A busier week than usual.
Environment
David Fishman: In 2020, Xi announced its 1200 GW by 2030 target, when total wind+solar capacity was ~446 GW and wind and solar were 223 GW each. At the time, the idea of adding 38 GW each of wind and solar every year for a decade was aggressive. The 1200 GW target by 2030 was not sandbagging, but an ambitious hope to maintain high wind/solar growth despite unhappy builders earning no subsidies. But maintaining high growth wasn’t a problem at all.. In 2021 China added 55 GW of solar and 47 GW of wind.. with 20/20 hindsight, yes, the 2030 goal was way too low, but not intentionally so…it reflected some ambitious thinking in the uncertain environment of the time and now clearly needs an update. Double it??
China electrifies more industries. This year, Beijing suspended all new steel plant permits and only issued permits for Electric Arc Furnace steelmaking plants, as it shifts away from coal powered steel plants. That makes a big difference. China is growing the full green hydrogen related supply chain from upstream equipment to transportation of fuel to downstream applications in FCEVs, trains, refineries, ammonia and methanol. Most recently, China just started sea trial on a large Liquid CO2 ship and a Very Large Ammonia Carrier. [TP Huang].
Economists argue that BEVs “may not contribute much” to GDP growth unless via exports. This is wrong on several points:
The author openly acknowledges that BEVs represent a technological improvement over ICE vehicles. It’s a higher-quality vehicle w/ better features that is cheaper to produce and has lower lifetime TCO (total cost of ownership) mainly due to lower fuel costs.
China’s car industry has absolutely not yet reached maturity. Per capita vehicle penetration is between Albania and Guatemala because ICE vehicles have historically been unaffordable for the typical Chinese HH, in upfront and ongoing costs of gasoline which is expensive in China, the world’s largest importer.
With EVs lowering both the upfront cost and even more significantly, future operating costs, this becomes more affordable to a greater number of Chinese HHs, expanding the addressable market. This may enable China to reach Korea (526) or even Japan (661) levels of vehicle ownership if the relative cost of vehicles is brought down low enough relative to HH incomes.
Robotaxis are here to stay. With over 400 in operation in Wuhan and plans for 1,000 by the end of 2024, Baidu is betting on this service, expecting profitability in Wuhan by 2025. The popularity of these self-driving taxis, fueled by Baidu’s cheap fares, has the company eyeing expansion into other Chinese megacities, supported by eager local governments. Over three days, Sixth Tone rode the robotaxis through the city, from morning rush hour to late at night, witnessing firsthand how this cutting-edge technology is reshaping life in Wuhan.
7 million ha. of 3D models have been constructed and spatial geographic data regularly updated since 2022, says The Ministry of Natural Resources. These resources have been enriched with topographic maps of the country’s land territory in different scales. The ministry has a network of Beidou satellite navigation stations, providing a unified national surveying and mapping service. By 2035, terrain-level real-scene maps with 5 cm precision should cover the country’s prefecture-level cities and 80% of government decisions, production dispatching and residents’ life planning conducted in online real-scene space.
Biodiversity steadily improving since 2020 Yangtze fishing ban, with 227 species of native fish monitored, an increase of 34 species from the previous year. 14 species of nationally protected aquatic wildlife were recorded in 2023 – three more than in the previous year and their habitat conditions were also generally stable. Water quality of the Yangtze and its tributaries had been rated as “excellent”, and the intensity of new development projects like sand mining and waterway regulation has decreased. Aquatic biological resources, including fish, invertebrates and amphibians, continued to recover, with a 17% increase in resource density – or the number of aquatic animals per unit area – in the main channel of the Yangtze, and 64% increase in major tributaries compared to 2022.
Critically endangered Gobi bears were spotted for the first time in Xiayama Township, 20 km from the China-Mongolia border. They are the only bear species that inhabits desert environments, with a population of just over 50, all found in Mongolia.
Society
One priority of China’s next round of reform: enhancing personal income, and a package of policies support income distribution, farmers settling in cities, institutional improvements to social insurance, education and medical services–which will in turn boost consumption. Once China develops a world-class, competitive service industry in addition to manufacturing, the economy will sustain steady growth in the future.
With the end of affirmative action, MIT’s freshman class should better reflect merit. Compared to when there was affirmative action, the latest incoming freshmen are: 62% less Black (13% -> 5%); 27% less Hispanic (15% -> 11%); 15% more Asian (41% -> 47%).
