GOOD MORNING FROM LONDON
14 JANUARY 2026. CHINA POST #607
CHINA AND THE FOREIGN MEDIA
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EXTRACTS
#1 CHINESE BUSES WIN OVER KUALA LUMPUR
RESIDENTS
NIKKEI ASIA
#2 CHINA AND VENEZUELA – THE BIGGER PICTURE
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
#3 CHINA AND THE SOUTH PACIFIC
PEARLS AND IRRITATIONS
#4 CHINA AND INDIA
FOREIGN EXCHANGES
#5 JAPAN URGES U.S./E.U.TO CHALLENGE CHINA ON RARE EARTHS
NIKKEI ASIA
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EXTRACTS
#1 CHINA BUSES EXPORTS SURGE IN SOUTH-EAST ASIA
NIKKEI ASIA
“Muhammad Iqbal enjoys driving the electric bus that Transjakarta provided for him a year ago. It was imported from China and manufactured by Chinese electric vehicle maker Skywell.
Chinese buses used to have a poor reputation in Indonesia, said Iqbal, 47, who has been a public bus driver for more than 20 years. He recalled multiple incidents where Chinese buses powered by compressed natural gas broke down or caught fire just over a decade ago, forcing Transjakarta to stick to Japanese and European brands.
But things are different now. “It’s more comfortable to drive this electric bus,” Iqbal told Nikkei Asia. “It uses an automatic transmission, and drivers don’t have to queue at the gas station each [night] before returning [the buses],” he said, adding that he can now leave his bus at a Transjakarta garage to charge overnight before taking the wheel again the next day.”
GRAHAM PERRY COMMENTS;-
This story is a very good metaphor for China. The buses used to have a poor reputation – breakdowns, accidents etc. “But things are different now”. And that is true across the whole story. China is different now but the China watchers are not different. They cling to their outdated narrative and – in the process – mislead you.
So, to the facts;-
Nikkei Asia informs that Transjakarta, the main public bus network in Djarkata the Indonesian capital, introduced electric buses manufactured by Chinese EV giant BYD for the first time in 2022. Three years on, it operates 420 electric buses, which make up nearly 10% of its fleet, including those made by other Chinese companies, such as Skywell and Zhongtong Bus. Transjakarta, aims to expand its fleet to 10,000 buses and have it fully electrified by 2030.
Globally, Chinese manufacturers dominate electric bus exports, led by Yutong Bus and Xiamen King Long United Automotive Industry, and the trend is accelerating. In the first half of 2025 alone, China shipped about 9,000 fully electric buses worldwide, up 124%, year on year, compared with a 14% increase for the whole of 2024, according to news outlet China Auto M.S.
Chinese electric buses are also active.
Where?
- in Malaysia, at least 146 electric buses were operational as of October 2025, including 46 built by China’s Foton Motor.
- in Singapore, the Land Transport Authority in October awarded an 8.14 million Singapore dollar ($6.3 million) contract to a Chinese consortium made up of BYD, MKX Technologies and Zhidao Network Technology to pilot an autonomous electric bus project.
- In the Philippines where Electric buses are set to play a larger role due to the 2022 Electric Vehicle Industry Development Act. An electric bus made by China’s Golden Dragon serves passengers for free in Quezon City, Philippines.
It all adds up. China’s influence grows because it succeeds on quality, price and delivery. The West does not like to admit it but China is an alert and responsive supplier. The image of the over-centralised Party dominated economy is fading as China demands initiative and imagination from its own manufacturers. This is Socialism with Chinese Characteristics.
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#2 CHINA AND VENEZUELA
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
“China risks losing access to satellite tracking stations and other sensitive technology infrastructure in Venezuela after the United States seized control of the country’s leadership and snatched its president, Nicholas Maduro, taking him to New York for trial.
Beijing’s embedded assets – from satellite ground stations to oilfield systems and telecommunications networks – could be compromised after US President Donald Trump said Washington would “run” Venezuela and “fix oil infrastructure” in the country with the world’s largest crude reserve.
China is also Venezuela’s largest foreign investor and one of the top buyers of its oil, with deep footprints across the petroleum sector that may now be in jeopardy.
GRAHAM PERRY COMMENTS;-
See the perspective. In 1978 China embarked on its Reform Policy and its success with the domestically focused policy, inspired by Deng Hsiaoping, encouraged China to reach out to the rest of the world with its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). China now has BRI links with 150 countries and is on the verge of becoming the largest economy in the world. Such development comes with risks as evidenced by the U.S. kidnapping of Venezuela’s Head of State Maduro. China’s outreach to the rest of the world does not mean that it is “overstretched” in Empire terms – as the U.S. is today because of its 800+ military bases but it does mean that China investments are at the risk of seizure by enemies and potential enemies.
