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Ping-pong diplomacy: Australian table tennis players return to China, five decades after historic tour

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Two original members of Australia’s 1971 ping-pong diplomacy team return to Beijing, celebrating 50 years of bilateral relations initiated by their historic visit, fostering enduring cultural and diplomatic ties.

This week, two of the original members of Australia’s 1971 “ping-pong diplomacy” team are returning to Beijing to mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two nations.

Half a century ago, few could foresee that a spur-of-the-moment, unscheduled visit by a young Australian sports team would lead to one of Australia’s most important – and sometimes turbulent – bilateral relations.

Only weeks after the team’s headline-making tour, Australia’s then opposition leader, Gough Whitlam, led a delegation to Beijing promising to open diplomatic relations “when elected”.

Whitlam delivered on that promise in 1972. Three weeks after taking office as Australia’s 21st prime minister, his government reached an agreement with the People’s Republic of China on the establishment of diplomatic relations. The following year, Australia’s first embassy in Beijing opened with the appointment of Stephen FitzGerald as the first ambassador.

As FitzGerald recounted on my podcast, The Ticket, this week:

The Chinese have a big love of sport, as do Australians. At one stage they used to talk about the three great balls. One was table tennis, one was basketball and one was volleyball.

Former coach Noel Shorter, former player Paul Pinkewich and former Australian ambassador to China Stephen FitzGerald.
Tracey Holmes

‘A crowd of 8,000 people’

The 1971 ping-pong tour wasn’t the first time sport was used as a diplomatic tool, but it was perhaps one of the most successful of the Cold War period, with long-term benefits.

After competing in the Table Tennis World Championships in Japan in late March 1971, Australian and American table tennis players were invited to travel to China by the country’s first premier, Zhou Enlai. A revolutionary who became one of China’s most revered statesmen, he advocated peaceful co-existence with the West and other nations.

The American team embarked on their tour first – setting the stage for then-President Richard Nixon’s famous visit to Beijing in 1972. The Australians made their trip to China a couple weeks later.

Read more:
50 years after Gough Whitlam established diplomatic relations with China, what has changed?

Paul Pinkewich had just turned 20 at the time of the visit, teammate Steve Knapp was only 18. Now in their 70s, they will return to Beijing for a function at the Australian embassy today and share a meal with some of the Chinese players they competed against.

Pinkewich is taking his table tennis paddle with him in case he can get in a few matches with his old rivals.

“We had three great matches in China. You know, we’re used to 20 to 50 people in Australia watching tournaments. Our first match in Canton, now Guangzhou, I think it was a crowd of 8,000 people,” he recalls.

“There’s this one table in the stadium and we went out there, we actually had a win. We won 5-4. It was fantastic.

“I think friendship was more important than competition.”

The Australians suffered a narrow defeat in the second match in Shanghai. The third and final match was played in the Chinese capital. At the May Day celebrations that followed, the team was invited to the Great Hall of the People to meet Zhou.

According to the Sun-Herald report from the journalist travelling with the team, the premier asked Knapp about his long hair and sideburns.

“Do you wear this hair because of your disagreement with society or because it is a style?”

Knapp replied, “It is the fashion.”

The Sun-Herald’s front-page story on the team’s visit.
Author provided

Pinkewich says he will never forget the sound of the crowds during the tour.

“Can you believe, one table in the middle of the Capital Stadium [in Beijing] with 18,000 spectators, and that was just an amazing experience. We got trounced 8-1 that night. But they always let the woman win.”

That woman was Anne Middleton, the other player on the 1971 tour, who has since passed away.

Leading the delegation were the then-president of Table Tennis Australia, John Jackson, who is now deceased, and coach Noel Shorter, who at 85 is not making this week’s commemorative trip.

Shorter remembers getting everything packed up from their coaching clinic in Tokyo with only four hours’ notice after being told there had been a change of plans and the team was heading later that day to China.

“At that time the [Australian] government was quite racial, as far as the Chinese were concerned, and they didn’t show any interest at all,” Shorter recalls.

“It’s funny. After the trip we were labelled as communists […] but we were interested in friendship first, competition second.”

Noel Shorter (left) shaking hands with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in 1971.
Noel Shorter

Why sport diplomacy matters

Beijing has continued to use sport as a diplomatic tool, including becoming the first city in the world to host both a summer and winter Olympic Games (Beijing in 2008 and 2022).

French educator Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee in 1894, believing Olympics were a global event. “All people must be allowed in, without debate,” he said.

That ethos is facing major challenges today as a new global rift emerges between the West and autocratic regimes like Russia, China and others. A new term has also emerged in recent years – almost always applied by researchers in democratic nations – to describe undemocratic nations’ forays into global sport: sportswashing.

