Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon
aims to alert you to the threats and opportunities that China and India present. China and India require serious attention; case of ‘hidden dragon and crouching tiger’.
Without this attention, governments, businesses and, indeed, individuals may find themselves at a great disadvantage sooner rather than later.
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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
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.
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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.
This marks the latest mobile network upgrade on Mount Everest, where Chinese carriers had previously installed 2G, 3G and 4G equipment
China Mobile plans to deploy Huawei 5G gear at an altitude of 6,500 metres, providing network coverage to the mountain’s summit
A team from China Mobile shows off the initial 5G base stations, supplied by Huawei Technologies, that the telecoms carrier deployed on Mount Everest this April. Photo: Weibo
Huawei Technologies has teamed up with wireless network operators China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom to roll out advanced 5G infrastructure on
The deployment of 5G base stations on the famous Himalayan mountain, with an elevation of 8,848 metres, has extended the reach of the next-generation mobile technology, which has been held up as “the connective tissue” for the Internet of Things, autonomous cars, smart cities and other new applications – providing the backbone for the industrial internet. The new 5G infrastructure roll-outs were announced by Huawei in a post on Chinese microblogging site Weibo on Monday and confirmed by its spokeswoman on Tuesday.
China Mobile, the world’s largest wireless network operator, said its 5G project on Mount Everest marked “not only another extreme challenge in a human life exclusion zone, but also laid a solid foundation for the later development of 5G smart tourism and 5G communications for scientific research”, according to the company’s post on Weibo on Monday.
The Hong Kong and New York-listed carrier set up three 5G base stations – radio access gear that connects mobile devices to the broader telecommunications network – on April 19 in two camps at altitudes of 5,300 metres and 5,800 metres, which provide online download speed of about 1 gigabit per second.
China Mobile plans to install two more 5G base stations, supplied by telecommunications gear maker Huawei Technologies, on Mount Everest before April 25. Photo: Weibo
Installation of two more base stations are expected to be completed by China Mobile before April 25 in another camp at an altitude of 6,500 metres, providing 5G network coverage to the summit of Mount Everest. The international border between China and Nepal is 1,414 kilometres in length and runs across that summit.
More than 150 China Mobile employees are taking part on the construction and maintenance of the new 5G base stations as well as upgrading existing infrastructure on the surrounding areas, according to the company. It said 25 kms of new optical cables have also been laid out to support this project.
China Telecom confirmed its Mount Everest project on Tuesday in a statement, which said its 5G base stations were installed on April 13 at an altitude of 5,145 metres. It partnered with state-run China Central Television to broadcast a 24-hour live-streamed programme on April 14 from Mount Everest, which had an audience of more than six million people.
China Mobile did not immediately respond to a request for comment. China Unicom did not immediately reply to a separate request for comment.
Mobile network operators in China launched initial commercial 5G services last year. The country has already deployed more than 160,000 5G base stations, covering more than 50 cities, according to a report published last month by the GSMA, the trade body which represents mobile operators worldwide.
While initial commercial 5G mobile services were launched in countries like South Korea, the US, and Australia, the scale of China’s market is likely to dwarf the combined size of those economies, negating any first-mover advantage.
The steady annual deployment of new 5G base stations is critical to meet future demand in the world’s second largest economy and biggest smartphone market. China is expected to have 600 million 5G mobile users by 2025, which would make up 40 per cent of total global 5G subscribers, according to the GSMA.
President Milos Zeman says Beijing has not fulfilled its promises and he will not attend this year’s 17+1 summit
He had hoped the country would be an ‘unsinkable aircraft carrier’ for Chinese investment in Europe, but now Zeman has changed his tone
Czech Republic President Milos Zeman has voiced disappointment over China’s lack of investment in the country. Photo: AFP
Czech President Milos Zeman’s decision to skip China’s summit with European leaders in April shows the “honeymoon is over” between Prague and Beijing, analysts say, as it tries to shake up the relationship to push for more investment.
And China could face similar trouble with other nations looking for more at this year’s “17+1” summit with Central and Eastern European nations in Beijing.
Top leaders usually attend the gathering, but Zeman on Sunday said he would not be going, and that China had not “done what it promised” by failing to invest more in his country. He would instead send Deputy Prime Minister Jan Hamacek, which he said was “adequate to the level of cooperation”.