The U.S. experienced a rude awakening in Seoul in October 2025 when President Trump was forced to concede defeat in its Tariff War initiated by the U.S. China went for the U.S. jugular and made its crucial rare earths very difficult for Trump to access. The U.S. began to hurt big time. It was a significant win for China and a significant defeat for Trump. But the U.S, is proud and China, with its eyes wide open, correctly anticipated that there would be a U.S. response.
And that response is Venezuela today – the Panama Canal and Greenland tomorrow. The world is having to adjust to a new Balance of Power. Trump seized Maduro because he wants to make the Western Hemisphere safe for the U.S. It’s the Monroe Doctrine – Stupid” and in reasserting President Monroe’s 1823 Policy, China’s satellite ground stations, oilfield systems and telecommunications networks will be at risk. This will be replicated in Columbia, Chile and Peru and other South American countries whose trade relations with China has propelled China to #1 trade partner for S America – the U.S. backyard. The world is quite unstable. And its not just Trump – he is merely in charge today. It is the flow of History. What is happening today is really setting the agenda for tomorrow. Trouble lies ahead.
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#3 CHINA’S APPEAL IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC
PEARLS AND IRRITATIONS
“Beijing has built influence not only through whispers of bribery, but through delivering what Pacific governments say they need – roads, ports, schools, hospitals, scholarships and investment. It also brings hard-won experience in poverty reduction and infrastructure building that resonates with nations still struggling for development. These are the offerings that give Beijing credibility, not envelopes of cash. By dwelling on allegations alone, Australian commentary risks missing the bigger truth: China wins attention in the Pacific because it addresses needs we [Australians] too often overlooked.”
GRAHAM PERRY COMMENTS;-
The West struggles with China. Why hasn’t China already collapsed? How has China been able to re-arise after the big failure of the Cultural Revolution? Why is the Communist Party still in power? How has China surged in Artificial Intelligence, Electric Vehicles, and Wind Turbines? How is it possible that 200 million Chinese will travel abroad in 2030?
The questions go on because at every turn China is surprising the world and the West does not have a narrative to explain its progress. So it resorts to allegations that China has stolen blueprints from the Fortune 500 countries. China, so the Western narrative goes, is deceitful; is engaged in theft; repeatedly relies on spies at all levels of society. China is – says the West – the Big Deceiver and it needs to be curbed and once this is done China will stumble and fall. Readers of Good Morning from London are familiar with this flawed narrative.
But you, the Reader, have a choice. Stick with the Lying/Cheating/Deceiving narrative OR come to terms with the experiment that is underway in China. You can continue to deceive yourself that China Will Collapse or you can realise that something quite new is taking place in the country and the world needs to sit up and take notice.
The Pacific is a chessboard for great powers. China and Australia are the main players; The Solomon Islands’ 2022 pact with Beijing came about because China was able to assist the Islands where its needs were greatest – riot control, and economic diversification. Long gone are the days when China exported revolution through local Marxist-Leninist parties. The Solomon Islands prefer China’s model of development to Australia’s – and China does not interfere with the domestic politics of the Islands.
As Pearls and Irritations contend “Modern Australia was, in many ways, born into wealth – endowed with vast resources, sheltered by geography, and integrated early into global trade. That prosperity fostered a lingering sense of entitlement inherited from Britain: the habit of treating smaller Pacific Island Countries, many of them former colonies, as pawns rather than equals. But this mindset no longer works. Today’s Pacific leaders are well educated, their populations are connected to global information flows, and they understand perfectly the importance of equality and respect. They will not tolerate being patronised.”
By contrast China has experience in poverty reduction, infrastructure building and economic planning. This gives it a vocabulary of solidarity that often resonates more strongly with Pacific states than the paternalism they have encountered from Canberra, The World’s long-term security is best served by a multipolar Pacific in which no outside power dominates. Not Australia, Not the United States, Not China.
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EXTRACTS #4
CHINA AND INDIA
FOREIGN EXCHANGES
“According to Reuters, the Indian Finance Ministry is lifting restrictions on Chinese firms that aim to bid on Indian government contracts. Those restrictions were imposed in the wake of deadly fighting between Chinese and Indian border personnel in 2020 and effectively barred Chinese participation in the bidding process. Their removal speaks to the significant improvement in bilateral relations over the past several months.
