Month: October 2021

Chinese Overfishing Highlights Environmental Crisis in the Taiwan Strait

Chin@Strategy

Advertisement Recent reports about barrages of Chinese squid-fishing boats in the Taiwan Strait have once again brought attention to the environmental impact of overfishing. However, teeming trawlers armed with green LED lights only represent the tip of the iceberg in terms of environmental challenges for Taiwan’s offshore islands, as the small island communities fall victim to China’s unfettered approach toward development and natural resource extraction. As environmental damage from China continues to spill over maritime borders – ranging from illegal fishing boats, to sand-mining dredgers, to marine debris – Taiwan’s…

How BRI Debt Puts China at Risk

Chin@Strategy

Advertisement China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has once again become a lightning rod for criticism following AidData’s newly released report, which found China’s overseas lending was worth $843 billion, including $385 billion of “un- and under-reported debt.” Media headlines seized on BRI’s “hidden debt” and news articles evoked the “debt trap diplomacy” slogan that political pundits and the Trump administration popularized in commentary critical of BRI. Whether Beijing seeks to use debt as a tool to expand its influence and leverage over other countries remains under debate. However, what…

China amends Anti-Monopoly Law for the first time amid tech crackdown, increasing penalties and regulatory control

Chin@Strategy

The national flag flies outside the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) office building on Beijing’s Financial Street on December 18, 2019. A new amendment to the country’s Anti-Monopoly Law, expected to go into effect next year, could have Big Tech companies facing much higher penalties for abusing market power or failing to disclose mergers. Photo: SCMP/Simon Song South China Morning Post

China will honour its climate pledges – look at the changes we have already made | Zheng Zeguang

Chin@Strategy

In the run-up to the climate conference in Glasgow, there are suggestions that without real participation and greater contribution from China, neither the conference nor the global response to climate change will get anywhere. The unstated worry is this: will China honour its pledges to reduce emissions? This anxiety is unnecessary. Anyone who knows China well is sure that my country is serious about reducing carbon emissions and pursuing green development, and that we mean what we say. In China, it is already a national consensus that “lucid waters and…

US bans China Telecom over national security concerns

Chin@Strategy

The US communications regulator has voted to revoke China Telecom’s licence in America over national security concerns in the latest pushback by Washington against what it deems possible infiltration of key networks by Chinese companies. The decision by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) means China Telecom Americas must now discontinue US services within 60 days. China Telecom, the largest Chinese telecommunications company, has had authorisation to provide telecommunications services for nearly 20 years in the United States. The FCC found that China Telecom “is subject to exploitation, influence, and…

U.K. Moves to Attract Financing for Nuclear Plants

Chin@Strategy

The British government said on Tuesday that it would introduce legislation enabling a form of financing for nuclear power stations that it hopes will attract investors willing to put up billions of pounds to build new facilities. The government’s move, which would require consumers to help pay for these plants as they are being built, is expected to provide a green light for a long-delayed new nuclear station northeast of London, estimated to cost £20 billion ($27.5 billion). The British subsidiary of Électricité de France, the French utility, has done…

China Locks Down City of 4 Million to Subdue Covid Outbreak

Chin@Strategy

The Chinese government ordered the northwestern city of Lanzhou locked down on Tuesday as officials carried out widespread testing to quash a small Covid-19 outbreak. Lanzhou, a city of about four million people, reported six new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, and a total of 39 over the past week. China, where the coronavirus first emerged in late 2019, has been battling a recent flare-up of new cases largely in the northwest of the country that were spread by domestic travel. The country enforces a strict “zero Covid” policy, carrying out…

China locks down city of 4m people after six Covid cases detected

Chin@Strategy

China has placed a city of 4 million under lockdown in an attempt to stamp out a domestic coronavirus outbreak, with residents told not to leave home except in emergencies. Beijing imposed strict border controls in the weeks after Covid-19 was first detected in China in late 2019, slowing the number of cases to a trickle and allowing the economy to bounce back. As the rest of the world opens up and tries to find ways to live with the virus, China has maintained a zero-Covid approach that has included…