CiCM 3rd July 2023

NEWS IN CHINA

China's minister of defense and State Councilor, Li Shangfu met with Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov, the commander-in-chief of the Russian navy in Beijing. The Chinese defense minister during the meeting, stressed upon how with continued efforts from both sides there is a possibility of relations between the two military bodies to keep growing over time. He mentioned it was imperative to keep growing in terms of “substance” and “depth” when it came to forging relations. The Russian admiral echoed similar sentiments while speaking of the importance of strengthening pragmatic cooperation between the two militaries on different fields of expertise. He also vowed to expand exchanges between the two navies in the future. Li also expressed to the admiral that the Chinese side would be ready to work with their Russian counterparts and enrich their comprehensive strategic partnership via a process of consensus building between the two heads of state.
The Ministry of Commerce announced in a statement, its decision to enforce export restrictions on gallium and germanium. These metals and their compounds are essential for making semiconductors and other electronic items. This latest move comes after a series of newly imposed western sanctions on rare-earth elements. The Ministry Commerce reportedly said that these safeguards are essential to “national and security interests.” Under the new rules, Chinese exporters will now have to obtain special permission from the ministry, with information regarding its end users as well. The proposed restrictions will go into effect on August 1. China remains the top producer of rare-earth elements, the country has more than 90 percent of the world’s rare earth production capacity. These metals are essential to modernize space and weapon technology among its other uses.
China's largest ultra-high voltage (UHV) power transmission project has successfully been commissioned across the Yangtze River. The 500 kV project spans 2,550 metres in length across China’s longest river. It stretches from Taizhou to Wuxi in the eastern province of Jiangsu. It is 178 kilometers long and about 1.5 billion yuan has been invested in the completion of the project according to the State Grid Jiangsu Electric Power Company, Limited. It is expected to increase Jiangsu’s cross-river transmission capacity by 30 percent, promoting the consumption of green energy and significantly reducing carbon emissions. Project manager Chen Bing stated that the technical team behind the project overcame several difficulties to complete the project. He also emphasized that all the equipment and components used in the project were completely Chinese-manufactured. The project consists of two power transmission towers, which stand at 385 metres, making them the tallest of their kind in the world.
Pan Gongsheng has been appointed as the new Party secretary of the People’s Bank of China despite not being part of the CPC Central Committee since last October. His appointment heralds an effort to ensure the country’s economic recovery and renminbi stability. Pan, 60, has been serving as the deputy governor of the PBOC since 2012 and head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange since 2016. He succeeded Guo Shuqing as Party secretary of the PBOC. His appointment has come amidst China’s dismal economic recovery and a consistently underperforming national currency. Meanwhile, the PBOC has vowed to “fend off” any drastic changes in exchange rates. The housing market is also set to be revised as the central bank may promote mortgage reduction rates for second-time homebuyers for the rest of the year. Moreover, there are speculations running that with Pan’s appointment there is also a concerted effort to push for the internationalization of the renminbi.
The Chinese Consulate General in Marseilles, France has extended consular protection to a group of tourists who were attacked by rioters recently. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has stated that the consulate helped the group report the incident to the local police and arranged for medical treatment. The consulate has also reached out to Chinese tourists in France to stay vigilant and has recommended people to stay indoors to avoid getting caught in the demonstrations. A tour bus carrying 40 Chinese nationals was pelted with stones by rioters in Marseilles, with some suffering from minor injuries. It has also been confirmed that the tourists in the bus have safely made their way to back to China. Moreover, a safety alert has been issued for the local Chinese community and people engaged in the tourism industry.

SOCIAL MEDIA CHATTER IN CHINA

Tencent Programmer hacks into Renmin University student database, sparks outrage on social media for creating appearance rating software: Ma Zhenyi, 25, allegedly hacked into his alma mater’s student database to create an online platform that allows students to rate their fellow classmate’s appearance. This website has existed since 2020 and contains profiles of Renmin University students both male and female. The data breach has allowed personal information such as student’s official school photo, name, birthday, and address to be published on the website. Ma has been arrested and the university has also reported that it is trying its best to cooperate with the police for investigation. Ma’s now deleted GitHub profile indicated that he graduated from RUC with a master's degree in computer science in 2022. He has also interned at ByteDance and Huawei. The incident has since sparked an outrage on social media with netizens questioning how Ma was able to hack into the university’s database in the first place. Users have also compared Ma to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg who infamously launched an appearance rating platform in his college days as well.

INDIA WATCH

China has long cornered the market for rare-earth mining. It has also been embroiled in a long-standing battle with the West over sanctions and export restrictions on a group of ‘seventeen’ rare-earth materials, that are crucial components in semiconductor chips and electronic devices. This sustained practice of “gatekeeping” the rare-earth industrial supply chain indicates how China has benefitted from attracting rare-earth producers to shift their production bases. There is also the added benefit of low-cost labour and relatively lax environmental regulations. Since the 1990s, these policies have allowed Beijing to monopolize the global supply and distribution of rare-earth minerals. Till 2019, China produced approximately 85 percent of world’s rare oxides and about 90 percent of rare earth alloys and permanent magnets.However, post the Covid pandemic, several western nations have joined a US-led partnership aimed at reducing the dependence on Chinese supplies while also ensuring a steady stream of critical rare-earth elements. Namely, the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) consists of 11 nations that aims to find alternatives to China’s stronghold. India is not a part of this initiative; however, New Delhi has been pushing through diplomatic channels to gain an entry into this arrangement. This partnership has the potential to involve government and strategic private players to garner traction across the value chain. There is also a push towards adhering to clean environmental and quality standards. It is noteworthy to point out that in 2018-19India imported 97 percent of its rare-earth mineral requirement from China. . Keeping in mind India’s growing dependency, private sector industries have urged the government to set up a ‘India Rare Earths Mission’. This would also help in diversifying sources of supply and allow private players to enter the mining industry.

Prepared By

Toshika Shukla

Toshika Shukla is a 4th year undergraduate student at Shiv Nadar University, majoring in International Relations and Governance Studies. Through the course of her study, she has gained a keen interest in areas such as soft power diplomacy, gender studies, and cultural relations. Her interests also revolve around questions of power, China’s domestic policies combined with theoretical perspectives of analysis.