Weblog with daily updates of the news on a frugal, fair and beautiful China, from the perspective of internet entrepreneur, new media advisor and president of the China Speakers Bureau Fons Tuinstra
Berlin-based journalist and researcher Ian Johnson, author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Ma0, joins an Asia Society panel on moral authority and how the Chinese government has dealt with faiths over the past decade. While Christianity and Islam are curtailed, traditional faiths are embraced, he says. Other participants include professor Xi Lian, and Whitman College Assistant Professor Yuan Xiaobo. Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis Fellow G.A. Donovan moderates the conversation.
Islam and Christianity often get a hard time from China’s authorities, while local beliefs, Taoism, and Buddhism enjoy the support of the government. Journalist and researcher Ian Johnson, author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao, followed local pilgrimages for almost a decade and recently joined the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin to study the relation between those beliefs and the state, he tells in an introduction at the start of his new study.
China’s economic situation has deteriorated over the past two months, says business analyst Shaun Rein in a discussion on CNBC. The hope for a financial bazooka to boost the economy by the government has not materialized and is unlikely to do so. The government seems fine with the current 4/5% growth and also lacks the money to spend as tax income has remained poor, while geopolitical challenges forces the Chinese government to be prudent too.
Business analyst Shaun Rein dives deeper into the China economy as consumer confidence in first-tier cities is lower than he has seen in 27 years and the government’s economic targets focus on the next 3-5 years, he tells CNBC. The government is unwilling and unable to rely on stiff financial bazookas as it did in the previous crisis of 2008. Economic growth of 5 percent is enough for the government now, as it wants to diminish the gap between haves and have-nots, he adds.
China’s central government surprised this week by supporting its economy by a string of measures including cutting interest rates. Financial analyst Ben Cavender expects more action in the coming months, but meanwhile, foreign investors get jibberish and that might offer great opportunities for other economies like India, he adds at CNBC-TV18.
China veteran Ian Johnson describes how faith and value systems in China have been developing over the past century and how the government and the communist party acted on religion at the USCCA.
China is heading for a fundamental breakdown, argues Harry Broadman, Partner, and Chair, Emerging Markets Practice, Berkeley Research Group LLC, at a wide-ranging speech at the Charleston Chamber of Commerce, November 2022 (Charleston, South Carolina). It started by bailing out investors at its stock markets, which are no real markets, he says.
China sees mass development and urbanization at a breathtaking speed. Sometimes local governments want land back from foreign companies for this development. Veteran lawyer Mark Schaub looks at options and strategies when this happens at China chit-chat.
Mark Schaub:
Over the years I have worked on many projects where the authorities have sought to take back the land. This is not unsurprising as China’s rapid development and mass urbanization have led to residential blocks and commercial towers encroaching on industrial land. On a due diligence I was surprised that a cat food factory was built bang in the middle of a residential area. On quick reflection it was not that the cat food factory had moved – the residential area had surrounded. And so, as people often do behave “I am moving to live next to the cat factory because it is cheap and convenient”. Shortly after moving in it quickly becomes “Cat food factory smells – someone must make them leave”
Traditionally, relocations always totally stress out management – Can we get enough compensation? Will we become rich? Can we get a block of land nearby? Our business has an environmental impact – will anyone let us in? Will we be stuck next to that bloody cat food factory? Will the employees stay with the company after we move? How do we organize transport? How do we deal with business interruption?
China’s real economic problem: they increase capital spending, but are not able to improve productivity that is already at a shockingly low level, says leading economist Arthur Kroeber, author of China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know®, at a panel at CSIS discussing with Thomas Orlik, Chief Economist for Bloomberg Economics, and author of the book, China: The Bubble That Never Pops. While an economic collapse is unlikely, a grinding halt to economic development might be its largest danger, Kroeber adds.
Political analyst Winston Ma explains the upcoming regulatory plans for China’s government in 2022 including the metaverse, he tells at CNBC. The metaverse includes gaming, crypto, NFT’s, and other issues on the internet.
Investors got jittery when China’s government started a coordinated action to limit the power of its tech industry. But business analyst Shaun Rein saw how powerful companies made consumers and the government weary. Rein believes stricter oversight of the technology industry will make it more sustainable, with fairer competition that will benefit consumers, he tells AP.
AP:
Until recently, tech firms operated in a regulatory gray zone, with relative freedom to create their business models, demand that merchants and vendors sign exclusive contracts with their platforms and collect user data to better understand their customers.
After China introduced health monitoring and quarantine apps during the pandemic, it became clear that tech companies like e-commerce giant Alibaba and gaming company Tencent controlled huge amounts of data, said Shaun Rein, founder and managing director of China Market Research Group in Shanghai.
