Europe’s tourism industry sighs in relief: Whether in Italy, Greece, or at Germany’s North and Baltic Seas – this summer, tourist records are broken everywhere. But amid all the celebration, one crucial point is overlooked. A very important tourist group is missing: China’s middle class. That is because Beijing’s strict zero-Covid policy currently makes it almost impossible for the Chinese to travel outside the country.
Our Beijing author team shows that the absence of the extremely solvent Chinese will hit the European tourism industry hard. And it won’t stop there, because other economic sectors will also be affected – for example, luxury goods manufacturers. Before the pandemic, the Chinese spent a whopping $93 billion a year on fancy handbags or fine watches – around a third of global sales in that sector.
Somehow it seems that now is the time for China critics: In the UK, Liz Truss will become the new Prime Minister. The former Foreign Minister follows a strict anti-China approach. Amelie Richter analyzes similar developments in Italy. On September 25, a new parliament will be elected – and the favored right-wing alliance around Giorgia Meloni has the best chance of appointing the new prime minister. Meloni herself is already sending out clear signals – against Beijing.
Last but not least, I would like to draw your attention to today’s Profile. It is about Robert Tsao, one of Taiwan’s richest people. But it is not his fortune that is the focus of Fabian Kretschmer’s text, but rather Tsao’s career – from loyal Beijing patriot to ardent advocate of an independent Taiwan. It seems like a reflection of the current relations between Beijing and Taipei.
The European tourism industry, which had been shaken up by the Covid pandemic, celebrated a comeback this summer. Italy, for example, reported around 15 million guests at the peak of the season – a new record. The situation was similar in Spain and Greece. As well as on the German North Sea coast. But the industry has mixed feelings about the current boom. The companies are aware that the records are also a Covid catch-up effect. The European traveler’s flow could return to normal levels as soon as in the upcoming fall travel wave and next spring.
It is expected that particularly guests from China will be missing. Before the pandemic, they traveled to Europe in ever greater numbers and were known for their intensive shopping. For the Chinese, the two “golden weeks” were the main travel period. They preferred to come to Europe around the national holiday on October 1st and for the Chinese Spring Festival in January or February.
But that has come to an end since the Chinese leadership imposed a strict zero-Covid policy on the nation. China’s middle class not only suffers under lockdowns at home, but is also largely barred by its own government from leaving the country. As a rule, new passports are only issued for important business trips or study visits. Anyone, who tries to take a vacation abroad despite warnings, can expect to have their passport cut up upon their return to China.
The German government is also making it difficult for the Chinese to travel to Germany. Although it is hardly the fault of Chinese tourists that their government is terrorizing them with strict Covid measures, Germany is sticking to stricter entry requirements explicitly for the Chinese. The Foreign Office argues with the so-called reciprocity provision.
Because Germans currently have great difficulty getting into China due to the strict Covid rules, Chinese should also not be allowed to travel to Germany as easily as before. German politicians thus interpret China’s strict pandemic measures as a national policy against foreign visitors. Some Shanghai residents who are tired of the constant lockdowns and are ripe for vacation would probably heavily disagree with this.
The Chinese tourists are likely to remain absent for some time, which is another blow to the already struggling European economy. This becomes apparent when taking a look at China’s tourism figures of the past: In 2019 – before the pandemic – the Chinese made 154 million trips abroad. US citizens traveled abroad around 100 million times in the same year, spending much less than the Chinese at $1363 per capita. The Chinese spent an average of $1852 on their vacation.
The total of around $255 billion that the Chinese spent on travel abroad in 2019 was missing last year. Only 8.5 million Chinese traveled abroad – and that was before China’s government further tightened exit rules earlier this year.
European luxury brands are also feeling the effects of the lack of Chinese tourists. According to the Financial Times, before the pandemic, the Chinese accounted for around a third of global luxury goods sales totaling around $93 billion.
Luxury bags and other goods, however, were rarely bought in China because of the high taxes, but rather during their vacation abroad. Even in Hamburg or Duesseldorf, boutiques hired extra staff fluent in Chinese so customers from the Far East could be served entirely according to their needs. But even that is now a thing of the past. Last year, the Chinese accounted for only about one-fifth of global luxury sales. And due to a lack of opportunities, they went shopping in their own country. Joern Petring/Gregor Koppenburg
China’s share of direct investment in the European Union declined last year. In 2021, the People’s Republic accounted for just 2.3 percent of all foreign acquisitions, according to a new report by the EU Commission. In 2020, it was still 3.4 percent. In the greenfield sector, investment fell from 7.1 percent to 6 percent. Greenfield investment is a term used to describe the construction or expansion of new or existing plants with a focus on production. However, the value of FDI from China increased: While €6.5 billion were invested in 2020, the figure was around €9 billion in 2021.
