For this week’s music tip, we share with you “Have you heard that China helps the poor?” (你是否听说，中国扶贫？) by a young female rapper 翠花不太脆 (roughly translated as “A not-so fragile flower”), a song about China’s poverty alleviation efforts which she wrote and whose video she edited.
Geopolitics
At a major Asia’s security summit, China’s defense minister accused “some countries” of interfering in the internal affairs of others
At the Shangri-La Dialogue, General Li Shangfu also criticized countries that impose unilateral sanctions, threaten the use of force, and provoke color revolutions; during the summit, a Chinese ship cut off a US warship in the Taiwan Strait, compelling an alteration in its course
The US sent CIA Director Bill Burns on a secret trip to China aimed at stabilizing relations between the two countries in May
It was the highest-level visit to China by a US official since Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman was in Tianjin in 2021; Rick Waters, the US State Department’s top China official, announced his resignation and Antony Blinken would travel to China at the end of June
Chinese companies have signed agreements with Egypt for more than US$8 billion for the Suez Canal Economic Zone, in the last few months
Attracted by fiscal incentives and investments offered by Egypt – especially in the automotive industry, green hydrogen projects, and complementary industries – the Suez Canal is the shortest maritime connection between Asia and Europe, where more than 10% of global trade passes
National Politics
The Chinese government is prioritizing generic drugs and pharmaceutical multinationals are losing market in China
A government plan has come to achieve up to 50% discount on wholesale purchases, favoring the cheapest local products over multinationals such as Pfizer or AstraZeneca; at the beginning of the year, the German pharmaceutical company Bayer had to reduce the price of an antidiabetic by 90% to win a tender
Economy
China will account for less than half of low-cost US imports for the first time in more than a decade
In 2022, Chinese goods accounted for 50.7% of US imports of manufactured goods from Asian countries, up from nearly 70% in 2013; the relocation of manufacturing industries out of China was initially driven by administration tariffs of Trump and then intensified by the sanctions imposed by the Biden government
China tests its first ocean liner, which weighs 135,500 tons and can accommodate up to 5,246 passengers
The country is the largest shipbuilder in the world (47.3%) and by 2030 it could become the largest cruise ship market (8 million to 10 million customers per year); while importing materials and studying, Chinese shipyards are incubating a supply chain that could eventually support local manufacturing
Agriculture and Environment
Provinces build more gas and coal power plants to reduce reliance on hydropower
Last year, the worst drought in decades dried up parts of the Yangtze River and created a high energy deficit, even leading to reduced industrial activity in Sichuan and Yunnan provinces; Sichuan announced the construction of 7.7 GW of gas capacity and 8.5 GW of transmission capacity to other provinces in 2022, while Guangdong approved 17 GW of new coal capacity
Scientists convert seawater into hydrogen and oxygen without the need for desalination in a step towards producing clean, renewable energy
Researchers have created a floating platform that electrolyzes seawater into hydrogen without creating any unwanted side effects or pollution; without having to desalinate the water, the cost of the technology is more than halved, 11.2 yuan (US$1.57) per kg of hydrogen
Science and Technology
A new technology developed by Chinese scientists effectively controls the growth and metastasis of cancer
The technology takes advantage of a bacteria specifically designed to attack and replicate quickly within tumors; the drug has already been successfully tested in breast cancer, prostate cancer, and liver cancer, dissolving the tumor and drastically reducing the metastasis of cancer cells
China starts digging a huge hole more than 11 km deep, both for scientific research and in search of oil and gas
The project will serve to strengthen PetroChina’s technological capabilities in deep excavations and the manufacture of new machines; the work will last 457 days, is located in Taklamakan, Xinjiang province, and will pass through more than 10 continental strata, reaching layers that date back to the Cretaceous period of the planet, between 145 and 66 million years ago
People’s Life and Culture
Known previously as the “kingdom of bicycles”, China returns to this form of transport to reduce pollution and traffic in the metropolis
The government promoted its use after the 1949 revolution due to the lack of public transport infrastructure, and in the 1960s it became a luxury item; in the 1980s, the bicycle became associated with migrant workers and farmers, but today millions of people use bike-sharing just by scanning a code on their cell phones
Shared bikes in Shenyang, Liaoning province [VCG]
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