At last year’s summit in Croatia, Prague was represented by Prime Minister Andrej Babis, who was diplomatically on par with the Chinese representative,
But it is China’s turn this year, and President Xi Jinping will be the host – meaning heads of state are expected to attend. The 17+1 grouping was launched by Beijing in 2012.
Deputy Prime Minister Jan Hamacek will represent Prague at the 17+1 summit. Photo: Twitter
Zeman was a strong advocate for deepening economic ties with China and investments were on the rise, for a time. But Zeman and other Czech leaders have increasingly questioned the nature of the relationship, especially as the economic benefits have dwindled.
Relations with China grew after Zeman, who is in his second term as president, took office in 2013. The peak came in 2016, when Xi visited the country and promised more Chinese investment. That year, Zeman said he hoped his country would be an “unsinkable aircraft carrier” for Chinese investment in Europe.
But since then, the investments have faltered, not just in the Czech Republic, but across Central and Eastern Europe, and Zeman has changed his tone. In April, he called the lack of investment in his nation a “stain on the Czech-China relationship”, in an interview with Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
Chinese President Xi Jinping meets his Czech counterpart Milos Zeman during a visit to Prague in 2016, when he promised more investment. Photo: AFP
“I suppose he feels that promises made to him personally were not fulfilled, since he has had personal contact with Xi Jinping on a number of occasions … he surely feels that his commitment to China has not been reciprocated,” said Jeremy Garlick, assistant professor of international relations at the University of Economics, Prague.
Zeman has visited China five times and was the only EU leader to attend a Chinese military parade in 2015 to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.
I suppose he feels that promises made to him personally were not fulfilled, since he has had personal contact with Xi Jinping on a number of occasions Jeremy Garlick, University of Economics, Prague
Rudolf Furst, a senior researcher at Charles University in Prague, said Zeman had given up his unequivocal support for a pragmatic pro-Chinese agenda.
“Chinese investments flow in Czechia have remained low, and not matching the Czech structural needs for stimulating the GDP growth,” he said.
Most of the 17+1 member states, except for Hungary and Greece, were now “perceiving the Chinese investment promises as merely virtual”, Furst said. “The 2012 new wave of China’s honeymoon is over.”
Rhodium Group has tracked Chinese foreign direct investment data in Europe since 2000. Its data shows that while total Chinese investment in the Czech Republic had grown to about €1 billion (US$1.1 billion) by 2018, growth has been slow, while neighbouring countries like Italy and Germany had some 15 to 20 times more investment in their economies.
Cumulative Chinese foreign direct investment in the Czech Republic between 2000 and 2017 sat at about €600 million, and grew to €1 billion in 2018, while that in neighbour Germany grew from €20.6 billion to €22.2 billion over the same period.
The picture is much the same for Eastern Europe as a whole – Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia received just 2 per cent of China’s overall investment in Europe in 2018, according to the data.
Countries like France, Germany and Britain meanwhile received 9, 12 and 24 per cent, respectively.
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Other Czech politicians have also taken a tougher line on China. Babis warned of a “considerable” trade deficit with China in 2018. The country exported US$1.8 billion of goods to China in the first nine months of last year, down 4.3 per cent from a year earlier. But it imported US$11.7 billion of products from China – by far its largest source of imports.
And after Zeman’s announcement this week, the Green Party, which holds a handful of seats in the Czech Senate, called for Prague to pull out of the 17+1 platform altogether.
Prime Minister Andrej Babis warned of a “considerable” trade deficit with China in 2018. Photo: AFP
Richard Turcsanyi, director of the Central European Institute of Asian Studies at Palacky University in the Czech Republic, said both Prague and Beijing were expecting too much.
“I see the current sharp downturn of Czech-China relations being related to very high and unrealistic expectations which existed perhaps on both sides, driven to a large extent by the ignorance of each other,” he said.
“Due to the impressive economic growth of China and also its international economic expansion, many expected that China could quickly become a significant economic actor in the Czech Republic,” he said.
“In reality, the Czech Republic and China are not natural trading or investment partners. They are more of competitors when it comes to moving up the value chain, rather than complementary economic partners – contrary to what has been claimed for years as part of the diplomatic exchanges.”
Political tensions with China have also increased, including over security allegations about Huawei Technologies, and sensitive issues like Taiwan and Tibet.
This week, Shanghai suspended official contact with the Czech capital Prague after it signed a sister city agreement with Taipei – following Prague cancelling its deal with Beijing in October over a “one China” pledge. Shanghai was also a sister city with Prague.
