Chinascope – Page 133

Lianhe Zaobao: Moody’s Risk Management Unit Closed its China Operations

Singapore’s primary Chinese language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao recently reported that Moody’s has closed the risk management unit of its China operations, thus cutting about 100 jobs. People familiar with the matter said Moody’s Analytics closed its offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen after discussing operational efficiency and profitability. However, Moody’s credit rating business will continue. Wall Street is now grappling with China’s strict Zero Covid government policy, volatile markets and state intervention. Morningstar had cut its staff in China earlier this year too. In response to inquiries, a Moody’s spokesperson said that, as announced on the most recent earnings call, Moody’s is taking steps to align its global workforce with current and anticipated economic conditions. Moody’s continues to maintain a strong presence in China and make constructive contributions to China’s sustainable growth and the further development of the Chinese domestic market. As a rating agency, Moody’s said Beijing’s support for its domestic real estate sector is not enough to eliminate the pessimistic outlook.

Source: Lianhe Zaobao, November 18, 2022
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/realtime/china/story20221118-1334459

Briefings | | November 21, 2022 | Economy/Resources US-China Relations

Global Times: Let the World’s Top Scientists Be Proud that They received Award from China

On November 6, 2022, China held a World Laureates Forum in Shanghai. Chen Jining, Secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, Wan Gang, Chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology, Shen Haixiong, Vice Minister of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee and Director of the China Central Radio and Television Station, and Roger Kornberg, Chairman of the World Top Scientists Association and winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, attended the opening ceremony and delivered speeches.

China’s state media Global Times published a commentary discussing the objectives of the forum. Below are the main points from the commentary:

“At the opening ceremony of the Fifth World’s Top Scientists Forum (World Laureates Forum) held in Shanghai, the first World Top Scientists Association Award (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Top Scientists Award’) was awarded. The World’s Top Scientists Association initiated the award and hosted the event along with the Shanghai World’s Top Scientists Development Foundation. The ‘Top Scientists Award is a science award for global scientists. It was officially announced at the 4th World’s Top Scientists Forum on November 1, 2021. The Top Scientist Award is awarded once a year. At present, two individual awards have been established, the ‘Intelligent Science or Mathematics Award’ and the ‘Life Science or Medicine Award.’ Ten million Chinese Yuan (~US$1.5 million) is given to each award winner. The same award can be given to and shared by up to 4 people. This award is also the highest bonus science and technology award established by China to date.”

“The establishment of the Top Scientist Award has a certain significance for the development of science and technology in China.”

“First of all, among the fiercely competitive world science and technology awards, large-scale investment in the establishment of international science and technology awards shows the determination and confidence of Chinese entrepreneurs and the scientific and technological circles to dare to participate in the competition for the world’s top science and technology awards.”

“Second, the international science and technology awards issued locally will help to increase the public attention given to science and technology, broaden the horizons of the scientific and technological circles and the public, and deepen the understanding of international scientific and technological progress and of global scientists.”

“Third, the Top Science and Technology Association Award is an international award led by non-governmental organizations and recommended by top scientists. It highlights its non-governmental, academic, and international nature, and is conducive to showing China’s more open international image in the field of science and technology and to promoting global academic exchanges and cooperation with scientific research to build a more open scientific community.”

Source:
1. Website for China Association for Science and Technology https://www.cast.org.cn/art/2022/11/6/art_79_201895.html

2. Global Times, November 14, 2022

https://opinion.huanqiu.com/article/4ATSDOeHlcp

Briefings | | November 18, 2022 | Government/Politics Opinion

China to Implement Nationwide Health Code by 2025

On November 9, China’s National Health Commission (NHC), the country’s top agency in charge of health policies, announced on its official website that the NHC, the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (NATCM), and the NHC’s subordinate National Administration of Disease Control and Prevention jointly issued a proposal, which envisioned that, by 2025, a dynamically managed electronic health record and a fully functional electronic health code will be set up for every Chinese national.

According to the document, as the health codes currently in use in most regions are for “intra-provincial use,” at the national level, there is a lack of sharing and recognition of health codes across regions. The official goal is that by 2025, China will build an “ioperable” monitoring platform for the whole population, with each resident equipped with a dynamically managed electronic health file and a fully functional electronic health code. By that time, the Chinese government will be able to use big data to track so-called “risk groups” and monitor the Chinese population in real time over the long run.

Source: Radio Free Asia, November 10, 2022
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/code-11102022062758.html

Briefings | | November 16, 2022 | Government/Politics

China Uses Big Data to Audit and Tax the Rich

According to some individual social media accounts that focus on economic and financial news, the Chinese government has set up a “High Net Worth Individuals Administration” for people with bank deposits of 10 million yuan (US$1.4 million) or more, The state has launched a special tax audit operation targeting this group.

In the future, the authorities will adopt the means of “smart taxation” to collect information from and digitally profile each taxpayer. People who are emigrating from the country will have to “settle taxes before the cancellation of their Chinese household registration.” In other words, everyone who wants to leave the “motherland” must go to the tax authority to have it issue a tax clearance certificate.

This news has led to heated debates among netizens. Some ridiculed this as one of Xi Jinping’s “common prosperity” tactics.

