The China Thread

[Monoriu]

How does that make the reporting dishonest?

It skipped the reason why she was fined, only stressing the "publicly available" part. 

[Monoriu]

The high cost of living and the expectation of a middle class lifestyle together with more self-confident and edcuated women is what lowers China's birthrate. Just raising the limit will not do anything. I understand that there are policies flanking this raised limit, but I doubt that it will be enough.

China has been below replacement for at least two decades now and the sex imbalance from the one-child policy where parents favored boys must also play a role.

Looks likely that the population will soon stagnate and then decline, with the working age population declining faster than the overall population.

I know someone who owns a factory on the Mainland.  He told me he used to hire 20k+ workers.  But now he can make do with a bit more than a thousand.  He bought robots.  He needed mostly engineers and technicians to maintain and calibrate the robots now. 

So the population decline may not be as disastrous as it seems. 

[The Minsky Moment]

How does that make the reporting dishonest?

It skipped the reason why she was fined, only stressing the "publicly available" part.

Seems like they got the reason right.

[grumbler]

How does that make the reporting dishonest?

It skipped the reason why she was fined, only stressing the "publicly available" part.

Seems like they got the reason right.

Yeah, you can't call thugs "thugs" in the press, when the thugs are running things.  It's so typically Chinese that publicly-available databases, funded by the public, can only be accessed if you swear you won't tell anyone what is in them (and will be taken to court if you do tell everyone what they could find out for themselves).  It's thugs all the way down.

[Syt]

https://www.verdict.co.uk/alibabas-logistics-arm-moves-south-to-hainans-free-trade-port/

Alibaba transport logistics arm to "Hawaii of China" as Hong Kong faces increased competition

Cainiao, the logistics arm of Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba, announced that it plans to launch a pilot supply chain zone in cooperation with the government of Hainan, helping the southern Chinese island become a free-trade zone similar to Hong Kong.

At the Cainiao 2021 Global Smart Logistics Summit on Thursday, the company's CEO, Wan Lin, and the director of Hainan's International Economic Development Bureau, Han Shengjiang, jointly announced that they would work together to build a digital intelligence supply chain zone on the island, which is known as the "Hawaii of China".

The Alibaba-owned company said it would support Hainan's free-trade port by giving it access to its own global logistics capabilities and expertise in digital logistics technology. The aim is to attract more than 1,000 duty-free merchants, especially those that have not yet entered the China market.

The initiative will also see the establishment of a smart service centre and global supply chain centre in Hainan, which Cainiao said will allow customers to complete a pickup within 70 seconds at designated locations, half the time it currently takes.

Last year, China announced plans to turn Hainan, a tropical island in the south of China and a popular holiday destination, into a free-trade port similar to Hong Kong. The plan outlined by Beijing stated that income tax rates for selected individuals and companies would be lowered to 15% and relaxed visa requirements for tourists and business travellers would be implemented.

The island province with a population of 9.5m will also enjoy loosened restrictions on trade, investment, capital flows and the movement of people and data by 2035, with the goal of gaining "strong international influence" by the middle of the century.

Given that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, which had always served as China's largest free-trade port, has been facing intensified pressure from Beijing, many have speculated that the Chinese government is making long-term plans to replace Hong Kong with Hainan.

In response to these speculations, Chinese officials have insisted on multiple occasions that Hainan becoming a free-trade port will complement Hong Kong's status and not threaten it. "The free-trade area of Hainan will have a different status, unlike that of Hong Kong," deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission Lin Nianxiu said after Beijing announced its plans. "It will focus on industries different from those in Hong Kong," he added.

The past year has seen Hainan rapidly expand its international reach. Cainiao said that as part of its cooperation with the island, it plans to upgrade Hainan's global freight network, including the expansion to more than 800 international cargo flights by the end of 2021. This news comes two months after the company launched seven weekly charter flights between Singapore and Hainan.

Amid rising pressure from Chinese authorities and fierce competition, Alibaba is facing a strenuous time. The ecommerce company suffered a net loss of 5.47bn yuan ($848.5m) in its fourth-quarter after it was hit with a $2.8bn antitrust fine recently.

[Josquius]

The high cost of living and the expectation of a middle class lifestyle together with more self-confident and edcuated women is what lowers China's birthrate. Just raising the limit will not do anything. I understand that there are policies flanking this raised limit, but I doubt that it will be enough.

China has been below replacement for at least two decades now and the sex imbalance from the one-child policy where parents favored boys must also play a role.

Looks likely that the population will soon stagnate and then decline, with the working age population declining faster than the overall population.

I know someone who owns a factory on the Mainland.  He told me he used to hire 20k+ workers.  But now he can make do with a bit more than a thousand.  He bought robots.  He needed mostly engineers and technicians to maintain and calibrate the robots now. 

