22/05/2020
- The tech investment push is part of a fiscal package waiting to be signed off by the National People’s Congress, which convenes this week
- This initiative will reduce China’s dependence on foreign technology, echoing objectives set forth previously in the ‘Made in China 2025’ programme
A conductor rehearses the military band on the sidelines of the National People’s Congress in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People in March of last year. China’s legislature is expected to sign off on a massive tech-led stimulus plan. Photo: AP
Beijing is accelerating its bid for global leadership in key technologies, planning to pump more than a trillion dollars into the economy through the roll-out of everything from next-generation wireless networks to artificial intelligence (AI).
In the master plan backed by President Xi Jinping himself, China will invest an estimated 10 trillion yuan (US$1.4 trillion) over six years to 2025, calling on urban governments and private hi-tech giants like Huawei Technologies to help lay 5G wireless networks, install cameras and sensors, and develop AI software that will underpin
to automated factories and mass surveillance.
The new infrastructure initiative is expected to drive mainly local giants, from
and Huawei to SenseTime Group at the expense of US companies.
As tech nationalism mounts, the investment drive will reduce China’s dependence on foreign technology, echoing objectives set forth previously in the “Made in China 2025”
programme. Such initiatives have already drawn fierce criticism from the Trump administration, resulting in moves to block the rise of Chinese tech companies such as Huawei.
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“Nothing like this has happened before, this is China’s gambit to win the global tech race,” said Digital China Holdings chief operating officer Maria Kwok, as she sat in a Hong Kong office surrounded by facial recognition cameras and sensors. “Starting this year, we are really beginning to see the money flow through.”
The tech investment push is part of a fiscal package waiting to be signed off by China’s legislature, the
National People’s Congress, which convenes this week. The government is expected to announce infrastructure funding of as much as US$563 billion this year, against the backdrop of the country’s worst economic performance since the Mao era.
The nation’s biggest purveyors of cloud computing and data analysis Alibaba, the parent company of the
South China Morning Post, and
Tencent Holding will be linchpins of the upcoming endeavour. China has already entrusted Huawei, the world’s largest telecommunications equipment supplier, to help galvanise 5G. Tech leaders including Pony Ma Huateng and
Jack Ma are espousing the programme.
Maria Kwok’s company is a government-backed information technology systems integration provider, among many that are jumping at the chance. In the southern city of Guangzhou, Digital China is bringing half a million units of project housing online, including a complex three quarters the size of Central Park in New York City. To find a home, a user just has to log on to an app, scan their face and verify their identity. Leases can be signed digitally via smartphone and the renting authority is automatically flagged if a tenant’s payment is late.
China is no stranger to far-reaching plans with massive price tags that appear to achieve little. There is no guarantee this programme will deliver the economic rejuvenation its proponents promise. Unlike previous efforts to resuscitate the economy with “dumb” bridges and highways, this newly laid digital infrastructure will help national champions develop cutting-edge technologies.
“China’s new stimulus plan will likely lead to a consolidation of
industrial internet
providers, and could lead to the emergence of some larger companies able to compete with global leaders, such as GE and Siemens,” said Nannan Kou, head of research at BloombergNEF, in a report. “One bet is on industrial
internet-of-things (IoT) platforms, as China aims to cultivate three world leading companies in this area by 2025.”
China is not alone in pumping money into the technology sector as a way to get out of the post-coronavirus economic slump. Earlier this month, South Korea said AI and wireless communications would be at the core of it its “New Deal” to create jobs and boost growth.
Nothing like this has happened before, this is China’s gambit to win the global tech raceMaria Kwok, COO at Digital China Holdings
The 10 trillion yuan that China is estimated to spend from now until 2025 encompasses areas typically considered leading edge, such as AI and IoT, as well as items such as ultra-high voltage lines and high-speed rail, according to the government-backed China Centre for Information Industry Development. More than 20 of mainland China’s 31 provinces and regions have announced projects totaling over 1 trillion yuan with active participation from private capital, a state-backed newspaper reported on Wednesday.
