China
China lets loose armies of catchers as dog killings spread
Local governments in China have stepped up dog-catching operations after a 2-year-old girl was mauled by a Rottweiler earlier this month in the southwestern city of Chengdu, sparking huge online reactions as some responded by beating animals to death or hauling away beloved pets.
Ranged on one side of the issue are people who have been bitten or frightened by one of China’s estimated 55 million stray dogs. They mostly blame irresponsible pet owners for abandoning animals they can no longer care for, according to social media comments seen by Radio Free Asia.
On the other is a rapidly growing community of pet lovers and animal rights activists who have spoken out publicly against animal cruelty, including the Yulin dog meat festival, and who blame the government for not regulating dogs and their owners properly in the first place.
Earlier this month, the Chongqing University of International Business and Economics suspended one of its security guards after he reportedly beat a dog to death, admitting that he had “engaged in improper behavior” while “dealing with a stray dog.”
Such killings, which were also reported during the Shanghai lockdown of 2022 — don’t enjoy widespread public support. A recent survey by journalist Wang Zhi’an showed that only around 10% of Chinese people support culls as a way of managing the problems caused by strays or undisciplined pets.
Vigilante-style reactions
Some incidents have prompted vigilante-style reactions from animal lovers, according to a police report from the southwestern city of Guiyang, who hauled in five people for questioning after they went round to harass a local man who beat a pet dog to death after it leapt up at his 6-year-old daughter.
“People should maintain a rational and peaceful attitude online, and consciously resist online violence,” the police said in a statement on the incident, adding that the man had beaten the unleashed Corgi to death with a shovel on Oct. 23 after the dog “jumped on” his daughter as he was taking her to school.
“If these dog lovers really love dogs, they should take better care of them,” read one comment under the story. “These people … dare to upload video of themselves telling a little girl what a bad person her father is,” said another.
The Guiyang dog-killing came just days after a Rottweiler attacked a 2-year-old girl, leaving her with a ruptured kidney, fractured ribs and multiple lacerations, sending shockwaves around the country.
While the owner has been arrested, governments in Anhui and Henan provinces immediately launched “civilized dog-ownership” campaigns, warning owners that any dogs found unleashed in public will be taken away by dog-catching teams.
The Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolis Daily called for similar campaigns to be implemented across the country, in a commentary that was reprinted by the ruling Chinese Communist Party newspaper The People’s Daily.
“Local authorities naturally need to take action to prevent similar incidents from happening locally and becoming the focus of public opinion,” the commentary said.
And officials aren’t the only ones responding to such calls.
The China Small Animal Protection Association reported on its WeChat account that private dog-catchers are now taking pets in the eastern city of Wuxi, while reports have also been circulating that a dog was killed in a dormitory at the Sichuan Vocational College of Science and Technology.
Anything but civilized
Chen Kuide, executive chairman of the Princeton China Society, said dogs and other animals often run afoul of China’s legal system, and also fall victim to social tensions.
“People’s behavior tends to go along with the law of the land,” Chen said of the private killings of animals. “The government clearly hasn’t addressed the widespread killing of dogs publicly.”
Animal rights activists have told Radio Free Asia repeatedly that local government campaigns for “civilized dog-ownership” are themselves anything but civilized, and often end up with beloved pets being cudgeled to death or whisked off to the pound unbeknown to their human families.
According to prominent Chinese-American writer Geling Yan, dogs in China are all too often the victims in mass “clean-up” campaigns that have their roots in collective trauma and political malaise.
“I couldn’t help but think of all the ‘strike hard’ campaigns against dogs that I have personally experienced,” Yan wrote in a commentary for RFA Mandarin, in response to the recent anti-dog campaigns.
“They all seemed to happen when the people of China were in a foul mood, with a dark fire raging in their hearts.”
Yan’s childhood pet dog Xiao Huang was beaten to death during the “Four Clean-ups” political movement under Mao Zedong that paved the way for the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution.
‘Extension of mutual backstabbing’
Yan was also soon to lose another pet dog “Little Fatty,” “Mahua,” an egg-laying hen and a Tibetan mastiff called Koler to a further wave politicized violence known as the “Cut off the Tail of Capitalism” movement during the years that followed, she wrote.
“Looking back, the persecution of dogs was an extension of the mutual backstabbing and harm caused by that movement,” Yan wrote.
“This kind of retaliatory harming gives rise to dark passions and lets loose the worst aspects of human nature,” she said. “So can I speculate that the dog eradication campaigns begun a week ago were caused by people’s sense of helplessness and powerlessness caused by the zero-COVID policy and its ending, by [being forced to] lie flat, and other collective behaviors?”