And although Zeman has been critical of the US-led campaign against Huawei, Babis ordered Czech government institutions to stop using products from the Chinese tech giant last year.
“There has been a breakdown of trust in China, at the level of the public, the media, and now even the president,” Garlick said.
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and EC President Jean-Claude Juncker mark first anniversary of EU-Asia Connectivity scheme with swipes at China
Partners reach out to countries in Balkans and Africa and agree US$65.5 billion development plan
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (left) and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker mark the anniversary of the EU-Asia Connectivity scheme in Brussels, Belgium. Photo: Reuters
The European Union and Japan are stepping up their efforts to counter China’s
, with their leaders vowing to be “guardians of universal values” such as democracy, sustainability and good governance.
Speaking in Brussels on Friday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the world’s third-biggest economy would work with the EU to strengthen their transport, energy and digital ties to Africa and the Balkans – key regions for China’s flagship trade and development project.
At a forum to mark the first anniversary of the EU-Asia Connectivity scheme, Abe and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker signed an agreement formalising Japan’s involvement in the Europe-Asia plan that will be backed by a €60 billion (US$65.54 billion) EU guarantee fund, development banks and private investors.
Abe said Japan would ensure that officials from 30 African countries would be trained in sovereign debt management over the next three years, a veiled attack on what Western diplomats claim is China’s debt trap for its belt and road partners.
“The EU and Japan are linked through and through,” Abe said. “The infrastructure we build from now on must be [high] quality infrastructure.
“Whether it be a single road or a single port, when the EU and Japan undertake something, we are able to build sustainable, comprehensive and rules-based connectivity, from the Indo-Pacific to the west Balkans and Africa.”
Japan wants to extend its business reach through its alliance with the EU as its economy slows and geopolitical competition from China takes its toll.
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China’s low-key delegation to the forum was led by Guo Xuejun, deputy director general of international affairs at the foreign ministry.
The US was represented by its deputy assistant secretary of state for cyber policy, Robert Strayer, who was in Europe to lobby against Chinese telecoms giant Huawei Technologies and its involvement in fifth-generation telecoms networks.
Abe and Juncker made cybersecurity the highlight of their addresses. Juncker, who will step down from the presidency by the end of October, repeated his attack on China’s trade policies without naming the country.
“Openness is reciprocal, based on high standards of transparency and good governance, especially for public procurement, and equal access to businesses while respecting intellectual property rights,” he said.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says Japan will train officials from 30 African countries in sovereign debt management in three years. Photo: AFP
European policymakers and businesses have for years complained about China’s refusal to allow foreign companies in without a Chinese joint venture partner, a practice that critics claimed involved forced transfer of intellectual property to the Chinese side.
“One of the keys to successful connectivity is to respect basic rules and common sense,” Juncker said, stressing that EU-Japanese cooperation focused on the “same commitment to democracy, rule of law, freedom and human dignity”.
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When the commission proposed improved transport, energy and digital infrastructure links with Asia last year, it denied it was seeking to stymie Chinese ambitions.
The EU plan, which would be backed by additional funds from the EU’s common budget from 2021, private sector loans and development banks, amounted to a response to China’s largesse in much of central Asia and south-eastern Europe, where Beijing has invested billions of dollars.
China’s talent is turning away from multinationals and towards domestic tech champions in the search for a more fulfilling career
Change in sentiment comes amid raging US-China tech war and perceptions of ‘bamboo ceiling’ in the West
An increasing number of Chinese jobseekers are looking towards domestic tech firms. Image: SCMP
Molly Liu left her hometown Beijing to pursue a master’s degree in the United States in the 1990s.
After graduation, she fought hard to win an entry-level position at a US-based consultancy and after a period was later sent back to China to help the company’s expansion.
In the land of opportunity, the ambitious US firm showered her with avenues to pursue her career and she ended up working in Hong Kong as well as being one of the first people on the ground for the consultancy in Shanghai, Beijing, Taipei and Singapore.
Times have changed, though. Recently, her only son, Ben Zhang, turned down a hard-to-get job offer from a Boeing subsidiary in the US after gaining a master’s degree in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Chinese students educated in the US are now looking more at jobs in China. Photo: SCMP
He decided to return to Beijing in 2018 and now works as a product manager at Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi. He is convinced that the start-up turned tech major can offer him the same sort of opportunities today that the US tech consultancy offered his mother in the 1990s.
