#1 YOUNG CHINESE CAPTURE THE HEADLINES WITH NIGHT CYCLE RIDES IN PURSUIT OF DUMPLINGS.
SKY NEWS – UK
#2 A SIGNIFICANT PORT OPENING IN PERU.
THE JAKARTA POST – INDONESIA
#3 SEMICONDUCTORS – TRUMP AND TAIWAN AT ODDS
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
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#1 CHINA ROADS BLOCKED BY THOUSANDS OF CYCLISTS IN NIGHT QUEST FOR DUMPLINGS.
SKY NEWS REPORTS
“Up to 200,000 young people rented bikes – which cost as little as £1.51 a month – to travel from Zhengzhou to Kaifeng for soup dumplings as part of a Chinese social media trend.
Police in Henan province closed bike lanes connecting Zhengzhou and Kaifeng in a bid to reduce the number of students making the 37-mile journey.
Pictures showed that the crowd of students – which was called the Night Riding Army by some taking part – had blocked a highway in central China on Friday night.
Local outlets estimated that up to 200,000 young people had rented bikes – which cost as little as £1.51 for a month – to travel to Kaifeng for its famous guantangbao, a type of soup dumpling.
Liu Lulu, a student at Henan University, told state media outlet China Daily: “People sang together and cheered for each other while climbing uphill together.
“I could feel the passion of the young people. And it was much more than a bike ride.”
One person also posted on social media: “Last night’s ‘Night Riding Army’ was spectacular! Two lanes were opened, but that simply was not enough: The cycling army accounted for four!”
The trend started in June, when four young women from Zhengzhou made a sudden journey for the dumplings. Since then, social media users in China have made the bike rides a trend.
China Daily reported that the bike lanes between the cities were closed temporarily after Kaifeng residents reported issues such as bikes being improperly parked near city landmarks, making it difficult for people to walk in those areas.
Three major rental bike providers in the province – Hellobike, DiDi Bike and Mobike – also issued a joint notice on Saturday stating that their bikes would become locked if ridden outside of designated zones in Zhengzhou.
And while the Kaifeng government said “youth needs passion,” it called on the Zhengzhou students to avoid riding in large groups and consider public safety.”
GRAHAM PERRY COMMENTS;-
“You don’t get a second chance at youth, so you must go for a spontaneous trip with friends,” one of the four had told local media. That message struck a chord with other young people in the city of 12.6 million.
The stand out points;-
- 200,000 young people hire bicycles for £1.51 per month
- A 37 mile Night-time Ride from Zhengzhou to Kaifeng
- Why? – to eat soup dumplings
- “A spontaneous trip with friends”
- “Everyone was beaming with energy and interacting with people around them.”
China is a Communist Country. The country is administered by the Communist Party. Until recently the Western reporting of China has focused on the people as “robots” and “automatons” – narrow minded, unsmiling, without personality, focused only on work, on targets, devoid of personality or celebration.
Is that how China is or is that how the Western news gloss is pursued? Do Western news agencies have an agenda where China is concerned? Is it fair and balanced or unfair and unbalanced? The Hong Kong Lau Institute has no doubts on this topic. It concludes – after a detailed review of UK media reporting on China – that the thrust is intentionally negative and that is not because what is going on in China is negative but because the political attitude of the newspapers’ editorial team to China is negative.
It is for this reason that it is right to highlight the Bicycle Dumplings story. The narrative has a natural authentic feel. Youngsters acting in a wholesome, healthy and sociable manner – no drugs, no confrontations, no protests, no slogans. Just an instinctive communal wish to join with other students to cycle to Kaifeng and enjoy dumplings. And Kaifeng is not just another Chinese City. It has history. It was a cosmopolitan centre from early times and for many centuries had the only well-documented Jewish community in China.
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#2 NEW BELT + ROAD PORT OPENS IN PERU
THE JAKARTA POST
“Huge cranes loom over Peru’s massive new Chinese-funded Chancay port, a symbol of Beijing’s growing influence in South America which is set to be inaugurated by President Xi Jinping on Thursday.
“It’s nearly ready,” Gonzalo Rios, deputy general manager of the Peruvian subsidiary of Chinese port operator Cosco Shipping, which has a 60 percent stake in the facility, said during a recent visit to the deep-water port.
Situated around 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of the capital Lima, the $3.5 billion complex is expected to become a major hub for trade between South America and China. Chancay’s maximum depth is 17.8 meters (58.4 feet), two meters deeper than Lima’s Callao port, making it capable of handling the world’s biggest container ships. “With the addition of this port, this part of the Pacific and Peru in particular could become the logistical hub of South America,” Rios told AFP.
