The race for global supremacy is in full swing. While China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi is wooing the conflicting parties in the Middle East, his American counterpart Antony Blinken is traveling the Indo-Pacific. In Tokyo, he met his colleagues from Quad allies Australia, India and Japan – and incidentally sealed the most significant change in US-Japanese military relations in 70 years, writes Michael Radunski.
In the Philippine capital of Manila, Blinken is now turning his attention to the island state, which has been neglected for many years and is located in the immediate neighborhood of Taiwan and the People’s Republic. Barack Obama’s East Asia strategy “Pivot to Asia” is harmless compared to Biden’s current Indo-Pacific strategy in the region.
While still a distant dream in the West, robot taxis are already a reality in Wuhan and other Chinese cities. However, as progressive and promising as autonomous taxis sound in China, opposition is forming. And it is by no means just traditional taxi drivers who are fearing for their jobs and protesting, but also passers-by who have safety concerns. There’s still a lot of work to be done on autonomous driving – even in China.
Journalist Yu Xianfei actually made a documentary about the bright and dark sides of the construction of an industrial park in Ethiopia by Chinese investors. However, the result is a film that also critically examines China’s economic rise. Leonardo Pape introduces the filmmaker in a piece worth reading.
The foreign ministers of Australia, India, Japan and the USA agreed on Monday in Tokyo to expand their cooperation within the framework of the so-called Quad. Specifically, it is about cyber and maritime security in the Indo-Pacific. The two sides intend to work even more closely together. Quad stands for Quadrilateral Security Dialogue in the Indo-Pacific region. It is an alliance of four countries: Australia, India, Japan, and the USA.
Though the joint declaration does not directly mention China, the direction is clear: The USA is deepening its alliances in the Indo-Pacific in order to be able to firmly counter the Chinese challenge. Timing is also key here:
With this goal in mind, a far-reaching decision was made with Japan over the weekend: Establishing a new joint US force headquarters in Japan. The US is also strengthening its ties with Australia and India via Quad. The first trilateral defense talks between Japan, South Korea and the USA also took place on Sunday. Next, US Secretary of State Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will travel to the Philippines.
Blinken left no doubt about the importance of the Quad meeting on Monday in Tokyo. “This is a moment of unprecedented strategic alignment among our four countries,” said the US Secretary of State. “We have four countries that are united by a shared vision for a free and open, connected, a secure, a prosperous, resilient Indo-Pacific region.”
Specifically, the four Quad countries announced initiatives to:
The first point is particularly important. Submarine cables have become a centerpiece in the technological rivalry between the US and China. In this context, Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong unveiled a new Australian Cable Connectivity and Resilience Centre, which she presented as Australia’s “contribution” to the Quad Partnership. The US, in turn, announced plans to train more than 1,000 civil servants and telecoms executives in the region.
The other two points are intended to support other Southeast Asian countries and the Pacific Islands in expanding maritime security and defense against cyberattacks.
The statement on Monday cited “serious concerns about the situation in the East and South China Seas.” China has recently stepped up its already robust behavior in the region with a series of military exercises in the waters around Taiwan and joint military activities with Russia.
On Sunday, the US and Japan agreed on a comprehensive restructuring of their military command, which is to assume “primary responsibility for coordinating security activities in and around Japan.” Austin said, “The United States will upgrade the US Forces Japan to a joint force headquarters with expanded missions and operational responsibilities.” He called it “the most significant change to US Forces Japan since its creation – one of the strongest improvements in our military ties with Japan in 70 years.”
There are two important points in particular:
Japan is crucial to the US military strategy – also regarding Taiwan. Around 54,000 US soldiers, hundreds of US aircraft, and Washington’s only offshore aircraft carrier battle group are currently stationed in Japan. The problem: The commander of the US forces in Japan has no authority of his own but follows instructions from the US Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii.
The new structure is intended to enable the US armed forces in Japan to act more independently, quickly and in a more coordinated manner with Japan. The reorganization is expected to be completed by March 2025 and will then be led by a three-star US military general. Japan had requested the appointment of a four-star commander.