This family story about the career choices of two different generations of US-educated Chinese students reflects a wider trend. Once upon a time, US corporations could cherry-pick top Chinese talent from American universities with the promise of large salaries, generous benefits and the chance to work at market-leading organisations.
Today, China’s cutting-edge technology companies – often referred to as China Tech Corporation (CTC) – are the most sought-after employers among many Chinese students, who want more than just a cushy life.
This marks another blow for multinational corporations (MNCs) already struggling to do business in China amid a myriad of restrictions and growing hostility towards them as the US-China trade and tech war gathers pace.
“What I look for in a job is not money. My parents are not counting on me to support them,” says 28-year-old Zhang, whose team in Xiaomi is working on a wide array of connected devices, from televisions to lamps to smart locks. “What I care about most is personal improvement and access to the best resources a company can offer.”
“In Boeing, I could probably work on a new product once every two to three years. But at Xiaomi, every three months, we can roll out a new product,” he added. “You can bring so many things into people’s everyday lives in China, like using your voice to control a TV or an air conditioner – things you can only imagine in the US.”
Zhang is not alone and many Chinese today perceive a “bamboo ceiling” in the US, where they are more often seen as engineers rather than executives.
One Chinese executive who now oversees the technology unit of a listed finance and insurance firm in China said that he used to lead a team of 20 engineers at one of the world’s most valuable tech companies in Silicon Valley.
“My job was to keep optimising the performance of a product [in Silicon Valley],” he said.
“But within three years in China, I was promoted to the chief scientist of our entire company, leading a team of 1,000,” said the man, who asked to remain anonymous as some of his family still reside in the US.
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According to an April survey by professional networking site LinkedIn, an increasing number of Chinese jobseekers share Zhang’s outlook. LinkedIn compiled a list of the top 25 most desired employers in China, and about 60 per cent were local Chinese companies, with 13 of them internet firms.
CTC bagged four of the top five spots, with e-commerce giant Alibaba, search giant operator Baidu and Bytedance – which operates short video hit TikTok – taking the lead.
Tesla ranked sixth behind its Chinese challenger Nio. Amazon, the only other foreign company in the top ten, ranked eighth.
Alibaba is the owner of the South China Morning Post.
Li Qiang, executive vice-president of Zhaopin, one of China’s largest online recruiters, described the rising status of CTC among jobseekers as “the dawning of a new era”.
“Nowadays, there is nothing a multinational can offer that a domestic firm cannot, be it a compensation package or the chance to be part of international expansion,” said Beijing-based Li.
“Jobseekers are not particularly looking for domestic firms or multinational firms. They are after good firms and most of the good firms in China these days happen to be domestic tech firms,” said Li.
Li’s comments reflect the wider opportunities within the domestic economy for Chinese jobseekers today, after the rise of many successful private-sector companies and a thriving start-up scene over the past 10 years, meaning it’s not just a one-way street to a state-owned enterprise (SOE) any longer.
A survey by Zhaopin in late 2018 found that 28 per cent of Chinese university students said MNCs were their employer of choice, down from 33.6 per cent in 2017.
Even on pay and benefits, CTC is catching up with multinationals. Zhang said Xiaomi matched the offer from the Boeing unit in the US and many leading tech firms offer benefits such as gym memberships and childcare facilities.
And the rags-to-riches stories of many leading China tech entrepreneurs, some of whom have become billionaires, continue to grab media attention and inspire the younger generation.
To be sure, Chinese students would still rather work for an MNC than an SOE – but the rise of CTC can be seen in company rankings and in the total number of CTC companies in the top employer list, according to Zhaopin.
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William Wu, China country manager of global employer brand consultancy Universum, said that the one element Chinese jobseekers pay most attention to these days is whether or not a job can be “a good reference point for a future career”. And a growing number of private Chinese companies now have global brand recognition.
A recent survey by Universum shows that Apple and Siemens were the only two Western names in the top 10 ideal employers for Chinese students in the engineering sector this year, while there were four foreign firms in the top 10 list in 2017.
Huawei Technologies, the Chinese telecoms giant that has been put on a US trade blacklist after the Trump administration said it was a national security risk, ranked top in the Universum list. Xiaomi, the smartphone maker Ben Zhang works for, ranked second while Apple, one of the most valuable tech firms in the US, ranked seventh.
