Handknitted fisherman’s jumpers dying out because of knitter shortage

Genevieve Holl-Allen
Fri, 10 November 2023 

A genuine Gansey jumper takes six weeks to knit and has a distinctive pattern - Charlotte Graham

Fisherman’s jumpers are at risk of dying out because of a lack of experienced knitters, makers have warned.

Gansey jumpers, a staple of seafaring attire since the beginning of the 19th century, are hand-knitted over a period of six weeks – and one Yorkshire company claims to be the only one in the world selling the real thing.

However, the founders of Flamborough Marine, in a village in Bridlington, warn that they just have 10 knitters across the UK who are able to make the jumpers – and they fear the numbers will dwindle further.


Lesley Berry, along with her husband, have been producing the knitwear since 1981, and have received orders from around the world, including Slovakia, Puerto Rico and Hong Kong.

They have even been approached by Hollywood stars who wish to own their own authentic Gansey, including Daniel Day-Lewis and Rajiv Surendra, the Mean Girls actor.


Day-Lewis approached Flamborough Marine after finding a moth-eaten Staithes patterned Gansey that belonged to his father, Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis.

Ms Berry told The Telegraph: “He just rang up one day and said he found this Gansey and could we copy it for him?”

Day-Lewis, so impressed by their handiwork, wore the garment on the set of Phantom Thread and a W magazine cover in 2017.

Deb Gillander knits and sell Ganseys based on traditional motifs that are knitted into a jumper - Charlotte Graham

Ms Berry said they “desperately need more knitters” because of a growing demand and a 40-long waiting list, which means that customers face an eight-month wait.

All those employed by Flamborough Marine were local at the beginning but the 10 remaining are scattered across the UK.

“We occasionally get a new one and then we lose one of the older ones,” she added.

The style of knitting is thought to have begun in the reign of Elizabeth I and originated from Guernsey in the Channel Islands, with neighbouring Jersey lending its name to the knitwear.

The garment is seamless and knitted in the round, other than the chest and back which are knitted back and forth on two needles before being joined together at the shoulders.

They are tight-fitting, necessary for working on a boat, and reversible.

There are a number of Gansey designs, as each fishing community had its own identifiable patterns that were fixed by the beginning of the nineteenth century.

The designs were inspired by seafaring motifs such as nets, herringbones and ladders or weather-based imagery such as hail or lightning.

One pattern traced to the seaside town of Filey, Yorkshire, is known for a zigzag design called “marriage lines” which reflects the ups and downs of married life.

The style of knitting is thought to have begun in the reign of Elizabeth I and originated from the island of Guernsey in the Channel Islands - Charlotte Graham

A Gansey could even be traced back to the family that the wearer belonged to by its design, a grim necessity at a time when fishermen were lost at sea and their bodies needed to be identified and returned.
Gladys Thompson’s Gansey revival

The Gansey patterns would have been lost in the mists of time, having been passed down orally through the generations and never written down, if it weren’t for the work of one woman named Gladys Thompson.

In the 1950s, Ms Thompson travelled along the east coast of England and up to Fife in Scotland to record the designs on pen and paper to preserve them for posterity.

Flamborough Marine also are indebted to the work of knitter Nora Woodhouse, the wife of one of the fishermen in the village, who knitted their prototype.

“We made charts on paper to teach new knitters about the patterning; they had to be good knitters in the first place.”

Lesley Berry says hers is the only company to make genuine, hand-knitted Ganseys - Charlotte Graham

Ms Berry described the tightly spun 5-ply worsted wool and five steel needles required to make the Gansey as material that “doesn’t pill up like lamb’s wool and cashmere”.

“They’re very hard-wearing because they were originally and still are working garments,” she added.

There are other companies that say they make machine-knitted Ganseys, but this is disputed by Ms Berry, as she says only hand-made jumpers are authentic.

“There are people who try to promote Ganseys as machine knitted sweaters. They’re not really Ganseys.”

For those who are able knitters and keen to acquire a new skill, Gansey knitting kits are available online. Alternatively, answer the clarion call by Flamborough Manor and join their ranks to keep the historical garment alive.

Coronavirus that killed 8,000 cats in Cyprus has been found in UK

Joe Pinkstone
Fri, 10 November 2023 

Veterinarian Nicolas Ioannides administers a Molnupiravir pill to treat a cat suffering from the illness in Cyprus - JEWEL SAMAD/AFP

A highly infectious and deadly coronavirus strain that has killed at least 8,000 cats in Cyprus has spread to the UK, scientists have found.

A cat brought to the UK from the Mediterranean island was found to be infected with the virus, sparking fears for British pets.

The strain that led to the outbreak in Cyprus has been identified as a newly emerged hybrid of an existing feline coronavirus and a canine coronavirus. It is called F-CoV-23 and is not linked to Covid-19.

Scientists from the University of Edinburgh, the Royal Veterinary College and the Cypriot government found the British case had the same “genetic fingerprint” as 91 infected cats in Cyprus.

It is estimated the new virus killed at least 8,000 cats in Cyprus in the first half of 2023 but the number could be more than 300,000, according to reports.

A Cypriot cat waits while a veterinarian tests its blood for feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) - JEWEL SAMAD/AFP

Officials authorised using human Covid treatments on cats in August in a desperate attempt to curb the outbreak.

The cat that tested positive in the UK is understood to have developed symptoms in Britain and has been sent for tests and treatment following isolation by its owner.

In the study, published before it has been peer-reviewed on bioRxiv, the scientists warn there is “significant risk” of this outbreak spreading further.

“This is exemplified by the recent confirmation of a first UK-imported case with further investigations into other cases ongoing,” they add.

The disease caused by the coronavirus, feline infection peritonitis (FIP), is common around the world, including in the UK.

Before the evolution of the new strain, however, the coronavirus lay dormant in cats and in most cases never caused an issue.

Around one in ten of the cats with the benign infection would go on to develop FIP when the virus mutated inside of them. Symptoms include lethargy, fever, a swollen abdomen, and inflammation. It is almost always fatal unless treated.

The new study found the recombination of canine and feline coronaviruses – which includes the cat virus gaining the dog pathogen’s spike protein – has led to the virus becoming more infectious and changing how it causes disease.
Strong new strain of virus

“Feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) is not usually spread directly from cat to cat,” study author Dr Christine Tait-Burkard told The Telegraph.

“This new virus appears to spread readily and no longer relies on changes or mutations in the host.”

A veterinary drug called GS-441524 can treat FIP effectively if given early but it can be expensive. Human Covid drugs, such as remdesivir and molnupiravir, are also effective, but it is illegal for vets to use these human drugs to treat a cat with FIP in the UK.

Early data shows there is no evidence the new virus can infect dogs or humans. Experts say there is no reason for worried cat owners to keep their pets inside and away from other animals just yet.

Importing cats from Cyprus to the UK is a frequent and ongoing process, the scientists say, and the Edinburgh team advises against importing or adopting a cat from Cyprus while it works on more mitigations with the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA).

“Our evidence suggests the virus may spread directly from cat to cat by faecal contamination, just like the cat and dog coronaviruses it originated from,” Dr Tait-Burkard said.

“For example, if a cat uses the same litter tray, or outdoor area, as an infected cat and then licks its paws.

“There is no evidence of extensive spread of FCoV-23 in the UK. Therefore, there is no immediate requirement to keep cats indoors.

“If a cat shows symptoms of feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), has been diagnosed by your vet, and has been diagnosed with FCoV-23 or has links to Cyprus or recent contact with imported cats, then it should be kept strictly indoors until it has been proven that the virus has been eliminated (if the cat is undergoing treatment).”

NOV 11

Statue for war-hero pigeon that saved lost bomber crew


Simon Johnson
Fri, 10 November 2023 

A statue commemorating Winkie's role in the rescue of a bomber aircrew from the North Sea has been unveiled near where the pigeon lived in Scotland

A statue has been unveiled in honour of a carrier pigeon that helped save the crew of an RAF bomber that crashed in the North Sea during the Second World War.