According to the Brussels authority, strict Chinese capital controls and the concentration on certain core industries have reduced direct investment from the People’s Republic. The explanation of the development also includes: Some EU states have strengthened their audit mechanisms and are looking more closely at potential investments. Italy, under Mario Draghi’s government, was considered a good example in this regard.
Draghi has used the “Golden Power Rules” – as Italy’s FDI screening mechanism is called – more than any of the previous heads of government. Since he took office in February 2021, the investment checks have been applied to prevent three Chinese takeovers and the terms of a stake increase by an existing shareholder. Another acquisition was reversed altogether, even though it was completed before Draghi’s tenure.
“Italy’s Golden Power has been subject to numerous updates since its introduction in 2012,” says Francesca Ghiretti, an analyst at Berlin-based China research institute Merics. Italy has one of the most effective foreign investment review mechanisms in the European Union, she adds. However, for the revision of EU-wide guidelines scheduled for 2023, the Italian approach may only be limited: Because FDI screening is based on national security and decided in capitals, Brussels can never go as far as individual member states themselves, Ghiretti explains. Thus, the revision of the EU’s investment screening can take the Italian approach as a model at most.
The Golden Power Rules are far from perfect, Ghiretti said. “The decisions about which investments to block and which to renegotiate are very political and depend on who is running the country at the time. It can then go either way.” Thus Italy, the screening model student, could soon undergo a transformation.
How Rome will deal with FDI screening and foreign investment in the future, will be particularly interesting to see after the election at the end of September – because with the quite likely election victory of the right-wing populist alliance under Giorgia Meloni, a “schizophrenic” China policy, as Ghiretti calls it, could move into the Palazzo Chigi.
On September 25, Italy will elect a new parliament. It will then appoint the head of government – or, as is now the case, possibly Italy’s first female head of government. The favored candidate is the 45-year-old right-wing populist Giorgia Meloni.
Meloni, head of the Fratelli d’Italia, has so far taken a clear anti-China stance. However, her alliance partner Matteo Salvini of the right-wing populist Lega party and ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi have pursued a rather erratic China policy in the past, says Merics analyst Ghiretti. “One day he was speaking out against China, the next day, he was in favor of it,” Ghiretti says, referring to Lega leader Salvini, who has already served as Italy’s Interior Minister and Vice Prime Minister from June 2018 to September 2019.
That the right-wing populist alliance could also use its China policy as leverage against Brussels would not be a big surprise, Ghiretti says. The inconsistent policies and contradictory statements of the three alliance partners toward Beijing in the past, make it difficult to predict the coming China policy under a possible Prime Minister Meloni.
Since 2014, Giorgia Meloni has headed Fratelli d’Italia, a party she co-founded two years earlier. Fratelli describes itself as a “national conservative, nationalist, traditionalist, post-fascist and sovereignist party.” In the EU Parliament, its members are represented in the parliamentary group of the European Conservatives and Reformers party, among others, together with the Polish ruling party Law and Justice (PiS).
Meloni’s policies are often compared to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán: ultraconservative family views, anti-LGBTQ, and anti-migration. When it comes to China, however, the 45-year-old has a different mindset than Hungary’s head of government, says Italian journalist Giulia Pompili, who has closely followed China’s activities in her home country for years: “Something like what happened with Fudan University in Budapest would never happen with Meloni.” A bitter dispute erupted in Hungary’s capital over the planned establishment of a Hungarian offshoot of China’s Fudan University (China.Table reported). While Orbán’s right-wing nationalist government is pushing ahead with the construction, angry citizens criticized that this would fund an institution controlled by the Chinese Communist Party with Hungarian taxpayers’ money. The Italian right-wing populist Meloni was instead going “Trumpian,” as in “Italy First”.
