No. 07 | 04.07.2020

A herder and her daughter in Akyaz Valley, Zhaosu County, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, 2018 [Xinhua/Hu Huhu]

National Politics

According to Hong Kong lawmaker, Western criticism of China is hypocritical, as all countries have national security laws against separatism, terrorism and collusion with foreigners

Regina Ip says that police repression of protests in the USA have reached levels unimaginable for Hong Kong and that British advocates of democracy denied basic rights to the Chinese during 156 years of colonization

Denunciation of Chinese government measures for birth control of the Uygur minority (Xinjiang Autonomous Region) by a German “researcher” Adrian Zenz omits and falsifies data

Birth rates for Han (Chinese majority) also declined and are similar to those for Uygurs. Data on IUD contraceptive use in the Region has been increased almost 10-fold

Adrian Zenz, leading source for Western media and governments condemning alleged “concentration camps” in Xinjiang based his “research” on an Islamic TV report connected to terrorist organizations and on a CIA-founded news agency

Zenz is a member of an anti-communist organization, a Christian fundamentalist against gender equality and claims to be “led by God” to fight China

Completion rate of tuition-free, nine-year compulsory education expected to reach 95% by end of year

Due to poverty alleviation efforts between early 2019 to June 2020, student dropout rate fell from 600,000 to 6,781 and non-attendance of students from registered poor families from 200,000 to 97.

Geopolitics

In the Extraordinary China-Africa Summit, President Xi thanked African support during the pandemic outbreak in China and reaffirmed assistance for the continent

China guarantees 30 million testing kits plus 10,000 ventilators and 80 million masks per month to Africa.  The construction of the new African Disease Control Center is anticipated and promise was made that Africa will have priority in receiving vaccines

China will award nearly 12,000 scholarships to African students to attend Chinese universities next year, almost 5 times more than the UK, France and Germany combined

80% of students return to their countries after graduation and will be important factors for the development of the continent

Chinese government demands US media outlets – Associated Press, UPI, CBS and NPR – declare information about their employees, finances, operations and properties in China

Foreign Ministry says it is “self-defense” against recent White House attacks on Chinese media in the US

Wave of boycotts against Chinese companies could hurt sectors of the Indian economy that depend on Chinese manufacturing and investments, such as telecommunications and pharmaceuticals

Bilateral trade went from US $65.7 billion (2014) to US $87 billion (2019), current Chinese investment is US $26 billion and 60% of Chinese exports to India of intermediate and capital goods

Economy

Industry profit rate rebounds by 5% (January-May), after falling to 3.54% during the pandemic (January-February), but remains below the 2019 rate of 5.86% 

Industrial profits totaled US $263 billion, down 19.3% annually, but electronics/computers (34.7%) and processed foods (19%) had a significant annual increase

Gross revenue of state-owned enterprises (January-May) was US $3.09 trillion and fell 7.7% in annual comparison, but represented a jump of 251.1% in relation to April   

May’s performance is yet another sign of economic recovery due to increase in industrial production and fall in the price of raw materials

Category Icons

Agriculture and Environment

Ministry of Agriculture approves import of two new varieties of genetically modified soy, one of them (Dabeinong Technology) resistant to glufosate and glufosinate, the other (Bayer/Monsanto) resistant to insects

Planting of transgenic soybeans is prohibited in the country, but imports are massive; soy will be used in animal feed and Argentina will start producing soon

China is the largest exporter of organic products to the EU, with 433,000 tonnes last year (13.3% of the total)

Main product is soy for animal feed (77% of the total), followed by sesame and peanut oil, honey and vegetables

National ecological recovery program has transformed 34.3 million hectares of agricultural land into forests and pastures in the last 20 years

With investments of US $72 billion, the government gave subsidies of US $1,250 per family and involved 158 million people in the project, which will be expanded

Science and Technology

Online medicine can decrease health care gap between rural (1.59 doctors per 1000 inhabitants) and urban (3.92 / 1000), reducing illness-induced poverty (30 million people in 2015)            

Industry is expected to grow from US $14 billion (2020) to US $28 billion (2026), but experts warn of limits of the technologies

The first tests were carried out in Shanghai with 600 km/h Chinese Maglev, a magnetically levitated train which will be launched in 2025

Beijing-Shanghai trip will take 3.5 hours with Maglev, while plane takes about 4h (counting the preparation); China will match Japan at the forefront of the sector

People’s Life and Culture

“Respite care” pilot project responds to China’s rapidly aging population, offering short-term elder care relief to families at homes and hospitals

2018 elderly population was 249 million — 180 million with chronic diseases, 40 million disabled — expected to peak at 300 million by 2035

China’s longest-serving legislator and champion of peasant cooperatives and women’s labor rights, Shen Jilan, passes away at age 91

From Taihing communist revolutionary base, Shen was elected to all 13 terms of the National People’s Congress – China’s top legislature – since its 1954 founding

Shen Jilan released the report at the Special Care Model representative meeting in Changzhi in February 1953 [Wikimedia Commons]