washington — A key U.S. lawmaker highlighted Friday the “shocking” rise in imports under a trade exemption for small packages, amid heightened scrutiny on Chinese-founded online retailers Shein and Temu. 

Both platforms, known for selling items at low prices, have been said to use a rule that allows products to enter the country duty-free via shipments valued at less than $800. 

Some 1.05 billion shipments entered tax-free under the provision known as the de minimis exemption in 2023, said Mike Gallagher, the Republican chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. 

This was “a shocking 53 percent increase from 2022,” he said in a statement. 

According to Customs and Border Protection Agency data disclosed to the Select Committee, Gallagher said more than 485 million de minimis shipments have already entered the United States in this fiscal year. 

Among other issues, such exemptions could allow companies to evade scrutiny over forced labor concerns, he noted. 

Shein and Temu have made big inroads in the United States and are seen as upstart rivals to Amazon. 

Shein has quickly conquered the global fast fashion market by selling its products exclusively online and catering to young customers through social media. 

But it has been accused of exploiting unpaid labor, obscuring production processes and encouraging overconsumption. 

In interim findings released last June, the Select Committee said Temu and Shein were likely responsible for more than 30 percent of all packages shipped to the U.S. daily under the de minimis provision. 

When it comes to such shipments from China, the figure is even higher. 

“Foreign businesses have built entire sales models to take advantage of the de minimis exemption to avoid taxes and scrutiny while undercutting American companies that play by the rules,” said the Select Committee on Friday. 

Gallagher also urged Congress to take “urgent action” on this matter. 

Analysts have noted that the rise of Shein and Temu came as leading U.S. fashion companies grew increasingly wary of exposure to China given tensions between Washington and Beijing. 
…

PENTAGON — As Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen continue attacks on international shipping lanes in the Red Sea, a coalition of about two dozen countries, including the U.S. and the U.K., has been working to secure the important waterway.

About 15 commercial ships have been damaged by Houthi drones or missiles since mid-November, and the U.S. says there are now between four and eight coalition ships in the Red Sea on any given day to help protect international vessels.

Last week the U.S. and British militaries launched their fourth combined operation against the Houthis since mid-January. The U.S. has also carried out near-daily strikes to take out incoming Houthi missiles and drones, along with weapons that were prepared to launch.

Noticeably absent from the coalition is China, even though about 40% of trade between Europe and Asia goes through the Red Sea and Suez Canal.

“We would welcome a productive role for China to play, but to my knowledge, at this stage they have not offered nor are they conducting any type of operations to help safeguard mariners or international shipping,” Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder said in response to a question from VOA on Thursday.

That sentiment appears to be something the military, the Biden administration and opposition Republicans in the U.S. agree on.

During a Senate hearing this week on security issues in the Red Sea, Republican Senator Mitt Romney of Utah was visibly frustrated as he asked administration officials why China wasn’t putting pressure on the Houthis or Iran.

“We’re out there with our flag flying and our men and women in harm’s way. China is the nation that I would presume is most impacted by closing off trade to the Red Sea, and yet they’re sitting on the sidelines pretending like they’re everybody’s friend,” he said.

Republican Senator Todd Young of Indiana added during the hearing, “Here we are in the midst of a real security crisis, which is for so many an economic and diplomatic crisis in the region, and China’s nowhere to be found,”

Yuan Mu, a spokesperson for China’s Embassy in Washington, told VOA via email last month that “on the whole, China stands ready to work with all parties to safeguard the safety of international shipping lanes.”

But since the Houthi attacks began ramping up in mid-November, U.S. special envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking says the administration has seen a “certain degree of freeloading” from China and others.

“That is absolutely unacceptable. When we talk about an international problem that needs an international solution, we need the Chinese much more aggressively engaged,” Lenderking testified during the hearing.

Rather than taking part in the coalition’s missions to protect international ships, China has accused the U.S. and the U.K. of illegally attacking military sites used by Houthi rebels to launch missiles at commercial vessels. China’s envoy to the United Nations claims the actions are illegal because the U.N. Security Council has not authorized military action in Yemen.

China sends naval fleet

But even as China condemns the U.S.-led maritime coalition, Beijing has become so concerned with the crisis that its navy has escorted at least some Chinese ships through the waterway, and it is now reportedly sending a naval fleet to the Gulf of Aden.

According to China’s Xinhua News Agency, the 46th fleet of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy embarked from Zhanjiang in Guangdong province for the gulf last week.

The fleet includes the guided-missile destroyer Jiaozuo, the missile frigate Xuchang and the comprehensive replenishment vessel Honghu, according to Xinhua. It is unclear whether the fleet has arrived in the Red Sea region, or what it will do once there.

Michael O’Hanlon, a senior Foreign Policy fellow at the Brookings Institution, warns that while the Chinese have tried to help with international problems in a few instances over the past decade, their involvement has not always been for “altruistic reasons.”

“There’s also the plausible explanation they could be sending ships just to gather intelligence on the performance of [the United States’] missile and drone intercept technology,” he told VOA.

He added that while he expects China to “try to help a little in the general cause,” the Chinese navy likely will be more focused on protecting its own ships from Houthi attacks amid spying on the U.S. and other major allies.

China’s navy started escorting Chinese cargo ships through the Red Sea in January, according to Sea Legend Shipping, a company based in Qingdao, China. The company has said that since then, the Chinese navy has provided security escorts for at least five cargo ships in the Red Sea.

Chinese officials have asked their Iranian counterparts to help stop Houthi attacks or risk harming business relations with Beijing, Reuters reported, citing Iranian officials.

Beijing does have some leverage in the region, as it is the largest buyer of crude oil exports from Iran, but the Chinese do not have enough leverage over Iran to stop these missile attacks, O’Hanlon said.

Although the Houthis have claimed that ships from China and Russia can safely pass through the Red Sea, a British oil tanker carrying Russian oil was hit by a Houthi missile and caught fire earlier this year.

Ely Karmon, a senior researcher at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism and a professor at Reichman University in Israel, told VOA that China has been one of the biggest sufferers since the Houthi attacks began.

But O’Hanlon notes that while China has “substantial skin in the game” in terms of Red Sea shipping, China is also able to tap into its access to Russia and the Pacific for trade.

“Even if some big fraction of world shipping does normally go through the Red Sea, it’s not that hard to divert it, and it’s not that expensive to divert it,” he said.

Senior news editor with VOA’s Mandarin Service John Xie contributed to this report.
…

Feleti Teo spoke to The Associated Press on Friday via Zoom, his first interview with international media since his government took office earlier this week
…

washington — Beijing is unlikely to help Washington disrupt military cooperation between North Korea and Russia because China sees that move as undermining itself while bolstering U.S. goals in Europe and Asia, analysts said.

“Given U.S. policy in Asia and Washington’s ongoing effort to contain Chinese power in the region, Beijing has no reason to assist the U.S., even indirectly, on one of its most top foreign policy priorities – a Russian defeat in Ukraine,” said Daniel DePetris, a fellow at Defense Priorities.

“For China, North Korea is not a problem to be solved but rather a card to play in its competition with Washington,” continued DePetris in an email to VOA on Tuesday.

The U.S. has turned to China to help rein in North Korea’s threatening missile activities that have now extended beyond East Asia into Europe, where Russia’s war in Ukraine rages on for the third year.

North Korean missiles have killed and injured civilians in the Ukrainian cities of Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, Donetsk and Kharkiv since December, the Security Service of Ukraine said on February 22.

The following day, the State Department announced that its senior official for North Korea, Jung Pak, held talks with China’s special representative on Korean Peninsula affairs, Liu Xiaoming.

The two discussed North Korea’s “increasing destabilizing and escalatory behavior and its deepening military cooperation with Russia” on February 21 via videoconferencing, said the U.S. statement.

The U.S. said North Korea has sent more than 10,000 containers of weapons to Russia since September as it announced a sanctions package targeting Moscow on February 23.

The Pak-Xiaoming talks followed Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s discussion of North Korea with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on February 16.

In response to last week’s talks, Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, told VOA on Wednesday via email that “China has no intention to interfere with the cooperation between two sovereign countries” of North Korea and Russia. He called the two nations “China’s friendly neighbors.”

Pengyu continued, “We hope the U.S. will play a positive and constructive role in maintaining peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula.”

North Korea seemingly has been accelerating arms transfers to replenish weapons that Russia needs to fight Ukraine since its leader Kim Jong Un visited Russia and met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in September. Kim, in return, was seeking Russia’s technology to enhance his weapons.

