E-car Hongguang Mini EV + Tech regulation + Johnny Erling
The EV for the masses
Tolls and digitalization burden china’s truck drivers
Beijing makes platforms comply with fines
China space station’s main module in orbit
Solar Energy Industries Association: ban forced labor from supply chain
EU accuses Beijing of disinformation concerning vaccines
Johnny Erling: news from China’s ‘gilded cage’
Dear reader,
Things are running smoothly between Budapest and Beijing, unlike between Brussels and Beijing. In a video call between Victor Orbán and China’s President Xi Jinping, Xi announced that he had told the Hungarian prime minister “that his country appreciates that Hungary is pursuing a friendly policy towards China”. In addition to the exchange of pleasantries, the talks also focused on cooperation in the COVID-19 pandemic and the railway line between Budapest and Belgrade – and Orbán said he accepted an invitation to visit the Chinese capital.
Is a trend just emerging? One small EV could be found more often on the streets of Beijing in the future: The Hongguang Mini EV which has shot to the top of the EV sales charts in a very short time. Frank Sieren takes a look at the vehicle from the joint venture between General Motors and SAIC Motors and its market opportunities.
How safe are the logistics chains in China? Nico Beckert took a look at the situation of Chinese truckers. They are responsible for the majority of freight traffic but are coming under increasing pressure due to state tolls, digitalization, and precarious working conditions.
With the Hongguang Mini EV, US carmaker General Motors and Shanghai carmaker SAIC Motors have struck a chord with Chinese customers as no carmaker has for a long time. The entry-level model of the car costs significantly less than €5,000. Yet the 2.92-meter short Wuling Hongguang Mini EV is a full four-seater – and yet only 20 centimeters longer than the two-seater Smart.
Right off the bat, the car, which appears under the Wuling brand, knocked Tesla out of the No. 1 spot in China’s EV rankings last year – even though the car was only launched in July. This year, it’s exceeding all expectations as well. The minicar sold nearly 100,000 units in China in the first quarter of this year. Tesla came in at around 53,000 units in the same period, with the Mini selling 40,000 units in March alone. Tesla was only in third place in March with 10,000 sales.
Car appeals to young target group
Actually, the Hongguang Mini EV was designed for the Chinese rural population. But it is now increasingly being bought by young people. According to official statistics, more than 72 percent of Wuling buyers were born after 1990, so they are around or under 30 years old. 60 percent of buyers are women.
So Generation Z, which doesn’t have as much purchasing power yet, is choosing the Wuling Mini as a hip entry-level vehicle. Especially also in big cities like Shanghai. Therefore, Wuling launched a campaign at the Shanghai auto show where trade show visitors could custom paint the exterior of the car on a tablet. The design has already been implemented on two show vehicles. They were a big hit at the auto show, which ended last Friday.
However, the vehicle also continues to do well in the countryside. Until now, many poorer Chinese have been used to getting through their daily lives on scooters and motorized tricycles – vehicles that have long been a thorn in the government’s side because they pollute the air or are equipped with environmentally harmful lead batteries. Especially in rural areas and smaller towns that have not yet caught up with the booming metropolises, the need for reliable, affordable mass-produced vehicles is great. Compared to the previously popular trikes and scooters, the Hongguang Mini EV is almost a luxurious status symbol.
In Asia, such microcars are not new. In Japan, the so-called Kei cars have long been established as mass vehicles. Kei is the abbreviation of keijidosha, “light vehicle”. However, almost all of them are still powered by internal combustion engines. The likelihood that the Wuling Mini will become a sales hit in Asia is very high. However, the manufacturers currently have a problem. They are barely keeping up with the production of the vehicles, so there is currently no significant capacity for exports.
“The Hong Guang Mini is the first time a major company has stepped up with a simple EV that targets buyers looking for a real car,” said industry analyst Sam Fiorani of Auto Forecast Solutions.
Swiss Smart inventor Nicolas Hayek would have been delighted with the Wuling because in 1994, he had a similar idea for the Smart: an inexpensive small EV with electric motors in the wheels. His partner Daimler, however, had other ideas. The result was a comparatively expensive petrol engine with a very jerky gearbox. Hayek dropped out of the project in 1998, deeply disappointed.
Safety updates, but crash tests still pending
New models and upgrades of the box office hit Hongguang Mini EV were recently unveiled at the Shanghai auto show. With the “Macaron” series, Wuling introduced a higher-end version of the small car, borrowing its name and the pastel shades on offer from the French sugar confectionery of the same name.
Amazingly, the upgraded safety features include a standard driver airbag, antilock brakes with electronic brake-force distribution, a tire pressure monitoring system, and a low-speed pedestrian warning system.
This counters criticism at Wuling that the car is not safe. From the perspective of a Polo driver, that’s still true. From the perspective of a motorcyclist, the Mini EV is a great gain in personal safety. However, no crash tests of the car have been published yet.
The safety upgrades also make the vehicle more attractive internationally. It is already being imported in small numbers by the Latvian Dartz Motorz Company and sold under the name Freze Nikrob EV. However, a dealer network is still lacking. But that could change soon, according to Dartz CEO Leonard F. Yankelovich. Yankelovich wants to expand his standing in the European market primarily with another new model of the Hongguang Mini EV: an e-convertible, which was recently shown for the first time as a show car at the Shanghai Auto.
