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Canada News.Net
2 days ago
- Automotive
- Canada News.Net
Auto Review retracts timeline on China's used car crackdown
SHANGHAI, China: A leading Chinese automotive industry publication has walked back claims that regulators plan to ban the resale of cars within six months of their registration—a move that would have directly targeted the controversial "zero-mileage" used car market. Auto Review, the official media outlet of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), issued a correction after previously reporting that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) was preparing to impose a six-month resale ban. In a statement to Reuters, Auto Review acknowledged the article "contained inaccurate descriptions related to the MIIT and other relevant authorities concerning zero-mileage used cars." The outlet said those inaccuracies had been removed and corrected. The updated version of the article now states that MIIT is working with other agencies to "regulate the zero-mileage used cars" and manage the issue at its source, without mentioning a specific timeline or resale ban. Auto Review had also previously reported that the China Automobile Dealers Association had proposed a new code system for used car exports. That line was revised to say the group had proposed to "set up a relevant mechanism," again without further detail. The article—originally posted on the publication's official WeChat account—retained parts of the original reporting, including mentions that automakers such as Chery and BYD are among those considering more vigorous enforcement against dealers who register vehicles before actual sales occur. Zero-mileage used cars are a growing feature of China's intensely competitive auto market. The practice involves registering and insuring unsold new vehicles to inflate reported sales numbers. These lightly used vehicles are then resold at a discount, creating confusion in the market and distorting actual demand. The tactic has flourished amid a prolonged price war and persistent overcapacity in China's auto sector, particularly in the electric vehicle segment. In response, signs of a potential government clampdown have emerged in recent weeks. A Communist Party-affiliated newspaper sharply criticized the practice in June. China's State Council pledged last week to rein in what it called "irrational" competition in the domestic electric vehicle industry. While the corrected article signals a more cautious regulatory approach than initially reported, industry watchers still see mounting pressure from Beijing to curb manipulative sales strategies and restore balance in the sector.
New Statesman
25-06-2025
- Politics
- New Statesman
Eddie Dempsey on why Britain needs a trade union revival
Eddie Dempsey, photographed by David Sandison for the New Statesman In a quiet corner of King's Cross, London, is a small pocket of an old world. The office of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers' Union (RMT) is a time capsule for the 20th-century left. Appropriately, the building stands opposite an interwar housing estate based on Vienna's Karl-Marx-Hof, an icon of the faded tradition of municipal socialism. (Just down the road is a blue-plaqued building where Lenin once resided.) At the reception in the RMT's Unity House lies a pile of copies of the Communist Party-affiliated Morning Star. Its corridors and rooms are adorned with left-wing, proletarian nostalgia: hammer and sickle coasters, strike memorial badges, gifts from comrade brothers in the Teamsters, and busts of heroic dead leftists. But the RMT is still very much alive – growing, in fact, despite the general decline of trade union membership in the Britain that Thatcher built. The union has a reputation for political and industrial militancy, provoking frothing editorials from the press for its ability to periodically bring the capital to a halt. But it can also claim credit for securing decent, liveable London salaries for its members – a rare thing in today's world. I was at the RMT's office to meet Eddie Dempsey, who became its general secretary earlier this year after Mick Lynch retired. During his tenure, Lynch was renowned for his blunt put-downs of hapless, confused junior ministers and calm eviscerations of Partridge-esque breakfast television presenters. Dempsey welcomed me with a comically firm handshake. At 43 he is baby-faced, but embodies the old-school London pie-and-mash bloke, somewhere between the former Apprentice contestant Thomas Skinner and Arthur Scargill. He pointed to a wall of black and white photographs behind him in the grand meeting room, depicting a century of the union's leadership. 'I'm the 18th, by the way,' he told me. 