So the population decline may not be as disastrous as it seems. 

This is a misconception. One I used to share.
The vital commodity is not workers to produce things. It's consumers and tax payers.
For the latter I suppose things could be fixed by ramping up taxes on the rich. Good luck with that in China. Even once that's done there's huge potential for instability.
For the former ... That's tough. UBI?

[Sheilbh]

Lots of rumours that Dong Jingwei, a senior Chinese intelligence figure has defected to the US which, if true, would be the most senior Chinese defector. I think it actually started on Chinese social media but I'm not sure.

Interesting to be back in a world where intelligence agencies probably are looking at each other more on a state-to-state basis and looking for defectors than their focus on terrorist networks etc. I know there's been spies in quite senior positions caught in Australia, New Zealand and, I think, Canada.

[Monoriu]

Quarantined South Koreans' passports accidentally burned after Chinese workers mistook them for garbage

The documents collected from a group of 31 visitors were put in a bag for sterilisation but workers misidentified the contents in it and sent the package to a waste treatment plant for incineration

Chinese officials apologised to South Korea for the fiasco and Seoul has expedited the process to issue new passports to the affected people

Passports belonging to a group of 31 South Koreans who arrived in China earlier this month were accidentally burned by sanitation workers after they mistook the travel documents for rubbish, local media reported on Saturday.

The incident happened after they were put into a three-week mandatory quarantine at a hotel in Beijing on June 4, Yonhap news agency and Hankook Ilbo daily reported.

Chinese authorities had collected their passports to make photocopies and complete the isolation paperwork.

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3138013/quarantined-south-koreans-passports-mistakenly-burned-after

[Berkut]

I am not super familiar with this kind of thing, but should you really EVER surrender your passport to a foreign government?

Is there ever a reason for them to actually physically take it?

[Zanza]

I am not super familiar with this kind of thing, but should you really EVER surrender your passport to a foreign government?

Is there ever a reason for them to actually physically take it?

If you apply for a visa, you typically have to give or send them your passport. I used to have two passports when I still traveled a lot for business as countries like India, Russia or China take quite some time to send your passport back. Worst was with some African countries.
If you want a US visa, you also have to leave your passport at the consulate or embassy. But they send it to you within a few days.

[Jacob]

I am not super familiar with this kind of thing, but should you really EVER surrender your passport to a foreign government?

Is there ever a reason for them to actually physically take it?

You have to do it all the time.

My wife's passport got stolen when she applied for US visa. You see, she had to send it to the consulate (couriered, for safety) and when they were done with it they MAILED it back. And - what a coincidence - the day it was delivered all the mailboxes at our condo got robbed. So she didn't go to the US as planned.

But yeah, you hand over your passport all the time when you travel or want visas. It can be pretty nerve wracking.

Anyways, the reason for them to physically take it is: they (whatever country it is) make the rules, and you don't have much of a choice, you just follow along.

[Syt]

When I got my new passport a couple of years ago, the consulate asked if I wanted to pick it up when it's ready or to have it sent to me. I said I'd pick it up. Of course they sent it via unregistered letter instead.

[Zanza]

When I got my new passport a couple of years ago, the consulate asked if I wanted to pick it up when it's ready or to have it sent to me. I said I'd pick it up. Of course they sent it via unregistered letter instead.

Inside Germany,  picking it up in person is the only option. With Covid now, it takes months to get an appointment for that apparently. 

[celedhring]

This reminds me I should get my passport renewed... old one expired in 2017 but never got around to get a new one since all my travel has been within Schengen...

[Syt]

This reminds me I should get my passport renewed... old one expired in 2017 but never got around to get a new one since all my travel has been within Schengen...

I lost my passport in 2013. It was my only form of ID since Germany at the time didn't issue ID cards to expats. So I checked the requirements for getting a replacement - the usual stuff, plus proof that you reported the old passport lost. Problem was: birth certificate. So I sent an email to the registry office of the town where I was born, explaining the dilemma.
"Please send us a copy of your ID."
"Well ... that's the issue (if you had read my email). But here's my student ID - expired for 7 years - my facebook page, and my profile on the company website. Sorry, that's all I've got."
"Ok, we'll send it to you."


That felt way too easy. They didn't even charge me, saying that it wouldn't be worth it considering it would be an international transfer (which within the SEPA area should not be an issue ...). When I handed in my papers to the clerk at the consulate he was surprised, because apparently it's not often that everyone has all the documents, in the right order, in original and copy, for their paperwork.

Anyways, I got my passport, and an ID card (since now the issue those, and I can keep it in my wallet) a short 3 months later.

Not that anyone ever asks me for ID in Austria except when picking up a package at the post office, or doing a Covid test.