The 10th International Students’ Dragon Boat Race in Shanghai, 2017 [China Today]
Geopolitics
Chancellor Wang Yi announces that China will support African Union (AU) entry into G2o and cancel interest-free loan debts of 17 countries on the continent
President Xi is expected to attend the next G20 summit in Bali (Indonesia) in person, where the AU – which has called for entry to the G20 since its creation (1999) – has been invited; Wang thanked African support for the One China policy and reaffirmed military, economic, food, and anti-pandemic aid to Africa
Argentina’s state-owned oil company YPF signs deal with China’s Tianqi Lithium for lithium exploration and processing in South American country
The partnership may include technology transfers to Argentina, which has the world’s second largest reserves and aims to advance the industrialisation of the metal; China’s Gotion High Tech will also build two lithium processing plants with Argentina’s state-owned JEMSE, while the US plans investments to compete with China in the region
Russia became the third largest user of yuan with 4% of global payments in July (1.42% in June), behind the UK (6.4%) and Hong Kong (73.8%)
Sino-Russian trade made in dollars has fallen from 90% (2015) to below 50% (2020); facing rising tensions with the US and increasing trade ties, China and Russia realized 24% of their bilateral trade in rubles and yuan in 2021
National Politics
China welcomes the return of foreign students engaged in long-term academic study, a major step toward post-pandemic reopening
In 2018, a total of 492,185 students from 196 territories studied in mainland China; top origins of foreign students in China are South Korea, Thailand, and Pakistan, with more than 140,000 students coming from South and Southeast Asia
29 former local politicians and separatists in Hong Kong plead guilty to “conspiring to subvert state power” in the largest national security case
Former legal professor Benny Tai Yiu-ting, secessionist Joshua Wong Chi-fung, and lawmaker Wu Chi-wai are among the defendants heading to High Court for sentencing; five members of “Returning Valiant” group calling for an “armed revolution” are the first minors to be convicted
Economy
China’s unemployment insurance spending hits record US$27.6 billion in June as benefits to the unemployed increase
First-half spending includes partial reimbursement of contributions from 5.84 million companies that retained workers, worth US$4.8 billion; from 2018 to 2021, the balance of the unemployment insurance fund had a 43% drop, reaching US$48.3 billion
Agriculture and Environment
Strongest heat wave since China began weather observations in 1961 impacts power generation and autumn harvests
China has allocated US$29.5 million to disaster relief funds to help with drought relief; with the heat wave expected to subside by the end of August, experts predict that overall influence on economy will be limited
Faced with more than 50% drop in hydroelectric capacity, Sichuan government proposes reducing and changing factory hours
The measure aims to secure power for households in a province that produces 80% of its energy from hydropower and may have a shortfall of about a quarter of its demand; northern and northwestern provinces ship coal to Sichuan, while electricity grid is currently at maximum transmission capacity
People’s Life and Culture
China introduces measures to reverse country’s low birth rate, including encouraging flexible work arrangements and preferential housing policies for families
The new guideline also mandates that single mothers can access maternity benefits; in cities, a third of families do not have access to daycare centers, and China’s fertility rate (1.3) is already one of the lowest in the world (Indonesia 2.3; US 1.6)
China is the world’s largest producer and consumer of web fiction, a US$4.4 billion industry with 502 million domestic readers
Wangwen (web literature) has 20 million full- and part-time writers and over 26 million published titles, reaching almost half of China’s online population and expanding to TV shows, audio dramas, animations, and videogames; same-sex and martial arts romances are particulalry popular with international audiences
Booths for Chinese online literature platforms China Literature (left) and Fanqie Novel [IC and VCG]
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