'He retired; he retired; he died; he died; he was sacked; he died.' You got the sense that he was doing a bit. He paused on one photo: 'Him up there, he got pancaked. Flattened by an articulated lorry. In Stalingrad, no less.' After our interview, I looked this up. One Jimmy Campbell, a former RMT general secretary, did indeed die in Stalingrad – not in the bloody Second World War battle, of course, but in a car accident during a visit to the Soviet Union in 1957. This gives some clue as to the union's historic political proclivities, which are still very much apparent. 'My politics are pretty straightforward,' Dempsey said. 'I want to see people being able to work and have a good standard of living. I want them to have public services that educate you, look after you when you're sick, and give you retirement in dignity. I want to rebuild communities and rebuild a sense of shared responsibility. And I want a world that lives in peace.' But Dempsey's politics haven't always been so straightforward and anodyne. He is fervently pro-Brexit; in some liberal-left circles that's enough to place you beyond the realm of political acceptability. The RMT stood out among a Remain-orientated labour movement for its opposition to EU membership (not least because of the bloc's restrictions on state interventions and public ownership). In Dempsey's world-view, there is some crossover with the ideological hinterland of the Corbyn project – the harder-edged, workerist, industrial wing, rather than the putative 'kinder, gentler' crowd that mixed a more middle-class, hippyish aesthetic with links to foreign jihadis. The Labour left, Dempsey told me, 'went wrong going into the 2019 election with an incoherent policy on Brexit'. A full-blooded 'Lexit' position would have rescued Labour's fraying connection with working-class Leave voters, he contended – a view that was shared by several senior figures in Corbyn's office at the time. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe More controversially, in 2015 Dempsey visited the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine and was pictured with pro-Russian separatists. He told me this was 'part of a humanitarian visit' prompted by the deaths of trade unionists at the hands of ultra-nationalists in Odesa the previous year. Nevertheless, as head of one of the most visible, public-facing organisations in the British labour movement, at a time of ongoing war in Ukraine, Dempsey may find this episode is not easily forgotten. Eddie Dempsey was born in 1982 in south London to Irish parents. He grew up on New Cross's Woodpecker Estate, before starting work on the railways in his twenties. I tell him I lived in New Cross for nearly a decade and we share our appreciation for the Marquis of Granby pub on New Cross Road. 'I grew up in that pub really,' he said. 'I'm going to be having my father's wake in there next week.' The Granby hosts a mixed crowd of working-class, established locals and student pretenders – art-school hipsters and earnest humanities undergrads – from nearby Goldsmiths, University of London. If the contemporary left has become associated with the post-2008 wave of 'millennial socialism' backed by this kind of progressive-liberal graduate class, then Dempsey – like Lynch and the late Bob Crow before him – represents something older: a throwback to an era when left politics was spearheaded by blue-collar trade union firebrands. A friend familiar with the culture of RMT describes it as 'a madhouse' – a strange place where balding cockneys of a certain vintage can discuss the differences between a Bolshevik and a Menshevik, a Tankie or a Trot. Movement leaders such as Lynch and Crow were informed less by the academy, the professoriate or social media platforms, and more by workplace organising. Dempsey is no different. 'I was a union rep within six months,' he said of his early days in the workplace. 'I became embroiled in union activity from day one. So I didn't really get into politics as such, I got involved in trade unionism, which then becomes political as you progress.' His father was a deep-sea sailor. 'The dock shut in '81. A lot of people were laid off,' he said. The recent history of London's former docklands is an apt microcosm of the British economy as a whole over the past half century. Amid chronic unemployment, closed ports were declared an enterprise zone, deregulated banks were lured to invest with tax breaks, and swathes of working-class east London was redeveloped into the global financial centre that's now Canary Wharf. Dempsey, a proud south Londoner, interprets this as a story of decline rather than regeneration. 'In my father's day, when he went to sea, a lot of workplaces were closed shops,' he said. 