London — U.S. and European Union sanctions announced Friday on hundreds of people and companies for supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine included several companies from China.

While most sanctions were against Russians and Russian firms, the U.S. and EU measures also included Chinese individuals and companies based in mainland China cities as well as Hong Kong for supplying the Russian military.

The U.S. sanctions also targeted individuals and firms based in Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, while the EU also targeted individuals and entities based in India, Kazakhstan, Serbia, Sri Lanka and Turkey.

They also included sanctions against Russian prison officials over the suspicious death last week in a Russian prison of opposition leader Alexey Navalny.

Russia’s foreign ministry denounced the sanctions as “illegal” and said it would respond by banning some EU citizens who provided military assistance to Ukraine from entering Russia.

Chinese officials did not issue an immediate response to the sanctions. But, at a regular briefing Tuesday, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning commented on the expected sanctions saying China follows an “objective and impartial position on the Ukraine crisis” and has “worked actively to promote peace talks.”

She said they “have not sat idly by, still less exploited the situation for selfish gains.”

Ukrainian officials and media reports have accused Chinese companies of supplying key electronics and dual-use technologies, including drone components, to Russia’s military since its invasion of Ukraine two years ago, which Beijing has denied.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday preempted Friday’s official announcement on social media, saying, “I welcome the agreement on our 13th sanctions package against Russia. We must keep degrading Putin’s war machine. With 2000 listings in total, we keep the pressure high on the Kremlin. We are also further cutting Russia’s access to drones.”

The sanctioned individuals and companies are banned from doing business with U.S. or European firms.

But legal and political analysts disagree on the effectiveness of the sanctions.

Lawyer Mark Handley, a partner at the Philadelphia-headquartered law firm Duane Morris LLP, said being sanctioned will certainly affect their international business. “Things like international insurance companies or shipping could get very complicated once they are on the sanctions list.”

However, Pieter Cleppe, editor-in-chief for BrusselsReport.eu, told VOA, “Historical research has shown that sanctions mostly fail, especially when prolonged, as is the case with Russia. The targeted country learns to cope with them.”

He said, “While sanctions may impoverish ordinary Russians, they have failed to halt the Russian offensive, which should be the goal.”

The Yermak-McFaul International Working Group on Russian Sanctions and the Ukrainian think tank KSE Institute in January published a report showing sanctioned technology has still been reaching Russia’s military through third country intermediaries, which the EU and the U.S. hope the fresh measures will stop.

Despite the historic sanctions, Russia’s economy has been resilient as it shifted from European trade to doing more business and selling more oil to Moscow-friendly nations such as India, Brazil and China.

Junhua Zhang, senior assistant researcher at the Brussels-based European Institute for Asian Studies, said the EU’s highest expectation “is for China to align with the EU in resisting Russia’s aggression, which is unrealistic. The EU’s minimum expectation is for Chinese companies not to work for Russia, but strictly speaking, only fools would have such an expectation.”

“Just consider, [Chinese President] Xi Jinping sees Putin as his best friend, and those below him will act accordingly, a point that Europeans also recognize.”

Others argue that sanctions on Chinese firms could push Beijing to reconsider.

Aliona Hlivco, a former Ukrainian lawmaker and managing director at the London-based think tank the Henry Jackson Society, said sanctions against Chinese companies could prove useful in deterring Russia’s war on Ukraine. ”China is currently attempting to improve relations with the West, so reinforcing China’s compliance with international norms could be opportune.”

The EU is China’s second-largest trading bloc partner after the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

China Customs says China-EU bilateral trade value was $783 billion in 2023, a year-on-year decrease of 7.6%.

In the same year, while Russia lost most of its European market due to sanctions, the bilateral trade between China and Russia hit a record high of $240 billion, a year-on-year increase of 26.3%. 

Trade between the U.S. and China in 2023 fell for the first time since 2019, by 11% to $664 billion, according to customs data, and the Commerce Department says the United States imported more goods from Mexico than China for the first time in 20 years.
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While many Western nations have cut economic ties with Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, Hungary continues to buy billions of dollars of Russian oil and gas. It also has sought to strengthen ties with Beijing, bucking Western efforts to reduce dependence on China. As Henry Ridgwell reports from Budapest, analysts say Hungary’s leader is seeking to exploit global tensions.
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Taipei, Taiwan — Chinese-born Australian writer and businessman Yang Hengjun’s recent suspended death sentence on espionage charges is likely to add to growing concerns about the risks foreign nationals face living in, working in and visiting China, analysts say.

Yang, a democracy advocate and spy novelist, was sentenced earlier this month. On Wednesday, his family released a statement saying that they would not file an appeal to the ruling due to a lack of trust in China’s judicial system and the hope of securing “adequate and supervised medical care” for him.

“Yang’s decision to forgo the appeals process does not in any way change the fact that he is both innocent and morally unbreakable, [and] we, family and close friends, strongly support Yang’s decision to waive his legal right to appeal the suspended death sentence handed down to him,” they wrote in the statement.

Feng Chongyi, an expert on Chinese politics at the University of Technology Sydney and Yang’s former academic adviser, told VOA in a phone interview that the case will have ripple effects.

“The Chinese government’s decision to give Yang Hengjun a suspended death sentence will create a chilling effect among democratic countries and discourage foreign nationals from doing business in China,” Feng said.

He added that under China’s anti-espionage law, which was amended in July 2023 to give Chinese authorities more power to punish threats against national security, the Chinese government categorizes commercial information and news as “state secrets,” and that any foreigner could be treated as a spy under the law.  

What led to Yang’s detention and the espionage charges remains unclear.

Some observers say Yang, who previously worked for the Chinese government and is a novelist who maintained a blog on China affairs, is a prominent liberal intellectual in China.

“He called himself the ‘democracy peddler’ and has played a positive role in facilitating the spread of ideas related to liberal democracy and constitutionalism in China,” Teng Biao, a Chinese human rights lawyer and the Pozen Visiting Scholar at the University of Chicago, told VOA by phone.

Feng in Sydney said he believes Beijing views Yang as a “political opponent” who poses a “serious threat to the Chinese government’s rule over China and regime security.”

“They want to make an example out of Yang by imposing a heavy sentence on him,” he told VOA, adding that Beijing hopes to suppress dissent in civil society and the communist party through Yang’s case.

