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☆ Factbox: China's major germanium and gallium producers
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

China produces around 60% of the world's germanium, or 180 metric tons in 2022, and over 90% of the world's gallium, about 606 tons last year, according to research firm Antaike. YUNNAN GERMANIUM, AN ESTABLISHED PRODUCERHeadquartered in southwest China's Yunnan province, Yunnan Lincang Xinyuan Germanium Industry Co. Ltd. (002428.SZ) extracts germanium from its own germanium mines and germanium-containing lignite coal mines. It has an annual capacity of 47.6 metric tons of germanium ingot, 60 tons of germanium tetrahydride - used to build 5G infrastructure - and 300,000 germanium wafers for solar cells. CHINALCO, A MAJOR GALLIUM PRODUCERState aluminium giant Chinalco has three gallium production plants, one each in central China's Henan and southwestern Guangxi and Guizhou provinces. It has annual production capacity of 200 metric tons of gallium metal and produced 146 metric tons in 2022.

Persons: Duan Xiangdong, Hope, Zhuzhou, Dominique Patton, David Evans Organizations: . Ltd, Aluminum Corporation of China, Zhuhai Fangyuan, Xing'an, Gallium, AXT Inc, Beijing, Thomson Locations: BEIJING, China, YUNNAN, China's Yunnan, Yunnan, China's Henan, Guangxi, Guizhou, Shanghai, Zhuzhou, China's Hunan, Zhuhai, Guangdong, Shanxi, Nanjing, U.S, Beijing

☆ Explainer: How is extreme weather testing China's climate resilience?
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

BEIJING, July 5 (Reuters) - Dramatic swings between extreme heat and intense rainfall are testing China's ability to cope with increasingly wild weather, as high temperatures challenge power grids and water security while floods ruin crops and threaten urban populations. The average number of high-temperature days stood at 4.1 in January-June, already higher than the full-year average of 2.2 days. Heatwaves spur demand for electricity to cool homes, malls and offices, taxing power supply and even triggering blackouts. Factories also shut when power demand exceeds supply to meet demand from residential and non-industrial users. The southern province of Hunan, which produces around 13% of China's rice, has been hit by continuous rain since late June.

Persons: Qiaoyi Li, Ethan Wang, Qin, Ryan Woo, Andrew Hayley, David Stanway, Sonali Paul Organizations: Factories, Thomson Locations: BEIJING, China, Beijing, Yunnan province, Yunnan, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhengzhou, Guangxi, CHINA

☆ The scarcity of water is emerging as a global economic threat. With China and India looking the most at risk
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( Charmaine Jacob | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Ghosh warned that water scarcity must not be viewed as a sectoral issue, but one that "transcends the entire economy." Asian economies "must understand that it is a regional common good and it is in their own interest to mitigate the risks that come their way in order to prevent the economic shocks that severe water scarcity will impose," he said. India, now the world's most populous nation, will be the hardest hit from water scarcity. "Water scarcity is not particularly problematic to these industries because a lot of the water can be recycled. The Gezhouba dam water conservancy project of the Yangtze River after heavy rain in Yichang, Hubei Province, China.

Persons: Ritesh Shukla, Arunabha Ghosh, It's, Ghosh, Shanshan Wang, Wang, Wayne Middleton, Arup Organizations: Getty, Council, Energy, CNBC, World Bank, Lowy Institute, Arup, Visual China, Getty Images, Water, Future Publishing Locations: Peth, India, China, Asia, Philippines, Singapore, Kunming, Yunnan Province, Getty Images India, Taiwan, Yichang, Hubei Province

Electricity generation from hydro power sources has fallen in Asia, Europe and North America over the opening months of 2023 from the same period in 2022, crimping a key source of clean power generation for electricity providers. China, the top global hydro power, alone has 30% of global capacity, but in the opening months of 2023 has seen hydro generation fall 7.2% from the same period in 2022 due to reduced precipitation and hot, dry conditions in key hydro hubs in the Yunnan province. In contrast, hydro output in Japan has increased by nearly 16% from year-before levels, Ember data shows. EUROPE'S MIXED BAGEurope has around 22% of global hydro generation capacity, and has had a mixed hydro output record so far in 2023. In contrast, hydro output in Latin America is trending above year-ago levels, with Brazil, the third largest hydro producer globally, seeing production run around 3.4% above 2022's levels, and Colombia experiencing a roughly 10% increase.