GRAHAM PERRY COMMENTS;-
It may be 2026 but mention of China and India brings 1962 into view. It witnessed a deadly encounter between China and India over border disputes. Krishnan Menon was the Indian Defence Minister who led for the India side in the military hostilities that ended quite uniquely when China launched a military operation to push India back beyond the line it held when the War commenced. China then took the world by surprise and withdrew to a point some distance behind the military line it held when it commenced its operation to repulse India encroachment. China was saying “War is inappropriate. It is not necessary. We show our good faith by withdrawing behind where we consider the border point exists”
Modhi is a maverick. He blows hot and cold. He talks peace and war in quick succession. He needs to be watched, monitored, assessed and examined. He is never more dangerous than when he extends the “handshake of friendship” and China treats him with care and caution. For the present he is in a positive mindset re China and the present may last some years into the future but China adopts an “eyes wide open” approach. It will not spurn Indian approaches. On the contrary it will respond positively and look to solidify the common ground between the two Asian giants. Delegations will be exchanged; trade will be increased and the political relationship will add a few layers of concrete
“Multi-polar” is the key strategic approach adopted by China. The era of superpower dominance is over. No country – not the U.S, or China or Russia or India will lay down the law. There is no one centre of world power – not Washington or Beijing or New Delhi or Moscow There are competing interests in politics, in peace, in economic development, in the development of space, artificial intelligence and climate control. So coming together is to be encouraged and not resisted – but always with Eyes Wide Open. Remain Alert. Be Vigilant. Change Is Always Happening.
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#5 JAPAN URGES U.S./E.U.TO CHALLENGE CHINA ON RARE EARTHS
NIKKEI ASIA
“Japan should work with the U.S. and Europe to build a supply chain for rare earths and stop China from using the critical minerals as an economic weapon, Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama told Nikkei.
“We want to create a [rare earth] market of proper democracies and market economies,” Katayama said Thursday in a podcast to be released next Tuesday.
She is set to visit the U.S. on Sunday for a meeting of finance ministers from Group of Seven and other countries hosted by the U.S. Treasury Department. The agenda will include discussions around establishing a rare earths supply network that avoids reliance on China over economic security concerns.
Katayama expressed concern about the degree to which Japan’s manufacturing industry relies on Chinese rare earths.
“If we don’t take away China’s means” of monopolizing and weaponizing the metals, “it will become a constant threat in areas with nothing to do with security,” she warned. “Predictability for businesses will become more and more limited, and they’ll end up on the brink of a crisis.”
GRAHAM PERRY COMMENTS;-
We are all adjusting to the importance of rare earths. The U.S. went to sleep. Its politicians, its diplomats, its Defence experts, the Chief of Staff, the Military, West Point, U.S. academics – they all scored a big Own Goal when they ignored the strategic importance of Rare Earths. The U.S. faces long term problems term because the trick is not so much in accessing rare earths – important though that is – but in refining and processing where China is also well ahead of the rest of the world. It is still a surprise that none of the China experts have penned an article explaining how the U.S. (the home of MBA’s) missed out on such a strategically key item. Foreign Affairs will, doubtless, address the issue in due course.
last April imposed export restrictions on rare earths in retaliation for Washington’s “reciprocal” tariffs, forcing some automakers to temporarily halt production. Rare Earths are that important and China knows that the interruption to plant production in the U.S will be quick and decisive.
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CHINA AND JACK PERRY
PART 29 – THE EARLY DAYS IN PERSPECTIVE
Part 28 concluded as follows
“Back to Roosa and Sorensen, they underwent a rapid and intense briefing. It was not a question of the Chinese side being vindictive and making their guests squirm at the warmth of the reception they received. For both sides it was the first faltering steps of “getting to know”. It was a start. And the China of 1978 was not the China of 2025. No tall buildings, few motor cars, many carts bringing produce from the countryside, no air conditioning, no emails, lengthy delays for overseas phonecalls and no U.S. Embassy – that came later. This was also the period that marked the end of the highly damaging Cultural Revolution and the introduction of Deng Hsiaoping’s significant Reform policy. Mr and Mrs Roosa and Mr and Mrs Sorensen – accompanied by Jack and Doris Perry – were in the right place at the right time.”
Before I cover Jack’s early letters from China in the 1950’s – which in effect are a contemporary record of the start of China’s journey from being the Sick Man of Asia to becoming the largest economy in the world – it is appropriate to insert a comment about the Cultural Revolution which continues to play a significant role in China’s politics today. But, people say, the Cultural Revolution – or to give it its full title The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GPCR) – is history. It ended in 1976. Today in 2026 China is a different entity with new goals and perspectives. This is true and China is a society undergoing significant change. But do not make the mistake of underestimating the impact of the Cultural Revolution on the mindset of todays’ leaders, on the Party at large and across the whole nation. It started well. It ended badly.
