- In further unrest in Hong Kong riot police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at crowds of demonstrators last weekend. On Monday the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, the State Council agency in charge of Hong Kong, gave its first press conference since the handover in 1997 to call for the punishment of “radical protesters” and to underline that Beijing supports the actions of the Hong Kong government. In the meantime, the calls in the Chinese media for a tougher response to the protests are getting louder. An editorial in the People’s Daily called for “forceful” police action, while the Global Times fumed at the “intervention of foreign forces”, railing against Jimmy Lai (a Hong Kong businessman) and Martin Lee (a retired lawmaker) as representatives of a “group of traitors” in the city.
- Trade talks between China and the US restarted after an American delegation arrived in Shanghai. But they were followed on Thursday by President Donald Trump’s surprise decision to slap tariffs on another $300 billion of Chinese goods. The 10% tariffs will take effect next month, Trump warned, and were being imposed as punishment for China’s failure to meet its commitments in buying more American agricultural goods and cutting the flow of fentanyl into the US. China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi was first to respond, arguing that adding more tariffs "is definitely not a constructive way to solve the economic and trade frictions". American business bosses were also anxious. "We’re concerned that today’s action will drive the Chinese from the negotiating table,” US-China Business Council President Craig Allen said.
- CNN reports that a senior civil servant in restive Xinjiang says that most of the detainees held in government internment camps have been released. Shohrat Zakir, China’s most senior Uighur official, described the camps as voluntary “deradicalisation” centres, and even claimed they were “hugely positive” for the region. “I don't know how it's become such an international focus. It's probably due to unbalanced information,” he said.
- Huawei says that it will start selling its new foldable 5G phone in China in mid-August. The Mate 20 X, which costs about $900, will be available before the network is rolled out in earnest, so people purchasing the handsets will have to rely initially on the older 4G standard. Huawei also announced sales of Rmb222 billion ($32.2 billion) in the April-June period, a 23% increase over the previous quarter, despite export restrictions from Washington that disrupted its supply chain. Analysts pointed out that smartphone shipments were flat in the second quarter, however.
- China is buying record amounts of oil from Saudi Arabia as it switches away from sanctions-hit Iran, Caixin reports. It shipped 1.89 million barrels a day from Saudi Arabia last month, an increase of almost two-thirds on the month before. But imports from Iran fell to the lowest level since May 2010 in the wake of reimposed sanctions from the US. “Even though we are aware that friendly countries such as China are facing some restrictions, we expect them to be more active in buying Iranian oil,” Iran’s vice president Eshaq Jahangiri told visiting Chinese diplomat Song Tao.
- 12.6 gigawatts China’s wind and solar power investments in Belt and Road countries since 2014, versus just 0.45 gigawatts previously, says Greenpeace. It has also invested in 67.9 gigawatts of new coal-fired power. The ratio of coal to solar power in those countries, at around six-to-one, is consistent with the ratio in China.
- $9.16 billion Apple’s sales in Greater China for the April-June quarter, down 4% on the year, but improved from a 22% decline the previous quarter. Its handset shipments to China dropped 15% to 5.7 million units, with its market share standing at 5.8%, according to research firm Canalys.
- 40% The proportion of listed companies in China that expect a drop in earnings, the most since 2016, according to Bloomberg. Con-sumer discretionary and media companies are expected to suffer the most, with their combined profits falling at least 38%.
- 3 billion The number of postings shared on social e-commerce platform Xiaohongshu (i.e. Little Red Book) daily as of July 17, of which 70% are comments by users. Links to the app, which has 85 million active monthly users, were removed from Android stores in China as the government steps up its crackdown on online content.