Winkie, one of the first recipients of the Dickin Medal, the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross, has been commemorated with a bronze cast in the seaside town of Broughty Ferry, near Dundee on Scotland’s east coast.

It was awarded the medal in December 1943 after playing a key role in the rescue the crew of a Beaufort bomber that crashed the year before.

The badly damaged aircraft was returning from a mission in Norway on Feb 23 1942 when its port engine exploded, forcing it to ditch in the North Sea, some 120 miles from the coast.

The bomber broke up on impact but its crew of four managed to haul themselves into an emergency dinghy.
Carrier pigeons routinely carried by RAF

Carrier pigeons were routinely carried by RAF planes to enable airmen to send a message for help if they were shot down. However, Winkie escaped from its basket before the bomber’s crew could attach one.

They wrote down their last known position and attached it to the leg of a second pigeon, Stinkie, which flew off but was never seen again.

However, Winkie flew 129 miles back to its loft in Broughty Ferry, arriving exhausted and covered with oil. George Ross, its owner, alerted RAF Leuchars in Fife, some 30 miles south of Dundee, across the river Tay estuary.

Although Winkie was not carrying a message, airmen at the base identified the bomber’s location by calculating how long Winkie had taken to fly to Broughty Ferry from where it had to be ditched.
Crew found within 15 minutes of search launch

They took into account the wind direction and the impact of the oil on its feathers on its flight speed and, astonishingly, the crew was found within 15 minutes of the rescue mission being launched.

Winkie’s statue was unveiled by some of Mr Ross’s relatives and some local cubs, who helped campaign for the commemoration.

Norma Nicolson, whose mother was a cousin of Winkie’s owner, recalled holding the pigeon as a child aged five or six.

She told BBC Scotland that the pigeon had “always been part of the history of the family”, adding that the statue was important to “keep Winkie’s story alive”.

Steven Rome, a local councillor, said: “It will help to ensure that the story of Winkie will never be forgotten.”

After Winkie died, it was stuffed and put on display with its medal in The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery & Museum.

Anne Ponsonby, SOE wireless operator who went on to join MI6 – obituary

Telegraph Obituaries
Fri, 10 November 2023 

Anne Ponsonby in 2018 after her appointment to the Légion d’honneur - Hampshire Chronicle/Solent News & Photo Agency

Anne Ponsonby, who has died aged 98, was a wireless operator with the Special Operations Executive (SOE) who first heard of the Allied landing in Normandy when one of her secret agents burst into plain language.

She was born Anne Veronica Theresa Maynard in Peshawar, India, on December 23 1924, the youngest of three daughters of Brigadier FH Maynard CB, DSO, MC, of the Indian Army. Aged 12 she was sent to England to board at New Hall, a convent school in Essex. She did not see her parents again for two years, until they returned to England on her father’s retirement in 1938, and she left New Hall with little more education than typing, cooking, first aid and French.

Her father, who as a retired officer had been by then been commissioned into the RAF, paid for a tutor to enable her to pass the school certificate and found four months’ work for her as a clerk at RAF Cranwell. There, she heard of a friend who was joining the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY), and in August 1943, sponsored by her father and the prioress of Newnham Paddox Convent in Warwickshire she signed up too, hoping to learn to drive.

Anne Maynard in her FANY uniform


But by the Second World War the FANY, first formed in 1907 as a horse-riding, nursing auxiliary, had become a recruiting ground and a cover for suitable young women as agents in the field and as wireless operators. Within a few weeks, Anne found herself in a large gloomy house near Banbury, where, after signing the Official Secrets Act, she and her fellow recruits were told about the Special Operations Executive.

The SOE, sometimes referred to as the “Stately ’Omes of England”, occupied a number of such houses and used them as training centres, research and development sites, and offices. Over the next two or three months at Station 53b, as Poundon House in Buckinghamshire was known, Anne Ponsonby practised for eight hours a day until she could send and receive at 30 words a minute, a word being a block of five coded letters and a space in Morse.

She served much of 1943 to 1945 at STS 53a, Grendon Hall near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, where her task was to listen on specific frequencies at scheduled times (known as “skeds”) for wireless transmissions from agents in the field. As the agents were frequently in danger and operating under stress in the presence of the enemy, Anne Ponsonby had to receive the coded messages accurately, first time, and not ask for repetitions.

Anne Ponsonby, second left, at Bernay Aerodrome in France, the end-point of the 2009 Band of Brothers Bike Ride: on her right is Noreen Riols, who trained SOE agents, and on her left is Bernard Maloubier, a former French Resistance saboteur and an SBS officer - PA/Alamy

Astonishingly, while she was on watch on June 6 1944, ready for a “sked”, she heard in plain language: “Vive la France, vive l’Angleterre, vive les Allies,” repeated over and over again. Calling others to listen, they realised that it must be D-Day, the start of the Allied landings in France. They celebrated with warm beer and Spam sandwiches.

She was discharged from the FANY in August 1945 and returned to India to see her sisters, who were married with children, and she worked briefly in the Viceroy’s office. Back in England, she was recruited to MI6 and in 1948 she was posted to Egypt, where she met Myles Ponsonby, a former Green Jacket who had joined the Foreign Office. They married in 1950 and his postings included Cyprus, Beirut, Indonesia, Nairobi, Rome, and as Ambassador in Ulan Bator, Mongolia.

In 2015-16 Anne Ponsonby successfully lobbied to correct a long-standing wrong and, with many of FANY colleagues who had also been denied, was belatedly awarded the 1939-45 war service medal. In 2019 she was also appointed to the Légion d’honneur by the French government.

Anne Ponsonby’s husband, and a son, Air Vice-Marshal John Ponsonby, predeceased her and she is survived by two daughters, Belinda, a diplomat’s wife, and Emma, who with her husband Bryn Parry founded Help for Heroes.

Anne Ponsonby, born December 23 1924, died October 3 2023

What new biodiversity law means for housing projects in England

Sky News
Updated Fri, 10 November 2023 


New homes for us often come at the expense of living space for wildlife. But, from the new year, a new law in England means developers will have to make sure their projects deliver 10% more nature. It's called biodiversity net gain.

Conservation groups are broadly supportive but worried about how natural gain will be measured and how it will be policed.

At a part-built housing estate near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, Helen Nyul, group biodiversity manager, from the big housebuilder Barratts showed me what it means in practice.

Some of it within the newly built environment: "We've got the house marten nesting cups which are on the side of the front end of our building here. We've got swift nesting bricks.

"We've also installed hedgehog highways, which are simple little holes underneath fences in people's back gardens, giving hedgehogs a much wider expanse of garden roaming."

And some of it beside the estate: "A nature pond that used to be an old fishing lake. But we've enhanced it and now it's got lots of birds coming to visit every day.

To make the calculation of 'gain' ecologists assess a site prior to development and give it a score depending on the variety and rarity of the species.

If the building site is on a standard arable field, the existing wildlife might be quite meagre so improving on it may be straightforward.

But if trees, hedgerows, wetlands or even scrubland are bulldozed then making up for the loss and adding 10% is much more challenging. So biodiversity offsetting is allowed.

A field of barley a few miles from Milton Keynes has been selected to enjoy natural regeneration as a payback for damage elsewhere.

Fields will be 'bursting with life'

Emma Toovey is chief ecology officer at Environment Bank, a company which sells biodiversity units to developers who can't do enough for nature within their own development. Right now they've just begun planting hedges, but much more is planned across 38 hectares.

"These fields are going to be species-rich meadows filled bursting with life, beautiful wildflowers, buzzing with insects," she said. "We're going to have a big area of scrub planting, which sounds unusual, but it's also fantastic for wildlife."

But will it just be a question of plant, pocket the money and walk away? Ms Toovey insisted there is rigorous follow-up.

"We undertake surveys annually to make sure that what we've promised on the ground is actually happening," she said.