The ministers also publicly discussed the US commitment to “extended deterrence” for the first time. This refers to the US commitment to use its nuclear forces to deter attacks against allies.
It is a sensitive issue in Japan. On the one hand, Tokyo is committed to the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. On the other hand, Japan was the only country to be attacked with atomic bombs – and by the US at that. Now, however, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa says: “Amidst increasingly severe nuclear threats in the vicinity of Japan, it is important to further strengthen extended deterrence.” In addition to China, this also includes Russia and North Korea.
China has reacted angrily to the new US agreements with countries in the region. The Foreign Ministry in Beijing announced on Monday: “We strongly urge the US and Japan to immediately stop interfering in China’s internal affairs and stop creating imaginary enemies.” It said China was pursuing a defensive defense policy and posed no threat to any country.
The US Secretary of State Blinken and Secretary of Defense Austin’s next stop is Manila. There, they will hear how robustly and aggressively China is acting against the Philippines.
The rapid rise of autonomous cabs has sparked a debate in China about the safety of these cars and the future of traditional cab drivers. Social media and the state press are currently increasingly discussing the experiences from Wuhan. In the wake of the Covid pandemic, the capital of Hubei province has become the main test hub for autonomous driving. No other city has more self-driving cars on its roads.
The Chinese tech giant Baidu is leading in Wuhan with its Apollo Go platform. In the long term, the company plans to operate its cars nationwide. Wuhan serves as the proving ground for this advance. Baidu currently operates more than 500 robot taxis in Wuhan and plans to increase this number to 1,000 by the end of the year. According to Baidu, around 300 of these cars are fully autonomous. The rest still have a backup driver. Other Chinese cities are also conducting similar tests on a smaller scale.
In 2019, Baidu received an operating license for autonomous vehicles in Wuhan. In 2022, Baidu was allowed to operate its vehicles on public roads without a backup driver. Since then, Baidu has expanded its robot taxis to cover an area of more than 3,000 square kilometers in the city. The Apollo Go robot taxis have become a familiar sight in downtown Wuhan.
Experience in Wuhan shows that Baidu and other operators are making great technological strides and have many fans. However, opposition against robot taxis is also growing. The lobby of cab and ride-hailing drivers is particularly opposed. They fear for their jobs.
Cab drivers are already dissatisfied because ride-hailing services such as DiDi have been competing with them for years. Meanwhile, ride-hailing drivers complain that too many drivers are pushing onto the platforms and offering their services, which cuts into their already low income. Now, robot taxis are also being added to the mix.
Baidu aims to make its Apollo Go business in Wuhan profitable as early as next year. To help achieve this, the company’s latest generation of robot taxis will cost just 200,000 yuan (around 25,000 euros). That is 60 percent cheaper than the previous generation.
Cab rides are already highly affordable in China, and Baidu is lowering prices even further. A 10-kilometer ride in a robot taxi in Wuhan costs between 4 and 16 yuan (approx. 0.50 to 2 euros). A regular ride-hailing service costs between 18 and 30 yuan. This means that price-wise, there is no longer any reason to choose conventional cabs.
However, there are also disadvantages. “The wait time is long, taking 8-10 minutes from order to arrival, and the driving speed is slow,” one passenger recently told the state-run Global Times, describing his experience. “Some routes aren’t the shortest; it only follows the system’s internal paths, and it may take more time,” he added. A DiDi driver told the Global Times: “I don’t think we will lose our jobs because many people feel unsafe sitting in autonomous cars, especially during rush hours in Beijing.”
Baidu recently came under fire after one of its cabs hit a pedestrian crossing the road at a red light. This incident triggered discussions about the limits of autonomous vehicles. A website run by the Wuhan government has already received over 300 complaints against robot taxis. One frequent criticism is that the cabs still react too slowly to traffic lights. Road users also complain that the robot taxis do not always integrate naturally into the traffic, causing traffic jams.