Separate estimates by Morgan Stanley put new infrastructure at around US$180 billion each year for the next 11 years – or US$1.98 trillion in total. Those calculations also include power and rail lines. That annual figure would be almost double the past three-year average, the investment bank said in a March report that listed key stock beneficiaries including companies such as China Tower Corp, Alibaba, GDS Holdings, Quanta Computer and Advantech Co.
Beijing’s half-formed vision is already stirring a plethora of stocks, a big reason why five of China’s 10 best-performing stocks this year are tech plays like networking gear maker Dawning Information Industry and Apple supplier GoerTek. The bare outlines of the master plan were enough to drive pundits toward everything from satellite operators to broadband providers.
China’s telecoms carriers push to complete ‘political task’ of 5G network roll-out amid coronavirus crisis
It is unlikely that US companies will benefit much from the tech-led stimulus and in some cases they stand to lose existing business. Earlier this year, when the country’s largest telecoms carrier China Mobile awarded contracts worth 37 billion yuan for 5G base stations, the lion’s share went to Huawei and other Chinese companies. Sweden’s Ericsson got only a little over 10 per cent of the business in the first four months. In one of its projects, Digital China will help the northeastern city of Changchun swap out American cloud computing staples IBM, Oracle and EMC with home-grown technology.
It is in data centres that a considerable chunk of the new infrastructure development will take place. Over 20 provinces have launched policies to support enterprises using cloud computing services, according to a March research note from UBS Group.
Tony Yu, chief executive of Chinese server maker H3C, said that his company was seeing a significant increase in demand for data centre services from some of the country’s top internet companies. “Rapid growth in up-and-coming sectors will bring a new force to China’s economy after the pandemic passes,” he told Bloomberg News.
From there, more investment should flow. Bain Capital-backed data centre operator ChinData Group estimated that for every one dollar spent on data centres another US$5 to US$10 in investment in related sectors would take place, including in networking, power grid and advanced equipment manufacturing. “A whole host of
supply chain companies will benefit,” the company said in a statement.
There is concern about whether this long-term strategy provides much in the way of stimulus now, and where the money will come from. “It’s impossible to prop up China’s economy with new infrastructure alone,” said Zhu Tian, professor of economics at China Europe International Business School in Shanghai. “If you are worried about the government’s added debt levels and their debt servicing abilities right now, of course you wouldn’t do it. But it’s a necessary thing to do at a time of crisis.”
Digital China is confident that follow-up projects from its housing initiative in Guangzhou could generate 30 million yuan in revenue for the company. It is also hoping to replicate those efforts with local governments in the northeastern province of Jilin, where it has 3.3 billion yuan worth of projects approved. These include building a so-called city brain that will for the first time connect databases including traffic, schools and civil matters such as marriage registry. “The concept of smart cities has been touted for years but now we are finally seeing the investment,” said Kwok.
Source: SCMP
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28/02/2020
- Around 200 Shincheonji Church of Jesus members continued to meet in the Chinese city amid rumours of virus, but ‘no one took [claims] seriously’ at first
- Around half the Covid-19 cases in South Korea have been linked to members of the religious group
The Shincheonji church in Daegu has been linked to a cluster of infections. Photo: Yonhap via AP
Members of the Christian sect linked to a cluster of coronavirus cases in South Korea held meetings in Wuhan until December, only stopping when they realised that their community had been hit by Covid-19, the previously unknown disease caused by the virus.
The South China Morning Post has learned that the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Wuhan, the Chinese city at the centre of the epidemic, has around 200 members, most of whom are currently under quarantine outside the city.
“Rumours about a virus began to circulate in November but no one took them seriously,” said one member, a 28-year-old kindergarten teacher.
“I was in Wuhan in December when our church suspended all gatherings as soon as we learned about [the coronavirus],” said the woman, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.
She said the group was continuing to share sermons and teachings online, but most members had returned home at the start of the Lunar New Year holiday in late January.
The 250,000-member Shincheonji Church of Jesus is regarded by mainstream Christian groups as a secretive and unorthodox sect. Its founder, Lee Man-hee, has claimed that he is the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Around half the Covid-19 infections in South Korea have been linked to a branch of the church in Daegu.