'Everyone was in a union. You couldn't get on the dock without being in the union. Life was better in some ways. Your wages could pay for things that you wanted. You could buy a house if you had a normal job. You could take a holiday. You could buy a car. Employment was secure. A lot of people can't do these things now.' The ultimate prize for RMT's new general secretary would be a 21st-century version of this postwar era of security: the end of the five-decade experiment in neoliberalism, the restoration of corporatist labour relations, and the pursuit of a more statist economic strategy. The means and method to achieving this, Dempsey said, is securing Scandinavian-style, nationwide, sectoral collective bargaining. 'At one stage, about 80 per cent of contracts of employment in Britain were covered by these kinds of agreements,' he told me. 'Now it's about a quarter, and the result has been stark: declining living standards, and a massive shift in power away from working-class people. So we're determined that the trade union movement demands it's restored. The future depends on it.' The Labour Party, for its part, has committed to introducing such a system in social care, with unions negotiating pay and conditions with representatives of employers across the industry nationwide. But it's unclear whether this will be replicated in other sectors. 'This government has made some important steps in the right direction,' Dempsey said, not just on employment rights, but also on some long-time, totemic demands of the British left, such as the nationalisation of the railways. And yet, all the political momentum today is with the populist right. The union man's Championship team, Millwall FC, are known (among other things) for a terrace chant, sung to the tune of Rod Stewart's 'Sailing': 'No one likes us, we don't care.' It's a mantra that could just easily have been adopted by sections of the progressive-activist class militantly pushing causes that have little or no resonance with the wider public. 'Our political culture has been focused on the things that divide us for too long,' Dempsey said. In 2019, during the interminable Brexit negotiations, Dempsey was the subject of an online fracas. The journalists Ash Sarkar and Owen Jones, alongside the Labour MP Clive Lewis, pulled out of a rally because of his attendance. He had been accused of racism for stating that he empathised with the working-class followers of the far-right activist Tommy Robinson, and their hatred of the liberal political class. Many also took issue with his support for a no-deal Brexit. Today, Dempsey shrugs off the incident, but has little time for the very-online left, which he describes as 'destabilising and debilitating. I've always argued that just abandoning parts of the working class in favour of the more well-educated types is not going to work in the long run. 'We've got to find those common bonds, and I think the reconstruction of the trade union movement has to be a part of that. I don't think people realise just how much we've lost… The trade union wasn't just a card you carried into work… There was a whole broad architecture of what was the working class and its institutions in Britain that's been pulled away. It gave a sense of community, a sense of dignity and togetherness, and it gave people a framework [through which] they were able to articulate what they thought about society, to articulate a political view.' The sense of collectivity that came from organised labour, as well as the institutional architecture of workplace branches, mass memberships and political education, has given way to individualism and the purity-rituals of cancel culture. Left politics and class consciousness are now less determined by organising and more by an individual's adherence to a set of ever-shifting progressive mores. 'A lot of the movement has been dragged away,' Dempsey said, 'and what people have tended to do is demonise and insult people that they disagree with politically. That doesn't help us, but that has been the approach… People have become obsessed about what's in people's heads.' The radical left may be ailing, but politicians of the Fabian centre left aren't faring too well either. Despite the 'steps in the right direction' Dempsey describes, Labour's leadership has spent its first year in power shedding support in all directions. What's going wrong? 'We're living under a dictatorship of the bond markets,' Dempsey replied. Even Donald Trump has been tamed by bond traders. 'The government is scared to invest.' We spoke before Rachel Reeves delivered her Spending Review, which combined capital spending with a continued squeeze on day-to-day departmental budgets. This broad fiscal policy picture is unlikely to shift the dial decisively towards national renewal, still less be the starting gun for constructing a new, post-neoliberal economic model. 'I don't believe the trade union movement should be a committee for arguing for a bigger slice of an ever-dwindling public expenditure pie,' Dempsey said. 