Lockdown report from Shanghai + Media ignores Bucha
First-hand report from Shanghai lockdown
Barely any media reports about Bucha
Lockdown drives up prices
Two new mRNA vaccines enter phase 1 trials
Russia wants Chinese chips for bank cards
Sinolytics.Radar: higher demand for cloud services
Profile: Dr. Beate Lindemann – buildings bridges to China
Dear reader,
The pressure to get the skyrocketing infection numbers under control is apparently weighing heavily on Shanghai’s authorities. The city has extended the lockdown until further notice. A Shanghai resident tells us how the citizens feel about it: On the one hand, chaos reigns, as contradictory rules have been imposed on many areas of daily life, the 28-year-old woman tells China.Table. On the other hand, many believe that there is no alternative to the zero-covid strategy. The main concern is now more about other Chinese cities. If prosperous, efficient Shanghai fails to contain the virus, other cities will be defenseless against it.
The images from Bucha are currently stirring up European politics. They have resulted in the expulsion of Russian diplomats and calls for a coal import ban. China, however, as so often, sees the world differently. China’s state-controlled media ignore reports about these atrocities – or they follow the Russian narrative. This contradicts the guise of its neutrality between Ukraine and Russia, analyzes David Demes.
Your Fabian Peltsch
Feature
‘We all have to make sacrifices now’: first-hand report from Shanghai
I live in the Puxi district. There has already been one positive case in my building. I’ve been at home for almost a week straight now. It’s boring, I’d like to get out again, go to work or do something. But these are luxury problems when you think of all the people who have been infected and are now in special isolation centers. Shanghai’s streets are completely deserted for the first time ever. Media are showing drone videos of famous places like the Bund and Nanjing East Road. A frightening scenery.
However, I was not surprised that the government imposed a lockdown on Shanghai because the virus continued to spread. The fact that it has now been extended indefinitely feels like a gradual process to me. We all still have the images of Wuhan in our minds, so we know what kind of control measures are coming.
One of the biggest problems in our daily lives is that we now have to rely completely on neighborhood committees. These people are mostly older and never had to coordinate so many tasks at once. They have to manage the buildings and decide, for example, what to do about food deliveries and how to deal with infected people. Everyone has their own way of handling things, which means there are always unexpected and chaotic situations. They have not received any training for extreme situations like soldiers in the People’s Liberation Army.
‘Most of the population supports zero-covid’
The last time I went down to get tested, I took my dog with me and was snapped at that this was not allowed. However, the people from the health department who tested me didn’t mind at all and treated us kindly. This shows that there are no consistent rules in many areas. There are also always cases where people tested negative but still were registered as positive. Who can you turn to in such a case?
I also heard that children were separated from their parents, but I don’t know if those were special cases or if there was an official regulation behind it. I have already been tested three times in the past five days. The authorities want to make the tests even more efficient, so you don’t have to stand in line with others, but can line up in smaller groups of 10 to 20 people at a time.
The zero-covid strategy is not only a political question, but also a medical one. How else can an epidemic be contained efficiently? Would it be better to aim for herd immunity or to use new medications? I don’t have the necessary knowledge to answer that. Nor do I have any power over it. Of course, I hope that the virus will be gone or new treatments will be available when I wake up tomorrow. But that’s not going to happen. So we all have to make sacrifices now to make the zero-covid strategy work effectively. Most of the population supports this approach. A few are angry and want to take a different direction. But if everyone pursues their own goals, it will be counterproductive at this point. I think we are on a good path.
What puzzles me and many other people is why the infection numbers in Shanghai could suddenly explode like this. If Shanghai, a city that is so well organized, so prosperous, and whose citizens cooperate so well, has trouble containing the virus, other cities are left defenseless against it. These are the thoughts that worry me the most right now. Recorded by Fabian Peltsch
Coronavirus
Health
China’s media silence on Bucha
While the horrifying images from Bucha, Ukraine, fill the front pages of international newspapers, there is virtually no reporting of these events in China’s state-owned media. Neither the Party newspaper People’s Daily (人民日报) nor state television openly report on the scope of the alleged Russian war crimes.
A search for the two Chinese spellings for the town Bucha (布查 and 布恰) in the latest print editions of the People’s Daily yields no results. The newspaper’s website features a single article by state-run news agency Xinhua that mentions the Bucha deaths only in the context of Russia’s denial of the massacre. Peskow, Press Spokesman for the Russian president, and Foreign Minister Lavrov are quoted extensively. In general, the People’s Daily tends to hold back on current reports on the invasion of Ukraine. When it does mention the war, it is mainly in commentaries and columns, which frequently blame the US and NATO for the escalation.