As a fact, the Chinese government’s audits targeting high-income and high-net-worth individuals have already quietly begun. In September this year, Hainan province’s Taxation Bureau issued a document stating that it had launched a new type of audit supervision and carried out random checks on the “double-high (high-income and high-net-worth) population.” In June this year, Hou Kai, auditor general of the National Audit Office, reported to at a National People’s Congress session that 544 high-income earners in 22 Chinese provinces and cities had evaded 4.722 billion yuan (US$ 0.66 billion) in personal taxes from 2018 to 2021.

Source: Radio Free Asia, November 9, 2022
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/tax-11092022101644.html

Briefings | | November 16, 2022 | Economy/Resources

Kyiv Decided to Nationalize Communist Assets

Well-known Chinese news site NetEase (NASDAQ: NTES) recently reported that the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine has approved a list of property, funds and other assets of the Communist Party to be transferred to the state. In August, a court decision went into effect, banning eight political parties that include the Communist Party of Ukraine (KPU). Ukraine President Vladimir Zelensky signed a law in May to ban pro-Russian political parties in Ukraine, which led to the court ruling. Justice Minister Denys Malyuska said on the Justice Department’s website that, the assets of the Communist Party of Ukraine (KPU) and its state, municipal, district organizations, grassroots organizations and other structural entities are to be handed over to state ownership. It is reported that the KPU owns a total of 54 properties, 18 cars, 8 company rights, 2 trademarks and 2 parcels of land in Ukraine. [Chinascope notes: The Ukrainian Communist Party (KPU) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have always had close contacts.] On April 17, 2013, Zhang Xiyun, the Chinese ambassador to Ukraine, met with Petro Symonenko, the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the KPU. The two sides talked about cooperation. Symonenko said that the KPU was willing to further strengthen its relationship with the CCP. The CCP remained silent since the Ukrainian court ordered the permanent ban on the KPU.]

Source: NetEase, November 9, 2022
https://www.163.com/dy/article/HLOKOVQ20552ASSI.html

Briefings | | November 14, 2022 | Geo-Strategic Trend

Chinese Companies Ordered to Withdraw from Canadian Lithium Mine Investment

Well-known Chinese news site Sina (NASDAQ: SINA) recently reported that, on November 3, Industry Canada required three Chinese companies (China Mining Resources, Shengze Lithium and Zangge Mining) to divest their investment in key Canadian mining companies on the grounds of national security. In the emergency conference call after the incident, China Mining Resources officials said that it seems there is a trend of comprehensive restrictions on China-funded enterprises. Analysts in the financial market revealed that, in the future, China-funded companies will no longer be able to obtain any lithium resources in Canada or the United States, or acquire any companies listed in these two countries. Also, Chinese capital can only acquire up to 10 percent of the shares of lithium resource companies in Australia. In the absence of domestic lithium resources, Chinese companies cannot control the price of critical raw materials such as lithium concentrate. Thus are in a passive state in the upstream and downstream pricing game. China produces about 75 percent of the world’s lithium-ion batteries, but China only accounts for less than 20 percent of the global lithium resources. Most overseas lithium companies are listed in the US, Australia and Canada. This means that lithium resources have become the weakest link in China’s electric vehicle industry supply chain.

Source: Sina, November 3, 2022
https://finance.sina.com.cn/stock/marketresearch/2022-11-03/doc-imqmmthc3147998.shtml

Briefings | | November 14, 2022 | Economy/Resources Geo-Strategic Trend

China Times: US Blocked Import of a Large Quantity of Chinese Solar Modules

Major Taiwanese news network China Times recently reported that, according to some U.S. federal customs officials and industry sources, since June, more than 1,000 shipments of solar modules worth hundreds of millions of dollars have been blocked and are piling up at U.S. ports. The blockage was implemented under a new law that bans imports of products from China’s Xinjiang region based on concerns about slave labor. The high number of seizures suggests the policy, aimed at pressuring Beijing over Uyghur concentration camps in Xinjiang, may even slow the Biden administration’s drive to decarbonize the U.S. power sector in response to climate change. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirmed that none of these shipments have yet been returned. Based on federal laws that protect trade secrets, CBP will not disclose the manufacturer or provide details about the number of solar devices. However, three industry sources revealed that the seized products included solar panels and polycrystalline silicon solar cells, which could generate up to 1GW of electricity. The three Chinese manufacturers involved typically account for one-third of the U.S. solar panel supply. Industry sources said the companies have suspended shipments to the U.S. amid fears of more shipments being held up. According to a survey conducted by the American Clean Energy Association, solar installations in the United States plummeted by 23 percent in the third quarter and nearly 23GW of solar projects have been delayed, mainly because of the lack of access to solar panels.

Source: China Times, November 11, 2022
https://www.chinatimes.com/cn/realtimenews/20221111003377-260410?chdtv

Briefings | | November 14, 2022 | Information/Technology US-China Relations

Xinhua Commentary Series: Spotlight on the U.S. Presidential Election

Wu Guoguang: Xi Jinping’s Reversal of the Course, Will China’s Transition be Peaceful or Marked with Bloodshed?

Cheng Xiaonong: U.S.-China Strategic Relations Have Crystallized

Xinhua Commentaries: “Exposing the Three Major Political Deficits of the U.S.”