There have always been two narratives about how and why the GPCR came about. The First and generous explanation is that Mao was worried that the youth of China were growing up without the experience of revolution that had shaped the thinking of the leaders of the Party. The youth were focusing on building a new society, developing a new economy and preparing to take their rightful position alongside the leading nations in the world. The focus was on eliminating poverty, increasing income and providing more food and clothes for the people.
There was a danger – so the narrative goes – that China was on its way to becoming a consumerist society. The people would become soft, indulgent and selfish. China needed an injection of politics, debate, controversy even conflict for without it the old class structure would return and the Socialist experiment would be defeated.
The young people, thought Mao, needed to be reminded of the goals of the revolution. Those goals were partly about expelling the Japanese aggressor from China and partly about establishing the power of the peasants in the countryside and the workers in the cities over the power of the landlords and the capitalists. The targets of the Revolution were, first, the foreign aggressors (UK, US, France Germany and Japan) who had imposed a Century of Humiliation on China and, second, the classes in China that blocked the path to a new Socialist society.
The youth of China, argued Mao, needed an injection of political struggle. They needed to be immunised against the sugar coated bullets of the old society by experiencing political struggle in the new society. They needed to be educated – not so much in history and economics and cultural pursuits – but in the day-to-day battle of class struggle. There was a new enemy and it needed to be defeated. So Stir The Pot. Protect the Fruits of the Revolution. Attack The New Leaders who posed as Party Members but were really the old Capitalist and Landlord class in disguise. Identify Them, Expose Them. Remove Them.
This flawed thinking had appeal. But it was flawed because it made class struggle the daily diet of China’s young people at a time when China did not need internal strife, confrontation, even War. It needed stability, continuity and harmony. Instead, China experienced revenge, death and destruction as the Red Guards, emboldened by Mao’s encouragement, believed themselves – quite wrongly – to be the saviours of the Revolution. They went on to the front foot and condemned China to a dark ten years of chaos, disorder and loss of life.
There was a second element – there was a group of Party members who – being kind to them – believed that China would slip back into the grip of the devious Capitalist/Landlord class unless a determined fight was initiated by the Party to prevent them from returning to power. China had won a big battle with the inauguration of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 and now a second battle lay ahead to prevent the losers from attempting a return to power. The landlords and capitalists were class enemies. They were bound to launch a fight back and their #1 target was the Party. They needed to take control of the Party. This class was deceitful, untrustworthy, and determined to prevent the Party from remaining loyal to its Marxist founding principles to put into the leading position. This was the origins of the Ultra-Left whose Gang of Four became the leaders of China until their arrest in October 1976 following the death of Mao.
The Ultra-Left were bad, wrong and destructive. They promoted selected words of Mao and used them to destroy the political influence of the pre 1966 Government. Phrases such as “Bombard the Headquarters of the Capitalist Roaders” and “Power grows out of the Barrel of a Gun” were adopted by young Red Guards who turned their misplaced enthusiasm for Socialism into a Call To Arms and caused significant loss of life as established leaders were cast aside – sometimes with a bullet in the back of their heads.
The full story of the Cultural Revolution is known within the Party and many of the people celebrated when the Gang of Four – Jiang Ching, Chiang Chunchiao, Yao Wenyuan and Wang Hungwen – were arrested, tried and imprisoned. But the struggle is not over. In China today there are idealists who see the rise of the Billionaires and the emergence of wage differentials as evidence that China is slipping back – sacrificing the ideals of a classless society for the creation of a consumerist society. And this remains a proper subject for discussion among the people at large and that debate will continue whilst the Billionaires continue to play a significant role in China’s attempts to achieve Socialism with Chinese Characteristics.
CHINA AND JACK PERRY – PART 30
1966 – CHINA’S ULTRA-LEFT TAKES CONTROL OF CHINA.
ON MY AGENDA IS AN ARTICLE THAT FOCUSES ON THE WEST’S DISMISSAL OF CHINA’S PROGRESS. THEY HAVE A NARRATIVE OF NEGATIVISM THAT WILL BE ADDRESSED – CHINA’S POPULATION GROWTH PROBLEMS; YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT; PEOPLE BURN-OUT FROM EXCESSIVE WORK HOURS; DISCONTENT IN THE CITIES; DICTATORSHIP NOT DEMOCRACY.
GRAHAM PERRY.