Because of that focus, the possible next prime minister has also been virtually absent from foreign policy stages so far, Pompili says. “She has been very focused on Italian affairs until now,” says Pompili. But for a few weeks, she says, China has moved into the 45-year-old’s circle of attention – and she’s going all in. At the end of July, Meloni posted a photo on Twitter with Andrea Sing-Ying Lee, Taiwan’s representative in Italy. What is particularly striking about this is that Meloni herself refers to him as an “ambassador” – a phrase that is not well received in Beijing. Meloni clearly wanted to send a signal, says journalist Pompili.
The impact direction of Italy’s next possible prime minister will also affect foreign investment: “My guess is that under a Meloni government, direct investment from China will fall dramatically,” says Pompili – regardless if not the entire leadership will originate from the right-wing populist Fratelli d’Italia. It is not yet clear who will fill the post of the foreign minister if Meloni, Berlusconi, and Salvini win the election. However, Meloni has put former Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata on her electoral list. This does not mean that the latter will fill the post again. However, the 76-year-old, who is known for a clear anti-China policy, moves inside the right-wing populist’s inner circle.
Meloni’s election campaign is currently benefiting greatly from the lack of a plan on the part of the centrists around Enrico Letta. “Letta hardly ever speaks out on foreign policy or China,” says journalist Pompili. Within the Democrats, she says, no real position is discernible. Letta has spoken out in favor of protecting foreign investments and critical infrastructure in Italy at the same time – however, a precise roadmap is not available with Letta, Pompili says.
On Monday, southwest China was shaken by a magnitude 6.8 earthquake. According to the China Earthquake Center, the epicenter is located near the city of Luding, about 230 kilometers southwest of the provincial capital Chengdu. The quake originated at a depth of about 16 kilometers. It is the most severe quake in the region since 2017. A few minutes later, there was an aftershock with a magnitude of 4.2 near the city of Yaan, which is located about 100 kilometers southwest of Chengdu.
According to China’s state media, in addition to Sichuan, the neighboring city of Chongqing and the provinces of Yunnan, Shaanxi, and Guizhou were also severely shaken by the quake. According to reports in the South China Morning Post newspaper, at least seven people were killed.
Earthquakes occur frequently in China especially in the mountainous regions in the west and southwest of the country. In September 2008, a magnitude 8.0 quake in Sichuan killed a total of 87,000 people. In 2010, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.9 killed around 3,000 people in Qinghai province.
Monday’s quake is another blow for a region that is currently struggling with several problems: first drought, then heavy rain and flooding (China.Table reported). Added to that are power shortages and, last but not least, the ongoing Covid pandemic. At the beginning of the week, the authorities in Chengdu extended the current lockdown until the middle of the week. The city’s approximately 21 million residents should continue to stay at home, with only one person per household allowed to leave their homes to go shopping for essentials. In addition, daily tests were ordered. As reported by Reuters news agency, 88 percent of flights were canceled at the city’s Shuangliu Airport until Monday. rad
On Thursday, Robert Tsao stepped into the flashbulbs of photojournalists, wearing a bulletproof vest. At his press conference in downtown Taipei, the already graying businessman had an urgent message ready for his compatriots: “China is anxious to attack Taiwan,” said the 75-year-old, who at one point was one of the island’s richest residents with a personal fortune of $2.7 billion: “However, I will not allow the Chinese Communist Party to turn Taiwan into a second Hong Kong. That is my promise to you.”
Now, Tsao is digging deep into his own pockets. He is paying the equivalent of €33 million to prepare his homeland for a Chinese invasion. A total of three million civilians are to receive military training and another 300,000 snipers are to be trained.
The eccentric businessman’s action is more than just a marginal note in the island’s local newspapers. Robert Tsao’s story highlights the complicated relationship between Taiwan and China, which has deteriorated dramatically in recent years.
Born in China during the turmoil of the civil war, Tsao’s family moved to Taiwan before his first birthday – shortly before Mao Zedong proclaimed the Communist People’s Republic of China in 1949. There, in 1980, he founded the semiconductor manufacturer United Microelectronics Corp (UMC), which he headed as CEO until 2006.
As an entrepreneur, he profited significantly from China’s rapid economic rise. Politically, too, he was considered extremely loyal to Beijing. As such, he was part of the older Taiwanese generation who sought harmonious relations with mainland China. In 2011, he even resigned his Taiwanese citizenship – out of anger that the government in Taipei was critically examining his business investments in neighboring China. From then on, Tsao was officially a citizen of the city-state of Singapore.
