The police scolded a young woman while she was taking a photo in a kimono on Huaihai Street in Suzhou. She was not allowed to take a photo in a kimono. She could only wear Hanfu (the traditional style of clothing worn by the Han Chinese). The woman asked if there is any regulation on this issue. The police forcibly took her away on the grounds of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” ”She was taken to the police station and questioned for five hours and her phone was searched. “
According to Phoenix.com, in the video, a woman’s weak voice talks to the angry police. She asked, “Can you yell at me like this?” “Yes,” “What’s the reason for (taking me)?” “You are suspected of picking quarrels and provoking trouble.”
It can be seen from the photo that the date of the photo was August 10, which is not sensitive. It was not near the relevant museum or memorial. It was just a general kimono and there was no sign such as the Japanese military flag. The girl posted her story on the internet.
Source: UDN, August 15, 2022
https://udn.com/news/story/7335/6538918
Chinese People Have Difficulty Withdrawing Money from Banks. The Problem Has Spread to Shenzhen
Since July, customers of many banks in China have experienced difficulty withdrawing their money from their accounts. The problem has now spread to Shenzhen.
According to reports in the Chinese media, a number of depositors have shared their stories on the Internet. Bank of China’s debit card holders in Shenzhen have been unable to withdraw cash through WeChat, or transfer funds through Alipay. Their accounts have shown up as “suspended.”
The Bank of China stated that the purpose of freezing the accounts was to cooperate with the police operations to combat telecom fraud and Internet gambling. Holders of the suspended accounts have to go to the bank in person to unfreeze their accounts. Due to the large number of involved customers, people often have to wait more than an hour outside their banks.
In addition to the Bank of China, other banks, including China Construction Bank (CCB), Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), and Postal Savings Bank of China (PSBC), are in a similar situation. Long lines of depositors are waiting outside bank branch offices to unfreeze their accounts .
In the middle of July, in Beijing, Shandong, Hainan and in other provinces and cities, a number of bank depositors already had issues with their bank accounts being frozen and they could not withdraw their money.
Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), August 14, 2022
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202208140056.aspx
RFI Chinese: Five Chinese State-Owned Companies Announced the Start of Delisting US Stocks
Radio France Internationale (RFI) Chinese Edition recently reported that five companies, including PetroChina, Sinopec, Aluminum Corporation of China, China Life, and Shanghai Petrochemical announced separately that they applied for the voluntary delisting of their American Depositary Shares from the New York Stock Exchange. The China Securities Regulatory Commission issued a statement on “Initiating delisting from the U.S. for Individual Chinese Companies.” The Commission explained that, “ever since these companies listed in the United States, they have strictly abided by the rules and regulatory requirements of the U.S. capital market. They made the choice of delisting out of their own business considerations.” The Commission further stated that listing and delisting are the norm in the capital market. Previously, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced on May 4 that it had included more than 80 Chinese companies on its scheduled delisting list, and ordered these companies to submit evidence that they met the listing conditions before May 25. Under the U.S. Foreign Company Accountability Act of 2020, the committee can remove foreign companies from U.S. securities markets if they fail to comply with U.S. auditing standards for three consecutive years. Beijing and Washington are negotiating the resolution of the longstanding audit disputes. U.S. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said on July 27 that U.S. and Chinese officials must reach an agreement “as soon as possible” to obtain audit papers of Chinese companies in order to avoid the delisting of U.S.-listed Chinese stocks.
Source: RFI Chinese, August 12, 2022
https://bit.ly/3pexEUS
China’s Smartphone Market Fell Significantly in the Second Quarter
Well-known Chinese news site NetEase (NASDAQ: NTES) recently reported that the International Data Corporation (IDC) has released its latest mobile phone market report. IDC mentioned in the report that, in the context of improving market supply, soaring inflation and economic uncertainty have severely suppressed consumer spending, global mobile phone inventories have grown significantly, and market demand has been limited. The region with the largest decline in global shipments was in China, down more than 14 percent year-over-year. In the global market; the ranking of manufacturers did not change much in the second quarter. Samsung maintained growth in all regions except Europe with a share of 21.8 percent, and Apple ranked second with a share of 15.6 percent. IDC predicts that the Chinese domestic smartphone market will ship about 280 million units in 2022, down more than 40 percent from the peak of 500 million units. The Chinese Q2 decline is the fifth consecutive quarter of declines in shipments and the second consecutive quarter of double-digit declines. IDC expressed the belief that, in the first half of the year, the sluggish Chinese domestic market was a result of the Covid-19 lockdowns and the lack of sufficient differentiation among mid-to-high-end products. Also, China’s huge smartphone market is highly saturated. As of the end of last year, there were more than 1.6 billion active mobile phone accounts in China, surpassing the population of 1.4 billion. The penetration rate is much higher than the global average, resulting in intense competition.