China has dismissed criticism of the ruling, reiterating that China is a country that upholds the rule of law.

“Chinese judicial authorities handle the case in accordance with the law and will continue to protect the lawful rights and interests of the person concerned in accordance with the law,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said during the regular press conference on Wednesday.

Despite Beijing’s assurances, Teng Biao said Yang’s case is raising awareness of the risks foreign nationals face, particularly among the Chinese diaspora community.

“While many overseas Chinese dissidents, including those with foreign nationalities, already try not to go back to China, some of them are now also avoiding passing through some countries neighboring China, such as Vietnam, Cambodia or Nepal, due to concerns of being abruptly abducted back to China,” he said.

Japan and the United States have reported cases of citizens being detained under suspicion of espionage in China after amendments to China’s anti-espionage law came into force last July.

Since 2015, the year that China first introduced the anti-espionage law, a total of 17 Japanese citizens have been detained in China, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry. On the U.S. side, at least three American citizens are currently “wrongfully detained” in China, according to information shared by the U.S. State Department last November.

Some analysts say as China continues to “securitize” the country in the name of safeguarding national security, the severity of Yang’s prison sentence reflects both the increasingly arbitrary nature of China’s judicial system and the growing prices that foreign nationals may have to pay for overstepping the red line.

With no clear definition of what constitutes a violation of national security in China, “no one can predict the potential risks that they may face when they do anything,” Yaqiu Wang, research director for China, Taiwan and Hong Kong at Freedom House, told VOA by phone.

While the bilateral relationship between Australia and China has improved in recent months, Feng said Yang’s case now puts Canberra in a tough position. “When the Australian government deals with China, it must prioritize Yang’s case,” he told VOA.

“Canberra should pressure China about the case on different occasions and ask Beijing to make concessions in order to allow bilateral economic and trade relations to return to normalcy,” Feng said.
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Solomon Islands residents go to the polls April 17th to elect their national leadership. The elections could be consequential not only for the islanders but also for the United States and China. VOA’s Jessica Stone reports. Camera: Charley Piringi
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BEIJING — China’s Wildlife Conservation Association is working with the National Zoo in Washington in an arrangement that could bring more pandas back to the United States, signaling improving diplomatic relations between the two superpowers.

China has lent its beloved bears to zoos in various countries over the years as goodwill animal ambassadors and also fostered a modern Sino-U.S. “panda diplomacy” with the gesture.

“Relevant Chinese institutions have signed agreements with the Madrid Zoo in Spain and the San Diego Zoo in the United States on a new round of international cooperation in the protection of giant pandas,” said Mao Ning on Thursday, spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, when addressing a query at a regular press briefing.

“They are also working with the Washington National Zoo in the United States and [Viennna Zoo] in Austria to actively negotiate and launch a new round of cooperation.”

Earlier, the Wildlife Conservation Association said on its WeChat social media account that it had reached and signed agreements for the conservation of giant pandas with several zoos.

Back in November, the National Zoo in Washington returned three pandas to China as part of a more than 50-year-old legacy, leaving Georgia’s Zoo Atlanta as the only one in the U.S. with a giant panda program.

That loan agreement for the zoo’s four pandas expires this year, which meant there would be no pandas in the U.S. for the first time since 1972 when the Chinese government presented two giant pandas as gifts to the United States after President Richard Nixon’s historic Cold War visit to China.

“We look forward to a new round of international giant panda protection cooperation with relevant countries, which will further expand scientific research results on the protection of giant pandas and other endangered species, and promote people-to-people bonds and people-to-people friendship,” Mao said.

Over the past year, China and the United States have had fraught relations over a number of global issues from regional wars, trade disputes and ongoing spying allegations. Leaders from both countries have had several round of talks over the past few months to ease tensions.
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BEIJING — A  Chinese research ship is set to arrive in the Maldives on Thursday, global ship-tracking data showed, just three months after a similar vessel visited the Indian Ocean and sparked New Delhi’s security concerns.

The visit follows January comments by a U.S. think tank that China’s navy could “leverage the insights gained from these missions” for deployment of naval forces, a claim Beijing calls part of a concocted image-smearing “China threat” narrative.

The Xiang Yang Hong 03, owned by a research institute that reports to China’s natural resources ministry, is due to make a port call at Male, data from MarineTraffic showed, more than a month after leaving its southeastern home port of Xiamen.

The civilian ship spent more than three weeks surveying waters just outside the exclusive economic zones of India, the Maldives and Sri Lanka, the ship-tracking data showed. China’s foreign ministry has said research by the vessel was “exclusively” for peaceful purposes to benefit scientific understanding.

In recent years, India has voiced concern about the presence of China’s research vessels in the Indian Ocean, even if they do not belong to the military.

An Indian security official has previously said the vessels were “dual-use,” meaning the data they gather can be used for both civilian and military purposes.

The Xiang Yang Hong 03 has visited the Indian Ocean multiple times.

It sailed through the Sunda Strait in Indonesia in 2021, alarming Indonesian authorities, who said it had switched off its tracking system three times.

Chinese research vessels have also stopped in nearby Sri Lanka.

In 2022, the Yuan Wang 5, a military vessel capable of tracking rocket and missile launches, arrived in Colombo, alarming India.

The last time a Chinese research vessel docked in Sri Lanka was in October 2023, reviving India’s concerns. But in January, the island nation imposed a year-long moratorium on foreign research ships, effectively denying China a port of call.

The Xiang Yang Hong 03’s arrival follows a January visit to China by Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu that upgraded ties, with Beijing offering $128 million in “free aid.”

The Maldives has said the vessel would do no research in its waters, stopping only for personnel rotation and replenishment of supplies.
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Beijing — China’s foreign minister has told his Ukrainian counterpart that Beijing does not sell lethal weapons to Russia for its war against Ukraine, a statement said Sunday.

Wang Yi told Dmytro Kuleba during a meeting on the sidelines of a major security conference in Munich on Saturday that China “does not take any advantage of the situation and does not sell lethal weapons to conflict areas or parties to the conflict,” according to a foreign ministry readout.

China says it is a neutral party in the Ukraine conflict but has been criticized for refusing to condemn Moscow for its offensive.

China and Russia have ramped up economic cooperation and diplomatic contacts in recent years, and their strategic partnership has only grown closer since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Beijing has faced accusations that it is supplying lethal arms to Russia, charges it has always denied.

