This movie star is sorry if he insulted China

The China Letter: May 26, 2021

One of the weirder recent weeks in news from China includes an actor capitulating to pressure from the world’s biggest box office, the lab leak theory gaining traction while vaccinations flop in Hong Kong, and takeaways from Beijing declaring war on Bitcoin. If you like this weekly newsletter, share it and encourage friends to sign up:

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When a script is rewritten

Joe Xu @JoeXu

John Cena apologized in Chinese on Sina Weibo after calling Taiwan a country during an interview promoting Fast & Furious 9

“I made one mistake, I must say right now, very important, I love and respect Chinese people,” said John Cena in their native language as part of his apology for calling Taiwan a country while promoting Fast and Furious 9. The movie earned $135 million at the Chinese box office, a promising signal for a lucrative future of exports from Hollywood.

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New twists for the coronavirus

CNBC @CNBC

White House officials say China hasn't been 'completely transparent' in Covid origin investigation

cnb.cxWhite House officials say China hasn’t been ‘completely transparent’ in Covid origin investigationThe WHO has said that the virus likely came from an animal host, but the agency has not ruled out the possibility that it leaked from a lab.

The theory that the COVID-19 pandemic originated with a lab leak in Wuhan is back on the mainstream radar, a year after it was dismissed as a conspiracy theory. Meanwhile, the vaccine rollout has met with interesting resistance in Hong Kong, whose residents are reluctant to get jabbed due to growing distrust of the government:

BBC News (UK) @BBCNews

Hong Kong warns it might have to throw away Covid vaccines because of people's reluctance to have a jab

bbc.inCovid: Hong Kong could end up throwing away unused jabsThe territory currently has two million Pfizer shots that will be out of date in three months.

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Beijing against the titans

CNN Business @CNNBusiness

Zhang Yiming built ByteDance into one of the biggest names in Chinese tech. Now he's stepping down as CEO at just 38 years old, becoming the latest young tech entrepreneur in China to quit while leading a company on the rise.

cnn.itThe young CEO who helped make TikTok a global hit is latest Chinese tech entrepreneur to quitZhang Yiming, who founded Tiktok owner ByteDance in Beijing nine years ago, announced that he would transition to a new role at the company at the end of this year. CNN’s Paul R. La Monica reports.

“I’m not very social,” was how ByteDance boss Zhang Yiming explained to employees why he was stepping down to spend more time with his books. But it comes at a time when China is cracking down on its tech tycoons. Jack Ma stepping down from a business school he founded is the latest in a series of retrenchment moves.

Ars Technica @arstechnica

China will likely ban all bitcoin mining soon arstechnica.com/tech-policy/20… by @tdechant

arstechnica.comChina will likely ban all bitcoin mining soonCountry’s top financial regulator homes in on the source.

A government crackdown on Bitcoin mining and trading behaviour was announced, which led the cryptocurrency value to plunge almost 50 per cent from its 2020 high. The sudden restrictions where about three-quarters of this mining is done comes as no surprise to those who’ve paid attention to how Beijing treats digital entrepreneurship.

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A century of spinning facts

Axios @axios

As China's geopolitical prominence is cemented abroad while authoritarian pressures grow at home, the CCP claims to have delivered the modernity and prosperity Chinese people have dreamed of for over a century.

axios.comAt 100, Chinese Communist Party claims credit for the Chinese dreamThe party has made it through a century of turbulence, and come out more powerful than ever.

Having been founded on July 23, 1921, the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party is fast approaching, and the reflections on its century have already begun. And its loathsome style has possibly been exercised to the full extent when the subject is Uighur Muslims:

POLITICOEurope @POLITICOEurope

"Our European friends know what is genocide." China’s Foreign Minister has fired back against European sanctions imposed over the country’s mistreatment of Uyghur Muslims. "We do everything we can to promote democracy and human rights in China," he added.

politico.euChina tells Europe: You know what a genocide looks likeForeign minister hits back over Beijing’s crackdown against the Uyghur Muslim minority.

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The last words, for now

Yin Shihang is only 22, but he’s now been banned for 630 years from the Kuaishou app—along with its main competitor Douyin, the Chinese name for TikTok—due to a stunt he pulled on young fans. What he teased as a video streaming proposal to his girlfriend turned out to be a five-hour streak of sales pitches that ultimately raked in $7.2 million:

The New York Times @nytimes

A Chinese social media influencer, Yin Shihang, promised something special to his eight million followers. He would propose to his girlfriend on a livestream. On the day, though, fans found something far less romantic: Yin tried to sell them stuff.

nyti.msHe Promised a Dreamy Wedding Proposal. Fans Got a 5-Hour Sale.A Chinese influencer was barred from a video-sharing app after luring viewers to a livestreamed engagement, where he promoted makeup, perfume and mobile phones.

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The China Letter is produced by the Canadian Freedom Institute, a think tank based in Canada. We produce the China Letter every week to keep you informed and to press the ideas of free markets and free people not only in China but around the world. Please consider donating to keep this newsletter running!