Zhang Xiang, a researcher at the North China University of Technology, told the state-run newspaper China Daily that there were still problems with very complex situations and when other road users violated traffic rules. Zhang believes it will take at least another ten years before the large-scale commercialization of autonomous robot taxis becomes a reality.
Nevertheless, there is no doubt that a gigantic new market is emerging. According to the “Electric Vehicle Outlook” report by BloombergNEF, China will have the world’s largest robot taxi fleet of around 12 million self-driving vehicles by 2040, followed by the United States with around 7 million such vehicles.
Yu Xinyan grew up in one of the last enclaves of the socialist planned economy. It was the 1990s and Yu’s parents worked in the factory of one of the large state-owned steel companies in Wuhan. Their “dānwèi” (单位) was more than just a workplace: The state provided the workers with housing, childcare and recreational activities. A large part of social life was organized in this way.
The dānwèi system persisted at the Wuhan steelworks into the new millennium, even when Yu moved to Beijing to study in 2007. But one summer, when she visited her parents, a wave of layoffs hit. Most of the employees had lost their jobs practically overnight.
Meanwhile, Yu studied journalism at Beijing Foreign Studies University, which also introduced her to international media. At that time, the media environment in China was much more liberal than it is today. “The university was very open. We got to know both the Chinese and Western forms of journalism.”
After completing her studies, Yu Xinyan worked as a production assistant for the British BBC in Beijing for several years. Her job: Making China understandable for a foreign audience – and the broadcaster’s correspondents. Not an easy task, especially given the subliminal expectations of the content of the programs: “At the time, there was a joke among Chinese journalists: There are only three China stories that go down well in the West: big China, weird China and bad China.”
However, the fact that some stories receive more media attention than others is not just a problem of China coverage, says Yu. The short video format she worked with also had its limitations.
Yu Xinyan moved to the USA in 2018. She began to give more space to individual stories with documentaries, including a short documentary about the consequences of the one-child policy and a short documentary about Chinese migrants in the United States.
Now, Yu’s first feature-length documentary is out. Along with video journalist Max Duncan, who has extensive experience with China, she worked on “Made in Ethiopia” for almost four years. The film tells the story of the Chinese industrial park “Eastern Industrial Zone.” Located 40 kilometers south of the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, Chinese construction companies have created factory grounds for more than 10,000 workers in recent years. Chinese companies use the industrial park to produce clothing and industrial goods.
The industrial park is not a state project, and the documentary does not focus on China’s geopolitical ambitions, but on the initiative of the stakeholders and the social conflicts surrounding the industrial park’s planned expansion. Much of “Made in Ethiopia” follows the Chinese director of the industrial park as she searches for investors and negotiates with the local population and authorities. The farmer Workinesh struggles to prevent the loss of her farmland; factory worker Beti dreams of a better life but struggles with the strict guidelines and performance pressure from the Chinese supervisors. Eventually, the Covid pandemic and the outbreak of civil war in Ethiopia bring the expansion plans to a halt. The idea of exporting economic development reaches its limits.
In her eyes, the resistance to the industrial park among the population, which Yu Xinyan felt during filming, is also a consequence of the country’s social instability. Many Ethiopians lack confidence that they can build a better future through their work – their lives are too unpredictable. “In China, many people had this confidence, including my parents.”
However, the hope of a better life that the economic upturn was able to give at least part of the Chinese population during the reform-and-opening policy period has evaporated in recent years, especially among the younger generation. Yu Xinyan speaks of a phase of social transition with an uncertain outcome. Nevertheless, she is optimistic about the future. After all, if the upheavals of the past decades have shown one thing, it is how adaptable the people of China are. Leonardo Pape
Not a woke show like the one at the opening of the Olympic Games in Paris, but the finale of the ChinaJoy cosplay convention in Shanghai: The performance is a fantasy drama based on Chinese mythology – with plenty of vibrant costumes and diverse actors and actresses. And quite a lot of skin is also shown. However, unlike in Paris, there is no outrage in Shanghai. Why should there be? There are no limits to the imagination.