The facility will be unveiled by Xi and his Peruvian counterpart Dina Boluarte on the sidelines of this week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Lima. The port is the latest addition to the vast collection of railways, highways and other infrastructure projects built under China’s massive Belt and Road Initiative. Launched in 2013, the program initially focused on better connecting China with Europe, Africa and the rest of Asia but has since expanded to include South America. Chancay, a fishing town of around 50,000 inhabitants, was chosen for its strategic location in the heart of South America. Cosco Shipping Ports, which has a 30-year concession to operate the terminal, has forecast it will handle up to one million containers in its first year of operations.”
GRAHAM PERRY COMMENTS;-
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a much misunderstood plank of China’s trade policy. But it is big, widespread and influential. Leading US historian Francis Fukiyama has written “China has lent more than $1 trillion to more than 100 countries through the scheme, dwarfing Western spending in the developing world and stoking anxieties about the spread of Beijing’s power and influence.“
And yet no Chinese soldiers, sailors or air force personnel have followed. No Chinese military; No Chinese weaponry; No Chinese base. Not what you would expect from a country – said by the US and the EU – to be “expansionist”, “militarily ambitious” and “a threat to world peace”.
The $3.5 billion complex is expected to become a major hub for trade between South America and China involving electronics, textiles and other consumer goods and for the export of minerals, including lithium — a metal used in mobile phone and laptop batteries — from Chile and copper from both Chile and Peru.
Bilateral trade between the Asian giant and Peru, one of Latin America’s fastest-growing economies for the past decade, stood at nearly $36 billion in 2023, making Peru China’s fourth-largest Latin American trading partner.
Peruvian Transport Minister Raul Perez told reporters at Chancay. “We will have direct routes to Asia, in particular to China, which will reduce (shipping time) by 10, 15, even 20 days, depending on the route,” compared to 35-40 days currently, he said. Chancay port will also serve Chile, Colombia and Ecuador, among other South American countries, allowing them to skirt ports in Mexico and the United States for trade with Asia.
It will allow China to position itself in Latin America. Francisco Belaunde, a professor in international law at Lima University, called it “part of the battle for geopolitical influence” in South America pitting China against the United States. Connected to the Pan-American highway — a network of roads linking most of North and South America along the Pacific — through a mile-long tunnel, the port will use artificial intelligence to inspect containers for drugs and other illicit goods, according to Perez, the transport minister.
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#3 “TRUMP AND TAIWAN AT ODDS”
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
SCMP CHIPS
“Trump has also voiced concerns over Taiwan’s leading role in global semiconductor manufacturing, accusing the island of “taking 100 per cent of America’s chip business”. He cited Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) as an example, referencing its US$12 billion Arizona plant, which was partly funded by US government loans and grants.
Taiwanese Economic Affairs Minister Kuo Chih-hui has stressed that TSMC’s advanced capabilities and investments in US plants would continue to benefit both countries, potentially easing some of Trump’s criticisms.
“TSMC holds the most advanced fab processing technology, making it challenging for anyone to restrict its development,” he told Taiwanese lawmakers last Wednesday.
TISSS’ Lo said Trump might use these accusations to press Taiwan into transferring advanced semiconductor technology to the US to secure the supply chain in the event of a cross-strait conflict.”
GRAHAM PERRY COMMENTS;-
Taiwan has managed to become the world’s leading supplier of semiconductors (SCs) and the US economy is very dependent on an uninterrupted supply of SCs from Taiwan to the automobile factories of the US. This gives Taiwan leverage over the US and Trump is angry that the US has allowed itself to get into a position of such dependency. The US biggest worry is that China imposes a trade blockade on Taiwan – it stops the SCs from reaching the US and brings the US economy shuddering to a halt within days – 48/72 hours.
The US is racing to break its dependency on Taiwan but new sources of supply of such finely tuned computers are not easy to create. It is a strategic anxiety for the White House, the Pentagon and the US military. Taiwan wants to continue its dominant #1 world position in the production of SCs – it ties the US to Taiwan which is what Taiwan wants. But Trump is more concerned about the continuity of car production in the US and wants – urgently – alternative sources of SCs. They are hard to find.
China is watching the situation closely. China is not irresponsible. They are not adventurist. They understand Power. They know their own strengths – and their own weaknesses. So does Trump. A Cowboy he may be but he also knows about Power. Trump will be assessing China – Is War inevitable? Or is an “understanding” possible – something which gives both sides a chance to breathe and reflect and talk.
The Chinese Communist Party is the most experienced political leader in the world. It has been tested by the US, by the old USSR, and particularly by Japan during World War II. It can still make mistakes but the mature expectation is that it is the US under the new macho gung-ho leadership of Trump and untested new appointees to the State Department and the Pentagon that will be more prone to gaffes and mistakes. The hot line can expect to be in use.
GRAHAM PERRY