Coronavirus spreads through Europe from Italy to Austria, Croatia, Tenerife
According to the Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 977 confirmed cases as of Tuesday – the second highest number outside China – and 11 deaths.
Of the 84 new cases reported on Tuesday, over half were recorded in Daegu city.
Coronavirus: Churches on high alert as South Korea confirms huge rise in infections
A member of the church from Daegu reportedly visited China in January, and health officials in South Korea are investigating whether a cluster of infections in Cheongdo city is linked to a three-day funeral ceremony held at a local hospital.
Chinese sources said that the Shincheonji church has about 20,000 members in China – most of whom live in major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Dalian, Changchun and Shenyang.
One Christian pastor in Hubei province, who declined to be named, said that Shincheonji church members were hard-working and some continued to proselytise even during the outbreak.
Chinese cities quarantine travellers from South Korea amid spike in coronavirus cases
The Wuhan kindergarten teacher said she was confident that the recent mass outbreaks in South Korea were not linked to Shincheonji church members from the city.
“I don’t think the virus came from us because none of our brothers and sisters in Wuhan have been infected. I don’t know about members in other places but at least we are clean. None of us have reported sick,” she said.
“There are so many Chinese travelling to South Korea, it’s quite unfair to pin [the disease] on us.”
Coronavirus: China reports 508 new Covid-19 cases, with only nine outside outbreak epicentre
She sidestepped questions on whether church members had travelled from Wuhan to South Korea after the outbreak.
The teacher said that in 2018 the Wuhan group’s “holy temple” in Hankou district had been raided by police “who branded us a cult”, but members continued to worship in small groups.
“We are aware of all the negative reporting out there after the outbreak in South Korea, but we do not want to defend ourselves in public because that will create trouble with the government,” she said. “We just want to get through the crisis first.”
Airfares from South Korea to China shoot up amid Covid-19 fears
Bill Zhang, a 33-year-old Shanghai resident and a former missionary with Shincheonji, said the group’s secretive nature made it hard for the authorities to effectively crackdown on its activities.
He said the Shanghai branch held its main meetings on Wednesdays and Saturdays, attracting 300 to 400 people at a time.
“The Shincheonji church in Shanghai has been raided many times and police spoke to church leaders regularly.
“But the church members simply continued their meetings in smaller groups of eight-to-10 people and regrouped when the surveillance was relaxed.”
Zhang continued: “Shincheonji holds that it is the only real church that upholds the biblical truth and all other churches – mainstream or cults – are evil.”
Source: SCMP
Posted in Austria, Beijing, Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Changchun, church, coronavirus, COVID-19, Croatia, Daegu, Dalian, December, Europe, Hankou, held meetings, hubei province, Italy, Korea, linked, Lunar New Year holiday, outbreak, quarantine, secretive, Shanghai, Shenyang, Shincheonji Church of Jesus, south china morning post, South Korea, South Korean, Tenerife, travellers, Uncategorized, Wuhan |
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18/10/2019
J-20 stealth fighters make a flight demonstration during an activity celebrating the 70th founding anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) air force in Changchun, capital of northeast China’s Jilin Province, Oct. 17, 2019. It’s the first time that J-20 stealth fighters and Y-20 transport aircrafts make a flight demonstration at the northeastern China during the activity. (Xinhua/Lin Hong)
CHANGCHUN, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) — China’s J-20 stealth fighters Thursday joined an air show held to celebrate the 70th founding anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) air force.
The airshow in Changchun, capital of northeast China’s Jilin Province, was kicked off by three parachutists carrying the national flag, the flag of the PLA and the flag of the PLA air force, respectively.
The J-20 stealth fighters, Y-20 large transport aircraft, J-16 fighters and the new training plane JL-10 treated the audience to a performance of demonstration flights.
Two J-11BS, China’s third-generation fighters, carried out a simulated air battle, and China’s airborne troops showcased anti-terrorist operations to display the air force’s achievements in real combat training.