The news on Chinese state television reports daily on the “situation in Ukraine” (乌克兰局势) and the “conflict” (冲突 chongtu) there. To this day, they refuse to speak openly of a war (战争 zhanzheng) and continue to use the Russian euphemism of a “special military operation” (特别军事行动). Meanwhile, the contents of reports differ dramatically from the news we receive in Europe about the situation in Ukraine. Such is the case with the deaths in Bucha.
China’s media report about attacks on Russian targets
Over the past three days, state broadcaster CCTV’s main news program, Xinwen Lianbo (新闻联播), mentioned Bucha once: On Sunday (April 03), news anchor Pan Tao reported during the 7 PM broadcast that Ukrainian forces had regained control of the entire Kyiv oblast after Russian troops retreated from the area. There was no word on the Bucha district or the civilian casualties since.
With 35 percent, Xinwen Lianbo has the largest market share in China and, except for the main channel CCTV-1, is also broadcast simultaneously on the military and defense channel CCTV-7 and the 24-hour news channel CCTV-13. Instead of reporting on the dead in Bucha, the CCTV-13 news channel on Monday aired an extensive report on the Ukrainian attack on a fuel depot in Belgorod, Russia. In interviews with Belgorod residents taken from Russian television, Chinese viewers heard that the Ukrainians had “bombed everything [around the fuel depot].”
Unlike mainstream news intended for a Chinese audience, a foreign channel aired in Chinese, CCTV-4 (中文国际), extensively reports on the situation in Ukraine and events in Bucha. However, although the station’s ratings have increased significantly since the start of the war, Asia Today (今日亚洲), which airs around the same time as Xinwen Lianbo, does not even reach one-fifth the number of viewers. The channel is available on YouTube and elsewhere and is aimed primarily at overseas Chinese and Chinese-speaking audiences in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
CCTV-4 does air reports – but from a Russian perspective
However, a closer look at the coverage of the last few days also shows that the editorial staff of CCTV-4 largely draws its reports from Russian sources. The daily Ukraine segment usually opens with an update from the Russian Ministryof Defense. The reports also include lengthy excerpts from Russian TV journalists embedded in Russia’s forces.
A report from the news program China News (中国新闻) on Monday evening, started with the “accusation by Ukrainian media” that Russian troops had killed several hundred civilians in Bucha. “The Ukrainian government accuses Russia of committing war crimes,” the anchor reportedly said. The rest of the segment then focused on Moscow’s denial: All so-called evidence videos and photos had been staged. It had merely been staged by Ukraine for Western media and was a repeated provocation against Russia. “The Russian Foreign Ministry stressed: During the period when Bucha was under Russian control, not a single civilian was harmed. Residents were able to move freely and use mobile communications freely. And at no time were evacuation corridors from Bucha blocked.”
The China News report continued: Russian troops had distributed 452 tons of humanitarian aid to residents of Kyiv Oblast. Ukraine’s staging was aimed at disrupting ongoing peace negotiations, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman was quoted as saying. “The US and NATO are behind this renewed provocation.”
China’s state media repeatedly echo the Russian narrative that Ukraine is a pawn of the United States and does not act independently. On Tuesday evening, Xinwen Lianbo quoted Foreign Minister Lavrov as saying that he hoped Ukraine would be able to “make the right decision on its own” in the peace negotiations. The report again mentions that the West is planning new sanctions against Russia and that Germany and France have expelled Russian diplomats. However, the report does not tell the viewers why: It remains silent about the victims in Bucha.
China News quotes dubious experts
The report ends by pointing out that US arms deliveries would pour oil into the fire of the conflict. An alleged member of an American think tank is presented as a key witness: Ukraine has been ruled by Washington since 2014, he says, and the US has behaved arrogantly in the face of Russia’s security demands. “The resulting crisis was caused by the US and NATO,” George Szamuely said during the interview. However, the Global Policy Institute he works for is not located in the US, but in London. And Szamuely has not been listed as a fellow there for a long time, contrary to what is written in his Wikipedia entry.