Source: NetEase, July 29, 2022
https://www.163.com/dy/article/HDFNMFSM051481US.html
U.S. Imposed New Technology Export Controls
Well-known Chinese news site Sohu (NASDAQ: SOHU) reported not long ago that, in advanced technology fields such as semiconductors, the United States has recently been intervening frequently in normal market competition. Biden just signed the $280 billion chip bill to restrict semiconductor giants from investing in China. Now the U.S. Department of Commerce announced new export control measures. The U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued an announcement stating that four “emerging and foundational technologies” were included in new export controls due to national security concerns. The four technologies are: fourth-generation semiconductor materials gallium oxide and diamond that can withstand high temperature and high voltage; ECAD software specially designed for 3nm and below chips; pressure gain combustion technology that can be used in rockets and hypersonic systems. Although BIS did not directly mention China, yet China is now one of the countries that the United States has listed under national security controls. As long as technology items are listed in the import and export control catalogue, the U.S. government will likely impose restrictions on China. This will actually lead to further decoupling between China and the US in the semiconductor field. In its announcement, BIS claimed that the inclusion of four technologies supporting the production of advanced semiconductors and gas turbine engines under export controls was the result of an agreement among the 42 participating countries of the Wassenaar Agreement at the December 2021 plenary meeting. Considering that China is increasing its investment in semiconductors, in order to maintain its own advantages, the United States is trying to hinder the development speed of China’s semiconductor industry.
Source: Sohu, August 13, 2022
https://www.sohu.com/a/576560607_115479
Global Times Commentary Calls Pelosi’s Taiwan Trip a “Sneaky Visit” with “Four Conspiracies” of the United States to Split and Contain China
China’s State media Global Times published a commentary article on U.S. House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. The article said, “Pelosi’s sneaky visit to Taiwan is a grand show of the US’s anti-China strategy and a big exposure of its geopolitical ambitions. From the beginning to the end, Pelosi has not talked about the exchanges between the legislatures, but the conspiracy to split the two sides of the Taiwan Strait in all aspects, contain China in all aspects, shape the ‘Indo-Pacific’ in all aspects, and promote the new Cold War in all aspects.”
The article listed 4 such conspiracies of the United States:
1. Turn Taiwan into a colony of American ideology;
2. Turn Taiwan into an unsinkable aircraft carrier for the Asia-Pacific alliance;
3. Turning Taiwan into a Military Frontier for the Indo-Pacific Strategy;
4. Turn Taiwan into a chip killer for China’s tech blockade.
Source: Global Times, August 10, 2022
https://opinion.huanqiu.com/article/49BKoXTuWGc
Philippine Fishermen Found Wreckage of China’s “Long March 5-B” Rocket
Taiwan news media New Talk reported that the Philippine Coast Guard released photos on August 2, alleging that Philippine fishermen salvaged a 3-meter long, 2-meter wide rocket with debris weighing 100 kilograms off the coast of Mindoro Island at the northern end of the Sulu Sea. Judging from the appearance and text on the wreckage, it may be China’s “Long March 5-B” carrier rocket launched on July 24.
The rocket debris displayed by the Philippine Coast Guard clearly shows the pattern of the Chinese five-star flag. Philippine media reported that there are also Chinese characters on it. The Philippine Space Agency told the media that debris from a Chinese rocket crashed into the waters off the western part of the Philippines. There was no report of damage caused by the debris. That such a large and heavy piece of wreckage did not cause casualties or damage is perhaps just luck.
Source: New Talk, August 3, 2022
https://newtalk.tw/news/view/2022-08-03/795663
China’s Government Spending Deficit in the First Six Months of 2022 Was 5 Trillion Yuan
China’s Ministry of Finance published the amounts of the government’s spending and income for the first six months of the year. The income for the national government budget was 10.52 trillion yuan (US $1.56 trillion) and the spending was 12.89 trillion yuan (US $1.91 trillion). The income from the national governmental funds was 2.80 trillion yuan (US $420 billion) and the spending was 5.48 trillion yuan (US $810 billion). In total, the government spending deficit was 5 trillion yuan (US $740 billion) for the first six months of the year.
Source: China’s Ministry of Finance website, July 14, 2022
http://gks.mof.gov.cn/tongjishuju/202207/t20220714_3827010.htm