“I think it was in the last year and a half that you can start to see just how much power these technology companies have,” said Rein.
“Two years ago Chinese consumers didn’t care, they thought the convenience of apps outweighed any negative benefits,” Rein said. “But now Chinese people are quite concerned about data privacy, because Alibaba and Tencent have so much data – even more data than the government.”
Rein believes stricter oversight of the technology industry will make it more sustainable, with fairer competition that will benefit consumers.
China’s legislators have set another step in regulating data security, this time for the automotive industry, by publishing a draft for comments. China-lawyer Mark Schaub gives an overview of the plans for the China Law Insight. “Companies would be well advised to conduct a systematic review and assessment of the current state of their data handling,” he concludes.
Mark Schaub:
China has continuously strengthened legislation and regulation on cybersecurity, data security and protection of personal information protection.
Automated driving and smart cars will be a major challenge to the Chinese regulators. Smart cars will be collecting, processing and transferring data at previously undreamt of levels. The authorities will need to balance the convenience of automated technology against cybersecurity and privacy concerns. China is accelerating its pace of promulgating laws, regulations, policies and standards to nurture the intelligent vehicle industry but at the same time have in place regulations to ensure such technologies are safe.
The Draft strengthens the protection of personal information and secures data in China’s automotive industry.
However, we believe that some provisions of the Draft require clarification and there is also room for improvement as to how the Draft fits in with other laws. Big data is an important basis for the rapid development of self-driving cars and China’s automotive industry but a balance must be struck between technological innovation and data security. [2]
The Draft will affect almost all players engaged in the automotive industry. Companies that will be affected should keep a close eye on the legislative process of the Draft and start making preparations now to minimize disruption to their operations. In particular:
Consider data security issues in the process of designing, producing, selling, operating, maintaining and managing cars, and reduce the amount of data collected and stored in car to the greatest possible extent.
While using big data for commercial operations, safeguard the users’ right to know and implement technical safeguards to desensitize and anonymise data, as well as preventing misuse or unauthorized third-party access.
Multinational companies or Chinese companies with R&D centres outside China should consider implementing localized storage as soon as possible by establishing data centres within China and enhancing local R&D capabilities in China.
Finally, companies would be well advised to conduct a systematic review and assessment of the current state of their data handling. Business operations that clearly do not comply with the requirements of the Draft should be adjusted in a timely manner. The companies should also consider formulating internal mechanisms and systems that comply with the Draft as soon as possible. Although the Draft has not come into force it is a clear indication of the Chinese authorities’ intent and clear direction as to where the policy is going.
China’s internet censors have been cracking down on feminist groups because they are considered by the government to be extremist because they oppose traditional marriage. A wrong signal, says author Zhang Lijiain the South China Morning Post, and it will certainly not help the country in solving its demographic problems.
Zhang Lijia:
Is the idea of simply not wanting to have any relationship with men extremism? In most parts of the world, the answer should be “no”, but apparently not in China. In April, Douban, a Chinese social media platform favoured by liberal internet users, shut down several feminist groups that were associated with a brand of feminism known as “6B4T”. Originating in South Korea around 2019, adherents wish to exclude men from their lives and reject the institution of marriage, which they regard as the root of patriarchy. The “6B” stands for not having romantic or sexual relationships with men; not getting married or having children; not buying misogynistic products; and offering help to other single women. “4T” refers to their rejection of tight-fitting outfits, religions and idols. Douban claimed the online forums associated with these groups were erased because they “contained extremism and radical political and ideological thoughts”. In a country where women are arrested for protesting against sexual harassment in public transport, such censorship is not a surprise. Moreover, at a time when China’s population is shrinking, I can imagine the authorities don’t feel overjoyed by some women’s determination not to marry or to procreate. Are these women really radical, though?
Women are among the most active in the workforce, but political participation is lagging like nowhere else in the world. Social commentator Zhang Lijiia dives into the patriarchal culture of China and how political participation in government can be improved, for the South China Morning Post.
Zhang Lijia:
“Women shine at China’s ‘ two sessions’,” said a glowing Xinhua headline earlier this month. The article went on to note: “In the 13th National People’s Congress and the National Committee of the 13th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, there are 742 female deputies and 440 female members respectively, marking a historic high for female representation.”
However, women still account for less than a quarter of all NPC and CPPCC members. As China inches towards greater female participation in politics, it is being outpaced by many other countries.
The Global Gender Gap Report 2020, which tracks progress towards gender equality, ranked China 106th out of 153 countries surveyed, down three places from the year before. In the latest Women’s Power Index, China was ranked 150th out of 193 UN member states in political parity.
How can this be? China has one of Asia’s highest rates of female participation in the workforce. Furthermore, the Communist Party has long trumpeted gender equality. Chairman Mao famously proclaimed: “Women hold up half the sky.”