But the year 2019 marked a dramatic turning point for him, as it did for many of his compatriots. At that time, the Taiwanese watched daily on the television news how the leadership in Beijing bloodily crushed the protests in Hong Kong against its increasingly authoritarian policies. Under the slogan “one country, two systems,” the former British crown colony was assured extensive autonomy, but instead, China deprived the administrative zone of almost all civil liberties: critical media were blocked, freedom of speech and assembly were radically curtailed, and hundreds of activists and opposition politicians were arrested, convicted and silenced.
By then, it dawned on most Taiwanese that not only was the concept of “one country, two systems” a farce but that they potentially face a similar fate. According to a recent survey by Chengchi National University, 87 percent of the population want their homeland to be governed independently of Beijing – never before has this figure been so high.
Taiwan is now regarded not only as a high-tech nation but also as a model democracy in Asia – with a lively media landscape, an active civil society, and far-reaching rights for minorities. All of this would come to an end if the Chinese Communist Party asserted its claim to power over what it saw as a “breakaway province”.
And under China’s leader Xi Jinping, the threats are becoming more and more concrete. Just a few weeks ago, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army virtually encircled the island state and rehearsed an invasion. The largest military maneuvers in decades were in response to retaliate for US politician Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei.
“The Chinese Communist Party’s threat to Taiwan is growing,” says Robert Tsao, who has meanwhile gone from being a proponent of a rapprochement policy to a downright hardliner towards Beijing. He speaks pathetically of the struggle of freedom against slavery, democracy against authoritarianism, civilization against barbarism: “The only thing Taiwan can do is to say clearly: If you come to us and attack us, we will destroy you.”
And Robert Tsao has now also traded his Singaporean citizenship back in for a Taiwanese passport. “I had to come back,” he said in a recent interview with Radio Free Asia: “If I tell all the people to oppose the Chinese Communist Party, I can’t abscond abroad at the same time.” Fabian Kretschmer
Two antelope walk along the shores of Zonag Lake in the Hoh Xil region of the Tibetan Plateau. Hoh Xil is located in the northwestern province of Qinghai and is more sparsely populated than any other region in the People’s Republic of China. The area has been on Unesco’s World Natural Heritage List since 2017. Unesco certifies Hoh Xil an aesthetic beauty with 300 million years of earth history.
Europe’s tourism industry sighs in relief: Whether in Italy, Greece, or at Germany’s North and Baltic Seas – this summer, tourist records are broken everywhere. But amid all the celebration, one crucial point is overlooked. A very important tourist group is missing: China’s middle class. That is because Beijing’s strict zero-Covid policy currently makes it almost impossible for the Chinese to travel outside the country.
Our Beijing author team shows that the absence of the extremely solvent Chinese will hit the European tourism industry hard. And it won’t stop there, because other economic sectors will also be affected – for example, luxury goods manufacturers. Before the pandemic, the Chinese spent a whopping $93 billion a year on fancy handbags or fine watches – around a third of global sales in that sector.
Somehow it seems that now is the time for China critics: In the UK, Liz Truss will become the new Prime Minister. The former Foreign Minister follows a strict anti-China approach. Amelie Richter analyzes similar developments in Italy. On September 25, a new parliament will be elected – and the favored right-wing alliance around Giorgia Meloni has the best chance of appointing the new prime minister. Meloni herself is already sending out clear signals – against Beijing.
Last but not least, I would like to draw your attention to today’s Profile. It is about Robert Tsao, one of Taiwan’s richest people. But it is not his fortune that is the focus of Fabian Kretschmer’s text, but rather Tsao’s career – from loyal Beijing patriot to ardent advocate of an independent Taiwan. It seems like a reflection of the current relations between Beijing and Taipei.
The European tourism industry, which had been shaken up by the Covid pandemic, celebrated a comeback this summer. Italy, for example, reported around 15 million guests at the peak of the season – a new record. The situation was similar in Spain and Greece. As well as on the German North Sea coast. But the industry has mixed feelings about the current boom. The companies are aware that the records are also a Covid catch-up effect. The European traveler’s flow could return to normal levels as soon as in the upcoming fall travel wave and next spring.
It is expected that particularly guests from China will be missing. Before the pandemic, they traveled to Europe in ever greater numbers and were known for their intensive shopping. For the Chinese, the two “golden weeks” were the main travel period. They preferred to come to Europe around the national holiday on October 1st and for the Chinese Spring Festival in January or February.
