Trade data shows no decoupling + Inequality debate during Covid
No decoupling: China shifts trade to Asia
Covid movement profiles: Beijing discusses inequality
Lithuania dispute reaches World Trade Organization
Blinken’s call with Foreign Minister Wang
Stellantis takes over joint venture in China
Hong Kong shortens quarantine
Qinghai bans religious group chat
Chinese horoscope: with mixed feelings into the year of the tiger
Dear reader,
Decoupling is currently the buzzword in foreign trade discussions. Especially after the supply chain shocks of recent years, the decoupling of national economies is on the agenda of many economic policymakers – including in Germany. In addition, the United States also has to deal with its rivalry with China. It seems that the hope in Washington is to stop helping the rise of the new superpower through trade and technology flows.
However, the plan to slow down China is failing spectacularly at the moment, analyzes Frank Sieren. China’s economy is anything but decoupled from global trade. On the contrary. China is trading more avidly than ever before. With whom? With partners along the Silk Road and neighboring Asian countries.
China’s international rise has been accompanied by growing prosperity at home. But the gains are unevenly distributed. This has become all too apparent to the public in the capital Beijing over the past few days. Because in China, every step made by individuals infected with Covid is visible on the Internet. The first two movement profiles of the new year belonged to a decadent luxury shopper and a day laborer who scrapes by with dirty and exhausting jobs. Regardless of how much truth there is to these cases, the capital of communist China debates about the rift between rich and poor, writes Fabian Kretschmer.
You don’t have to be a Chinese communist to understand China’s growing desire for more economic independence from the West. This has not only been the case since Beijing’s experience with Donald Trump. However, Trump has finally shown Beijing how the power struggle between the West and China can look: The established world power is trying to slow down the rising superpower.
The fact that Trump has thus accelerated Beijing’s trend toward more independence is not surprising. Trump’s short-sighted policy has harmed the USA instead of making it “great” again. One of the most telling pieces of evidence for this is found in the latest trade statistics: Beijing is buying less from the West than in previous decades and is instead turning its attention to Asia.
In 2021, the Chinese exported a quarter more to the US than they imported American products. At $676 billion, the US trade deficit with China is higher than ever (China.Table reported). This trend becomes clearer when looking at the EU. China even sells 57 percent more products to Europe than it imports European goods.
Retreat from the West and opening up to Asia
The fact that China is buying less from the West can certainly be described as a retreat movement. This retreat from one part of the world corresponds to an opening in other parts of the world. In short, China is not buying less, it is merely buying elsewhere. And it is doing so from more politically grateful and presumably more reliable suppliers.
Imports from ASEAN countries, now China’s largest trading partners ahead of the EU, rose by more than 22 percent in 2021. And even from Australia, which is currently locked in a bitter political dispute with China, imports are rising by almost 20 percent. Imports from Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, the New Silk Road) countries are also increasing. Even trade with India, which is not part of either the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership RCEP or the BRI, has increased despite severe political tensions. Silk Road trade increased by over 45 percent in 2021, cracking the $100 billion mark for the first time. What is also important in this context is how much China purchases from India. Imports have seen growth of a good 38 percent.
What is happening with China’s trade is no decoupling from the West. It is rather a diversification towards Asia and Africa. In the course of this diversification, the country is becoming more intertwined with the world than ever before. In 2021, China’s trade crossed the $6 trillion threshold, with exports and imports growing by around 30 percent.
All this speaks against the thesis of gradual decoupling. Never before has a country achieved such a high trade surplus. Without the semiconductor shortages, power outages, and closed ports due to Covid cases, the figure would possibly be even higher.
RCEP as a laboratory of openness and cooperation
This trend will even increase further, considering that China currently only has a per capita income on a par with Romania. On January 1, 2022, RCEP, the largest free trade zone in the world, began its operations. All of Asia, including Australia, is participating (China.Table reported). Only India is still hesitant but has yet not closed the door for good.
The goal is to build a single Asian market – without the help or mediation of the West, and most certainly with the common goal of less dependence on the West. What is unique about this free trade area is not only its sheer size, with around 30 percent of the world’s population and around 30 percent of global GDP but above all its diversity. Never before in world history did so many countries with such different levels of development, such different sizes, such different political systems, and religions come together to form a single market.
A one of a kind laboratory of openness and cooperation in globalization has materialized. A laboratory that was launched and led by China and negotiated with great determination and patience over eight years, even though painful compromises were necessary to get the signatures of 15 countries to sign the treaty. Ensuring stability within the RCEP will certainly not be easy, as the development of the EU has already shown. On the other hand, the chances are good that the participating countries will find common pragmatic ground.
