CiCM 4th July 2023

NEWS IN CHINA

At the 43rd session of the FAO Conference held on 2nd July 2023, Chinese candidate Qu Dongyu won another term to serve as the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) for the next four years. The conference was held in Rome and Director-General Qu Dongyu won his position with 168 votes. The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin sent out a congratulatory statement and promised that China will continue to support the organisation’s work as China is also the second largest contributor to the FAO’s budget.
China has facilitated the summer harvest and maintained a stable wheat market as the Agricultural Development Bank of China issued 110 billion yuan of credit to reinforce the purchase of grain to ensure grain security. According to the data released by the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administrative, up until 30th June 2023, multiple enterprises in China’s grain-producing regions have purchased nearly 25 billion kg of wheat. The purchase is expected to remain stable in the future as well as the price of wheat averaged 2.76 yuan per kg.
Beijing-based private rocket manufacturer Space Pioneer intends to launch its TL 3 carrier rocket in 2024. Kang Yonglai, founder and chairman of Space Pioneer stated that with the completion of the design and research, the building of the components have begun and the launch is scheduled to take place in the first half of 2024. The company as part of its statement also hoped for the model of this rocket to establish itself as the pillar of China’s commercial space launch market. The TL3 is considered to be suitable for deploying large and small satellites on a single mission. Space Pioneer became the first and the only private company in China to reach orbit with a liquid-propellant carrier rocket in April and has since established itself as the leader of the nation’s private space sector. The company is further planning on launching two more TL3 in the later part of 2025 if the first launch in 2024 succeeds.
On 3rd July, President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the third Dialogue on Exchanges and Mutual Learning among Civilization and the first World Conference of Sinologists. The dialogue was hosted by the Chinese Association for International Understanding in Beijing. President Xi stated that China is willing to work together for the universal values of peace, development, justice, freedom, democracy and implement the Global Civilization Initiative. He highlighted the fact that various nations have established their own characteristics and symbols and mutual exchanges can provide strong spiritual guidance for humankind and achieve common development. President Xi called on sinologists across the globe as a bridge between Chinese and other civilizations to promote friendship and cooperation between China and the rest of the world.
China's capital market logged the first half of the year's net inflow of funds worth 183.32 billion yuan which has increased since last year’s 71.8 billion yuan. The capital market has been attracting much foreign investments with the help of refined policies and measures. Yi Huiman, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) stated during the Lujiazui Forum last month that China will stick with the fundamental policy of opening up and will continue to support the “all-round opening up” of markets, institutions and products. The latest policy has allowed similar services to the foreign financial institutions in eligible free-trade zones as their Chinese counterparts.
According to the Ministry of Public Security, Chinese police have busted more than 3,300 criminal dens for telecom and online fraud with the joint efforts from authorities in Shandong, Henan, Hubei and Hunan provinces. Nearly 58-million-yuan worth of cash and virtual currency were taken away along with 104,000 sets of fraud equipment including mobile phones and computers. Since 2022, efforts have been made by the Ministry to launch crackdowns on telecom and cyber fraud which has resulted in investigations of more than 5,100 dens.

SOCIAL MEDIA CHATTER IN CHINA

WeChat Pay Service Fee leads to suspension of services across universities: In the past week, over 10 universities have announced the suspension of WeChat on campus as the company has begun charging service fees. The Nanjing University of Science and technology in the eastern Jiangsu province was the first one to take a back step and cut ties as the payment service platform had been charging commission of 0.2% for each transaction with exception of tuition-related payments. Zhoukou Normal University followed suit and allowed the students to use other payment methods such as school ID cards, credit cards etc. The suspension started a huge debate on social media which led to the parent company of WeChat, Tencent, issuing an apology. Among the heated debate it has come to attention that WeChat’s chief competitor Alipay doesn’t charge universities with commission for the same kind of transactions. The lack of clarity in the justification of the increased commission has led to another controversy as the company is said to have exploited the platform for market dominance. This has been addressed by a delegate of the National People’s Congress, Zhu Lieyu, as he suggested a reduction in commissions for both merchants and users.

INDIA WATCH

Since the pandemic, there has been a hike in the usage of online platforms, especially for payment services. This has produced an opportunity for the criminal dens to exploit the usage of online platforms for illegal activities such as fraud and thievery. Indian companies have been suffering from a series of ‘platform fraud’ that consists of frauds occurring through online platforms such as social media, enterprise and e-commerce. India’s telecom market has also been growing at a rapid pace which has resulted in an increase of telecom frauds. According to a report by financial advisory services firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers, 57% of all frauds in India happen through online platforms and nearly $1 million have been lost by the Indian organisations. A report by RBI stated that financial fraud cases have occurred through internet based transitions after 2020-21. Due to the increasing cases, RBI launched DAKSH, a web-based workflow system to monitor online banking frauds and improve compliance culture in Supervised Entities (SEs). China, on the other hand, has also been plagued by the increase in the number of fraudulent cases in regard to the online service platforms. The Ministry of Public Security in China has been working towards investigating criminal dens for telecom and online fraud more recently and there has been some improvement in the scenario. The number of solved online fraud cases increased five times in 2021 compared to the last five years. China has been taking up a people-centred approach and has been employing special research teams to create internal as well as external synergy. The country has also set up a National Anti-Fraud Center along with eight national sub-centres which integrate both professional knowledge and equipment. The Criminal Investigation Police University of China has also taken a step towards strengthening and cultivating young talent by enrolling the first group of undergraduates in 2021. Indian policymakers need to generate awareness as well as create a strong cyber security channel to protect the customers and organisations from these fraudulent activities. The Department of Telecommunications and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology have been making joint efforts to restrain the menace on various online platforms. Employing real-time fraud detectors and machine learning algorithms can be of help to the operators in detecting patterns of fraudulent activities and track suspicion transactions. China's people-centric approach and integration of knowledge with technology can be an inspiration for the Indian companies to safeguard their business.

Prepared By

Aanchal Budhwar

Aanchal Budhwar is currently pursuing her Masters degree in International Studies from Symbiosis School of International Studies in Pune with a specialisation in Asia Area Studies. She completed her Bachelors degree in English Honours from MCM DAV College, Chandigarh. She is an avid reader and is passionate about learning new languages. She is keen on learning about Asian culture and geopolitics and deciphering the strategic meaning behind the political, diplomatic, cultural, economic and social developments taking place in China and its impact beyond the borders.