The Hongguang convertible is planned as a pure two-seater. The technical specifications are almost identical to the previous Mini. With a 20 kW electric motor, the vehicle is capable of speeds of up to 100 km/h. The range is up to 170 kilometers. It can be recharged at any conventional 220 V socket.
Dartz founder Yankelovich plans to offer the e-convertible under the name FreZe Froggy in Europe from mid-2022, at an estimated price of just over €20,000, just below Western alternatives such as the Smart EQ Fortwo Cabrio, whose list price starts at €21,630. The high price would have to do with the higher environmental standards in Europe, the company says. But whether the car can gain a foothold in Europe as a second car, car-sharing vehicle, or vehicle for delivery services at this price, or whether the convertible will only establish itself as a fun car, remains to be seen.
Car Industry
Electromobility
Shanghai Auto Show
Tesla
Tolls and digitalization burden china’s truck drivers
According to different estimates, there are 18 to 30 million truck drivers in China. They often work twelve hours a day, sleep in their vehicles, and are separated from their families for months at a time. Without the often self-employed drivers, hardly any raw materials get to the factories and export goods to China’s ports. Freight transport by truck accounts for three-quarters of China’s freight traffic. But while China’s economy is growing rapidly again after overcoming the COVID-19 crisis, truckers are facing rising costs and increasing competitive pressure.
In the course of a week in April this year, two startling reports went through the English-language Chinese media that demonstrate the pressures Chinese truck drivers face: One trucker committed suicide after inspectors found that his truck did not have a working global positioning device. The 50-year-old driver was fined ¥2,000 (the equivalent of €250) for the incident. A second truck driver tried to take his own life, he was saved in the hospital. According to the report, he had been fined ¥500 (the equivalent of €63) because his vehicle was allegedly one ton over the gross vehicle weight limit. After he came out of the hospital, his truck was weighed again – the result was within the legal limit. This is not the first time newspapers have reported on suicides and suicide attempts by truck drivers. In 2014, a couple took their own lives after their truck was impounded by authorities for being overloaded. The high workload also leads to deaths – the vast majority of male truckers are exhausted.
Millions of self-employed drivers
In recent years, there have been repeated protests by truck drivers. Displeasure is often expressed on social networks, but in 2018 there were also demonstrations. While the economy is growing, their living conditions are hardly improving. Instead, fuel prices are rising, while freight transport rates fell by 40 percent between 2016 and 2020.
In China, these problems hit the drivers twice. Tens of millions of truck drivers do not work as permanent employees for freight forwarders but are self-employed. They not only have to feed their families from their income but also often also pay off the loans for their vehicles. On top of that, there is insurance, wear and tear, and repair costs. One driver told the South China Morning Post that he had been on the road for two years and still did not have enough income to support his family or service the loans. According to China Labour Bulletin, it is common for drivers to work for two and a half years before they have paid off their debts.
Burdensome toll costs
Toll costs in China are also increasingly becoming a burden for truck drivers. A large proportion of China’s expressways are operated by mostly state-owned companies. Seventy percent of all toll roads in the world are in China, and tolls are among the most expensive, according to the World Bank. In 2019, the central government reformed the toll system. However, costs continued to rise with the introduction of the automated system. SCMP reported truck drivers complaining of a 30 percent increase in costs. After all fees and fuel costs, a driver would be left with just over a quarter of his income. The Transport Ministry warned at the time that charges could rise for some drivers as they would no longer be charged by weight but by distance.
Overall, tolling is a profitable business. In 2018, toll operators took in just under $80 billion. Truckers were relieved in the COVID-19 pandemic. In February 2020, the central government passed a resolution that toll collection would be paused across China, but by the beginning of May 2020, that decision had already been rescinded.
Digitization and transponders: a curse and a blessing at the same time
The digitalization of the transport sector is partly a curse and partly a blessing for Chinese truck drivers. There are now a number of platform apps designed to bring drivers and customers together. This business model, reminiscent of Uber, brings advantages and disadvantages. For example, there are self-employed drivers whose downtime has decreased because the app helps them find new jobs faster. The platformsreduce inefficiencies.
Other drivers, however, complain that the platformsaredepressing prices. The supply of drivers exceeds the demand, so the individual drivers have to undercut each other on prices. This contributes to lower freight rates and, correspondingly, less income for the drivers.
The so-called Beidou transponders are also intended to improve the lives of truck drivers. They are based on the Chinese satellite positioning system Beidou and are now required by law for all truckers. The transponders are supposed to monitor traffic and drivers – also to prevent them from speeding or falling asleep at the wheel. But installing the system costs drivers ¥2,500 (just under €320), and there are annual fees of ¥600 (just under €75). If drivers turn off the system, they face fines of ¥800 (€100). By comparison, the monthly income of truck drivers in China is ¥5,000 to ¥8,000.
