Authorities want to evaluate safety of EVs more closely
Shipping companies: supply chain problems till Christmas
Higher taxes expected on luxury goods
Beijing slightly opens market for VPN services
COVID-19 cases on the rise again
Joseph Stiglitz: ratings scandal is campaign against IMF chief
Dear reader,
The Chinese government has successfully intimidated many players in the democratic opposition in the battle between political systems. This happened because the West makes the mistake of measuring strength almost exclusively by numbers and statistics. The People’s Republic takes advantage of our one-dimensional view and likes to don the role of the new “superpower”. But all too often we forget that there is so much more to strength than just economic growth or a record amount of patents.
Today, Michael Radunski reports about the ‘Pillar of Shame’, – a monument that was erected in Hong Kong to commemorate the Tiananmen Square Massacre. According to authorities, this artwork apparently poses a threat to the national security of the People’s Republic because it preserves the memory of a dark chapter in the history of the Communist Party.
While it has not been torn just down yet, the pillar’s days in Hong Kong are numbered. The memorial’s imminent removal should remind us that a dictatorship has a great many weaknesses that democratic nations need not fear competing with. A political system that is afraid of its citizens remembering the past, is weak. It denies its history because it dreads the wrath of its people. Western nations should draw confidence from this and show China its boundaries in the battle of political systems.
“It’s still standing,” says Jens Galschiøt on the phone – with a distinct pride in his voice. The ultimatum has expired, but no one has yet dared to remove the eight-meter-tall sculpture made of red-coated concrete, depicting emaciated bodies with faces contorted in pain. Galschiøt created the “Pillar of Shame”. It commemorates one of the darkest chapters in Chinese history: The bloodysuppression of the protests in June 1989. It has stood on the premises of the University of Hong Kong for the past 24 years. But its time is now up. Beijing’s authoritarian takeover of the city leaves no room for dark chapters.
In an interview with China.Table, the Danish sculptor Galschiøt explains how his sculpture has unexpectedly become the center of a dispute in recent days. A dispute between a global law firm, a disbanded democracy movement, and the increasingly repressive central government in Beijing. “I’m shocked,” says Galschiøt. “But that’s just how dictatorial regimes behave, afraid day and night of losing power.”
Two weeks ago, lawyers of the American law firm Mayor Brown issued an ultimatum on behalf of the university administration: Within six days, the two-ton sculpture had to be removed from campus, otherwise, the university would do with it what it saw fit. The background story of the legal action: The “Pillar of Shame” is said to violate the National Security Act. This law, which came into force in July 2020, allows authorities to take action against any activity it deems a threat to China’s national security.
Democracy movement under pressure
The letter was addressed to the “Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China”. For many years, the organization took responsibility that the dead of the 1989 Tian’anmen Square massacre were not forgotten. But by the end of September, the movement had already disbanded, its leaders imprisoned. Has the ultimatum expired because its addressee no longer exists?
The Pillar of Shame was erected in 1997 in Hong Kong’s central Victoria Park. Since the 1990s, hundreds of thousands of people had gathered there every year to remember the events of June 4th. After students moved the sculpture to the Hong Kong University, a commemoration was also held there. But since the new security law was passed last year, all that has been forbidden. The June 4th Museum of the Democratic Movement also had been closed down, since the People’s Republic wants to wipe all memory of this event.
The leaders of the “Hong Kong Alliance” are accused of subversion and illegal cooperation with foreign forces. Their disbandment was the forced consequence of growing pressure by the authorities. “I am sure that the people of Hong Kong will nevertheless continue to remember the events of June 4,” said Richard Tsoi, the group’s spokesman at the time.
Threat to China’s security
In the meantime, the administration of Hong Kong University would like to have the sculpture removed from campus. The university defends its position by declaring that it is acting on “legal advice”. But sculptor Galschiøt told China.Table: “I am the rightful owner of the sculpture. It does not belong to the university or the Hong Kong Alliance.” He states that there was no bill of sale or anything like that. Rather, he says, the sculpture was a kind of permanent loan.
Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam stressed that she did not want to get involved in the debate. The matter took place on the premises of a university. She advised the administration to handle the matter per local guidelines. Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing politicians, such as MP Tam Yiu-Chung, defended the planned removal of the sculpture: Anything that endangers China’s national security needs to go, Tam said, according to a report in the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post.
There are three “Pillars of Shame” around the globe: one in Hong Kong, one in Mexico, and one in Brazil. All sculptures are about coming to terms with shame, dedicated to the lives of people who died fighting for democracy. “It’s important that the history of Tian’anmen is kept alive. If you don’t have these kinds of monuments, its memories will be forgotten,” Galschiøt fears.
One country, two systems?
The Dane assumes that the statue cannot simply be placed elsewhere in Hong Kong. “But we need months to move the sculpture,” says Galschiøt. Nevertheless, there are already some interested parties in other countries. Washington, for example, is a possible location, although the artist would prefer a location that is closer to China.
“My dream is that one day, the statue will stand in Tian’anmen Square.” That’s where it belongs – in the place where its purpose of remembrance is needed the most. “But Xi Jinping won’t allow that,” Galschiøt fears. That is why he is considering another location in the geographical vicinity: Taiwan. “Wherever its journey goes, they will need me.”
Because ultimately, only he could properly move the statue. It is old, after all, and relocation is not easy. But should the sculpture be damaged, he would have to claim damages, the sculptor explains. And that would certainly not be in the interest of the Chinese government. But here lies the next problem: Hong Kong’s authorities recently barred him from entering the country. And in China, Galschiøt has long since become a persona non grata.
