China

Overcapacity – from electric vehicles to high-speed rail to housing – is destroying profits as well as GDP

China’s astounding technological success in mass-producing quality electric vehicles (EVs) sits alongside a serious flaw in its industrial model: overcapacity.

It has the capacity to produce about three times as many units as it can sell at home. The consequences so far have included widespread price cutting, large losses, misallocation of capital, and surging low-cost EV exports leading to trade conflict.

The bigger problem, though, is that EVs are just a part of a broader overcapacity problem involving a myriad of sectors and products.

A large protest erupted in the south-western Chinese city of Jiangyou, videos on social media have shown, after the beating of a young girl by three other teenagers caused public outrage.

Protests of this scale are rare in China, where opposition to the ruling Communist party and anything seen as a threat to civil order is swiftly quashed.

But bullying in the country’s ultra-competitive education system has touched a public nerve, with a high-profile killing last year prompting national debate over how the law deals with juvenile offenders.

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Later on Monday, people gathered outside the city hall in Jiangyou, in Sichuan province, with large crowds stretching around the block, footage showed.

Video confirmed as having been shot outside the city hall showed at least two people being forcibly pulled aside by a group of blue-shirted and plainclothes police, and a woman in a black dress being dragged away by her limbs.

“They’re sweeping away citizens everywhere,” a person can be heard saying as the woman is dragged away.

More footage taken after dark showed police wearing black Swat uniforms subduing at least three people at an intersection where there were hundreds of bystanders.

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Last year Chinese authorities vowed to crack down on school bullying after a high-profile murder case. In December, a court sentenced a teenage boy to life in prison for murdering his classmate.

The suspects, all aged under 14 at the time of the murder, were accused of bullying a 13-year-old classmate over a long period before killing him in an abandoned greenhouse.

Another boy was given 12 years in prison, while a third, who the court found did not harm the victim, was sentenced to correctional education.

NEW DELHI, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit China for the first time in over seven years, a government source said on Wednesday, in a further sign of a diplomatic thaw with Beijing as tensions with the United States rise.

Modi will go to China for a summit of the multilateral Shanghai Cooperation Organisation that begins on Aug. 31, the government source, with direct knowledge of the matter, told Reuters. India's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

His trip will come at a time when India's relationship with the U.S. faces its most serious crisis in years after President Donald Trump imposed the highest tariffs among Asian peers on goods imported from India, and has threatened an unspecified further penalty for New Delhi's purchases of Russian oil.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/39921932

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At a time when authoritarian governments are assaulting international human rights law as never before, Argentina’s highest criminal court has taken an extraordinarily positive step. On June 18, the Federal Court of Criminal Cassation held that a case brought by Uyghurs against Chinese government officials for alleged crimes against humanity and genocide should proceed. While there are many challenges ahead, the court’s decision offers a critical source of hope to the victims and survivors who are seeking justice for Beijing’s ongoing atrocities in Xinjiang.

It also refocuses the world’s attention on the Uyghur genocide, an issue often overshadowed by media coverage of atrocities and war crimes in other parts of the world, and enhances the prospect of legal accountability for responsible Chinese officials.

The Uyghurs — 12 million people of Turkic descent who have been reduced to a minority population in their own homeland, now in northwestern China — have long been a target of the Chinese government’s systematic discrimination and repression. [...] detaining hundreds of thousands of people across the region, subjecting them to political indoctrination, torture, cultural persecution, and other forms of gender-related violence against women and girls. Contact with family members in the region and outside the country ceased as Uyghurs were disappeared into the shadows of what Beijing called “vocational training and education centers,” but which were widely recognized as concentration camps.

Beijing also stepped up its transnational repression against Uyghur activists outside China. In recent years, Beijing’s tactics have shifted, partly to create a veneer of legality to rebut international criticism, but remain no less abusive: it now instills region-wide fear through sham prosecutions in a legal system that serves as an instrument of Party power. To date, there have been few reports of releases from arbitrary detention facilities, leaving many victims forcibly disappeared. Such rights violations and State violence echo those committed by Argentina’s military dictatorship.

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The [Argentina] Cassation Court’s latest judgment, which remanded the case to the original court, now allows a criminal investigation to go forward. Victims will finally have their voices heard in the Argentine courts. While these proceedings may take years to complete, they revive the Uyghur case, allowing victims to gather further evidence, especially concerning responsible Chinese officials who are traveling abroad. At the prosecutor’s request, the Federal Criminal Court of Buenos Aires could also issue an international arrest warrant for responsible Chinese officials, including senior leaders, similar to those issued in February for 25 Myanmar officials, including the former pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in a case brought by a Rohingya advocacy group.