"And then we report back to the local planning authorities to tell them how it's going. And if things aren't quite going to plan, we can adjust what we do on the land to make sure that all of these commitments that we've made on behalf of the developer actually happen."

Conservation groups would like to see more than 10% uplift

Conservation groups are pleased the bill recognises the need to compensate nature for the harms of development but, perhaps unsurprisingly, would like to see more than 10% uplift.

Also they worry local authorities just don't have enough trained ecologists on staff or the money to buy the expertise which will be demanded by the new law.

Sophus zu Ermgassen, an ecological economist from the University of Oxford, said: "Local authorities will be responsible for the overall outcomes of biodiversity net gain.

"So it's completely essential that they have the resources and credible monitoring and enforcement mechanisms to be able to do their job. And they don't have the resources to do those things at the moment."

Both the government and the Labour Party are promising hundreds of thousands of new homes.

Get biodiversity net gain right and it could prove we can have thriving wildlife and a booming building sector. Get it wrong and there will be even less space for nature.

Luxury boom winds down as growth slows at Cartier and Vacheron owner Richemont

Daniel O'Boyle
Fri, 10 November 2023 

Signs emerged today that the post-pandemic luxury goods boom may be coming to an end, as sales growth slowed at Richemont, the Swiss business behind brands such as Cartier, Vacheron Constantin and Alfred Dunhill. (Vacheron Constantin)

Time may be up for the post-pandemic luxury goods boom, as Richemont, the Swiss business behind brands such as Cartier, Vacheron Constantin and Alfred Dunhill, revealed a sharp slowdown in growth today.

Sales of high-end clothes and accessories soared in the past year, fuelled in part by pent-up demand among wealthy Asian shoppers as countries such as China loosened their Covid restrictions.

Today, Richemont revealed that while sales were still climbing, crossing the €10 billion mark for the six months to 30 September, growth had slowed to 5% over the summer, compared to 19% in the three months to 30 June. Profit came to €1.5 billion.


While jewellery continued to grow, sales of watches declined, though Richemont noted that its highest-end watch brands like Vacheron, which makes timepieces that sell for six-figure sums, performed better.

Chair Johann Rupert said: “The period under review started strongly, beyond our expectations. However, growth eased in the second quarter as inflationary pressure, slowing economic growth and geopolitical tensions began to affect customer sentiment, compounded by strong comparatives.

“Consequently, we have seen a broad-based normalisation of market growth expectations across the industry. The positive news is that a soft-landing scenario seems to be prevailing in major economies with still higher growth expected from China, which should benefit from stimulus measures.”

Victoria Scholar, head of investment at interactive investor said: “The disappointing performance at Richemont echoes a similar slowdown in performance at French rival LVMH. The weak global macro backdrop with rising interest rates, elevated inflation and China’s bumpy recovery are weighing on demand for luxury goods, particularly watches at Richemont.

“Luxury was a market winner at the start of the year, but the sector’s glow is now fading as even the aspirational, higher end customers feel the squeeze with spending on the decline as belts tighten.”

CRIMINAL CRYPTO CAPITALI$M

UK

Crypto investment fraud warning issued by major bank

Vicky Shaw, PA Personal Finance Correspondent
Thu, 9 November 2023 



A major bank has issued a warning about crypto investment scams, with victims standing to lose more than £10,000 on average and young adults often being particularly at risk.

Lloyds Bank has recorded a 23% rise in reports of cryptocurrency investment scams by customers in its banking group (including Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland) between January and September 2023, compared with the equivalent period last year.

Victims are losing £10,741 on average, up from £7,010 last year, the bank said, with many of the scams it analysed originating on social media.


The most common age range for crypto scam victims is 25 to 34 years old, Lloyds said.

Would-be crypto investors typically make an average of three payments before they realise they have been scammed, taking around 100 days from the date of the first transaction before they report it to their bank, Lloyds added.

Fraudsters often pose as investment managers, promising that any payments made by the victim will be invested on their behalf, often with the promise of huge returns.

Sometimes the victim will be shown a fake investment account, suggesting that the funds are already making a profit, or a small amount of money will be transferred back into their bank account.

But often there is no genuine crypto holding and the fraudster will disappear.

In some cases, there will be an actual investment account held in the victim’s own name and registered with a legitimate platform.

But once funds have been deposited, victims may be tricked into handing over their account login details, or passing control of their digital wallet over to the fraudster.

They might also be directed to transfer cryptocurrency from within their own account to another digital wallet, which is under the control of criminals.

Liz Ziegler, fraud prevention director at Lloyds Bank, said: “Crypto is a highly risky asset class and remains largely unregulated, which makes it an attractive area for fraudsters to exploit. If something goes wrong, you’re unlikely to get your money back.”

Here are Lloyds’ tips for protecting yourself from crypto fraudsters:

– Criminals often put adverts for scam crypto investments on social media. They can also send offers by direct message. They will promise returns that you cannot get elsewhere or make claims about “guaranteed” profits. If you are contacted out of the blue about an investment, it is likely a scam.

– Fraudsters can easily set up fake companies, social media profiles and websites to clone real firms. Use the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) website to find genuine contact details for a company and check for warnings about fake firms. Always do your own research or seek professional financial advice.

– Never share the log in details for your investment account or your private cryptocurrency keys with anyone else. A legitimate firm would never ask you for this. Remember, if you transfer funds to another account that is not in your name, you have lost control of your money.

– Fraudsters may ask you to pay an account in a different name to the company you are meant to invest with. If the names do not match, it is a sign of a scam. Paying by card (rather than a bank transfer) may offer you more protection if something goes wrong.

China’s Soybean Diplomacy Makes a Comeback Ahead of Biden-Xi Meeting

Isis Almeida, Jennifer Jacobs and Jenny Leonard
Fri, November 10, 2023 


(Bloomberg) -- China is bringing back soybean diplomacy as the world’s second-largest economy seeks closer ties with the US ahead of a meeting between President Xi Jinping and his American counterpart Joe Biden.

The Asian nation, the world’s top soybean importer, bought more than 3 million metric tons of the commodity from the US just this week, a volume that surprised the market. The move is a gesture of goodwill ahead of Biden-Xi talks scheduled to take place in San Francisco next week, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named discussing governmental decisions.

This isn’t the first time China used the soybean for geopolitical leverage. Beijing bought and halted purchases of US supplies of the oilseed — used to make animal feed and cooking oil — several times throughout Donald Trump’s trade war. But recently, China has been scooping up cheaper Brazilian supplies instead.

As China seeks closer ties with the US — with various meetings between the two nations taking place recently — soybeans are again taking center stage. Just last month Chinese grain buyers including Cofco International Ltd. and Sinograin signed 11 agreements with crop traders such as Archer-Daniels-Midland Co., Bunge Ltd. and Cargill Inc. during a forum in Iowa, the first such deal since since the Trump-era trade dispute.

“There has certainly been a lot of ‘shuttle diplomacy’ over the past six months or so between the two countries,” said Stephen Nicholson, a global strategist for grains and oilseeds at Rabobank, one of the top lenders to the agriculture industry. “And of course, Biden is going to meet with Xi next week.”

Spokespeople for the Chinese embassy in Washington didn’t immediately comment. The White House declined to comment.

The latest purchases, which surprised the market this week, were led by state-owned Sinograin and will help bolster Chinese inventories. They also come the same week as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen hosted People’s Republic of China Vice Premier He Lifeng and ahead of the Nov. 15 Biden-Xi meeting on the sidelines of next week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

China bought American soybeans even though they are more expensive than Brazilian supplies, and processing margins are weak. The nation is purchasing more than it needs for domestic use, signaling it’s seeking to build stockpiles, said Alex Sanfeliu, head of world trading at Cargill, the world’s largest agricultural commodities trader.