However, according to a report by SCMP, there are complaints that the transponders are losing contact with the satellites. If the truck drivers are then checked, it appears as if they have switched off the device. Through no fault of their own, they face fines. There have been regular protests against the system on Weibo. In the meantime, the hashtag “truck drivers have something to say” was censored on the platform, China Labour Bulletin reports. The organization also criticizes the transponders for not solving the real problems truck drivers face: long hours, debt, time pressure from employers, and declining income. The transponders would onlytreatsymptoms such as overtiredness and traffic violations, but not the causes, the organization says.
The driver who took his own life in April also had his Beidou system turned off. In a suicide note before his suicide, he wrote, according to the SCMP, “The checkpoint said my Beidou was disconnected and fined me ¥2,000, but how would a driver know? I don’t think I can live much longer, so I will use my death as a wake-up call to the authorities.”
Apps
Car Industry
Technology
Truck
News
Beijing makes platforms comply with fines
Beijing is continuing its crackdown on the most powerful tech companies in the platform economy. The focus is currently on providers of financial services. After Ant Financial had to completely reorganize itself (China.Table reported), it is now the turn of its somewhat smaller competitors. The financial regulator has summoned representatives from Tencent (WeChat), ByteDance (TikTok), JD, Meituan, and DiDi to impose new restrictions on them. In total, 13 platform operators with strong financial arms are affected.
This Friday, the Alibaba Group, Ant’s parent company, will also present a plan for how it will make its business practices more legally compliant in the future. The document is considered groundbreaking for 33 other platform operators, who will also have to practice self-criticism and vow to improve in the next two weeks. These also include Tencent, JD, and Meituan. For Tencent, a high fine of at least ¥10 billion is currently being discussed to make the Internet company compliant.
Beijing is thus showing some of the biggest and richest names in the global tech industry who ultimately calls the shots in the country: the politicians and not the corporations. The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) had previously fined Alibaba ¥18 billion. The specific charges against the platforms: antitrust violations through incomplete reporting of acquisitions and the establishment of monopoly-like positions in submarkets such as music streaming or payment services. fin
Finance
Meituan
China space station’s main module in orbit
The first module for China’s planned space station has arrived in orbit 400 kilometers above Earth. On Thursday, according to Chinese media reports, the launch vehicle “Long March 5B” successfully lifted off from the Wenchang spaceport on the tropical island of Hainan. After ten minutes, the future main module of the space station named “Tianhe” separated from the rocket. The launch vehicle, which was only tested for the first time in May 2020, is the only one capable of hoisting the heavy components for the space station into space.
In 2022, the space station which will be called “Tiangong” – Heavenly Palace – should be fully assembled. According to the Chinese space program, eleven missions are planned until then: three flights with modules, four cargo missions, and four manned space flights. The first two are already planned for the next few weeks, according to the German news agency dpa. As early as May, the cargo spacecraft “Tianzhou 2” could dock with fuel and supplies. Three astronauts are also preparing to fly aboard “Shenzhou 12” to the station’s main module, possibly in June, according to dpa.
At 16.6 meters long, 4.2 meters in diameter, and weighing around 90 tonnes, the finished space station will be significantly smaller than the ISS, which weighs 240 tons. The core module will provide power and propulsion. Three spacecraft can dock with it at the same time – two for longer periods. It provides accommodation for three astronauts, who can stay on board for up to six months. Two more parts for scientific experiments will be added later in a T-shape.
No other countries are involved in the construction or operation of the sky palace. China invites researchers from all over the world to cooperate, Scientific American recently quoted Gu Yidong, the chief scientist of the manned space program. However, US law limits the ability of NASA scientists to work directly with China, he said. Even in Europe, pressure from NASA makes it difficult to get funding for projects related to China’s space program, the magazine said. At least one international cooperation with Germany, among others, is planned for scientific experiments – with the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, according to dpa.
The space station is not China’s only space project: Beijing’s spacecraft, which has been orbiting Mars since February, is scheduled to deploy a descent module in mid-May. It would be China’s first landing on the red planet. China is also planning a space telescope similar to the American Hubble telescope, to be operated in the same orbit a few hundred kilometers away from about 2024, Scientific American writes. China also wants to build a space station on the moon together with Russia (China.Table reported). However, there is no exact date for this yet. ck
Aerospace
Technology
Solar Energy Industries Association: ban forced labor from supply chain
The US Solar Energy Industries Association published a set of voluntary guidelines for solar panel manufacturers on Thursday. The aim is to ban components from forced labor abroad from the supply chain, as Reuters reports. The association is responding to repeated criticism that the basic raw material of solar modules, polysilicon, would be extracted with forced labor in Xinjiang (China.Table reported). According to market analyses, around 45 percent of the world’s polysilicon production comes from the region in northwest China.
The US had already banned cotton and tomato imports from Xinjiang. To address the concerns and an import ban, the US Solar Energy Industries Association has now presented measures that companies should take to identify theorigin of their input products and monitortheirsupply chains, the report said. Accordingly, the association also recommends that solar companies have the implementation of the proposed measuresverifiedby a third party, such as an external auditor. The association already asked its members to leave the Xinjiang region late last year. By June, the association members should assure that their products are free of forced labor. nib
Energy
Forced Labor
Human Rights
Renewable energies
USA
Xinjiang
EU accuses Beijing of disinformation concerning vaccines
China is using the issue of COVID-19 vaccines for disinformation against the European Union and Western vaccines, according to an EU analysis. The People’s Republic has been aggressively promoting its state-produced vaccines worldwide for months, according to a special report by the European External Action Service (EEAS) on disinformation campaigns related to the COVID pandemic. “Russia and China, in particular, continue to intensively promote their own state-produced vaccines around the world,” the report said. It also said there were attempts at manipulation to undermine confidence in Western vaccines, European vaccination strategy, and EU institutions. Beijing is using state media and social media to do this, the EEAS task force said.