International trend: bolster domestic consumption
In addition, much of Beijing’s policy, which the West perceives as an ideologically motivated retreat, is actually normal behavior for large emerging economies. This includes, for example, the tendency of every large country to try and generate as much domestic economic growth as possible to limit dependency on the ups and downs of global power struggles.
So when China’s policymakers decide to strengthen domestic consumption, this is far from decoupling, and certainly not a return to Mao, but the same development the Americans went through a few decades ago and one that Germany would certainly like to follow. However, the German population is too small for this, which is why a good 40 percent of the German economy continues to depend on exports.
China has made good headway in domestic consumption. While the share was still at 54 percent in 2020, it is now well over 60 percent. This is a figure that China had once already reached in 2000, but which then shrank again as a result of a major trade upswing when China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. Nevertheless, there is still room for improvement compared to the USA. Its share is just under 70 percent.
Exports
Geopolitics
RCEP
Trade
How two Covid infections expose inequality in Beijing
There is hardly any other Chinese city where decadent wealth and bitter poverty meet so starkly: In the nightlife district of Sanlitun, the sons of CP honchos cruise around in their brightly colored Ferraris, while old women in tattered clothes are begging for handouts on the street corners. In flashy shopping malls, female customers carry designer bags that exceed the annual salary of the receptionists at the entrance many times over. The inequality is plain to see, and yet it is rarely addressed or even criticized by the capital’s citizens.
Of all things, the first two Covid infections of 2021 have now triggered the long-overdue debate on how socialism is compatible with this inequality. The debate was triggered by the published movement profiles of two very different Beijing citizens.
The first movement profile belongs to a woman from the upscale Haidian district, where the city’s most prestigious schools are located. Her days resembled a marathon run between posh restaurants and designer boutiques. And on weekends, the Beijing woman relaxed by skiing in the surrounding mountains.
Barely four days later, local authorities then published the movement profile of another infected individual: The man from Chaoyang district had taken on 30 different day laborer jobs over the last 14 days. He carried bags of cement, sorted waste, and scoured garbage dumps for scrap metal. He always worked after midnight until early in the morning; When the first Beijingers rushed to their offices, Mr. Yue tried to catch up on some sleep in a small storeroom on the outskirts of the city. A room for which the migrant worker pays the equivalent of 100 euros per month.
China’s social media users took notice of the glaring discrepancy. They compared the movement profiles of the two strangers side by side – and were shocked over how two different realities of life coexist in their home country.
The day laborer becomes a sensation on the net
Local media immediately tracked down the 44-year-old man – and made him a viral sensation, generating hundreds of millions of clicks online. But Yue Zongxian’s story will not have a happy ending: The fisherman from the coastal province of Shandong moved to the Chinese capital just two months ago, where he continued the search for his son, who went missing in August. However, it is said that his son took his own life, and the local police have shown Mr. Yue the decomposed body of a young man. However, he does not believe that this was his son. So he continues to search.
There are a lot of people like Mr. Yue in China than the glittering skyscrapers of Shanghai and Shenzhen would suggest. Two years ago, Premier Li Keqiang reminded the population of a sobering statistic: 600 million Chinese still have to get by on less than ¥1,000 (€140) a month. The Gini coefficient, which measures social inequality, reaches similar values in China as in the United States.
This has turned into a problem for the ruling party, which still calls itself “communist”. In his speeches, Xi Jinping is constantly referring to “common prosperity,” which holds top priority (China.Table reported). Economic growth should finally reach those who have so far barely benefited from China’s rise – first and foremost its rural population, which earns only about a third of the city population.
Yue Zongxian’s hardships triggered a wave of empathy among many of his fellow citizens, who showered the 44-year-old with virtual “hongbao”. However, Yue rejected all “red envelopes”. He said he did not want donations out of pity. Besides, as he told the media, it is everyone’s responsibility to work hard and take care of their family. Fabian Kretschmer
Health
Society
Xi Jinping
News
Lithuania dispute: EU turns to the WTO
The European Union has initiated proceedings against China at the World Trade Organization (WTO) over the trade blockade against Lithuania. Brussels submitted a request for consultation with China in Geneva on Thursday after concluding its investigation of the embargo, the EU Commission said. According to the statement, the EU has evidence that the People’s Republic refuses to clear Lithuanian goods at customs, rejects import requests from Lithuania, and pressures companies from other EU member states to eliminate Lithuanian suppliers from their supply chains (China.Table reported).
EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said that several attempts had been made to resolve the trade dispute between Lithuania and China bilaterally. After all attempts had failed, a complaint was the last resort. “Launching a WTO case is not a step we take lightly.” He added that the EU was still seeking a “diplomatic solution” with China. If the matter can be resolved another way, Brussels would not pursue the WTO case further, Dombrovskis said.