“Xi’s visit is the only logical explanation why Sinograin would pay a big premium over Brazil beans,” said Ken Morrison, an independent commodity trader in St. Louis. “Sinograin has a dual role; they crush beans and they manage reserve stocks for the government. Crushing is very competitive in China as it is everywhere. Crushers don’t pay above-market prices.”

Purchase Politics

While there is “a little politics” to the purchases, US soybeans are also better to store than supplies from Brazil, said Dan Basse, president of Chicago-based consultants AgResource Co. That’s because Brazilian soybeans usually contain too much moisture and have a higher soyoil content, he said.

There are also some concern about the weather in Brazil, and long lines at the country’s ports. Falling prices in the US may also have lured buyers, said Chris Robinson, managing director of agriculture and commodities at TJM Institutional Services in Chicago.

“It certainly looks like the Chinese saw that six-month low as an opportunity,” he said.

China is seeking also closer ties with the Biden administration ahead of the 2024 presidential elections, two of the people said. There’s some anxiety in the country about the possibility of Trump returning to power when the Chinese economy isn’t as robust as it was during the trade war, the people said.

“The Chinese are pragmatic and they know in the long run, the US is too valuable of trading partner to leave behind,” Rabobank’s Nicholson said.

--With assistance from Michael Hirtzer, Tarso Veloso and Gerson Freitas Jr..


China just bought 3 million metric tons of American soybeans

Phil Rosen
Fri, November 10, 2023 


China purchased more than 3 million metric tons of US soy this week, reports said.

The move nods to a bigger appetite than expected for the commodity as top-producer Brazil faces headwinds.

Reuters reported that Tuesday saw China make the biggest one-day purchase of US soybeans in months.

China this week purchased more than 3 million metric tons of American soy, good for the biggest single-day purchase in at least three months.

Reuters reported on Tuesday that traders said Chinese importers secured roughly 10 cargoes of soybeans, or about 600,000 metric tons, for shipments coming from the Gulf Coast and Pacific Northwest to be delivered between December and March.

Bloomberg on Friday reported that China had nailed down orders of 3 million metric tons on Tuesday and Wednesday. The volume suggests a larger than expected appetite for the grain.

"China is stocking up, buying more quantities than everyone thought," the head of trading at Cargill, the world's largest crop trader, told Bloomberg.

The big purchase of the key agricultural commodity from the US comes as Brazil, the world's biggest soy supplier, faces production obstacles from a bout of unfavorable weather that could potentially diminish crop yields.

US producers have also faced headwinds of their own amid shipping disruptions and competition with Brazil, which despite recent weather concerns ,ultimately harvested a record soy crop this year.

Per Reuters, the US Department of Agriculture forecasts a 12% year-over-year decline for US sales to China of the commodity. October sales to China were 35% lower compared to the same month last year.

Xi Jinping’s ‘Old Friends’ from Iowa Get a Dinner Invitation

Jennifer Jacobs
Sat, November 11, 2023 a


(Bloomberg) -- A group of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “old friends” from Iowa have been invited to a dinner he will attend in California next week — 38 years after they welcomed the then-unknown party official for a hog roast, farm tours and a Mississippi River boat ride as they showed him how capitalists do agriculture.

“This has been a heck of a journey — we can’t figure it out. We don’t even know why he likes us!” said Sarah Lande, an 85-year-old Muscatine resident who has maintained connections with Xi since he made his first visit to the US as the leader of a food processing delegation from China’s Hebei Province in 1985.

“But we’re eager to meet with him, too. We’re regular, everyday people,” Lande added.

Xi’s warm and enduring bond with the Midwesterners he first encountered nearly four decades ago stands in contrast with the suspicions and acrimony that have characterized relations between the two largest economies over the last few years.

Both Xi and President Joe Biden, who plan to meet Wednesday during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco, have taken recent diplomatic steps to ease the strains.

The Iowans’ invitations for the reception and dinner, on the sidelines of APEC, came through the the National Committee on US-China Relations and the US-China Business Council, in coordination with China’s embassy, Lande said.

The Iowans haven’t been told if they’ll get a private audience with Xi, who was 31 when they met him.

Terry Branstad, a former Iowa governor and US ambassador to China, has also been invited, according to an aide.

Earlier: China’s Soy Diplomacy Makes a Comeback Ahead of Biden-Xi Meeting

In 1985, Gary Dvorchak’s parents gave Xi his bedroom, decorated with Star Trek items, in their Muscatine home. Dvorchak and his sister Paula, who talked to the future Chinese leader about American movies, are on next week’s guest list.

So is Luca Berrone, then an Iowa economic development official, who drove Xi around to company sites including Monsanto Co., Cargill Inc. and Quaker Oats, grain and livestock farms, the Amana Colonies — a religious community known for its farming heritage and communal living — and Iowa State University in Ames.

“He wanted to learn how to feed his people,” Lande said in a telephone interview. Xi had read Mark Twain “and he really wanted to see the Mississippi,” she said. She hosted him for a potluck at her home overlooking the river.

Berrone’s stops with the four-member delegation and their interpreter included a farm in Coggon, a spot where Twain had hidden manuscripts in a wall. Berrone arranged hotels as well as home stays where none were available.

“We had a really good time in two weeks,” he said. “We were like the road movie — five or six guys on a road trip.”

‘You Are America’

The Iowans made an impression on Xi, said Ken Quinn, the former president of the World Food Prize Foundation, who is planning to attend the Bay Area dinner.

“He was not anyone special and the friendship they showed him touched him personally,” said Quinn, who met Xi’s father, Xi Zhongxun, an architect of China’s economic opening, when he himself traveled to Iowa in 1980.

When Xi Jinping returned to the United States in 2012, as vice president and about to ascend to the presidency, he gathered with the “old friends” in Lande’s Muscatine home again. “He said, ‘You were the first people I met in America, and to me, you are America,’” she said.

That year, Xi invited more than a dozen of the Iowans to China, and “they had the whole thing set up in two months,” Lande said. “He was the top-down boss and he made it happen.”

Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan — a famous Chinese folk singer in her own right — threw a banquet for them. “She said, ‘Well, I just had to meet the people from Iowa,’” Lande recalled. “By the way, she is a lovely, beautiful lady. Her last remark was, ‘If we ever retire, I’m going to gather my daughter and we’re coming to Muscatine.’”

China’s embassy in Washington and the dinner’s organizers didn’t respond to requests for comment on Friday night.

The reunion aside, Iowa, a major soybeans and corn producer, has an interest in better relations between Washington and Beijing.

This week, China, a top soybean importer, bought more than 3 million metric tons of the commodity from the US, a volume that surprised the market. China had been buying cheaper Brazilian supplies and the move is a goodwill gesture ahead of the Biden-Xi talks, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named discussing governmental decisions.

Biden and Xi will meet in bid to ‘stabilise’ China-US relationship

Andrew Feinberg
Fri, November 10, 2023

President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will meet for the first time in a year next week, capping months of diplomacy by top US officials to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies and manage what Mr Biden has described as “strategic competition” between Washington and Beijing.

According to White House officials who briefed reporters on plans for the bilateral meeting, the two leaders will have their first sit-down since last year’s G20 summit during next week’s Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ meeting in San Francisco.

One senior administration official said the meeting would take place next Wednesday (15 November) in an unspecified location in the San Francisco Bay Area, but declined to offer further details, citing security considerations.

The official described the US position going into the leaders’ confab as one of relative strength, with the US economy booming thanks to “game-changing investments in American strength at home” delivered in bills signed by Mr Biden last year, including the CHIPS and Science Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the bipartisan infrastructure law the president continues to tout as he pursues re-election.

“The United States has had the strongest recovery and lowest inflation of any leading economy. We've created 14 million jobs more in two years than any president in a four year term, we've had 21 straight months of unemployment under 4 percent for the first time in half a century and the US economy grew by 4.9 per cent in the third quarter,” the official said.

“Large scale investments in semiconductors and clean energy production are up 20 fold since 2019, we're estimating 3.5 trillion in public and private investment over the next six decades, construction spending on manufacturing has doubled”.