“China continues to promote its vaccines as a ‘global public good,’ emphasizing the accessibility and stable supply ofChinese vaccines and presenting them as more suitable for developing countries and also the Western Balkans,” the analysis says. It cites the use of the Chinese vaccine in Serbia as an example. Beijing is highlighting its presumed success while portraying the Western response to the pandemic negatively. The fact that the number of COVID-19 cases in EU countries is rising is portrayed by Beijing as a failure of democracies and open societies.
Recently, there has been repeated criticism of how the EU deals with disinformation campaigns from Beijing (China.Table reported). Unlike in the case of Russia, the European Council has not yet issued an official mandate to consistently pursue Chinese misinformation. ari
Corona Vaccines
Pharma
Opinion
News from China’s ‘gilded cage’
By Johnny Erling
A dissident could not have been more adept at getting his message out to the public than China’s former premier Wen Jiabao (2003-2013) is now doing. He was once among the most powerful leaders of the party and state. Their retirement is sweetened with the utmost comfort under secret rules for the nomenclature of officials. As a price, they agree to no longer attract public attention, not to travel abroad, and to live, literally, in a “gilded cage”. They are to have no opportunity to interfere and disrupt the circles of power under state and party leader Xi Jinping.
Wen Jiabao, now 78, didn’t stick to that with a long obituary for his mother Yang Zhiyun. In order to publish his tribute, the ex-premier had to outsmart the censors. This was because his message of mourning indirectly concealed dissatisfaction with the path China has taken under Xi’s leadership.
The first was published on March 25, the last on April 16. Wen Jiabao professes pathetically to suffer with China’s “poor and weak” and to fight “harassment and repression”. “The way I see it, China should be just and fair everywhere, and people’s will, humanity, and essence should always be respected.”
Bloggers grabbed the text and shared it hundreds of thousands of times online. By the second day (April 18), Beijing’s alarmed censors were struggling to stop the spread. Their action made global headlines because they put an ex-premier on their index.
The explosiveness is between the lines. Wen traces his mother’s century-long life as a tale of woe for the whole family – in the “maelstrom” of cruel turmoil, from the Japanese invasion to the political persecution campaigns of the People’s Republic. The Cultural Revolutionbrought “disaster to our home.” Such tones do not fit the jubilant celebrations Beijing is staging to mark the 100th founding birthday of the Chinese Communist Party on July 1. Nor does it fit with Xi’s ordered rewriting of China’s 100-year history as a CCP heroic epic, in which the crimes of the Cultural Revolution are heavily downplayed.
Wen Jiabao as an opponent of the regime?
Nor does the word party appear in the obituary. Wen’s warnings at the last People’s Congress in March 2013, which he chaired while still prime minister, have not been forgotten within the party. Without political reforms, China’s economic transformation would not succeed in the long term: “Tragedies like the Cultural Revolution could happen again”. Wen’s call at the time to prevent the concentration of “excessive power” institutionally and with the help of public opinion must worryXi, who wants to further cement his power at the 20th Party Congress in 2022.
Wen writes, “In the past eight years, I rarely went out of the house.” This is exactly what China’s party leadership expects of him and all senior citizens. When the old folks were at the helm, they traveled all over the country and the world. Now none of them are allowed to go abroad, even as self-paying tourists. Their essays, books, or memoirs must be pre-approved by the Politburo.
Meeting only with the consent of the Politburo
Even courtesy meetings with particularly prominent foreigners only take place if they ask for them, and the Politburo agrees. Beijing allowed German Chancellor Angela Merkel, for example,who has met Wen Jiabao 20 times in office, to have an unofficial breakfast with him in 2014 in the cafeteria attic of the National Museum. This was not allowed to be reported, nor was the 2015 meeting with Austria’s President Heinz Fischer, who has known Wen Jiabao since 1988. Other “old friends” of China were also allowed to pay their respects to ex-premier Zhu Rongji, from Helmut Schmidt to BASF CEO Jürgen Hambrecht to Gerhard Schroeder who was allowed to present Zhu with an award.
Once a year – and always shortly before the start of the Lunar New Year – China’s respective leaders themselves commemorate their predecessors who once retired in honor. Beijing cultivates this as a ritual. At least this way, the public can hear who of the old ones is still alive, but without learning more about them.
Undercover as a delivery boy – Wang Lin, the deputy director of the Labor Relations Department of the Beijing Municipal Bureau, worked undercover for a day as a delivery boy for Meituan and was accompanied by a television station. After the 12-hour shift, during which he earned the equivalent of just over $6, he said, according to the Financial Times, “It’s really difficult, and on top of that, I felt very offended.” Meituan is facing an antitrust investigation. The accusation: The company forces suppliers to operate exclusively on its own platform and not to offer their goods via competitor platforms (China.Table reported).