In a binding treaty, China assured Hong Kong’s people and the world that the rule of law and freedom of expression in the arts and media would apply in the special administrative region until 2047. Officially, this is known as “one country, two systems”. But with the Security Act at the latest, it became clear how Beijing transfers its political system and its legal system to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. For years, the memory of the events of June 1989 and the annual commemorations were still one of the clearest symbols of Hong Kong’s political plurality.
Batteries are beginning to replace engines and transmissionsas the new technical and economic heart of cars. They determine how long a vehicle will last, its mileage, its price, and whether a carmaker is able to turn a lasting profit. And batteries are innovations that go far beyond the car itself.
China wants to further push the development of new battery technologies. These include cobalt-free batteries, solid-state and solid-liquid hybrid batteries, as well as hydrogen fuel cells. During the recent 17th International Forum on the Development of China’s Automotive Industry, Xu Chaoqian from the Ministry of Science and Technology declared that they will “boost the development of the most critical and frontier power battery technologies applied in the electric vehicle (EV) industry chain during the country’s 14th five-year plan.”
Lower fire risk
When it comes to battery technologies, Shenzhen-based BYD is at the forefront. The company is basically a battery manufacturer that builds cars. In terms of global EV sales, BYD has already established itself between Daimler and BMW. The company has developed a new battery called “blade battery“. It was already introduced back in the summer of 2020 and guarantees a range of over 600 kilometers. The battery is less susceptible to fires than the more advanced Li-NMC batteries (N stands for nickel, M for manganese, and C for cobalt).
The blade battery is based on an already existing technology: lithium iron phosphate batteries. And in truth, the Li-NMC battery had already established itself. Its individual battery cells feature an enormously high power density. But the performance came with an increased fire hazard.
The more powerful the battery became, the quicker it could catch fire and burn ten times more violently than a normal gasoline tank. But that wasn’t a major concern for cell specialists. After all, that was the responsibility of fire prevention specialists: So the steel walls of the batteries became even thicker, the pressure valves and other sheathings ever more elaborate. After all, in the event of a fire, the driver needs to have enough time to stop the car and get out – before everything goes up in flames. However, this resulted in even heavier battery packs. Ultimately, about half the weight of a Li-NMC battery was claimed by such protective measures.
Smaller, safer and more ecological
This is precisely what gave BYD engineers a simple idea. If they used more low-energy cells for their battery, less material is needed for protective measures, since low-energycells are not as susceptible to fire. In the end, you still get the same power with the same weight. With one huge advantage: The blade battery only heats up to 30 to 60 degrees Celsius. The engineers shot the battery with nails and rammed angular steel into it, just as it might happen during a crash. A standard lithium-ion battery would have reached a temperature of more than 500 degrees Celsius as a result. But for the blade battery, the accident simulation was no problem at all. Even an overcharge of 260 percent did not cause a fire or an explosion.
This solution comes with another advantage: Since these batteries are shaped like elongated two-by-fours, additional space and weight is saved when integrated into the chassis. The fact that BYD never quite stopped studying iron phosphate paid off. The company has found a way to keep the batteries small and compact. Moreover, they contain no toxic heavy metals like nickel, cadmium, or cobalt. All of its components are fully recyclable
Maximilian Fichtner, Professor of Solid State Chemistry and Deputy Director of the Helmholtz Institute in Ulm, says: “BYD’s new battery is only half the size of the previous one, has a range of 600 kilometers, fits in a car that costs the equivalent of just $33,000 in China and can go from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.9 seconds. We have to fear that the German manufacturers are out of the race here for the time being.”
In short: The BYD solution is smaller, safer, more ecological, and delivers the same power at the same weight as other battery types. The only drawback: You can’t power a sports car with these slow cells. These cells just don’t have enough power. But it’s more than enough for a city car. That’s what the Chinese have become good at: finding simple and practical solutions. The blade battery can increase power density by at least 30 percent while cutting raw material costs by 30 percent. As far as service life is concerned, BYD is talking about 1.2 million kilometers or 3,000 charging cycles.
This development is also backed by a specific strategic policy. Beijing recognized early on that China could become the market leader in the automotive industry via a detour to electromobility and battery production.
China owns patents
China is one of the largest markets in the world in this segment. In the first seven months of this year, a total of 92.1-gigawatt-hours of batteries were produced in the People’s Republic. Compared to the same period last year, this represents an increase of 210 percent – although the “Covid break” in production in 2020 still needs to be factored out here. The production of lithium iron phosphate batteries increased by 51.1 percent to 47 GWh in the first seven months of 2021.
Beijing is also using this technology for its industrial policy. Almost all current EV models outfitted with LFP batteries are manufactured in China and are sold on the Chinese market. Only Chinese battery manufacturers are licensed to manufacture and offer LFP batteries in China. A number of key patents for this technology are held by a consortium of Chinese research institutions. BYD, CATL, and Great Power are currently the three biggest LFP manufacturers with a market share of 86 percent.
The increased share of LFP batteries in Chinese electric vehicle sales from January to July is largely attributable to models such as GM Wuling HongGuang Mini, Tesla Model 3, BYD Han, BYD Qin Plus DM-i, BYD Qin Plus, and Sol E10X. Currently, BYD is converting its entire lineup of EV’s and plug-in hybrids to these batteries. This includes the recently launched Dolphin compact SUV.
The company plans the sale of 600,000 electric cars and plug-in hybrids this year. Next year, that number is expected to rise to 820,000, and by 2023 BYD aims to sell more than one million vehicles. Battery production is expected to increase from a storage capacity of 35 GWh to 51 GWh and then to 70 GWh.