Additionally, the Argentine courts could issue an Interpol Red Notice — a mechanism Beijing has frequently exploited to persecute dissidents. Unlike China’s misuse, Argentina’s Red Notice would legitimately serve its intended purpose by facilitating international cooperation to apprehend individuals genuinely implicated in serious crimes such as genocide and crimes against humanity. Lastly, the Rohingya case has demonstrated that accountability has a ripple effect — Argentina’s bold judicial action could prompt parallel developments at the International Criminal Court (ICC), potentially prompting the ICC to address fresh evidence of genocide that emerges as the Argentina case proceeds.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/39861120

Chinese students at UK universities are being pressured to spy on their classmates in an attempt to suppress the discussion of issues that are sensitive to the Chinese government, a new report suggests.

The UK-China Transparency (UKCT) think tank says its survey of academics in China studies also highlighted reports of Chinese government officials warning lecturers to avoid discussing certain topics in their classes.

It comes days after a new law came into force placing more responsibility on universities to uphold academic freedom and free speech.

The Chinese embassy in London called the report "groundless and absurd", adding that China respects freedom of speech in the UK and elsewhere.

The regulator, the Office for Students (OfS), says freedom of speech and academic freedom are "fundamental" to higher education.

The new legislation, which came into force last week, says universities should do more to actively promote academic freedom and freedom of speech, including in cases where institutions have agreements in place with other countries.

Universities could be fined millions if they fail to do so, the OfS has said.

However, the UKCT report says some universities are reluctant to address the issue of Chinese interference because of their financial reliance on Chinese student fees.

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Even low-level government employees like elementary school teachers and nurses have been ordered to hand in their passports, to enforce “discipline.”

Only a matter of time till things start going this way. For Super Earth.

https://youtu.be/WcGJmev2718

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Floods also damaged roads and vital infrastructure, cutting off more than 130 rural villages and leading to the evacuation of more than 80,000 people from their homes.

The increasing frequency of high-rainfall events in China has been linked to rising global temperatures; each degree in warming enables the atmosphere to hold 7% more moisture.

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A former Macanese pro-democracy lawmaker became the first person to be arrested under the territory’s national security law, with authorities yesterday alleging that he had ties to foreign groups endangering China.

The Chinese casino hub, which has its own legal system largely based on Portuguese law, enacted national security legislation in 2009 and widened its powers in 2023, to bring it in line with similar laws in Hong Kong and China.

Macanese Judiciary Police said a 68-year-old local man surnamed Au (歐) was arrested and handed over to public prosecutors on suspicion of “establishing connections ... outside Macau to commit acts endangering national security.”

Local media identified the man as Au Kam-san (歐錦新), a primary-school teacher who became one of Macau’s longest-serving pro-democracy legislators before deciding not to seek re-election in 2021.

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A stalwart of Macau’s tiny opposition camp, Au spent years campaigning on issues such as social welfare, corruption and electoral reform. He was one of the founders of several pro-democracy groups, including the New Macau Association.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/39558082

Archived

Russian regulators on Wednesday banned the import and sale of trucks from several major Chinese manufacturers, citing what they called a “direct threat” to public health and safety.

The ban targets vehicles produced by Dongfeng, Foton, FAW and Sitrak, according to Rosstandart, the federal agency responsible for enforcing technical regulations and vehicle safety standards.

Inspectors cited issues including poor braking performance and faulty seatbelt mountings. Rosstandart said it has ordered the manufacturers to recall the affected vehicles and halt sales or face fines.

Dealers have reportedly suspended sales of the flagged models and are working on safety compliance plans that must be reviewed and approved by the agency, it said.

The move comes as Russia’s auto industry faces a deepening crisis. Last week, major domestic producers KAMAZ, AvtoVAZ and GAZ announced plans to shift to a four-day workweek amid falling demand.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/39573959

Archived

Joint China-Russia military drills in the Sea of Japan a “forced step for the Kremlin," expert says

In August, the Chinese and Russian navies will hold their annual Maritime Interaction 2025 exercises in the Sea of Japan near Vladivostok, as well as a joint maritime patrol in the Pacific Ocean.

