GOOD MORNING FROM LONDON
02 OCTOBER 2026. CHINA POST #641
CHINA AND THE FOREIGN MEDIA
———————————
IN THIS ISSUE
#1 CHINA’S NEW CANAL – EXPORTS TO CHINA TO INCREASE?
#2 CHINA – THE WORLD’S FACTORY OR THE WORLD’S HEADQUARTERS?
#3 TRUMP/XI SUMMIT? – AN AWAY WIN?
#4 WANG HUNIN – LEADING POLITBURO MEMBER WRITES ON AMERICA
PLUS A PEP TALK TO COME IN CHINA POST #642
—————————————-
#1 CHINA’S NEW CANAL;
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
“Vietnamese coffee chain Trung Nguyen Legend has been brewing up big business in China, serving its signature slow-dripped ground blends sourced fresh from Vietnam.
As its network of stores expands across China, logistics has become a bottleneck. It focuses on buying coffee beans in season from plantations in Vietnam, but road-and-sea transport to China follows a circuitous route with occasional delays.
It hopes China’s first river-to-sea canal, which opened earlier this month, will offer a short cut.
Businesses across Southeast Asia also hope the Pinglu Canal, which fills a missing link between China’s southwestern hinterland and international maritime corridors, can be a conduit for the flow of goods into the world’s second-largest economy, not just another route for the tidal wave of Chinese exports hitting their shores.
“Large seagoing barges carrying coffee beans from Vietnam will be able to sail along the new canal straight up to Nanning and other inland Chinese hubs,” said Trung Nguyen’s regional co-manager in Nanning, Huang Weiqiang. “No need to change to smaller vessels … potentially, this can bring more sales for us in China.”
GRAHAM PERRY COMMENTS;-
This is a relatively small news item in the context of China’s overall development – the new 134.2km canal in southern China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. But It is the first man-made waterway connecting a river to the sea to be built since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, China’s Xinhua News Agency reported. With a planned investment of 72.7 billion yuan (US$10.8 billion), the project, which began construction in August 2022, is designed to accommodate vessels of up to 5,000 tonnes. And this initiative will be two way – exports from China and imports into China which will increase as domestic consumption is at a low base. The SCMP (South China Morning Post) notes that Asean imported US$546 billion worth of goods from China in the first eight months of this year, up 25.8 per cent year on year, while the bloc’s exports to China stood at US$316.7 billion, according to China Customs data. Expect exports to China to increase.
——————————-
#2 CHINA – THE WORLD’S FACTORY OR THE WORLD’S HQ? DISCUSS!
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
“Globalisation is not ending; it is rapidly being reshaped. China is not abandoning its role as the “world’s factory”; rather, it is transforming what that concept means. It is becoming a global hub for innovation and development. While manufacturing capacity may continue to disperse across various countries, the “industrial brain” remains in China.”
GRAHAM PERRY COMMENTS;-
Djoomart Otorbaev, Prime Minister of the Kyrgyz Republic (2014-2015), has been following this question.
He observes that for the last 20 years, China has been the dominant manufacturing centre of the global electronics industry with an unmatched concentration of suppliers, skilled labour, infrastructure, logistics and engineering capabilities. But things are changing. The concentration is being diluted. But this is not bringing about the decline of Chinese manufacturing. It is solidifying China’s control.
President Trump’s high tariffs on Chinese goods were intended to reduce dependence on Chinese manufacturing and force production back to America, but it has merely motivated Chinese companies to establish production capacity in third countries.
In many cases, companies are relocating only the final assembly. Components, materials, tooling, machinery and engineering expertise continue to originate in China. This is producing a “hub-and-spoke” model: the hub remains China; the spokes extend into Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Mexico and other countries. China’s industrial strategy is increasingly compatible with a division of labour in which advanced research, engineering, technological innovation and sophisticated manufacturing remain concentrated domestically. At the same time, it distributes selected production stages internationally.
Looking ahead, what matters most is not the concentration of production in China but the control in China of the technologies, machinery, components, standards, engineering capabilities and supply-chain relationships underlying production. This is a fundamentally different conception of manufacturing power.
The old model measured industrial strength largely by where factories were. The emerging model measures it by who controls the industrial ecosystem.
Washington is trying hard to reduce China’s role in global manufacturing by imposing tariffs and restricting access to technology. But, it is not working because Chinese companies have been spurred to build production networks with greater geographic diversification and potentially higher resilience to political risks.
Indeed, if Chinese companies can combine Chinese research and development, components, machinery and engineering with production facilities in Southeast Asia, India, Mexico and other markets, the result may be a manufacturing system less vulnerable to any single country’s trade policy.
Globalisation is not ending; it is rapidly being reshaped. China is not abandoning its role as the “world’s factory”; rather, it is transforming what that concept means. It is becoming a global hub for innovation and development. While manufacturing capacity may continue to disperse across various countries, the “industrial brain” remains in China.