The official also pointed out that the US has spent the last year “having deepened our alliances and partnerships abroad in ways that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago” as Mr Biden has executed a long-touted refocusing of US foreign policy on shoring up alliances in the Indo-Pacific region.

Since he last met with Mr Xi in Indonesia last year, Mr Biden has hosted heads of state or government from Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Philippines, India and Australia for meetings at the White House, as well as a historic trilateral summit with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kashida at Camp David in August.

Mr Biden has also overseen the launch of expanded partnerships with Indo-Pacific allies, including the joint Australian-British-American agreement to enable the Royal Australian Navy to acquire and operate nuclear-powered, conventionally-armed submarines based on US and British technology.

The official also noted that Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin, UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US climate envoy John Kerry and the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have each visited the Indo-Pacific during the last week, and pointed out that Mr Biden will also meet with Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Monday before he leaves for San Francisco.

“After investing at home in strengthening ties with allies and partners abroad, now is precisely the time for high-level diplomacy,” said the official, who stressed that the “steady and consistent” approach the Biden Administration is taking towards China does not mean America is “stepping back from our interests and values” in favour of smoother relations with Beijing.

Indeed, the official noted that the Biden Administration has implemented new export controls on semiconductors and related manufacturing technology, as well as restrictions on Chinese investment in the US.

“We've taken actions against PRC entities involved in human rights abuses or slaver nonproliferation and supporting Russia's war in Ukraine, and we've continued to uphold freedom of navigation in the region by flying sailing and operating wherever international law allows,” the official said, adding the caveat that Mr Biden and his advisers are “clear-eyed” in their belief that “intense competition requires and demands intense diplomacy to manage tensions and to prevent competition from verging into conflict or confrontation”.

That “intense diplomacy” has involved months of high-level work by Mr Biden’s top aides, many of whom have made the trek to Beijing in efforts to restart bilateral communications after diplomatic and military tensions were inflamed by the US discovery and shootdown of an errand Chinese-owned spy balloon off the American east coast in February.

The last eight months have seen three separate meetings between Mr Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, and his Chinese counterpart, as well as visits to Beijing by Mr Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.

In turn, China’s vice president, foreign minister, vice-premier and other top PRC officials have trekked to Washington for reciprocal sit-downs, as the US and China have launched what a senior US official described as “working-level consultations ... in discreet, carefully-chosen areas” such as “arms control, maritime issues, and macro economic and debt issues”.

The planned meeting between Mr Biden and Mr Xi, who have known each other for roughly 12 years — since both men served as their respective countries’ vice presidents — will be the seventh interaction between the two leaders since Mr Biden took office in January 2021.

A senior White House official said the leaders are expected to “discuss strategic direction of the bilateral relationship the importance of maintaining open lines of communication,” including restarting the direct military-to-military communications channels that have been cut off since the spy balloon incident.

“We expect they'll cover a range of regional and global issues ... such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas conflict. And they'll consider how we can work together where our interests align, particularly on transnational challenges that affect the international community such as climate and counter-narcotics,” they said.

In response to a query from The Independent, one of the officials who briefed reporters on Thursday said Mr Biden is also expected to offer a warning to Mr Xi against undertaking any influence operations or other efforts to interfere in the upcoming 2024 presidential election.

While White House officials took pains to stress that Mr Biden would surely raise “issues where we have differences” with Beijing — including human rights, the South China Sea, and relations with Taiwan, they also stressed that the dialog Mr Biden and Mr Xi will undertake is necessary, despite the failure of US efforts to encourage China to make changes in their political and economic system.

“We know efforts to shape or reform China, over several decades have failed, but we expect China to be around and to be a major player on the world stage for the rest of our lifetimes,” the official said. “We think diplomacy is how we clear up misperceptions signal, communicate, avoid surprises and explain our competitive steps. It is also how we work together where and when our interests align ... and deliver on key priorities for the American people”.

Biden's meeting with Xi: Details emerge of what leaders will discuss in San Francisco

Ukrainska Pravda
Fri, November 10, 2023 


US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will discuss restoring communication channels between the armed forces of their countries in San Francisco on 15 November.

Source: European Pravda, citing Financial Times

Details: The two sides are seeking to resume efforts to stabilise relations amid growing tensions over issues such as China's military activity near Taiwan and US efforts to prevent China from gaining access to the latest US technology.

US officials say the leaders will discuss a range of issues, including the prospect of restoring military communication channels that China closed last year after then-House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan.

"The president has been determined to take the necessary steps to restore what we believe are central communications between the US and China on the military side," one of the US officials stated.

Biden will express concern to Xi about China's "dangerous" and "provocative" military activity around Taiwan, he said.

Officials emphasised that the summit does not mean a change in US policy towards China but is a recognition that the states need effective communication channels.

Background:

Media reports suggested that Biden and Xi Jinping plan to hold bilateral talks in San Francisco on 15 November, when Asia-Pacific leaders will gather for their annual economic meeting.

On 27 October, Biden met with Wang Yi, China's Foreign Minister and Head of the Foreign Affairs Commission Office of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee. Before that, China's top diplomat also met with US State Secretary Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.

These meetings were the latest in a series of high-level contacts between the US and China in an attempt to stabilise the fragile relationship between the two countries, which has been strained by the Taiwan dispute, China's aggressive actions at sea, the incident with the Chinese balloon shot down over US territory, and concerns about Chinese role in Russia's war against Ukraine.




Biden, Xi meeting set for next week in California

Morgan Chalfant
Fri, November 10, 2023 


The News

U.S. President Joe Biden will meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in California next week, senior Biden administration officials confirmed, and will urge China to restore military-to-military communications with the U.S. and discourage interference in Taiwan’s upcoming elections.

The meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit on Wednesday will be the first engagement between Biden and Xi since their talks in Bali about a year ago. It will cover a large range of issues, including matters of disagreement, like human rights, and areas where the U.S. hopes to work with China, like climate change.

One senior administration official told reporters the U.S. had communicated to the Chinese that “basically every element” of the bilateral relationship will be on the table for discussion, acknowledging that fentanyl and artificial intelligence may be among the topics discussed.

The Biden administration’s overarching goal going into the meeting is to stabilize relations between the U.S. and China at a time of high tensions on a range of issues, and administration officials are setting low expectations for any outcomes.

“We’re not talking about a long list of outcomes or deliverables,” a second senior administration official said. “The goals here really are about managing the competition, preventing the downside risk of conflict and ensuring channels of communication are open.”

The Chinese Foreign Ministry also confirmed Friday that Xi would travel to San Francisco to attend APEC at Biden’s invitation.
Know More

While the meeting next week looks unlikely to result in major announcements, one area where there could be progress is the resumption of military-to-military communications, which China severed in protest of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last year. Axios reported this week that Biden and Xi planned to announce the resumption of military-to-military communications.

Biden and Xi will meet as the world grapples with two wars, and Biden administration officials said the U.S. president would raise both Russia’s war in Ukraine and the Israel-Gaza war. Biden will ask China to use its influence with Iran to communicate to Tehran that it should not escalate the conflict in the Middle East, the first senior administration official said.

With the Taiwan elections approaching in January of next year, officials said they would make clear to the Chinese that the U.S. does not support Taiwan’s independence and that China should not meddle in Taiwan’s elections.
Step Back

Relations between the U.S. and China are at a low point, exacerbated by the Chinese spy balloon that traversed the U.S. at the beginning of the year and was shot down by the U.S. military. The incident forced Secretary of State Antony Blinken to delay a planned trip to China.

The U.S. has been stepping up engagement with China in the months since, sending multiple Cabinet officials to Beijing to meet with Chinese officials in hopes of opening up more lines of communication between the two countries.
Notable

The Biden administration hopes to reach an agreement with China to curb the flow of fentanyl into the U.S., according to NBC News.


The top Democrat on the House select committee on China told Semafor that Biden should press Xi on human rights and economic issues, while working to restore the Fulbright student exchange program and increase commercial flights between both countries.