"For Russia, such exercises are a forced step, because they understand that China is a natural antagonist of the Russian Federation and will maintain a certain degree of cooperation with Russia only as long as it does not conflict with its own interests," says Valerii Riabyk, a military expert and development director at the information and consulting company Defense Express.

"This is also confirmed by leaked FSB documents, which describe an operation developed at the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine aimed at strengthening counterintelligence measures in relations with the PRC," he says.

Riabykh added that recently such exercises have been taking place regularly.

"They plan them, and both sides need this in order to check and compare each other’s military capabilities. Some may see this as preparation for joint operations, but on the other hand, one should not exclude that such joint activities are primarily a way of probing the potential enemy's capabilities. Under the guise of partnership, they are keeping their finger on the pulse to be able to respond in time," the expert concluded.

Archived

On July 30, 2025, the Changsha Intermediate Court in [China's] Hunan Province tried human rights lawyer Xie Yang behind closed doors on charges of “inciting subversion of state power.” Those charges stem from Xie Yang’s remarks online and to foreign journalists about political and legal affairs, and human rights violations, in China. Authorities convened the trial after Xie Yang had been held in pre-trial detention for over three and a half years, during which he alleged he was repeatedly tortured.

“Xie Yang did nothing other than exercise his rights to free speech as guaranteed by China’s Constitution and international law,” said Sophie Richardson, Co-Executive Director of the Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders. “Chinese authorities compounded his wrongful detention by holding him in excessive pretrial detention, ignoring his allegations of torture, and denying him the right to a fair trial.”

The July 30 hearing was marred by numerous legal violations, including authorities failing to notify one of Xie Yang’s lawyers of the hearing, and opening the trial despite denying Xie and his other lawyer access to copy case files during the pre-trial meeting on July 28 that would be used as evidence. Authorities classified all 18 case files as confidential despite eight not bearing a “secret” classification marking. To protest these violations of his fair trial rights, Xie dismissed his lawyer, Li Guobei at the July 30 hearing. The trial has not yet concluded.

Xie Yang is a human rights lawyer who represented many human rights defenders before facing government retaliation for his work. He was detained and tortured during the government’s “709” Crackdown on human rights lawyers in 2015, an unprecedented assault on human rights lawyers and rule of law activists, and then stripped of his law license in 2020.

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Floods have caused extensive damage in Beijing and northern China, killing 30 people and forcing tens of thousands to evacuate.

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When the United Kingdom handed over Hong Kong to China in July 1997, the arrangement centered on a promise: China would govern the region with a “one country, two systems” approach that preserved much of Hong Kong’s autonomy and capitalist practices, at least for the next 50 years.

Barely halfway to that 2047 benchmark, however, Beijing is dismantling its pledge to Hong Kong and the world. Once “the pearl of the Orient,” the global financial hub’s appeal to many of its 7.2 million residents, investors and others has declined precipitously, especially since China invoked a national security law in 2020. Hong Kongers have immigrated to the U.K. and elsewhere. Companies and investors have soured on the region’s prospects and opened businesses in other financial centers such as Singapore and Tokyo.

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Hong Kong’s Beijing-backed leaders passed legislation in March 2024 expanding the security law [imposed in 2019] and solidifying China’s rule. Local leaders and China’s National People’s Congress now must approve government directives.

Such moves were not envisioned under the agreement that preceded the handover of Hong Kong after 156 years as a U.K. colony. Intended as Hong Kong’s mini-constitution for the subsequent half-century, it said China would provide for the region’s diplomacy and defense while protecting freedoms of assembly, expression, the press and religion.

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In the most recent move, Hong Kong public universities were required to sign new accountability agreement to align with China's Xi Jinping's remarks, according to Hong Kong-based media outlet HKFP.

According to the new agreement, universities “should also strive to follow the advice and guidance of the Central Government on the future of Hong Kong [...] and observe President Xi Jinping’s remark [...]

The new agreement instructed universities to strengthen education on China’s Constitution, Hong Kong’s Basic Law, and the national security law, HKFP reported.

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Archived

• Once China's top property developer Evergrande faces Hong Kong delisting
• Delisting will come after 18-month trading suspension
• Property crisis continues to weigh heavily on China's economy
• Developers debt revamp talks delayed due to lack of recovery
• New defaults and more restructuring rounds expected - advisers

China Evergrande Group looks set to be kicked off the Hong Kong exchange next month after failing to revamp its debt and being pushed into liquidation, with the stubbornly weak Chinese property sector clouding the outlook for debt restructuring by its peers.

