CiCM 7th February 2025

NEWS IN CHINA

NEV Charging at Highways Gets Boost During Spring Festival Holiday: China’s new energy vehicle (NEV) sector saw a sharp rise in highway charging during the Spring Festival holiday, with charging volume increasing nearly 30 percent year-on-year, according to the State Grid Corp of China (SGCC). Data from the SGCC Smart Service Platform for the Internet of EVs showed that 180 million kilowatt-hours of electricity was used for charging NEVs during the holiday, up by 25.26 percent from last year. Highway charging alone accounted for 57.27 million kilowatt-hours, with a peak of 8.9 million kilowatt-hours on the sixth day of the Chinese New Year. By the end of 2024, 35,000 charging piles were installed across 98 percent of highway service areas, reducing range anxiety and enabling long-distance NEV travel. To ease congestion, cities introduced intelligent battery swapping stations and charging robots. In Shanghai, mobile charging robots at the Changxing Island Service Area charged NEVs to 80 percent in just 30 minutes. Tianjin deployed emergency charging stations, upgraded surveillance and expanded highway service areas. Jiangsu led highway charging volume with 8.12 million kilowatt-hours, followed by Zhejiang (7.92 million) and Anhui (6.99 million).

EXIM Bank Issues Special Measures to Expand Foreign Trade: The Export-Import Bank of China (Exim Bank) has introduced "Several Measures to Promote Stable Growth of Foreign Trade" to enhance high-quality foreign trade development. These measures align with Beijing’s directives and aim to strengthen financial support for various trade entities and industries. Key initiatives include increasing credit supply for foreign trade, improving the use of thematic financial bonds and enhancing support for small and micro enterprises. The measures also focus on reinforcing the foreign trade industrial system through manufacturing, upgrading trade infrastructure, logistics and deal facilitation. Additionally, they promote emerging business models such as cross-border e-commerce and overseas warehouses. The Exim Bank will support intermediate product trade, export of large-scale equipment, and the expansion of service, digital and green trade. It also seeks to deepen and diversify foreign trade while ensuring industrial and supply chain security. By fostering competitive advantages, the bank aims to help enterprises navigate uncertainties. By the end of 2024, its foreign trade industry loan balance is projected to reach 3.36 trillion yuan, marking a 180 billion yuan increase from 2023.

Several Provinces Implement Measures to Protect Against Cold Wave: The National Meteorological Center, on Friday, renewed a blue alert for a cold wave causing lowest temperatures in the central and eastern regions. Temperatures are also expected to drop significantly across the northwest, northern regions, the Huanghuai area (including Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu and Shandong), the south, the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau and western Sichuan. Local authorities have taken prompt actions to safeguard the population and ensured that daily supplies are available. Shandong has also taken steps to ensure power supply and to protect agricultural production. Wu Binbin, director of a Jinan power supply station, led inspections of power lines to prevent ice-related failures. Meanwhile, in Shouguang, a major vegetable-growing region, agricultural experts advised farmers to reinforce greenhouses and clear drainage channels. High-tech solutions such as AI, IoT, and 5G help regulate greenhouse conditions. Beijing has intensified cold-weather transport measures, including manual subway operation and reduced bus speeds. Guizhou authorities responded to icy roads by temporarily closing 13 expressway sections and 12 toll stations.

China Criticizes Marco Rubio’s Comments on China-Latin America Relations: China has launched a serious protest against Washington owing to accusations made against Beijing by the U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio during his visit to Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). A spokesperson from China’s Foreign Ministry stated on Friday that Rubio, during his visits the Panama, Guatemala, Dominican Republic from February 1 to 6, made comments regarding China and its co-operation with the LAC, while also stating that the US is aiming to “counter the influence of the Chinese Communist Party” in the West. The spokesperson further labelled these comments as being steeped in Cold War mentality and having ideological biases, being unfounded and aimed at creating rifts between China and LAC countries. The spokesperson reiterated China’s commitment to the growing friendship and cooperative ties with LAC countries and pursuing principles of mutual respect, equality and win-win cooperation. China never attaches any strings to the practical cooperation between China and LAC countries or target any third party, said the spokesperson while stressing the mutually beneficial cooperation and stressed on delivering tangible results to the LAC. The spokesperson also asserted that Washington’s interrupting of the normal exchanges and cooperation between China and LAC is doomed to fail.