Xi, Biden to meet in US next week for first talks in a year

Danny KEMP
Fri, November 10, 2023 

US President Joe Biden and China's President Xi Jinping last met in Bali in November 2022 (SAUL LOEB)

US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold their first meeting in nearly a year next week on the sidelines of the APEC summit in San Francisco, officials from the rival superpowers said Friday.

The meeting will be held Wednesday and the two leaders will discuss a range of bilateral, regional and global issues as well as ways to "responsibly manage competition," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Xi will travel to San Francisco from November 14-17 for the "China-US heads of state meeting," while also confirming for the first time that he plans to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders' gathering.

The Xi-Biden summit follows a series of meetings in recent months between high-level officials in Beijing, Washington and elsewhere, but will be the leaders' first encounter since November 2022 in Bali.

Wednesday's meeting will aim to "stabilize" relations that have since plunged into deep freeze, a senior US official said, cautioning not to expect major outcomes.

Biden and Xi will also discuss pressing global crises such as the Israel-Hamas war and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as well as tensions over the flashpoint island of Taiwan, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

While Biden, 80, and Xi, 70, are both attending the APEC summit in San Francisco, officials would not say whether their meeting would happen in the city itself.

"Our goal will be to try to take steps that indeed stabilize the relationship between the United States and China, remove some areas of misunderstanding and open up new lines of communication," added the official.

"We are in competition with China, but we do not seek conflict, confrontation or a new Cold War. We're for managing the competition responsibly."

- 'Nothing held back' -

Washington and an increasingly assertive China have been at odds in recent years with both countries vying for global influence, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.

Biden and Xi made encouraging noises after the Bali talks but tensions have repeatedly flared since, with the United States protesting earlier this year what it described as a Chinese surveillance balloon over US soil.

China in turn has been outraged by growing US pressure including restrictions on high-tech chips, which Washington fears Beijing will put to military use.

Tensions are particularly high over Taiwan, the self-ruled democracy that Beijing claims and has not ruled out taking by force.

Biden was expected to warn Xi against any attempt to meddle in Taiwan's elections next year and to urge against further military exercises of the kind China staged near Taiwan last year after a visit by members of the US Congress.

"Interference in the Taiwan election is something we're extremely concerned about. And of course, we'll plan on delivering that message again," a second US official said.

US officials said the Biden-Xi talks would be "very broad" and that they were "not talking about a long list of outcomes or deliverables" at the end.

"Nothing will be held back, everything will be on the table," the first US official said.

But Biden and Xi were expected to discuss the "absolutely crucial" issue of restoring a US-China military hotline to prevent any escalations between the two countries.

"We expect they'll cover a range of regional and global issues too, such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas conflict," the second US official said.

dk/caw/des/pbt

China has a sweeping vision to reshape the world — and countries are listening

Simone McCarthy, CNN
Thu, November 9, 2023 

Xi Jinping has a plan for how the world should work, and one year into his norm-shattering third term as Chinese leader, he’s escalating his push to challenge America’s global leadership — and put his vision front and center.

That bid was in the spotlight like never before last month in Beijing, when Xi, flanked by Russian President Vladimir Putin, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, and some two dozen top dignitaries from around the world, hailed China as the only country capable of navigating the challenges of the 21st century.

“Changes of the world, of our times, and of historical significance are unfolding like never before,” Xi told his audience at the Belt and Road Forum. China, he said, would “make relentless efforts to achieve modernization for all countries” and work to build a “shared future for mankind.”

Xi’s vision — though cloaked in abstract language — encapsulates the Chinese Communist Party’s emerging push to reshape an international system it sees as unfairly stacked in favor of the United States and its allies.

Viewed as a rival by those countries as its grows increasingly assertive and authoritarian, Beijing has come to believe that now is the time to shift that system and the global balance of power to ensure China’s rise — and reject efforts to counter it.

In recent months, Beijing has promoted its alternative model across hefty policy documents and new “global initiatives,” as well as speeches, diplomatic meetings, forums and international gatherings large and small — as it aims to win support across the world.

For many observers, this campaign has raised concern that a world modeled on Beijing’s rules is also one where features of its iron-fisted, autocratic rule — like heavy surveillance, censorship and political repression — could become globally accepted practices.

But China’s push comes as American wars overseas, unstable foreign policy election-to-election, and deep political polarization have intensified questions about US global leadership. Meanwhile pressing issues like climate change, Russia’s war in Ukraine and Israel’s assault on Gaza have sharpened discussion over whether the West is taking the right approach to respond.

All this coincides with longstanding calls from countries across the developing world for an international system where they have more say.

Many of those countries have substantially enhanced their economic ties with Beijing during Xi’s rule, including under a decade of his up to $1 trillion global infrastructure building drive, which leaders gathered to celebrate last month in the Chinese capital.

It remains to be seen how many would welcome a future that hews to China’s worldview — but Xi’s clear push to amplify his message amid a period of unrelenting tensions with the Washington elevates the stakes of the US-China rivalry.

And as the procession of world leaders who have visited Beijing in recent months, including for Xi’s gathering last month, make clear: while many nations may be skeptical of a world order pitched by autocratic China — others are listening.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and other leaders pose for a group photo during the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing last month. - Shen Hong/Xinhua/Getty Images

‘Shared future’

A more than 13,000-word policy document released by Beijing in September outlines China’s vision for global governance and identifies what it sees as the source of current global challenges: “Some countries’ hegemonic, abusive, and aggressive actions against others … are causing great harm” and putting global security and development at risk, it reads.

Under Xi’s “global community of shared future,” the document says, economic development and stability are prioritized as countries treat each other as equals to work together for “common prosperity.”

In that future, they’d also be free of “bloc politics,” ideological competition and military alliances, and of being held responsible for upholding “‘universal values’ “defined by a handful of Western countries,” the document says.

“What the Chinese are saying … is ‘live and let live,’ you may not like Russian domestic politics, you might not like the Chinese political regime — but if you want security, you will have to give them the space to survive and thrive as well,” said Yun Sun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center think tank in Washington.

This vision is woven through three new “global initiatives” announced by Xi over the past two years focusing on development, security and civilization.

The initiatives echo some of Beijing’s long-standing talking points and are largely short on detail and heavy on rhetoric.

But together, analysts say, they present a case that a US-led system is no longer suited for the current era — and signal a concerted push to reshape the post-World War II order championed by it and other Western democracies.

That current international framework was designed to ensure, in theory at least, that even as governments have sovereignty over their countries, they also share rules and principles to ensure peace and uphold basic political and human rights for their populations.

China has benefited from that order, supercharging its economy off World Bank loans and expanded opportunities under the World Trade Organization, which Washington backed Beijing to join in 2001 in the hope it would help liberalize the Communist country.

Just over two decades later, Beijing is chafing under it.

The US and its allies have watched warily as Beijing has not only grown economically competitive, but increasingly assertive in the South China Sea and beyond and more repressive and authoritarian at home.

This has driven Washington’s efforts to restrict Chinese access to sensitive technology and impose economic sanctions, which Beijing sees as bald-faced actions to suppress and contain it.

The US and other nations have decried Beijing’s intimidation of the self-ruling democracy of Taiwan and tried to hold it to account for alleged human rights violations in Tibet, Hong Kong, and Xinjiang, the latter of which a UN human rights office last year said could amount to “crimes against humanity” — a charge Beijing denies.

Riot police stand guard during a June 2019 protest in Hong Kong against a proposed extradition law that would have allowed extradition of fugitives to mainland China. - Sanjit Das/Bloomberg/Getty Images

In response, Xi has ramped up longstanding efforts to undercut the concept of universal human rights.

“Different civilizations” had their own perceptions of shared human “values,” Xi told leaders of political parties and organizations from some 150 countries earlier this year as he launched China’s “Global Civilization Initiative.” Countries wouldn’t “impose their own values or models on others” if China were setting the agenda, he implied.

