China news roundup / Nachrichten 2020-12-24

English news:

Brazil institute says CoronaVac efficacy above 50%, but delays full results

"a release of the results, first set for early December, has now been delayed three times"

--- Because there is nothing to hide. A truly Chinese vaccine.

"China has been giving experimental coronavirus vaccines, including the shot developed by Sinovac, to high-risk groups in the country since July"

--- When it has an efficacy of just over 50% that might not have been a good idea. They were lucky that Chinese Wuhan virus numbers have been quite low in recent months.

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China targets Alibaba with anti-monopoly investigation

"requirements for improving the socialist market economy system and promoting high-quality development"

--- Translation: The CCP owns you. One way or another.

"Beijing has been seeking to push back on the increasing dominance of Alibaba and the online conglomerate TenCent"

--- As if they cared. It's about control. Jack Ma criticised the regime's policies. Now he has to pay.

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China rejects reports of hitch in investment pact talks with EU

"Negotiations have stalled at the last stretch because China is raising additional demands on nuclear energy, German magazine WirtschaftsWoche“"

--- Not the most reliable source when it comes to China-related news. But since their sources probably are EU negotiators, who knows?

"China wants to invest in European nuclear power plants and use Chinese technology in this area,” WirtschaftsWoche cited EU sources"

--- Chinese technology in sensitive European infrastructure. What could go wrong?
(Anyway, all this seems marginal, because from France are coming signals against the agreement, the EU parliament probably wouldn't confirm it & if the EU insists on assurances against forced labour, even China won't sign.)

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Australian Held in China Hopes for Justice Despite Torture

"After two years, especially with torture, more than 300 interrogations and a lot of verbal abuse, I am now in a place of deeper retrospective and introspective meditation
[...] I still have some confidence in the court. I think they will give me justice"

--- That place of retrospective looks more like a state of delusion. Unless there is a major reconciliation (or perhaps some kind of deal) between Australia & China, he will stay in jail for years.

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Singaporean woman faces execution in China as family launches last desperate appeal

"China applying the death sentence "for drug-related crimes that are extremely dangerous will help deter and prevent such crimes.""

--- Yeah, right. Has helped so much in recent decades.

"Sometimes, penalties appear to be linked to political events. Last year, Canadian Robert Lloyd Schellenberg was sentenced to death for drug smuggling. He had originally received a 15-year prison sentence but it was upgraded to death following the arrest in Vancouver of top Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.
In August this year, two more Canadians -- Xu Weihong and Ye Jianhui -- were also sentenced to death for drug offenses, while in June, amid worsening ties between Canberra and Beijing, Australian Cam Gillespie received the same sentence."

--- This particular case is pretty straigth forward, though. That woman is obviously guilty. Whether she should get the death penalty for a victimless crime, is another question.
But if you are stupid enough to smuggle drugs in China, you're definitely up for a Darwin Award.

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Chinese swimmer Sun Yang's eight-year doping ban set aside by Swiss court 'on grounds of bias'

"The Swiss Federal Supreme Court approved the request by the Chinese swimmer Sun Yang for revision of the arbitral award of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne dated 28 February 2020 on the grounds of bias of one of the arbitrators of the CAS"

--- So, not because Sun is not guilty, but because of a 'technicality'.

"Frattini has posted on Twitter about the treatment of animals in China, ​including using an anti-Chinese slur."

--- So, what was this anti-Chinese slur? "Old yellow-face sadic trying to kill and torture a small dog"
An Italian using the Chinese way of describing their own race (IIRC) in English, which is considered racist in the USA (I don't know about Italy, though.). All in the context of a video showing a Chinese man trying to kill a dog with boiling water. & that's enough bias to let Sun go free?

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2 charts show China’s shortfall in buying U.S. goods under the ‘phase one’ trade deal

"between January and November this year China bought $82 billion of U.S. goods — just more than half of the targeted $159 billion for all of 2020"

--- Another Trumpic success. Even agricultural products don't meet the target, although China needed a lot more than usual because of internal problems.

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More than 50 Australian coal ships remain stranded off China's coast despite power blackouts

"Hundreds of millions of Chinese people have been ordered to severely ration electricity usage, including limiting factory operations, stopping elevators in high-rise apartments, and banning the use of heaters until temperatures drop below 3C"

--- We don't like Australia & we don't want anything from Australia, even if it costs our citizens dearly. (Well, OK, our industry needs iron, so that's an exception, because our industry is more important than our citizens.)

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A Chinese producer of Netflix's 'The Three-Body Problem' has been poisoned as part of a suspected murder attempt

"Yoozoo execs have been fighting about the production, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The spat may have led to Lin being served poisoned tea"

--- Business with Chinese characteristics.

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Video News:

--- China Uncensored: "Is South Korea a Puppet to China and North Korea?"

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Deutsche Nachrichten:

Alibaba im Visier der Behörden

"Aber klar ist: Das Alibaba-Konglomerat ist der kommunistischen Führung offensichtlich zu mächtig geworden."

--- Eher nicht. Nur Jack Ma, Alibabas Chef, hat den Mund zu weit aufgerissen. & wer die KPCh kritisiert, bekommt nunmal Ärger.

"Wer in China wirtschaftlich zu selbstbewusst und zu mächtig wird, wird von der Staatsführung zurechtgestutzt."

--- Jau.

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Wie China den deutschen UN-Botschafter verabschiedete

"„Aus tiefstem Herzen: ein Glück, dass wir Sie los sind“, sagte Geng Shuang"

--- & was war der Anlass:

"Lassen Sie mich meine Amtszeit im Sicherheitsrat mit dem Appell an meine chinesischen Kollegen beenden, Peking um die Freilassung von Michael Kovrig und Michael Spavor zu bitten"

--- Welch schrecklicher, bösartiger Aufruf! Sowas kann ein aufrechter, chinesischer Kommi natürlich nicht auf sich beruhen lassen. V.a. wenn der deutsche UN-Botschafter schon in der Vergangenheit in höchst niederträchtiger Weise chinesische Menschenrechtsverletzungen angesprochen hat.

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Folter-Vorwurf gegen China

"habe noch Vertrauen in das Gericht. Ich denke, sie werden mir Gerechtigkeit geben"

--- Da ist ihm wohl die Folter zu Kopf gestiegen. Höchst unwahrscheinlich, daß er freigesprochen wird. Bestenfalls (bei Aussöhnung mit Australien) wird ihm eine Strafe aufgebrummt, die seiner bisherigen Haftdauer entspricht. Wahrscheinlicher ist, daß er für längere Zeit im chinesischen Knast landet.

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--- Sonstiges:

Ungeprüfte Ware aus China: Daran erkennen Sie sichere Masken

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Betriebsrat ist „fassungslos“: Daimler will Motoren künftig in großem Stil in China bauen lassen

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