Susan Thornton, a senior fellow at Yale University’s Paul Tsai China Center who served as acting assistant secretary for East Asia and Pacific Affairs during the Trump administration, said Beijing might be willing to persuade Moscow to break its ties with Pyongyang once the war in Ukraine is over.

But even then, “China will not be eager to help” if its “relations with the U.S. are still deteriorating,” she said via email on Tuesday.

China views North Korea, which straddles its border, as a buffer zone countering the U.S. and its military bases with 28,500 troops in South Korea. Beijing prefers that Pyongyang maintain stability to continue serving that role.

China has been providing economic aid to sustain heavily sanctioned and isolated North Korea since the 1990s.

Although Beijing is “very uncomfortable” losing leverage over Pyongyang as Moscow now provides alternative sources of food and fuel, that apparent loss is offset by benefits Beijing gains from Moscow’s reliance on China’s economy, said Robert Manning, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center’s Reimagining U.S. Grand Strategy Project.

Russia has faced heavy sanctions since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

“China has been an economic life raft for Russia, boosting its energy ties, filling Russian markets with its autos and consumer goods,” said Manning. Beijing will not change its stance on Pyongyang-Moscow ties as it generally continues “to coordinate much of its foreign policy with Russia where it opposes U.S. policy,” he said via email on Wednesday.

However, Michael Swaine, senior research fellow at Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said, “Working strenuously with Moscow and Pyongyang to oppose the U.S. poses certain risks for Beijing.”

Swaine said via email on Wednesday that “Right now, it wants to maintain workable relations with Washington, not worsen them. Beijing faces serious domestic problems that demand a relatively stable external environment.”
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washington — Speaking Mandarin and promoting love for China, countless videos of foreign-looking women made with artificial intelligence started popping up on Chinese social media platforms around the Lunar New Year earlier this month.

The avatars in the videos are created with online images that are stolen, reproduced and repurposed so that even the women in real life recognize themselves in the videos.

Olga Loiek is one of those women. She’s a 20-year-old Ukrainian who studies cognitive science at the University of Pennsylvania. A couple of months ago, Loiek started a YouTube channel where she talks about mental health and shares her philosophies about life.

However, shortly after that, she started receiving messages from followers telling her that they had seen her on Chinese social media. There, she’s not Olga Loiek but a Russian woman who speaks Mandarin, loves China and wants to marry a Chinese man. Her name is Natasha, or Anna, or Grace, depending on the social media platform you find her on in China.

“I started translating the videos with Google Translate, and I realized that most of these accounts are talking about things like China, Russia, how good the relationship between China and Russia is,” she told VOA. “This feels very violating.”

In some videos, the avatars talk about how much they value Russia and China’s close ties. In other videos, they praise Chinese history and culture or talk about how much Russian women want to marry Chinese.

“If you marry Russian women, we will wash clothes, cook, and wash dishes for you every day,” an avatar said. “We will also give you foreign babies, as many as you want.”

Several dozen videos of Loiek’s avatar speaking Mandarin have been found on video sites Douyin and Bilibili. Most of these accounts would ask viewers to visit their online stores to buy what they say are authentic Russian goods.

Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, has labeled some of these videos as potentially AI-generated. But comments show that many believed they were looking at a real woman. One netizen wrote, “Russian beauty, Chinese people welcome you.”

Loiek said she would never say things like that, obviously, given that she’s from Ukraine, which has been at war with Russia since 2022.

She said, “This is probably used to make people, maybe people in China, feel that foreigners feel that their country is superior.”

On Bilibili, China’s biggest video site, some AI videos using Loiek’s face are marked with the logo of HeyGen, indicating that the video was generated on the company’s website.

In one tutorial on Bilibili, the demonstrator even shows how to make a short video on HeyGen with a clip of Loiek talking.

HeyGen is an AI company headquartered in Los Angeles that was launched in China in 2020. It specializes in realistic digital avatars, voice generation and video translating.

The technology developed by HeyGen was used in AI videos of Donald Trump and Taylor Swift speaking perfect Mandarin that went viral on Chinese social media in October 2023. According to Forbes, the company is now valued at $75 million.

HeyGen’s moderation policy states that users cannot generate avatars that “represent real individuals, including celebrities or public figures, without explicit consent.” The company’s official tutorial video on avatar making shows that users must submit a video of people giving consent to the use of their likeness. It’s unclear how some in China could circumvent the requirement to make videos of Loiek.

Loiek said that since she and her YouTube subscribers have sent complaints to Chinese social media companies, about a dozen of the accounts imitating her have been taken down.

VOA reached out to HeyGen and Douyin’s parent company, ByteDance, for comments but has not received a response.

The Chinese government rolled out provisions to regulate deepfakes and other “deep synthesis services” in early 2023. The law prohibits generating deepfakes without the consent of the people whose image or other information is used.

Loiek posted her story on YouTube, and it has been shared on Chinese social media. Netizens across platforms sympathized with her and called for tougher regulations on AI.

Chinese tech giants such as Baidu and Tencent are investing heavily in AI technology. One of the most hyped-up services powered by AI is digital humans.

Tencent and Xiaoice, a Chinese AI studio spun off from Microsoft, offer digital human services that can clone people and turn them into AI avatars for as little as $145.

AI avatars have also been found in online disinformation campaigns that spread pro-China and anti-U.S. narratives. In February 2023, research firm Graphika found a social media campaign promoting Beijing’s interests using realistic-looking computer-generated people in videos.

In September 2023, the U.S. State Department warned in a report, “Access to global data combined with the latest developments in artificial intelligence technology would enable the PRC [People’s Republic of China] to surgically target foreign audiences and thereby perhaps influence economic and security decisions in its favor.

As for Loiek, she does not plan to quit YouTube or stop posting.

“We need some sort of regulatory frameworks, so we can understand and we can prevent these things from happening,” she said.

Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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 Lajas Blancas, Panama / Washington — With only a backpack, a portable tent and a small shoulder bag, Cong, a 47-year-old Chinese migrant, was one of more than a dozen migrants to step out of a narrow wooden boat on the stony shore of the Chucunaque River in Lajas Blancas, Panama.

The stop was one of dozens he had made over the past month, and it was where he met with VOA’s Mandarin Service on his journey toward the United States — a journey that began in China’s southwestern province of Sichuan. Cong declined to provide his full name, citing security concerns.

As he walked across the shore under the hot sun, wearing a long-sleeved black T-shirt, black sports shorts and white Croc-like slippers, he limped slightly from a swollen ankle caused by a slip while crossing a river earlier in his journey.

Immigrants from China are the fastest-growing group of people making the long journey to the U.S. border. Navigating Panama’s treacherous Darien Gap, and risking death and disease, is a key part of that journey.

Like many others, Cong says he got a lot of information from online sources about how to make the trek, including Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. After half a year of planning, he decided, “I must go.”

“When I came out, I decided it’s going to be worth it, even if I die on the way,” he said.

When VOA asked the former crepe store owner why he traveled thousands of miles to a country he had never visited before, he replied, “Freedom.”

“I want freedom,” he said.

Cong said there is no freedom in China, which made him depressed. He said his Douyin account had been banned several times for using sensitive keywords and criticizing Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Cong said his definition of freedom is that he doesn’t have to do what he doesn’t want to do, and that he can criticize the president.

China’s sluggish economy was another big reason why he decided to leave the country. Its stock market is at a five-year low, and the country has seen a decline in exports and imports. Last June, Cong had to close his crepe store for lack of customers.

“No one has money. There is no easy business,” he said. “Without foreign trade, it’s all domestic money changing hands. How can that create wealth?”

Cong is not alone in making the decision to make the trek to the U.S. border.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection data shows that more than 37,000 Chinese migrants were detained at the U.S-Mexico border in 2023, nearly 10 times more than the previous year.

In the San Diego sector alone — stretching 100 kilometers inland from the Pacific Ocean — U.S. Border Patrol officials told a local television station this week they have made more than 140,000 arrests since October 1. They included about 20,000 people from China, a 500% increase over the same period a year earlier.

After crossing the border, the migrants surrender to the Border Patrol and declare their intention to seek asylum in the United States. They are processed and are often released within 72 hours. According to the Department of Justice, 55% of Chinese migrants were granted asylum last year.

Giuseppe Loprete, head of mission in Panama for the International Organization for Migration, a United Nations body that provides information for migrants crossing the Darien Gap, told Al Jazeera in an interview that the Chinese migrants are particularly vulnerable due to the language barrier and a perception that they are wealthy.

Cong said he paid $700 to a tour guide he found on the Chinese social media platform WeChat for instructions to get to Acandí, Colombia. From there, he walked for three days in the rain forest. He paid another $25 for the boat ride on the Chucunaque River. But that is only a fraction of the expenses he has incurred on his journey of more than a month from Sichuan through Thailand, Turkey, Ecuador, Colombia and now Panama.