Meanwhile, Chinese social media users are engaged in a heated debate about the events in Bucha. Some influential bloggers cast doubt on proof of war crimes and accuse Ukraine of faking them. Others, such as well-known Fudan professor and columnist Shen Yi (沈逸), argue that the strategy by the Ukrainian government and the United States of arming civilians has made them legitimate targets.
Posts criticizing Russia on social media that attract too much attention are repeatedly censored. In contrast, users who vilify Ukrainians and call them Nazis who had it coming, hardly face any consequences.
Against this backdrop, China’s attempt to present itself to the world as a neutral actor in the ongoing conflict, one that maintains good relations with both Russia and Ukraine, is rendered absurd. The simple fact that the country’s main news outlet has still not mentioned the Bucha victims with a single word speaks volumes. David Demes
Geopolitics
Russia
Russland
Ukraine
News
Shanghai’s citizens are on edge
Shanghai has extended its lockdown until further notice and expanded mass testing. Now, tension among authorities and citizens alike in the 26-million-strong city is growing along with the duration of the lockdown. A typical scene on social media shows a man asking for the badge number of an epidemic police officer who stopped him on the street. The man is immediately arrested and taken away. Another video shows a citizen who cannot present a Covid test and is dragged out of her apartment in her pajamas and hauled away for testing. However, these are extreme cases. The majority of citizens reportedly simply comply and stay in their apartments.
Authorities continue their efforts to contain the incipient Omicron outbreak. Because, despite a week of lockdown, the number of positive tests rose to 13,354. However, only 268 showed symptoms. Gu Honghui, Deputy Secretary-General of the Shanghai CP and a member of the disease control task force, told state media on Tuesday that the situation was “grim”. Since March, the number of cases has totaled 73,000.
Queuing for testing in PudongFormerly flower exhibit, since Monday a quarantine center for those who tested positive
One reason for the rising number of registered infections, however, is likely to be the seamless mass testing of 25 million individuals rather than an active infection outbreak. The high number of tests was made possible because the government pooled 38,000 support staff from other provinces. This made it possible to test four million samples in one day. So far, no deaths have been reported in the wake of the current outbreak.
Lockdown drives prices up even further
The pandemic response also caused prices to skyrocket. In many regions, the cost of road cargo transport has already increased, reports the South China Morning Post. According to the German retail association, German consumers will also feel the consequences of the lockdowns. “There will then simply be a lower selection in some product groups,” Stefan Genth, Chief Executive of the German Retail Federation (HDE), told Reuters on Tuesday. There had already been similar situations in the past two years, leading to disruptions of supply chains and delivery problems, especially for consumer electronics and toys. “As a result, product variety could suffer, as it has in the past,” Genth said.
However, general shortages across entire product ranges are not expected, the trade association pointed out. “Overall, the effects in Germany will only become apparent after a considerable delay,” Gent said. “We are mostly talking about goods that are transported on container ships. They travel for weeks at a time.”
Another impact of the pandemic response affects the grain supply. In the province of Jilin, which was also hit by Covid, farmers were not allowed to leave their homes and were unable to plant seeds. Jilin has fertile farmlands that are used primarily for corn cultivation. Missed harvests there could affect local and global food prices. Jilin recently reported 2,472 new infections. fin/rtr
Coronavirus
Health
Supply chains
Trade
Three new vaccines enter trial phase
Three more domestic vaccines are ready for first human trials in China, including two mRNA vaccines. Phase 1 testing will determine whether the substances are harmless and have a quantifiable effect. A Chinese vaccine that could perform well against Omicron and other new variants would be the way out of a potential series of lockdowns. Therefore, China is pushing ahead with research on alternatives to its only moderately effective dead vaccines. Candidate vaccines from the following suppliers are now entering the testing phase:
The state-owned operator of Russia’s Mir payment system is turning to Chinese suppliers to procure bank card chips. “We are looking for new microchip suppliers and [have] found a couple in China, with certification process ongoing,” Oleg Tishakov, a member of the board of National Card Payment System (NSPK) told Reuters. Due to sanctions imposed following the Ukraine war, Russian companies no longer have access to Western-made tech products. NSPK has been issuing the now widely used Mir card since 2014. It is a local debit card that works independently of US payment service providers Visa and Mastercard. fin
Finance
Russia
Russland
Technology
Ukraine
Sinolytics.Radar
Alibaba defends cloud leadership
Dieser Inhalt ist Lizenznehmern unserer Vollversion vorbehalten.