Tesla announced in late August that Model 3 Standard Range Plus customers can opt for LFP battery packs. Ford, VW, and Stellantis have also announced plans to increase the use of LFP batteries in entry-level models.
Autoindustrie
News
Ministry demands higher safety for EVs
China plans to scrutinize the safety of EVs and other vehicles with alternative propulsion systems (NEVs) more closely in the future. That is according to a proposal on new industry guidelines released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Wednesday. Manufacturers of NEVs will be required to bolster their safety monitoring and management systems, Bloomberg reports. Under the proposal, manufacturers will have to improve quality defects, from vehicle design and testing to upstream supply chains.
Manufacturers will also be required toset up a 24-hour emergency system for serious accidents. If vehicles are involved in accidents or manufacturers evade regular inspections, they could lose access to subsidies, according to Bloomberg. Battery fires, brake failures, or mechanical defects are an increasing factor for purchasing decisions in China. nib
Autoindustrie
Cosco: strained supply chains until Christmas
The issues in Global supply chains won’t be resolved anytime soon, according to an executive at state-owned shipping company Cosco. Increased demand for Chinese goods from Europe and the US for the Christmas shopping season is causing bottlenecks at ports and will put even more pressure on global supply chains, Caixin quoted Cosco’s deputy general manager Feng Bo as saying. “As the pandemic is not yet fully under control, under such circumstances it is difficult to resolve the disorder in the global supply chain in the short term,” Feng added.
Container shipping costs have been rising steadily recently, reaching record prices due to high demand. Cosco is profiting from this development and continues to expand. In September, the shipping company secured a35 percent stake in a German container terminal in the Port of Hamburg for €100 million (China.Table reported).
This year, Cosco Shipping announced that it increased its capacity on transpacific routes by 17 percent year on year. On Intra-Asian routes, capacity increased by 12 percent, according to Feng. Cosco Shipping is the world’s third-largest shipping company with a fleet of 498 container ships and a capacity of three million TEUs (twenty-foot standard containers). niw
Cosco
Logistics
port of Hamburg
Supply chains
Trade
Analysts: higher taxes on luxury goods
According to an analysis by China International Capital (CICC), China could soon impose higher taxes on luxury goods. The bank estimates that the currently discussed excise duties reform will also lead to higher taxes on products that have high power demand or contribute to environmental degradation, as Bloomberg reports. The tax reform is intended to contribute to achieving China’s climate goals and “Common Prosperity”.
President Xi Jinping had recently stated that the government would consider expanding excise duties to achieve better income distribution. CICC expects the luxury tax to be levied on more products in the future. Currently, the tax is levied on products such as tobacco, liquor, watches, and luxury cars, among others. According to the bank, it accounts for about nine percent of all tax revenues. nib
common prosperity
Finance
Luxury goods
Taxes
Beijing approves VPN services by foreign investors
The Beijing municipal government has received approval from the State Council to grant foreign investors limited access to virtual private networks (VPNs). Foreign telecom companies will be allowed to set up joint ventures with Chinese firmsto offer VPN services exclusively to foreign companies. These offers will be limited to companies operating in Beijing. In addition, joint ventures handling basic telecom services must be majority Chinese-owned, reports business magazine Caixin.
Zeng Jianqiu, a professor at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, told China Daily that this move signals China’s will to further open up its service sector.
International companies operating in the People’s Republic use VPNs to circumvent Chinese censorship of websites and allow their employees to access internal company networks. Since January 2017, telecommunications and internet service providers are required to obtain licenses from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) before they are able to offer VPN services in China. niw
Communication
MIIT
Telecommunications
Rising number of COVID-19 cases
The number of locally transmitted COVID-19 cases in China is on the rise again, putting pressure on local authorities to trace the origin of the infections as quickly as possible. As of Tuesday, a total of 17 cases had been identified in a handful of Chinese municipalities. On Monday, there were only nine cases. At least half of all infections could be linked to a traveling couple.
These infections occurred across the country. A case has also been reported in Beijing. In addition to the 6th Plenum, the city is preparing to host the 2022 Winter Olympics next February.
The case of a Henan woman shows just how brutal the authorities sometimes deal with their citizens on the issue of Covid-19. The mother of a deceased 12-year-old has been arrested in the central Chinese province on charges of “picking fights and provoking trouble”. The woman’s daughter had been hospitalized two days after receiving her first vaccination against Covid-19 in August and died just over two weeks later.
After the hospital provided an inadequate explanation for the child’s death, the mother traveled to Beijing where she made several unsuccessful efforts to petition for an investigation of her daughter’s death. Upon her return to her hometown of Puyang, the woman and her sister were taken into custody, reported South China Morning Post.
A Henan lawyer told the Hong Kong newspaper that local cadres “will do anything” to stop people from traveling to Beijing to petition. After all, the 6th Plenum of the CP Central Committee is about to take place in Beijing (China.Table reported). No official in the entire country wants to be held responsible for a possible irritation of the top cadres.
On the other hand, possible deaths following vaccinations in China would draw attention to the party’s crisis management, which is not in the interest of the authoritarian leadership. “Any allegation that the death (of the girl) was related to vaccination would make it a very delicate matter” the lawyer quoted as saying. grz
Corona Vaccines
Coronavirus
Health
Opinion
A coup attempt at the IMF
By Joseph E. Stiglitz
Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Laureate in Economics
Moves are afoot to replace or at least greatly weaken Kristalina Georgieva, the International Monetary Fund’s managing director since 2019. This is the same Georgieva whose excellent response to the pandemic quickly provided funds to keep countries afloat and to address the health crisis, and who successfully advocated for a $650 billion issuance of IMF “money” (special drawing rights, or SDRs), so essential for low- and middle-income countries’ recovery.
