China news roundup / Nachrichten 2021-06-21
Hong Kong’s Apple Daily may halt publication this Sat, pending Fri board meeting
"the newspaper could not pay its staff because its bank accounts had been blocked"
--- Ah, life can be so easy. We don't have to shut down the free press. If we take their money away, they have to shut down themselves. & nobody can complain that we did it. Our freedom of the press is untouched.
Joe Biden vs Germany: US president faced with surprise Cold War warning
"“But I’m not sure that always speaking out, loudly and aggressively, in public about a country’s human rights situation really leads to improvements on the ground,” he added.
“Often you reach more in the area of human rights by addressing issues in private conversations with leaders of other countries than by talking about it in press conferences.”"
--- Same old moronic approach as Merkel's. Why don't these journalists ever ask for any concrete examples for what these 'private conversations' with China have achieved in the last 10 years or so? Instead of 1 million Uighurs in concentration camps there would be 1 million & 10?
For those who can climb the paywall, here's the original FT article.
The EU Parliament luckily doesn't appear as moronic as Laschet:
MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION on a new EU-China strategy
"whereas the existing EU China Strategy has revealed its limitations in the light of recent developments and the challenges posed by China
b) propose a new EU-China strategy based on six pillars: 1) Open dialogue on global challenges; 2) Engagement on human rights issues through economic leverage; 3) Analysis of the threats and challenges; 4) Building partnerships with like-minded partners; 5) Fostering open strategic autonomy; 6) Defence of core European interests and values by transforming the EU into a geopolitical actor"
--- If only the EU Commission (& other leading politicians, like Laschet) would recognise the 'limitations' of the 'existing EU China Strategy'.
"Underlines the conditions and pre-ratification commitments that must be met before Parliament can give its consent to the EU-China CAI, notably:
(a) having a timetable for China’s ratification and implementation of key International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions on labour rights and a robust monitoring mechanism, as well as concrete measures or steps towards putting an end to other human rights violations against the Uyghur minority in China;
(b) a recommitment by China to uphold its international commitments to Hong Kong under the Sino-British Joint Declaration and Hong Kong’s Basic Law;
(c) lifting the counter-sanctions imposed by the Chinese Government on EU entities and individuals"
--- Sounds much better than what we heard before from the EU Parliament, but Chinese commitments as such are worthless, as should be common knowledge by now. So, they not only need a 'robust monitoring mechanism' but automatic sanctions, if deadlines are not met.
China warns its citizens to leave Afghanistan urgently as violence spirals
"China has been critical of the US troops withdrawal, saying the hasty decision to withdraw the troops from Afghanistan has severely impacted the Afghan domestic peace process and negatively affected the regional stability."
--- We resolutely disagree with US imperialism & demand that the USA stop the encirclement of China by stationing troops all over Asia. US troops should leave Asia immediately!
(whisper, whisper...)
Er... We resolutely disagree with US withdrawal from Afghanistan, which only serves to destabilise China's borders! Just another example of the USA's China containment strategy.
A drop in China’s unemployment rate hides a lack of jobs
"The urban jobless rate fell to a two-year low of 5% in May, official data showed last week, but unemployment for those between the ages of 16-24 — which captures graduates from school and college — was more than double that at 13.8%"
--- Official numbers for urban areas. So, virtually meaningless. Migrant workers are not included.
"The phenomenon of fresh graduates struggling to find jobs and companies having difficulties to recruit workers exist at the same time"
--- Well, that's the Chinese education system for you. If you spent 4 years or more at university, you don't really want to get a job fastening screws. Well, OK, that's exaggerated. For such jobs, you have migrant workers. But the gist is true. After university, you don't really want to work in manual labour jobs, even such with higher qualifications.
China's Dongguan is latest southern city to be hit by COVID-19
"Dongguan launched its citywide testing programme following two cases reported since Friday.
City authorities told residents not to leave the city, except for essential reasons."
--- Overreaction, you might say. But considering the low efficacy of Chinese vaccines, perhaps not.