Three aerobatic teams of the PLA air force also performed aerobatic flights, and the air force selected 71 pieces of equipment for static display in the five-day air show.
Source: Xinhua
Posted in 70th founding anniversary, Air show, Changchun, China alert, Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) air force, flag of the PLA, flag of the PLA air force, J-11BS, J-16 fighters, J-20 stealth fighters, jilin province, national flag, third-generation fighters, three parachutists, training plane JL-10, Uncategorized, Y-20 large transport aircraft |
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19/09/2019
CHANGCHUN, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) — High emissions, out-of-date passenger cabs, gas-guzzling — heavy-duty trucks often leave a clunky image in people’s minds.
Yet Jiefang, the first auto brand to come from Changchun-based FAW, the cradle of China’s automotive industry, has reversed the stereotype with its latest J7 trucks.
With a streamlined body and a full-vision cab equipped with a one-piece dashboard, the J7 truck provides enough space for both the driver and passengers to walk freely in the compartment.
Since its launch in late November last year, Jiefang J7 trucks have gained a reputation with its European-level performance and reliability and price advantage over imported trucks.
The Chinese truck maker has developed seven generations of truck products in six decades, with a combined production of over 7 million units.
The first home-grown Jiefang truck rolled off the assembly line three years after FAW broke ground on July 15, 1953, in Changchun, capital of northeast China’s Jilin Province. It was the first motor vehicle produced by China.
Jiefang CA10, the first-generation truck, soon became the main force in China’s road transportation and had various civilian variants such as ambulances, refueling trucks, water tankers, dump trucks and lift trucks.
In its 30 years of production until 1986, CA10 trucks set an output record of 1.28 million units, which was almost half of China’s total production during that period.
Industry insiders say Jiefang is like a totem to the Chinese automotive industry and has nurtured many management and engineering talent for the country.
Hu Hanjie, chairman of the FAW Jiefang Automotive Co., Ltd., said independent innovation never stops at Jiefang, which places a high priority on its technological strategy to ensure a market-leading position.
As some domestic truck manufacturers partner with established global brands to grab market share, Jiefang was all alone. However, it held its R&D forces, core technology and time-honored brand tightly in its hands, Hu added.
The company leads the industry in setting a world-class standard warranty of three years with no mileage limit and has amazed its industry peers with an extended oil drain interval as high as 100,000 km for engines, gearboxes and rear axles of its trucks.
Jiefang also developed many customized truck products to suit multiple road and weather conditions across the country and is exploring new frontiers like self-driving and smart logistics. It plans to put self-driving vehicles into commercial operation on expressway by 2023.
“Jiefang has witnessed and made contributions to China’s development and will have a brighter future as the country prospers,” Hu said.
Source: Xinhua
Posted in ambulances, Changchun, Chinese truck maker, core technology, dump trucks, engines, European-level performance and reliability, FAW Jiefang Automotive Co., Ltd, gearboxes, independent innovation, Jiefang, Jiefang CA10, Jiefang J7 trucks, jilin province, lift trucks, New leap forward, oldest auto brand, R&D forces, rear axles, refueling trucks, road transportation, self-driving vehicles, totem, trucks, Uncategorized, water tankers |
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24/08/2019
Chinese Vice Premier Hu Chunhua (2nd R, front), also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, inspects an exhibition area during the 12th China-Northeast Asia Expo held in Changchun, northeast China’s Jilin Province, Aug. 23, 2019. The 12th China-Northeast Asia Expo and the 10th High-level Forum on Northeast Asia Cooperation opened Friday in Changchun, capital city of northeast China’s Jilin Province. Hu attended the opening ceremony and read the congratulatory letter of Chinese President Xi Jinping. (Xinhua/Xu Chang)
CHANGCHUN, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) — The 12th China-Northeast Asia Expo and the 10th High-level Forum on Northeast Asia Cooperation opened Friday in Changchun, capital city of northeast China’s Jilin Province.
Vice Premier Hu Chunhua attended the opening ceremony and read the congratulatory letter of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Hu, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, said that the letter highly affirmed the development vitality of Northeast Asia, and pointed out major Belt and Road opportunities for expanding and deepening regional cooperation.