“No matter how the international situation changes, China hopes that China-Ukraine relations will develop normally and continue to benefit the two peoples,” Wang told Kuleba, according to the ministry’s readout.

“Once again, I would like to thank Ukraine for helping the Chinese people evacuate safely under emergency conditions,” it said. “The Chinese people will never forget that.”

The readout said Wang stressed that China adheres to the political settlement of flashpoint issues and insisted on promoting peace talks.

“We will continue to play a constructive role in bringing an early end to the war and re-establishing peace,” Wang told Kuleba.

“Even if there is only a glimmer of hope for peace, China will not give up its efforts.”
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Cordoba, Spain — China has agreed to lift a ban on imports of Spanish beef, the foreign ministers of both nations said Sunday after talks.

Since 2000, Beijing has imposed a ban on the European Union from exporting beef products due to the emergence of several cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or “mad cow” disease, in several members of the bloc that year.

“It is good news, especially for Spanish farmers,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told a joint news conference with his Spanish counterpart Jose Manuel Albares in Cordoba in southern Spain.

The announcement comes as farmers in Spain have for the past two weeks taken part in EU-wide protests over heavy regulation, high costs and cheaper imports which they say have left them struggling to make ends meet.

“When you take into account the size of the Chinese market, the impact is going to be extraordinarily positive,” Albares said.

“This is a measure which we have long been asking for and which benefits the entire countryside. It is hard to find a market like the Chinese market.”

China’s top diplomat headed to Spain after taking part in a major security conference in Munich, Germany on Saturday where he said Beijing will be a “force for stability” in the world.

Wang also reiterated Saturday China’s stance on the Israel-Hamas conflict, calling for an immediate cease-fire and the opening of channels for humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Albares said Sunday that he and Wang “agreed to support the solution of the two states: Palestinian and Israeli” to end the conflict.

“I have expressed my serious concern about the critical situation in Rafah, the need to achieve an immediate cease-fire, to continue supporting UNRWA more than ever and the indispensable work it does with refugees,” the Spanish minister added in a reference to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees.

Several countries — including the United States, Britain, Germany and Japan — have suspended funding to UNRWA in response to Israeli allegations that some of its staff participated in the October 7 terror attacks in Israel by Hamas.

Wang is scheduled to meet with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Monday before heading to France. This is his first visit to Spain in six years.

“China sees Spain as a good and trustworthy partner in the European Union. We are willing to work together with Spain to develop bilateral relations,” the Chinese minister said.
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beijing — There are no off limits or restricted areas for fishing around a group of Taiwanese islands close to China’s coast and Beijing reserves the right to take further measures after two Chinese nationals died near the islands, the government said.

Taiwan on Thursday defended the actions of its coast guard after two people on a Chinese speedboat, which got too close to a frontline Taiwanese island, died when their boat overturned while trying to flee a coast guard ship. Two others survived.

Taiwan, the self-governing island that China claims as its own territory, has complained in recent years about Chinese fishing boats and other vessels operating in Taiwan-controlled waters, especially around the Kinmen and Matsu islands which sit a short distance from China’s coast.

Late on Saturday, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, which has already condemned Taipei for the incident near Kinmen’s Beiding islet, said the deaths had caused “strong indignation” in China.

“Fishermen on both sides of the Taiwan Strait have been operating in traditional fishing grounds in the Xiamen-Kinmen maritime area since ancient times, and there is no such thing as ‘prohibited or restricted waters’,” it said.

Kinmen, controlled by Taiwan since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, sits next to China’s Xiamen and Quanzhou cities.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said the government had goodwill toward Taiwan’s people but will never tolerate Taiwan’s disregard for the safety of Chinese fishermen.

“The mainland reserves the right to take further measures, and Taiwan shall bear all the consequences,” it added, without elaborating.

Kinmen was the site of frequent fighting during the height of the Cold War but is today a popular tourist destination, though many of the islets that are part of the island group are heavily fortified by Taiwan’s military and off limits to civilians.

Taiwan, whose government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, says China has been using so-called grey-zone warfare, which entails using irregular tactics to exhaust a foe without actually resorting to open combat, including sending civilian ships into or close by Taiwanese waters.

Separately on Saturday, a group of low-level Chinese officials from Shanghai arrived in Taipei to attend the city’s traditional Lantern Festival at the city government’s invitation.

However, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an told reporters he would not meet the group, led by Xu Hao, head of the liaison department of the Taiwan Affairs Office’s Shanghai branch.

Last year, a deputy chief of the office’s Shanghai branch went to Taipei for the same event and was met by noisy protests at the airport.
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beijing — China’s foreign ministry declined to comment Saturday on the death of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, describing it as “Russia’s internal affair.” 

“This is Russia’s internal affair. I will not comment,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in response to a question from AFP. 

Navalny, the Kremlin’s most prominent critic, died Friday in an Arctic prison, Russian officials said, a month before an election poised to extend Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hold on power. 

Navalny’s death after three years in detention and a poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin deprives Russia’s opposition of its figurehead at a time of intense repression and Moscow’s campaign in Ukraine. 

Beijing and Moscow are staunch allies and have strengthened their relationship even as Western countries have turned their backs on Russia over its military invasion of neighboring Ukraine. 

Both sides also have made much of the personal relationship between the two leaders, and China’s President Xi Jinping has referred to his Russian counterpart Putin as his “good friend.” 

Dissidents and some Western leaders placed the blame squarely on Putin and his government for the 47-year-old’s death, which followed months of deteriorating health in harsh detention conditions. 
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MUNICH — China’s foreign minister told a gathering of international security policy officials Saturday that trying to shut China out of trade in the name of avoiding dependency would be a historic mistake.

Wang Yi spoke at the Munich Security Conference. Host Germany wants to avoid over-reliance on trade with an increasingly assertive China and diversify its supply of key goods in an approach it calls “de-risking.” That’s in line with the approach of other industrial powers in the Group of Seven, which has stressed that it doesn’t seek to harm China or thwart its development.

Beijing has criticized the strategy.

“Today … more people have come to realize that the absence of cooperation is the biggest risk,” Wang said through an interpreter. “Those who attempt to shut China out in the name of de-risking will make a historical mistake.”

“The world economy is like a big ocean that cannot be cut into isolated lakes,” he said. “The trend toward economic globalization cannot be reversed. We need to work together to make globalization more universally beneficial and inclusive.”