Rural hukou holders’ difficulties permeate nearly every aspect of life. While it is impossible to list every challenge, these examples underscore the deep-seated inequalities that persist in Chinese society. A brief look into the history of the household registration system reveals that these burdens are not easily lifted, even with recent legal reforms.
In third grade, my twins, Ariel and Natasha, officially joined the Young Pioneers of China, aged 6-14. There was no application, no interview and no ceremony..When I picked up the girls after school, it wasn’t unusual for a mother or father to approach me with their child in tow, “Look at Cai Cai and Rou Rou,” the mother would say, using the twins’ Chinese names, and then she would exaggerate their abilities. “They just started learning Chinese, and they’re already better than you!”
China’s new digital identity system cuts personal information that internet platforms can collect from their users. The current real-name registration system, introduced last year, has left platforms with an excessive amount of their users’ personal information, exacerbating privacy concerns and the risk of breaches. In 2021, China’s internet watchdog named and shamed 105 apps for data use violations, including ByteDance’s Douyin and Microsoft Corp.’s LinkedIn.
Chinese Women Spark Fury After Locking Crying Toddler in Plane Toilet. The women said they were just trying to help the child’s grandparents “set some rules”. [for connoisseurs of Chinese community responsibility for children].
Xi wants to build a sports powerhouse to:
shape the complete personality at the individual level,
develop a ‘creative society’ at the social level,
cultivate a ‘confident nation’ at the national level,
promote ‘Chinese wisdom’ at the civilizational level, and
construct a ‘colorful world’ at the international level.
In sharp contrast to Europe, India etc, Chinese civilization traces directly to the Neolithic age. Different Neolithic cultures and population centers in China amalgamated into one civilization in the period from 3,000BC to the Iron Age. Today’s Chinese descend directly from Neolithic populations in China. Cultural exchanges have happened when locals adopted innovations–rather than by population replacement. Shang Dynasty bronze ritual vessels have the same shape as Neolithic ritual pottery vessels. Reverence for jade objects dates to Xinglongwa culture, 8,000 years ago, and is central to Chinese culture today.
From an HCC reader and Chinese professor: “All the Chinese elites hated the Cultural Revolution and know that they would not survive another cultural revolution. But they are hated so much by the common people. I met so many people who asked me why there was not a revolution to wipe out these scum. The anger is burning slowly. If Xi is wise, he should learn from Chairman Mao and take the risk and allow the chaos to confuse the Chinese elites. That way, Xi would become the next Mao. Otherwise, if the people rise up to overthrow the corrupt government, he would be buried with the corrupt elite. I don’t dare to estimate how many of the
The content below was originally paywalled.
academic staff in China are infected by the American disease. It certainly is worse at the Shanghainese universities (especially Fudan) and at the NanDa. I noticed it occasionally at the BeiDa. But at the Humanities / social sciences faculty of the Wuhan and Anhui university (in Hefei), both Double First-Class universities, I have never seen such a pro-American attitude. Maybe, if the virus is spreading further, a new kind of Cultural Revolution is necessary. But Xi Jinping, himself and his father, a victim of the CR, has declared at least on two occasions that the Cultural Revolution was a mistake. If they want to clean the affected universities, they will certainly do this in a different way than Mao Zedong did in 1966. Back then, university professors were ruthlessly and indiscriminately humiliated and chased through the streets. Today, the CPC undoubtedly already has databases of ideologically sick professors, and can act in a much more precise way”.
“Pandemic preparedness encompasses too many aspects to be fully detailed here, but one key issue deserves in-depth discussion: how to optimize prevention and control strategies to reduce transmission more effectively, harmoniously, and at a lower cost. Non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) include individual protection, testing, contact tracing and isolation, and even lockdowns. Among these, individual protection is particularly crucial. People’s willingness to participate determines the level of engagement and consequently, the effectiveness of prevention and control. To increase engagement, there are two alternative approaches: mandatory measures or individual incentives. As the economic principle states, “There is no free lunch.”
Objective: To examine the prescribing of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) by 107 licensed acupuncturists in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic.A 28-question survey with nine branching questions was disseminated through collegial networks, paid advertisements, and a study website in April–July 2021. 103 participants, representing all US geographic regions, with an average of 17 years in practice. 65% received or intended to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Most patients were not receiving biomedical treatment. 97% of participants reported that they had no patients die of COVID-19, and the majority reported that <25% of their patients developed long Covid.