But that has come to an end since the Chinese leadership imposed a strict zero-Covid policy on the nation. China’s middle class not only suffers under lockdowns at home, but is also largely barred by its own government from leaving the country. As a rule, new passports are only issued for important business trips or study visits. Anyone, who tries to take a vacation abroad despite warnings, can expect to have their passport cut up upon their return to China.
The German government is also making it difficult for the Chinese to travel to Germany. Although it is hardly the fault of Chinese tourists that their government is terrorizing them with strict Covid measures, Germany is sticking to stricter entry requirements explicitly for the Chinese. The Foreign Office argues with the so-called reciprocity provision.
Because Germans currently have great difficulty getting into China due to the strict Covid rules, Chinese should also not be allowed to travel to Germany as easily as before. German politicians thus interpret China’s strict pandemic measures as a national policy against foreign visitors. Some Shanghai residents who are tired of the constant lockdowns and are ripe for vacation would probably heavily disagree with this.
The Chinese tourists are likely to remain absent for some time, which is another blow to the already struggling European economy. This becomes apparent when taking a look at China’s tourism figures of the past: In 2019 – before the pandemic – the Chinese made 154 million trips abroad. US citizens traveled abroad around 100 million times in the same year, spending much less than the Chinese at $1363 per capita. The Chinese spent an average of $1852 on their vacation.
The total of around $255 billion that the Chinese spent on travel abroad in 2019 was missing last year. Only 8.5 million Chinese traveled abroad – and that was before China’s government further tightened exit rules earlier this year.
European luxury brands are also feeling the effects of the lack of Chinese tourists. According to the Financial Times, before the pandemic, the Chinese accounted for around a third of global luxury goods sales totaling around $93 billion.
Luxury bags and other goods, however, were rarely bought in China because of the high taxes, but rather during their vacation abroad. Even in Hamburg or Duesseldorf, boutiques hired extra staff fluent in Chinese so customers from the Far East could be served entirely according to their needs. But even that is now a thing of the past. Last year, the Chinese accounted for only about one-fifth of global luxury sales. And due to a lack of opportunities, they went shopping in their own country. Joern Petring/Gregor Koppenburg
China’s share of direct investment in the European Union declined last year. In 2021, the People’s Republic accounted for just 2.3 percent of all foreign acquisitions, according to a new report by the EU Commission. In 2020, it was still 3.4 percent. In the greenfield sector, investment fell from 7.1 percent to 6 percent. Greenfield investment is a term used to describe the construction or expansion of new or existing plants with a focus on production. However, the value of FDI from China increased: While €6.5 billion were invested in 2020, the figure was around €9 billion in 2021.
According to the Brussels authority, strict Chinese capital controls and the concentration on certain core industries have reduced direct investment from the People’s Republic. The explanation of the development also includes: Some EU states have strengthened their audit mechanisms and are looking more closely at potential investments. Italy, under Mario Draghi’s government, was considered a good example in this regard.
Draghi has used the “Golden Power Rules” – as Italy’s FDI screening mechanism is called – more than any of the previous heads of government. Since he took office in February 2021, the investment checks have been applied to prevent three Chinese takeovers and the terms of a stake increase by an existing shareholder. Another acquisition was reversed altogether, even though it was completed before Draghi’s tenure.
“Italy’s Golden Power has been subject to numerous updates since its introduction in 2012,” says Francesca Ghiretti, an analyst at Berlin-based China research institute Merics. Italy has one of the most effective foreign investment review mechanisms in the European Union, she adds. However, for the revision of EU-wide guidelines scheduled for 2023, the Italian approach may only be limited: Because FDI screening is based on national security and decided in capitals, Brussels can never go as far as individual member states themselves, Ghiretti explains. Thus, the revision of the EU’s investment screening can take the Italian approach as a model at most.
The Golden Power Rules are far from perfect, Ghiretti said. “The decisions about which investments to block and which to renegotiate are very political and depend on who is running the country at the time. It can then go either way.” Thus Italy, the screening model student, could soon undergo a transformation.
How Rome will deal with FDI screening and foreign investment in the future, will be particularly interesting to see after the election at the end of September – because with the quite likely election victory of the right-wing populist alliance under Giorgia Meloni, a “schizophrenic” China policy, as Ghiretti calls it, could move into the Palazzo Chigi.
On September 25, Italy will elect a new parliament. It will then appoint the head of government – or, as is now the case, possibly Italy’s first female head of government. The favored candidate is the 45-year-old right-wing populist Giorgia Meloni.