The People’s Republic had blocked Lithuanian goods from Chinese customs since early December. Starting in the middle of the month, Beijing also increased pressure on German companies exporting commodities to China which contain Lithuanian components. The Federation of German Industries endorsed Brussels’ move. “It is right to address China’s non-WTO-compliant behavior in this way and thus underline our perspective,” the association said. These arbitrary measures by Chinese customs also cause considerable uncertainty for German companies. “German exports to China with supplier components from Lithuania are stuck at the border and do not even reach German joint venture companies in China,” says the BDI.
Beijing has so far denied a trade embargo on Lithuanian goods. Chinese companies had independently decided not to buy goods from countries that “attacked China’s sovereignty.” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian reacted with criticism to the EU’s complaint at the WTO. The dispute with Lithuania is “political, not economic,” Zhao said. Therefore, the EU has no jurisdiction at all, Zhao claims. Vilnius would try to damage relations between Brussels and Beijing.
EU Trade Commissioner Dombrovskis rejected the Chinese account. He stressed that Brussels has jurisdiction in these trade matters. The EU’s request is only the first formal step toward a WTO case that will drag on for years. China has the right to refuse the consultation request. If rejected, however, a WTO dispute settlement procedure could follow. ari
EU
Lithuania
Trade
WTO
Verbal clash between Blinken and Wang
The foreign ministers of the United States and China engaged in a predictable exchange of blows on Wednesday. Wang Yi accused the Americans in a phone call of disrupting the Olympics and urged them to refrain from any interference in China’s affairs.
According to US accounts, the conversation was about Russian aggression in Ukraine. Antony Blinken had called on China to cancel its military, diplomatic and economic pressure against Taiwan. Fluctuating energy prices were also discussed, according to the report. fin
Geopolitics
Russia
Taiwan
Wang Yi
Opel parent acquires majority stake in joint venture
Opel parent company Stellantis is looking to make headway in the Chinese market by acquiring a majority stake in its joint venture GAC-Stellantis. Stellantis will increase its 50 percent stake to 75 percent, the carmaker merger between Peugeot and Fiat Chrysler announced on Thursday. The Chinese government still has to approve the deal. Details of Stellantis’ plan for the Chinese market are to be announced as part of its global strategic plan on March 1.
The current joint venture GAC-Stellantis was founded in March 2010 by Guangzhou Automobile (GAC) and Fiat. Fiat is now part of Stellantis after several mergers. In 2021, GAC-Stellantis had announced it would restructure its production in China. Company CEO Carlos Tavares announced at the time that the China strategy would be restructured. The goal was to introduce the Opel brand in China and offer fully electric vehicles.
Stellantis is thus following BMW’s lead: the Munich-based company had already announced in October 2018 that it would acquire a majority stake in its joint venture with Brilliance. BMW is currently awaiting approval from the Chinese authorities. The government in Beijing had announced at the time that it would relax regulations for foreign car companies; the easements have been in effect since the beginning of the year.
Volkswagen also wants to expand its influence through the expansion of e-mobility in China. The world’s second-largest automaker secured a majority stake in the JAC-Anhui joint venture last year after the government in Beijing eased regulations on foreign ownership. In the process, VW had already taken control of one of the plants in the eastern Chinese city of Hefei. rtr
Autoindustrie
Hong Kong shortens quarantine
Hong Kong is lowering the quarantine period on entry by seven days to 14 days. The change is effective from February 5, said Chief Executive Carrie Lam. Diplomats and the financial sector had previously criticized the length of the quarantine, arguing that it would harm competition. Lam said she was not bowing to pressure from others. Omicron has been shown to have a fairly short incubation period, she said. Previously, entrants must spend 21 days in hotel quarantine at their own expense. Lam did not yet specify to which countries the new regulation would apply. rtr
Coronavirus
Health
Hongkong
Qinghai bans religious group chats
Authorities in the Chinese northwestern province of Qinghai have announced a ban on group chats with a religious background. Digital communication via social media is punishable from March 1, reported Radio Free Asia (RFA). Tibetan Buddhists are particularly affected by this regulation. Qinghai is one of the largest Tibetan settlement areas outside Tibet. About 1.2 million Tibetans live in the province.
Accordingly, the ban also affects group chats in which only information about religious holidays or pilgrimages is disseminated. According to RFA sources, the new regulation was announced by the provincial government on January 20.
In addition to the Tibetan community, Qinghai is also home to several hundred thousand members of the Hui ethnic group, who are predominantly Muslim. Qinghai is the only province in the People’s Republic of China that shares a border with both Tibet and the Muslim-majority Xinjiang Autonomous Region. Both Buddhists and Muslims have complained for years about discrimination and ongoing human rights abuses by Chinese authorities (China.Table reported). grz
Civil Society
Human Rights
Tibet
Horoscope
What will the Year of the Water Tiger bring?