China’s public cloud market was still fairly fragmented in 2015. However, since cloud services is a “winner takes all” market as marginal costs fall with infrastructure gains, market consolidation followed: by 2021, smaller cloud companies have been unable to defend their niche. China Telecom also dropped out of the game against other tech giants.
Alibaba, Tencent, and Huawei are currently leading the market. Foreign firms have partnered with local companies to provide services: Microsoft works with 21Vianet to run data centers, AWS joined with Beijing Sinnet Technology to franchise its services.
The Comprehensive Agreement for Investment has previously promised to open up China’s cloud market for European players, but the agreement is now frozen.
As manufacturers and SMEs digitize, following the policy push of the 14th Five-Year Plan for Digitalization, strong growth in public cloud usage can be expected. Some forecasts see a market size of 56.3bn USD by 2023.
However, the Chinese cloud market is still at a nascent stage of application. SMEs in China will require more business process digitalization in order for cloud usage to take off.
Challenges include security concerns and China’s cybersecurity regulatory framework, which requires careful selection of critical network providers for SOEs.
This has led to a preference for private clouds, which is a cloud dedicated solely to a single organization. Particularly Critical Information Infrastructure Operators (CIIOs), such as China National Petroleum Corporation, often favor this option.
Companies in China also increasingly prefer local cloud providers as geopolitical concerns and uncertainties shift customer choices away from foreign providers.
Sinolytics is a European consulting and analysis company specializing in China. It advises European companies on their strategic orientation and concrete business activities in the People’s Republic.
Technology
Profile
Beate Lindemann – building bridges to China
Beate Lindemann promotes international relations with Global Bridges
Beate Lindemann is one of the few people who can even think of something positive to say about the Covid pandemic: “I continued to drive to the office every day. Then I sat there alone, sometimes with an assistant. You wouldn’t believe how much you get done!”
Lindemann sees herself as the “go-to girl” at Global Bridges, a nonprofit organization based in Berlin. That may describe her workload, but it hardly does her role justice. In 2011, she co-founded the organization. Today, she oversees its operations. Each year, Lindemann and her team bring together young and, above all, adventurous people from many industries who share an interest in global relations. Global Bridges aims to build bridges in the truest sense of the word – with a focus on China.
Perseverance pays off
Lindemann has been traveling to the country almost every year since the early 1980s. She organizes and accompanies each of Global Bridges’ so-called “Study Trips to China,” plus study trips to other countries. “In the early years, of course, China was still totally closed-off,” she says. “We were constantly accompanied by our partner organization and couldn’t do a single step on our own.” But Lindemann was persistent at keeping in touch and opening doors – a persistence she learned early on. “I had two older brothers and a very powerful father, so I always had to assert myself.”
Lindemann knew early on what she wanted to study. While her siblings all joined the family business in the porcelain industry, Lindemann studied politics in Berlin, did research on the UN in Scotland and eventually wrote her dissertation at Princeton University in the United States. “I’ve always been interested in global relations and its facets,” Lindemann says. She was poached from the US, first conducting research at the German Council on Foreign Relations and eventually accepted an offer from the Atlantik-Bruecke. At the time, the focus was still on relations between the US and Germany, but she became more curious about China.
Form your own impression
Lindemann’s bond with the country is clearly noticeable when talking to her, as is the pride she takes in her work. “We have established close contacts, are allowed to travel freely in the country – despite extreme surveillance and political backsliding.” She wants her fellow members to make up their own minds – regardless of the often critical media coverage. “If someone tells me they know China well, that they travel regularly to Beijing or Shanghai, I know they don’t know China at all.” She has traveled to most Chinese provinces and cities and has many stories to share about how people open up to travelers, especially in rural areas. She still sometimes gets odd looks there – as a blonde foreigner with blue eyes. But Lindemann is not bothered by the special role. She appreciates every opportunity to build bridges between cultures. Svenja Napp
Education
Society
USA
Executive Moves
Betsy Nagel leaves her position as Ramp-Up Manager at Audi China and returns to Ingolstadt, where she will become Head of Validation Engineering Management for Chassis, Drives and COP. Nagel has worked for Audi China in Changchun, Jilin Province, since April 2019.
Dessert
On the day of the Qingming Festival, flowers alone are not enough to create the necessary color sensation. In this park in Chongqing, children play between paper wheels. Colorful ribbons also play a role in the traditional visit to the graves of ancestors. They are intended to keep the negative energy of angry spirits in the afterlife. This celebration is also known as “Tomb Sweeping Day”, after all.