Wang also renewed China’s pushback against allegations of forced labor in the western Xinjiang region, where it is accused of running labor transfer programs in which Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities are forced to toil in factories as part of a longstanding campaign of assimilation and mass detention.

He complained of “fabricated information from different parties” and asserted that the aim is “to stop the development of China.”
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TAIPEI, TAIWAN — China’s inauguration of a new scientific research station in Antarctica last week has renewed debate about the purpose and impact of the rapid expansion of Chinese presence on the continent. 

Situated on Inexpressible Island near the Ross Sea, Qinling Station is China’s fifth scientific outpost and third research station on the continent that can operate year around. The station covers 5,244 square meters and can house up to 80 people during summer months, according to Chinese state broadcaster CGTN.

Qinling Station is near the U.S. McMurdo Station and just south of Australia and a  Center for Strategic and International Studies report published last April said its position could allow China to “collect signals intelligence from U.S.-allied Australia and New Zealand” as well as gather “telemetry data on rockets launching from newly established space facilities in both countries.” 

Some analysts say while Qinling Station is built for scientific purposes, some of its capabilities may be “inherently dual-use.”

“China can potentially leverage some of those resources and capabilities for military or intelligence gathering purposes,” Brian Hart, a fellow with the China Power Project at CSIS, told VOA by phone. 

He said China continues build more Antarctic research bases because it views the icy continent as part of the “strategic frontiers.” 

“Since it is an area that is further from China’s immediate periphery, Beijing wants to be on the cutting edge and be perceived as a global leader that’s on par with the U.S.,” Hart said, adding that China’s long-term goal is to have a voice in Antarctic governance by cementing a foothold there by establishing scientific research bases. 

In response to concerns about China potentially collecting intelligence on Australia and New Zealand through the station, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said the base is built and operated “in full compliance with international rules and procedures.” 

“The station will contribute to humanity’s scientific understanding of the Antarctic, provide a platform for joint scientific exploration and coordination between China and other countries and help advance peace and sustainable development in the region,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wen-bin said during the daily press conference February 7. 

Despite Beijing’s reiteration that the station abides by the rules of the Antarctic Treaty, which outlaws the military use of the continent, some experts say China’s pattern of building its research stations across Antarctica raises legitimate questions about its significant presence on the continent. 

China’s pattern of building Antarctic research bases “raises questions about whether it is committed to the principles of the Antarctic treaty and whether it plans to potentially assert a claim to Antarctica,” Donald Rothwell, professor of international law at Australian National University, told VOA by phone. 

Since China has expressed the ambition to become a great polar power, Rothwell said China’s rapid expansion of research bases in Antarctica aligns with that goal.

 “Over the last decade, China has sought to be seen as a serious state actor in polar affairs,” he said. 

China is gaining “[credibility as a serious Antarctic state through its scientific research program and its engagement in the Antarctic Treaty system,” Rothwell added. 

The day that China announced the opening of Qinling Station, Chinese President Xi Jinping said the completion of the building of the research base would “provide a strong guarantee for scientists in China and around the world to continue to explore the mysteries of nature and bravely ascend the peak of science.” 

He also called for “better understanding, protection, and utilization of the polar regions to make new and greater contributions to the benefit of humanity and the building of a community with a shared future for humanity.”  

While the Qinling Station has begun operation, Hart said more elements with potential dual-use capabilities may be added in the future.

“The capacity for this station to support habitation is already up and running but there are more elements of the overall facility that will be built out in the future,” he told VOA. 

“The main one for potential dual-use applications is the antennas and other electronic equipment that can support communication with China’s satellites,” Hart said. 

In a 2022 report on China’s military and security developments, the U.S. Department of Defense said  that China’s “strategy for Antarctica includes the use of dual-use technologies, facilities, and scientific research, which are likely intended, at least in part, to improve PLA [People’s Liberation Army] capabilities.” 

The report also indicated that China’s facilities on the continent can be reference stations for its dual-use BeiDou satellite navigation network, which is Beijing’s alternative to the U.S.-controlled global positioning system.  

Hart said that while Chinese scientists are doing legitimate work in Antarctica that should not be curtailed, “it’s important to emphasize what kind of capabilities” their research stations will have and how those capabilities could be beneficial to the Chinese government and Chinese military.

“It’s important that Antarctica remains a nonmilitarized space,” he told VOA. 

Some analysts say a way to ensure Antarctica remains nonmilitarized and that the interests of Antarctic Treaty members are guaranteed is to rely on existing inspection regimes. 

There should be “a concerted effort to use the inspection regimes that are available in Antarctica to ensure that facilities are not used for military activities or contrary to the Antarctic Treaty,” Tony Press, an expert on Antarctic affairs at the University of Tasmania, told VOA in a video interview. 
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washington — The Biden administration is now focusing on implementing its goals for the Indo-Pacific, said analysts, as a White House strategist who initiated policies for the region moves to the State Department.

Kurt Campbell, who served as Indo-Pacific coordinator for the White House National Security Council, initiated strategies that moved allies and partners to cooperate on challenges across the region, from counterbalancing China’s rise to offsetting North Korea’s threats. He is going to a new position at the State Department.

He takes on the role of the deputy secretary of state, a position vacant since July when Wendy Sherman retired. The Senate confirmed Campbell on February 6  after President Joe Biden nominated him for the position in November.

Campbell’s position as the Indo-Pacific coordinator will be left unfilled, the Financial Times reported on February 6. Experts said that if the Biden administration did not fill the Indo-Pacific position, it would be a signal that Washington was now focusing on implementing the strategies Campbell set in place.

“Important initiatives such as the Indo-Pacific strategy and the Camp David summit are among the results of the decision by the incoming Biden administration to create a brand-new position of Indo-Pacific coordinator,” said Daniel Russel, who served as the assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs during the Obama administration.

“Now that those and other initiatives have been launched and that interagency coordination on Indo-Pacific policy has matured, the administration’s challenge is in implementation and the need for a ‘coordinator’ in the White House has diminished,” Russel said Tuesday via email. He is the vice president for International Security and Diplomacy at the Asia Society Policy Institute.

Biden appointed Campbell as the White House Indo-Pacific coordinator in January 2021. Creation of the position came amid China’s increasing assertiveness in the region.