The race for global supremacy is in full swing. While China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi is wooing the conflicting parties in the Middle East, his American counterpart Antony Blinken is traveling the Indo-Pacific. In Tokyo, he met his colleagues from Quad allies Australia, India and Japan – and incidentally sealed the most significant change in US-Japanese military relations in 70 years, writes Michael Radunski.
In the Philippine capital of Manila, Blinken is now turning his attention to the island state, which has been neglected for many years and is located in the immediate neighborhood of Taiwan and the People’s Republic. Barack Obama’s East Asia strategy “Pivot to Asia” is harmless compared to Biden’s current Indo-Pacific strategy in the region.
While still a distant dream in the West, robot taxis are already a reality in Wuhan and other Chinese cities. However, as progressive and promising as autonomous taxis sound in China, opposition is forming. And it is by no means just traditional taxi drivers who are fearing for their jobs and protesting, but also passers-by who have safety concerns. There’s still a lot of work to be done on autonomous driving – even in China.
Journalist Yu Xianfei actually made a documentary about the bright and dark sides of the construction of an industrial park in Ethiopia by Chinese investors. However, the result is a film that also critically examines China’s economic rise. Leonardo Pape introduces the filmmaker in a piece worth reading.
The foreign ministers of Australia, India, Japan and the USA agreed on Monday in Tokyo to expand their cooperation within the framework of the so-called Quad. Specifically, it is about cyber and maritime security in the Indo-Pacific. The two sides intend to work even more closely together. Quad stands for Quadrilateral Security Dialogue in the Indo-Pacific region. It is an alliance of four countries: Australia, India, Japan, and the USA.
Though the joint declaration does not directly mention China, the direction is clear: The USA is deepening its alliances in the Indo-Pacific in order to be able to firmly counter the Chinese challenge. Timing is also key here:
With this goal in mind, a far-reaching decision was made with Japan over the weekend: Establishing a new joint US force headquarters in Japan. The US is also strengthening its ties with Australia and India via Quad. The first trilateral defense talks between Japan, South Korea and the USA also took place on Sunday. Next, US Secretary of State Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will travel to the Philippines.
Blinken left no doubt about the importance of the Quad meeting on Monday in Tokyo. “This is a moment of unprecedented strategic alignment among our four countries,” said the US Secretary of State. “We have four countries that are united by a shared vision for a free and open, connected, a secure, a prosperous, resilient Indo-Pacific region.”
Specifically, the four Quad countries announced initiatives to:
The first point is particularly important. Submarine cables have become a centerpiece in the technological rivalry between the US and China. In this context, Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong unveiled a new Australian Cable Connectivity and Resilience Centre, which she presented as Australia’s “contribution” to the Quad Partnership. The US, in turn, announced plans to train more than 1,000 civil servants and telecoms executives in the region.
The other two points are intended to support other Southeast Asian countries and the Pacific Islands in expanding maritime security and defense against cyberattacks.
The statement on Monday cited “serious concerns about the situation in the East and South China Seas.” China has recently stepped up its already robust behavior in the region with a series of military exercises in the waters around Taiwan and joint military activities with Russia.
On Sunday, the US and Japan agreed on a comprehensive restructuring of their military command, which is to assume “primary responsibility for coordinating security activities in and around Japan.” Austin said, “The United States will upgrade the US Forces Japan to a joint force headquarters with expanded missions and operational responsibilities.” He called it “the most significant change to US Forces Japan since its creation – one of the strongest improvements in our military ties with Japan in 70 years.”
There are two important points in particular:
Japan is crucial to the US military strategy – also regarding Taiwan. Around 54,000 US soldiers, hundreds of US aircraft, and Washington’s only offshore aircraft carrier battle group are currently stationed in Japan. The problem: The commander of the US forces in Japan has no authority of his own but follows instructions from the US Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii.
The new structure is intended to enable the US armed forces in Japan to act more independently, quickly and in a more coordinated manner with Japan. The reorganization is expected to be completed by March 2025 and will then be led by a three-star US military general. Japan had requested the appointment of a four-star commander.
