China news roundup / Nachrichten 2024-11-08

13 days ago

China unveils 10tn yuan support for debt-stricken local government

"China has announced 10tn yuan in debt support for local governments and other economic measures, but stopped short of the “bazooka” stimulus package that many analysts had expected.
The fiscal package included raising debt ceilings for local governments by 6tn yuan (£646bn) over three years, so they could replace hidden debt, which authorities said stood at 14.3tn yuan by the end of 2023."

--- Don't let anyone bullshit you about this being some kind of stimulus for the economy, it's just a minimal bailout for local governments. & not much at that:

"Shih said it was an “accounting exercise” that did not bail out local governments or address the civil servant pay arrears, but instead moved hidden debt on to the books. He added that the claim that hidden debt totalled 14.3tn yuan was “a fiction”, and the true number was likely to be about 50tn yuan or more."

--- Maybe some of the money will trickle down to the economy, but it won't have much of an effect.

"The finance minister Lan Fo’an said that more measures were to come, but did not give details"

--- Oh, more promises. Ain't China great?

China’s stimulus plans are choking the profitability of its megabanks, analysts say

"Lackluster credit demand has not shown signs of recovery, analysts said, as households and businesses remain cautious with spending.
China’s aggregate financing, a broad measure of credit, showed a year-on-year decline of 12.6% in the first nine months, with new RMB-denominated loans in September alone falling 22.2%"

--- & that shows how that great Chinese recovery is actually going.

TSMC to suspend production of advanced AI chips for China from Monday

"TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker, told Chinese customers it would no longer manufacture AI chips at advanced process nodes of 7 nanometres or smaller"

--- Absolutely no problem, of course. As we have seen last week, China can simply clone Western AIs & magically achieve better results with fewer resources.

US and South Korea Take Steps to Reduce China's Grip on Critical Minerals

"A South Korean mine has reopened after two decades of disuse, with the potential to be a reliable source of a rare metal critical for modern militaries that China has a near-stranglehold over.
Packing a high energy density and nearly as hard as a diamond, tungsten penetrates targets more effectively than other metals, making it essential for weapons like armor-piercing rounds."

--- Not the most important of the rare metals China wants to control, but it's another step away from dependence on China.

"Concerns over China's near-monopoly on REEs and other critical minerals have grown since former President Donald Trump launched a trade war with the world's second-largest economy."

--- As if Trump was the reason for these concerns.

Chinese state television lionises Xi Jinping’s father in 39-part serialised drama

"But the elder Xi also felt the rough edges of the party. The series reportedly ends in 1952, one year before Xi Jinping was born, and a decade before Zhongxun was purged"

--- A demigod emperor Xi of course needs a very special dad. Obviously being on the wrong end of Mao's stick cannot be mentioned.

"In the first episode, which aired on Tuesday evening, Xi is shown scrapping with a school administrator called Wei Hai. In real life, Xi was jailed for his involvement in a plot to assassinate Wei, according to a forthcoming biography of Xi Zhongxun by Joseph Torigian, a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover History Lab. The dramatised version minimises Xi’s role in the attempted killing."

--- & he can't be a murderer, either. Unless, of course, the victim was an evil counter revolutionary.

How a Chinese maths 'prodigy' unravelled in cheating storm

"Jiang Ping, a fashion design student from a rural town in Jiangsu province, made headlines in June when she came 12th in the qualifiers of an international maths contest run by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.
She was the first finalist since the competition began in 2018 to have come from a lowly vocational school, Chinese media reported. The vast majority of the 800 finalists came from elite universities.
Jiang's results turned her into an overnight sensation, and she was labelled a "prodigy" in the press and on social media.
Under China's notoriously cut-throat education system, academic excellence is lauded. Many people online were encouraged by Jiang's results, seeing them as proof that students from vocational institutes could still excel academically."

--- If in China something seems too good to be true, then it usually isn't true. & having seen vocational schools in China, I find it highly unlikely that anyone of their students would stand out that much. So, it's no surprise that this turns out to be another of the great China cheats.

Philippine president angers China with new laws to demarcate South China Sea territories

China's Ominous Warning to a European Nation

Trump attorney’s phone tapped by Chinese hackers

--- China Uncensored features the usual weekend news variety:

--- CNBC: China's $1.4 trillion package isn't going to actually stimulate growth

--- CNBC: China announces $1.4 trillion package over five years to address local governments’ ‘hidden’ debt

Schulden: China springt Kommunen mit 840 Milliarden Dollar bei

"Nun hat die Regierung ein Programm angekündigt, um eine große und bislang unbekannte Schuldenlast der Kommunen zu lindern."

--- Deutschland, deine Medien. Die Schuldenlast war nicht 'bislang unbekannt'. Das Problem gibt es schon lange & wird auch schon lange in diversen Medien diskutiert. Nur manche deutsche Journalisten scheinen nichts davon mitbekommen zu haben.

"Konkret hat die Regierung zunächst einen fast 840 Milliarden Dollar starken Plan zur Refinanzierung von Kommunalschulden verabschiedet. Er soll auch dazu beitragen, das Wirtschaftswachstum zu stabilisieren."

--- Pfff... Es hilft den Lokalregierungen etwas mit ihren Schuldenproblemen. Bei der Wirtschaft wird davon aber nicht viel ankommen.

Auf Weltklimakonferenz droht Ärger - China will über Handelsrestriktionen reden

"Die Basic-Staaten sehen nach Darstellung von George die UN-Gespräche als das geeignete Forum für Diskussionen über klimabezogene Handelsfragen. Dazu gehört insbesondere die ab 2026 geplante CO2-Abgabe der EU für kohlenstoffintensive Güter wie Stahl und Zement. "Wir sind darüber unzufrieden und denken nicht, dass es gut für unsere Wirtschaft ist", sagte George. Südafrika und China führten dazu "intensive Gespräche" mit der EU. Auch die Regierung in Peking hat erklärt, entsprechende Regelungen schadeten den Entwicklungsländern."

--- Vor allem würde es China u.U. Geld kosten. & das ist für die KPCh wesentlich wichtiger als das Klima.