Campbell was instrumental in bringing together South Korea and Japan for a summit with the U.S. at Camp David in August. The two moved beyond their historical animosity and agreed to work together against China’s regional aggression and North Korea’s missile launches.

Campbell led the inaugural meeting of the Nuclear Consultative Group held in July in Seoul to strengthen the bilateral alliance and reassure South Korea of U.S. nuclear deterrence in the region.

He also revamped the informal transregional agreement known as the QUAD among Australia, India, Japan and the U.S. in March 2021 and played a key role in creating a trilateral security partnership among Australia, the U.K. and the U.S., or AUKUS, in September 2021. China views both as security ties threatening its rise to dominance in the region.

Patrick Cronin, the Asia-Pacific security chair at the Hudson Institute, said via email on Tuesday that Campbell’s “central role over the past three years in defining strategies to compete [with], cooperate [with], and confront China marks a clear path for engaging allies and partners, dealing with China, and helping the U.S. negotiate from strength.”

Cronin continued, “His absence as Indo-Pacific coordinator will be significantly mitigated by his presence at the State [Department] and the outstanding team he has left at the White House to help carry out a vision he helped to mold.”

But concerns remain about the unfilled position for a region fraught with rising threats from North Korea and coercive moves by China, according to some analysts.

Dennis Wilder, senior director for East Asia at the White House’s National Security Council during the George W. Bush administration, said via email, “The Biden administration should reconsider its decision not to keep the position at a time when there is so much uncertainty about North Korea and China’s intentions.”

North Korea’s state media KCNA said on Thursday that the country tested new surface-to-sea missiles under the supervision of leader Kim Jong Un the day before. It was the regime’s fifth cruise missile test this year as Pyongyang threatens to take more aggressive moves against South Korea.

China continues to antagonize its neighbors in South China Sea with maritime maneuvers to assert its claim of sovereignty over disputed territories.

Aside from security issues, Wilder, currently a senior fellow for the Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues at Georgetown University, said, “A major priority left undone in the Biden Indo-Pacific strategy is trade policy.”

Wilder said via email on Wednesday, “The IPEF [Indo-Pacific Framework] attempt to deal with this issue is stalled by congressional resistance because of concerns over the labor, human rights and climate change policies of partner nations. The administration must find a way to balance the robust security alliances and partnerships with an equally effective set of regional economic policies.”

The IPEF includes four pillars: trade; supply chains; clean energy, decarbonization and infrastructure; and tax and anti-corruption. Biden launched the IPEF in Tokyo in May 2022 to set up sustainable common standards among countries in the region. The IPEF partners including South Korea and Japan account for 40% of the global economy.

China, not an IPEF member, perceives it as an ineffective effort to reduce its economic influence. He Weiwen, a senior fellow at the Center for China and Globalization, told the official Global Times in 2023, “The IPEF is neither a trade agreement nor an economic community. It’s just a framework, meaning that it will have no real efficacy.” 
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Jeddah, Saudi Arabia — Houthi drone and missile attacks on Red Sea shipping have spurred the development of an alternative “land bridge” to carry cargo by truck from the Persian Gulf across Saudi Arabia and Jordan to Israel and Egypt.

The project, which is already seeing dozens of trucks per day reach the Israeli port of Haifa, is seen as an early benefit of the 2020 Abraham Accords normalizing ties between the United Arab Emirates and Israel.

It bodes well for future cooperation between Israel and Saudi Arabia. The United States is seeking to broker a deal that would see the normalization of relations between those two countries in exchange for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Saudi Arabia, however, has not commented publicly on the arrangement, under which cargo transported through the desert kingdom is not identified as bound for Israel.

The land bridge is already controversial in the region, sparking protests last week in Jordan among protesters angered over Israel’s conduct of its war against Hamas in Gaza.

Hundreds of individuals marched in Amman and other cities, demanding – among other things – that the government block any trucks originating from the Gulf states destined for Israel.

Efforts to establish the land route have been underway since at least the middle of 2023 but have picked up momentum since the Iran-backed Houthis began a wave of missile and drone attacks on Red Sea shipping. Several shipping firms are now rerouting their vessels around the African continent, adding substantially to time and costs, making the land route financially attractive.

Tim Seifert, a spokesperson at Hapag-Lloyd AG, one of the world’s leading liner shipping companies, said rerouting the firm’s vessels has left it with “an additional cost in a USD two-digit million range every month.”

The route was pioneered in part by Israeli company Trucknet Enterprises, which has secured agreements with DP World from the United Arab Emirates, Cox Logistics in Bahrain and WWCS in Egypt. Israel-based freight forwarder Mentfield Logistics is operating a similar route.

Under the arrangement, ships carrying goods from the Far East can unload their cargo onto Jordanian trucks in Dubai or Bahrain. The cargo is driven across Saudi Arabia and Jordan and then transferred onto Israeli trucks for the final leg from the Jordanian border to Israel’s Mediterranean port of Haifa. Cargo bound for Egypt can travel onward by road or ship to that country.

Mentfield CEO Omer Izhari told The Times of Israel this week that “dozens of trucks a day, not just by us, are facilitating this route to shorten shipping times for goods from textiles to electronics, raw materials for industry, metal pipes and aluminum.”

“The overland route saves around 20 days, so instead of 50 to 60 days, goods arrive within 20 to 25 days from China to Israel,” he said.

Barry Pintow, manager at the Israeli Federation of Forwarders and Customs Clearing Agents, said that the idea behind the land bridge is “brilliant,” but that the implementation is still problematic at a time of high tensions in the region.

“Currently, cargo moved by trucks leaving the UAE reach Haifa port via the Jordan River Bridge from Jordan, but they still face bureaucratic procedures, including required driver changes, paperwork and lengthy wait times,” he said.

“The idea is to enable the arrival of a single truck and driver from Dubai to the port of Haifa, for example, without changing drivers and trucks at border crossings between countries.”

Dean Davison, the head of Maritime Advisory for the London-based infrastructure development consultancy Infrata, said the success of the new trade route will require the “appropriate and strong support of respective governments.”

“The issues in the Red Sea may have helped the development of this new overland route come to fruition more quickly, though there has been strong interest in developing overland freight routes in the region for some time,” he said.