Moreover, she has positioned the Fund to take a global leadership role in responding to the existential crisis of climate change. For all of these actions, Georgieva should be applauded. So, what is the problem? And who is behind the effort to discredit and oust her?
Better ranking through capital raise?
The problem is a report that the World Bank commissioned from the law firm WilmerHale concerning the Bank’s annual Doing Business index, which ranks countries according to the ease of opening and operating commercial firms. The report contains allegations – or more accurately “hints” – of improprieties involving China, Saudi Arabia, and Azerbaijan in the 2018 and 2020 indexes.
Georgieva has come under attack for the 2018 index, in which China was ranked 78th, the same position as the previous year. But there is an insinuation that it should have been lower and was left as part of a deal to secure Chinese support for the capital increase that the Bank was then seeking. Georgieva was the World Bank’s chief executive officer at the time.
The one positive outcome of the episode may be the termination of the index. A quarter-century ago, when I was chief economist of the World Bank and Doing Business was published by a separate division, the International Finance Corporation, I thought it was a terrible product. Countries received good ratings for low corporate taxes and weak labor regulations. The numbers were always squishy, with small changes in the data having potentially large effects on the rankings. Countries were inevitably upset when seemingly arbitrary decisions caused them to slide in the rankings.
Complicated data situation
Having read the WilmerHale report, having talked directly to key people involved, and knowing the whole process, the investigation appears to me to be a hatchet job. Throughout, Georgieva acted in an entirely professional way, doing exactly what I would have done (and occasionally had to do when I was chief economist): urge those working for me to be sure their numbers were right, or as accurate as possible, given the inherent limitations on data.
Shanta Devarajan, the head of the unit overseeing Doing Business who reported directly to Georgieva in 2018, insists that he never was pressured to change the data or results. The Bank’s staff did exactly as Georgieva instructed and rechecked the numbers, making miniscule changes that led to a slight upward revision.
The WilmerHale report itself is curious in many ways. It leaves the impression that there was a quid pro quo: the Bank was attempting to raise capital and offered improved rankings to help get it. But China was the most enthusiastic backer of the capital increase; it was the United States under President Donald Trump that was dragging its feet. If the objective had been to ensure the capital increase, the best way of doing so would have been to lower China’s ranking.
Veiled insinuations instead of facts
The report also fails to explain why it doesn’t include the full testimony of the one person – Devarajan – with firsthand knowledge of what Georgieva said. “I spent hours telling my side of the story to the World Bank’s lawyers, who included only half of what I told them,” Devarajan has said. Instead, the report proceeds largely on the basis of innuendo.
The real scandal is the WilmerHale report itself, including how David Malpass, the World Bank president, escapes unscathed. The report notes another episode – an attempt to upgrade Saudi Arabia in the 2020 Doing Business index – but concludes that the Bank’s leadership had nothing to do with what happened. Malpass would go to Saudi Arabia touting its reforms on the basis of Doing Business just a year after Saudi security officials murdered and dismembered the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
He who pays the piper, it seems, calls the tune. Fortunately, investigative journalism has uncovered far worse behavior, including an unvarnished attempt by Malpass to change the methodology of Doing Business to move China down in the rankings.
IMF reaches its limits
If the WilmerHale report is best characterized as a hatchet job, what’s the motive? There are, not surprisingly, some who are unhappy at the direction the IMF has taken under Georgieva’s leadership. Some think it should stick to its knitting and not concern itself with climate change. Some dislike the progressive shift, with less emphasis on austerity, more on poverty and development, and greater awareness of the limits of markets.
Many financial market players are unhappy that the IMF seems not to be acting as forcefully as a credit collector – a central part of my critique of the Fund in my book Globalization and Its Discontents. In the Argentine debt restructuring that began in 2020, the Fund showed clearly the limits on what the country could pay, that is, how much debt was sustainable. Because many private creditors wanted the country to pay more than was sustainable, this simple act changed the bargaining framework.
Then, too, there are longstanding institutional rivalries between the IMF and the World Bank, heightened now by the debate about who should manage a proposed new fund for “recycling” the newly issued SDRs from the advanced economies to poorer countries.
Rivalries between the IMF and the World Bank
One can add to this mix the isolationist strand of American politics – embodied by Malpass, a Trump appointee – combined with a desire to undermine President Joe Biden by creating one more problem for an administration facing so many other challenges. And then there are the normal personality conflicts. But political intrigue and bureaucratic rivalry are the last things the world needs at a time when the pandemic and its economic fallout have left many countries facing debt crises. Now more than ever, the world needs Georgieva’s steady hand at the IMF.
Joseph E. Stiglitz is a Nobel Laureate in Economics and a professor at Columbia University and a member of the Independent Commission on Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT). He was Chief Economist of the World Bank (1997-2000).
Daniel Kremer is the new Head of Product Marketing FBU for Audi Sales in Jilin. Prior to this position, Kremer worked for Audi in Germany for 13 years. He trained as a mechatronics engineer at Audi AG and holds a degree in industrial engineering from Ingolstadt University of Applied Sciences.
Bernd Averes holds the post of General Manager Commercial at Volkswagen Automatic Transmission in Tianjin since October. Averes has previously held various positions at Volkswagen in Changchun and Beijing. Most recently, he worked as Senior Director for Volkswagen Group China. He holds an MBA from the University of Osnabrück.
Dessert
Who doesn’t love a gentle massage? But good masseurs are rare. Visitors recently had the chance to try out one possible solution at the Import-Export Fair in Guangzhou: the intelligent massage chair. Our first impression from afar: real relaxation looks different.