By Felix Lee
The tiger is actually a popular animal in China. The magnificent feline predator symbolizes strength, vitality, risk-taking and adventure. Just twelve years ago, when the last year of the tiger was welcomed, millions of Chinese people associated the zodiac sign with new beginnings, openness and strength. This summed up the mood of 2010 nicely. It was the year of the Expo in Shanghai, two years after the successful Summer Olympics in Beijing, the West had to deal with the aftermath of the financial crisis, and China came out on top.
China has indeed gained strength since then. But joy is now accompanied by more complex feelings than in the Tiger year of 2010. State and party leader Xi Jinping has assumed power in the meantime – and is showing himself to be stronger than many of the Chinese rulers before him.
Part of the Tiger’s discredit is now directly related to his policies. Xi had declared war on corruption shortly after the beginning of his term in 2012. Since then, he has made excessive use of the metaphor that his sweeping anti-corruption campaign would not only fight “flies” but also “tigers”. What he meant by this was that he would not only prosecute ordinary civil servants, but high-ranking party cadres and wealthy entrepreneurs as well.
Hundreds of thousands of party members, some estimate as many as a million, have since been arrested, including top cadres such as the once-powerful security chief Zhou Yongkang, who certainly exercised his power arbitrarily and was open to bribery. But Xi also went after individuals who were simply not to his political liking. So the joy among some is rather mixed when 1.5 billion Chinese people around the world greet the New Year of the Tiger on February 1st. Some now associate the tiger with fear and terror.
But traditional astrology also attributes two other aspects to the tiger. The tiger is number three in the zodiac after the rat and the buffalo in the twelve-year cycle. Those born in the year of the Tiger (i.e. 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, or 2010) are considered to be assertive, courageous, and adventurous. Tigers are also said to have a sense of intuition and an inclination to face challenges. Characteristics that are associated with a real tiger. But tigers are also considered belligerent, wild-tempered, capricious, and unpredictable. Furthermore, tigers are loners. This hardly makes “tigers” pleasant company. Congenial contemporaries are “tigers” thus in and for itself not. The tiger year could turn out to be turbulent, wild even. This does not bode well for the year – if it were not for an additional element.
The harmonic effect of water
Each zodiac sign is associated with one of five elements: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth. The year 2022 meets the element of water. And water soothes. It makes the transitions between events smooth and harmonious. Water is also flexible, not overly emotional, and purifies. The element water soothes the tiger, so to speak.
In and of itself, 2022 would be a year of conflict, possibly even war, says Hong Kong feng shui master Raymond Lo, one of five astrologers worldwide to be awarded the title of “Grand Master” by the International Feng Shui Association (IFSA). “But it appears the water Tiger year will be more positive and productive.” The need for a “healing year after the disastrous COVID-19 pandemic which caused so much disruptions in the past two years” is great, Lo says. So might the Ukraine crisis be steered into more peaceful channels after all? And could the Taiwan conflict lose its intensity in 2022? We can only hope.
Those born in the year of the Tiger will be able to advance important projects in 2022. The Year of the Tiger demands a lot of effort, but this will be rewarded accordingly. Those looking to change their career, for example, have excellent chances in 2022.
But according to astrologers, other zodiac signs are also wise to stick to the lucky charms that the zodiac sign of the Tiger will bring. Colors that promise good luck in the tiger year are blue, gray, white, and orange.
And the tigers themselves? The own year of the zodiac is by no means a year of luck. In the so-called Benming-Nian 本命年, according to Chinese astrology, the god of old age might feel offended. To ward off bad luck, anyone who happens to be in their animal year should wear something red throughout the year. That is why many Chinese wear a red ribbon around their wrist. A pair of red underpants also does the trick.
Society
Ukraine
Xi Jinping
Executive Moves
Jean-Alexandre Delbecq has been promoted to Director of Continuous Improvement at NOK-Freudenberg Group China. The mathematics graduate has been working in China for the German-Japanese company in Shanghai since 2018 as Department Head for Application Technology and Corporate Quality.
Laurin Riekehof has been promoted to Director of Aftersales in China at Stiebel Eletron Tianjin. Riekehof previously worked in China for the heat pump and ventilation manufacturer as Head of Technical Planning.
Dessert
The Guangzhou Safari Park has presented two tiger cubs. The white twin tigers Meilang and Meimei were born just over a month ago and have now been presented to the public. Just in time for the Year of the Tiger, whose beginning will be celebrated in China next week. For the two small felines, however, this begins too late: The two extremely rare tigers have been born in the year of the ox.