“I would expect this freight option to remain in place, even after the issues in the Red Sea are resolved.”
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Berlin — German automaker Volkswagen said Wednesday several of its models had been refused entry into the United States, after it emerged that a Chinese-made component may have breached labor laws.

“We are working to rectify a delay in delivering certain Volkswagen Group vehicles from ports to dealers due to a customs issue,” Volkswagen said in a statement.

The trouble related to a “small electronic component,” which was “in the process of being replaced,” Volkswagen said.

The part, said to be from “western China,” was found to be in breach of U.S. anti-forced labor laws, according to the Financial Times, which reported the news first. The Financial Times said Porsche, Bentley and Audi models were affected.

According to the report, Volkswagen was not aware of the origin of the part, having sourced it from a supplier.

The German auto group was made aware of the issue by a supplier and notified U.S. authorities, per the report.

Volkswagen said it “takes allegations of infringements of human rights very seriously, both within the company and in the supply chain.”

“As soon as we received information of allegations regarding one of our sub-suppliers, we have been investigating the matter,” the group said.

The United States has banned most imports from Xinjiang, in western China, unless companies offer verifiable proof that production did not involve forced labor.

Rights campaigners have for years accused Beijing of a brutal crackdown against the Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, including through forced labor and detention camps. Beijing denies the allegations of abuse.

The issue of forced labor is acutely sensitive for Volkswagen, which has long been plagued by questions over its factory in the region, operated by its local partner SAIC.

Earlier on Wednesday, Volkswagen said it was discussing the future of its activities in China’s troubled Xinjiang province, after the Handelsblatt daily reported that forced labor may have been used to build a test track in Turpan, Xinjiang.

VW said it had seen no evidence of human rights violations in connection with the project but that it would likewise investigate any new information that came to light.
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Washington — Some Asia experts are calling for tough new economic sanctions on China, arguing that the nation’s economic downturn makes it particularly vulnerable to pressure to crack down on North Korea’s ability to make and launder money for its nuclear weapons and missile programs. 

Other analysts argue the opposite, saying new sanctions now would make Beijing less receptive to U.S. efforts to get it to help curb Pyongyang’s weapons programs. 

“Beijing is worried that a long or deep recession would lead to political unrest,” and “that worry gives Washington greater leverage over Beijing — leverage that it didn’t have during the period of strong Chinese economic growth,” said Joshua Stanton, an attorney based in Washington, D.C., who helped draft the Sanctions and Policy Enforcement Act in 2016.  

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted in a report last month that China’s economy will slow from 5.2% GDP growth in 2023 to 4.6% this year, further declining into 4.1% in 2025. 

China’s manufacturing activities contracted for the fourth consecutive month in January and the country is further troubled by soaring debt in the property market and local governments. 

In an email to VOA last Friday, Stanton said the Biden administration should “increase pressure on a central government that fears any regional recession” and “designate canneries and sweatshops that employ North Korean labor.”  

Chinese factories are known to employ North Korean laborers and label products they manufactured as made in China. Approximately 3,000 North Koreans working illegally in China staged a violent protest in January over unpaid wages, according to Reuters, citing South Korea’s intelligence agency.  

In 2017, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution urging countries to repatriate all North Korean workers by December 2019 to curb Pyongyang’s ability to make income abroad that supports its weapons programs. North Korean workers remit most of their overseas earnings to the regime. 

Stanton argued that Washington should also “apply enhanced scrutiny to local bank branches in Chinese cities” that launder money for North Korea. “China always promises to cooperate if we don’t sanction its banks, but it always breaks those promises,” he said. 

China been tightening regulations on its banks that deal with Russia recently in response to strengthened U.S. sanctions on financial institutions that work with the Russian military.

Anthony Ruggiero, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, dismissed the Biden administration’s current North Korea sanctions as “weak and ineffective.” 

“The administration should target North Korea’s revenue generation and Russian and Chinese banks, entities, and individuals aiding Pyongyang’s sanctions evasion,” he said.  

David Asher, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, said North Korea still works “largely via China” to finance and acquire high-technology products for its military and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs. 

Asher, who oversaw the disruption of North Korea’s illegal trading and WMD networks during the George W. Bush administration, said last Saturday via email that there is a “robust” criminal sector in China, “especially Macao and Hong Kong, where North Korean elites continue to launder money including billions of dollars generated via cybercrime.” 

But other experts are warning against sanctioning China, especially when its economy is slowing, and the U.S. is trying to get Beijing’s help to curb to North Korea’s missile launches.  

“You can twist the knob on China and try to enforce more pain in return for its support on North Korea,” said Ken Gause, senior adversary analytics specialist at the Center for Naval Analyses, in a telephone interview on Friday. 

“But that will blow up in your face because then, China would see us actively trying to harm China to get it to do something on North Korea.”

He continued, “China will not react very well to that, and we could actually make the situation much worse.”

He added that “the only way sanctions would work” is when there are “overlapping U.S. and Chinese strategic equities.”

Gary Samore, former White House coordinator for arms control and WMD during the Obama administration, agreed during a telephone interview on Monday that the Biden administration may be concerned that sanctioning Chinese entities would make Beijing “less likely to cooperate on diplomatic efforts.” 

Samore, who is currently professor of the practice of politics at Brandeis University, added that even if some Chinese entities stopped doing business with North Korea because of sanctions, there could be other Chinese entities that would be willing to work with North Korea.  
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BERLIN — Volkswagen is in talks with its joint venture partner in China over its presence in Xinjiang, it said on Wednesday after a German newspaper reported what it said was evidence of the carmaker’s involvement in forced labor.

The issue adds to pressure on Germany’s biggest corporations to rethink ties with China, specifically in the Xinjiang region, where rights groups have documented abuses including forced labor in detention camps. Beijing denies any such abuses.

The report in business newspaper Handelsblatt said that independent researcher Adrian Zenz had found evidence of the use of forced labor in the construction of a test track in Turpan, Xinjiang, which is operated by a subsidiary of the joint venture of SAIC and Volkswagen.

“Volkswagen is currently in talks with the non-controlled joint venture SAIC-Volkswagen about the future direction of business activities in Xinjiang province. Different scenarios are being considered intensively,” a spokesperson said when asked about the report.

SAIC did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Rights groups have documented the ethnic minority Uyghur population being subjected to forced labor in detention camps in the region, allegations rejected by Beijing.