The number of individuals leaving China has surged since Xi took office in 2013. According to the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, more than 700,000 Chinese sought asylum overseas between 2013 and 2021. That included more than 100,000 each year between 2019 and 2021, the last year for which UNHCR statistics are available.

The dramatic rise in Chinese migrants coming to the U.S. has raised national security concerns in America, with some questioning whether there are Chinese spies among them.

Republican Representative Mark Green, chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, sounded an alarm about the wave of Chinese migrants entering the United States last June, claiming the majority are military-age men with known ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People’s Liberation Army.

Green and fellow Republicans Senator Marco Rubio and Representative Troy E. Nehls introduced the No Asylum for CCP Spies Act last year, which if passed, would prevent CCP members from seeking asylum in the U.S.

Border patrol agents encountered 5,717 single Chinese adults in January, more than twice as many as in any other January on record, CBP data shows. In December, that figure hit a record high of 7,581, while the total since January 2023 now stands at 64,979.

VOA Mandarin observed more Chinese men than women traveling alone.

With several thousand kilometers to go on his journey, Cong says few things are certain. He says he hopes to begin life in the U.S. by washing dishes in a restaurant after arriving at his final destination.

“Better to do all you can rather than floating along helplessly,” he said.

Calla Yu contributed to this report.
…

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration launched a series of actions against China in recent days, sustaining pressure against the United States’ key strategic rival even as it focuses on more urgent fronts, including the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.

In the span of one week, the administration announced an executive order to protect Americans’ personal data from foreign adversaries, including China; launched an investigation into potential security threats posed by connected vehicles that use Chinese technology; and placed sanctions on Chinese entities for supporting Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The actions taken by President Joe Biden stand in contrast to the months of warming ties following a November summit in California between him and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping — a meeting aimed to improve a bilateral relationship that had reached its lowest point in decades due to rivalry and mistrust.

Since the summit, diplomatic engagement has increased from both sides, including the resumption of military-to-military talks that were frozen after former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s 2022 visit to Taiwan.

Restarting staff-level talks in early January was key to ensuring that the two sides avoided a major cross-strait incident during Taiwan’s election later in the month.

In January, Washington and Beijing also launched a working group designed to crack down on the flow of Chinese precursors used in the production of fentanyl and other synthetic drugs sold in the U.S., another sign of cooperation between the superpowers.

Ties improved to the point that Beijing marked the 45th anniversary of U.S.-China diplomatic relations in January with a lavish banquet, where Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi promised that Chinese giant pandas, much loved by American zoo visitors, will return to U.S. by the end of the year.

So why the flurry of actions against China now?

National security issue

The White House sidestepped questions on the back-to-back timing of the measures.

Biden is “concerned about countries like China,” White House deputy press secretary Olivia Dalton said to reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday.

“China is right now looking to flood the market here in the United States and around the world with vehicles equipped with advanced technology from countries of concern,” she said. “That’s a national security issue that we take very seriously.”

An administration official told reporters during a briefing that the U.S. Commerce Department probe launched Thursday to ensure that Chinese cars driving on American roads do not undermine U.S. national security, is “complementary and distinct” from the executive order to protect Americans’ personal data from China and other foreign adversaries. The latter order blocks bulk transfers of data such as geolocation, biometric, health and financial information to “countries of concern.”

By putting the two announcements next to each other, the administration is trying to communicate that they’re taking data security seriously, said Emily Benson, director of the Project on Trade and Technology at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“The anticipated outcome there was to signal that the connected vehicle rules are actually a national security instrument,” Benson told VOA.

The U.S. plans to engage partners and allies following the investigation into the threat posed by Chinese vehicles. There’s a “growing sense of the security risks” and “really strong interest in the measures that we might take and the results of the investigation,” an administration official told VOA during a briefing Wednesday.

Biden himself warned of the dangers.

“Connected vehicles from China could collect sensitive data about our citizens and our infrastructure and send this data back to the People’s Republic of China,” the president said in a statement.

National security concerns aside, the administration is also anticipating an overcapacity of more affordable Chinese vehicles entering the American marketplace, especially as Chinese auto producers such as BYD set up manufacturing facilities in Mexico that would afford them more favorable tariff rates under USMCA, the free-trade agreement between the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

“That has created a lot of fear in Washington about the longevity of the U.S. automobile sector,” Benson said.

She added that the executive actions taken this week are “easier and more appropriate” than the effort to ban TikTok. The social media app is used by more than 100 million Americans despite allegations that its China-based parent company, ByteDance, could collect sensitive user data.

While the federal government and dozens of individual states have barred TikTok from government devices, Congress has yet to enact legislation to ban Americans from using the application on their personal devices.

The app is highly popular, especially among young people, prompting Biden’s campaign to join the platform despite the administration’s previously firm stance on its potential national security concerns.

Balanced approach

As Biden gears up for his reelection campaign, his administration is keen to project the image that they are taking the threat of China seriously, said Yun Sun, director of the China Program at the Stimson Center.

“Balancing has always been the theme of his policy,” Sun told VOA. “When there is positive engagement, there’s also the punitive gestures.”

Without such gestures, the administration would be vulnerable to criticism that it is ignoring the fact that Beijing remains a source of significant national security challenges for the United States, she said.

“The administration has to demonstrate that it is extremely clear-eyed about the limitation of engagement but also the desirability of the engagement,” she said. “Engagement does not mean there’s no problem.”

Washington also announced sanctions against Chinese firms last week as part of a measure marking the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The trade penalties targeted entities in Russia and in countries viewed by the administration as supporting Moscow’s war effort.

The actions against China followed a meeting between Wang and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference earlier in February.

In the meeting, Wang warned Blinken that turning de-risking “into ‘de-China,’ building ‘small courtyards and high walls,’ and engaging in ‘decoupling from China’ will eventually backfire on the United States.”
…

MELBOURNE, Australia — Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. told Australia’s Parliament on Thursday that the strategic partnership between the two nations was more important than ever with the rule of law and peace in the region under threat from China. 

Marcos told a special joint sitting of the two chambers during a state visit that the Philippines would not allow a foreign power to “take even one square inch of our sovereign territory.” 

It is a declaration he has often repeated since taking office in 2022 and refers to China’s disputed claims to the Philippines’ territory in the South China Sea. 

Marcos said Australia and the Philippines need to band together against new challenges to the region’s peace and stability, as they had against Japanese forces during World War II. 

“Not one single country can do this by itself. No single force can counter them by themselves,” Marcos said. “This is why our strategic partnership has grown more important than ever.” 

Marcos said his father, former President Ferdinand Marcos, and then-Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam reaffirmed that the security of their two countries was bound together in 1974 when they toured the Philippines’ WWII battlefields of Bataan and Corregidor. 

Australia and the Philippines for the first time conducted joint sea and air patrols in the South China Sea in November last year. 

Marcos said the Philippines and Australia fought to build a rules-based international order after WWII, and that they must now fight to protect that order in the South China Sea. 

“The protection of the South China Sea as a vital, critical global artery is crucial to the preservation of regional peace and, I dare say, of global peace,” Marcos said. 

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese reminded Marcos of his words when the leaders last met: prosperity and progress dependent on peace. 

“That is what is so significant about the maritime cooperation activities our two navies completed together for the first time in November last year,” Albanese said. 

“Our cooperation is an assertion of our national interest and a recognition of our regional responsibility,” Albanese added. 

Marcos’ address was interrupted briefly by Senator Janet Rice, from the minor Greens party, who held up a sign that read: “Stop human rights abuses,” in a protest against the Philippines’ record on rights. 

Rice was later censured by a majority of her colleagues in the Senate with a motion that disapproved of her “unparliamentary and disrespectful conduct” in her protest and her “disregard for the importance of Australia-Philippines relations.” The censure is symbolic and carries no consequences for Rice. 

Marcos and Albanese on Thursday announced new agreements on maritime cooperation, cybersecurity and fair trade regulation. 

Following the two-day state visit, which ends on Thursday, Marcos will return to Australia next week with other Southeast Asian leaders to take part in an ASEAN-Australia Summit that marks 50 years of Australia’s partnership with the regional bloc
…

…

TAIPEI, TAIWAN — Tuvalu’s new government released a statement of priorities Wednesday, reiterating the Pacific island nation’s intent to maintain its “long-term and lasting special relationship” with Taiwan, while vowing to review a security pact that the previous administration signed with Australia in November.