Aortic stent grafts cost 70% less after the NHSA received public complaints about price gouging, consulted with 12 enterprises that produce or import aortic stent grafts, aiming to regulate overcharging for medical products and safeguard the country’s health care funds and Endovastec agreed to reduce its price from 120,000 yuan to 70,000. The prices of the other 11 enterprises have also been cut to below 80,000 yuan, according to the NHSA.
“The fundamental task is cultivating people with moral integrity or fostering virtue through education. In doing so, strengthening the construction of the teaching workforce is the most important foundational work in building a strong education system. It also calls to “improve the long-term mechanism for the development of teacher ethics and work style.” The goal is to “build a high-quality, professional teaching workforce characterised by noble ethics, exceptional skills, a reasonable structure, and vitality”. By 2035, let’s have the “the spirit of educators become the conscious pursuit of the majority of teachers”. Guidelines on Building High-quality Teachers – State Council Studies.
China and Japan are admired for their extraordinarily low murder rates (0.17/100k and 0.23/100k, respectively). Nnear-zero crime and disorder in society has massive benefits. Blue-collar property and violent crime cost the USA $2.6 trillion/p.a., or 12% of GDP, plus the massive lifestyle changes made to avoid crime. In Japan or China, you can go wherever you want alone at night, leave children unattended, travel however you want (no need to stick to sealed-off cars), leave expensive possessions unsecured in public areas, and live anywhere you can afford, with corresponding cost-of-living benefits. No urban cores hollowed out by crime means shorter commutes, better amenities, and more efficient use of land.
150 Million rural people have settled in cities since 2014. China’s urbanization rate has increased from 36% in 2014 to 48% in 2023.
Overall unemployment rates are down, both YTD and YoY..The youth unemployment survey was suspended last July after highs of 21% triggered a wave of hysteria, to the surprise of nobody. In fact, the youth unemployment rate always jumps in July, because most students graduate in June, so July is the first month to enter the workforce. The influx of new graduates into the workforce means that you expand both the numerator & denominator of the unemployment calculation, which lifted youth unemployment from 13% to 17% last July. The unemployment rate for 25-29 yos (a new breakout) ticked up from 6.4% in June to 6.5% in July. Meanwhile the overall unemployment rate was up from 5.0% to 5.2% — but this includes the influx of 11 million new graduates, many of whom will not finalize their new jobs until Winter.
Sun Yang won the men’s 400-meter freestyle final at the 2024 National Summer Swimming Championships on August 25, marking his return after being banned for over four years. He was punished for questioning the credentials of doping control officials during an out-of-competition test in 2018, leading to an incomplete test. Sun Yang won gold in the 400 m. freestyle and 1500 m. freestyle at the 2012 London Olympics, becoming China’s first male Olympic swimming champion. In 2015, he became the second male swimmer, after Michael Phelps, to win back-to-back World Championship MVP titles. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, he won the men’s 200-meter freestyle, becoming the first Asian athlete to claim gold in that event.
China is piloting a housing pension system in 22 cities including Shanghai, a public fund accused to address the heavier building maintenance, since 80% of existing homes will be 30 years old by then and at higher risk of problems like roof leaks, exterior walls degrading and aging facilities. Analysts expect the move to help stabilize housing prices and prevent systemic risks.
Why did Japan develop so quickly after its defeat? Because Japan plundered 21,000 tons of gold, 1 billion tons of coal, 180 m tons of iron ore, 1.5 m tons of copper ore, 800 m tons of grain, 3.6 m historical relics, hundreds of millions of cubic meters of wood, and countless factories and shops were looted, leaving mass graves filled with bones. Where did these mass graves come from?
Under inhuman treatment, more and more laborers died and were buried collectively, forming the mass graves we see today. Later, pits where the bodies were discarded were filled up. There are more than 80 mass graves like this one discovered across the country, with more than 60 in the Northeast and 34 in Liaoning alone. Each of these mass graves has several mass graves. When the bodies were discovered, the causes of death were bizarre.
The Japanese still refuse to admit it. Today’s Zionism and Jewish parasitism are even more aggressive and genocidal against the people of Palestine than the Japanese invaders in China! This is what the West has done in the civilized world!
Propaganda
David Rennie, The Economist’s China editor and son of Britain’s spy chief, became famous for his scrutiny through stories like these
China wants to change, or break, a world order set by others.
How a new generation of Chinese exiles is keeping hope alive.
How the Chinese state is hollowing out religion in Xinjiang.
Alas, China will no longer benefit from David’s scrutiny, since he is leaving for good.