Northeast Asia is one of the most dynamic and potential regions in Asia and even in the world, which brings favorable conditions and rare opportunities for strengthening regional cooperation, Hu said.
China is ready to work with other Northeast Asian countries to further expand trade and investment, deepen industrial chain cooperation, and raise the level of infrastructural connectivity, he said.
“A more open and prosperous China will surely create more business opportunities for enterprises in northeast Asia and the world at large. We expect more cooperation to be achieved at the expo, which is a platform for in-depth communication and exchanges,” he said.
Source: Xinhua
Posted in 10th High-level Forum, 12th China-Northeast Asia Expo, Belt and Road opportunities, Changchun, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Chinese Vice Premier, Jilin, jilin province, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, Northeast Asia, Northeast Asia Cooperation, Uncategorized, Vice Premier Hu Chunhua |
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01/07/2019
- Annual tests still an academic pressure cooker for students wanting to get into the nation’s top universities, despite efforts to change the system
- The gruelling exam is the sole criteria for admission to university in China
After months of study, China’s high school students are about to be put to the test in the annual “university entrance examinations which begin on Friday. Photo: EPA-EFE
For the past six months, the life of 18-year-old Shanghai student Xiao Qing has revolved around preparation for one of China’s annual rites of passage.
Every day at school, from 7.20am to 5.30pm, the final-year secondary school student in Changning district has studied previous test papers for the gaokao, officially known as the National Higher Education Entrance Examination.
“Sometimes I feel my bottom hurts from sitting for so many hours,” she said. “We feel like we are test machines.”
Xiao Qing will put all of that preparation to the real test from Friday, when over two to three days she will be among more than 10 million people trying to qualify for one of the spots at a Chinese university.
Most students get just one shot at the gaokao, the sole criteria for admission to university in China. It’s a gruelling process that has been criticised over the years as too focused on rote learning, putting too much pressure on students and privileging applicants living near the best universities.
Education authorities have gone some way to try to address these problems. In 2014, the Ministry of Education started letting students choose half of their subjects to introduce some flexibility into the system.
Apart from the compulsory subjects of Chinese, mathematics and English, students are now supposed to be able to choose any three of six other subjects: physics, chemistry, biology, politics, history and geography.
Previously, secondary school students had been split strictly into liberal arts or science majors in a system that was introduced in 1952 and revived in 1977 after being suspended during the Cultural Revolution.
Last go at exam success for China’s ‘gaokao grandpa’
Wen Dongmao, a professor from Peking University’s Graduate School of Education, said the changes expanded the opportunity for students to follow their interests.
“The new gaokao gives students plenty of choices of subjects to learn and to be evaluated on. I think people should choose which subject to learn based on what they are interested in,” Wen said.
“Gaokao reform is designed according to some methods by overseas universities, like American and Hong Kong schools. Its direction is right, but there will be inevitable problems brought by it.”
One of the problems is the uneven implementation of the changes throughout the country, with just 14 of China’s 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions having introduced them.
In the eastern province of Anhui, for example, the reforms were supposed to go in effect from September last year but were postponed without reason, news portal Caixin.com reported.
The report quoted a teacher from Hefei No 1 Middle School in the provincial capital as saying the school was not ready for the changes.
Is the university entrance exam in China the worst anywhere?
“Shanghai and Zhejiang are economically advanced and we are not at that level,” he was quoted as saying. “It’s a big challenge for us to manage so many students’ choices of gaokao subjects.”
In neighbouring Jiangxi province, a high school history teacher said many places opposed the reform mainly “because of the shortage of resources”.
“It’s hard to roll out gaokao reform because we don’t have enough teachers or classrooms to handle the students’ various choices of subjects. Students can choose three out of six courses and that means there are 20 potential combinations,” the teacher was quoted as saying.
Chinese high school students study late into the night for the National Higher Education Entrance Examination. Photo: EPA-EFE
In addition, the system allows students to take the tests in more than one year and submit the highest scores when applying to universities.