Tolls and digitalization burden china’s truck drivers
Beijing makes platforms comply with fines
China space station’s main module in orbit
Solar Energy Industries Association: ban forced labor from supply chain
EU accuses Beijing of disinformation concerning vaccines
Johnny Erling: news from China’s ‘gilded cage’
Dear reader,
Things are running smoothly between Budapest and Beijing, unlike between Brussels and Beijing. In a video call between Victor Orbán and China’s President Xi Jinping, Xi announced that he had told the Hungarian prime minister “that his country appreciates that Hungary is pursuing a friendly policy towards China”. In addition to the exchange of pleasantries, the talks also focused on cooperation in the COVID-19 pandemic and the railway line between Budapest and Belgrade – and Orbán said he accepted an invitation to visit the Chinese capital.
Is a trend just emerging? One small EV could be found more often on the streets of Beijing in the future: The Hongguang Mini EV which has shot to the top of the EV sales charts in a very short time. Frank Sieren takes a look at the vehicle from the joint venture between General Motors and SAIC Motors and its market opportunities.
How safe are the logistics chains in China? Nico Beckert took a look at the situation of Chinese truckers. They are responsible for the majority of freight traffic but are coming under increasing pressure due to state tolls, digitalization, and precarious working conditions.
With the Hongguang Mini EV, US carmaker General Motors and Shanghai carmaker SAIC Motors have struck a chord with Chinese customers as no carmaker has for a long time. The entry-level model of the car costs significantly less than €5,000. Yet the 2.92-meter short Wuling Hongguang Mini EV is a full four-seater – and yet only 20 centimeters longer than the two-seater Smart.
Right off the bat, the car, which appears under the Wuling brand, knocked Tesla out of the No. 1 spot in China’s EV rankings last year – even though the car was only launched in July. This year, it’s exceeding all expectations as well. The minicar sold nearly 100,000 units in China in the first quarter of this year. Tesla came in at around 53,000 units in the same period, with the Mini selling 40,000 units in March alone. Tesla was only in third place in March with 10,000 sales.
Car appeals to young target group
Actually, the Hongguang Mini EV was designed for the Chinese rural population. But it is now increasingly being bought by young people. According to official statistics, more than 72 percent of Wuling buyers were born after 1990, so they are around or under 30 years old. 60 percent of buyers are women.
So Generation Z, which doesn’t have as much purchasing power yet, is choosing the Wuling Mini as a hip entry-level vehicle. Especially also in big cities like Shanghai. Therefore, Wuling launched a campaign at the Shanghai auto show where trade show visitors could custom paint the exterior of the car on a tablet. The design has already been implemented on two show vehicles. They were a big hit at the auto show, which ended last Friday.
However, the vehicle also continues to do well in the countryside. Until now, many poorer Chinese have been used to getting through their daily lives on scooters and motorized tricycles – vehicles that have long been a thorn in the government’s side because they pollute the air or are equipped with environmentally harmful lead batteries. Especially in rural areas and smaller towns that have not yet caught up with the booming metropolises, the need for reliable, affordable mass-produced vehicles is great. Compared to the previously popular trikes and scooters, the Hongguang Mini EV is almost a luxurious status symbol.
In Asia, such microcars are not new. In Japan, the so-called Kei cars have long been established as mass vehicles. Kei is the abbreviation of keijidosha, “light vehicle”. However, almost all of them are still powered by internal combustion engines. The likelihood that the Wuling Mini will become a sales hit in Asia is very high. However, the manufacturers currently have a problem. They are barely keeping up with the production of the vehicles, so there is currently no significant capacity for exports.
“The Hong Guang Mini is the first time a major company has stepped up with a simple EV that targets buyers looking for a real car,” said industry analyst Sam Fiorani of Auto Forecast Solutions.
Swiss Smart inventor Nicolas Hayek would have been delighted with the Wuling because in 1994, he had a similar idea for the Smart: an inexpensive small EV with electric motors in the wheels. His partner Daimler, however, had other ideas. The result was a comparatively expensive petrol engine with a very jerky gearbox. Hayek dropped out of the project in 1998, deeply disappointed.
Safety updates, but crash tests still pending
New models and upgrades of the box office hit Hongguang Mini EV were recently unveiled at the Shanghai auto show. With the “Macaron” series, Wuling introduced a higher-end version of the small car, borrowing its name and the pastel shades on offer from the French sugar confectionery of the same name.
Amazingly, the upgraded safety features include a standard driver airbag, antilock brakes with electronic brake-force distribution, a tire pressure monitoring system, and a low-speed pedestrian warning system.
This counters criticism at Wuling that the car is not safe. From the perspective of a Polo driver, that’s still true. From the perspective of a motorcyclist, the Mini EV is a great gain in personal safety. However, no crash tests of the car have been published yet.
The safety upgrades also make the vehicle more attractive internationally. It is already being imported in small numbers by the Latvian Dartz Motorz Company and sold under the name Freze Nikrob EV. However, a dealer network is still lacking. But that could change soon, according to Dartz CEO Leonard F. Yankelovich. Yankelovich wants to expand his standing in the European market primarily with another new model of the Hongguang Mini EV: an e-convertible, which was recently shown for the first time as a show car at the Shanghai Auto.