Authorities want to evaluate safety of EVs more closely
Shipping companies: supply chain problems till Christmas
Higher taxes expected on luxury goods
Beijing slightly opens market for VPN services
COVID-19 cases on the rise again
Joseph Stiglitz: ratings scandal is campaign against IMF chief
Dear reader,
The Chinese government has successfully intimidated many players in the democratic opposition in the battle between political systems. This happened because the West makes the mistake of measuring strength almost exclusively by numbers and statistics. The People’s Republic takes advantage of our one-dimensional view and likes to don the role of the new “superpower”. But all too often we forget that there is so much more to strength than just economic growth or a record amount of patents.
Today, Michael Radunski reports about the ‘Pillar of Shame’, – a monument that was erected in Hong Kong to commemorate the Tiananmen Square Massacre. According to authorities, this artwork apparently poses a threat to the national security of the People’s Republic because it preserves the memory of a dark chapter in the history of the Communist Party.
While it has not been torn just down yet, the pillar’s days in Hong Kong are numbered. The memorial’s imminent removal should remind us that a dictatorship has a great many weaknesses that democratic nations need not fear competing with. A political system that is afraid of its citizens remembering the past, is weak. It denies its history because it dreads the wrath of its people. Western nations should draw confidence from this and show China its boundaries in the battle of political systems.
“It’s still standing,” says Jens Galschiøt on the phone – with a distinct pride in his voice. The ultimatum has expired, but no one has yet dared to remove the eight-meter-tall sculpture made of red-coated concrete, depicting emaciated bodies with faces contorted in pain. Galschiøt created the “Pillar of Shame”. It commemorates one of the darkest chapters in Chinese history: The bloodysuppression of the protests in June 1989. It has stood on the premises of the University of Hong Kong for the past 24 years. But its time is now up. Beijing’s authoritarian takeover of the city leaves no room for dark chapters.
In an interview with China.Table, the Danish sculptor Galschiøt explains how his sculpture has unexpectedly become the center of a dispute in recent days. A dispute between a global law firm, a disbanded democracy movement, and the increasingly repressive central government in Beijing. “I’m shocked,” says Galschiøt. “But that’s just how dictatorial regimes behave, afraid day and night of losing power.”
Two weeks ago, lawyers of the American law firm Mayor Brown issued an ultimatum on behalf of the university administration: Within six days, the two-ton sculpture had to be removed from campus, otherwise, the university would do with it what it saw fit. The background story of the legal action: The “Pillar of Shame” is said to violate the National Security Act. This law, which came into force in July 2020, allows authorities to take action against any activity it deems a threat to China’s national security.
Democracy movement under pressure
The letter was addressed to the “Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China”. For many years, the organization took responsibility that the dead of the 1989 Tian’anmen Square massacre were not forgotten. But by the end of September, the movement had already disbanded, its leaders imprisoned. Has the ultimatum expired because its addressee no longer exists?
The Pillar of Shame was erected in 1997 in Hong Kong’s central Victoria Park. Since the 1990s, hundreds of thousands of people had gathered there every year to remember the events of June 4th. After students moved the sculpture to the Hong Kong University, a commemoration was also held there. But since the new security law was passed last year, all that has been forbidden. The June 4th Museum of the Democratic Movement also had been closed down, since the People’s Republic wants to wipe all memory of this event.
The leaders of the “Hong Kong Alliance” are accused of subversion and illegal cooperation with foreign forces. Their disbandment was the forced consequence of growing pressure by the authorities. “I am sure that the people of Hong Kong will nevertheless continue to remember the events of June 4,” said Richard Tsoi, the group’s spokesman at the time.
Threat to China’s security
In the meantime, the administration of Hong Kong University would like to have the sculpture removed from campus. The university defends its position by declaring that it is acting on “legal advice”. But sculptor Galschiøt told China.Table: “I am the rightful owner of the sculpture. It does not belong to the university or the Hong Kong Alliance.” He states that there was no bill of sale or anything like that. Rather, he says, the sculpture was a kind of permanent loan.
Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam stressed that she did not want to get involved in the debate. The matter took place on the premises of a university. She advised the administration to handle the matter per local guidelines. Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing politicians, such as MP Tam Yiu-Chung, defended the planned removal of the sculpture: Anything that endangers China’s national security needs to go, Tam said, according to a report in the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post.
There are three “Pillars of Shame” around the globe: one in Hong Kong, one in Mexico, and one in Brazil. All sculptures are about coming to terms with shame, dedicated to the lives of people who died fighting for democracy. “It’s important that the history of Tian’anmen is kept alive. If you don’t have these kinds of monuments, its memories will be forgotten,” Galschiøt fears.
One country, two systems?
The Dane assumes that the statue cannot simply be placed elsewhere in Hong Kong. “But we need months to move the sculpture,” says Galschiøt. Nevertheless, there are already some interested parties in other countries. Washington, for example, is a possible location, although the artist would prefer a location that is closer to China.
“My dream is that one day, the statue will stand in Tian’anmen Square.” That’s where it belongs – in the place where its purpose of remembrance is needed the most. “But Xi Jinping won’t allow that,” Galschiøt fears. That is why he is considering another location in the geographical vicinity: Taiwan. “Wherever its journey goes, they will need me.”
Because ultimately, only he could properly move the statue. It is old, after all, and relocation is not easy. But should the sculpture be damaged, he would have to claim damages, the sculptor explains. And that would certainly not be in the interest of the Chinese government. But here lies the next problem: Hong Kong’s authorities recently barred him from entering the country. And in China, Galschiøt has long since become a persona non grata.