The announcement comes after some lawmakers hinted before last month’s parliamentary election that the new Tuvalu government might review the country’s ties with Taiwan. That kicked off weeks of speculation that the Pacific island nation might switch diplomatic recognition to Beijing.

The new government “intends to reassess options that would strengthen and lift [its relationship with Taiwan] to a more durable, lasting and mutually beneficial relationship,” the new government under Prime Minister Feleti Teo said in the statement shared by Transport, Energy, Communication and Innovation Minister Simon Kofe on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

Some analysts told VOA that Wednesday’s statement can be viewed as Tuvalu’s effort to push back against Beijing’s influence campaign.

“This is a strong sign of Tuvalu’s intent to thwart what I must assume are strong offers from Beijing,” Timothy Rich, a professor of political science at Western Kentucky University, said in a written response.

Other observers say the announcement, which is a welcome message to the United States and its democratic allies, can shore up Taiwan’s remaining diplomatic footprint in the Pacific region while serving as a temporary setback for China.

“I see this development as a setback for Beijing as they were hoping to lure Tuvalu into their camp but China [still] has other mechanisms through which they can increase their influence [in the Pacific region,]” Parker Novak, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub told VOA by phone.

Since Tuvalu’s new government highlights climate change and connectivity as important areas for development, some experts say Taiwan needs to consider how it can constructively contribute to Tuvalu’s priorities.

“As China looks to woo countries that have ties with Taiwan onto its side, the Tuvalu government needs to demonstrate to the Tuvalu community that its relationship with Taiwan is delivering something for the people while it passes the potential benefits of a relationship with China,” Mihai Sora, a research fellow in the Pacific Islands program at Lowy Institute in Australia, in a phone interview.

He said Taiwan needs to consider how it can elevate its relationship with Tuvalu.

“The ball is in Taiwan’s court to elevate the relationship with Tuvalu [as] the language [in the statement] indicates that Tuvalu is interested in upgrading its relationship with Taiwan and getting more out of it,” Sora added.

In response to the new Tuvalu government’s commitment to maintaining diplomatic ties, Taiwan’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said Wednesday that it treasures the “special relationship” with Tuvalu and hopes to continue to work together with the Pacific island nation.

While Taiwan and Tuvalu reaffirmed their bilateral relationship, Beijing emphasized that “upholding the One China principle,” which designates Taiwan as a part of China, is “where global opinion trends.”

“A handful of countries who still have so-called ‘diplomatic ties’ with the Taiwan region should choose to stand on the right side of history and make the right decision that truly serves their fundamental and long-term interests,” Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said during a regular press conference on Monday.

Three Pacific island nations have switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China since 2019. Beijing has also increased efforts to deepen relations with regional countries, signing security deals with countries such as the Solomon Islands while promising a large amount of aid.

To counter Beijing’s influence campaign, the United States and its allies have stepped up engagement with Pacific island nations, signing new agreements to deepen cooperation and increase support for regional countries. However, some of the efforts have been met with caution or stalled by domestic politics.

In the Wednesday statement of priorities, the new Tuvalu government said while it supports the broad principles and objectives of the security and migration pact that the previous administration signed with Australia in November, it acknowledges “the absence of transparency and consultations” in informing the general public about the deal. The government vowed to address the “process issues.”

While analysts say the deal between Tuvalu and Australia will not be completely scrapped, the U.S. Congress has been unable to pass new funding packages for several Pacific island nations, forcing leaders from several countries to warn about Beijing’s attempt to seize the opportunity to shift their allegiances.

Sora in Australia said the U.S. congressional failure to pass the aid package, the Compacts of Free Association, or COFA, agreement, hurts U.S. credibility as a reliable partner to Pacific island nations.

“COFA is a core Pacific interest for the U.S. and if it can’t make that, how could it credibly expand its engagement and presence in the rest of the Pacific?” according to Sora.

Rich from Western Kentucky University said failure by the U.S. and its allies to provide economic support to Pacific island nations, who rely heavily on foreign aid for their development, could give China an opportunity to present itself as an alternative.

“My concern is that without aid, the Pacific islands have no choice but China, and China could use these relations [to increase its presence in the region,]” he said.  
…

MEXICO CITY — Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD is looking for a location in Mexico to set up a factory aimed at boosting the company’s share of the local market, BYD Americas CEO Stella Li told Reuters on Wednesday.

The company expects to choose a location for the plant, which is set to have a production capacity of 150,000 cars annually, by the year’s end, Li said.

BYD outpaced former market leader Tesla in EV sales globally in the fourth quarter of 2023, and auto industry officials say its push into Mexico foreshadows a competitive threat the Shenzhen-based automaker and others from China may pose to companies already operating in the U.S. market.

A U.S. manufacturing advocacy group, the Alliance for American Manufacturing, this month warned low-cost Chinese cars and parts could threaten the viability of auto companies in the U.S. The group called on Washington to block the import of low-cost Chinese autos and parts from Mexico to prevent an “extinction-level event” for the U.S. auto sector.

Li said BYD’s Mexico ambitions are solely geared at local sales, adding the company is scouting for factory sites in central and southern areas rather than northern Mexico near the U.S. border, where she said transportation costs to reach consumers would be expensive.

“Our plan is to build the facility for the Mexican market, not for the export market,” she said.

When asked whether Mexican officials had mentioned U.S. concerns over Chinese automakers, Li said they had been receptive to BYD’s plans.

Analysts say Chinese automakers have been rapidly improving their vehicles and are even moving faster than global rivals in some areas, such as infotainment systems and autonomous driving.

BYD is particularly cost-competitive and aggressive among Chinese players, according to executives from its Chinese rivals already selling cars in Mexico. BYD may bring aggressive price cuts to Mexico, just as it has done in its home market, forcing rivals to slash costs to keep up.

Cost advantages for BYD come from its early investment in EV technology and a high degree of vertical integration the company has achieved over the years, experts say, not unlike Tesla TSLA.O.

Like its American EV rival, BYD produces an array of automotive components and systems on its own, from batteries to motors to power management chips to dashboard screens.

BYD executives announced on Wednesday the automaker will begin selling its Dolphin Mini electric vehicle (EV) in Mexico at 358,800 pesos ($20,990), less than half the price of the cheapest Tesla.

At a launch event in Mexico City, Li said the car aims to mix technology and a price point in reach of Mexican consumers.

“It’s affordable … so every Mexican can bring their first electric car home,” she said.

Even as BYD’s Mexico sales are doubling monthly, Li also noted challenges for encouraging consumers to adopt EVs, such as Mexico’s still-limited network of charging stations.

“We still need a lot of hard work to educate the market,” Li said.
…

washington — U.S. lawmakers are voicing concern about the Pacific island nation of Kirabati’s use of police from China for security, just as the U.S. State Department warns that such cooperation could bring new risks to Kiribati, a neighbor of Hawaii. 

On Friday, Eeri Aritiera, Kirabati’s acting police commissioner, told Reuters that a Chinese police delegation will rotate through the island nation to “provide assistance” to Kiribati’s Community Policing program and IT department. 

Aritiera says the island nation of more than 115,000, whose closest island is about 2,100 km (1,305 miles) from Hawaii, requested China’s policing assistance in 2022. 

In an email to VOA, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said the U.S. conducts police training in Kiribati. The spokesperson also raised concerns about the “potential implications that security agreements and security-related cyber cooperation” with China may have for a nation’s sovereignty. 

“We do not believe importing security forces from [China] will help any country,” he said in an email to VOA. 

Worried about losing ground

U.S. lawmakers worry Washington is losing ground to the People’s Republic of China in the Pacific, a region that’s critical to national security. 

“The PRC’s policing activities in Kiribati are a clear sign of Beijing’s growing influence in Pacific island countries through lawfare. It’s also a sign of the democracy-eroding effects of the PRC’s diplomatic isolation of Taiwan,” said U.S. Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, the ranking member on the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the U.S. and the Chinese Communist Party or CCP. 

“If we don’t engage more with our Pacific partners like Kiribati to counter this CCP malign influence, we could face serious trade and national security issues, said U.S. Representative Neal Dunn, a Florida Republican who also serves on the Select Committee. 

“Kiribati wants a consistent on-the-ground relationship with the United States,” acknowledged democratic U.S. Representative Ed Case of Hawaii in an email to VOA, adding the region “needs help building capacity to address basic services.”  

Others on the committee worry about the corrosive impact on Pacific nations as they depend more for security on police from an authoritarian state where due process often goes unenforced. 

“The CCP gives zero value to human life and will most certainly intend to use Kiribati’s strategic position to their advantage, said U.S. Representative Michele Steel in a statement to VOA. Steel also serves on the Select Committee. 