Persons: crimping, EUROPE'S, Ember, Gavin Maguire, Marguerita Choy Organizations: Hydro, Europe, SOUTH AMERICA, Global, Reuters, Thomson Locations: LITTLETON , Colorado, Nova, Ukraine, Asia, Europe, North America, Russia, China, U.S, India, Vietnam, Turkey, Yunnan, Asia's, Japan, Norway, Sweden, France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, SOUTH AMERICA Canada, North, Washington , Arizona , Nevada, Colorado, America, Brazil, Colombia

☆ Asia's drug trade is thriving post-pandemic, UN report warns
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Jessie Yeung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

There are other signs of the drug trade bouncing back. West African trafficking networks in East and Southeast Asia, which “all but disappeared” during the pandemic, have now resumed their activities, the report said. From Myanmar, meth and other synthetic drugs then travel out to the world, with shipments previously found as far away as Japan, New Zealand and Australia. It also pointed to the high number of drug-related arrests and admissions at drug treatment facilities as further evidence of robust trade. That figure is 167% higher than the previous year, according to the UNODC report.

Persons: ”, Jeremy Douglas, “, ” Douglas, Douglas, Inshik Sim Organizations: Hong Kong CNN, United Nations Office, Drugs, “, UNODC Regional Representative, Southeast, Central America Locations: Hong Kong, Asia, East, Southeast Asia, Yunnan, Myanmar, China, Thailand, Central, Laos, From Myanmar, Japan , New Zealand, Australia, South Asia, Bangladesh, India, Japan, Cambodia, France, Poland, Indonesia, South Korea

The apparent alteration of a mosque belonging to the Hui ethnic group in Najiaying village, Yunnan province comes amid a sweeping campaign unleashed by China’s leader Xi Jinping to “sinicize” religion. Ma Ju, a prominent Hui activist who now lives in the United States and has kept close contact with Najiaying residents, said about 30 people were arrested. Clashes broke out between police officers and Najiaying residents outside the mosque. In 2018, thousands of Hui residents in Ningxia, in the country’s northwest, staged a sit-in protest for three days to prevent authorities from demolishing a newly constructed mosque. “After they trampled on your dignity, they will suppress you step by step, and assimilate the Hui ethnic group completely into the Han, generation by generation.

☆ Wuhan is so cash-strapped it's calling in debts
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

It urged them to pay their overdue debts as soon as possible. The public appeal by Wuhan, which was at the epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic that began in late 2019, is highly unusual and underscores the fiscal challenges facing China’s local governments. A real estate crash has exacerbated the problem, as local governments rely heavily on land sale revenues. Analysts estimate China’s outstanding government debts surpassed 123 trillion yuan ($18 trillion) last year, of which nearly $10 trillion is so-called “hidden debt” owed by risky local government financing platforms. Wuhan and Kunming are not the only city governments revealing the extent of their debt problems.

☆ China, birthplace of COVID, lays tracks for a new global health crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +10 min

Bat viruses have been the source of multiple health crises besides those related to coronaviruses, including recent outbreaks of Ebola, Nipah, and Marburg. Partners in risk The total area at high risk for bat viruses to infect humans more than doubled in size in Laos between 2002 and 2020. The animals, known to be susceptible to bat viruses, included raccoon dogs, bamboo rats and porcupines. As China boomed in recent decades, global demand for rubber also skyrocketed, leading to further development and deforestation here. Already, scientists have found local bats bearing viruses closely related to those responsible for the 2003 SARS and COVID-19 pandemics.

☆ We may never know where the COVID pandemic originated
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

LONDONIt’s the enduring mystery of the COVID-19 pandemic: Where did the virus come from? They also mostly agree that many of the earliest known infections and deaths clustered around a wildlife market in Wuhan, China. Others suspect the pathogen somehow leaked from a Wuhan laboratory, 27 km from the market, where researchers study bat viruses. One concentration of jump zones includes a region of mountains and lakes about 175 km southeast of the Wuhan market. In late 2002, the SARS-CoV-1 virus emerged in Guangdong province, in southern China, and became the SARS pandemic of 2003.