In a binding treaty, China assured Hong Kong’s people and the world that the rule of law and freedom of expression in the arts and media would apply in the special administrative region until 2047. Officially, this is known as “one country, two systems”. But with the Security Act at the latest, it became clear how Beijing transfers its political system and its legal system to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. For years, the memory of the events of June 1989 and the annual commemorations were still one of the clearest symbols of Hong Kong’s political plurality.
Batteries are beginning to replace engines and transmissionsas the new technical and economic heart of cars. They determine how long a vehicle will last, its mileage, its price, and whether a carmaker is able to turn a lasting profit. And batteries are innovations that go far beyond the car itself.
China wants to further push the development of new battery technologies. These include cobalt-free batteries, solid-state and solid-liquid hybrid batteries, as well as hydrogen fuel cells. During the recent 17th International Forum on the Development of China’s Automotive Industry, Xu Chaoqian from the Ministry of Science and Technology declared that they will “boost the development of the most critical and frontier power battery technologies applied in the electric vehicle (EV) industry chain during the country’s 14th five-year plan.”
Lower fire risk
When it comes to battery technologies, Shenzhen-based BYD is at the forefront. The company is basically a battery manufacturer that builds cars. In terms of global EV sales, BYD has already established itself between Daimler and BMW. The company has developed a new battery called “blade battery“. It was already introduced back in the summer of 2020 and guarantees a range of over 600 kilometers. The battery is less susceptible to fires than the more advanced Li-NMC batteries (N stands for nickel, M for manganese, and C for cobalt).
The blade battery is based on an already existing technology: lithium iron phosphate batteries. And in truth, the Li-NMC battery had already established itself. Its individual battery cells feature an enormously high power density. But the performance came with an increased fire hazard.
The more powerful the battery became, the quicker it could catch fire and burn ten times more violently than a normal gasoline tank. But that wasn’t a major concern for cell specialists. After all, that was the responsibility of fire prevention specialists: So the steel walls of the batteries became even thicker, the pressure valves and other sheathings ever more elaborate. After all, in the event of a fire, the driver needs to have enough time to stop the car and get out – before everything goes up in flames. However, this resulted in even heavier battery packs. Ultimately, about half the weight of a Li-NMC battery was claimed by such protective measures.
Smaller, safer and more ecological
This is precisely what gave BYD engineers a simple idea. If they used more low-energy cells for their battery, less material is needed for protective measures, since low-energycells are not as susceptible to fire. In the end, you still get the same power with the same weight. With one huge advantage: The blade battery only heats up to 30 to 60 degrees Celsius. The engineers shot the battery with nails and rammed angular steel into it, just as it might happen during a crash. A standard lithium-ion battery would have reached a temperature of more than 500 degrees Celsius as a result. But for the blade battery, the accident simulation was no problem at all. Even an overcharge of 260 percent did not cause a fire or an explosion.
This solution comes with another advantage: Since these batteries are shaped like elongated two-by-fours, additional space and weight is saved when integrated into the chassis. The fact that BYD never quite stopped studying iron phosphate paid off. The company has found a way to keep the batteries small and compact. Moreover, they contain no toxic heavy metals like nickel, cadmium, or cobalt. All of its components are fully recyclable
Maximilian Fichtner, Professor of Solid State Chemistry and Deputy Director of the Helmholtz Institute in Ulm, says: “BYD’s new battery is only half the size of the previous one, has a range of 600 kilometers, fits in a car that costs the equivalent of just $33,000 in China and can go from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.9 seconds. We have to fear that the German manufacturers are out of the race here for the time being.”
In short: The BYD solution is smaller, safer, more ecological, and delivers the same power at the same weight as other battery types. The only drawback: You can’t power a sports car with these slow cells. These cells just don’t have enough power. But it’s more than enough for a city car. That’s what the Chinese have become good at: finding simple and practical solutions. The blade battery can increase power density by at least 30 percent while cutting raw material costs by 30 percent. As far as service life is concerned, BYD is talking about 1.2 million kilometers or 3,000 charging cycles.
This development is also backed by a specific strategic policy. Beijing recognized early on that China could become the market leader in the automotive industry via a detour to electromobility and battery production.
China owns patents
China is one of the largest markets in the world in this segment. In the first seven months of this year, a total of 92.1-gigawatt-hours of batteries were produced in the People’s Republic. Compared to the same period last year, this represents an increase of 210 percent – although the “Covid break” in production in 2020 still needs to be factored out here. The production of lithium iron phosphate batteries increased by 51.1 percent to 47 GWh in the first seven months of 2021.
Beijing is also using this technology for its industrial policy. Almost all current EV models outfitted with LFP batteries are manufactured in China and are sold on the Chinese market. Only Chinese battery manufacturers are licensed to manufacture and offer LFP batteries in China. A number of key patents for this technology are held by a consortium of Chinese research institutions. BYD, CATL, and Great Power are currently the three biggest LFP manufacturers with a market share of 86 percent.
The increased share of LFP batteries in Chinese electric vehicle sales from January to July is largely attributable to models such as GM Wuling HongGuang Mini, Tesla Model 3, BYD Han, BYD Qin Plus DM-i, BYD Qin Plus, and Sol E10X. Currently, BYD is converting its entire lineup of EV’s and plug-in hybrids to these batteries. This includes the recently launched Dolphin compact SUV.
The company plans the sale of 600,000 electric cars and plug-in hybrids this year. Next year, that number is expected to rise to 820,000, and by 2023 BYD aims to sell more than one million vehicles. Battery production is expected to increase from a storage capacity of 35 GWh to 51 GWh and then to 70 GWh.