VOA asked the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. to comment on the reports about the new Chinese police presence in Kiribati. 

Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu responded to VOA in an email that China “always engages in cooperation with relevant countries on the basis of equality, mutual respect, mutual benefit, openness and inclusiveness.” 

China grows police partnerships 

In recent years, Beijing has increasingly positioned itself as the public safety partner of choice for Pacific nations experiencing instability. In January, Papua New Guinea requested Chinese police assistance after riots killed 15 people. 

In 2022, the Solomon Islands entered into a security pact with Beijing, and a year later, Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare signed a police cooperation deal with China for two years. Both Kiribati and the Solomons switched diplomatic ties from Taiwan to Beijing in 2019. 

But others in the region are re-examining their police agreements with China. In January 2023, after 12 years of cooperation with Beijing on policing, Fiji’s newly elected prime minister — Sitiveni Rabuka — fired the country’s police commissioner and promised to end a police training agreement that allowed Chinese police officers to be stationed in Fiji. 

“If our systems and our values differ, what cooperation can we get from them?” said Rabuka last June, referring to China. 

Lawmakers: Funding delay sends wrong message

With Chinese funds surging to the region — as much as $3.148 billion between 2008 and 2020, according to the Sydney-based Lowy Institute — many in Congress are questioning why their fellow lawmakers still haven’t passed a funding package for three Pacific allies that are also facing economic pressure from Beijing. 

The agreement, known as the Compacts of Free Association or COFA, provide $7 billion in economic aid over 20 years to Palau, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands.  It was signed last year.  

Earlier this month, the funding was dropped from the security supplemental in the U.S. Senate under pressure from conservatives who wanted to lower costs. With no amendment process permitted, the funds could not be added back in. 

U.S. representative Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen represents the U.S. Pacific territory of American Samoa — some 2,500 kilometers (1,553 miles) southeast of Kiribati. 

In a statement to VOA, she called COFA “the clearest signal the U.S. can send renewing American commitments to freedom, democracy and well-being for our three closest allies, and the entire Pacific region.”  

U.S. Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii agrees, warning in an email to VOA that further delay in passing COFA “opens the door for China to make similar overtures to the COFA nations.” 
…

washington — Rights advocates are urging international social media platforms to do more to prevent Chinese authorities from obtaining the personal information of users. The call comes after two popular Chinese social media influencers alleged on X and YouTube that police in China were investigating their followers and had called some in for questioning.

Social media platforms such as X and YouTube and thousands of websites — from The New York Times to the BBC and VOA — are blocked in China by the country’s Great Firewall. But increasingly, even as social controls tighten under the leadership of Xi Jinping, many in China are using virtual private networks to access X, YouTube and other sites for news, information and opinions not available in China.

Li Ying, who is also known online as Teacher Li, is one of the social media influencers who issued the warning on Sunday. Li came to prominence as a source of news and information following a rare display of public dissent in 2022 in China, protesting the government’s draconian zero-COVID policy. His account on X has now become a hub for news and videos provided by netizens that the Chinese government considers sensitive and censors online.

In a post on Sunday, Teacher Li said, “Currently, the public security bureau is checking my 1.6 million followers and people in the comments, one by one.”

He shared screenshots of private messages he received from followers over the past few months, some of which claimed that police had interrogated individuals, even causing one person to lose their job.

VOA could not independently verify the authenticity of the claims, but court records in China and reports by rights groups have previously documented the country’s increasing use of social media platforms banned in China to detain, prosecute and sentence individuals over comments made online.

The Chinese Embassy spokesperson in Washington, Liu Pengyu, said he was not aware of the specifics regarding the social media influencers.

“As a principle, the Chinese government manages internet-related affairs according to law and regulation,” Liu said.

Influencers warn followers

News of the crackdown on followers of social influencers comes amid a flurry of reports about China’s hacking capabilities. Last week, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that cyberattacks on U.S. infrastructure were “at a scale greater than we’d seen before.”

A recent document dump detailed how private companies are helping China to hack foreign governments across Southeast Asia and to unmask users of foreign social media accounts.

Wang Zhi’an, a former journalist at China’s state broadcaster CCTV who has a million subscribers on X and 1.2 million followers on YouTube, says his followers have reported similar problems.

In response, both Wang and Teacher Li have urged their followers to take precautions, suggesting they unfollow their accounts, change their usernames, avoid Chinese-made phones and prepare to be questioned.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Li’s followers on X had dropped to 1.4 million. VOA reached out to Li for comment but did not receive a response as of publication.

Authorities reportedly tracking followers

Maya Wang, acting China director at Human Rights Watch, said China is putting more effort into policing platforms based outside of the country as more Chinese people move to the platforms to speak out.

She said the recent reports of authorities tracking down followers is just a part of China’s long-standing effort to restrict freedom of expression.

“I think the Chinese government is also increasingly worried about the information that is being propagated, transmitted or distributed on these foreign platforms because they have been, thanks to these individuals, very influential,” Wang said.

A recent leak of documents from I-Soon, a private contractor linked to China’s top policing agency and other parts of its government, described tools used by Chinese police to curb dissent on overseas social media, including one tool specifically created to surveil users on X.

Hackers also created tools for police to hack email inboxes and unmask anonymous users of X, the documents show. The leak revealed that officers sometimes sent requests to surveil specific individuals to I-Soon.

Wang said it is incumbent on social media companies to make sure their users stay safe.

“I would want to direct these questions to Twitter [X] to ask — are they adopting heightened measures to protect PRC [People’s Republic of China]-based users?” she said. “I think Twitter [X] needs to investigate just how exactly this kind of information is being obtained and whether or not they need to plug some loopholes.”

Yaqiu Wang, research director for China, Hong Kong and Taiwan at Freedom House, said that besides better protecting their users’ privacy, the companies should also put in more effort to combat China’s clampdown on freedom of speech.

“They should have steps actually helping out activists to protect their freedom of speech,” she said. “Big social media companies should widely disseminate information to their users, like a manual or instructions of how to protect their account.

“They need to be more transparent, so users and the public know whether government-sponsored hacking activities are going on,” she added.

VOA reached out to X, formerly known as Twitter, several times for comment but did not receive any response by the time of publication.

Xiao Yu contributed to this report.
…

STATE DEPARTMENT — With a science and technology agreement between the United States and People’s Republic of China due to expire Tuesday, the State Department said it is negotiating to “amend, extend, and strengthen protections within” the agreement but declined to specify if the U.S. would extend the deal.

“We are not able to provide information at this time on specific U.S. negotiating positions or on whether the agreement will be extended past its current expiration date,” a State Department spokesperson told VOA.

The Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement is a framework for U.S. governmental collaborations with China in science and technology.  

U.S. officials have said the STA provides consistent standards for government-to-government scientific cooperation between the U.S. and China.  

While the agreement supports scientific collaboration in areas that benefit the United States, U.S. officials acknowledge the challenges posed by China’s national science and technology strategies and its domestic legal framework.

Critics, including U.S. lawmakers, point out China’s restrictions on data and a lack of transparency in sharing scientific findings. Washington is also concerned about personal safety of American scientists who travel to China, as well as Beijing’s potential military application of shared research.

A report by Congressional Research Service said China’s cooperation under the agreement has not been consistent. For example, “China reportedly withheld avian influenza strains required for U.S. vaccines and in 2019, cut off U.S. access to coronavirus research, including U.S.-funded work at the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” said the CRS.

Advocates for renewing the agreement want to maintain some level of official and unofficial contacts amid strained relationship between the two countries.  

During a recent discussion hosted by the Washington-based Institute for China-America Studies (ICAS), panelists said the STA is “important symbolically” and gives confidence to researchers on both sides to deepen their engagement with counterparts.

“In the event of the agreement’s non-renewal, the mutual confidence that sustains and underpins collaboration is bound to suffer,” said ICAS in its post-event summary.

Dean Cheng, a senior advisor to the China program at the U.S. Institute of Peace, said the American system is far more open, so China will typically be able to gather information regardless of whether there is an agreement.

“The STA is no guarantee that American scientists will, in fact, be able to access Chinese research, information, or scholars, whereas the Chinese side will use the STA as a means of establishing an even greater presence in the U.S.,” Cheng told VOA, adding the “strategic advantage” under the deal will likely be with the PRC.

The STA was originally signed in 1979 by then-U.S. President Jimmy Carter and then-PRC leader Deng Xiaoping. Under the agreement, the two countries cooperate in fields including agriculture, energy, space, health, environment, earth sciences and engineering, as well as educational and scholarly exchanges.

