People send off the firefighters from Yunnan Province, 28 August 2022 [Xinhua / Zhang Ruikun]
Dear reader,
This week, Mika Erskog joined Covert Action Bulletin to discuss what’s behind the ”debt trap” myth surrounding Africa-China relations. In episode #5 of The Crane: An Africa-China Podcast, we interview Kambale Musavuli of the Center for Research on Congo-Kinshasa, where he takes us through DRC-China relations, looking at the role local elites play in “controversial” projects, US efforts to cut China off from strategic minerals, and what’s happened at Tenke mine (in English).
In his fortnightly participation in TVT’s program Bom para Todos, Marco Fernandes talked with Talita Galli about the growing state intervention in China’s ailing real estate sector, as well as presenting our weekly newsletter Chinese Voices from Dongsheng. Watch it here (Portuguese).
—Dongsheng editorial collective
National Politics
The CPC will hold its 20th National Congress on 16 October in Beijing, where the country’s direction for the next five years will be set
The Congress will choose its top leadership with Xi Jinping expected to be elected for an unprecedented third term and 2,000 delegates will gather, for the first time since the start of the pandemic, to discuss the country’s strategic policies ahead of the G20 and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summits
Henan police arrest 234 suspected fraudsters in rural bank cases, while banking authorities refund harmed customers
A criminal syndicate illegally controlled four rural banks by offering extraordinary rates of return (from 13 to 18%); authorities made progress in recovering the money, and people with deposits between 400,000 yuan (US$58,200) and 500,000 yuan (US$72,500) are already being refunded
Geopolitics
Brazil was the country that received the most investments from China in 2021 (13.6% of the total), amounting to US$5.9 billion
The figure increased 208% compared to 2020, a year in which Chinese investments in Brazil had plummeted 74%; the oil sector led the investments (85% of the total value), while the largest number of projects were in electricity (including acquisition of a Brazilian state-owned company by a Chinese state-owned company) and information technology (10 projects)
Economy
China authorizes regional governments to issue US$72.9 billion in infrastructure bonds, targeting job recovery and private sector demand
The National People’s Congress had already approved 3.65 trillion yuan (US$530 billion) in bonds in the first semester, ensuring the largest inter-annual increase in fixed investments (7.4%) in the period in the last five years, more concentrated in state-owned enterprises (up 9.6%) than in the private sector (2.7%)
Industrial profits of Chinese companies with annual revenue above US$2.92 million fall 1.1% in the first seven months to US$708 billion
The result ended up reversing the 1% gain in the first half of the year; 16 of the top 41 industries saw their profits grow in the January-July period and 14 reported an increase of more than 5%
Science and Technology
Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen are among the world’s top five cities with the largest increase in senior scientists over the past decade
From 2012 to 2021, the number of senior scientists increased from 2,940 to 11,215 in Shanghai, which is also among the world’s top five cities in scientific research output, along with Beijing, New York, Boston, and San Francisco; Chinese cities have advantages in fields such as chemistry, engineering technology, and physics
Agriculture and Environment
Several regions launch survey after the emergence of an alligator gar fish species originating in North America that has raised concerns about a threat to local ecosystems
The carnivorous and ferocious fish were discovered in several provinces and will be part of the national census of 10 large invasive aquatic creatures in the country; more than 660 invasive species have been found in China in recent years, including 71 that have threatened natural ecosystems
Despite extreme heat and drought, China keeps releasing water to countries downstream of the Lancang-Mekong river
From January to August, the Lancang River basin suffered an extreme drought with the natural flow of water from the river that passes through Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam having decreased by more than 20%; since 2016, cascade hydropower has played a crucial role in flood control and drought relief along the Lancang-Mekong River
People’s Life and Culture
“Toilet revolution” improved the quality of life for rural residents, promoted tourism, and was deemed a success by UNICEF
Between 2000 and 2017, the availability of toilets in rural China increased from 40.3% to 81.8% of the population, with investments in labor and material resources in areas where toilets were very precarious; now, waste is treated in an environmentally friendly way and even used as organic fertilizer
People in Chongqing face a series of large forest fires caused by the biggest heat wave and drought ever recorded in history (since 1961)
The local government has established an operations base, organizing local professionals and forest firefighting teams from other provinces, with more than 20,000 cadres, soldiers, and volunteers; on social networks, the event sparked patriotism among internet users and the local population, who praised the “heroes of the city”
China’s “toilet revolution” [VCG Photo]
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