partner with the brand and there is no guarantee that other brands like Adidas, Under Armor or any other mass produced sports label is producing in an ethical way. I’ve been stewing for years over how personally responsible I am for what’s happening there, considering how many products I own and continue to buy with suspicious production practices. Although there are many options available, they similarly come from unfamiliar countries with reports of poor working conditions. How am I supposed to investigate every product I buy? I can avoid certain brands, but does that even make a difference if the industry standard is to contract with dubious foreign factories? If the consumer on an individual level isn’t responsible for these labor practices, then is our government? Or foreign governments? These are questions that swirl in my head whenever I click “buy now” on Amazon. Setting aside the politically contentious option of production isolation or employing a massive staff of American foreign inspectors, using the market has proven to be an effective way to pressure reform. Public shame is powerful and we should lean in to cancel culture to affect change abroad. Open source information - basically watching social media for leaked videos - is a major tool for this movement. H&M was “canceled,” for using cotton sourced from Uighur slave camps in China and it now has an branded ethical cotton line. Companies, even those with a market stake in China, ultimately are focused on profit. Cancel culture has resulted in social justice for some brands. Now, thanks to accessible information on production practices and with the internet making political organizing easier than ever, consumers have the ability to incentivise fair trade more than ever before. Reposting videos or articles and refraining from buying suspiciously produced items when possible is more powerful than we realize. |
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