—————————————————–
#3 THE TRUMP-XI SUMMIT; LAVISH WELCOME – LITTLE ACHIEVEMENT
THE ECONOMIST
THE ECONOMIST STATES
“No sitting American president has greeted a foreign leader arriving in Washington at the airport for 64 years. But when Xi Jinping arrived in the city on September 23rd, he was greeted not only by Donald Trump but also a level of pomp and circumstance far in excess of anything offered by China during Mr Trump’s reciprocal visit to Beijing in May. The lopsided pageantry reflects Mr Trump’s eagerness to preserve stable ties with Mr Xi, whom he described as “strong, vibrant and fit”. It also stood in contrast to the paucity of the agenda, with little sign of progress on a litany of issues”
GRAHAM PERRY COMMENTS;-
The main achievement of this week’s summit appears to be an extension of the economic truce that America and China reached last year. That – and a decision by China to provide two giant pandas to a zoo in Atlanta.
For the present, Chinese exports of rare earths to America remain far lower than the pre-truce level and on November 10th China is due to expand restrictions on rare earths to cover new elements, including erbium, which is used in fibre-optic cables. China has also, according to The Economist. “sharply increased dredging, air and naval activity around disputed islands and reefs in the South China Sea, as well as escalating military activity around Taiwan.” – with Mr Xi urging the U.S. to “adhere to the correct position of opposing” Taiwan’s independence, according to China’s official Xinhua news agency.
Significantly, a recent poll by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs shows that 57% of Americans would prefer “friendly co-operation and engagement” with China against 40% who want America to contain Chinese power, a turnaround from the trend over 2020 to 2024. And in a popular People-to-People initiative, Mr Xi invited 100,000 young Americans to visit China to study over the next five years.
Ryan Hass of the Brookings Institution, a think-tank, who worked on China policy at the White House during Mr Biden’s tenure, noted that the 30 minutes devoted to substantive talks in the Oval Office was unusually low. “The pageantry,” he wrote, “appears to be the point of [the] visit.” The most consequential aspect of the relationship between Mr Trump and Mr Xi might be the frequency of their meetings rather than the substance of what is agreed.“
The perspective is changing. The sense is growing that China has the initiative in bilateral relations and it is relevant that America has delayed a planned $14bn arms package for Taiwan. The focus now moves to the mere two-month extension in US-China tariff negotiations. Rare earths continue to be the dominant issue between the two powers.
——————————————
#4 WANG HUNIN – MEMBER OF STANDING COMMITTEE OF CHINA’S POLITBURO
AUTHOR OF “AMERICA AGAINST AMERICA”
GRAHAM PERRY COMMENTS;-
THE INFLUENTIAL POLITBURO MEMBER – WANG HUNIN
- Wang carries influence. He sits on the Standing Committee of the Politburo, He has argued that the United States is fundamentally fragmented in his book “America against America”, and is plagued by deep systemic contradictions between its modern democratic ideals and the reality of a commodified, corporate-driven society.
- The Cost of Individualism: While acknowledging U.S. strengths—such as technological innovation, economic dynamism, and peaceful political transitions—he asserts, strongly, that unbridled individualism corrodes the social fabric, leading to extreme wealth inequality, crime, and social decay.
- Commodification: He famously categorized elements of American life through high material commodification, noting how nearly every facet of human experience and relationship becomes tied to market forces.
Political Significance and Legacy
- Insights from his 1989 six month tour across the U.S. helped cement Wang’s reputation as a top political scientist (formerly at Fudan University) before entering elite Chinese Communist Party (CCP) circles.
- Shaping Chinese Ideology: Wang went on to become the chief political theorist under successive Chinese leaders—advising Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao, and Xi Jinping, He helped to craft the guiding state doctrines like the “China Dream” as a collective alternative to the individualistic “American Dream”. The book experienced a resurgence in interest following visible signs of American social division, notably during the January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot.
- His book ‘America against America’ is a shrewd choice of title.
———————————-
CHINA POST #642 WILL BE IN THE NATURE OF A PEP TALK ADDRESSED TO PEOPLE LIKE MYSELF WHO ARE ‘CHINA POSITIVE’.
HOW TO HANDLE THE GOOD NEWS – AND THE BAD NEWS ABOUT CHINA.
CHINA POST #642 WILL EMBRACE THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD; THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION AND THE TIANAMIN DEATHS OF 1989. IT WILL ALSO ADDRESS THE QUESTION OF MENTAL HEALTH IN CHINA,
IT WILL ALSO EMBRACE THE POSITIVES – THE 800 MILLION CHINESE CITIZENS FREED FROM POVERTY;- THE PREDICTED 200 MILLION CHINESE CITIZENS WHO WILL TRAVEL OUTSIDE CHINA IN 2030; THE SURGE IN CHINA’S S-T-E-M GRADUATES – SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING AND MATHEMATICS. AND THE RAPID INCREASE IN NEWLY LAID RAILWAY TRACKS.
THE GOOD NEWS IS NOT A MERE JUSTIFICATION FOR THE BAD NEWS – IT IS NOT A DEFT SWITCHING OF HEADLINES AND AGENDAS. IT IS MUCH MORE THAN THAT. SEE WHAT YOU THINK.
GRAHAM PERRY
OCTOBER 2026