Covid movement profiles: Beijing discusses inequality
Lithuania dispute reaches World Trade Organization
Blinken’s call with Foreign Minister Wang
Stellantis takes over joint venture in China
Hong Kong shortens quarantine
Qinghai bans religious group chat
Chinese horoscope: with mixed feelings into the year of the tiger
Dear reader,
Decoupling is currently the buzzword in foreign trade discussions. Especially after the supply chain shocks of recent years, the decoupling of national economies is on the agenda of many economic policymakers – including in Germany. In addition, the United States also has to deal with its rivalry with China. It seems that the hope in Washington is to stop helping the rise of the new superpower through trade and technology flows.
However, the plan to slow down China is failing spectacularly at the moment, analyzes Frank Sieren. China’s economy is anything but decoupled from global trade. On the contrary. China is trading more avidly than ever before. With whom? With partners along the Silk Road and neighboring Asian countries.
China’s international rise has been accompanied by growing prosperity at home. But the gains are unevenly distributed. This has become all too apparent to the public in the capital Beijing over the past few days. Because in China, every step made by individuals infected with Covid is visible on the Internet. The first two movement profiles of the new year belonged to a decadent luxury shopper and a day laborer who scrapes by with dirty and exhausting jobs. Regardless of how much truth there is to these cases, the capital of communist China debates about the rift between rich and poor, writes Fabian Kretschmer.
You don’t have to be a Chinese communist to understand China’s growing desire for more economic independence from the West. This has not only been the case since Beijing’s experience with Donald Trump. However, Trump has finally shown Beijing how the power struggle between the West and China can look: The established world power is trying to slow down the rising superpower.
The fact that Trump has thus accelerated Beijing’s trend toward more independence is not surprising. Trump’s short-sighted policy has harmed the USA instead of making it “great” again. One of the most telling pieces of evidence for this is found in the latest trade statistics: Beijing is buying less from the West than in previous decades and is instead turning its attention to Asia.
In 2021, the Chinese exported a quarter more to the US than they imported American products. At $676 billion, the US trade deficit with China is higher than ever (China.Table reported). This trend becomes clearer when looking at the EU. China even sells 57 percent more products to Europe than it imports European goods.
Retreat from the West and opening up to Asia
The fact that China is buying less from the West can certainly be described as a retreat movement. This retreat from one part of the world corresponds to an opening in other parts of the world. In short, China is not buying less, it is merely buying elsewhere. And it is doing so from more politically grateful and presumably more reliable suppliers.
Imports from ASEAN countries, now China’s largest trading partners ahead of the EU, rose by more than 22 percent in 2021. And even from Australia, which is currently locked in a bitter political dispute with China, imports are rising by almost 20 percent. Imports from Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, the New Silk Road) countries are also increasing. Even trade with India, which is not part of either the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership RCEP or the BRI, has increased despite severe political tensions. Silk Road trade increased by over 45 percent in 2021, cracking the $100 billion mark for the first time. What is also important in this context is how much China purchases from India. Imports have seen growth of a good 38 percent.
What is happening with China’s trade is no decoupling from the West. It is rather a diversification towards Asia and Africa. In the course of this diversification, the country is becoming more intertwined with the world than ever before. In 2021, China’s trade crossed the $6 trillion threshold, with exports and imports growing by around 30 percent.
All this speaks against the thesis of gradual decoupling. Never before has a country achieved such a high trade surplus. Without the semiconductor shortages, power outages, and closed ports due to Covid cases, the figure would possibly be even higher.
RCEP as a laboratory of openness and cooperation
This trend will even increase further, considering that China currently only has a per capita income on a par with Romania. On January 1, 2022, RCEP, the largest free trade zone in the world, began its operations. All of Asia, including Australia, is participating (China.Table reported). Only India is still hesitant but has yet not closed the door for good.
The goal is to build a single Asian market – without the help or mediation of the West, and most certainly with the common goal of less dependence on the West. What is unique about this free trade area is not only its sheer size, with around 30 percent of the world’s population and around 30 percent of global GDP but above all its diversity. Never before in world history did so many countries with such different levels of development, such different sizes, such different political systems, and religions come together to form a single market.
A one of a kind laboratory of openness and cooperation in globalization has materialized. A laboratory that was launched and led by China and negotiated with great determination and patience over eight years, even though painful compromises were necessary to get the signatures of 15 countries to sign the treaty. Ensuring stability within the RCEP will certainly not be easy, as the development of the EU has already shown. On the other hand, the chances are good that the participating countries will find common pragmatic ground.