Tesla announced in late August that Model 3 Standard Range Plus customers can opt for LFP battery packs. Ford, VW, and Stellantis have also announced plans to increase the use of LFP batteries in entry-level models.
Autoindustrie
News
Ministry demands higher safety for EVs
China plans to scrutinize the safety of EVs and other vehicles with alternative propulsion systems (NEVs) more closely in the future. That is according to a proposal on new industry guidelines released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Wednesday. Manufacturers of NEVs will be required to bolster their safety monitoring and management systems, Bloomberg reports. Under the proposal, manufacturers will have to improve quality defects, from vehicle design and testing to upstream supply chains.
Manufacturers will also be required toset up a 24-hour emergency system for serious accidents. If vehicles are involved in accidents or manufacturers evade regular inspections, they could lose access to subsidies, according to Bloomberg. Battery fires, brake failures, or mechanical defects are an increasing factor for purchasing decisions in China. nib
Autoindustrie
Cosco: strained supply chains until Christmas
The issues in Global supply chains won’t be resolved anytime soon, according to an executive at state-owned shipping company Cosco. Increased demand for Chinese goods from Europe and the US for the Christmas shopping season is causing bottlenecks at ports and will put even more pressure on global supply chains, Caixin quoted Cosco’s deputy general manager Feng Bo as saying. “As the pandemic is not yet fully under control, under such circumstances it is difficult to resolve the disorder in the global supply chain in the short term,” Feng added.
Container shipping costs have been rising steadily recently, reaching record prices due to high demand. Cosco is profiting from this development and continues to expand. In September, the shipping company secured a35 percent stake in a German container terminal in the Port of Hamburg for €100 million (China.Table reported).
This year, Cosco Shipping announced that it increased its capacity on transpacific routes by 17 percent year on year. On Intra-Asian routes, capacity increased by 12 percent, according to Feng. Cosco Shipping is the world’s third-largest shipping company with a fleet of 498 container ships and a capacity of three million TEUs (twenty-foot standard containers). niw
Cosco
Logistics
port of Hamburg
Supply chains
Trade
Analysts: higher taxes on luxury goods
According to an analysis by China International Capital (CICC), China could soon impose higher taxes on luxury goods. The bank estimates that the currently discussed excise duties reform will also lead to higher taxes on products that have high power demand or contribute to environmental degradation, as Bloomberg reports. The tax reform is intended to contribute to achieving China’s climate goals and “Common Prosperity”.
President Xi Jinping had recently stated that the government would consider expanding excise duties to achieve better income distribution. CICC expects the luxury tax to be levied on more products in the future. Currently, the tax is levied on products such as tobacco, liquor, watches, and luxury cars, among others. According to the bank, it accounts for about nine percent of all tax revenues. nib
common prosperity
Finance
Luxury goods
Taxes
Beijing approves VPN services by foreign investors
The Beijing municipal government has received approval from the State Council to grant foreign investors limited access to virtual private networks (VPNs). Foreign telecom companies will be allowed to set up joint ventures with Chinese firmsto offer VPN services exclusively to foreign companies. These offers will be limited to companies operating in Beijing. In addition, joint ventures handling basic telecom services must be majority Chinese-owned, reports business magazine Caixin.
Zeng Jianqiu, a professor at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, told China Daily that this move signals China’s will to further open up its service sector.
International companies operating in the People’s Republic use VPNs to circumvent Chinese censorship of websites and allow their employees to access internal company networks. Since January 2017, telecommunications and internet service providers are required to obtain licenses from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) before they are able to offer VPN services in China. niw
Communication
MIIT
Telecommunications
Rising number of COVID-19 cases
The number of locally transmitted COVID-19 cases in China is on the rise again, putting pressure on local authorities to trace the origin of the infections as quickly as possible. As of Tuesday, a total of 17 cases had been identified in a handful of Chinese municipalities. On Monday, there were only nine cases. At least half of all infections could be linked to a traveling couple.
These infections occurred across the country. A case has also been reported in Beijing. In addition to the 6th Plenum, the city is preparing to host the 2022 Winter Olympics next February.
The case of a Henan woman shows just how brutal the authorities sometimes deal with their citizens on the issue of Covid-19. The mother of a deceased 12-year-old has been arrested in the central Chinese province on charges of “picking fights and provoking trouble”. The woman’s daughter had been hospitalized two days after receiving her first vaccination against Covid-19 in August and died just over two weeks later.
After the hospital provided an inadequate explanation for the child’s death, the mother traveled to Beijing where she made several unsuccessful efforts to petition for an investigation of her daughter’s death. Upon her return to her hometown of Puyang, the woman and her sister were taken into custody, reported South China Morning Post.
A Henan lawyer told the Hong Kong newspaper that local cadres “will do anything” to stop people from traveling to Beijing to petition. After all, the 6th Plenum of the CP Central Committee is about to take place in Beijing (China.Table reported). No official in the entire country wants to be held responsible for a possible irritation of the top cadres.
On the other hand, possible deaths following vaccinations in China would draw attention to the party’s crisis management, which is not in the interest of the authoritarian leadership. “Any allegation that the death (of the girl) was related to vaccination would make it a very delicate matter” the lawyer quoted as saying. grz
Corona Vaccines
Coronavirus
Health
Opinion
A coup attempt at the IMF
By Joseph E. Stiglitz
Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Laureate in Economics
Moves are afoot to replace or at least greatly weaken Kristalina Georgieva, the International Monetary Fund’s managing director since 2019. This is the same Georgieva whose excellent response to the pandemic quickly provided funds to keep countries afloat and to address the health crisis, and who successfully advocated for a $650 billion issuance of IMF “money” (special drawing rights, or SDRs), so essential for low- and middle-income countries’ recovery.
