Day: August 25, 2022

China Is Using a UN Resolution to Further Its Claim Over Taiwan

Chin@Strategy

Advertisement At the end of a large-scale military exercise held in response to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) released a new white paper on its policy toward Taiwan. The white paper, entitled “The Taiwan Question and China’s Reunification in the New Era,” is the first white paper on Taiwan affairs in 22 years, following “The Taiwan Issue and Chinese Reunification” (1993) and “The One-China Principle and the Taiwan Issue” (2000). The new white paper reviews Xi Jinping’s policy…

Tech war: Chinese satellite data company plays down impact of US sanctions

Chin@Strategy

According to the Zhuhai Orbita’s 244-page annual report of 2021, the company was founded in 2000 by Yan Jun, a Canadian citizen at the time who later gained Chinese citizenship. Last year, chip business contributed to 20 per cent of the firm’s total revenue, while 60 per cent came from civilian satellite data obtained by its Zhuhai No 1 low-orbit satellite. Zhuhai Orbita’s revenue in 2021 dropped 20 per cent from a year earlier to 700 million yuan (US$105 million), with profits plunging 60 per cent to 42 million yuan.…

China’s Communist Party says it welcomes complaints

Chin@Strategy

“Grim” is a word often used these days by officials responsible for handling petitions submitted by aggrieved citizens. They apply it to the task they face as the Communist Party prepares to convene a five-yearly congress later this year. The last thing they want is embittered people making a fuss as the party gets ready to reanoint its leader, Xi Jinping. Listen to this story.Enjoy more audio and podcasts on iOS or Android. Your browser does not support the <audio> element. Listen to this story Save time by listening to…

Most flights into and out of China remain grounded

Chin@Strategy

The scene on one side of Beijing’s Capital International Airport is normal. Countless passengers sit under its vast curved roof waiting for their domestic flights. Shops cater to anyone in need of high-end sunglasses or perfume. But on the international side, things are eerily quiet. Staff in full-body suits deal with the passengers on flights into and out of China. They have little to do. Listen to this story.Enjoy more audio and podcasts on iOS or Android. Your browser does not support the <audio> element. Listen to this story Save…

U.N. Report on Xinjiang Human Rights May Be Delayed Again

Chin@Strategy

GENEVA — The United Nations top human rights official, Michelle Bachelet, has signaled that she might not release a long-awaited report about allegations of abuses in China’s far western region of Xinjiang before she leaves office next week, as she had promised. The delay of that report, which Beijing has worked to block, has already exposed her to fierce criticism from human rights groups. Four years after academics, activists and independent U.N. experts first sounded the alarm over reports that China had arbitrarily detained more than a million Uyghurs and…

Chinese behemoth Pinduoduo to take on Amazon in US – with even worse labor practices

Chin@Strategy

Americans addicted to Amazon could soon be wooed by a Chinese tech giant most of them have never heard of. Pinduoduo is planning to expand its reach to the US next month, according to reports in Bloomberg and Reuters. The company is known for delivering goods at rock-bottom prices – while putting its employees through conditions that a prominent labor activist says should horrify Americans. Described by its founder, the former Google employee Colin Huang, as a cross between “Costco and Disneyland”, Pinduoduo has ridden a wave of meteoric Chinese…

Huawei founder sparks alarm in China with warning of ‘painful’ next decade

Chin@Strategy

The founder of Huawei has delivered a stark warning for the tech company’s future, sparking alarm with the frankness of his assessment and what it signals for smaller businesses amid China’s economic troubles and a global downturn. In a leaked internal memo, Ren Zhengfei told Huawei staff “the chill will be felt by everyone” and the company must focus on profit over cashflow and expansion if it is to survive the next three years, indicating further job cuts and divestments. “The next decade will be a very painful historical period,…

How China Could Choke Taiwan’s Economy With a Blockade

Chin@Strategy

For decades, Beijing has had its sights on Taiwan, the self-governing island that China claims as its own. It has built up the People’s Liberation Army with the goal of ultimately taking Taiwan, if efforts to unify peacefully fail. It has modernized its forces, developing the world’s largest navy, which now challenges American supremacy in the seas around Taiwan. While China likely still lacks the ability to quickly invade and seize Taiwan, it could try to impose a blockade to force the island into concessions or as a precursor to…

How hyper-local forecasts can improve safety on mountains

Chin@Strategy

In late May 2021, 172 runners set out to tackle a 100km ultramarathon in north-west China. By the next day 21 of the runners had been killed by hypothermia after an unexpectedly intense storm brought freezing temperatures, strong winds and hail to an upland section of the course. Weather forecasts had predicted a cold front, but had not captured how extreme the conditions would be. There are no meteorological stations in the area and survivor reports are subjective, but now a new hyper-local weather model – using topographic data at…