'We've got to be addressing the economic reality: we need to rebuild the country. We can't rely on imports of wage-producing goods. We cannot rely on the chaotic situation that we've had for the past 40 years. It doesn't work any more. It doesn't deliver better living standards any more. The only way we're going to change it is by having proper investment. We've got staggering profits, falling living standards and wages, and a really, really low level of investment – and that's business investment as well as government investment. 'We can't just be an association of banks with a country attached any more. We need to be making things. We need a real economy, with high-tech manufacturing and infrastructure. And today, you can't rely on the market to deliver that.' This is an analysis that will be familiar to many New Statesman readers. The UK is in its second decade of declining living standards, and the deterioration of the public realm continues apace. 'People's lives feel chaotic,' Dempsey told me, 'the social fabric has been torn away.' Our industrial base is threadbare. The financialised, debt-driven, service-dependent economic model no longer generates growth. The ethereal nature of a digital 'knowledge economy' became apparent during Covid. Britain is tired and worn out, its real wealth increasingly concentrated in the capital's property bubbles and the glass-and-steel edifices of its tertiary sectors. Against this bleak backdrop, a figure like Eddie Dempsey espousing a bread-and-butter, populist socialism might be seen less as an anachronism and more as a welcome antidote to the moribund left and progressive gentrification. As much of the electorate joins the Faragist revolt, could a revived, popular trade unionism lead a fightback? 'We've got to focus on providing people a good standard of living and bringing people together,' the RMT leader said. 'And I wouldn't mind the beer price coming down, and Millwall being promoted. If I can have all that – I'm happy.' Hapless junior ministers and Partridge-like TV hosts: beware. [See also: Geoff Dyer's English journey] Related
India.com
18-06-2025
- Politics
- India.com
Neither Taiwan Nor Tehran… China is afriad due to this man, not Trump, Xi sends top security official to.., asks citizens to...
(File) New Delhi: The major reason behind the tension for Xi Jinping administration these days is not Taiwan or Tehran, but a potential announcement related to Tibet and the Dalai Lama. According to the reports, the announcement regarding the successor of the 14th Dalai Lama is keeping China's ruling Communist Party on edge. On July 6, Dalai Lama will celebrate his 90th birthday, and there is speculation that he may make an announcement about his successor on that very day. China is worried that the announcement may trigger separatist sentiments in the Tibet region. Owing to this fear, China's top security official, Chen Wenqing, recently visited Qinghai province, which borders Tibet. Chen clearly stated that Qinghai is a strategic stronghold for the stability of both Tibet and Xinjiang, and that separatism must be defeated here at any cost. It is important to note that in 1995, China appointed its own choice as the successor of the 10th Panchen Lama—a move never recognized by the Dalai Lama. Now, China has established Gyaincain Norbu as the 11th Panchen Lama, who is also a member of several Communist Party-affiliated forums. Strict Surveillance on All Tibet-Related Activities Chen Wenqing has asked all the local administrations, security agencies, and religious institutions to keep strict surveillance on all Tibet-related activities. He also directed the officials to make special preparations during sensitive occasions or significant dates to ensure there is no instability, and that religious affairs be strictly regulated under the law. Why Is China Growing More Anxious? The main reason behind China's anxiety is Dalai Lama. The Chinese administration is fearful because Dalai Lama has already stated that his successor may be born outside of China, particularly in India. In his book published in March, he also wrote that his reincarnation will follow traditional Tibetan Buddhist practices, not procedures approved by the Chinese government. China has long labeled the Dalai Lama a separatist. China maintains that any religious succession or reincarnation will only be valid if it occurs with its approval and under its regulations. Xi Jinping's Meeting with the Panchen Lama Recently, President Xi Jinping met with the Panchen Lama and emphasized the need to maintain love for both the nation and religion. Shortly after this, a meeting of Tibetan leaders was convened, in which they pledged to adopt Xi's policies and directives. Amid all this, the potential announcement of the Dalai Lama's successor on July 6 has become a major headache for China.