International trend: bolster domestic consumption
In addition, much of Beijing’s policy, which the West perceives as an ideologically motivated retreat, is actually normal behavior for large emerging economies. This includes, for example, the tendency of every large country to try and generate as much domestic economic growth as possible to limit dependency on the ups and downs of global power struggles.
So when China’s policymakers decide to strengthen domestic consumption, this is far from decoupling, and certainly not a return to Mao, but the same development the Americans went through a few decades ago and one that Germany would certainly like to follow. However, the German population is too small for this, which is why a good 40 percent of the German economy continues to depend on exports.
China has made good headway in domestic consumption. While the share was still at 54 percent in 2020, it is now well over 60 percent. This is a figure that China had once already reached in 2000, but which then shrank again as a result of a major trade upswing when China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. Nevertheless, there is still room for improvement compared to the USA. Its share is just under 70 percent.
Exports
Geopolitics
RCEP
Trade
How two Covid infections expose inequality in Beijing
There is hardly any other Chinese city where decadent wealth and bitter poverty meet so starkly: In the nightlife district of Sanlitun, the sons of CP honchos cruise around in their brightly colored Ferraris, while old women in tattered clothes are begging for handouts on the street corners. In flashy shopping malls, female customers carry designer bags that exceed the annual salary of the receptionists at the entrance many times over. The inequality is plain to see, and yet it is rarely addressed or even criticized by the capital’s citizens.
Of all things, the first two Covid infections of 2021 have now triggered the long-overdue debate on how socialism is compatible with this inequality. The debate was triggered by the published movement profiles of two very different Beijing citizens.
The first movement profile belongs to a woman from the upscale Haidian district, where the city’s most prestigious schools are located. Her days resembled a marathon run between posh restaurants and designer boutiques. And on weekends, the Beijing woman relaxed by skiing in the surrounding mountains.
Barely four days later, local authorities then published the movement profile of another infected individual: The man from Chaoyang district had taken on 30 different day laborer jobs over the last 14 days. He carried bags of cement, sorted waste, and scoured garbage dumps for scrap metal. He always worked after midnight until early in the morning; When the first Beijingers rushed to their offices, Mr. Yue tried to catch up on some sleep in a small storeroom on the outskirts of the city. A room for which the migrant worker pays the equivalent of 100 euros per month.
China’s social media users took notice of the glaring discrepancy. They compared the movement profiles of the two strangers side by side – and were shocked over how two different realities of life coexist in their home country.
The day laborer becomes a sensation on the net
Local media immediately tracked down the 44-year-old man – and made him a viral sensation, generating hundreds of millions of clicks online. But Yue Zongxian’s story will not have a happy ending: The fisherman from the coastal province of Shandong moved to the Chinese capital just two months ago, where he continued the search for his son, who went missing in August. However, it is said that his son took his own life, and the local police have shown Mr. Yue the decomposed body of a young man. However, he does not believe that this was his son. So he continues to search.
There are a lot of people like Mr. Yue in China than the glittering skyscrapers of Shanghai and Shenzhen would suggest. Two years ago, Premier Li Keqiang reminded the population of a sobering statistic: 600 million Chinese still have to get by on less than ¥1,000 (€140) a month. The Gini coefficient, which measures social inequality, reaches similar values in China as in the United States.
This has turned into a problem for the ruling party, which still calls itself “communist”. In his speeches, Xi Jinping is constantly referring to “common prosperity,” which holds top priority (China.Table reported). Economic growth should finally reach those who have so far barely benefited from China’s rise – first and foremost its rural population, which earns only about a third of the city population.
Yue Zongxian’s hardships triggered a wave of empathy among many of his fellow citizens, who showered the 44-year-old with virtual “hongbao”. However, Yue rejected all “red envelopes”. He said he did not want donations out of pity. Besides, as he told the media, it is everyone’s responsibility to work hard and take care of their family. Fabian Kretschmer
Health
Society
Xi Jinping
News
Lithuania dispute: EU turns to the WTO
The European Union has initiated proceedings against China at the World Trade Organization (WTO) over the trade blockade against Lithuania. Brussels submitted a request for consultation with China in Geneva on Thursday after concluding its investigation of the embargo, the EU Commission said. According to the statement, the EU has evidence that the People’s Republic refuses to clear Lithuanian goods at customs, rejects import requests from Lithuania, and pressures companies from other EU member states to eliminate Lithuanian suppliers from their supply chains (China.Table reported).
EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said that several attempts had been made to resolve the trade dispute between Lithuania and China bilaterally. After all attempts had failed, a complaint was the last resort. “Launching a WTO case is not a step we take lightly.” He added that the EU was still seeking a “diplomatic solution” with China. If the matter can be resolved another way, Brussels would not pursue the WTO case further, Dombrovskis said.
