Monday - China & Russia agree to global stability
After meeting in Uzbekistan for the 17th round of China-Russia Strategic Security Consultation, Yang Jiechi, director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs, and Nikolai Patrushev, Russia’s Security Council secretary, agreed to jointly safeguard global strategic stability and consolidate the comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination between the two sides.
The two agreed to “enhance mutual trust and support each other in following development paths suited to their national conditions,” safeguard shared interests, and deepen “bilateral mutual political trust and strategic coordination to foster more secure and stable external environment for each other’s development and revitalization.” While this may seem like political jibber jabber, we’re seeing China and Russia move closer together as a means of countering the ‘unipolar global system’ overseen by the US. This partnership is part of plans China has to take over as the leading global superpower in the next era, starting by forming key bilateral friendships with other established powers.
Tuesday - Digital yuan pilots to see expansion
The People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, has announced that it will expand their digital yuan pilot programs in four regions: Guangdong, Sichuan, Hebei, and Jiangsu. The government is looking to improve the e-currencies utility across multiple areas, including wholesale, retail, catering and tourism.
The digital yuan app was initially released in 23 cities in 2022, after an initial trial run in 2020. It can be used through the banking apps of China’s largest 7 banks, the largest payments platforms WeChat and Alipay, and can also be used for peer-to-peer transfers. China seems to be one of the first countries to successfully start implementing a digital country, aided in no small part by an already huge uptake in digital payments, even in rural and underdeveloped areas.
Wednesday - Zero-covid policy harming European firms in China
The European Union’s Chamber of Commerce in China has made a statement stressing that “Beijing’s hardline virus curbs are harming the world’s second-largest economy and isolating it on the international stage.” The group of more than 1,800 European companies in China — said in a position paper that zero-Covid and its “massive uncertainty” had had a “negative impact” on 75 percent of its members’ operations. One quarter of firms had said they were considering moving operations elsewhere.
The fact that China’s growth potential (emphasis on the word potential) is being overlooked in favour of stability is a huge sign of what businesses and - more importantly - their shareholders value. There’s no point being in the world’s largest economy if you can’t get any customers, because there’s no foot traffic. This is perhaps another thing to add to the list of things plaguing China’s economy, along with banking problems and the mortgage crisis.
Thursday - NSA infiltrates China's telecom infrastructure
Everyone’s favourite state affiliated media Global Times released an exclusive report claiming that the US' National Security Agency (NSA) “constructed a "legal" channel for remote access to the core data network of some infrastructure operators so that the US intelligence agency could infiltrate and control the country's infrastructure.” Phishing emails sent to students and teachers at Northwestern Polytechnical University were an attempt to steal “core technology data, including key network equipment configuration, network management data, and core operational data.”
Shocking if true, to say the least. Both sides endless accuse the other of cyber attacks, so it may be that we can just throw this one onto the pile. It’s also a sign of deteriorating relations between the two nations. The accusation that the US is trying to probe ‘the country’s infrastructure’ is particularly interesting though, as it shows that China values its scientific and infrastructural research and data highly, and believes the US would be interested in it, either to use it or to keep tabs on where their rival stands in comparison.
Friday - Former vice-minister of public security gets suspended death sentence
It was a close call for Friday’s top story, as other news showed that some counties are going to start charging citizens for being forced to stay in central quarantine centres. But I think the former vice-minister of public security Sun Lijun being handed the death sentence, having his money and property confiscated for bribery, manipulating the security market, and illegal possession of firearms may just have clinched it.
From 2001 to April 2020, Sun apparently used his position in Shanghai’s foreign affairs office and in the public security bureau to receive “money and property amounting to 646 million yuan” in exchange for influencing stock prices, promoting certain people, and interfering in people’s lives. His sentence may be commuted to life in prison. Another high profile win for China’s very public and important anti-graft campaign.
By the way, if you have never played with China’s ‘Catching Tigers and Flies’ anti-graft visualisation tool, it is an amazing way to waste 1-2 hours. Don’t say I never give you guys anything.
Have a great weekend everyone x