Baiju Meets Coffee, and Other News ABCF, Week 24 Commentary

Baijiu meets coffee: Moutai’s ice cream stores now offer spirit-infused java – The China Project

Although Moutai has for years been viewed as a status of wealth and power in China, it has struggled to broaden its customer base beyond middle-aged male drinkers. Enter baijiu-infused coffee.

China’s war on drugs: From incarceration to rehabilitation – The China Project

In fact, the crucial difference between the Chinese drug war and the American drug war lies not in cruelty, but compassion. This is counterintuitive, but consider this:

• In China, drug addiction was never framed, explicitly or implicitly as in American discourse, as a moral failing.
• For Chinese authorities, the answer has not been to push the addict away, but to — very firmly, until they feel as if they might suffocate — hug them to the bosom of the state.
• The methods that China’s current rehabilitation system employs have changed, but the spirit has remained the same since 1949: addicts are the responsibility of the state, who should treat them as victims, grant them a chance at social and political rebirth, and then monitor them.

Parsing out China’s political economy – The China Project

This week on Sinica, Kaiser is joined by Keyu Jin, associate professor of economics at LSE, who talks about her new book, The New China Playbook: Beyond Socialism and Capitalism, a wide-ranging, ambitious, and accessible book that explains the unique Chinese political economy, emphasizing both its successes to date and how it must change to meet the challenges to come

China's Phoenix EV battery promises an eight-minute charge for a 600-mile drive – The China Project

The latest example: On June 6, Greater Bay Technology announced a new EV battery named Phoenix (凤凰) that promises to charge at eight times conventional speed, with the ability to fully charge in just 7.5 minutes, even in winter conditions. Greater Bay Technology says the Phoenix will have an energy density of 260 watt-hour per kilogram (Wh/kg), giving it a range of 621 miles (1,000 km) on a single charge.

The Phoenix should be in mass production sometime in 2024, and will be fitted in EVs towards the end of next year.

The academic obligation of communication as U.S.-China relations strain -- Stephen D. Mull, Vice Provost for Global Affairs at the University of Virginia" (gingerriver.com)

This week on Ginger River Radio, Jiang Jiang welcomes Stephen D. Mull, who is Vice Provost for Global Affairs at the University of Virginia (UVA) and has served in a broad range of U.S. national security positions, most recently as Acting Under Secretary for Political Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.

Mull introduces the members and business objectives of the delegation of the UVA to Shanghai and shares his insights into the importance of people-to-people exchanges between the U.S. and China in the post-pandemic era, the academic realm’s even larger obligation of communication during challenging U.S.-China relations, and UVA’s very own pingpong diplomacy.

The future of China's gig economy: Ride-hailing drivers and couriers at crossroads (gingerriver.com)

For years, the laid-off, unemployed, or those discontent with their income in China have always been reassured by the fact that they could dive into the mass of ride-hailing drivers and couriers and get reasonably paid.

Things have changed, however, as the internet business stagnates, and the job market saturates. The drivers and couriers are not earning as much as they used to, yet are unable to see any better offers.

People within the "new forms of employment" 新就业形态, e.g. ride-hailing drivers, food delivery workers and couriers, depend heavily on the expansion of the internet industry, and the majority of them are self-employed or outsourced. As a more flexible, and indeed more precarious, part of the job market, these workers are now grappling with the unfortunate consequences of their deep involvement in the fluctuating Chinese economy.

Sharp Decline in the Number of Foreigners in China Demands Serious Attention (pekingnology.com)

Furthermore, there is a significant disparity between China's global power status and the current quantity and quality of foreign residents and talents in the country. This disparity raises concerns. On one hand, statistics indicate an overall increase in the number of foreigners in China, but there has been a notable decrease in individuals from developed countries.

According to the seventh national census, the number of long-term residents from developed countries in China showed varying degrees of decline from 2010 to 2020. For example, the number of French citizens residing in mainland China decreased by about 40%, from 15,087 to 9,196. The number of Americans decreased by 23%, from 71,000 to 55,000. The number of German, Italian, and Japanese citizens residing in China has also declined.

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This compilation is put together by DeLisle Worrell, President of the ABCF. Previous updates may be found at commentary | Association for Barbados China Friendship (abcf-bb.com)