It seems that China’s rising clout in the world is now an attractive factor for jobseekers.
“Every engineer would like to see the technology they’ve worked on have the potential to change the world one day,” said Li Yan, head of multimedia understanding at Chinese short video major Kuaishou. “In the old times Chinese companies were at the bottom of the global value chain, now they are climbing up, providing more opportunities for talent to create world-changing products.”
At Beijing-based Kuaishou, Li’s 100-strong artificial intelligence algorithm team – many of whom joined from Microsoft Asia Research – is working to make machines understand content better than humans by studying the millions of user-generated videos on the company’s platform every day.
CTC companies do have a strong home advantage, with big Western firms having to navigate a myriad of restrictions.
For example, the “Great Firewall” lets Chinese authorities control the content and information reaching the country’s 800 million-plus internet population. Western firms also face other forms of red tape, such as having to form joint ventures with local partners.
Amazon earlier this year announced the close of its China marketplace, giving up the brutal fight with Chinese online shopping giants such as Alibaba to capture domestic e-commerce market share. Oracle China reportedly laid off 900 people in March as it winds down its research and development center in the country.
Job applicants visit a provincial job fair at Qujiang International Conference and Exhibition Center in Xian, northwest China’s Shaanxi Province in February. Photo: Xinhua
Oracle has never confirmed the number of lay-offs but said the job cuts formed part of an overall global strategy transformation.
However, there has been little sympathy for those losing their jobs in China, judging by social media posts.
Some people posted that those working for big US tech firms are not “wolf” enough compared with counterparts who work for local tech firms, referring to the long work-hours culture of the domestic tech scene.
A viral story titled “Why there should be no pity for the sacked Oracle China employees” said the company was Beijing’s biggest nursery because of the flexible “work from home” culture and generous compensation package offered to employees.
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“They had every chance to join rising domestic internet firms. But they settled for high salary and low work pressure, which eventually made them frogs in boiling water. Why pity them?” said the article, adding that the earlier people give up on the “glory” of working for MNCs, the quicker they will benefit.
Not all Chinese workers would agree, and there has been a recent backlash against the “996” culture within China’s tech sector, where people routinely work from 9am to 9pm, six days a week.
With geopolitical uncertainty growing day by day, though, many Chinese are asking why leave the family behind for an uncertain fate overseas?
A survey done by consultancy BCG and The Network in 2018 showed that only one in three China residents was willing to move abroad for work, down from 61 per cent in 2014. The country is also the 20th most popular destination worldwide to relocate for a job, compared with 29th in the 2014.
“One of my graduate classmates in the US just gave up a six-digit package at Oracle and joined drone maker DJI in Shenzhen,” said Ben Zhang. “I asked what prompted his return to China. He sent me the viral article and asked, ‘who wants a life that one can see the end of from the very beginning?’”
Deliveries will start in the next six to 10 months, carmaker says
Tesla will take on Chinese carmakers such as Geely and SAIC, and electric car start-ups including Nio and Xpeng Motors
Tesla said on Friday that its Model 3 electric car, which will be assembled in China, will be ready for deliveries in six to 10 months. Photo: AFP
Customers can pre-order the Model 3 assembled in China after Tesla announced on Friday that it would be priced 13 per cent lower than the US imports, taking the electric carmaker a step closer in tapping the world’s largest EV market.
The standard range plus Model 3 car that Tesla plans to assemble at the Gigafactory 3 in Lingang, Shanghai, will be priced at 328,000 yuan (US$47,529), 49,000 yuan cheaper than the same model currently imported from the US.
Tesla’s US-built cars are now subject to a 25 per cent import duty in China. The bestselling US electric carmaker plans to start deliveries in the next six to 10 months.
“Today we announced that Model 3 Standard Range Plus vehicles built at Gigafactory Shanghai will begin at 328,000 yuan for our customers in China,” Tesla said in a statement.
Aerial view of the Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory under construction in Lingang, Shanghai, on May 10, 2019. Photo: Imaginechina
The model has a range of 460km and a top speed of 225km/h.
Industry observers said that the price of the locally made car aimed at the mass market is on the higher side, adding that a 300,000 yuan price tag could attract thousands of Chinese buyers.
“If a Chinese customer can buy a Tesla car for less than 300,000 yuan, many of them will make a decision on the spur of the moment since it is viewed as the best EV in the world,” said Tian Maowei, a sales manager at Shanghai-based Yiyou Auto Service.