Moreover, she has positioned the Fund to take a global leadership role in responding to the existential crisis of climate change. For all of these actions, Georgieva should be applauded. So, what is the problem? And who is behind the effort to discredit and oust her?
Better ranking through capital raise?
The problem is a report that the World Bank commissioned from the law firm WilmerHale concerning the Bank’s annual Doing Business index, which ranks countries according to the ease of opening and operating commercial firms. The report contains allegations – or more accurately “hints” – of improprieties involving China, Saudi Arabia, and Azerbaijan in the 2018 and 2020 indexes.
Georgieva has come under attack for the 2018 index, in which China was ranked 78th, the same position as the previous year. But there is an insinuation that it should have been lower and was left as part of a deal to secure Chinese support for the capital increase that the Bank was then seeking. Georgieva was the World Bank’s chief executive officer at the time.
The one positive outcome of the episode may be the termination of the index. A quarter-century ago, when I was chief economist of the World Bank and Doing Business was published by a separate division, the International Finance Corporation, I thought it was a terrible product. Countries received good ratings for low corporate taxes and weak labor regulations. The numbers were always squishy, with small changes in the data having potentially large effects on the rankings. Countries were inevitably upset when seemingly arbitrary decisions caused them to slide in the rankings.
Complicated data situation
Having read the WilmerHale report, having talked directly to key people involved, and knowing the whole process, the investigation appears to me to be a hatchet job. Throughout, Georgieva acted in an entirely professional way, doing exactly what I would have done (and occasionally had to do when I was chief economist): urge those working for me to be sure their numbers were right, or as accurate as possible, given the inherent limitations on data.
Shanta Devarajan, the head of the unit overseeing Doing Business who reported directly to Georgieva in 2018, insists that he never was pressured to change the data or results. The Bank’s staff did exactly as Georgieva instructed and rechecked the numbers, making miniscule changes that led to a slight upward revision.
The WilmerHale report itself is curious in many ways. It leaves the impression that there was a quid pro quo: the Bank was attempting to raise capital and offered improved rankings to help get it. But China was the most enthusiastic backer of the capital increase; it was the United States under President Donald Trump that was dragging its feet. If the objective had been to ensure the capital increase, the best way of doing so would have been to lower China’s ranking.
Veiled insinuations instead of facts
The report also fails to explain why it doesn’t include the full testimony of the one person – Devarajan – with firsthand knowledge of what Georgieva said. “I spent hours telling my side of the story to the World Bank’s lawyers, who included only half of what I told them,” Devarajan has said. Instead, the report proceeds largely on the basis of innuendo.
The real scandal is the WilmerHale report itself, including how David Malpass, the World Bank president, escapes unscathed. The report notes another episode – an attempt to upgrade Saudi Arabia in the 2020 Doing Business index – but concludes that the Bank’s leadership had nothing to do with what happened. Malpass would go to Saudi Arabia touting its reforms on the basis of Doing Business just a year after Saudi security officials murdered and dismembered the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
He who pays the piper, it seems, calls the tune. Fortunately, investigative journalism has uncovered far worse behavior, including an unvarnished attempt by Malpass to change the methodology of Doing Business to move China down in the rankings.
IMF reaches its limits
If the WilmerHale report is best characterized as a hatchet job, what’s the motive? There are, not surprisingly, some who are unhappy at the direction the IMF has taken under Georgieva’s leadership. Some think it should stick to its knitting and not concern itself with climate change. Some dislike the progressive shift, with less emphasis on austerity, more on poverty and development, and greater awareness of the limits of markets.
Many financial market players are unhappy that the IMF seems not to be acting as forcefully as a credit collector – a central part of my critique of the Fund in my book Globalization and Its Discontents. In the Argentine debt restructuring that began in 2020, the Fund showed clearly the limits on what the country could pay, that is, how much debt was sustainable. Because many private creditors wanted the country to pay more than was sustainable, this simple act changed the bargaining framework.
Then, too, there are longstanding institutional rivalries between the IMF and the World Bank, heightened now by the debate about who should manage a proposed new fund for “recycling” the newly issued SDRs from the advanced economies to poorer countries.
Rivalries between the IMF and the World Bank
One can add to this mix the isolationist strand of American politics – embodied by Malpass, a Trump appointee – combined with a desire to undermine President Joe Biden by creating one more problem for an administration facing so many other challenges. And then there are the normal personality conflicts. But political intrigue and bureaucratic rivalry are the last things the world needs at a time when the pandemic and its economic fallout have left many countries facing debt crises. Now more than ever, the world needs Georgieva’s steady hand at the IMF.
Joseph E. Stiglitz is a Nobel Laureate in Economics and a professor at Columbia University and a member of the Independent Commission on Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT). He was Chief Economist of the World Bank (1997-2000).
Daniel Kremer is the new Head of Product Marketing FBU for Audi Sales in Jilin. Prior to this position, Kremer worked for Audi in Germany for 13 years. He trained as a mechatronics engineer at Audi AG and holds a degree in industrial engineering from Ingolstadt University of Applied Sciences.
Bernd Averes holds the post of General Manager Commercial at Volkswagen Automatic Transmission in Tianjin since October. Averes has previously held various positions at Volkswagen in Changchun and Beijing. Most recently, he worked as Senior Director for Volkswagen Group China. He holds an MBA from the University of Osnabrück.
Dessert
Who doesn’t love a gentle massage? But good masseurs are rare. Visitors recently had the chance to try out one possible solution at the Import-Export Fair in Guangzhou: the intelligent massage chair. Our first impression from afar: real relaxation looks different.