Read more:
Can China use the Beijing Olympics to ‘sportwash’ its abuses against the Uyghurs? Only if the world remains silent

Viewed through today’s lens, China’s invitation to the Australian team five decades ago would most likely be reported as an attempt by the Communist Party to use sport to wash its image.

But without that young Australian sports team breaking down barriers by travelling to China, who knows how different Australia’s current economic and cultural landscape would be?

China’s current ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, has described the relationship between the two nations as “half a century of storms and sunshine”.

The Chinese ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, speaks to media at the embassy in Canberra.
Lukas Coch/AAP

His comments are included in a book published by the Chinese embassy, titled Fifty People Fifty Stories. It details the experiences of dozens of Australians who have at one time lived and worked in Beijing.

“The relationship between China and Australia has become more mature, stable and resilient,” Xiao writes. “Amity between people holds the key to sound relations between countries.”

At the heart of such amity, sport continues to play a significant role.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

China

China’s FDI Trends for 2024: Major Sources, Destinations, and Industries

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Despite a 13.7% decline in FDI inflows to $163 billion in 2023, China remains a strong magnet for foreign capital, holding a 12.3% global share. Early 2024 shows recovery, with increased foreign investment in high-tech and services sectors.


Despite a challenging environment, including a significant downturn in 2023, where FDI inflows fell by 13.7 percent to US$163 billion following a 4.5 percent growth in 2022, China remains resilient in attracting foreign capital. This decline was attributed to several factors, including an uneven post-COVID economic recovery, ongoing geopolitical tensions, regulatory uncertainties, and stringent capital control measures.

According to the recently released Statistical Bulletin of FDI in China 2024, China’s FDI scale remained stable in 2023, with a 12.3 percent share of global cross-border direct investment, marking the fourth consecutive year exceeding 10 percent.

Encouragingly, the first nine months of 2024 have demonstrated signs of recovery, with China attracting RMB 640.6 billion (US$90.26 billion) in foreign investment. Notably, there has been an 11.4 percent increase in new foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs), with high-tech manufacturing, medical equipment, and professional technical services experiencing substantial growth in foreign capital utilization.

These trends signal a shift towards innovation and services, underscoring ongoing investor interest in China’s dynamic market.

In this article, we explore the key trends and government initiatives shaping China’s FDI landscape, providing insights for businesses seeking to navigate and capitalize on opportunities in the world’s second-largest economy.

In 2023, China’s FDI landscape demonstrated a strong concentration across various industries, underscoring the country’s continued appeal to international investors. The primary sectors attracting foreign capital included:


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 ChinaHong KongVietnamSingapore, and India . Readers may write to info@dezshira.com for more support.

Read the rest of the original article.

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China

Why China now wants to put some limits on its ‘no limits’ friendship with Russia

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China’s “no-limits friendship” with Russia is evolving amid war scrutiny. Growing skepticism about Russia’s stability, economic dependencies, and differing international outlooks prompt China to reconsider its alignment with Moscow.

Just before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China announced to much fanfare a “no-limits friendship” with Russia, suggesting a future of close collaboration in trade, energy and, perhaps most importantly, security.

Now, more than two years into the war, the meaning and interpretation of this “no-limits” commitment has evolved.

There has been much debate in Chinese society in recent months about Beijing’s alignment with Moscow. While some have advocated for a more formal alliance with Russia, others have taken a more cautious stance.

In sharp contrast to 2022, China’s growing wariness is increasingly being discussed in the open, even among those who were previously censored. In early 2022, for instance, a joint letter by six Chinese emeritus historians opposing Russia’s invasion was censored by the government. The scholars were also warned.

Now, however, it appears the government is seeking to balance its relationships with both Russia and the West. Beijing may not want to be seen as a “decisive enabler” of the war.

For example, the once-prominent “no-limits” friendship language quietly vanished from a Sino-Russian joint statement in May.

And Beijing’s response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit that month was notably subdued. Putin ingratiated himself with Xi, saying they were “as close as brothers”. Xi’s response was more perfunctory – he called Putin a “good friend and a good neighbour”.

When they met in May, Xi was less effusive towards Putin than he has been in the past.
Sergei Bobylev/Pool Sputnik Kremlin/AP

Scholars are also articulating their concerns about China’s political and economic investments in Russia, both publicly and privately.

Shen Dingli, a leading scholar of Chinese security strategy at Fudan University in Shanghai, said China doesn’t want to be seen as collaborating with Russia against Ukraine or any other country.

He also quoted Fu Cong, China’s former ambassador to the European Union, who said last year the “no-limits” [friendship] is “nothing but rhetoric”.

