In Depth: China and Saudi Arabia’s Growing Energy Symbiosis
Caixin Global, March 27 2025
The Middle East’s largest photovoltaic (PV) project is also one of the most cost effective.
The 2.6-gigawatt (GW) Al Shuaibah solar power station in Saudi Arabia started running on a commercial basis in February. Built by China Energy Engineering Group Co. Ltd., the project spans 52.5 square kilometers (20.3 square miles) in the Saudi Arabian desert 80 kilometers (49.7 miles) south of Jeddah.
China’s carbon market grows slowly amid data concerns
Fair Planet, May 18 2022
China vows to clamp down on data fabrication in 2022 as its national emissions trading scheme (ETS) is nearing the one-year mark.
As of 29 April, China has seen around 190 million tonnes of carbon emissions allowances (CEA) traded to reach 8.3 billion yuan since the launch of its national carbon market on 16 July, 2021, according to data from Shanghai Environment and Energy Exchange. By summer 2022, the CEA that have changed hands should well exceed 200 million tons.
The move to trade carbon emissions nationwide came as China pledges to hit peak emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 – aims dubbed the “dual carbon” goals.
Could China’s coronavirus outbreak hurt the global drug industry?
Al Jazeera, 26 February 2020
China, epicentre of the outbreak, is the world’s dominant maker of the building blocks of some of the most common drugs.
“When you control the supply of medicines, you control the world.”
Those were the words of Rosemary Gibson, co-author of the book, China Rx: Exposing the Risks of America’s Dependence on China for Medicine, at a United States Congressional committee hearing last July in Washington, DC.
At that session of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, Gibson, who is also a senior adviser to the Hastings Center, a US-based bioethics research institute, laid out her concerns about what she described as “a really hidden and overlooked threat to our national health security, economic prosperity, and national security, and that is our dependence on China for medicine.”
China’s property crisis: Evergrande, Shimao and other fallen tycoons rush for lifelines to fix US$232 billion debt headache
South China Morning Post, March 25 2023
China Evergrande stretches patience among creditors after two years of swimming in rising debt tide before unveiling its workout plan this week
Other debt-stricken developers are putting March 31 as a marker after many false starts
China’s post-pandemic recovery is sending a clear and urgent message to the nation’s fallen property tycoons: shape up, reorganise and get on with working out their debt.
The rush is on.
China Evergrande’s Hui Ka-yan and his beleaguered industry peers have set March as a key target. By the end of the month, they want to have a done deal with their creditors, or at least have something to show. If not, they could miss Beijing’s lifeboat for the sector and lose any remaining goodwill among creditors over the crisis that has simmered for two years.
China reopening: companies try to lure back expat staff with bigger pay, allowances after pandemic exodus
South China Morning Post, February 04 2023
With its strict pandemic curbs now in the rear-view mirror, hopes are high that key foreign staff will return to mainland China
Some believe the lavish expat remuneration package is a thing of the past as firms based in China increasingly look to local talent to fill vacancies
Ruthger de Vries, a senior executive at Scania Group, a Swedish heavy vehicle manufacturer, is a busy man. He is helping about 100 expatriates from as far afield as Brazil and Sweden to relocate to China, where they will train a new team of locals in Rugao, a city in the eastern province of Jiangsu.
The incoming staff at the Sodertalje-based company, including managers, engineers and designers, are tasked with training the local workforce to make lorries and buses of the same quality as Scania’s factories elsewhere. Most will settle in Rugao where a new plant is being built, while a few will head for cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Nantong, home to some of the company’s existing staff.
No more easy money from mass testing despite COVID zero
The China Project, October 19 2022
COVID testing companies in China pocketed billions of yuan in the first half of 2022, but the big bucks that have lured many newcomers to enter the market may end soon, as Beijing has imposed price caps for testing.
China is spending a fortune on COVID testing. Analysts at Soochow Securities 东吴证券 estimated that local governments spent 174.6 billion yuan ($24.3 billion) on conducting 10.8 billion tests from April to June this year. In another research note (which has since been censored in mainland China), they estimated that China is spending as much as 1.45 trillion yuan ($202 billion) on testing a year, assuming that 505 million people in big cities take a COVID test every 48 hours.
“We previously estimated that regular/mass COVID-19 screening can cost between 94 billion yuan ($13 billion) and 398 billion yuan ($55 billion) in 2022 alone, with most of the costs borne by local governments. The expenditure — and by extension the industry it creates — is significant, but not egregious,” Chim Lee, an analyst at Economist Intelligence Unit, told The China Project.
The journey for Chinese biosimilars on the Belt and Road begins as drugmakers seek new markets.
Deal by deal, biotech treatments made in China are reaching countries in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and even Africa – markets that are often overlooked.