U.S.-China science and technology activity increased in November 2009 with new agreements on joint projects in electric vehicles, or EVs, renewable energy, and the creation of the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center, or CERC, a 10-year research effort between the U.S. Department of Energy and China’s Ministry of Science and Technology.

The agreement has been renewed approximately every five years since its inception, with the most recent five-year extension occurring in 2018. Last August, it received a six-month extension as officials from the two countries undertook negotiations to amend and strengthen the terms.
…

WASHINGTON — Chinese passenger airlines will be allowed to boost their weekly round-trip U.S. flights to 50 starting on March 31, up from the current 35, the U.S. Transportation Department said on Monday, returning the market to nearly one-third of pre-pandemic levels.

The approval “is a significant step forward in further normalization of the U.S.-China market in anticipation of the Summer 2024 traffic season,” the USDOT said.

More than 150 weekly round-trip passenger flights were allowed by each side before restrictions were imposed in early 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but until August 2023, Chinese and U.S. carriers could each fly only 12 a week between

the two countries.

The number rose on Sept. 1 to 18 weekly roundtrips and then to 24 per week starting Oct. 29. The USDOT approved 35 for Chinese carriers in November.

Airlines for America, a group representing American Airlines , Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, which fly a combined 31 weekly flights to China, said it “supports the U.S. government’s approach to slowly, gradually and reciprocally reopen the market with China. It’s imperative the U.S. government maintains this approach.”

The Chinese embassy in Washington said it was “glad to see the positive progress made on increasing direct passenger flights between China and the U.S.” The embassy added it is working to “further facilitate cross-border travel and promote people-to-people exchange between the two countries.”

Reuters reported last June that newly approved Chinese flights to the United States were not overflying Russia, which would have given them a shorter flight time and fuel advantage over U.S. rivals blocked from Russian airspace.

Other international air markets involving China have reopened far more quickly, with seat capacity between China and the United Kingdom this month exceeding pre-pandemic levels by 30%, and China-Singapore by 6%, according to aviation data

provider OAG.

The USDOT said it was engaged in a productive dialogue with China’s aviation regulator towards the “implementation of a roadmap to provide for a gradual, broader reopening of the U.S.-China air services market and a phased and predictable return to the capacity entitlements” specified under a U.S.-China agreement.

On a trip to China last year, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said she wanted to boost travel and tourism between the two countries.

If China returned to 2019 U.S. tourism levels, it would add $30 billion to the U.S. economy and 50,000 U.S. jobs, Raimondo said in August.
…

SHANGHAI — Two prominent Chinese bloggers in exile said that police were investigating their millions of followers on international social media platforms, in an escalation of Beijing’s attempts to clamp down on critical speech even outside of the country’s borders.

Former state broadcaster CCTV journalist Wang Zhi’an and artist-turned-dissident Li Ying, both Chinese citizens known for posting uncensored Chinese news, said in separate posts Sunday that police were interrogating people who followed them on social media, and urged followers to take precautions such as unfollowing their accounts, changing their usernames, avoiding Chinese-made phones and preparing to be questioned.

Li Ying, known as Teacher Li, came to prominence as a source of news about the White Paper protests, a rare moment of anti-government protests in mainland China in 2022. Teacher Li’s account on X, formerly known as Twitter, @whyyoutouzhele now posts news and videos submitted by users, which cover everything from local protests to viral videos of real-life incidents that are censored on the Chinese internet.

In a post Sunday evening, Teacher Li suggested people unfollow his account. “Currently, the public security bureau is checking my 1.6 million followers and people in the comments, one by one.”

Li shared screenshots of private messages he received from followers over the past few months, which claimed that police had interrogated individuals, and that one person had even lost their job.

As of Monday afternoon, Li had dropped down to 1.4 million followers on X.

International social media platforms like X and YouTube are blocked in China but can still be accessed with software that circumvents the country’s censorship systems.

Wang, who has a million subscribers on X and 1.2 million followers on YouTube, also told his fans to unsubscribe.

Li, Wang and the Chinese foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Over the past decade, Beijing has cracked down on dissent on Chinese social media, with thousands of censors employed both at private companies and with the Chinese state.

Chinese users expressing critical opinions online have reported being called, harassed or interrogated by police, with some called in for questioning and ordered to take down certain posts or delete their accounts. In some cases, users have been detained, with some spending up to two weeks in jail and a small number sentenced to years in prison.

More recently, Beijing has extended its reach to tracking non-Chinese platforms such as Facebook, Telegram and X. A recent leak of documents from I-Soon, a private contractor linked to China’s top policing agency and other parts of its government, described tools used by Chinese police to curb dissent on overseas social media, including one tool specifically created to surveil users on X.

Hackers also created tools for police to hack email inboxes and unmask anonymous users of X, the documents show. Sometimes, officers sent requests to surveil specific individuals to I-Soon, the leak revealed.

Li said he would not stop posting even if people unfollowed, but he urged his followers to take basic digital safety precautions.

“I don’t want your life to be impacted just because you wanted to understand the real news in China,” Li said, in an additional post. “You only want to understand what’s happening, but the price is quite high

 
…

singapore — China’s C919 single-aisle jet made its international debut at the Singapore Airshow, attracting masses of visitors and hundreds of orders, but analysts say it still has a long way to go before it can compete with aircraft from market leaders Boeing and Airbus.

The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) has received over 1,000 orders for the jet, mostly from Chinese airlines. A lack of international certification means the aircraft cannot operate commercially in most countries unless they recognize certifications by China’s civil aviation regulator.

During last week’s airshow, which drew nearly 120,000 trade and public visitors, the C919 performed flybys, letting visitors see the jet in action. Its only previous foray outside mainland China was to Hong Kong in December.

“It’s quite symbolic and a major milestone in that push by China to become considered, alongside Airbus and Boeing, for commercial aircraft,” said Brendan Sobie, an independent aviation analyst based in Singapore. 

Another aspect COMAC needs to work on before its jets can become serious contenders alongside the Airbus A320neo and Boeing’s 737 Max narrow-body airliners is building up a reliable distribution system and market support services for its aircraft.

“The challenge moving forward is that in order to have a sustainable future, COMAC must demonstrate that they are able to go beyond Chinese shores,” said Mabel Kwan, managing director at consultancy Alton Aviation.

COMAC declined to make its executives available for an interview.

So far, the state-owned company says it has received 1,061 domestic orders for the C919, but it has yet to secure many international customers. Brunei-based GallopAir, which is backed by Chinese investors, signed a letter of intent in September to purchase 30 aircraft from COMAC, including a C919 jet, in a deal estimated to be worth $2 billion.

COMAC faces supply chain challenges like those of Boeing and Airbus, which have backlogs of thousands of aircraft yet to be delivered. While the C919 is designed in China, much of its technology and many of its parts are from foreign suppliers. Its engine, for example, is made by CFM International, a joint venture between GE Aerospace and France’s Safran Aircraft Engines.

“It’s not like China has its own supply system, its own avionics, its own engines, so that they’re not impacted by what’s happening globally,” Sobie said, adding that COMAC might not be a high priority for suppliers also struggling to catch up with deliveries to Boeing and Airbus.

COMAC, however, does have the luxury of a wide talent pool from China, Kwan said, and in the long run this may allow the firm to develop more homegrown technology and parts for use in its aircraft.

“Right now, COMAC is using mostly Western technology … but with enough research and development, training and education, the whole ecosystem may be able to overcome [challenges in the long term],” she said. 
…

HONG KONG/MANILA — Satellite images of the hotly disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea show a new floating barrier across its entrance, near where Philippine ships and China coast guard vessels have had frequent run-ins.

One of the images taken by Maxar Technologies on Feb. 22 and viewed by Reuters showed the barrier blocking the mouth of the shoal, where the Chinese coast guard last week claimed to have driven off a Philippine vessel “illegally intruding” into Beijing’s waters.

The Philippines, which last week deployed a Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) vessel to patrol the shoal and transport fuel to Filipino fishermen in the area, said that China’s claims were “inaccurate” and that Manila’s activities there were lawful.

China claims the Scarborough Shoal, although it is inside the Philippines’ 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone. An international arbitration tribunal in the Hague said in 2016 that China’s claims had no legal basis – a decision Beijing has rejected.

That makes the atoll one of Asia’s most contested maritime features and a flashpoint for diplomatic flare-ups over sovereignty and fishing rights.

The satellite image bolsters a report and video distributed by the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Sunday showing two Chinese coast guard inflatable boats deploying floating barriers at the shoal’s entrance on Feb 22.

The PCG said that a China coast guard ship shadowed the BFAR vessel, “conducted blocking maneuvers” about 2.4 km off the shoal, and closely approached it.