The People’s Republic had blocked Lithuanian goods from Chinese customs since early December. Starting in the middle of the month, Beijing also increased pressure on German companies exporting commodities to China which contain Lithuanian components. The Federation of German Industries endorsed Brussels’ move. “It is right to address China’s non-WTO-compliant behavior in this way and thus underline our perspective,” the association said. These arbitrary measures by Chinese customs also cause considerable uncertainty for German companies. “German exports to China with supplier components from Lithuania are stuck at the border and do not even reach German joint venture companies in China,” says the BDI.
Beijing has so far denied a trade embargo on Lithuanian goods. Chinese companies had independently decided not to buy goods from countries that “attacked China’s sovereignty.” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian reacted with criticism to the EU’s complaint at the WTO. The dispute with Lithuania is “political, not economic,” Zhao said. Therefore, the EU has no jurisdiction at all, Zhao claims. Vilnius would try to damage relations between Brussels and Beijing.
EU Trade Commissioner Dombrovskis rejected the Chinese account. He stressed that Brussels has jurisdiction in these trade matters. The EU’s request is only the first formal step toward a WTO case that will drag on for years. China has the right to refuse the consultation request. If rejected, however, a WTO dispute settlement procedure could follow. ari
EU
Lithuania
Trade
WTO
Verbal clash between Blinken and Wang
The foreign ministers of the United States and China engaged in a predictable exchange of blows on Wednesday. Wang Yi accused the Americans in a phone call of disrupting the Olympics and urged them to refrain from any interference in China’s affairs.
According to US accounts, the conversation was about Russian aggression in Ukraine. Antony Blinken had called on China to cancel its military, diplomatic and economic pressure against Taiwan. Fluctuating energy prices were also discussed, according to the report. fin
Geopolitics
Russia
Taiwan
Wang Yi
Opel parent acquires majority stake in joint venture
Opel parent company Stellantis is looking to make headway in the Chinese market by acquiring a majority stake in its joint venture GAC-Stellantis. Stellantis will increase its 50 percent stake to 75 percent, the carmaker merger between Peugeot and Fiat Chrysler announced on Thursday. The Chinese government still has to approve the deal. Details of Stellantis’ plan for the Chinese market are to be announced as part of its global strategic plan on March 1.
The current joint venture GAC-Stellantis was founded in March 2010 by Guangzhou Automobile (GAC) and Fiat. Fiat is now part of Stellantis after several mergers. In 2021, GAC-Stellantis had announced it would restructure its production in China. Company CEO Carlos Tavares announced at the time that the China strategy would be restructured. The goal was to introduce the Opel brand in China and offer fully electric vehicles.
Stellantis is thus following BMW’s lead: the Munich-based company had already announced in October 2018 that it would acquire a majority stake in its joint venture with Brilliance. BMW is currently awaiting approval from the Chinese authorities. The government in Beijing had announced at the time that it would relax regulations for foreign car companies; the easements have been in effect since the beginning of the year.
Volkswagen also wants to expand its influence through the expansion of e-mobility in China. The world’s second-largest automaker secured a majority stake in the JAC-Anhui joint venture last year after the government in Beijing eased regulations on foreign ownership. In the process, VW had already taken control of one of the plants in the eastern Chinese city of Hefei. rtr
Autoindustrie
Hong Kong shortens quarantine
Hong Kong is lowering the quarantine period on entry by seven days to 14 days. The change is effective from February 5, said Chief Executive Carrie Lam. Diplomats and the financial sector had previously criticized the length of the quarantine, arguing that it would harm competition. Lam said she was not bowing to pressure from others. Omicron has been shown to have a fairly short incubation period, she said. Previously, entrants must spend 21 days in hotel quarantine at their own expense. Lam did not yet specify to which countries the new regulation would apply. rtr
Coronavirus
Health
Hongkong
Qinghai bans religious group chats
Authorities in the Chinese northwestern province of Qinghai have announced a ban on group chats with a religious background. Digital communication via social media is punishable from March 1, reported Radio Free Asia (RFA). Tibetan Buddhists are particularly affected by this regulation. Qinghai is one of the largest Tibetan settlement areas outside Tibet. About 1.2 million Tibetans live in the province.
Accordingly, the ban also affects group chats in which only information about religious holidays or pilgrimages is disseminated. According to RFA sources, the new regulation was announced by the provincial government on January 20.
In addition to the Tibetan community, Qinghai is also home to several hundred thousand members of the Hui ethnic group, who are predominantly Muslim. Qinghai is the only province in the People’s Republic of China that shares a border with both Tibet and the Muslim-majority Xinjiang Autonomous Region. Both Buddhists and Muslims have complained for years about discrimination and ongoing human rights abuses by Chinese authorities (China.Table reported). grz
Civil Society
Human Rights
Tibet
Horoscope
What will the Year of the Water Tiger bring?
