(22/60) Eight Ways China is Changing the World this month using Soft Power (Oct ‘22)
Every month we highlight 8 Chinese global soft power actions of the past month. This month we look at Chinese Aviation, Tesla and Chinese Lithium, the Mini moving to China, the Nio EV car, Myanmar Rail, Taikonaut recruitment, Google in China, China’s fuel to the SDGs (its new “GDI”).
Previous Reports: https://china2025.medium.com/
These are monthly reports until ‘Made in China’ 2025, and are intended to: i) Capture the acceleration towards a more multipolar world. ii) Show the importance of soft power in China’s growth overseas. iii) Strengthen East-West and South-South understanding.
This is based on tertiary sources and in-country local accounts.
1)Chinese aviation: C919 is China’s approved commercial aircraft. Aviation is a soft power threshold for commercial entry into a country and into an individual’s personal life. To purchase a plane or to get into a plane requires trust for a product and its producer. This is similar to an electric car for personal safety, or, in one’s digital safety wiht their mobile phone. These items represent safety and trust, and they also represent the development of country’s industrial and technological development.
The Chinese construction of a trusted aircraft has been a culmination of technological developments and a supportive policy environment. It’s been a long journey since 2007 when the project started. Yet today, we are ready for Chinese transportation innovation. We are comfortable (even eager) to ride in Chinese electric cars. We look forward to magnetic levitation and whizzing 400 km per hour in a Chinese bullet train. And we’re oblivious that most of Europe’s and the Americas’ city busses are Chinese made and fully electric. We carry Chinese 5G mobile phones in our pockets and watch Chinese-made flatscreens and tablets. We trust these devices and vehicles, and if we take moment, we’re amazed by them. We are also subconsciously stunned how far Chinese technology has come, and how far we have come in trusting it.
Will everyone be comfortable flying in a Chinese made plane? We will soon be faced with this question. The Chinese aircraft to challenge our thinking is the C919 made by COMAC. It’s a single corridor, 3x3 formation, with about about 180 seats. This is the standard and most purchased configuration for short-medium haul aviation as the hub and spoke approach has failed, sending the 747s and A380s bowing into hretirement into their halls of fame. For now, Boeing and Airbus have a duopoly (with some Soviets legacies, Quebec Bombardiers and Brazilian Embraers in distant third places). For China, this is a critical market to crack. The Chinese are excelling at space travel and bullet trains and EV cars and electric mopeds, yet aviation is the final piece in the complete industry of transportation. This month, the Chinese Government approved the TC (type certificate) for the C919 which began production in 2007, and also had their first order placed –by China’s South China Airlines. When the first Western foreign places that order, Chinese will have entered every aspect of everyone’s automated life from appliances, to communication, to transportation, to distant travel. To ignore that, will be to ignore China’s soft power permanent presence.
2) Batteries: Tesla’s choice, China’s choices, China’s surplus. Tesla decided this year that most of its batteries will be cobalt free. As of this month, over 50% of Tesla’s 2022 cars are using LFP (lithium iron phosphate) batteries which have no cobalt. Musk has made this commitment due to concerns about cobalt and nickel supply, and because he (rightly) projected that LFP energy density will have improved so drastically that NMC (cobalt based batteries) will no longer have any significant range or weight advantage by year’s end. He was right, and the companies he has relied on to supply these batteries are actually all Chinese: BYD, CATL, and Gotion-High Tech.
Bit of background: Most of the world’s cobalt is in the democratic republic of Congo (DRC). This is commonly known, as is China’s companies presence there (in particular “ChinaMali”). As LFP batteries become more efficient with higher voltage and without less range fatigue (they can go further and are lighter), the world — and Tesla — are increasingly shifting to Lithium. What isn’t so known is that most of Asia’s lithium is in China and China controls 65 % of the world’s lithium procession, according to Rystad Energy. “Asia’s Lithium Capital” is Yishun, in China’s Sichuan province. Yes, Sichuan… so instead of thinking of Sichuan for its spicy food or 4 rivers (“si-chuan”), we implore our readers to connect it to Lithium and the Environment. This month, the main Lithium plant chose to stop producing in order to focus on improving its environmental performance, in particular related to ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) performance which Chinese regulation is aggressively focusing more on across all industries. As the Chinese EV market expands into new markets (including this month into Japan for example), its ESG performance through its supply chain will increase in importance as well. And Lithium will be a performer for the audience to watch.
Bit more contextual info: China is the world’s battery leader, and the State Council have forecasted this month that there will be six times more batteries produced in 2025 than this year. Last year 3m EV cars were sold, and in 2022 this will reach 6m. Still, the 47 Chinese battery producers (there were 200 in 2007) will produce far more than Chinese demand in the next three years and they will need to find foreign markets in order to succeed. This will press their outreach, unveiling more and more Chinese technology, and spreading Chinese soft power in the process through awareness of its technological leadership in the energy modality of the future.
3) The Mini moves to China: Another month, and another car company seems to be moving to China. A few years ago we visited the Mini manufacturing site outside of Oxford and were amazed by the modern technology being used — in particular the large yellow cranes acting autonomously, and the way that every mini was custom ordered and two identical minis never rolling off the assembly line one after the other. As modern as it was, it hasn’t proven agile enough to match the demands from the electric car market. Currently, of the 200,000 minis produced every year in Oxford, 40,000 are electric, but to scale up from that to meet the market’s and BMW (Mini’s parent company)’s demand, the site is no longer viable. Combined with supply chain issues of chips and the demand on electricity costs, BMW has decided to move the bulk of its production to China, in cooperation for China’s Great Wall company.