Zenz said in an email to Reuters that he had found photos and statements online, including on the website of an engineering company hired by Volkswagen and SAIC in Xinjiang, which indicated that Uyghurs were employed to construct the test track under poverty alleviation programs that U.N. experts have said often involve forced labor.

He said Volkswagen’s move to review options for the site was inadequate in light of the most recent revelations, given criticism of the carmaker’s Xinjiang engagement was not new.

‘No longer investible’

“In my opinion Volkswagen has to publicly announce that they’re going to get out as soon as they can,” Zenz added.

He also said he had found photos of workers at the engineering company, China Railway Engineering Corporation, wearing military drill uniforms and a red flower which he described in a post on X as a “typical feature of the most coercive labor transfers.”

China Railway Engineering Corporation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The news comes less than a week after German chemicals giant disclosed it would sell its stakes in two joint ventures in the Xinjiang region, also citing reports containing serious allegations regarding human rights violations.

Volkswagen said in a statement to Reuters that it was not previously aware of any indications of human rights abuses at the test track, which was built in conjunction with the carmakers’ jointly owned site in Urumqi.

When asked why the test site was not audited together with the Urumqi site last year, Volkswagen said that would not have been possible because the two sites were owned by different operating companies. It did not name the companies.

Stephan Weil, the premier of the German state of Lower Saxony — Volkswagen’s second-biggest shareholder — called the reports “concerning,” adding his government supported reviewing different scenarios for the business.

German fund manager Union Investment said the latest news meant Volkswagen no longer qualified for investment from its sustainable funds.

“Today’s allegations have a new dimension. With that, Volkswagen is no longer investible for our sustainable funds,” Union Investment’s Janne Werning said in a written statement.
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With wars raging in Europe and the Middle East, the specter of a clash between China and Taiwan — which could draw the U.S. into a new conflict — is of global concern. But an ocean away in South Africa, which has seen waves of immigration by ethnic Chinese over centuries, there’s unity, not division. Kate Bartlett reports from Chinese New Year celebrations near Johannesburg. Video: Zaheer Cassim.
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ATHENS, Greece — Greece has announced new measures to protect locals from a deluge of mainly Chinese nationals purchasing homes and property in exchange for residency rights in the West — what is commonly known as a “Golden Visa” scheme.

For many of China’s newly well-off citizens, the incentive to emigrate has been rising, feeding what is being dubbed worldwide as “investment migration” businesses.

In recent years, there has been a massive rush of Chinese nationals to Greece, and that has created a serious housing crisis.

On Friday, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he would increase the threshold of real estate investment from $269,491 to $862,372 in certain pockets of the country to ease the crisis.

“It is a major investment boost for the country but also a serious measure we are considering to shield the local market,” he told lawmakers in the Greek parliament.

In a rare show of bipartisan support, opposition leaders sided with the plan.

Because of a lingering housing shortage, they are now urging the government to block foreign homebuyers, like the Chinese, from making a fortune off their investments, leasing them for short-term rentals rather than occupying them for residential purposes alone.

A local near the foot of the Acropolis, Greece’s star attraction and the hub of Chinese and other tourists — says finding an affordable apartment to lease in the area has become difficult.

“All you see are tourists staying in these flats. The prices for locals have become excessively high,” he said.

Since launching the Golden Visa program in 2014, Greece has been granting five-year renewable residence permits to foreigners in exchange for a minimum property investment of nearly $270,000.

In the last year alone, the number of permits issued has quadrupled, with Chinese nationals topping the list at 80 percent. Turks fleeing the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are second, with Lebanese nationals and Israelis both taking third position, according to data released from the Bank of Greece.

Government sources tell VOA the highest charges for Greece’s Golden Visas will apply for the country’s most coveted property — in central Athens and glitzy Greek islands like Mykonos and Santorini — a favorite among Chinese nationals.

 
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New Delhi — China’s Xiaomi has told New Delhi that smartphone component suppliers are wary about setting up operations in India amid heavy scrutiny of Chinese companies by the government, according to a letter and a source with direct knowledge of the matter.

Xiaomi Corp., which has the biggest share in India’s smartphone market at 18%, also asks in the letter dated Feb. 6 that India consider offering manufacturing incentives and lowering import tariffs for certain smartphone components.

The Chinese company assembles smartphones in India with mostly local components and the rest imported from China and elsewhere. The letter is Xiaomi’s response to a query from India’s information technology ministry asking how New Delhi can further develop the country’s component manufacturing sector.

India ramped up scrutiny of Chinese businesses after a 2020 border clash between the two countries killed at least 20 Indian soldiers and four from China, disrupting investment plans of big Chinese companies and drawing repeated protests from Beijing.

While Chinese companies operating in India are reticent to speak publicly about the scrutiny, Xiaomi’s letter shows that they continue to struggle in India, especially in the smartphone space where many critical components come from Chinese suppliers.

In the letter, Xiaomi India President Muralikrishnan B. said India needed to work on “confidence building” measures to encourage component suppliers to setup operations locally.

“There are apprehensions among component suppliers regarding establishing operations in India, stemming from the challenges faced by companies in India, particularly from Chinese origin,” Muralikrishnan said, without naming any companies.

The letter said the concerns were related to compliance and visa issues that it didn’t elaborate on, and other factors. It said, “the government should address these concerns and work to instill confidence among foreign component suppliers, encouraging them to set up manufacturing facilities in India.”

Xiaomi and the IT ministry did not respond to queries for further information and comment.

Indian authorities last year accused Chinese smartphone company Vivo Communication Technology of breaching some visa rules and alleged it siphoned $13 billion in funds from India.

India has also frozen more than $600 million in Xiaomi assets for alleged illegal remittances to foreign entities by passing them off as royalty payments.

Both Chinese companies deny any wrongdoing.

Other than regulatory scrutiny of the likes of Xiaomi and Vivo, India has since 2020 also banned more than 300 Chinese apps, including ByteDance’s TikTok, and halted planned projects such as those planned by Chinese automakers BYD Company and Great Wall Motor Company.

The source said many executives of Chinese electronics companies struggle to get visas to enter India, and their companies continue to face slow clearances for investments due to heavy scrutiny by New Delhi.

In the letter, Xiaomi’s Muralikrishnan also made a case for further lowering India’s import tariffs, just after New Delhi’s Jan. 31 move to reduce import taxes on battery covers and phone camera lenses.