China's property market, once a key growth driver for the world's second-largest economy, has been in a multi-year tailspin despite repeated government attempts to revive weak consumer demand.

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The liquidation order came after it failed to provide a viable restructuring plan for its $23 billion offshore debt.

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With Chinese new home prices falling at the fastest pace in 8 months in June, even developers who have completed first round debt revamps are weighing fresh negotiations and those that have not defaulted are also contemplating such a move to slash debt, financial advisers said.

"There's no light at the end of the tunnel," said Glen Ho, national turnaround & restructuring leader at Deloitte, referring to the property market.

"Companies want to delay their restructuring effective date and use time to exchange for more breathing room, but they cannot create new funds out of nothing."

More than $140 billion, or more than 70%, of China property dollar bonds have defaulted since 2021, according to investment platform FSMOne Hong Kong, and the majority of them are still in various stages of being restructured.

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Property construction in China is expected to decline another 30% by 2035 due to structural changes in demand, ANZ analysts said in a June report, which could cast a long shadow over debt restructuring efforts in the near to medium term.

Private developer Country Garden, which defaulted on $14 billion offshore debt in 2023, is still trying to get its lenders' approval on its debt restructuring proposal before the next liquidation hearing on August 11.

Other developers including KWG and Agile have yet to announce detailed restructuring proposals after having started the process in 2023 and 2024, respectively, soon after defaulting on their repayment obligations.

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China's property sector accounted for about a quarter of the country's economic activity before it collapsed.

But despite repeated attempts by authorities to stabilise the market, property investment in China declined 11.2% in the first half of this year from a year earlier, while property sales by floor area fell 3.5% and new construction starts dropped 20%.

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Most of the population of China cannot afford or obtain a VPN (Virtual Private Network). For the privileged portion who do manage to purchase and install a VPN, does that solve their global internet access problem?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/39451341

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A visiting US-based Chinese human rights advocate on Sunday urged Taiwanese to better understand authoritarianism in China, after observing the outcome of Saturday’s recall elections against 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers.

Sophie Luo Shengchun (羅勝春), the wife of jailed Chinese human rights lawyer Ding Jiaxi (丁家喜), said that witnessing the elections firsthand reminded her of how precious and resilient Taiwanese democracy is.

“If people do not understand China’s authoritarianism, they cannot truly appreciate Taiwan’s freedom,” she said, recounting her experience of being forced to flee China due to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution of her husband.

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The CCP’s “suppression of free speech, arbitrary detention, torture and acts of genocide are serious threats that the democratic world should remain highly vigilant against,” she said, urging Taiwanese to gain a deeper understanding of the situation in China.

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Wester Yang (楊若暉), public affairs director of the overseas Chinese student group Assembly of Citizens, said Taiwan’s open environment shows how valuable freedom is.

“Even the air here feels fresh,” he said, adding that China’s influence operations in Taiwan is not fictional, but a “bloodless yet profound silent war.”

Yang called on Taiwanese to remain vigilant and to support global efforts for human rights and democratic transformation in China.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/39423227

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The European Union (EU) and China have made headlines with their latest joint climate statement ahead of COP30. While the agreement emphasizes clean energy and green technology, it stops short of committing to reducing coal use—a decision that has left many environmental groups concerned.

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The EU and China’s climate focus now leans heavily toward clean technology development and cooperation.

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China’s Medog Dam: Climate Win or Ecological Fallout?

One of the most ambitious pieces in China’s green energy puzzle is the Medog Dam project in Tibet. With an estimated cost of $137 billion, the dam will become the largest hydropower station in the world.

However, the project has drawn criticism for its environmental and geopolitical risks:

• Built in a fragile ecosystem, near the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon, the dam could harm biodiversity, impact river flows, and disrupt agriculture downstream.
• Local communities face displacement, raising humanitarian concerns.
• The dam’s location near the India-China border adds fuel to regional tensions, especially over shared water resources.

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Is China Exporting Clean? And at What Cost?

China is stepping up its global presence as a major exporter of clean technologies [...] However, there’s one more side of the leaf which isn’t so green. The environmental costs of producing these technologies can be significant. Mining and manufacturing components like lithium and rare earth elements often lead to high emissions.

If these upstream processes are not cleaned up, China could end up exporting “dirty green” solutions that undermine the broader climate goals. Life-cycle emissions, i.e., from raw material extraction to final product delivery, must be included when evaluating the real impact of these exports.