“We can assume that [the barrier] is intended for Philippine government vessels because they install it every time they monitor our presence within the BDM vicinity,” Jay Tarriela, a spokesperson at the Philippine Coast Guard said, referring to Bajo de Masinloc, Manila’s name for the shoal.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said “Huangyan Dao”, China’s name for the shoal, was “China’s inherent territory.”

“Recently, the Philippine side has taken a series of actions to violate China’s sovereignty” in the shoal’s waters, she said. “China has to take necessary measures to firmly safeguard its territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests.”

Another satellite image showed what Maxar technologies described as “possible Chinese interception of a BFAR vessel” at Scarborough Shoal.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, a conduit for more than $3 trillion in annual ship commerce. Its territorial claims overlap with those of the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.

“What we are seeing at the Scarborough Shoal now is likely the beginning of Beijing’s pushback against Manila’s pushback,” said Ian Storey, a senior fellow at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.

Since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr took office in June 2022, the Philippines has challenged China’s presence at Scarborough and its attempts to stop the resupply of Filipino troops stationed at Second Thomas Shoal, he said.

“China’s attempts to prevent Filipino fishermen from fishing at Scarborough Shoal is absolutely illegal,” Storey said. “The 2016 arbitral tribunal ruling gave fishermen from both countries the right to (fish there). Manila is merely supporting the legitimate rights of Filipino fishermen.”

The shoal is coveted for its bountiful fish stocks and a stunning turquoise lagoon that provides a safe haven for vessels during storms.

The Chinese removed the barrier a few hours after the BFAR vessel left, Tarriela said. It was not clear from the photos how robust the barrier was and whether it would have posed an obstacle to larger warships.

In an article on Sunday, state-media outlet Global Times said “the Philippines has abused and unilaterally sabotaged the foundation of Beijing’s goodwill to Manila” that allowed Philippine fishermen to operate nearby, by working against China’s sovereignty and jurisdiction.

“If such provocations persist, China could be forced to take more effective measures to control the situation,” the article said, citing experts.
…

SYDNEY — Tuvalu on Monday announced former attorney general and fisheries official Feleti Teo as its new prime minister, after he was elected unopposed by lawmakers in the Pacific Islands nation, officials said.

Former Prime Minister Kausea Natano lost his seat in a general election on Jan. 26 closely watched by Taiwan, China, the U.S. and Australia, amid a geopolitical tussle for influence in the South Pacific.

Tuvalu, with a population of about 11,200 spread across nine islands, is one of three remaining Pacific allies of Taiwan, after Nauru cut ties last month and switched to Beijing, which had promised more development help.

Teo received unanimous support from the 16 lawmakers, two lawmakers told Reuters on Monday. Teo, who was educated in New Zealand and Australia, was Tuvalu’s first attorney general and has decades of experience as a senior official in the fisheries industry – the region’s biggest revenue earner.

“Feleti Teo was declared by the Governor General as Prime Minister for Tuvalu,” Tuvalu election official, Tufoua Panapa, said in an emailed statement.

Tuvalu lawmaker Simon Kofe congratulated Teo in a social media post.

“It is the first time in our history that a prime minister has been nominated unopposed,” he said.

Only one nomination had been sent to the Governor General, before the formal vote by the lawmakers on Monday morning.

The election result in Tuvalu had been delayed by three weeks as dangerous weather stopped boats from bringing new lawmakers to the capital to vote for prime minister, highlighting why climate change is the top political issue in the Pacific Islands nation.

Taiwan previously said it was paying close attention to the election after Tuvalu’s finance minister in the previous government, Seve Paeniu, said the issue of diplomatic recognition of Taiwan or China should be debated by the new government.

There had also been calls by some lawmakers to review a wide-ranging deal signed with Australia in November, that allows Canberra to vet Tuvalu’s police, port and telecommunication cooperation with other nations, in return for a defense guarantee and allowing citizens threatened by rising seas to migrate.

The deal was seen as an effort to curb China’s rising influence as an infrastructure provider in the Pacific Islands.

Teo’s position on Taiwan ties, and the Australian security and migration pact, have not been made public.

Tuvalu’s ministry is also expected to be decided on Monday.
…

London — Europe’s automakers and their already-stretched suppliers face a tough year as they race to cut costs for electric models to counter leaner Chinese rivals which are bringing cheaper vehicles to challenge them on their home turf.

A big question is how much more Europe’s automakers can squeeze out of suppliers that have already started laying off workers, with many smaller companies hard hit by supply chain issues during the pandemic.

The difference between Europe’s legacy automakers and more EV-focused Chinese manufacturers will be on stark display this week at the Geneva car show, which is returning after a four-year hiatus due to the pandemic.

The only major companies holding media events are France’s Renault and China’s SAIC Motors and the BYD Company — two of several of the country’s automakers that have set their sights on Europe.

Renault is launching its electric R5 and SAIC’s MG brand will unveil its M3 hybrid. Meanwhile, BYD’s Seal sedan is shortlisted for the Car of the Year award. If it wins, it would be the first Chinese model to get the prestigious award.

“They really are like chalk and cheese,” Nick Parker, a partner and managing director at consulting firm AlixPartners, said of the legacy European automakers and their Chinese rivals.

Unlike European automakers that are reliant on external suppliers with separate supply chains for fossil-fuel and electric, their Chinese rivals are highly vertically integrated, producing almost everything in-house and keeping costs down.

That helps them undercut their European rivals. In Britain, BYD’s electric Dolphin hatchback starts at 25,490 pounds ($32,300), about 27% less than Volkswagen’s equivalent ID.3 model. Tesla works in the same way.

Chasing those rivals means European automakers’ profit margins could be “heavily challenged” moving forward because there is only so much they can squeeze out of external suppliers, AlixPartners’ Parker said.

The challenge has been made more difficult by a slower-than-expected shift to EVs, leaving legacy automakers stuck with their dual supply chains. Data this week showed EU fully-electric car sales in January fell 42.3% from December.

Both Renault and Stellantis have stressed their EV cost-cutting efforts this month while Mercedes toned down expectations for EV demand and said it will update its traditional lineup well into the next decade.

Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares has gone further, telling suppliers that with 85% of EV costs related to purchased materials, they need to bear a proportionate burden in reducing costs.

“I am translating that reality to my partners: If you don’t do your part of the job, then you exclude yourself,” he said.

Nickel and aluminum prices have also risen this week as Western countries expanded sanctions lists against Moscow, highlighting the lingering risks to raw materials prices even though there was no mention of the two metals.

Job cuts

Many legacy suppliers are already feeling the strain of cost cuts with FORVIA, Continental and Bosch all recently announcing or warning of layoffs, with more expected.

To preserve their profits, automakers focused production on higher-margin models during the recent semi-conductor shortage, but that meant less revenue and less upside for their suppliers.

Now industry experts say well-capitalized larger suppliers can adapt to the new reality but warn that plenty of smaller ones are teetering on the edge, like Germany’s Allgaier which filed for insolvency in July.

That means Europe’s automakers face a delicate balancing act between cutting costs to fend off Chinese rivals and avoiding pushing their suppliers too far. Philip Nothard, insight director at dealer services firm Cox Automotive, says automakers may even have to step in to bailout struggling suppliers.

“The risk is if (European automakers) try and screw those suppliers down too much, they’ll either push them into administration or they’ll push them into seeking different markets,” he said.
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Beijing — Zong Qinghou, a Chinese business magnate whose leading beverage firm once made him the richest person in the country, died Sunday, his company said. He was 79.

Zong was the founder of the Wahaha conglomerate, which specializes in bottled water, soft drinks, tea and other products.

He died Sunday morning after “treatment for an illness proved ineffective,” the company said in an obituary on its Weibo social media account.

A memorial service for Zong will be held Wednesday at the company’s offices in the eastern city of Hangzhou, the statement said. 

State media reported this week that Zong was receiving hospital treatment but gave no details of his illness. 

Zong only went into business in his 40s, selling soft drinks to children and reportedly being so short of cash that he slept under a bridge in Beijing because he could not afford a hotel. 

He established Wahaha in 1987 and built it into a beverage giant whose drinks are a fixture in shops and kiosks across China. 

In 2010, Zong was listed by Forbes magazine as China’s richest person with a fortune worth $8 billion. 

Its estimate last year put him in 53rd place nationally with a net worth of $5.9 billion. 

The tycoon previously voiced support for lowering taxes as a strategy for boosting investment, telling reporters in 2013 that China’s growing wealth inequality was not a problem. 