Since 2021, nine out-licensing deals have been made to take Chinese biosimilars overseas, especially emerging markets.
As the Covid-19 crisis highlights the fragility of the global economy, green finance gets a boost
ACCA Global, 01 July 2020
As attention turns to recovery in a post-Covid-19 world, is now the time to focus on creating a more sustainable and resilient global economy through green finance?
The Covid-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented disruption to economies and financial systems. With recovery urgently needed, some financial professionals believe the time is right to bet on green finance to rebuild the economy on a more equitable foundation.
Investors have retained their confidence in green finance throughout the turmoil that has roiled markets over the past few months. Inflows into environment, social and governance (ESG) funds steadied at around US$4bn per month from January to March this year, while inflows into top US equity exchange-traded funds showed notable volatility, according to data from Morgan Stanley and Bloomberg. The data point to a shared vision for a low-carbon, better balanced and fairer future for all even as the Covid-19 outbreak has left millions jobless, stalled many businesses and crippled supply chains putting the global financial system in peril.
‘The Covid-19 pandemic – and how we respond to it – is a serious threat not only to global health but our investments and financial system stability,’ says Matthew McAdam, director of Asia Pacific at Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). ‘The crisis has raised genuine questions about whether our global financial system is fit-for-purpose.’
As Covid-19 wreaks havoc, professional accountants have a key role in preventing white-collar crime
ACCA Global, 01 June 2020
At times of economic crisis, white-collar crime rises and, as the Covid-19 pandemic continues, accountants have a key role in ensuring due diligence and compliance
As the Covid-19 pandemic continues, governments around the world have ordered lockdowns and companies have told staff to work from home. A side-effect – and one that is worrying finance professionals – is that the myriad new ways of working are making it difficult for companies to effectively deploy due diligence, compliance and training, which could lead to a spike in white-collar crime.
Covid-19 has caused unprecedented disruption to businesses and created an environment outside the contingency plans most corporations have in place. The disruption has changed where work is conducted and how people interact. For those in charge of compliance, lockdowns have made communication and evidence-gathering for the enquiry process much harder.
‘In some cases, respondents are unable to provide the required answers or documents within the prescribed time, or even to provide them at all, as a result of reduced staffing in their offices or restricted access to document repositories,’ says Johnson Kong, president of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
As U.S.-China tensions curb biopharma investment, both sides could be victims
BioWorld, 05 September 2019
The ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China has helped put the biotechnology field on the U.S. foreign investment restriction list, causing a chilling effect on the market.
With the amount of Chinese money entering the U.S. biotech sector dropping sharply, many believe it is the U.S. that is taking the hit in this sector.
The U.S.-China trade war shows little sign of abating; nor are negotiations moving forward. Higher tariffs on about $110 billion worth of Chinese imports kicked in Sept. 1 as did tariff increases of between 5% to 10% on about $75 billion of U.S. exports to China.
Following that newfound protectionist philosophy, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Investment Security decided last October to expand scrutiny of foreign investments in “critical technologies,” which includes biotech.
Beijing: resolute support to Hong Kong authorities
Harbour Times, 30 July 2019
A month-long protest against the extradition bill has turned violent in recent weeks with rounds of tear gas and rubber bullets fired on the busy streets of Hong Kong. The escalating violent clashes have prompted Beijing to break its silence on Monday to show ‘resolute support’ for the Hong Kong government and police, as widely expected.
“The Chinese government supports chief executive Carrie Lam resolutely to lead the Hong Kong SAR government to govern in accordance with the law,” said Yang Guang, the news spokesman for The Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office, in a rare press conference held by the State Council.
“[The Chinese government] supports the Hong Kong police resolutely to strictly enforce the law, and supports the relevant departments and authorities resolutely to punish the violent lawbreakers in accordance with the law,” he added.
The ‘resolute support’ is Beijing’s response to Hong Kong’s biggest political crisis since the handover in 1997. It started in June when the government was trying to push through the hugely unpopular extradition bill that would allow suspects to be sent to China for trial. Many at home and abroad feared for being handed over to China by Hong Kong for crossing China’s red line and going through trials that lack transparency.
Long associated with trade and commerce, the ancient Silk Road was also an important conduit for intellectual and artistic exchanges that continue to this day.
It is this theme that underlies the Ministry of Culture’s Action Plan on Belt and Road Culture Development (2016-20). The plan is promoting cultural exchanges between China and other countries involvedin the Belt and Road Initiative.
Floral Whisper along the Silk Road – Culture Journey of Maritime Silk Road is one suchhigh-profile campaign under this plan.
Organized by the Administration of Culture, Radio, Film, Television, Press and Publication of Guangzhou Municipality, the campaign saw a group of Chinese artists visiting Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Cyprus in September 2018, showcasing Chinese opera, folk songs and puppet shows.