Thus, China needs to decarbonize its supply chains and ensure the climate benefits of its clean-tech exports are genuine and lasting.

It is noteworthy that China’s proposed coal mine developments risk creating an oversupply and derailing climate goals, according to Global Energy Monitor.

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Carbon markets are only effective if they are transparent and based on actual, verified reductions in emissions. Strict rules and enforcement are necessary to prevent greenwashing and to ensure the system does not simply shift emissions from one place to another.

Without trust, data accuracy, and mutual accountability, the effectiveness of carbon markets will remain limited. Both the EU and China must ensure that any expansion of the carbon credit system is built on strong governance and integrity.

In a story that topped headlines and internet chatter in China last week, Dalian Polytechnic University in China’s northern Liaoning province sparked outrage by expelling a 21-year-old female student for appearing in videos posted nearly seven months ago to the Telegram account of a visiting Ukrainian esports player. Videos of the student in the visitor’s hotel room showed nothing sexually explicit, and it was unclear why the videos had become an issue now, but the university responded vehemently with a public statement naming the student and accusing her of “improper association with foreigners” (与外国人不当交往) that had “damaged national dignity and the school’s reputation” (有损国格、校誉).

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Myanmar is not listed among the countries with the largest rare earth reserves, despite intensive mining activities, especially in Shan and Kachin states.

This clearly indicates that while Myanmar may “produce” rare earth minerals, it does not “own” the resources. It serves primarily as a transit point for initial extraction, with the minerals being sent to other countries, particularly China, for further processing.

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The true source of China’s rare earth dominance lies in Myanmar’s border regions, where Shan and Kachin states are emerging as key centres for the mining of rare earth elements like terbium and dysprosium. These areas are experiencing rapid and uncontrolled growth in mining activities.

In Shan State, rare earth mining has proliferated, particularly in the town of Poke, which falls under the influence of the United Wa State Army (UWSA). The number of mines has increased from just 3 in 2005 to 26 in 2025, an eightfold growth in just one decade. The mining technique used, “ore leaching,” has led to chemical runoff contaminating major water sources, including the Kok and Sai rivers, which flow into northern Thailand.

In the northern part of Myanmar, Kachin State, areas like Pang Wa, Manse, Momok, and Loy Ja have become intensive mining zones. In 2023, over 300 mines were operating, with more than 3,000 extraction pits. After the 2021 coup, production surged by 40%, and China purchased 41,700 tons of rare earth minerals from Myanmar within the same year.

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Pianporn Deetes, Director of Southeast Asia Campaigns at International Rivers, stated in an interview with Bangkok Business that the cross-border pollution crisis is severely impacting millions of people in Chiang Rai, who are facing risks to their lives and health due to heavy metal contamination, particularly arsenic, in the Kok River, which flows into the Mekong and Sai rivers.

“Local residents can no longer engage in traditional activities like fishing or operating tour boats, and farmers are worried that rice grown using water from the Kok River may be contaminated with arsenic, as rice tends to absorb arsenic well. Additionally, there have been reports of fish with unusual parasites, which correlate with mining activities disturbing the soil.”

She further called for the Thai government to urgently negotiate with Myanmar and China, using various measures, including economic, diplomatic, and even food-related pressures, to halt mining activities. “If the soil continues to be disturbed and mining continues, the people of Chiang Rai will be ‘slowly dying.’ The restoration of rivers contaminated with heavy metals is extremely difficult and time-consuming, as seen with the unresolved issue of the Klity Creek contamination, which has persisted for over 30 years.”

Heavy rain around Beijing and across north and northeast China has killed two and forced thousands to relocate as authorities warned of further widespread rain and risks of disasters including landslides and flooding.

Two were dead and two missing in Hebei province, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Sunday morning. Overnight rain dumped a record 145 mm (5.7 inches) per hour on Fuping in the industrial city of Baoding.

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Rain will intensify in most areas of the capital, with the expected cumulative rainfall in some areas nearby including Miyun reaching more than 100 mm over six hours, Beijing's Meteorological Observatory said. Low-lying areas are prone to waterlogging, it said.

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Beijing issued a warning on Saturday for geological disasters, including landslides and mudslides, after intense rainfall unleashed, for a second time, a year’s worth of rain on nearby Baoding.

Northern China has experienced record precipitation in recent years, exposing densely populated cities, including Beijing, to flood risks. Some scientists link the increased rainfall in China’s usually arid north to global warming.