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US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order barring US companies from using telecoms equipment made by companies that pose a threat to national security, a move aimed at shutting out Huawei Technologies.
US technology companies including Google and Microsoft have severed business ties with Huawei to comply with the US trade ban.
Tesla’s Gigafactory 3 is expected to make around 3,000 Model 3 vehicles a week in the initial phase. Photo: AP
In January, Tesla started construction on a US$5 billion wholly-owned plant in Shanghai, the city’s single largest foreign direct investment just three months after it secured a land parcel to make electric cars locally.
The factory will produce Model 3 and Model Y electric vehicles that are seen as affordable to drivers in China.
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Gigafactory 3 is expected to make around 3,000 Model 3 vehicles a week in the initial phase, ramping up to 500,000 per year when it becomes fully operational, Tesla said.
Tesla will take on Chinese carmakers such as Geely and SAIC and electric car start-ups including Nio and Xpeng Motors in China where sales of new-energy vehicles including battery-powered and plug-ins are expected to jump 27 per cent this year to 1.6 million units, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
In March Beijing announced a cut in cash subsidies offered to NEV buyers by up to 60 per cent, believing it was time to remove the crutches and cull an industry that had spawned hundreds of small manufacturers.
It is unclear whether Tesla vehicles will receive subsidies from the Chinese government.
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) – China will help Cambodia if the European Union (EU) withdraws special market access over its rights record, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Monday as he announced a 600 million yuan ($89 million) Chinese aid package for his military.
Hun Sen, who is on a five-day trip to China to attend a Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) forum in Beijing, held bilateral talks with President Xi Jinping and signed several agreements with Cambodia’s most important ally.
Cambodia benefits from the EU’s “Everything But Arms” trade scheme which allows the world’s least developed countries to export most goods to the EU free of duties.
But Cambodia risks losing the special access to the world’s largest trading bloc over its human rights records.
During a meeting with Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang, Li pledged to help Cambodia if the EU withdraws the market access, according to a post on Hun Sen’s official Facebook page.
“In this regard … Prime Minister Li Keqiang also confirmed his efforts to help Cambodia,” the post said.
China is Cambodia’s biggest aid donor and investor, pouring in billions of dollars in development aid and loans through the Belt and Road initiative, which aims to bolster land and sea links with Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa.
Unlike Western countries, China does not question Cambodia’s record on rights.
The EU, which accounts for more than one-third of Cambodia’s exports, including garments, footwear and bicycles, in February began an 18-month process that could lead to the suspension of the special market access.
Among the agreements Hun Sen struck in China was one for Huawei Technologies to help Cambodia develop a system for 5G technology. The Chinese tech giant has ambitions to build the next generation of data networks across the world and boasts 40 commercial 5G contracts worldwide.
China also agreed to import 400,000 tonnes of Cambodian rice, according to Hun Sen’s Facebook page.
“China will continue to support the national defence sector in Cambodia, and in this regard, the Chinese president announced that China will provide 600 million yuan to Cambodia’s defence sector,” the post said.
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Smartphone shipments to China in February fell to their lowest in six years, market data indicated, as consumers continued to put off handset purchases amid a slowing economy.
Shipments to the world’s biggest smartphone market totaled 14.5 million units, down 19.9 percent from a year ago, according to data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, a government-affiliated research institute.
That is the lowest since February 2013, when shipments to the China totaled 20.7 million.
Overall consumer purchases typically slow during February as the Chinese spend much of the month with family celebrating the Lunar New Year. But shipments this year fell more than usual as a slowing economy, exacerbated by a Sino-U.S. trade war, hurt demand for gadgets across the board.
Apple cited slowing iPhone sales in China when it took the rare step of cutting its sales forecast earlier this year. The firm then teamed up with China’s Ant Financial and local banks to offer interest-free iPhone financing in its first such move in the country as it looked to boost waning sales.
Several third-party retailers have also offered iPhones at discounted prices.
With smartphone sales expected to stay weak, companies like Chinese market leader Huawei Technologies have aimed to launch more expensive models to corner higher margins.
In 2018, Huawei’s market share of China’s $500-$800 device segment rose to 26.6 percent from 8.8 percent, according to Counterpoint Research. Apple’s share fell to 54.6 percent from 81.2 percent as it launched devices cracking the $1,000 price point, while others released competitive devices for less.
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