This builds on Beijing’s argument that governments’ efforts to improve their people’s economic status equates to upholding their human rights, even if those people have no freedom to speak out against their rulers.

It also links to what observers say is growing confidence among Chinese leaders in their governance model, which they see as having played a genuinely positive role to foster economic growth globally and reduce poverty — in contrast to a US that has waged wars, sparked a major global financial crisis and faces fraught politics at home.

“All this makes China think America is quickly declining,” said Shanghai-based foreign policy analyst Shen Dingli, who says this feeds Xi’s drive not to overturn the existing world order, but revamp it.

Beijing, he added, sees the US as merely “paying lip service” to the “liberal order” to hurt other countries.

“(China asks) ‘who is more prone to peace and who is less capable of leading the world?’ This has beefed up China’s self-image, (and this idea that) ‘We are great and we should be greater — and we should let the world realize it’s our time,’” he said.
Who’s listening?

For strongmen leaders and autocratic governments, Xi’s vision has obvious appeal.

While Russia’s Putin, accused of war crimes and continuing his brutal invasion of neighboring Ukraine, and Afghanistan’s Taliban leaders are shunned in the West, both were welcomed to Xi’s table of nations in Beijing last month.

Just weeks earlier, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad — who has been accused of using chemical weapons against his own people — was feted at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, where he arrived on a Chinese-chartered jet and visited a famous Buddhist temple.

A headline in the state-run Global Times portrayed Assad’s visit as one from the leader of a “war-torn country respected in China amid Western isolation” — providing a glimpse into the through-the-looking glass scenarios that could become the norm if Xi’s world view gains traction.

But Beijing’s broader argument, which implies that a handful of wealthy, Western countries hold too much global power — resonates with a wider set of governments than just those at loggerheads with the West.

Those concerns have come into sharper focus in recent weeks as global attention has focused on Israel’s relentless assault on Gaza following the October 7 attack on its territory by Hamas. The US has been in the minority opposed to broad global backing for an immediate humanitarian truce — and its support of Israel is seen in much of the world as enabling the country to continue its retaliation, despite mounting civilian casualties.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is welcomed by Chinese leader Xi Jinping during a ceremony at the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing last month. - Sergei Savostyanov/Sputnik/Reuters

In recent years, even some countries that have for decades embraced a close partnership with the US have drawn closer to China and its vision.

“Pakistan aligns with Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s view that a new global era is emerging, characterized by multipolarity and a departure from Western dominance,” said Ali Sarwar Naqvi, a former Pakistani ambassador, now executive director of the Center for International Strategic Studies in Islamabad.

But there are also many governments that also remain wary of its politics and ambitions, or of appearing to side with Beijing over the West.

“We’ve kept our relationship with all nations open,” Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape told CNN on the sidelines of the Belt and Road Forum last month, where he delivered a speech calling for more green energy investment in his country under the China-led initiative.

“We relate to the West, we relate to the East … We maintain a straight line, we don’t compromise our friendship with all people,” he said.

And while others may be ready to back China in calling for a more representative international system — there are questions about what that means under Beijing’s leadership.

“China can count on Brazil day and night to say that multilateralism is important, and we have to revisit global governance … however, there’s a very important ‘but,’” according to Rubens Duarte, coordinator of LABMUNDO, a Brazil-based research center for international relations.

He points to questions circulating within some countries, like Brazil, about why China is now championing concepts promoted in the Global South for 70 years — and claiming them as its own.

“Is China really trying to promote multipolarity — or does China just want to (become a) substitute (for) US influence over the world?” he asked.

A passenger gets off a Chinese-funded high-speed train after its commercial operations launched last month in Indonesia. - Li Zhiquan/China News Service/VCG/Reuters
Expanding ambitions

For decades, China has built its international influence around its economic clout, using its own rapid transformation from a deeply impoverished country to the world’s second largest economy as a model it could share with the developing world.

It was in this vein that Xi launched his flagship Belt and Road financing drive in 2013, drawing dozens of borrowing nations closer to Beijing and expanding China’s international footprint a year after he became leader with the pledge to “rejuvenate” the Chinese nation to a place of global power and respect.

“China’s traditional (foreign policy) thinking was very heavily focused on economic capability as the foundation for everything else. When you become an economic power, you also naturally acquire greater political influence and soft power, et cetera — everything else will fall in line,” said Tong Zhao, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank in Washington.

But as China’s economic rise has come alongside geopolitical friction with the US and its allies, Beijing has seen the need to expand its vision “and tackle geopolitical issues as well,” Zhao added.

The war in Ukraine has only heightened this dynamic. China’s key economic partners in Europe tightened ties with the US and reassessed their relationships with Beijing after it refused to condemn the Kremlin’s invasion, while at the same time Washington shored up relations with allies in Asia.

This “served as a wake-up call to the Chinese that the great power competition with the United States, ultimately, is about (winning over) the rest of the world,” said Sun from the Stimson Center in Washington.

A Chinese vessels operate near Scarborough Shoal in a disputed area of the South China Sea. - Ted Aljibe/AFP/Getty Images

Then, faced with mounting pressure from the West to condemn Moscow’s invasion of a sovereign country, Beijing instead used the moment to argue its own view for global security.

Two months after Russian troops poured into Ukraine, Xi announced China’s “Global Security Initiative,” declaring at an international conference that “bloc confrontation” and “Cold War mentality” would “wreck the global peace framework.”

It was an apparent reference not to the Russian aggressor, but to NATO, which both Moscow and Beijing have blamed for provoking the war in Ukraine.

Xi’s words were far from new for Beijing, but Chinese diplomats in the following months ramped up their promotion of that rhetoric, for example calling on their counterparts in Europe’s capitals, as well as the US and Russia, to build a “sustainable European security architecture,” to address the “security deficit behind the (Ukraine) crisis.”

The rhetoric appeared to catch on, with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva days after returning from a state visit to China this spring calling on Washington to “to stop encouraging war.”

This gets to the heart of Beijing’s aims, which experts say are not to build its own alliances or use its military might to guarantee peace in volatile situations, as the US has done.

Rather, it looks to cast doubt on that system, while projecting its own, albeit vague, vision for countries ensuring peace through dialogue and “common interests” — a phrasing that again pushes back against the idea that countries should oppose one another based on political differences.

‘“If a country … is obsessed with suppressing others with different opinions it will surely cause conflicts and wars in the world,” senior military official Gen. Zhang Youxia told delegations from more than 90 countries attending a Beijing-led security forum in the capital last month.

Beijing has said its model is already successful, pointing to its role brokering a restoration of ties between longtime rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran in March. It also dispatched an envoy to the Middle East following the outbreak of the latest conflict, pledging to “make active efforts” to de-escalate the situation — though Beijing’s readouts of his trip made no mention of any stop in Israel or Palestine.

But Xi’s rhetoric falls flat for many countries that see China and its rapidly modernizing military as the leading aggressor in Asia and which question its support for Russia despite Moscow’s flagrant violation of international law as it invaded Ukraine.

Speaking to CNN in September, Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. accused China of bullying smaller countries as it expanded control of disputed areas of the South China Sea in violation of a ruling from an international tribunal.

“If we don’t (push back), China is going to creep and creep into what is within our sovereign jurisdiction, our sovereign rights and within our territory,” he said.
Alternative architecture

Beijing’s effort to broadcast its vision to reshape the world order is enabled by an extensive network of international organizations, regional dialogues and forums that it has cultivated in recent decades.

Bolstering those groups — and positioning them as alternative international organizations to those of the West — has also emerged as a key part of Xi’s strategy to reshape global power, experts say.

This summer both the China and Russia-founded Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) security grouping and the BRICS group of emerging economies increased their numbers – and acted as a platform for Xi to promote his brand of geopolitics.