China’s education crackdown flunks economics
"Rich parents have no trouble paying for one-on-one lessons, enabling them to cement their educational advantage. For everyone else, the new policies might reduce the expense of raising children, but at the cost of future earning power – no incentive to have more kids. Policymakers are due an economic refresher course."
--- Interesting point. Since in China, children are essentially your pension funds, you want your investment to pay off. If you live in a poorer area with bad schools, & you are not allowed to prepare your kids for the gaokao, why have more kids anyway?
Then again, if your kids will be poorer, it could pay off to have 3 instead of 1, & not to invest in their education at all.
--- China Uncensored: "China’s Knife Violence—Why Are Mass Stabbings So Common?"
--- DW News: "Hong Kong pro-democracy newspaper faces closure"
--- WION: "US urges China to cooperate on COVID origin probe"
„Systemischer Rivale, aber auch Partner“: Laschet warnt vor kaltem Krieg mit China
"Nichtsdestotrotz werde er im Umgang mit der Volksrepublik seine Standpunkte klarmachen: „Ich würde versuchen, wo immer es möglich ist, die Beziehungen zu fördern, aber gleichzeitig deutlich machen, was wir von China erwarten: dass es Gegenseitigkeit und Multilateralismus akzeptiert und Menschenrechte respektiert.“"
--- Das Handelsblatt läßt hier einen wichtigen Punkt aus, den man in den englischen Quellen findet: Laschet will Probleme nicht offen ansprechen, sondern glaubt, man könne mehr wie bisher in Privatgesprächen erreichen.
Nur hat man mit der Merkelmethode in den letzten Jahrzehnten mit China keinerlei Verbesserungen erreicht. Das Gegenteil ist eingetreten: Die Menschenrechtssituation in China ist nur schlechter geworden. Vor 10 Jahren gab es jedenfalls noch keine Konzentrationslager.
China setzt Bitcoin weiter unter Druck
"Vor allem aber wies die Führung die Zahlungsplattform Alipay und einheimische Banken an, keine Dienstleistungen mit Bezug auf den Handel von Kryptowährungen mehr anzubieten."
--- Grmpf. Durften sie auch bisher schon nicht. Neu ist, daß sie jetzt aktiv versuchen sollen, Käufe & Verkäufe von Kryptowährungen zu unterbinden, bzw. wenn sie solche feststellen oder vermuten, diese an die Behörden zu melden. Das ist die eigentliche Verschärfung hier.
China impft mehr als eine Milliarde Mal
"China nutzt unter anderem den Corona-Impfstoff des heimischen Herstellers Sinovac, um die Bevölkerung zu immunisieren. Dieser hat sich einem Zeitungsbericht zufolge in einer Hongkonger Studie als weniger wirksam erwiesen als das Biontech-Vakzin"
--- War schon länger bekannt. Jetzt kommt aber langsam raus, wie schlecht das Zeug wirklich ist:
"In Indonesien hatten sich kürzlich Behördenangaben zufolge mehr als 350 Mitarbeiter des Gesundheitswesens mit dem Coronavirus infiziert, obwohl sie mit Sinovac geimpft worden waren."
--- Das heißt, daß, selbst wenn die komplette Bevölkerung geimpft ist, sich das Wuhanvirus weiter ausbreiten kann. Was auch bedeutet, daß es weitere Mutationen geben wird, unter denen dann mit Sicherheit auch welche sein werden, die trotz Impfung wieder zu schlimmeren Infektionen führen.
Frachter stauen sich vor Südchina
"Weil die Behörden vor Ort anordneten, den Hafen von Shenzhen coronabedingt teilweise zu schließen, konnten Schiffe nicht an- und ablegen. Lieferketten weltweit sind aus dem Takt geraten."
--- Die Lieferketten sind schon seit über einem Jahr aus dem Takt. Sollte man sich langsam dran gewöhnt haben. V.a. sollte man wirklich langsam an der Diversifizierung der Produktionsländer arbeiten. Stattdessen macht aber ein Großteil der Firmen genauso weiter wie bisher oder investiert sogar wieder stärker in China.