☆ Chinese cities broil in heat, brace for more record temperatures
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Bernard Orr | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Recently, Yunnan province was gripped with temperatures of more than 40 Celsius, which is especially burdensome for power grids as millions of homes begin to switch on air conditioners. read moreOver the past couple days, Shandong province and Beijing issued heat warnings. Populous cities such as Jinan, Tianjin and Zhengzhou are expected to see temperatures soar to as high as 37 degrees Celsius. The China Meteorological Administration has warned regions to prepare for more extreme heat this year. The World Meteorological Organization's (WMO) latest assessment also predicts the strong likelihood of the El Niño weather phenomenon returning later this year.

☆ These maps show how far China's freight railways are stretching across Asia
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Evelyn Cheng | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

BEIJING — In the last two years, China has announced the opening of new freight train lines, while cross-border railways have become a feature in President Xi Jinping's meetings with regional leaders. Here's a look at where the rail lines are being built across the Asian continent. In the last six months, China also opened freight train lines to Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, according to state media. Those freight lines are in addition to China's relatively older rail network through central Asia — connecting Yiwu in eastern China to London. While it's difficult to verify how operational all the rail lines are, official reports offer a glimpse at how China's Belt and Road ambitions are panning out.

☆ A Hydropower Renaissance, but Where Are the Giant Dams?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Mira Rojanasakul | Max Bearak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +10 min

Pumped Storage Hydropower, 1900-2040 Global map showing a concentration of planned pumped storage projects in China. Pumped Storage Existing Planned China’s momentum has allowed it to surpass Europe’s capacity for pumped storage. “Our data show that pumped storage is set to grow much faster than conventional dams,” said Joe Bernardi, who runs Global Energy Monitor’s hydropower tracker. UPPER RESERVOIR GENERATORS + TURBINES LOWER RESERVOIR When electricity demand exceeds supply, water is released to race downhill, spinning giant turbines. UPPER RESERVOIR GENERATORS + TURBINES LOWER RESERVOIR When electricity demand exceeds supply, water is released to race downhill, spinning giant turbines.

☆ More than two-thirds of elephant habitat lost across Asia, study finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Helen Regan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —Elephants have lost almost two-thirds of their habitat across Asia, the result of hundreds of years of deforestation and increasing human use of land for agriculture and infrastructure, a new study has found. The study found that the greatest decline in elephant habitats was in China, where 94% of suitable land was lost between 1700 and 2015. Meanwhile, more than half of suitable elephant habitats have been lost in Bangladesh, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia’s Sumatra. The era also saw “new value systems, market forces, and governance policies” reaching beyond the cities of Europe into the forests of Asia – speeding up elephant habitat loss and the fragmentation of the species, the study found. Habitat loss also means elephants are migrating from their usual territories, creating “challenges for human communities that have little experience with elephants,” the study said.

Expressed in terms of annualised run-rates, China's output of 39.9 million tonnes last month was the lowest in a year and down by 1.6 million tonnes from August's record 41.5 million. China's aluminium production is now highly dependent on weather patterns in the south of the country. China's average daily aluminium output and monthly annualised changePRAYING FOR RAINYunnan province accounts for around 12% of China's aluminium capacity and produced 4.2 million tonnes in 2022. WESTERN PRODUCTION FLAT-LINESPrimary aluminium production outside of China was flat year-on-year in the first quarter. WEATHER WATCHHowever, China's dominant position in the global aluminium picture means that it holds the key to future production patterns.

☆ Fact Check-Video does not show Australian doctor suffering stroke because of COVID vaccine
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