The Hongguang convertible is planned as a pure two-seater. The technical specifications are almost identical to the previous Mini. With a 20 kW electric motor, the vehicle is capable of speeds of up to 100 km/h. The range is up to 170 kilometers. It can be recharged at any conventional 220 V socket.
Dartz founder Yankelovich plans to offer the e-convertible under the name FreZe Froggy in Europe from mid-2022, at an estimated price of just over €20,000, just below Western alternatives such as the Smart EQ Fortwo Cabrio, whose list price starts at €21,630. The high price would have to do with the higher environmental standards in Europe, the company says. But whether the car can gain a foothold in Europe as a second car, car-sharing vehicle, or vehicle for delivery services at this price, or whether the convertible will only establish itself as a fun car, remains to be seen.
Car Industry
Electromobility
Shanghai Auto Show
Tesla
Tolls and digitalization burden china’s truck drivers
According to different estimates, there are 18 to 30 million truck drivers in China. They often work twelve hours a day, sleep in their vehicles, and are separated from their families for months at a time. Without the often self-employed drivers, hardly any raw materials get to the factories and export goods to China’s ports. Freight transport by truck accounts for three-quarters of China’s freight traffic. But while China’s economy is growing rapidly again after overcoming the COVID-19 crisis, truckers are facing rising costs and increasing competitive pressure.
In the course of a week in April this year, two startling reports went through the English-language Chinese media that demonstrate the pressures Chinese truck drivers face: One trucker committed suicide after inspectors found that his truck did not have a working global positioning device. The 50-year-old driver was fined ¥2,000 (the equivalent of €250) for the incident. A second truck driver tried to take his own life, he was saved in the hospital. According to the report, he had been fined ¥500 (the equivalent of €63) because his vehicle was allegedly one ton over the gross vehicle weight limit. After he came out of the hospital, his truck was weighed again – the result was within the legal limit. This is not the first time newspapers have reported on suicides and suicide attempts by truck drivers. In 2014, a couple took their own lives after their truck was impounded by authorities for being overloaded. The high workload also leads to deaths – the vast majority of male truckers are exhausted.
Millions of self-employed drivers
In recent years, there have been repeated protests by truck drivers. Displeasure is often expressed on social networks, but in 2018 there were also demonstrations. While the economy is growing, their living conditions are hardly improving. Instead, fuel prices are rising, while freight transport rates fell by 40 percent between 2016 and 2020.
In China, these problems hit the drivers twice. Tens of millions of truck drivers do not work as permanent employees for freight forwarders but are self-employed. They not only have to feed their families from their income but also often also pay off the loans for their vehicles. On top of that, there is insurance, wear and tear, and repair costs. One driver told the South China Morning Post that he had been on the road for two years and still did not have enough income to support his family or service the loans. According to China Labour Bulletin, it is common for drivers to work for two and a half years before they have paid off their debts.
Burdensome toll costs
Toll costs in China are also increasingly becoming a burden for truck drivers. A large proportion of China’s expressways are operated by mostly state-owned companies. Seventy percent of all toll roads in the world are in China, and tolls are among the most expensive, according to the World Bank. In 2019, the central government reformed the toll system. However, costs continued to rise with the introduction of the automated system. SCMP reported truck drivers complaining of a 30 percent increase in costs. After all fees and fuel costs, a driver would be left with just over a quarter of his income. The Transport Ministry warned at the time that charges could rise for some drivers as they would no longer be charged by weight but by distance.
Overall, tolling is a profitable business. In 2018, toll operators took in just under $80 billion. Truckers were relieved in the COVID-19 pandemic. In February 2020, the central government passed a resolution that toll collection would be paused across China, but by the beginning of May 2020, that decision had already been rescinded.
Digitization and transponders: a curse and a blessing at the same time
The digitalization of the transport sector is partly a curse and partly a blessing for Chinese truck drivers. There are now a number of platform apps designed to bring drivers and customers together. This business model, reminiscent of Uber, brings advantages and disadvantages. For example, there are self-employed drivers whose downtime has decreased because the app helps them find new jobs faster. The platformsreduce inefficiencies.
Other drivers, however, complain that the platformsaredepressing prices. The supply of drivers exceeds the demand, so the individual drivers have to undercut each other on prices. This contributes to lower freight rates and, correspondingly, less income for the drivers.
The so-called Beidou transponders are also intended to improve the lives of truck drivers. They are based on the Chinese satellite positioning system Beidou and are now required by law for all truckers. The transponders are supposed to monitor traffic and drivers – also to prevent them from speeding or falling asleep at the wheel. But installing the system costs drivers ¥2,500 (just under €320), and there are annual fees of ¥600 (just under €75). If drivers turn off the system, they face fines of ¥800 (€100). By comparison, the monthly income of truck drivers in China is ¥5,000 to ¥8,000.
However, according to a report by SCMP, there are complaints that the transponders are losing contact with the satellites. If the truck drivers are then checked, it appears as if they have switched off the device. Through no fault of their own, they face fines. There have been regular protests against the system on Weibo. In the meantime, the hashtag “truck drivers have something to say” was censored on the platform, China Labour Bulletin reports. The organization also criticizes the transponders for not solving the real problems truck drivers face: long hours, debt, time pressure from employers, and declining income. The transponders would onlytreatsymptoms such as overtiredness and traffic violations, but not the causes, the organization says.