Sinolytics.Radar: higher demand for cloud services
Profile: Dr. Beate Lindemann – buildings bridges to China
Dear reader,
The pressure to get the skyrocketing infection numbers under control is apparently weighing heavily on Shanghai’s authorities. The city has extended the lockdown until further notice. A Shanghai resident tells us how the citizens feel about it: On the one hand, chaos reigns, as contradictory rules have been imposed on many areas of daily life, the 28-year-old woman tells China.Table. On the other hand, many believe that there is no alternative to the zero-covid strategy. The main concern is now more about other Chinese cities. If prosperous, efficient Shanghai fails to contain the virus, other cities will be defenseless against it.
The images from Bucha are currently stirring up European politics. They have resulted in the expulsion of Russian diplomats and calls for a coal import ban. China, however, as so often, sees the world differently. China’s state-controlled media ignore reports about these atrocities – or they follow the Russian narrative. This contradicts the guise of its neutrality between Ukraine and Russia, analyzes David Demes.
Your Fabian Peltsch
Feature
‘We all have to make sacrifices now’: first-hand report from Shanghai
I live in the Puxi district. There has already been one positive case in my building. I’ve been at home for almost a week straight now. It’s boring, I’d like to get out again, go to work or do something. But these are luxury problems when you think of all the people who have been infected and are now in special isolation centers. Shanghai’s streets are completely deserted for the first time ever. Media are showing drone videos of famous places like the Bund and Nanjing East Road. A frightening scenery.
However, I was not surprised that the government imposed a lockdown on Shanghai because the virus continued to spread. The fact that it has now been extended indefinitely feels like a gradual process to me. We all still have the images of Wuhan in our minds, so we know what kind of control measures are coming.
One of the biggest problems in our daily lives is that we now have to rely completely on neighborhood committees. These people are mostly older and never had to coordinate so many tasks at once. They have to manage the buildings and decide, for example, what to do about food deliveries and how to deal with infected people. Everyone has their own way of handling things, which means there are always unexpected and chaotic situations. They have not received any training for extreme situations like soldiers in the People’s Liberation Army.
‘Most of the population supports zero-covid’
The last time I went down to get tested, I took my dog with me and was snapped at that this was not allowed. However, the people from the health department who tested me didn’t mind at all and treated us kindly. This shows that there are no consistent rules in many areas. There are also always cases where people tested negative but still were registered as positive. Who can you turn to in such a case?
I also heard that children were separated from their parents, but I don’t know if those were special cases or if there was an official regulation behind it. I have already been tested three times in the past five days. The authorities want to make the tests even more efficient, so you don’t have to stand in line with others, but can line up in smaller groups of 10 to 20 people at a time.
The zero-covid strategy is not only a political question, but also a medical one. How else can an epidemic be contained efficiently? Would it be better to aim for herd immunity or to use new medications? I don’t have the necessary knowledge to answer that. Nor do I have any power over it. Of course, I hope that the virus will be gone or new treatments will be available when I wake up tomorrow. But that’s not going to happen. So we all have to make sacrifices now to make the zero-covid strategy work effectively. Most of the population supports this approach. A few are angry and want to take a different direction. But if everyone pursues their own goals, it will be counterproductive at this point. I think we are on a good path.
What puzzles me and many other people is why the infection numbers in Shanghai could suddenly explode like this. If Shanghai, a city that is so well organized, so prosperous, and whose citizens cooperate so well, has trouble containing the virus, other cities are left defenseless against it. These are the thoughts that worry me the most right now. Recorded by Fabian Peltsch
Coronavirus
Health
China’s media silence on Bucha
While the horrifying images from Bucha, Ukraine, fill the front pages of international newspapers, there is virtually no reporting of these events in China’s state-owned media. Neither the Party newspaper People’s Daily (人民日报) nor state television openly report on the scope of the alleged Russian war crimes.
A search for the two Chinese spellings for the town Bucha (布查 and 布恰) in the latest print editions of the People’s Daily yields no results. The newspaper’s website features a single article by state-run news agency Xinhua that mentions the Bucha deaths only in the context of Russia’s denial of the massacre. Peskow, Press Spokesman for the Russian president, and Foreign Minister Lavrov are quoted extensively. In general, the People’s Daily tends to hold back on current reports on the invasion of Ukraine. When it does mention the war, it is mainly in commentaries and columns, which frequently blame the US and NATO for the escalation.