“That sense of uncertainty, of anxiety, a kind of nameless fire, a nameless hatred generated by all these negative feelings finally found a target, and now they are venting it, once again, against humanity’s most loyal and speechless companion, the dog,” she wrote.
She said persecuting a creature who is even unluckier than oneself can make people feel that…
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China
China’s GDP Grows 5% in 2024: Key Insights and Main Factors
In 2024, China’s GDP grew by 5.0%, meeting its annual target. The fourth quarter saw a 5.4% increase, driven by exports and stimulus measures. The secondary industry grew 5.3%, while the tertiary increased by 5.0%, totaling RMB 134.91 trillion.
China’s GDP grew by 5.0 percent in in 2024, meeting the government’s annual economic target set at the beginning of the year. Fourth-quarter GDP exceeded expectations, rising by 5.4 percent, driven by exports and a flurry of stimulus measures. This article provides a brief overview of the key statistics and the main drivers behind this growth.
According to official data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on January 17, 2025, China’s GDP reached RMB 134.91 trillion (US$18.80 trillion) in 2024, reflecting a 5.0 percent year-on-year growth at constant prices. During the 2024 Two Sessions, the government set the 2024 GDP growth target of “around 5 percent”.
By sector, the secondary industry expanded by 5.3 percent year-on-year to RMB 49.21 trillion (US$6.85 trillion), the fastest among the three sectors, while the tertiary industry grew by 5.0 percent, reaching RMB 76.56 trillion (US$10.63 trillion) and the primary industry contributed RMB 9.14 trillion (US$1.31 trillion), growing 3.5 percent.
A more detailed analysis of China’s economic performance in 2024 will be provided later.
(1USD = 7.1785 RMB)
| This article was first published by China Briefing , which is produced by Dezan Shira & Associates. The firm assists foreign investors throughout Asia from offices across the world, including in in China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore, and India . Readers may write to info@dezshira.com for more support. |
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China
Can science be both open and secure? Nations grapple with tightening research security as China’s dominance grows
The U.S.-China science agreement renewal narrows collaboration scopes amid security concerns, highlighting tensions. Nations fear espionage, hindering vital international partnerships essential for scientific progress. Openness risks declining.
Amid heightened tensions between the United States and China, the two countries signed a bilateral science and technology agreement on Dec. 13, 2024. The event was billed as a “renewal” of a 45-year-old pact to encourage cooperation, but that may be misleading.
The revised agreement drastically narrows the scope of the original agreement, limits the topics allowed to be jointly studied, closes opportunities for collaboration and inserts a new dispute resolution mechanism.
This shift is in line with growing global concern about research security. Governments are worried about international rivals gaining military or trade advantages or security secrets via cross-border scientific collaborations.
The European Union, Canada, Japan and the United States unveiled sweeping new measures within months of each other to protect sensitive research from foreign interference. But there’s a catch: Too much security could strangle the international collaboration that drives scientific progress.
As a policy analyst and public affairs professor, I research international collaboration in science and technology and its implications for public and foreign policy. I have tracked the increasingly close relationship in science and technology between the U.S. and China. The relationship evolved from one of knowledge transfer to genuine collaboration and competition.
Now, as security provisions change this formerly open relationship, a crucial question emerges: Can nations tighten research security without undermining the very openness that makes science work?
Chinese Premier Deng Xiaoping and American President Jimmy Carter sign the original agreement on cooperation in science and technology in 1979.
Dirck Halstead/Hulton Archive via Getty Images
China’s ascent changes the global landscape
China’s rise in scientific publishing marks a dramatic shift in global research. In 1980, Chinese authors produced less than 2% of research articles included in the Web of Science, a curated database of scholarly output. By my count, they claimed 25% of Web of Science articles by 2023, overtaking the United States and ending its 75-year reign at the top, which had begun in 1948 when it surpassed the United Kingdom.
In 1980, China had no patented inventions. By 2022, Chinese companies led in U.S. patents issued to foreign companies, receiving 40,000 patents compared with fewer than 2,000 for U.K. companies. In the many advanced fields of science and technology, China is at the world frontier, if not in the lead.
Since 2013, China has been the top collaborator in science with the United States. Thousands of Chinese students and scholars have conducted joint research with U.S. counterparts.
Most American policymakers who championed the signing of the 1979 bilateral agreement thought science would liberalize China. Instead, China has used technology to shore up autocratic controls and to build a strong military with an eye toward regional power and global influence.