Countries should “reform global governance” and stop others from “ganging up to form exclusive groups and packaging their own rules as international norms,” Xi told leaders from Brazil, Russia, India, and South Africa after they invited Argentina, Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to join BRICS — the group’s first expansion since 2010.

Weeks later, he appeared to underline his preference for his own alternative architecture — skipping out on the Group of 20 summit hosted by New Delhi, where US President Joe Biden and other Group of Seven leaders were in attendance.

But besides the splashy, high-profile events on China’s diplomatic calendar, officials are also broadcasting China’s vision and pitching its new initiatives throughout ministerial or lower-level regional dialogues with counterparts from Southeast Asia to Latin America and the Caribbean — as well as topical forums on security, culture and development with international scholars and think tanks, official documents show.

So far, China has appeared to have little trouble getting dozens of countries to at least cursorily back aspects of its vision — even if it’s typically not clear who all these supporters are or whether their backing comes with any tangible commitment.

BRICS leaders gather in Brazil in 2019. - Sergio Lima/AFP/Getty Images

China’s Foreign Ministry earlier this year claimed more than 80 countries and organizations had “expressed approval and support” for the Global Security Initiative.

According to Beijing, the economic-focused “Global Development Initiative,” launched in 2021 to support United Nations sustainability goals, boasts some 70 countries in its “Group of Friends” — hosted under the auspices of the UN.

This chimes with China’s long-held strategy to win broad backing for its position against that of Western countries in the UN and other international organizations, where Beijing has also been pushing for a bigger role.

But in addition to how much tangible support Beijing can garner, a key hanging question also remains over whether Xi’s ambitions are limited to efforts to dominate the global narrative and shift the rules in China’s favor or if he wants to truly assume a role as the world’s dominant power.

There is a broad gap between China’s power and military capacity relative to that of the US — and the potential for an ailing economy to slow its rise.

For now, experts say, China appears focused on shifting the rules to undercut American credibility to intervene or hold countries to account for domestic issues — be they civil conflicts or human rights violations.

Success doing that could have implications for how the world responds to any potential future move it could take to gain control of Taiwan — the self-ruled, democratic island the Communist Party claims.

But China’s actions in Asia, where its military has become increasingly assertive, while decrying US military presence, suggest to many observers that Beijing does hope to dominate the region.

They also raise questions about how a more militarily and economically powerful China would behave globally, if left unchecked.

China, however, has denied ambitions of dominance.

“There is no iron law that dictates that a rising power will inevitably seek hegemony,” Beijing said in its policy document in September. “Everything we do is for the purpose of providing a better life for our people, all the while creating more development opportunities for the entire world.”

Then, in an apparent reference to its own belief, or hope, for the trajectory of the US, it added: “China understands the lesson of history — that hegemony preludes decline.”

Detained, missing or under investigation: Business leaders in China face an ‘aggressive’ crackdown

Analysis by Laura He, CNN
Fri, November 10, 2023 at 4:57 PM MST·6 min read

Business leaders in China are under immense pressure, as the country’s leader Xi Jinping intensifies a regulatory crackdown on companies and strengthen s its control of the economy.

This year, more than a dozen top executives from sectors including technology, finance and real estate have gone missing, faced detention or been subjected to corruption probes.

Even international consulting firms have been caught up in the sweep. They face rising risks, including the possibility of police raids and detentions of staff, in the world’s second largest economy.

The crackdown, driven by the Communist Party’s desire for control and its heightened concerns about national security, has continued even though the Chinese economy is on wobbly ground with private investments plunging since June.

Even though Beijing has sought to reassure entrepreneurs and foreign investors that China is open for business, experts say the steady stream of investigations — including cases of detention — are unsettling executives.

“Over the last decade, China has entered a new phase of regulatory control over the private sector and foreign investors,” said Doug Guthrie, a professor and the director of China Initiatives at Arizona State University’s Thunderbird School of Global Management.

“The message was clear: Regardless of global financial status, if you are a Chinese company, you will work with the Chinese government first and foremost; and if you do not, you will suffer significant consequences,” Guthrie added.
A sudden disappearance

Just this week, the Cover News, a state-owned media outlet, reported that the founder and CEO of DouYu, a Chinese live-streaming service backed by Tencent, had been unreachable in recent days, citing unconfirmed reports that he was being investigated.

It didn’t say which authorities were behind the possible investigation.

Another state-owned outlet, the Paper, reported that Chen had been missing since October.

A DouYu spokesperson told CNN that its “business operations remain normal,” adding that it would announce “any significant news or material activities” in a “timely manner.”

Chen’s disappearance came five months after the Cyberspace Administration of China launched an onsite inspection of Douyu to investigate what it called “serious” problems related to the platform, including alleged pornography and “vulgar” content, according to a May statement from the internet watchdog.

Another executive, Zhao Bingxian, a business man dubbed “China’s Warren Buffett” because of his reputation for making lucrative investments, was detained by authorities, his company, Wohua Pharmaceutical, said on Monday.

Zhao was assisting supervisory and anti-corruption agencies in investigations, the Shenzhen-listed company said in an exchange filing, without elaborating. The investigation was not related to the company, it said.

Zhao is chairman of Wohua Pharmaceutical and several other listed companies. A former banker, he has invested in a series of Chinese companies since 2000 and brought their shares to the public markets in mainland China and Hong Kong.

Earlier this year, Chinese officials had signalled that they would wind down their campaigns against tech and financial companies as part of a policy shift intended to focus on economic growth.

But Guthrie said this type of “aggressive corporate governance” was still going on and would continue into the future.

“Beijing will use selective cases to send signals to the market that behaviours and practices that do not fit with the central government’s goals will not be tolerated,” he said. “The cases of DouYu and Shandong Wohua are very clearly part of this continuing trend.”

Other top business leaders have also been facing scrutiny.

In a brief statement on Wednesday, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and the National Supervisory Commission said Zhou Zheng, former deputy general manager of COFCO Group, China’s largest state-owned food manufacturer and processor, was being investigated.

Zhou was “suspected of seriously violating rules and laws,” the two anti-corruption watchdogs said, without giving further details.

The probe into Zhou follows a similar investigation into Zhang Hongli, a former senior executive at the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, one of China’s “Big Four” lenders, according to the CCDI.

Bao Fan, a star investment banker and tech dealmaker, was also caught up in the sweep. In May, Chinese state media reported that Bao had been in the custody of the anti-graft agency since his disappearance in February.

So far this year, the commission has already investigated more than a dozen senior executives at the country’s most important financial institutions, according to a previous CNN analysis of statements posted on the CCDI’s website.
No end in sight

The crackdown this year has spooked the business community in China, but it is not unfamiliar. Xi launched a sweeping regulatory crackdown on the private sector in 2020, which wiped trillions of dollars off the market value of Chinese companies worldwide. Five years earlier, there was a spate of top executives going missing.

The decline in business sentiment is apparent. Recent official data showed that private sector investment had dropped 0.6% in the first nine months of this year, compared to growth of 7.2% growth in the state sector.

In the third quarter, a gauge of foreign direct investment slipped into negative territory for the first time since 1998, underscoring the outflow of capital.

Beijing has rolled out a spate of measures to try to restore confidence, including a 31-point plan in July pledging to improve the business environment, but experts say those may not be enough to undo the damage.

People wear protective masks as they walk across a bridge over the Liangma River on May 24 in Beijing. - Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

The latest cases of missing or detained executives will not boost investors’ sentiment.

“For foreign companies that are largely trying to gain access to China vast consumer markets, and in particular attempting to do so through closely regulated sectors — namely, technology, finance, and education — some will undoubtedly be scared away,” Guthrie said.

Mauro Guillen, a professor of multinational management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, said it will further harm China’s investment outlook.

Global investors are already weary about rising tensions between China and the West, as well as the country’s sluggish growth and large corporate debt, he said.

“President Xi is prioritizing geopolitical influence over the economy, not fully realizing that you need a strong economy to have influence in the world,” Guillen said. “[He] should focus on growth for a couple more decades.”