The news on Chinese state television reports daily on the “situation in Ukraine” (乌克兰局势) and the “conflict” (冲突 chongtu) there. To this day, they refuse to speak openly of a war (战争 zhanzheng) and continue to use the Russian euphemism of a “special military operation” (特别军事行动). Meanwhile, the contents of reports differ dramatically from the news we receive in Europe about the situation in Ukraine. Such is the case with the deaths in Bucha.
China’s media report about attacks on Russian targets
Over the past three days, state broadcaster CCTV’s main news program, Xinwen Lianbo (新闻联播), mentioned Bucha once: On Sunday (April 03), news anchor Pan Tao reported during the 7 PM broadcast that Ukrainian forces had regained control of the entire Kyiv oblast after Russian troops retreated from the area. There was no word on the Bucha district or the civilian casualties since.
With 35 percent, Xinwen Lianbo has the largest market share in China and, except for the main channel CCTV-1, is also broadcast simultaneously on the military and defense channel CCTV-7 and the 24-hour news channel CCTV-13. Instead of reporting on the dead in Bucha, the CCTV-13 news channel on Monday aired an extensive report on the Ukrainian attack on a fuel depot in Belgorod, Russia. In interviews with Belgorod residents taken from Russian television, Chinese viewers heard that the Ukrainians had “bombed everything [around the fuel depot].”
Unlike mainstream news intended for a Chinese audience, a foreign channel aired in Chinese, CCTV-4 (中文国际), extensively reports on the situation in Ukraine and events in Bucha. However, although the station’s ratings have increased significantly since the start of the war, Asia Today (今日亚洲), which airs around the same time as Xinwen Lianbo, does not even reach one-fifth the number of viewers. The channel is available on YouTube and elsewhere and is aimed primarily at overseas Chinese and Chinese-speaking audiences in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
CCTV-4 does air reports – but from a Russian perspective
However, a closer look at the coverage of the last few days also shows that the editorial staff of CCTV-4 largely draws its reports from Russian sources. The daily Ukraine segment usually opens with an update from the Russian Ministryof Defense. The reports also include lengthy excerpts from Russian TV journalists embedded in Russia’s forces.
A report from the news program China News (中国新闻) on Monday evening, started with the “accusation by Ukrainian media” that Russian troops had killed several hundred civilians in Bucha. “The Ukrainian government accuses Russia of committing war crimes,” the anchor reportedly said. The rest of the segment then focused on Moscow’s denial: All so-called evidence videos and photos had been staged. It had merely been staged by Ukraine for Western media and was a repeated provocation against Russia. “The Russian Foreign Ministry stressed: During the period when Bucha was under Russian control, not a single civilian was harmed. Residents were able to move freely and use mobile communications freely. And at no time were evacuation corridors from Bucha blocked.”
The China News report continued: Russian troops had distributed 452 tons of humanitarian aid to residents of Kyiv Oblast. Ukraine’s staging was aimed at disrupting ongoing peace negotiations, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman was quoted as saying. “The US and NATO are behind this renewed provocation.”
China’s state media repeatedly echo the Russian narrative that Ukraine is a pawn of the United States and does not act independently. On Tuesday evening, Xinwen Lianbo quoted Foreign Minister Lavrov as saying that he hoped Ukraine would be able to “make the right decision on its own” in the peace negotiations. The report again mentions that the West is planning new sanctions against Russia and that Germany and France have expelled Russian diplomats. However, the report does not tell the viewers why: It remains silent about the victims in Bucha.
China News quotes dubious experts
The report ends by pointing out that US arms deliveries would pour oil into the fire of the conflict. An alleged member of an American think tank is presented as a key witness: Ukraine has been ruled by Washington since 2014, he says, and the US has behaved arrogantly in the face of Russia’s security demands. “The resulting crisis was caused by the US and NATO,” George Szamuely said during the interview. However, the Global Policy Institute he works for is not located in the US, but in London. And Szamuely has not been listed as a fellow there for a long time, contrary to what is written in his Wikipedia entry.
Meanwhile, Chinese social media users are engaged in a heated debate about the events in Bucha. Some influential bloggers cast doubt on proof of war crimes and accuse Ukraine of faking them. Others, such as well-known Fudan professor and columnist Shen Yi (沈逸), argue that the strategy by the Ukrainian government and the United States of arming civilians has made them legitimate targets.
