China Watch

Blurb:

Shares of Europe’s biggest carmakers rose Monday as fears over an industry shortage of semiconductors appeared to recede.

China on Saturday said it would consider some exemptions for Nexperia chip exports. It had previously blocked Nexperia semiconductors from leaving the country after the Dutch government seized control of Nexperia, owned by the Chinese company Wingtech.

The standoff between the Netherlands and China had prompted automotive groups to raise the alarm over a worsening chip shortage.

Blurb:

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today said Chinese Premier Li Qiang has agreed to accelerate talks on the South China Sea Code of Conduct (COC) with Asean member states.

Anwar said the Chinese leader’s remarks came after the bloc stressed that all maritime disputes in the South China Sea be resolved based on a mutually-agreed code of conduct during the recent Asean-China Summit.

“All agreed that this region should not be an area of contestation for superpowers,” Anwar told reporters after the closing ceremony of the 47th Asean Summit and Related Summits, here, today.

“Their presence is accepted. We work with some maritime initiatives with the Americans and conduct traditional military exercises with Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Singapore.

Blurb:

True to form, Xi’s regime claims that the military leaders swept up by his latest purge – including General He Weidong, a member of the Politburo, Vice Chair of the Central Military Commission, and the third-highest-ranking figure in China’s military hierarchy – committed “disciplinary violations” and “duty-related crimes.” But a more plausible explanation is that Xi is playing an interminable game of Whac-a-Rival, desperately trying to preserve his grip on power.
Xi’s fears are not entirely misplaced: each new purge deepens mistrust among China’s elite and risks turning former loyalists into enemies. From Mao Zedong to Joseph Stalin, there is ample evidence that one-man rule breeds paranoia. By now, Xi may well have lost the ability to distinguish allies from foes. At 72, Xi remains so insecure in his position that, unlike even Mao, he has refused to designate a successor, fearing that a visible heir could hasten his own downfall.
None of this bodes well for China. By refusing to lay the groundwork for an eventual leadership transition, Xi sharply increases the risk that the end of his rule – however that comes – will usher in political instability. In the meantime, Xi’s emphasis on personal fealty over ideological conformity is weakening institutional cohesion in a system once grounded in collective leadership. Coupled with his arbitrary firings and prosecutions, Chinese governance is now increasingly defined by sycophancy and anxiety, rather than competence and consistency.
China’s military is paying a particularly steep price for Xi’s insecurity. In recent years, the PLA has undergone sweeping structural reforms aimed at transforming it into a modern fighting force capable of “winning informationized wars.” But Xi’s purges risk undermining this effort by disrupting military planning and leadership. For example, his abrupt removal in 2023 of the leaders of the PLA’s Rocket Force, which oversees China’s arsenal of nuclear and conventional missiles, may have jeopardized China’s strategic deterrent.

Blurb:

Prime Minister Mark Carney plans to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping while the pair are at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum later this week in South Korea.

The meeting will come seven months after then-foreign affairs minister Melanie Joly confirmed in March that four Canadians holding dual Chinese citizenship were given the death penalty in China.

At the time, Joly said the federal government “strongly condemns” the actions by China over what they called “drug-related crimes.”

Carney said he and Xi will discuss “a broad range of issues, both in terms of the commercial relationship as well as the evolution of the global system.”

The planned meeting comes on the heels of Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand’s visit to Beijing, where she met with her counterpart, Wang Yi.

Blurb:

SINGAPORE: Chinese state oil majors have suspended purchases of seaborne Russian oil after the United States imposed sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil, Moscow’s two biggest oil companies, multiple trade sources said on Thursday (Oct 23).

The move comes as refiners in India, the largest buyer of seaborne Russian oil, are set to sharply cut their crude imports from Moscow to comply with the US sanctions imposed over the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.

A sharp drop in oil demand from Russia’s two largest customers will put a strain on Moscow’s oil revenues and force the world’s top importers to seek alternative supplies and push up global prices.

Blurb:

China’s biggest all-electric bulk carrier, named Gezhouba, was launched on Thursday in Yichang, central China’s Hubei Province, marking a key milestone in the country’s green and intelligent shipping sector.

The vessel, with a length of nearly 130 meters and a maximum load capacity of over 13,000 tonnes, is equipped with 12 lithium battery power units providing total energy capacity of 24,000 kWh.

Its developer said this vessel allows for rapid battery swapping and boasts a range of 500 kilometers.

Blurb:

Public backlash has forced local officials in Pengyuan—a community in the city of Jiangmen, Guangdong province—to rescind an order requiring residents to surrender their keys so that sanitation workers can enter outbuildings to fumigate and eradicate mosquitos. The eradication effort is in response to an outbreak of the mosquito-borne Chikungunya virus, which has resulted in over 20,000 confirmed cases throughout Guangdong this year.

The controversy began when residents in Pengyuan began complaining about a notice that had been posted by community officials, informing them that residents would be required to provide a key to parts of their property, such as bicycle sheds, so that community sanitation workers could carry out fumigation and mosquito-abatement work on a regular basis. If residents did not turn in their keys, the notice warned, workers would summon a locksmith to force entry. Some residents reported incidents of sanitation workers entering their properties without permission and confiscating plants, or using intimidation tactics to enforce compliance.