Production Begins at China’s Mega Metamorphic Rock Oilfield in Bohai Sea: The largest metamorphic rock oilfield in the world, Bozhong 26-6 oilfield, began its production for the first phase on Friday, reported by Tianjin branch of China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC). The oilfield is located in the Bohai Sea, 170 km from Tianjin with total proven oil and gas reserves exceeding 200 million cubic metres. This project is divided into two phases in which phase one encompasses a central processing platform and an unmanned wellhead platform. This phase aims to operationalize 33 development wells, expecting highest daily output to exceed 3,500 cubic meters of oil and gas equivalent. The reservoir is buried in metamorphic rocks beneath the seabed at 4,500 meters and formation temperature can reach 178 degrees Celsius, making extraction challenging. In lieu of this, the research team has developed and enhanced the drilling equipment, creating a technical system made specifically for deep-sea drilling as informed by Tang Baisong, a project manager at CNOOC Tianjin Branch.

SOCIAL MEDIA CHATTER

Warnings Issued Against the Use of Flour With Firecrackers by Chinese Youth: Firefighters in China have warned the youth regarding the viral trend of setting off firecrackers using flour, a practice that has gained popularity on the social media platform RedNote. The traction for such a trend has increased in the past few months, with many youngsters posting themselves in a mushroom cloud with captions such as “being cool is a style” and “light fireworks like this when you celebrate Lunar New Year at home.” The trend shows the featured individuals beginning by tossing a piece of lit paper into the air followed by throwing flour at it creating small explosion of flames, which is being dubbed as the “the art of controlling the fire.” In January too, various police departments and governments in China published articles cautioning against this hazardous behaviour. Zhang Yili, one of the firefighters on the team, warned that what might be perceived as fun can be “extremely dangerous” in reality. Netizens have also criticized this recent trend. One commenter remarked, “How dare you play with fire like this? It is arson,” while another mentioned, “I will report every time I see such a dangerous video on this platform.”

INDIA WATCH

Chinese Media Comments on Repo Rate Cuts by the Reserve Bank of India: Several Chinese media platforms reported on recent 25-basis points cut in repo rate by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). While the reports mention the importance of this rate cut as the first such action since May 2020, they also highlight overall economic situation in India based on recently released data. One such platform, Sina, notes that India registered its weakest GDP growth rate since the COVID-19 pandemic, further prompting the government to ease liquidity by implementing comprehensive tax cuts. It also argues that such actions, coupled with reduction in banks’ reserve ratio, will boost economic activities in India. On the other hand, it also highlights challenges such as volatile trade environment, depreciation of Indian Rupee and lack of foreign investors will lead to withdrawals from Indian stock market. The report criticizes overoptimism shown by global investors in Indian markets for the current problem of overvaluations. It argues that owing to historical underinvestment by Indian households, they have now increased their investments in the hope of higher returns than inflation rate. It further argues that Trump’s tariff threats and uncertainty in US policies can also limit the effectiveness of rate cut in India. The article concludes that given the recent bullish predictions for Chinese markets, Indian investors may have to face challenges for a prolonged period.

Prepared By

Riddhi Deokar

Riddhi Deokar is a Second-year bachelor’s student pursuing Global Affairs with a minor in Public Policy at OP Jindal Global University. She exudes a strong interest in learning and researching about Northeast Asian and Middle Eastern dynamics, specifically learning about China’s equation with the two regions. She endeavours to contribute to solutions addressing gender issues in the political realm. She pursues her linguistic aspirations, learning French and Mandarin. She is also a TEDx speaker, spreading her message about the theory of 'Relative Happiness'. Understanding varied perspectives and keeping an open mind while analysing and researching global issues is an effort she keeps making.