Posts criticizing Russia on social media that attract too much attention are repeatedly censored. In contrast, users who vilify Ukrainians and call them Nazis who had it coming, hardly face any consequences.
Against this backdrop, China’s attempt to present itself to the world as a neutral actor in the ongoing conflict, one that maintains good relations with both Russia and Ukraine, is rendered absurd. The simple fact that the country’s main news outlet has still not mentioned the Bucha victims with a single word speaks volumes. David Demes
Geopolitics
Russia
Russland
Ukraine
News
Shanghai’s citizens are on edge
Shanghai has extended its lockdown until further notice and expanded mass testing. Now, tension among authorities and citizens alike in the 26-million-strong city is growing along with the duration of the lockdown. A typical scene on social media shows a man asking for the badge number of an epidemic police officer who stopped him on the street. The man is immediately arrested and taken away. Another video shows a citizen who cannot present a Covid test and is dragged out of her apartment in her pajamas and hauled away for testing. However, these are extreme cases. The majority of citizens reportedly simply comply and stay in their apartments.
Authorities continue their efforts to contain the incipient Omicron outbreak. Because, despite a week of lockdown, the number of positive tests rose to 13,354. However, only 268 showed symptoms. Gu Honghui, Deputy Secretary-General of the Shanghai CP and a member of the disease control task force, told state media on Tuesday that the situation was “grim”. Since March, the number of cases has totaled 73,000.
Queuing for testing in PudongFormerly flower exhibit, since Monday a quarantine center for those who tested positive
One reason for the rising number of registered infections, however, is likely to be the seamless mass testing of 25 million individuals rather than an active infection outbreak. The high number of tests was made possible because the government pooled 38,000 support staff from other provinces. This made it possible to test four million samples in one day. So far, no deaths have been reported in the wake of the current outbreak.
Lockdown drives prices up even further
The pandemic response also caused prices to skyrocket. In many regions, the cost of road cargo transport has already increased, reports the South China Morning Post. According to the German retail association, German consumers will also feel the consequences of the lockdowns. “There will then simply be a lower selection in some product groups,” Stefan Genth, Chief Executive of the German Retail Federation (HDE), told Reuters on Tuesday. There had already been similar situations in the past two years, leading to disruptions of supply chains and delivery problems, especially for consumer electronics and toys. “As a result, product variety could suffer, as it has in the past,” Genth said.
However, general shortages across entire product ranges are not expected, the trade association pointed out. “Overall, the effects in Germany will only become apparent after a considerable delay,” Gent said. “We are mostly talking about goods that are transported on container ships. They travel for weeks at a time.”
Another impact of the pandemic response affects the grain supply. In the province of Jilin, which was also hit by Covid, farmers were not allowed to leave their homes and were unable to plant seeds. Jilin has fertile farmlands that are used primarily for corn cultivation. Missed harvests there could affect local and global food prices. Jilin recently reported 2,472 new infections. fin/rtr
Coronavirus
Health
Supply chains
Trade
Three new vaccines enter trial phase
Three more domestic vaccines are ready for first human trials in China, including two mRNA vaccines. Phase 1 testing will determine whether the substances are harmless and have a quantifiable effect. A Chinese vaccine that could perform well against Omicron and other new variants would be the way out of a potential series of lockdowns. Therefore, China is pushing ahead with research on alternatives to its only moderately effective dead vaccines. Candidate vaccines from the following suppliers are now entering the testing phase:
The state-owned operator of Russia’s Mir payment system is turning to Chinese suppliers to procure bank card chips. “We are looking for new microchip suppliers and [have] found a couple in China, with certification process ongoing,” Oleg Tishakov, a member of the board of National Card Payment System (NSPK) told Reuters. Due to sanctions imposed following the Ukraine war, Russian companies no longer have access to Western-made tech products. NSPK has been issuing the now widely used Mir card since 2014. It is a local debit card that works independently of US payment service providers Visa and Mastercard. fin
Finance
Russia
Russland
Technology
Ukraine
Sinolytics.Radar
Alibaba defends cloud leadership
Dieser Inhalt ist Lizenznehmern unserer Vollversion vorbehalten.
China’s public cloud market was still fairly fragmented in 2015. However, since cloud services is a “winner takes all” market as marginal costs fall with infrastructure gains, market consolidation followed: by 2021, smaller cloud companies have been unable to defend their niche. China Telecom also dropped out of the game against other tech giants.
