May 24-30, 2020 Highlights Highlights
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MAY 24-30, 2020 HIGHLIGHTS HIGHLIGHTS TALKING ABOUT The implementation of one country, two systems is very different MAO YIN REUNITES WITH HIS MOTHER LI JINGZHI IN SHAANXI. from what HIS PARENTS LOST HIM AT A HOTEL 32 YEARS AGO. Photo: Reuters I expected in the 1980s Veteran legislator Allen Lee Peng-fei, who has died aged 80. Lee, once touted as a potential Hong Kong leader, had In 1983 lobbied Beijing for an extension to British rule MANNEQUINS CHEER ON A SEOUL FOOTBALL CLUB. FANS LATER DISCOVERED THEY WERE SEX DOLLS. Photo: AFP PEOPLE ON A SPORTS PITCH IN INCHEON, SOUTH KOREA, WAIT TO BE TESTED FOR COVID-19. Photo: AP A FLOODED ALLEYWAY IN KOLKOTA AFTER CYCLONE AMPHAN HIT LAND. PRO-DEMOCRACY PROTESTERS ARE BLESSED BY BUDDHIST No, there’s no Photo: AFP MONKS AT A TEMPLE IN BANGKOK. Photo: EPA trade war Australia’s Agriculture Minister David Littleproud rules out retaliating against China’s tariff of over 80 per cent on its barley exports BROUGHT TO YOU Read us online at: BY ASIA DESK, SCMP scmp.com/thisweekinasia Editor Facebook 12 Zuraidah Ibrahim facebook.com/twia This pandemic Deputy Editor Subscribe to our weekly Lynn Lee newsletter has forced scmp.com/newsletter Thailand’s battered Design some people to Huy Truong, Dennis Yip We would like to hear from you Email us: economy needs Chief Subeditor [email protected] be alone with Andrew Raine their thoughts Chinese tourists Subeditors Hari Raj, Thomas Sturrock, Greg Fountain, Francine Chen, for maybe the to keep it afloat Roy McKenzie 16 8 Scan the QR code Photos to download the first time in Yves Sieur SCMP mobile app their life It’s time for Beijing In the post-Covid conflicts General email: [email protected] Hong Kong-based For advertising inquiries, telephone 2565 2435. rapper Txmiyama diplomats to call off to come, Asia will have 19/F Tower One, Times Square, 1 Matheson Street, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. Printed and published by the wolves, writes to fend for itself, writes South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd, Morning Post Centre, 22 Dai Fat Street, Tai Po Industrial Estate, Tai Po Wang Xiangwei Michael Vatikiotis 2 THIS WEEK IN ASIA MAY 24-30, 2020 SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST THIS WEEK IN ASIA 3 BRIEFING BRIEFING CPEC PROJECTS, CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: THE MULTAN-SUKKUR MOTORWAY; THE ORANGE LINE METRO TRAIN IN LAHORE; GWADAR PORT. Photos: Xinhua, Reuters Chinese medicine With the coronavirus having infected Pakistan’s economy, Islamabad looks east for a new dose of investment BY TOM HUSSAIN FTER A TWO-YEAR slowdown Asim Saeed Bajwa, the retired and operated port on the Arabian Sea. credit for the project, but the terms in the execution of the China- three-star general appointed as Pakistan last month granted approval have not been made public. APakistan Economic Corridor founding chairman of the CPEC for the port to handle Afghanistan It is being executed as a Pakistan (CPEC) following the 2018 election Authority, said last month he transit trade. government project, rather than of Imran Khan as prime minister, expected to soon sign an agreement Bajwa said work on building as part of the CPEC. An earlier Pakistan officials are finalising with the China Three Gorges Corp for a second motorway route through Chinese proposal to include it proposals for new infrastructure the US$2.5 billion Kohala hydropower western Pakistan, to improve in CPEC fell through because projects worth billions, ahead of project, which would generate overland transit connectivity of national security concerns a state visit by Chinese President 1,124 megawatts of electricity. between Gwadar and China’s about Beijing controlling the flow Xi Jinping this year. Bajwa announced on May 7 that Xinjiang province, had accelerated. of the Indus River, the lifeblood According to recent statements construction work had begun for Contractors were recently invited of Pakistan’s agriculture sector. by Pakistan’s CPEC Authority, a US$230 million airport at Gwadar, to bid for the second section of An Islamabad-based expert, which was established during the site of a Chinese-developed motorway connecting the Karakorum who works closely with the Chinese Khan’s visit to Beijing last October, Highway to Quetta, the administrative and Pakistani governments to officials are close to wrapping up the capital of Balochistan province, promote cooperation between the “action plan” for the estimated US$8 where Gwadar is located. “iron brothers”, said that the CPEC billion ML-1 project to rehabilitate CHINA IS, THANKS Andrew Small, author of the would be key to reviving Pakistan’s Pakistan’s rickety railway network. China-Pakistan Axis, said in the moribund economy, which could face It would be the single largest TO TRUMP, lead-up to Xi’s visit – which earlier another