Meloni, head of the Fratelli d’Italia, has so far taken a clear anti-China stance. However, her alliance partner Matteo Salvini of the right-wing populist Lega party and ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi have pursued a rather erratic China policy in the past, says Merics analyst Ghiretti. “One day he was speaking out against China, the next day, he was in favor of it,” Ghiretti says, referring to Lega leader Salvini, who has already served as Italy’s Interior Minister and Vice Prime Minister from June 2018 to September 2019.
That the right-wing populist alliance could also use its China policy as leverage against Brussels would not be a big surprise, Ghiretti says. The inconsistent policies and contradictory statements of the three alliance partners toward Beijing in the past, make it difficult to predict the coming China policy under a possible Prime Minister Meloni.
Since 2014, Giorgia Meloni has headed Fratelli d’Italia, a party she co-founded two years earlier. Fratelli describes itself as a “national conservative, nationalist, traditionalist, post-fascist and sovereignist party.” In the EU Parliament, its members are represented in the parliamentary group of the European Conservatives and Reformers party, among others, together with the Polish ruling party Law and Justice (PiS).
Meloni’s policies are often compared to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán: ultraconservative family views, anti-LGBTQ, and anti-migration. When it comes to China, however, the 45-year-old has a different mindset than Hungary’s head of government, says Italian journalist Giulia Pompili, who has closely followed China’s activities in her home country for years: “Something like what happened with Fudan University in Budapest would never happen with Meloni.” A bitter dispute erupted in Hungary’s capital over the planned establishment of a Hungarian offshoot of China’s Fudan University (China.Table reported). While Orbán’s right-wing nationalist government is pushing ahead with the construction, angry citizens criticized that this would fund an institution controlled by the Chinese Communist Party with Hungarian taxpayers’ money. The Italian right-wing populist Meloni was instead going “Trumpian,” as in “Italy First”.
Because of that focus, the possible next prime minister has also been virtually absent from foreign policy stages so far, Pompili says. “She has been very focused on Italian affairs until now,” says Pompili. But for a few weeks, she says, China has moved into the 45-year-old’s circle of attention – and she’s going all in. At the end of July, Meloni posted a photo on Twitter with Andrea Sing-Ying Lee, Taiwan’s representative in Italy. What is particularly striking about this is that Meloni herself refers to him as an “ambassador” – a phrase that is not well received in Beijing. Meloni clearly wanted to send a signal, says journalist Pompili.
The impact direction of Italy’s next possible prime minister will also affect foreign investment: “My guess is that under a Meloni government, direct investment from China will fall dramatically,” says Pompili – regardless if not the entire leadership will originate from the right-wing populist Fratelli d’Italia. It is not yet clear who will fill the post of the foreign minister if Meloni, Berlusconi, and Salvini win the election. However, Meloni has put former Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata on her electoral list. This does not mean that the latter will fill the post again. However, the 76-year-old, who is known for a clear anti-China policy, moves inside the right-wing populist’s inner circle.
Meloni’s election campaign is currently benefiting greatly from the lack of a plan on the part of the centrists around Enrico Letta. “Letta hardly ever speaks out on foreign policy or China,” says journalist Pompili. Within the Democrats, she says, no real position is discernible. Letta has spoken out in favor of protecting foreign investments and critical infrastructure in Italy at the same time – however, a precise roadmap is not available with Letta, Pompili says.
On Monday, southwest China was shaken by a magnitude 6.8 earthquake. According to the China Earthquake Center, the epicenter is located near the city of Luding, about 230 kilometers southwest of the provincial capital Chengdu. The quake originated at a depth of about 16 kilometers. It is the most severe quake in the region since 2017. A few minutes later, there was an aftershock with a magnitude of 4.2 near the city of Yaan, which is located about 100 kilometers southwest of Chengdu.
According to China’s state media, in addition to Sichuan, the neighboring city of Chongqing and the provinces of Yunnan, Shaanxi, and Guizhou were also severely shaken by the quake. According to reports in the South China Morning Post newspaper, at least seven people were killed.
Earthquakes occur frequently in China especially in the mountainous regions in the west and southwest of the country. In September 2008, a magnitude 8.0 quake in Sichuan killed a total of 87,000 people. In 2010, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.9 killed around 3,000 people in Qinghai province.