Alibaba, Tencent, and Huawei are currently leading the market. Foreign firms have partnered with local companies to provide services: Microsoft works with 21Vianet to run data centers, AWS joined with Beijing Sinnet Technology to franchise its services.
The Comprehensive Agreement for Investment has previously promised to open up China’s cloud market for European players, but the agreement is now frozen.
As manufacturers and SMEs digitize, following the policy push of the 14th Five-Year Plan for Digitalization, strong growth in public cloud usage can be expected. Some forecasts see a market size of 56.3bn USD by 2023.
However, the Chinese cloud market is still at a nascent stage of application. SMEs in China will require more business process digitalization in order for cloud usage to take off.
Challenges include security concerns and China’s cybersecurity regulatory framework, which requires careful selection of critical network providers for SOEs.
This has led to a preference for private clouds, which is a cloud dedicated solely to a single organization. Particularly Critical Information Infrastructure Operators (CIIOs), such as China National Petroleum Corporation, often favor this option.
Companies in China also increasingly prefer local cloud providers as geopolitical concerns and uncertainties shift customer choices away from foreign providers.
Sinolytics is a European consulting and analysis company specializing in China. It advises European companies on their strategic orientation and concrete business activities in the People’s Republic.
Technology
Profile
Beate Lindemann – building bridges to China
Beate Lindemann promotes international relations with Global Bridges
Beate Lindemann is one of the few people who can even think of something positive to say about the Covid pandemic: “I continued to drive to the office every day. Then I sat there alone, sometimes with an assistant. You wouldn’t believe how much you get done!”
Lindemann sees herself as the “go-to girl” at Global Bridges, a nonprofit organization based in Berlin. That may describe her workload, but it hardly does her role justice. In 2011, she co-founded the organization. Today, she oversees its operations. Each year, Lindemann and her team bring together young and, above all, adventurous people from many industries who share an interest in global relations. Global Bridges aims to build bridges in the truest sense of the word – with a focus on China.
Perseverance pays off
Lindemann has been traveling to the country almost every year since the early 1980s. She organizes and accompanies each of Global Bridges’ so-called “Study Trips to China,” plus study trips to other countries. “In the early years, of course, China was still totally closed-off,” she says. “We were constantly accompanied by our partner organization and couldn’t do a single step on our own.” But Lindemann was persistent at keeping in touch and opening doors – a persistence she learned early on. “I had two older brothers and a very powerful father, so I always had to assert myself.”
Lindemann knew early on what she wanted to study. While her siblings all joined the family business in the porcelain industry, Lindemann studied politics in Berlin, did research on the UN in Scotland and eventually wrote her dissertation at Princeton University in the United States. “I’ve always been interested in global relations and its facets,” Lindemann says. She was poached from the US, first conducting research at the German Council on Foreign Relations and eventually accepted an offer from the Atlantik-Bruecke. At the time, the focus was still on relations between the US and Germany, but she became more curious about China.
Form your own impression
Lindemann’s bond with the country is clearly noticeable when talking to her, as is the pride she takes in her work. “We have established close contacts, are allowed to travel freely in the country – despite extreme surveillance and political backsliding.” She wants her fellow members to make up their own minds – regardless of the often critical media coverage. “If someone tells me they know China well, that they travel regularly to Beijing or Shanghai, I know they don’t know China at all.” She has traveled to most Chinese provinces and cities and has many stories to share about how people open up to travelers, especially in rural areas. She still sometimes gets odd looks there – as a blonde foreigner with blue eyes. But Lindemann is not bothered by the special role. She appreciates every opportunity to build bridges between cultures. Svenja Napp
Education
Society
USA
Executive Moves
Betsy Nagel leaves her position as Ramp-Up Manager at Audi China and returns to Ingolstadt, where she will become Head of Validation Engineering Management for Chassis, Drives and COP. Nagel has worked for Audi China in Changchun, Jilin Province, since April 2019.
Dessert
On the day of the Qingming Festival, flowers alone are not enough to create the necessary color sensation. In this park in Chongqing, children play between paper wheels. Colorful ribbons also play a role in the traditional visit to the graves of ancestors. They are intended to keep the negative energy of angry spirits in the afterlife. This celebration is also known as “Tomb Sweeping Day”, after all.