By Felix Lee
The tiger is actually a popular animal in China. The magnificent feline predator symbolizes strength, vitality, risk-taking and adventure. Just twelve years ago, when the last year of the tiger was welcomed, millions of Chinese people associated the zodiac sign with new beginnings, openness and strength. This summed up the mood of 2010 nicely. It was the year of the Expo in Shanghai, two years after the successful Summer Olympics in Beijing, the West had to deal with the aftermath of the financial crisis, and China came out on top.
China has indeed gained strength since then. But joy is now accompanied by more complex feelings than in the Tiger year of 2010. State and party leader Xi Jinping has assumed power in the meantime – and is showing himself to be stronger than many of the Chinese rulers before him.
Part of the Tiger’s discredit is now directly related to his policies. Xi had declared war on corruption shortly after the beginning of his term in 2012. Since then, he has made excessive use of the metaphor that his sweeping anti-corruption campaign would not only fight “flies” but also “tigers”. What he meant by this was that he would not only prosecute ordinary civil servants, but high-ranking party cadres and wealthy entrepreneurs as well.
Hundreds of thousands of party members, some estimate as many as a million, have since been arrested, including top cadres such as the once-powerful security chief Zhou Yongkang, who certainly exercised his power arbitrarily and was open to bribery. But Xi also went after individuals who were simply not to his political liking. So the joy among some is rather mixed when 1.5 billion Chinese people around the world greet the New Year of the Tiger on February 1st. Some now associate the tiger with fear and terror.
But traditional astrology also attributes two other aspects to the tiger. The tiger is number three in the zodiac after the rat and the buffalo in the twelve-year cycle. Those born in the year of the Tiger (i.e. 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, or 2010) are considered to be assertive, courageous, and adventurous. Tigers are also said to have a sense of intuition and an inclination to face challenges. Characteristics that are associated with a real tiger. But tigers are also considered belligerent, wild-tempered, capricious, and unpredictable. Furthermore, tigers are loners. This hardly makes “tigers” pleasant company. Congenial contemporaries are “tigers” thus in and for itself not. The tiger year could turn out to be turbulent, wild even. This does not bode well for the year – if it were not for an additional element.
The harmonic effect of water
Each zodiac sign is associated with one of five elements: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth. The year 2022 meets the element of water. And water soothes. It makes the transitions between events smooth and harmonious. Water is also flexible, not overly emotional, and purifies. The element water soothes the tiger, so to speak.
In and of itself, 2022 would be a year of conflict, possibly even war, says Hong Kong feng shui master Raymond Lo, one of five astrologers worldwide to be awarded the title of “Grand Master” by the International Feng Shui Association (IFSA). “But it appears the water Tiger year will be more positive and productive.” The need for a “healing year after the disastrous COVID-19 pandemic which caused so much disruptions in the past two years” is great, Lo says. So might the Ukraine crisis be steered into more peaceful channels after all? And could the Taiwan conflict lose its intensity in 2022? We can only hope.
Those born in the year of the Tiger will be able to advance important projects in 2022. The Year of the Tiger demands a lot of effort, but this will be rewarded accordingly. Those looking to change their career, for example, have excellent chances in 2022.
But according to astrologers, other zodiac signs are also wise to stick to the lucky charms that the zodiac sign of the Tiger will bring. Colors that promise good luck in the tiger year are blue, gray, white, and orange.
And the tigers themselves? The own year of the zodiac is by no means a year of luck. In the so-called Benming-Nian 本命年, according to Chinese astrology, the god of old age might feel offended. To ward off bad luck, anyone who happens to be in their animal year should wear something red throughout the year. That is why many Chinese wear a red ribbon around their wrist. A pair of red underpants also does the trick.
Society
Ukraine
Xi Jinping
Executive Moves
Jean-Alexandre Delbecq has been promoted to Director of Continuous Improvement at NOK-Freudenberg Group China. The mathematics graduate has been working in China for the German-Japanese company in Shanghai since 2018 as Department Head for Application Technology and Corporate Quality.
Laurin Riekehof has been promoted to Director of Aftersales in China at Stiebel Eletron Tianjin. Riekehof previously worked in China for the heat pump and ventilation manufacturer as Head of Technical Planning.
Dessert
The Guangzhou Safari Park has presented two tiger cubs. The white twin tigers Meilang and Meimei were born just over a month ago and have now been presented to the public. Just in time for the Year of the Tiger, whose beginning will be celebrated in China next week. For the two small felines, however, this begins too late: The two extremely rare tigers have been born in the year of the ox.