Express Tribune
18-03-2025
- Business
- Express Tribune
China praises Trump's decision to slash Voice of America budget
A view of the exterior of the U.S. Agency for Global Media building, where government funded media company Voice of America is based, in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 14, 2022. Photo: REUTERS Listen to article Chinese state media have celebrated US President Donald Trump's decision to slash funding for government-backed broadcasters, including Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA), a move widely seen as a blow to US soft power. The Global Times, a Chinese Communist Party-affiliated newspaper, welcomed the cuts in an editorial, calling VOA a 'lie factory' with a history of spreading falsehoods about China. The Beijing Daily, another state-run publication, echoed similar sentiments, describing the move as a step toward 'eliminating Western disinformation.' The reaction follows Trump's executive order last week, which significantly reduces the budget of the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), the entity overseeing VOA, RFA, and other outlets. The order mandates that operations be cut to the 'bare minimum required by law,' effectively freezing the work of these media organisations. The White House justified the decision by arguing that American taxpayers should not fund what Trump labelled 'radical propaganda.' According to USAGM's latest report to Congress, the agency had an $886 million budget in 2024 and employed nearly 3,500 people. The move has led to 1,300 VOA employees being placed on administrative leave, with further layoffs expected. Trump's decision has drawn sharp criticism from journalists, media experts, and human rights organisations, who warn that it will weaken Washington's influence abroad, especially in countries where independent news is already under threat. RFA President Bay Fang called the shutdown a 'reward to dictators and despots', arguing that nearly 60 million people rely on RFA weekly for independent news, particularly in countries with restricted media access. 'This decision benefits America's adversaries at our own expense,' Fang said. VOA Director Mike Abramowitz condemned the move as a serious threat to press freedom, stating that the organisation has played a crucial role in countering disinformation from authoritarian regimes. The union representing RFA journalists also denounced the decision, stating that it 'hands a victory' to the Chinese Communist Party and emboldens authoritarian rulers like North Korea's Kim Jong-un. In China, nationalist commentators have celebrated the closure of US-funded media. Hu Xijin, former editor-in-chief of the Global Times, wrote on Weibo that VOA's shutdown was 'long overdue' and that its reporting had been a key tool for US ideological infiltration into China. 'Almost every fabricated story about China, from Xinjiang's human rights situation to the so-called 'China virus' narrative, had VOA's fingerprints on it,' the Global Times editorial claimed. China's state-run media have long accused VOA and RFA of spreading 'anti-China propaganda' and promoting unrest in regions like Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong. Trump's decision comes at a time when China is expanding the reach of its state-controlled media globally. Chinese-backed networks like CGTN and Xinhua have increased their influence across Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia, filling the void left by declining US-funded journalism. Media scholars warn that VOA's dismantling could weaken US influence abroad, especially in regions where American-backed news outlets served as alternative sources of information to state-controlled media. The cuts also extend beyond media organisations. Trump's executive order includes the elimination of several US government-funded entities, such as the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the US Interagency Council on Homelessness, and the Minority Business Development Agency. As press freedom groups call on Congress to intervene, it remains uncertain whether the funding cuts can be reversed before USAGM's operations are fully dismantled.
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Philippines to scrutinize donations by suspected Chinese spies
MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippine government will look into cash and other donations made by Chinese Communist Party-affiliated groups led by four Chinese nationals accused of espionage to determine if they were done in good faith, an official said on Monday. Reuters reported last week that four Chinese nationals arrested by Philippine law enforcers in January on suspicion of espionage led civic groups overseen by the Chinese Communist Party's foreign influence network. The groups donated 500,000 pesos ($8,600) labelled as a "poverty alleviation bursary" to the mayor of Tarlac city, plus 10 motorbikes to Manila's police and 10 patrol vehicles to Tarlac's police and authorities, according to photos, videos and online posts. See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. "There is nothing wrong with accepting donations if they are done in good faith. However, if these donations were given with ulterior motives, then we need to investigate," Presidential Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro told a media briefing. "We should also identify the local government officials who received them to ensure this does not happen again, especially if they were being used or unknowingly being used." China's foreign ministry, in a statement to Reuters, said China required its citizens to abide by local laws and that civic groups spontaneously set up by citizens were not affiliated with the Beijing government. The Philippines has arrested at least eight suspected Chinese spies in recent weeks, including the four, adding to frictions between the two nations who have had a series of run-ins over disputed parts of the South China Sea. The Philippines does not have a specific foreign interference law but is drafting one. Government agencies are permitted to receive donations but contributions from foreign authorities must be approved by the president, according to guidelines.
