Donald Low in the Nikkei Asia Review: Beijing's social engineers will always be obsessed with production
#China 's existing growth model is running out of steam, but its central planners simply fail to see much value in consumption
asia.nikkei.com/Opinion/Beijin… via Nikkei Asia

RFA: US Customs announces that it will seize products from the #Shanghai Serite because the company was involved in forced labor in #China 美国海关扣押涉监狱强迫劳动的中国商品
rfa.org/mandarin/yatai…

Really interesting piece from Clyde Yicheng Wang in Political Communication 📓: The Ideology is Blowing in the Wind: Managing Orthodoxy and Popularity in #China ’s Propaganda tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

At a time when press freedom faces immense challenges in #HongKong , a group of overseas HK journalists open a new frontier for telling stories about the Hong Kong community - a new English publication called the HongKonger. Here’s my debut piece: hongkonger.world/2024/04/17/the…

DW: Police in #Germany targeting organized illegal immigration have arrested 10 suspects (inc 4 Chinese nationals) in 8 federal states for illegally obtaining residence status for 300+ people from mainland #China 德警方突袭犯罪团伙：向数百中国人“贩卖”签证 p.dw.com/p/4eseB?maca=z…

The Telegraph's Nicola Smith: #China 'fuelling #fentanyl crisis in US' with tax breaks for #opioid 's chemical makers telegraph.co.uk/world-news/202…

A stocktake of China's current fiscal position and its outlook: Luo Zhiheng advocates targeted tax and fee cuts, more central bonds, adjusted distribution of revenues and commitments between central and local govt, etc.

w/Yuxuan Jia

THREAD
eastisread.com/p/luo-zhiheng-…

SkyNews: Online videos portraying squabbling families censored in #China to encourage people to have more babies news.sky.com/story/online-v…

Chizuko Ueno is not censored in #China (where she tops best seller lists), but authorities are concerned about her impact on (young) Chinese women, & seem to hold her indirectly responsible for activating feminists to participate in the #A4Protests
prcleader.org/post/who-s-afr…

FT: #China warns west of ‘survival of the fittest’ as manufacturing boosts economy
Trading partners fear factory boom could trigger supply shock after first-quarter data affirms Xi’s industrial strategy ft.com/content/053c6b… via @ft

澎湃: 国家发改委：认为出口商品多了就是产能过剩了，这是站不住脚的 #China 's NDRC says global demand for new energy vehicles in 2030 will be more than 3x times that of this year's global sales; China's continues to provide high-quality production capacity
thepaper.cn/newsDetail_for…

Bloomberg: During #China ’s online shopping festival last Nov, orders poured in for upscale labels. But w/in days, brands inc. Burberry & others saw up to 75% of those sales value vaporize as consumers returned or cancelled purchases in droves bloomberg.com/news/articles/… via Bloomberg Markets

BBC: #SolomonIslands : The Pacific election being closely watched by #China & the West
Incumbent leader Sogavare's dropped his country's decades-long diplomatic relationship with #Taiwan in favour of Beijing in 2022 #台灣
bbc.co.uk/news/world-aus…

Euronews: #Germany 's Scholz rules out decoupling from #China but calls for quality cooperation after Beijing slammed the #EU as “reckless” following investigations into whether state subsidies are giving Chinese companies an unfair advantage. euronews.com/2024/04/16/ger…

Reuters: #Ukraine 's Zelenskiy thanks #Germany 's Scholz for his diplomatic efforts in Beijing to resolve Kyiv's 25-month-old war with #Russia & said #China could play a role in securing peace.
reuters.com/world/ukraines…

澎湃: “刘强东”数字人直播带货首秀：观看超2000万，网友称“少了些感情” #AI -generated version of #China 's JD.com founder Liu Qiangdong introduces 13 products in live broadcast; but 10 million online viewers not told he wasn't real thepaper.cn/newsDetail_for…

The Guardian: #Germany 's Scholz urges Xi Jinping to press #Russia to end #Ukraine war: ‘ #China ’s word carries weight’
Scholz says Xi agreed to back June peace talks that Russia is not attending while Xi says efforts for a resolution must involve both sides theguardian.com/world/2024/apr…

Al Jazeera: #China , US defence chiefs hold first substantive talks in nearly 18 months
Lloyd Austin & Dong Jun talk #SouthChinaSea , #Taiwan , #NorthKorea and #Ukraine in wide-ranging discussion. #香港 #台灣 aje.io/ovi5on via Al Jazeera English

Reuters: 'The Nat'l Security Law has no authority in the UK. We do not have an active extradition agreement with #HongKong or #China ,' British Foreign Secy David Cameron said. 'You are safe here.' #香港 reuters.com/world/uk/uk-se…

The Guardian's Helen Davidson: Chinese #HumanRights Defenders report finds that #China continues to persecute family of dissidents unlawfully, including separating children from their parents, despite pledge to end collective punishment theguardian.com/world/2024/apr…