The ministers also publicly discussed the US commitment to “extended deterrence” for the first time. This refers to the US commitment to use its nuclear forces to deter attacks against allies.
It is a sensitive issue in Japan. On the one hand, Tokyo is committed to the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. On the other hand, Japan was the only country to be attacked with atomic bombs – and by the US at that. Now, however, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa says: “Amidst increasingly severe nuclear threats in the vicinity of Japan, it is important to further strengthen extended deterrence.” In addition to China, this also includes Russia and North Korea.
China has reacted angrily to the new US agreements with countries in the region. The Foreign Ministry in Beijing announced on Monday: “We strongly urge the US and Japan to immediately stop interfering in China’s internal affairs and stop creating imaginary enemies.” It said China was pursuing a defensive defense policy and posed no threat to any country.
The US Secretary of State Blinken and Secretary of Defense Austin’s next stop is Manila. There, they will hear how robustly and aggressively China is acting against the Philippines.
The rapid rise of autonomous cabs has sparked a debate in China about the safety of these cars and the future of traditional cab drivers. Social media and the state press are currently increasingly discussing the experiences from Wuhan. In the wake of the Covid pandemic, the capital of Hubei province has become the main test hub for autonomous driving. No other city has more self-driving cars on its roads.
The Chinese tech giant Baidu is leading in Wuhan with its Apollo Go platform. In the long term, the company plans to operate its cars nationwide. Wuhan serves as the proving ground for this advance. Baidu currently operates more than 500 robot taxis in Wuhan and plans to increase this number to 1,000 by the end of the year. According to Baidu, around 300 of these cars are fully autonomous. The rest still have a backup driver. Other Chinese cities are also conducting similar tests on a smaller scale.
In 2019, Baidu received an operating license for autonomous vehicles in Wuhan. In 2022, Baidu was allowed to operate its vehicles on public roads without a backup driver. Since then, Baidu has expanded its robot taxis to cover an area of more than 3,000 square kilometers in the city. The Apollo Go robot taxis have become a familiar sight in downtown Wuhan.
Experience in Wuhan shows that Baidu and other operators are making great technological strides and have many fans. However, opposition against robot taxis is also growing. The lobby of cab and ride-hailing drivers is particularly opposed. They fear for their jobs.
Cab drivers are already dissatisfied because ride-hailing services such as DiDi have been competing with them for years. Meanwhile, ride-hailing drivers complain that too many drivers are pushing onto the platforms and offering their services, which cuts into their already low income. Now, robot taxis are also being added to the mix.
Baidu aims to make its Apollo Go business in Wuhan profitable as early as next year. To help achieve this, the company’s latest generation of robot taxis will cost just 200,000 yuan (around 25,000 euros). That is 60 percent cheaper than the previous generation.
Cab rides are already highly affordable in China, and Baidu is lowering prices even further. A 10-kilometer ride in a robot taxi in Wuhan costs between 4 and 16 yuan (approx. 0.50 to 2 euros). A regular ride-hailing service costs between 18 and 30 yuan. This means that price-wise, there is no longer any reason to choose conventional cabs.
However, there are also disadvantages. “The wait time is long, taking 8-10 minutes from order to arrival, and the driving speed is slow,” one passenger recently told the state-run Global Times, describing his experience. “Some routes aren’t the shortest; it only follows the system’s internal paths, and it may take more time,” he added. A DiDi driver told the Global Times: “I don’t think we will lose our jobs because many people feel unsafe sitting in autonomous cars, especially during rush hours in Beijing.”
Baidu recently came under fire after one of its cabs hit a pedestrian crossing the road at a red light. This incident triggered discussions about the limits of autonomous vehicles. A website run by the Wuhan government has already received over 300 complaints against robot taxis. One frequent criticism is that the cabs still react too slowly to traffic lights. Road users also complain that the robot taxis do not always integrate naturally into the traffic, causing traffic jams.