And in August, after Putin referred to China as an “ally” during a visit to far-eastern Russia, Chinese scholars promptly sought to clarify this statement to prevent any misunderstanding China wants a formal alliance with Russia.

These statements carry weight. In many respects, leading Chinese scholars at the government-affiliated universities act as propagandists to convey and justify the government’s stance on issues. As a result, subtle shifts in their commentary provide insights into the strategic mindset in Beijing.

Why China is rethinking its ‘no-limits’ friendship?

There are three elements driving this re-evaluation of the Russia-China alignment.

First, there is growing scepticism of Russia’s state capacities. The mutiny by the Wagner Group last year and Ukraine’s recent incursion into Russia’s Kursk region have prompted critical reassessments in Beijing of Russia’s political stability and military preparedness, as well as the growing anti-war sentiment in Russia.

As Feng Yujun, director of Fudan University’s Russia and Central Asia Study Centre, argued, the Wagner rebellion was a reflection of Russia’s internal conflicts and domestic security challenges. He noted every time Russia has faced both internal and external crises in history, its regimes have become less stable.

More recently, Feng has been even bolder, predicting Russian defeat in Ukraine. He argued China should keep its distance from Moscow and resume a policy of “non-alignment, non-confrontation and non-partisanship”.

Second, China’s sluggish economy and its underwhelming trade with Russia have further exposed how dependent both countries are on the West.

While Russia-China trade reached a record US$240 billion (A$360 billion) in 2023, it has slowed so far this year, as Chinese financial institutions have sought to limit connections with Russia.

The relationship still heavily favours Beijing. Russia accounts for only 4% of China’s trade, while China accounts for nearly 22% of Russia’s trade.

Many Chinese experts are now warning against an over-dependence on Russia, instead calling for more cooperation with neighbouring countries. This echoes a recent concern Russia has been using its natural resources as a bargaining chip to extract greater benefits from China.

Russia’s value as a military ally

Finally, there are rising Chinese concerns its international outlook does not align with Russia’s.

Zhao Long, deputy director of the Shanghai Institute of International Relations, says there is an important difference in how they view the world:

Russia wants to destroy the current international system to build a new one. China wants to transform the current system by taking a more prominent place in it.

Shi Yinhong, a strategist at Renmin University in Beijing, has highlighted an unbridgeable gap preventing a stronger China-Russia alliance. He says there’s a deep mutual mistrust on regional security. Russia has never promised support for China in the event of a conflict over Taiwan, just as China has avoided involvement in the war in Ukraine.

As Russia’s war in Ukraine reaches a stalemate, its value as a military ally is increasingly being questioned in China.

Recently, Feng Yujun warned China risks being led by the nose by Russia, despite being the stronger economic partner. He says every time China has attempted an alliance with Russia in history, it has had negative consequences for China.

Consequently, it is crucial for China to maintain its long-term partnership with Russia without undermining its constructive relationship with the West.

Russia has arguably benefited from the current competition between the US and China, as it has sought to exploit the rivalry for its own benefit. But this has also led to uncertainty in the China-Russia relationship.

As another analyst, Ji Zhiye, argues, relying too heavily on Russia will leave China isolated and vulnerable. And this is not a position China wants to be in.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Business

AstraZeneca Stock Declines Amid Reports of Possible Probe Fallout in China – Reuters

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AstraZeneca shares declined following reports of potential repercussions from a probe in China, highlighting concerns over regulatory scrutiny and its impact on the company’s operations and financial performance.


AstraZeneca Under Scrutiny

AstraZeneca faces potential fallout from a reported investigation in China, leading to a noticeable decline in its share price. Investors reacted sharply to the news, reflecting concerns over possible regulatory pressures that could impact the pharmaceutical company’s operations in the region. The drop in shares has prompted analysts to scrutinize the implications of this development for the company’s future prospects.

Market Reactions

The market’s immediate response indicates significant unease among shareholders as they weigh the risks associated with the potential probe. Financial analysts suggest that if the investigation leads to strict regulations or penalties, AstraZeneca could face challenges in maintaining its market position. This uncertainty highlights the fragile nature of investor confidence in the pharmaceutical sector, particularly in international markets like China.

Future Implications

As AstraZeneca navigates this turbulent situation, it remains to be seen how the investigation will unfold and what direct impact it will have on the company’s strategic direction. Keeping a close eye on the developments will be crucial for stakeholders. The pharmaceutical giant’s ability to respond effectively to these challenges will determine its future stability in the competitive global market.

Source : AstraZeneca shares fall on report of potential China probe fallout – Reuters

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