“I heard from teachers in other provinces that students will take the tests of the selected subjects again and again for fear that other students will overtake them. That’s exhausting and will just put more burden on the students,” the Jiangxi teacher said.
He also said the gaokao process put extra pressure on teachers who feared the tests would push students to extremes. One of his students contemplated jumping from a bridge after she thought she had done poorly in the Chinese section of the exam.
“She called me, saying she felt it was the end of the world. I was shocked and hurried to the bridge,” he was quoted as saying. He spoke to her for more than an hour about before the girl came down, going on to get a decent score.
Critics also say the system is weighted in favour of students in bigger cities such as Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai, home to the country’s top universities.
China private education industry is booming despite economic slowdown
Li Tao, an academic from the China Rural Development Institute at Northeast China Normal University in Changchun, Jilin province, said about 20-25 per cent of gaokao candidates from Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai were admitted to China’s elite universities, compared with just 5 or 6 per cent in places like Sichuan, Henan and Guangdong.
Li said that was because the top universities were funded by local governments and gave preference to applicants from those areas.
“To make it fairer, the Ministry of Education has insisted over the years that elite universities cannot have more than 30 per cent of incoming students from the area in which it is located,” he said.
Despite these challenges, gaokao was still a “fair” way to get admitted to university in China, Li said.
“Gaokao is the fairest channel to screen applicants on such a large scale, to my knowledge,” he said. “It does not check your family background and every student does the same test paper [if they are from the same region]. Its score is the only factor in evaluating a university applicant.”
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In Shanghai, as the clock ticks closer to the gaokao test day, Xiao Qing said she was feeling the pressure.
She said she would keep up her test prep to ensure she got the score she needed to study art in Beijing.
“I am trying my utmost and don’t want to regret anything in the future,” she said.
At the same time, she is not pinning her entire life on it.
“Life is a long journey and it is not decided solely by gaokao,” she said.
“I don’t agree with my classmates that life will be easy after gaokao. I think we still need to study hard once we get to university.”
Source: SCMP
Posted in academic pressure cooker, Anhui province, Annual tests, Beijing, Biology, Caixin.com, Changchun, chemistry, China Rural Development Institute, China’s university hopefuls, Chinese, Crunch time, Cultural Revolution, English, gaokao, gaokao exam season, geography, Graduate School of Education, guangdong province, Hefei, Henan province, History, Jiangxi Province, Jilin, liberal arts, mathematics, Ministry of Education, National Higher Education Entrance Examination, nation’s top universities, Northeast China Normal University, Peking University, physics, Politics, Science, Shanghai, sichuan province, Tianjin, Uncategorized, zhejiang province |
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25/01/2019
- At least one person dead in blasts in basement and upper floors, authorities say
PUBLISHED : Friday, 25 January, 2019, 6:00pm
UPDATED : Friday, 25 January, 2019, 6:53pm
Downtown Changchun in China’s northeastern Jilin province was rocked by a series of explosions on Friday afternoon.
The Changchun fire department confirmed it received a call at about 3.13pm saying a car had exploded in the basement of a Wanda Shopping Plaza building.
Three minutes later, another blast erupted in a room on the 30th floor of the same building.
One person was found dead and another injured at the scene.
The police are treating the explosions as a “criminal case”.
Earlier, the municipal government confirmed a blast on the 30th floor and said one person had been found dead so far.
A witness dining at a restaurant in the plaza on Hongqi Street said people were asked to evacuate the buildings immediately, Beijing Youth Daily reported. Firefighters are clearing the area for investigation.
“There must have been more than 20 explosions. The shopping mall asked people over the public address system to leave right away, and we ran for our lives,” the woman, identified only by her family name Zhang, was quoted as saying.
She said she saw sparks around her as she ran out.
A video clip circulating online, which the South China Morning Post cannot independently verify, showed a bright beam of light accompanied by a bang from a room in a higher floor of the Wanda building, and another explosion and heavy smoke on the ground, with people running for safety.
Source: SCMP
Posted in Changchun, China alert, Criminal case, Police, Uncategorized |
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CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 
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