Zhang Xiang, a researcher at the North China University of Technology, told the state-run newspaper China Daily that there were still problems with very complex situations and when other road users violated traffic rules. Zhang believes it will take at least another ten years before the large-scale commercialization of autonomous robot taxis becomes a reality.
Nevertheless, there is no doubt that a gigantic new market is emerging. According to the “Electric Vehicle Outlook” report by BloombergNEF, China will have the world’s largest robot taxi fleet of around 12 million self-driving vehicles by 2040, followed by the United States with around 7 million such vehicles.
Yu Xinyan grew up in one of the last enclaves of the socialist planned economy. It was the 1990s and Yu’s parents worked in the factory of one of the large state-owned steel companies in Wuhan. Their “dānwèi” (单位) was more than just a workplace: The state provided the workers with housing, childcare and recreational activities. A large part of social life was organized in this way.
The dānwèi system persisted at the Wuhan steelworks into the new millennium, even when Yu moved to Beijing to study in 2007. But one summer, when she visited her parents, a wave of layoffs hit. Most of the employees had lost their jobs practically overnight.
Meanwhile, Yu studied journalism at Beijing Foreign Studies University, which also introduced her to international media. At that time, the media environment in China was much more liberal than it is today. “The university was very open. We got to know both the Chinese and Western forms of journalism.”
After completing her studies, Yu Xinyan worked as a production assistant for the British BBC in Beijing for several years. Her job: Making China understandable for a foreign audience – and the broadcaster’s correspondents. Not an easy task, especially given the subliminal expectations of the content of the programs: “At the time, there was a joke among Chinese journalists: There are only three China stories that go down well in the West: big China, weird China and bad China.”
However, the fact that some stories receive more media attention than others is not just a problem of China coverage, says Yu. The short video format she worked with also had its limitations.
Yu Xinyan moved to the USA in 2018. She began to give more space to individual stories with documentaries, including a short documentary about the consequences of the one-child policy and a short documentary about Chinese migrants in the United States.
Now, Yu’s first feature-length documentary is out. Along with video journalist Max Duncan, who has extensive experience with China, she worked on “Made in Ethiopia” for almost four years. The film tells the story of the Chinese industrial park “Eastern Industrial Zone.” Located 40 kilometers south of the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, Chinese construction companies have created factory grounds for more than 10,000 workers in recent years. Chinese companies use the industrial park to produce clothing and industrial goods.
The industrial park is not a state project, and the documentary does not focus on China’s geopolitical ambitions, but on the initiative of the stakeholders and the social conflicts surrounding the industrial park’s planned expansion. Much of “Made in Ethiopia” follows the Chinese director of the industrial park as she searches for investors and negotiates with the local population and authorities. The farmer Workinesh struggles to prevent the loss of her farmland; factory worker Beti dreams of a better life but struggles with the strict guidelines and performance pressure from the Chinese supervisors. Eventually, the Covid pandemic and the outbreak of civil war in Ethiopia bring the expansion plans to a halt. The idea of exporting economic development reaches its limits.
In her eyes, the resistance to the industrial park among the population, which Yu Xinyan felt during filming, is also a consequence of the country’s social instability. Many Ethiopians lack confidence that they can build a better future through their work – their lives are too unpredictable. “In China, many people had this confidence, including my parents.”
However, the hope of a better life that the economic upturn was able to give at least part of the Chinese population during the reform-and-opening policy period has evaporated in recent years, especially among the younger generation. Yu Xinyan speaks of a phase of social transition with an uncertain outcome. Nevertheless, she is optimistic about the future. After all, if the upheavals of the past decades have shown one thing, it is how adaptable the people of China are. Leonardo Pape
Not a woke show like the one at the opening of the Olympic Games in Paris, but the finale of the ChinaJoy cosplay convention in Shanghai: The performance is a fantasy drama based on Chinese mythology – with plenty of vibrant costumes and diverse actors and actresses. And quite a lot of skin is also shown. However, unlike in Paris, there is no outrage in Shanghai. Why should there be? There are no limits to the imagination.
