China news roundup / Nachrichten 2024-04-10

19 days ago (Edited)

China's Massive Subsidies for Green Technologies

"Estimates suggest that China's overall subsidies range between three to nine times that of other OECD countries such as the USA or Germany.
[...] over 99 percent of listed companies receiving direct government subsidies in 2022"

--- Over 99%! Free market with Chinese characteristics. & it's not just monetary subsidies:

"Combined with other support measures, such as preferential access to critical raw materials, forced technology transfers from foreign investors, and favorable treatment in public procurement and administrative procedures, Chinese companies have rapidly expanded in various green technology sectors, dominating the Chinese market and increasingly penetrating EU markets"

--- In some industries & particularly for the domestic Chinese market, these measures are probably more important than the money companies receive.

"Given China's current macroeconomic weakness, its relative strength in green technology sectors, and its tensions with the US, the authors see a realistic chance of successful negotiations. "The Chancellor's trip to China next week offers an excellent opportunity to pave the way for such negotiations,""

--- Good one.
cf.: Foul Play? On the Scale and Scope of Industrial Subsidies in China

Hong Kong: RSF representative detained and deported on attempt to monitor Jimmy Lai’s national security trial

"Bielakowska was stopped at the airport immigration office and detained for six hours. She was questioned throughout her detention, and she and her belongings were thoroughly searched three times. A very vague notice of detention was issued, providing as its only justification that her deportation from Hong Kong was “imminent and/or immediate”."

--- Hong Kong, obviously still a totally free & open society.

Ratings agency downgrades China debt outlook over economic uncertainty

"On Wednesday the US-based agency said it had revised China’s sovereign credit rating from stable to negative, saying this reflected the “increasing risks to China’s public finance outlook” as the country “contends with more uncertain economic prospects”
[...] It said: “Wide fiscal deficits and rising government debt in recent years have eroded fiscal buffers from a ratings perspective.”"

--- A bit late. All of this is not really new knowledge.

As China’s economy falters, so does middle class confidence

"Decades of breakneck growth transformed China into the world’s second-largest economy and lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, swelling the middle class from 3% of the population in 2000 to more than 50% in 2018, according to the Pew Research Center, which defines middle class in China as living on $2 to $50 a day."

--- 2 dollar a day makes you middle class? Then it's no wonder that China has the "biggest middle class" of the world.

"Young people in China have to contend with a higher unemployment rate, which reached 14.9% in December for those ages 16 to 24"

--- NBC obviously believes the official CCP bullshit.

China gives monks a list of things they can’t do after the Dalai Lama's death

"The manual, which lists 10 rules that Buddhist clergy should follow, also forbids disrupting the process of recognizing the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation"

--- ie. the CCP's choice of a new Dalai Lama. China doesn't care if the actual religious process is disrupted:

"China, which annexed Tibet in 1951, rules the western autonomous region with a heavy hand and says only Beijing can select the next spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, as stated in Chinese law.
Tibetans, however, believe the Dalai Lama chooses the body into which he will be reincarnated"

--- Obviously, demigod emperor Xi in his all-encompassing wisdom is the one to choose a good successor.

World of Warcraft to return to China

"Last year, NetEase and game developer Activision Blizzard ended their 14-year partnership due to disagreement over intellectual property control.
[...] The earlier disagreement escalated into an open feud that saw the two companies sue each other.
But the tension eased after Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard for $69bn (£54bn) in October last year which was the gaming industry's biggest ever deal."

--- Microsoft never had much of an issue with intellectual property being stolen in China (in my 11 years in China, I never saw a computer with a legal Windows OS), so no wonder that they bring back WoW.

--- China Uncensored: "North Koreans Are Rioting In China"

--- CNBC: "Can China's Comac break up the Airbus-Boeing duopoly?"

Deutsche Firmen beklagen Nachteile in China

"Als Nachteile für ausländische Firmen werden vor allem informelle Zugangsbeschränkungen beklagt. So beziehen sich die meistgenannten Antworten auf den schlechteren Zugang zu Netzwerken oder Universitäten in China. Nachteile gegenüber chinesischen Wettbewerbern werden zudem bei Standardisierung und Steuervergünstigungen gesehen. Danach folgen die auch von Wirtschaftsverbänden kritisierte Diskriminierung bei öffentlichen Ausschreibungen, der steuerlichen Förderung in China und dem Marktzugang."

--- & jetzt hofft man, daß ausgerechnet Scholz' Besuch etwas daran ändert. Für Scholz dürfte aber ein ordentlicher Kotau wichtiger sein.