The driver who took his own life in April also had his Beidou system turned off. In a suicide note before his suicide, he wrote, according to the SCMP, “The checkpoint said my Beidou was disconnected and fined me ¥2,000, but how would a driver know? I don’t think I can live much longer, so I will use my death as a wake-up call to the authorities.”
Apps
Car Industry
Technology
Truck
News
Beijing makes platforms comply with fines
Beijing is continuing its crackdown on the most powerful tech companies in the platform economy. The focus is currently on providers of financial services. After Ant Financial had to completely reorganize itself (China.Table reported), it is now the turn of its somewhat smaller competitors. The financial regulator has summoned representatives from Tencent (WeChat), ByteDance (TikTok), JD, Meituan, and DiDi to impose new restrictions on them. In total, 13 platform operators with strong financial arms are affected.
This Friday, the Alibaba Group, Ant’s parent company, will also present a plan for how it will make its business practices more legally compliant in the future. The document is considered groundbreaking for 33 other platform operators, who will also have to practice self-criticism and vow to improve in the next two weeks. These also include Tencent, JD, and Meituan. For Tencent, a high fine of at least ¥10 billion is currently being discussed to make the Internet company compliant.
Beijing is thus showing some of the biggest and richest names in the global tech industry who ultimately calls the shots in the country: the politicians and not the corporations. The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) had previously fined Alibaba ¥18 billion. The specific charges against the platforms: antitrust violations through incomplete reporting of acquisitions and the establishment of monopoly-like positions in submarkets such as music streaming or payment services. fin
Finance
Meituan
China space station’s main module in orbit
The first module for China’s planned space station has arrived in orbit 400 kilometers above Earth. On Thursday, according to Chinese media reports, the launch vehicle “Long March 5B” successfully lifted off from the Wenchang spaceport on the tropical island of Hainan. After ten minutes, the future main module of the space station named “Tianhe” separated from the rocket. The launch vehicle, which was only tested for the first time in May 2020, is the only one capable of hoisting the heavy components for the space station into space.
In 2022, the space station which will be called “Tiangong” – Heavenly Palace – should be fully assembled. According to the Chinese space program, eleven missions are planned until then: three flights with modules, four cargo missions, and four manned space flights. The first two are already planned for the next few weeks, according to the German news agency dpa. As early as May, the cargo spacecraft “Tianzhou 2” could dock with fuel and supplies. Three astronauts are also preparing to fly aboard “Shenzhou 12” to the station’s main module, possibly in June, according to dpa.
At 16.6 meters long, 4.2 meters in diameter, and weighing around 90 tonnes, the finished space station will be significantly smaller than the ISS, which weighs 240 tons. The core module will provide power and propulsion. Three spacecraft can dock with it at the same time – two for longer periods. It provides accommodation for three astronauts, who can stay on board for up to six months. Two more parts for scientific experiments will be added later in a T-shape.
No other countries are involved in the construction or operation of the sky palace. China invites researchers from all over the world to cooperate, Scientific American recently quoted Gu Yidong, the chief scientist of the manned space program. However, US law limits the ability of NASA scientists to work directly with China, he said. Even in Europe, pressure from NASA makes it difficult to get funding for projects related to China’s space program, the magazine said. At least one international cooperation with Germany, among others, is planned for scientific experiments – with the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, according to dpa.
The space station is not China’s only space project: Beijing’s spacecraft, which has been orbiting Mars since February, is scheduled to deploy a descent module in mid-May. It would be China’s first landing on the red planet. China is also planning a space telescope similar to the American Hubble telescope, to be operated in the same orbit a few hundred kilometers away from about 2024, Scientific American writes. China also wants to build a space station on the moon together with Russia (China.Table reported). However, there is no exact date for this yet. ck
Aerospace
Technology
Solar Energy Industries Association: ban forced labor from supply chain
The US Solar Energy Industries Association published a set of voluntary guidelines for solar panel manufacturers on Thursday. The aim is to ban components from forced labor abroad from the supply chain, as Reuters reports. The association is responding to repeated criticism that the basic raw material of solar modules, polysilicon, would be extracted with forced labor in Xinjiang (China.Table reported). According to market analyses, around 45 percent of the world’s polysilicon production comes from the region in northwest China.
The US had already banned cotton and tomato imports from Xinjiang. To address the concerns and an import ban, the US Solar Energy Industries Association has now presented measures that companies should take to identify theorigin of their input products and monitortheirsupply chains, the report said. Accordingly, the association also recommends that solar companies have the implementation of the proposed measuresverifiedby a third party, such as an external auditor. The association already asked its members to leave the Xinjiang region late last year. By June, the association members should assure that their products are free of forced labor. nib
Energy
Forced Labor
Human Rights
Renewable energies
USA
Xinjiang
EU accuses Beijing of disinformation concerning vaccines
China is using the issue of COVID-19 vaccines for disinformation against the European Union and Western vaccines, according to an EU analysis. The People’s Republic has been aggressively promoting its state-produced vaccines worldwide for months, according to a special report by the European External Action Service (EEAS) on disinformation campaigns related to the COVID pandemic. “Russia and China, in particular, continue to intensively promote their own state-produced vaccines around the world,” the report said. It also said there were attempts at manipulation to undermine confidence in Western vaccines, European vaccination strategy, and EU institutions. Beijing is using state media and social media to do this, the EEAS task force said.