A 2020 video of a doctor in China collapsing during an operation was shared online with captions falsely suggesting that it shows an Australian surgeon suffering a stroke related to COVID-19 vaccination. The clip was posted on Twitter (here) and Facebook (bit.ly/3FGGxyX) with the description: “Triple jabbed Australian surgeon stroking out mid-surgery. Again, this is apocalyptic.”But the video dates back to January 2020, at least nine months before COVID-19 vaccines were developed and rolled out in China (here). A still from the video appears in a Jan. 17, 2020 report by The Beijing News, which describes the footage as circulating online at that time (here). A 2020 video shows a Chinese doctor collapsing during due to hypoglycemia and exhaustion, not an Australian surgeon “stroking out” because of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Starbucks (SBUX.O) warned of a "cautious" recovery in its China sales. "Consumers have become more meticulous in their spending," its chief executive, Xu Lei, said in an earnings call on Thursday. "Now the Chinese tourists are either super rich or very poor," said the owner, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "This suggests that once the initial reopening rebound has happened, we shouldn't expect a further surge in consumer spending," he wrote in a note to clients. ($1 = 6.8780 Chinese yuan renminbi)Editing by Marius Zaharia and Bradley PerrettOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ 'The worst is over': Tech investors are bullish on investing in China again
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Sheila Chiang | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Liu Ranyang | China News Service | Getty ImagesTech investors say the worst is over as China reopens and exits its zero-Covid policy. The firm raised nearly $500 million for a new China tech fund set to close by early this year — more than earlier plans for $400 million. Tech companies see government supportInvestors are not worried of new challenges on the regulatory front. Gobi's Tang said, "I do think that they're going to do everything they can to try to spur the economic growth. "There's still a lot to catch up [in semiconductor tech] for China.

☆ Major deadly earthquakes in the past two decades
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

White Helmets/via REUTERSFeb 6 (Reuters) - Some of the world's most deadly earthquakes in the past two decades are listed below, after a 7.8 magnitude quake struck central Turkey and northwest Syria on Monday and killed hundreds of people. - Aug. 14, 2021 - HAITI - A 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck southern Haiti, killing more than 2,200 people and destroying or damaging about 13,000 homes. - April 16, 2016 - ECUADOR - A magnitude 7.8 earthquake hammered Ecuador, killing more than 650 people on the country’s Pacific coast. - Sept 24, 2013 - PAKISTAN - Twin earthquakes, measuring 7.7 and 6.8 magnitude, rattled southwestern Balochistan province, killing at least 825 people. - May 12, 2008 - CHINA - A 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Sichuan province, killing about 87,600 people.

☆ Weed’s next frontier is in Asia
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( Thomas Shum | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

HONG KONG, Dec 23 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Asia is beginning to warm up to the use of cannabis. Thailand legalised marijuana cultivation at home in 2022, while South Korea, Japan and Malaysia are paving the way for pharmaceutical applications. South Korea was the first country in East Asia to legalise pharmaceutical cannabis, and Japan, Malaysia and Taiwan are all considering similar moves. If American experience is any guide, regulated pharmaceutical use will inevitably trickle into the recreation market, boosting aggregate demand. Cannabis in Asia will burn slowly, but where there is smoke there may eventually be fire.

☆ Explainer: What the world's nature-rich nations want out of a global conservation deal
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( Gloria Dickie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

REUTERS/Nacho Doce/File PhotoMONTREAL, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Tangled expanses of Amazon rainforest, high mountains of the Himalayas, and cloud-shrouded forests are just some of the unique landscapes contained within the world's most nature-rich nations. Governments are trying to work out a new global agreement to guide conservation and wildlife protection through 2030 at a U.N. summit in Montreal this week. Of the nearly 200 countries assembled, five are considered to be among the world's most biodiverse nations — measured in the number of unique species. That's more than a third of all the world’s flowering plants, and more than half of all bird and mammal species on Earth. Here's what some of the world's most nature-rich nations want to happen at the talks.

Of seven new dams planned in Laos, at least four are co-financed by Chinese companies, according to Mekong Dam Monitor data. 'WAKE-UP CALL'Farmers in the Vietnamese Mekong River Delta region were not prepared for the speed at which their landscape - and fortunes - have changed. The Mekong River Commission estimated in 2018 that total sediment flow by now would be around 47 million tonnes per year. "Mainstream dams catch everything," said economist Brian Eyler at the Stimson Center, which runs the Mekong Dam Monitor. The Xayaburi and Don Sahong dams in Laos are the most recent to come online, with Xayaburi the largest on the entire Mekong River.

☆ Analysis: As economy stutters, China's youth seek safety of civil service
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Eduardo Baptista | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

The wishes of Lau's parents that she had a "safe" civil service career suddenly made more sense. Alicia Garcia-Herrero, chief economist for Asia Pacific at Natixis, says the preference for civil servant jobs has surged. On social media, young Chinese refer to the civil service as "the end of the universe," meaning the safest place around in such an environment. "Being a civil servant gives you a lot of stability," she said. “The present state of the job market has definitely increased my desire to become a civil servant," she said.

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