“If we had egalitarianism… we wouldn’t have enough to eat,” said Zong at the time. “It’s best to encourage people to create wealth.” 

In recent years, Wahaha — whose name means “Laughing Child” in Chinese — has branched out into various other sectors including baby milk and clothing. 

In 2021, Zong took a step back from front-line work, appointing his daughter Zong Fuli as Wahaha’s vice-chairperson and general manager. 
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Macao — Macao, the former Portuguese colony that has become the world’s biggest gambling city in recent years, is embarking on an experiment to remake itself, but it’s unclear if it will succeed.

Visitors to the city see a difference compared to 10 or 20 years ago.

There are new and bigger casino resorts — from The Londoner to MGM Cotai — and they no longer offer just slot machines and gambling tables. They feature non-gaming entertainment — from water slides to concerts. There’s even a zipline.

The city that has relied on gaming revenue for decades has been betting on non-gaming attractions to lure non-gamblers, in hopes of diversifying its economy.

But behind the water splashes and zipline rides, Macao is struggling to live up to its nickname: Las Vegas of the East.

Although its gaming revenue has exceeded that of Las Vegas by three-fold before the COVID-19 pandemic, unlike its U.S. counterpart in Nevada — whose casino earnings are 70% non-gaming and 30% gaming — Macao’s mix is just 5% non-gaming and 95% gaming, according to IGamiX, a Macao-based consultancy.

That’s far from China’s wishes when the city returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1999 and soon after, ended the casino monopoly, opening the sector to foreign competition in hopes of turning Macao into a leisure and entertainment capital.

“I don’t think anyone realized when they let the genie out of the bag, that the market would be predominantly mainland China,” said Ben Lee, a gaming analyst at IGamiX. “In the past 20 years, instead of transforming into a world center for tourism, all Macao has become is a world center for Chinese gambling. It was never meant to be that. The intention was to make Macao into Vegas.”

Beijing has urged Macao to end its dependence on gaming. It has tried to reduce the number of Chinese gamblers flocking to the only place in China that allows gambling, by restricting the number of visits Chinese residents from some provinces can make to Macao to only six per year.

Beijing has also tried to stem the flow of an estimated $150 billion a year in Chinese capital, especially corruption money, to Macao, and banned promoting overseas gambling on the mainland.

Those measures and President Xi Jinping’s crackdown on corruption have significantly reduced Macao’s gross gaming revenue from the record high of $45 million in 2013 to $22 million last year.

But Macao is still heavily dependent on gaming, which accounted for more than 50% of its GDP before COVID-19 and 60% of government revenues in 2023, according to official figures.

So last year, Macao’s government began requiring casino operators to diversify their customer base and invest heavily in non-gaming projects, as a condition for renewing their concession licenses. That’s on top of a 40% casino tax.

The six concessionaires — Wynn, Sands, SJM, MGM, Melco, and Galaxy — have pledged to invest a combined $13.6 billion to explore overseas customer markets and develop non-gaming projects, including conventions and exhibitions, entertainment, and performances.

However, a year later, it’s unclear whether this new approach will work.

Observers said many casino operators remain reluctant to shift their focus from gaming, an easier money-maker, to less profitable non-gaming ventures.

“We have been living with casinos for decades. It’s not that easy to say I want to diversify the company. You have to cultivate a mentality for this kind of diversification. It will take time,” said community leader Miguel Senna Fernandes. “I don’t see this yet.”

Analysts pointed to “half-hearted” attempts by some casinos to meet the government’s mandate: simply opening retail shops or holding concerts by oldies singers transplanted from Vegas.

Casino operators have not accepted VOA’s requests for interviews.

In a statement to VOA, the Macao Government Tourism Office said, Macao has seen an increase in the number of non-gaming visitors “and the government’s efforts to diversify the tourism attractions have received positive feedback.”

It said exit surveys found visitors’ top three reasons for being there were shopping, sightseeing and gastronomy.

But the most recent statistics show gaming still accounted for nearly 80% of tourism revenue in 2022.

Experts say it may be difficult to replicate Vegas.

“Since early years, Vegas has had an alternative economy. You have a leisure industry which makes Las Vegas so diversified; it’s not just gambling. My friends go to Las Vegas, they don’t go to gamble. They say it’s totally different from Macao, which is casino, casino, casino,” Fernandes said.

He and others see the government’s requirements on casinos to promote non-gaming as a positive move.

“Now there’s a chance to change the rules of the game,” said Fernandes, head of the Macanese Association, which hopes Macao’s unique mixed-race culture can also be promoted.

Some casinos are starting to catch on to what draws visitors. Galaxy organized a 23,000-ticket concert by the Korean girl group Blackpink last year that sold out within seconds.

“That jolted the entertainment scene. That’s massive,” Lee said. “They could’ve had two weeks of Blackpink instead of two nights.”

But what keeps more overseas tourists from visiting may be few direct flights to Macao, competition from casinos opening elsewhere in Asia, tourism services geared toward Chinese speakers, and a transportation system that struggles to cope with massive numbers of tourists, many of whom must wait in long lines for an insufficient number of taxis or crowded buses, especially during public holidays.

Amid these growing pains are concerns the government’s “meddling” in casino operations, by cracking down on cross-border recruitment of Chinese high rollers and specifying how many gambling tables and slot machines casinos can have, could hurt earnings.

“The Communist Party of China … has never been comfortable with legal gambling. So, they have decided they will use carrots and sticks to reshape the world’s largest casino market,” gaming expert I. Nelson Rose wrote in a blog. “Perhaps the greatest danger to the free market casinos of Macau is the government’s meddling in their day-to-day operation,” he added.

For now, casino operators are complying by trying to attract visitors from other countries, building more recreational facilities, including a new water park and theme park, and organizing more performances.

Each concessionaire has also been assigned an old district to redevelop, from piers and shipyards to a fortress neighborhood and a former firecracker factory.

“It’s kind of like a big experiment that hasn’t happened in this way anywhere else,” said Tim Simpson, author of Betting on Macau: Casino Capitalism and China’s Consumer Revolution.

“There’s an interesting social and economic experiment to see if they can be tasked with revitalizing areas, attracting different tourists to the city, and providing sporting or music events. It would be interesting to see the outcome of this big experiment that is happening here.”

It may mean lower profitability and more work for casinos, but there seems to be no choice and no turning back.

“At the end of the day, it is good for Macao. It’s what we should’ve done in the first 20 years,” Lee said.

If Macao succeeds, it may live up to its moniker — the Las Vegas of Asia.
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BEIJING — At least 15 people have been killed and 44 injured in a fire at a residential building in eastern China’s Nanjing, local authorities said Saturday.

The fire broke out early Friday morning, officials said at a press conference, with a preliminary investigation suggesting the blaze started on the building’s first floor, where electric bikes had been placed.

The building is located in the Yuhuatai district of Nanjing, a city of more than 8 million that lies about 260 kilometers northwest of Shanghai.

By 6 a.m. local time the fire had been extinguished, and a search and rescue operation ended about 2 p.m. Friday, authorities said.

Footage circulating on Chinese social networks showed a skyscraper on fire in the middle of the night, with black smoke pouring from it.

Other images show gigantic flames consuming several floors of the building, the flashing lights of emergency vehicles visible nearby in the dark.

Additional footage, apparently taken later, shows white smoke pouring out of several points in the building.

The 44 injured people were sent to hospitals for treatment, officials added.

One was in critical condition while another was seriously injured, they said.

At a news conference, city mayor Chen Zhichang offered his condolences and apologies to the victims’ families.

The country has seen a spate of deadly fires in recent months, often caused by official negligence — prompting calls from President Xi Jinping last month for “deep reflection” and greater efforts to “curb the frequent occurrence of safety accidents.”

Fires and other deadly accidents are common in China due to lax safety standards and poor enforcement.

In January, dozens died after a fire broke out at a store in the central city of Xinyu, with state news agency Xinhua reporting the blaze had been caused by the “illegal” use of fire by workers in the store’s basement.

That fire came just days after a late-evening blaze at a school in central China’s Henan province killed 13 schoolchildren as they slept in a dormitory.

A teacher at the school told state-run Hebei Daily that all the victims were from the same third-grade class of 9- and 10-year-olds.

Domestic media reports suggested the fire was caused by an electric heating device.

And in November, 26 people were killed and dozens sent to hospitals after a fire at a coal company office in northern China’s Shanxi province.

The month before, an explosion at a barbecue restaurant in the northwest of the country left 31 dead and prompted official pledges of a nationwide campaign to promote workplace safety.

In April, a hospital fire in Beijing killed 29 people and forced desperate survivors to jump out of windows to escape. 
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