one year of recession at least, project of the CPEC, the first phase of this year was said to be happening in according to forecasts by multilateral which saw a collective US$19 billion of ASSUMING GLOBAL July – there had been a push from institutions and ratings agencies. Chinese credit and investment poured China and Pakistan to put together “As the world braces itself for into energy, motorway and other LEADERSHIP “a decent new package of projects, a 2008-like or worse recession, projects, said Chinese ambassador Mustafa Hyder Sayed, and also to ensure that any elements we see a renewed importance of Pakistan-China Institute Yao Jing at a conference last year. of the phase-one plans that had been CPEC projects in Pakistan, as it stalled were pushed forward”. emerges as an island of prosperity The political stakes had been that provides hope, jobs and tangible raised since CPEC was dragged as part of efforts to counter from 5.8 per cent the year before, The government said an for infrastructure projects because foreign direct investment in a sea of into the “informational war” a payments crisis brought on, according to revised government estimated 25 million informal-sector they would revitalise associated economic uncertainty,” said Mustafa which erupted between Beijing and in part, by the inability of Pakistan’s figures issued on Monday. That is workers had already been rendered domestic industries like cement, Hyder Sayed, executive director Washington last year, said Small, narrow economy to absorb substantially less than the provisional unemployed by the closure of rerolled steel and aggregates, of the Pakistan-China Institute. a Brussels-based senior fellow a massive influx of Chinese plant estimate of 3.3 per cent GDP growth most commercial activity since and incentivise fresh investment He said there was growing at the German Marshall Fund, and machinery imports under CPEC. issued by the government last June. late March, to contain the spread in the key job-generating concern in Pakistan about the a US think tank. Khan’s government also The Planning Commission of the coronavirus. manufacturing sector. US’ reliability as an economic “Given the scrutiny that any visit switched the focus of the CPEC estimated that Pakistan’s economy Khan has prioritised the revival On May 14, Power China and partner, because of President from Xi would bring, and the need away from big-ticket infrastructure will shrink by 0.39 per cent in the of the labour-intensive construction the Frontier Works Organisation, Donald Trump’s response to convey a narrative of progress and projects to dedicated manufacturing 2019-2020 financial year, which ends sector, and has introduced tax breaks a commercial arm of Pakistan’s to the coronavirus pandemic. success, there would always have zones, agriculture and social on June 30, because of the additional to encourage investment in housing, powerful military, were awarded “The contrast between the US been an effort of this sort,” he said. sector development. impact of the coronavirus pandemic. backed by a promise not to ask a US$2.75 billion contract to build and China is stark,” Sayed said. “And After taking office in August 2018, As austerity bit, Pakistan’s The plunging economy has questions about the source of the reservoir and other early China is, thanks to Trump, assuming Khan’s administration trimmed the economy skidded to a grinding prompted a rethink by Khan, who is investment – a major departure from infrastructure of the Diamer-Bhasha global leadership by standing up and overall size of CPEC to US$50 billion, halt in the 2018-19 financial year, desperate to quickly create jobs for his government’s accountability- Dam, envisaged as Pakistan’s third being counted, which in the pre-Covid from US$64 billion under his Khan’s first year in power. Pakistan’s youthful population of 208 driven political agenda. such major project. With a 70 per cent and pre-Trump period, would have predecessor Nawaz Sharif, GDP growth fell to 1.9 per cent, million, which has a median age of 22. He has launched a renewed push stake, Power China has arranged always been the role of the US.”■ 4 THIS WEEK IN ASIA MAY 24-30, 2020 SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST THIS WEEK IN ASIA 5 BRIEFING BRIEFING AY 31 WAS supposed to have liable for that fee if it decides A suitable financing solution – said. Also onanalysts’ minds was the Putra University, remained upbeat the old days of buses, a packed but now hygiene and social been decision day on the to go down that route. along with Malaysia’s proposal to long-term feasibility of the project, about the viability of the rail link. Causeway and so on, hold back distancing must be considered Mfuture of the high-speed rail Transport industry observers cut the costs of the original plan – is amid a rising consensus that the The original plan was for the economic progress.” in construction,” Su said.