When the party took power in 1949, Chinese women were in a miserable position, with low literacy and labour participation rates. The first NPC in 1954 was attended by 147 women representatives, or 12 per cent of all representatives; by 1975, women accounted for 22.6 per cent. Since then, however, female participation in the NPC has hovered at this level.
The roots of the problem of low female political participation lie in the depths of China’s patriarchal culture. Hostile attitudes towards women in public affairs, along with domestic burdens that are traditionally placed on women, prevent rural women from entering politics in villages, which also tend to be more conservative than cities.
Ant Finance has been one of the more prominent victims of the current crackdown by the central government on the booming fintech industry. But small regional banks are another group getting into trouble, says financial analyst Sara Hsuin China-US Focus.
China-US Focus:
China’s small banks are under pressure as the fintech sector is experiencing increasing regulation. Regulations cracking down on deposit-taking in the sale of banks’ financial products through third-party platforms will soon result in a contraction of small banks’ loan bases. As larger banks shift from platform deposit-taking to other sources of funds, this regulation will likely compound an already-squeezed small banking sector.
China’s fintech sector is undergoing extensive scrutiny at present, from the sudden imposition of regulations on Ant Financial to the implementation of risk ratings on consumer finance companies. While small banks, which struggle to obtain deposits from their local customer base, had hoped to benefit from the fintech boom, they are facing increasing regulation. Banks overall have been found responsible for subverting financial regulations in order to grow their funding base.
On January 15, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission banned commercial banks from selling deposit products via third-party internet platforms. The regulatory body stated that China’s fintech sector has brought with it hidden risks regarding information disclosure and product management. Online third-party deposit sales have resulted in the potential for financial contagion.
Small banks in particular found that, by selling financial products through third-party platforms, they could break through geographical restrictions in order to obtain deposits from the entire country rather than from their own location. Products sold online included personal time deposits, with a focus on three and five-year maturities. Interest rates on these products were close to the upper limit of banks’ self-regulatory pricing mechanism, which is tied to the benchmark interest rate. Most products required an initial deposit of only 50 RMB and could be withdrawn at any time.
Beijing-based Journalist Ian Johnson describes the governmental corona-action in Beijing and explains why it has more to do with lack of trust in the government than health, in the New York Times. "Considering the underlying distrust, it’s hard for the government to say what many epidemiologists are saying: This outbreak is serious but not catastrophic."
Ian Johnson:
Hence one of the most popular figures in the crisis: Zhong Nanshan, the hero of the 2002-03 SARS outbreak, now 83, who is back in action, treating patients and warning citizens about the need for hygiene. He has been adopted as the incorruptible official — a familiar trope in Chinese history, the Confucian official who stands tall despite pressures to bend. And so we read endless profiles of Dr. Zhong in Chinese social media, discussing his family background, upbringing, successes and apolitical pursuit of science-based truth. The clear implication is that he is that rare official capable of such principled conduct.
Behind all this lies the feeling that most other people in the party can’t quite be trusted. This has been reinforced over the past few days by reports that at least eight people who were detained in Wuhan in early January on charges of spreading rumors are in fact medical doctors, not fear-mongering ne’er-do-wells. This startling fact is now leaking out in online reports that are sometimes, but not always, being blocked. At some point, the government will have to admit to a partial cover-up.
Considering the underlying distrust, it’s hard for the government to say what many epidemiologists are saying: This outbreak is serious but not catastrophic. Because if the state leveled with the people, it would also have to admit that there is no need for this degree of social control. Fewer than 200 people were reported to have died as of Thursday evening, in a country of nearly 1.4 billion, and there is no indication that we are at the start of a Hollywood disaster-style movie.
The government’s inability to formulate a measured response will turn this outbreak into a direct successor of the SARS epidemic. That hardly was a huge public health disaster — fewer than 800 deaths — yet it has taken on a legendary reputation as a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions, one that should never be allowed to recur.
But of course a new outbreak has occurred.
Does this mean that the state will suffer? I don’t think so. For despite their mistrust of the system, people overall are going along with the lockdown. In private conversations and on chat rooms, they say it’s impossible not to take drastic action in a country as big as China.
In this sense, the population has absorbed the government’s narrative of Chinese exceptionalism: Running China requires a strong hand, and these measures, as absurd as they seem, are proof that the government is doing a good job — and portend that the party will come out of this, as always, triumphant.
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, at a panel at CSIS discussing with Thomas Orlik, Chief Economist for Bloomberg Economics, and author of the book,
Women are among the most active in the workforce, but political participation is lagging like nowhere else in the world. Social commentator Zhang Lijiia dives into the patriarchal culture of China and how political participation in government can be improved, for the South China Morning Post.