Malacca + Loan agreements + Ted Hui + Emissions trading + CanSino + Xiaomi + Customs duties + Covestro + Eberhard Sandschneider • China.Table

Malacca: China’s Suez Problem
Beijing’s policy with loan contracts
Hong Kong’s struggle from exile
China specifies rules for emissions trading
CanSino: vaccine talks with EU states
Xiaomi invests $10 billion in EVs
EU anti-dumping duties on aluminum products
Beijing slows expansion of new high-speed train routes
Covestro advises Guangzhou Automobile
Eberhard Sandschneider: China-bashing is booming

Dear reader,

On behalf of the WHO, scientists describe their search for the source of the COVID-19 in Wuhan on a good 120 pages – but they could not find it. “We have not yet found the source of the virus”, said WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. All theories are still on the table.

In the long-awaited report, the team concludes that the virus could originate in pangolins as well as bats. The scientists stressed that further studies are essential to get to the bottom of the matter. They described the theory that the virus could have escaped from a laboratory, however, as “extremely unlikely”.

Researchers at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW), meanwhile, have been able to take a closer look at 100 Chinese loan agreements with developing and emerging countries for the first time – and found secrecy clauses and possible political influence by Beijing in the countries. Nico Beckert was able to view and analyze the study in advance for China.Table.

The economic drama surrounding the freighter “Ever Given”, which got stuck in the Suez Canal, has set alarm bells ringing in Beijing. Because another strait is even more dangerous for China’s supplies: the Strait of Malacca near Singapore. Beijing is looking for alternatives to the bottleneck, as Frank Sieren reports.

Ted Hui was a parliamentarian in Hong Kong. He has been on the run with his family since December. He spoke to Marcel Grzanna about his fate and that of his fellow campaigners.

Your
Amelie Richter

Feature

Malacca: China’s Suez problem

The debacle over the grounded container ship in the Suez Canal has once again shown Beijing how risky it is to become too dependent on a transport route with a bottleneck. For China, that is even more so the 900-kilometer-long Strait of Malacca near Singapore, which measures only 2.7 kilometers at its narrowest point. Most of China’s raw materials have to pass through this strait. That is why China has been trying for years to build alternative supply routes as part of the Belt and Road Initiative. These are mainly pipelines.

By
Frank Sieren

For almost a week, the container ship “Ever Given” blocked the southern end of the Suez Canal and, thus, one of the world’s most important trade routes. The gigantic 200,000-ton ship had been on its way from China to Rotterdam and then ran aground. According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, 98 percent of container ships pass through the Suez Canal when traveling between Germany and China.

Nevertheless, another strait is even more dangerous for China’s supply. While the Suez Canal mainly transports products “Made in China” but also supplier parts from Europe, a large part of the oil supply from Saudi Arabia and Iraq passes through the Strait of Malacca near Singapore.

80 percent of China’s oil imports – a good 20 percent of China’s energy needs – pass through the strait near the eponymous Malaysian city, which connects the Indian Ocean with the Pacific. If a blockade were to occur here, whether due to an accident, terrorists, or a military conflict, China would be hit the hardest.

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