CiCM 2nd August, 2024

NEWS IN CHINA

China to Prioritise People-Centred Urbanisation: According to the State Council Information Office press conference held on Friday, China will enhance people-centric new-type urbanisation through concrete measures. The conference outlines measures to support more rural migrant workers shifting to urban areas and increase the urban settlement to 70% within the next five years. China’s rate of urbanization of permanent residents was 66.16% at the end of 2023, a growth from 2012’s 53.1%. As per the deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission, Zheng Bei, 165 million rural residents became urban residents through the household registration system. The measures will target low urbanisation areas with large populations to increase urbanisation. While the focus for growing modern metropolitan areas will be high urbanisation and continuous population agglomeration. These measures will also include fiscal policies such as the construction of sponge cities during the 14th Five-Year Plan. A total of 140 billion yuan of national bonds were used to enhance urban drainage and flood control systems in 2023. With nearly 300 million rural migrant workers, the government continues to enhance and grow employment opportunities through measures such as widening employment channels, enhancing employment services, growing skills and training centers and protecting the rights and interests of migrant workers.
China-Vietnam Counter-Terrorism Training Comes to an End: On 2nd July, the joint China-Vietnam counter-terrorism exercise ended. The training took place in China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Police personnel from both countries participated in the exercise. The joint exercise was undertaken to address the threat of terrorism jointly and to focus on the fight against violent terrorist activities. The exercise lasted two weeks and included exchanges between the two sides, discussions and multiple exercises related to command, skills and tactics. This exercise marks a significant step between China and Vietnam as it strengthened cooperation and mutual trust and enhanced their joint counter-terrorism capabilities. This joint training exercise was the first between the Chinese People’s Armed Police Force and the mobile police forces of the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security.
Carbon Emission Control to be Included in Socio-Political Development Plans: As per a working plan published by the General Office of the State Council, China will include carbon emission targets in their national economic and social development agenda. The incorporation of carbon emission targets is to control the amount and intensity of carbon emissions. The plan includes enhancing the country’s capabilities to monitor and measure carbon emissions by 2025. As per China’s Five-Year-Plan period of 2026-2030, the aim is to focus on controlling carbon emissions and peak in carbon emissions, after which the focus will be to control the total amount of emissions. The plan has also instructed the establishment of carbon emission planning mechanisms, local emission assessment systems, early warning and control mechanisms for important sectors, and to enhance the carbon reduction management mechanisms of companies. China has been undertaking measures to reach their carbon emission goals of peaking in carbon emission by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. The mechanisms include a transition to controlling carbon emissions to replace energy consumption. The plan’s main focus is to implement green and low-carbon development.
China and U.S. Hold Talks for Counternarcotic Cooperation: China and the U.S. held their first senior officials’ meeting on counternarcotics cooperation since the working group was created in January. The meeting was held on 31st July, in Washington standard time, where both countries discussed their progress in anti-drug work such as substance control, cooperation over relevant cases, technique sharing and multilateral cooperation. Both countries shared their concerns and agreed upon the direction of dialogue to enhance communication and counternarcotics collaboration in a manner that underpins “mutual respect, managing differences and conducting mutually beneficial cooperation”. The White House released a statement that the meeting centered around discussions related to enhancing coordination on law enforcement, countering transnational criminal organization network funds, fastening the scheduling of synthetic drugs and precursor chemicals, working on the illicit diversion of precursor chemicals, and sharing information on emerging threats. The Chinese representatives had in-depth discussions relating to important cases with the main investigators of the UD Drug Enforcement Administration’s San Francisco office. While the U.S. has adopted multiple Chinese principles on narcotics control, differences are still there. China has asked the U.S. to address the drug problem as a domestic issue as opposed to smearing other countries. Lü Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that China has a responsibility to control the security of the global chemical supply chain as it has a developed chemical industry with the highest capacity in the world. He added that if the problem were to become a politicized issue, the matter would impact coordination between China and the U.S.
U.S. Planning to Issue Unilateral Restrictions on China’s Access to AI Tech: The United States administration is planning on issuing unilateral restrictions that prevent China’s access to artificial intelligence (AI) memory chips and equipment needed to make them. These restrictions will attempt to limit China’s industry. Bloomberg issued an article on Thursday that the U.S. will undertake measures that stop Micron Technology Inc, SK Hynix Inc and Samsung Electronics from supplying high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips to China. Analysts commented that this move is to maintain the U.S.’s monopoly over this industry. He Weiwen, a senior fellow at the Centre for China and Globalization, said that these moves are not sustainable because China will take countermeasures such as complaints with the WTO if these restrictions persist. At a recent press conference, Lin Jian, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, criticized the U.S. for politicizing trade and tech issues. However, this move has been described as a double-edged sword by a tech analyst because external measures are pushing China to undertake enhanced research and development that will boost domestic production and which will make a lack of U.S. chips insignificant. Analysts have observed that these measures will not adversely affect China’s progress, rather they will build self-reliance in technological progress. Despite such measures, Nvidia, a U.S. firm, continues to work with Inspur, a Chinese distribution partner, to develop a specialised AI chip for China. The shipments of these chips, B20, are planned to begin in the second quarter of 2025.

SOCIAL MEDIA CHATTER

Chinese Netizens Come to Chinese Athletes’ Support on Social Media: During an interview with Pan Zhanle, the new world-record holder of 100m freestyle, said that the coaches and opponents from Australia and the United States were “disrespectful”. The coach of the opposing team claimed his performance to be impossible. Following this, Chinese online observers came to the swimmer and the team's defense, slamming the opposing team as “arrogant Westerners”. Netizens took to social media platforms X, Weibo, and Red to praise the athletes’ talents and performance at the Olympics and defended them against the poor treatment. They stated that the West is unaware of China and will not treat them with the respect they deserve. They called Americans petty and called them for having a superiority complex. There is rise in tensions because of the anti-doping allegations made by the United States Anti-Doping Association where the World Anti-Doping Association allowed 23 Chinese athletes to participate in the Tokyo Olympics after testing positive for banned substances. They praised and hailed Pan for winning the gold medal despite facing such difficulties.

INDIA WATCH

India Suspends Flights to and from Tel Aviv: Xinhua, a Chinese news agency, reported on India’s decision to suspend all flights to and from Tel Aviv until 8th August. They reported that this decision was made due to the rising tensions in the Middle East. The article quoted Air India where they stated that they will issue a one-time waiver for rescheduling and cancellation. They also stated that they will continue to monitor the situation and will support the passengers who have confirmed booking to and from Tel Aviv. The article also included news where the Indian government issued an advisory note to Indian nationals in Lebanon in which they asked them to exercise caution and to remain in contact with India’s embassy in Beirut.

Prepared By

Sanjana Shah

Sanjana Shah is a graduate in International Studies with a minor in Journalism from FLAME University, Pune. Her interests lie in exploring the nuances and intricacies of geopolitics and understanding the complexities that arise from the socio-political-economic nexus. She is deeply interested in history, defence and security studies, and humanitarian studies.