Monday’s quake is another blow for a region that is currently struggling with several problems: first drought, then heavy rain and flooding (China.Table reported). Added to that are power shortages and, last but not least, the ongoing Covid pandemic. At the beginning of the week, the authorities in Chengdu extended the current lockdown until the middle of the week. The city’s approximately 21 million residents should continue to stay at home, with only one person per household allowed to leave their homes to go shopping for essentials. In addition, daily tests were ordered. As reported by Reuters news agency, 88 percent of flights were canceled at the city’s Shuangliu Airport until Monday. rad
On Thursday, Robert Tsao stepped into the flashbulbs of photojournalists, wearing a bulletproof vest. At his press conference in downtown Taipei, the already graying businessman had an urgent message ready for his compatriots: “China is anxious to attack Taiwan,” said the 75-year-old, who at one point was one of the island’s richest residents with a personal fortune of $2.7 billion: “However, I will not allow the Chinese Communist Party to turn Taiwan into a second Hong Kong. That is my promise to you.”
Now, Tsao is digging deep into his own pockets. He is paying the equivalent of €33 million to prepare his homeland for a Chinese invasion. A total of three million civilians are to receive military training and another 300,000 snipers are to be trained.
The eccentric businessman’s action is more than just a marginal note in the island’s local newspapers. Robert Tsao’s story highlights the complicated relationship between Taiwan and China, which has deteriorated dramatically in recent years.
Born in China during the turmoil of the civil war, Tsao’s family moved to Taiwan before his first birthday – shortly before Mao Zedong proclaimed the Communist People’s Republic of China in 1949. There, in 1980, he founded the semiconductor manufacturer United Microelectronics Corp (UMC), which he headed as CEO until 2006.
As an entrepreneur, he profited significantly from China’s rapid economic rise. Politically, too, he was considered extremely loyal to Beijing. As such, he was part of the older Taiwanese generation who sought harmonious relations with mainland China. In 2011, he even resigned his Taiwanese citizenship – out of anger that the government in Taipei was critically examining his business investments in neighboring China. From then on, Tsao was officially a citizen of the city-state of Singapore.
But the year 2019 marked a dramatic turning point for him, as it did for many of his compatriots. At that time, the Taiwanese watched daily on the television news how the leadership in Beijing bloodily crushed the protests in Hong Kong against its increasingly authoritarian policies. Under the slogan “one country, two systems,” the former British crown colony was assured extensive autonomy, but instead, China deprived the administrative zone of almost all civil liberties: critical media were blocked, freedom of speech and assembly were radically curtailed, and hundreds of activists and opposition politicians were arrested, convicted and silenced.
By then, it dawned on most Taiwanese that not only was the concept of “one country, two systems” a farce but that they potentially face a similar fate. According to a recent survey by Chengchi National University, 87 percent of the population want their homeland to be governed independently of Beijing – never before has this figure been so high.
Taiwan is now regarded not only as a high-tech nation but also as a model democracy in Asia – with a lively media landscape, an active civil society, and far-reaching rights for minorities. All of this would come to an end if the Chinese Communist Party asserted its claim to power over what it saw as a “breakaway province”.
And under China’s leader Xi Jinping, the threats are becoming more and more concrete. Just a few weeks ago, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army virtually encircled the island state and rehearsed an invasion. The largest military maneuvers in decades were in response to retaliate for US politician Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei.
“The Chinese Communist Party’s threat to Taiwan is growing,” says Robert Tsao, who has meanwhile gone from being a proponent of a rapprochement policy to a downright hardliner towards Beijing. He speaks pathetically of the struggle of freedom against slavery, democracy against authoritarianism, civilization against barbarism: “The only thing Taiwan can do is to say clearly: If you come to us and attack us, we will destroy you.”
And Robert Tsao has now also traded his Singaporean citizenship back in for a Taiwanese passport. “I had to come back,” he said in a recent interview with Radio Free Asia: “If I tell all the people to oppose the Chinese Communist Party, I can’t abscond abroad at the same time.” Fabian Kretschmer
Two antelope walk along the shores of Zonag Lake in the Hoh Xil region of the Tibetan Plateau. Hoh Xil is located in the northwestern province of Qinghai and is more sparsely populated than any other region in the People’s Republic of China. The area has been on Unesco’s World Natural Heritage List since 2017. Unesco certifies Hoh Xil an aesthetic beauty with 300 million years of earth history.