“China continues to promote its vaccines as a ‘global public good,’ emphasizing the accessibility and stable supply ofChinese vaccines and presenting them as more suitable for developing countries and also the Western Balkans,” the analysis says. It cites the use of the Chinese vaccine in Serbia as an example. Beijing is highlighting its presumed success while portraying the Western response to the pandemic negatively. The fact that the number of COVID-19 cases in EU countries is rising is portrayed by Beijing as a failure of democracies and open societies.
Recently, there has been repeated criticism of how the EU deals with disinformation campaigns from Beijing (China.Table reported). Unlike in the case of Russia, the European Council has not yet issued an official mandate to consistently pursue Chinese misinformation. ari
Corona Vaccines
Pharma
Opinion
News from China’s ‘gilded cage’
By Johnny Erling
A dissident could not have been more adept at getting his message out to the public than China’s former premier Wen Jiabao (2003-2013) is now doing. He was once among the most powerful leaders of the party and state. Their retirement is sweetened with the utmost comfort under secret rules for the nomenclature of officials. As a price, they agree to no longer attract public attention, not to travel abroad, and to live, literally, in a “gilded cage”. They are to have no opportunity to interfere and disrupt the circles of power under state and party leader Xi Jinping.
Wen Jiabao, now 78, didn’t stick to that with a long obituary for his mother Yang Zhiyun. In order to publish his tribute, the ex-premier had to outsmart the censors. This was because his message of mourning indirectly concealed dissatisfaction with the path China has taken under Xi’s leadership.
The first was published on March 25, the last on April 16. Wen Jiabao professes pathetically to suffer with China’s “poor and weak” and to fight “harassment and repression”. “The way I see it, China should be just and fair everywhere, and people’s will, humanity, and essence should always be respected.”
Bloggers grabbed the text and shared it hundreds of thousands of times online. By the second day (April 18), Beijing’s alarmed censors were struggling to stop the spread. Their action made global headlines because they put an ex-premier on their index.
The explosiveness is between the lines. Wen traces his mother’s century-long life as a tale of woe for the whole family – in the “maelstrom” of cruel turmoil, from the Japanese invasion to the political persecution campaigns of the People’s Republic. The Cultural Revolutionbrought “disaster to our home.” Such tones do not fit the jubilant celebrations Beijing is staging to mark the 100th founding birthday of the Chinese Communist Party on July 1. Nor does it fit with Xi’s ordered rewriting of China’s 100-year history as a CCP heroic epic, in which the crimes of the Cultural Revolution are heavily downplayed.
Wen Jiabao as an opponent of the regime?
Nor does the word party appear in the obituary. Wen’s warnings at the last People’s Congress in March 2013, which he chaired while still prime minister, have not been forgotten within the party. Without political reforms, China’s economic transformation would not succeed in the long term: “Tragedies like the Cultural Revolution could happen again”. Wen’s call at the time to prevent the concentration of “excessive power” institutionally and with the help of public opinion must worryXi, who wants to further cement his power at the 20th Party Congress in 2022.
Wen writes, “In the past eight years, I rarely went out of the house.” This is exactly what China’s party leadership expects of him and all senior citizens. When the old folks were at the helm, they traveled all over the country and the world. Now none of them are allowed to go abroad, even as self-paying tourists. Their essays, books, or memoirs must be pre-approved by the Politburo.
Meeting only with the consent of the Politburo
Even courtesy meetings with particularly prominent foreigners only take place if they ask for them, and the Politburo agrees. Beijing allowed German Chancellor Angela Merkel, for example,who has met Wen Jiabao 20 times in office, to have an unofficial breakfast with him in 2014 in the cafeteria attic of the National Museum. This was not allowed to be reported, nor was the 2015 meeting with Austria’s President Heinz Fischer, who has known Wen Jiabao since 1988. Other “old friends” of China were also allowed to pay their respects to ex-premier Zhu Rongji, from Helmut Schmidt to BASF CEO Jürgen Hambrecht to Gerhard Schroeder who was allowed to present Zhu with an award.
Once a year – and always shortly before the start of the Lunar New Year – China’s respective leaders themselves commemorate their predecessors who once retired in honor. Beijing cultivates this as a ritual. At least this way, the public can hear who of the old ones is still alive, but without learning more about them.
Undercover as a delivery boy – Wang Lin, the deputy director of the Labor Relations Department of the Beijing Municipal Bureau, worked undercover for a day as a delivery boy for Meituan and was accompanied by a television station. After the 12-hour shift, during which he earned the equivalent of just over $6, he said, according to the Financial Times, “It’s really difficult, and on top of that, I felt very offended.” Meituan is facing an antitrust investigation. The accusation: The company forces suppliers to operate exclusively on its own platform and not to offer their goods via competitor platforms (China.Table reported).