Xiaomi is also asking India to reduce import tariffs on sub-components used in batteries, USB cables and phone covers, according to the letter.

Reducing the import tariffs could “increase India’s manufacturing competitiveness … in terms of costs,” Xiaomi said in the letter, but getting component manufacturers to set up shop in India would require bigger incentives.

In January, India’s top industrial policy bureaucrat Rajesh Kumar Singh signaled that India could ease its heightened scrutiny of Chinese investments if the two countries’ border remains peaceful.
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Manila, Philippines — The Philippine Coast Guard on Sunday accused Chinese vessels of “dangerous” maneuvers during a nine-day patrol near a reef off the coast of the Southeast Asian country.

The Philippine vessel BRP Teresa Magbanua was sent in early February to patrol the waters around Scarborough Shoal, a rich fishing ground in the South China Sea, and deliver provisions to Filipino fishermen and ensure their safety.

The reef has been a flashpoint between the countries since China seized it from the Philippines in 2012.

Since then, Beijing has deployed patrol boats that Manila says harass Philippine vessels and prevent Filipino fishermen from reaching the lagoon where fish are more plentiful. 

During the patrol, Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) vessels “performed dangerous and blocking maneuvers at sea against BRP Teresa Magbanua four times, with the CCG vessels crossing the bow of the PCG vessel twice,” the Philippine Coast Guard said in a statement.

The Philippine Coast Guard said its ship was also “shadowed” by four Chinese Coast Guard vessels “on more than 40 occasions.”

The coast guard also observed what it described as “four Chinese Maritime Militia vessels.”

China Coast Guard spokesperson Gan Yu hit back, saying the Philippine vessel had “illegally intruded” into the waters several times.

“The China Coast Guard, noting that the warnings it had issued had proved ineffective, took action in accordance with the law to control the progression of the Philippine vessel and force it to leave,” Gan said.

“The China Coast Guard dealt with the incident professionally and to standard,” he added.

Videos released by the Philippine Coast Guard show a Chinese Coast Guard vessel meters from the port beam of the BRP Teresa Magbanua, before it crosses the path of the Philippine boat.

Scarborough Shoal is 240 kilometers (150 miles) west of the Philippines’ main island of Luzon and nearly 900 kilometers (559 miles) from the nearest major Chinese land mass of Hainan.

The incidents came two months after tense standoffs between China and the Philippines around disputed reefs in the South China Sea that saw a collision between vessels from the two countries and Chinese ships blasting water cannon at Philippine boats.

China claims almost the entire sea and has ignored an international tribunal ruling that its assertions have no legal basis. 

It deploys boats to patrol the busy waterway and has built artificial islands that it has militarized to reinforce its claims.

Chinese and Philippine officials last month agreed on the need for closer dialogue to deal with “maritime emergencies” in the waterway as tensions escalated.  
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SHANGHAI — Yuwei Zhangzou represents a new type of Chinese tourist.

Last month, the Shanghai-based fashion influencer had close encounters with reindeer, visited Santa’s village and stayed in a glass-enclosed treehouse during a trip that she organized herself to Finland. Very little shopping was involved.

“I was hoping to get lucky and see the Northern Lights and I got it! I was happy,” she said.

As Chinese travelers gear up for the Lunar New Year holiday, which this year runs from February 10-17, more of the people who can afford to travel abroad are eschewing the group tours and shop-til-you-drop holidays that were popular before the pandemic and opting for more adventurous, experience-based trips like Zhangzou’s, industry experts say.

“Independent travelers might be spending a bit more on travel and accommodation and so on, but they may well offset it by not spending as much in the luxury goods shops,” said Steve Saxon, a Shenzhen-based partner at McKinsey & Co.

“There’s a trend to be more active and that is flowing through into the types of trips people want to take,” he added. “You don’t just go to Thailand, you go to Thailand to do a kayaking or diving trip. Or if you go to Europe, you’re going to ski.”

While a record high number of Chinese will be holidaying at home amid a lackluster economy, a smaller, wealthier but still significant number of people are opting for adventure, gourmet or cultural holidays abroad as flight schedules, and visa processing times, return to their pre-pandemic “normal.”

China’s international travel recovery remains a tick under 70% of 2019 levels, McKinsey’s Saxon said, and that percentage would be higher without the United States, where levels are at just 19% of pre-pandemic levels due to limited flight capacity and geopolitical tensions.

On flights between Europe and China, seat bookings are at 93% of pre-pandemic levels, according to the data, independent travelers, rather than tour groups, driving the increase.

Zhou Weihong, deputy general manager at Shanghai-headquartered Spring Tour, the tour agency arm of budget airline Spring Airlines 601021.SS, said its Lunar New Year offers for Europe sold out weeks before the festival, even though prices remain above pre-pandemic levels.

Trips that involve a chance to see the Northern Lights have been particularly popular, Zhou added.

Shifting priorities

Globally, more younger travelers have embraced the trend towards more bespoke, “special interest” holidays since the pandemic ended, and Trip.com, China’s largest online travel agency, has taken note.

Chief Executive Jane Sun told Reuters the agency was changing its approach to group tour offers to accommodate travelers’ desire for more independence and flexibility.

“Consumer behavior is changing. So we have new products… private tours where the family will hire a driver, a tour guide, and design their own tour. For young families, these are very popular,” Sun said, adding that such trips were growing in the “triple digits.”

Younger travelers were gravitating to trips focused on meditation, cooking or photography, Sun said. Trip.com data shows popular outbound destinations for this year’s Lunar New Year holiday include Southeast Asia, Japan and Australia.

European luxury brands that relied on big-spending Chinese tourists for growth before the pandemic have resigned themselves to making fewer sales to Chinese travelers. Last month, Louis Vuitton owner LVMH LVMH.PA CFO Jean-Jacques Guiony told analysts sales to Chinese consumers in France were at about 70% of 2019 levels.

“It’s not the same customers, fewer groups, much more independent travelers with a higher worth,” he said. “We don’t see the big busloads of Chinese customers coming in groups.”

For fashion influencer Zhangzou, the less packaged and more off the beaten track the holiday, the better.

This year, she is planning a safari trip to Kenya over the summer, and maybe a trip to Mexico or Cuba before Christmas.” In 2023 I went to places I was familiar with, 2024 for me is about going somewhere different, I want to do some new things,” she said.
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