4) Recruiting Taikonauts for Space. We learned this month that the Chinese Space Agency has launched its first public recruitment drive for astronauts in Hong Kong (Chinese call them Taikonauts, Soviets called them Cosmonauts). There were over 100 applicants in a wide ranging campaign. The Chinese space program continues to improve and impress as it expands its soft power appeal as a technological leader. A decade ago this would not have been fathomable. This month we are already anticipating the successful completion of taikonauts return to earth after 6 months in the Chinese Space Station, after what has been a remarkable decade so far: landing on the dark side of the moon, completing all modules of the space station, sending a vehicle to mars, and more. China’s contributions to the scientific, aeronautics and academic community is a cornerstone of China’s subtler soft power accomplishments.
5) Google stops translation in China. Google has claimed there has been a lack of demand for its language translation services in China due to the success and access of its rivals. Several Chinese have informed us that it used to be the optimal service when it started (in 2016), but Baidu has become far more used — and therefore — smart. The more these platforms are used, the better they are. This nature of AI has worked against google translate, and of course the Chinese firewall which still prevents many Western sites and apps being used (including of course, the app gateway GooglePlay). The closure of google translate underlines the proficiency of Chinese apps and all platforms to compete (and arguably surpass) with those of the West. As Chinese apps thrive behind the internet firewall, they will continue to grow and also expand into other countries which leading to increased soft power reach.
6) Myanmar China Rail is open. China this month confirmed its scheduling and its steady rail traffic to Mandalay (in Central Upper Myanmar) from Chongqing. This rail line has aspirations to continue to the Bay of Bengal for sea transport into the Indian Ocean’s open seas, thereby avoiding the strait of Malacca’s bottleneck in both security and time. It will stop at Ruili/Muse border which the author of this report visited in 2012. Since 2012, this rail line has been in the cards since China began developing the KyuPhyu deep sea port in Rakhine State to transport Gulf oil and gas to Yunnan.
Rail is soft power, and as long as rail is operating, communication is open. We see this with rail from China to Europe (currently 26 lines going to 126 European cities), and also notably the lines which go through Russia as Russia still has rail as an avenue of practical engagement with European companies. Rail keeps lines of communication open and is considered a permanent fixture of a relationship between communities and the two end stations.
7) NIO: China’s most Charming Electrical Vehicle is in Europe. Electric cars continue to be China’s pre-eminent symbol of soft power, and NIO is the most commercially savvy of the bunch. It’s been international from the outset with its technical center in Oxford, its design center is in Munich, and its AI and IT center is in California. Though it’s fully Chinese. It’s flashy, suited for the next generation of ‘first time drivers’, and has a few dramatic areas which differentiate it from other EVSs– and cars in general. What Apple’s showrooms did for their phone and computers, NIO’s showrooms are attempting as well. In Norway and Germany, their showrooms (which they call “NIO Homes”) are more like Swiss chalets with libraries, fireplaces, leather couches and hot drinks stations… all a part of the “NIO Community”. And technologically, NIO is cutting edge for the innovative approach to battery storage by introducing (albeit last year) battery swapping of its car batteries. This is self-automated/self-driving process where the car parks itself into a parking hub and its battery is changed automatically in 5 minutes. This is revolutionary in reducing battery waste (which has been called an imminent environmental problem more distressing than mining extraction) and also in charging speed.
NIO also has a little an emoji-style ‘buddy’ on top of the dash board which operates like a driving partner… like a Gen X Kit from Knight Rider. “Good morning Jimmy…. Would you like to hear your schedule, how the weather looks for your drive, and then hear some morning music?”, or “You’re running a little low, would you like to know where there’s no lineup to swap your battery?” or “Your monthly subscription to this car is about to expire… would you like to rent it again for another 999 EUROS?” These flexible features are ideal to the warming of China for the next generation.
8) China’s Global Development Initiative “GDI”. This month at the UN’s General Assembly, China’s Foreign Minister re- announced China’s latest and most prominent development commitment, the GDI. He called the GDI the accelerator for the world’s 2030 (SDG) Development Agenda, which China has stated is off track — rightly so. So far 50 countries have signed up to it. This initiative is a culmination of China’s commitment to international development building upon its white papers (2011, 2014, and 2021) and also upon the Shanghai-based New Bank, the SCO, the Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) of course. Without as much international fanfare as the BRI (which is economic-growth oriented), the GDI (which is development oriented) is to affect the international development industry at large.
Getting technical here for those in the industry: It includes 6 principles, eight priorities (poverty reduction, food security, covid and vaccines, financing for development, climate change and green development. Industrialization, digital economy, and connectivity) and 32 concrete initiatives, many of which are already underway. Among them are the replenishing and renaming of the SSCAF (from 2015) to the Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund, where UN and NGOs can apply directly to Chinese Embassies for humanitarian funding. They’re also increasing funding to the China-UN Peace and Development Fund (2016), establishing a Center for the Promotion of Global Development, and the creation of the China-Pacific Island Countries Climate Action Cooperation Center. These are tangible developments, much like the BRI has also been. To not confuse the two, the GRI will be focusing more on multilateral organizations, the UN, and NGOs, and private sector, whereas the BRI focused more on bilateral relations with countries. The BRI is coordinated by the National Development and Reform Commissions, whereas the GDI is under China’s CIDCA (International Devt Agency). Altogether, this is a bold soft power initiative which will bring some wind into the UN’s 2030 Goals and growth to the Developing World: a world where China is ever loyal.