Leadership in science and technology wins wars and builds successful economies. China’s growing strength, backed by a state-controlled government, is shifting global power. Unlike open societies where research is public and shared, China often keeps its researchers’ work secret while also taking Western technology through hacking, forced technology transfers and industrial espionage. These practices are why many governments are now implementing strict security measures.
Nations respond
The FBI claims China has stolen sensitive technologies and research data to build up its defense capabilities. The China Initiative under the Trump administration sought to root out thieves and spies. The Biden administration did not let up the pressure. The 2022 Chips and Science Act requires the National Science Foundation to establish SECURE – a center to aid universities and small businesses in helping the research community make security-informed decisions. I am working with SECURE to evaluate the effectiveness of its mission.
Other advanced nations are on alert, too. The European Union is advising member states to boost security measures. Japan joined the United States in unveiling sweeping new measures to protect sensitive research from foreign interference and exploitation. European nations increasingly talk about technological sovereignty as a way to protect against exploitation by China. Similarly, Asian nations are wary of China’s intentions when it seeks to cooperate.
Australia has been especially vocal about the threat posed by China’s rise, but others, too, have issued warnings. The Netherlands issued a policy for secure international collaboration. Sweden raised the alarm after a study showed how spies had exploited its universities.
Canada has created the Research Security Centre for public safety and, like the U.S., has established regionally dispersed advisers to provide direct support to universities and researchers. Canada now requires mandatory risk assessment for research partnerships involving sensitive technologies. Similar approaches are underway in Australia and the U.K.
Germany’s 2023 provisions establish compliance units and ethics committees to oversee security-relevant research. They are tasked with advising researchers, mediating disputes and evaluating the ethical and security implications of research projects. The committees emphasize implementing safeguards, controlling access to sensitive data and assessing potential misuse.
Japan’s 2021 policy requires researchers to disclose and regularly update information regarding their affiliations, funding sources – both domestic and international – and potential conflicts of interest. A cross-ministerial R&D management system is unrolling seminars and briefings to educate researchers and institutions on emerging risks and best practices for maintaining research security.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development keeps a running database with more than 206 research security policy statements issued since 2022.
Emmanuelle Charpentier, left, from France, and Jennifer Doudna, from the U.S., shared the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2020 for their joint research.
Miguel RiopaI/AFP via Getty Images
Openness waning
Emphasis on security can strangle the international collaboration that drives scientific progress. As much as 25% of all U.S. scientific articles result from international collaboration. Evidence shows that international engagement and openness produce higher-impact research. The most elite scientists work across national borders.
Even more critically, science depends on the free flow of ideas and talent across borders. After the Cold War, scientific advancement accelerated as borders opened. While national research output remained flat in recent years, international collaborations showed significant growth, revealing science’s increasingly global nature.
The challenge for research institutions will be implementing these new requirements without creating a climate of suspicion or isolation. Retrenchment to national borders could slow progress. Some degree of risk is inherent in scientific openness, but we may be coming to the end of a global, collaborative era in science.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
China
China Lures Indonesia to Ease Its Position on the South China Sea
A China–Indonesia statement on “joint development in overlapping claims” marks a shift in Indonesia’s stance on the Natuna Islands, influenced by China’s economic diplomacy and domestic needs, impacting regional dynamics.
Shift in Indonesia’s Maritime Position
A recent China-Indonesia joint statement advocating for "joint development in areas of overlapping claims" marks a significant departure from Indonesia’s historical claim over its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) near the Natuna Islands. This change reflects Chinese diplomatic efforts, domestic economic pressures, and challenges within Indonesia’s presidential advisory system, pointing to broader implications for Southeast Asian nations as they navigate regional dynamics.
President Prabowo’s State Visit
During President Prabowo Subianto’s state visit to China in November 2024, Indonesia seemingly recognized the validity of Chinese territorial claims in maritime areas, particularly where China’s nine-dash line intersects with its EEZ. While the joint statement from the visit is not legally binding, it represents a notable shift from Indonesia’s traditional opposition to Chinese claims, which it previously argued were inconsistent with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Economic Incentives at Play
China’s appeal to Indonesia’s domestic economic priorities played a crucial role in this rapprochement. The joint statement included commitments from China regarding fisheries cooperation and significant investments, including US$10 billion across various sectors. Additionally, China pledged support for initiatives like a free lunch program for schoolchildren and affordable housing projects, highlighting how economic incentives can influence geopolitical stances in the South China Sea.
Source : China baits Indonesia to soften South China Sea stance
- China’s GDP Grows 5% in 2024: Key Insights and Main Factors
- Can science be both open and secure? Nations grapple with tightening research security as China’s dominance grows
- China Lures Indonesia to Ease Its Position on the South China Sea
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