<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <rss version="2.0" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:admin="http://webns.net/mvcb/" xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" > <channel> <title>China</title> <link>http://www.businessinsider.com/category/china</link> <language>en-us</language> <pubDate>Tue, 24 Oct 2017 13:19:25 -0400</pubDate> <lastBuildDate>Tue, 24 Oct 2017 13:19:25 -0400</lastBuildDate> <description>The latest news on China from Business Insider</description> <image> <url>http://static3.businessinsider.com/assets/images/bilogo-250x36-wide-rev.png</url> <title>Business Insider</title> <link>http://www.businessinsider.com</link> </image> <item> <guid>http://www.businessinsider.com/r-us-touts-military-ties-in-philippines-as-duterte-courts-russia-china-2017-10</guid> <title>The US is touting its military ties to the Philippines even as Rodrigo Duterte courts Russia and China</title> <link>http://www.businessinsider.com/r-us-touts-military-ties-in-philippines-as-duterte-courts-russia-china-2017-10</link> <pubDate>Tue, 24 Oct 2017 10:09:00 -0400</pubDate> <description> &lt;p&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;float:right;&quot; src=&quot;http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/59eef0ad5124c92c53d0f33a-450-300/us-touts-military-ties-in-philippines-as-duterte-courts-russia-china.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;FILE PHOTO: U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis listens to a question during a joint news conference in New Delhi, India September 26, 2017. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;CLARK, Philippines (Reuters) - The timing of US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis' trip to the Philippines this week couldn't have been better, coming just as it celebrated a victory against Islamist militants in Marawi City &amp;mdash; with a critical dose of help from the US military.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But as Mattis prepared to meet President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday, five Russian warships were parked off the Philippines and Moscow was preparing to formally hand over thousands of assault rifles, a million rounds of ammunition and 20 army trucks at a public ceremony on Wednesday.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Duterte, known for his strident anti-American rhetoric, has made no secret of his plans to cultivate ties with America's rivals, Russia and China. Those efforts appear to be starting to bear fruit.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Just before he meets Mattis, Duterte was scheduled to sit down with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Tuesday, who, like Mattis, was attending a gathering of Asian defense ministers north of Manila.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;On Wednesday, Duterte was scheduled to visit a Russian anti-submarine ship, the Admiral Pantaleyev, docked in Manila.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/59dde3725124c9aa16a63f77-800/philippine-president-sidelines-police-in-war-on-drugs-again.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;President Rodrigo Duterte speaks before members of the Australian Navy during a tour on board the the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) vessel, Her Majesty's Australian Ship (HMAS) Adelaide III upon arrival for a goodwill visit as part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) Joint Task Group Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2017 at the Pier 15, south harbor in metro Manila, Philippines October 10, 2017. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;Thomson Reuters&quot; data-mce-caption=&quot;President Rodrigo Duterte speaks before members of the Australian Navy during a tour on board the the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) vessel, Her Majesty's Australian Ship (HMAS) Adelaide III in Manila&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;US Ambassador Sung Kim played down any US concerns about Duterte's outreach to China and Russia and noted that the United States, a former colonial power, was the country's only treaty ally, with far deeper ties in the Philippines.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&quot;I'm not really threatened by this notion that China or Russia are providing some military equipment to the Philippines,&quot; Kim told a small group of reporters traveling with Mattis.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&quot;We have been providing very important equipment to the Philippines for many, many years. The fact that the Chinese and the Russians have provided some rifles, I'm not sure is really such a cause for concern for the United States.&quot;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Duterte's often profanity-laden tirades against the United States have become his trademark during his year-old presidency, and he has chided Washington for treating his country &quot;like a dog,&quot; despite the longstanding US assistance.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;float:right;&quot; src=&quot;http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/58089dfa8d83b41e008b5a28-1193/rodrigo duterte xi jinping.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Rodrigo Duterte Xi Jinping&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;Reuters/Ng Han Guan/Pool&quot; data-mce-caption=&quot;Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) shake hands after a signing ceremony held in Beijing, China, October 20, 2016.&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Still, Duterte's rhetoric has been inconsistent, and he warmly greeted visiting Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in August, calling himself a &quot;humble friend&quot; of the United States at the time.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Ahead of a visit by US President Donald Trump to the Philippines, the US envoy cited an improvement in &quot;tone and substance&quot; in bilateral ties over the 10 months since he's been in his post.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&quot;President Duterte has made clear that even as he pursues improved relations with countries like China and Russia, he will continue to focus on making sure that the US-Philippines alliance remains strong,&quot; Kim said.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;h2&gt;Marawi operation&lt;/h2&gt; &lt;p&gt;The same day that Mattis landed in the Philippines, Manila announced the end of five months of military operations in a southern city of Marawi held by pro-Islamic State rebels, after a fierce and unfamiliar urban war that marked the country's biggest security crisis in years.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The rebel occupation stunned a military inexperienced in urban combat and stoked wider concerns that Islamic State loyalists have gained influence among local Muslims and have ambitions to use the island of Mindanao as a base for operations in Southeast Asia.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/59ed7c055124c9cc2c3aad0e-800/philippine-defense-minister-declares-end-of-fighting-in-marawi-city.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Flame rises as damaged buildings are seen after government troops cleared the area from pro-Islamic State militant groups inside a war-torn area in Marawi city, southern Philippines October 23, 2017. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;Thomson Reuters&quot; data-mce-caption=&quot;Flame rises as damaged buildings are seen after government troops cleared the area from pro-Islamic State militant groups inside a war-torn area in Marawi city&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Mattis, on his flight to the Philippines, commended Manila on the operation and on Tuesday discussed ways to deepen US-Philippines military ties in talks with the Philippine defense minister.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&quot;It was a tough fight,&quot; Mattis said during his flight, adding he thought the Philippines had sent &quot;a very necessary message to the terrorists.&quot;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Kim said the US military assistance made a &quot;huge difference&quot; in the battle in Marawi, particularly its intelligence support, including with the deployment of Gray Eagle and P-3 Orion aircraft.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&quot;I think all of us were surprised by the extent of infiltration by the terrorists into Marawi City,&quot; he said.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&quot;When you encounter a situation like that, you obviously need good intelligence to be able to target key areas and I think that's where our support was quite critical.&quot;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But even in Marawi, Duterte has also credited US rival China for its assistance.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/5971ab265124c9430ad44c0f-800/philippine-leader-to-go-after-maoist-rebels-after-scrapping-talks.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte inspects firearms together with Eduardo Ano, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), during his visit at the military camp in Marawi city, southern Philippines July 20, 2017. Malacanang Presidential Palace/Handout via Reuters &quot; data-mce-source=&quot;Thomson Reuters&quot; data-mce-caption=&quot;Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte inspects firearms together with Eduardo Ano, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, during his visit at the military camp in Marawi city&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Duterte said it was one of the 100 sniper rifles donated by China that fired the bullet that killed Isnilon Hapilon, Islamic State's &quot;emir&quot; in Southeast Asia, on Oct. 16.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The ranger unit conducting the operation said the shot was fired from a heavier weapon mounted on an armored vehicle.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana told reporters on Tuesday about the receipt of heavy equipment from China to help rebuild Marawi, and also noted the receipt of rifles and ammunition from Beijing. He expected to receive four fast boats from China before the end of the year.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The United States has for decades been the Philippines' defense treaty ally and its biggest source of hardware and training, providing about $1 billion in equipment since 2000.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;(By Phil Stewart and Manuel Mogato; additional reporting Karen Lema; editing by Nick Macfie)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SEE ALSO:&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/philippines-duterte-orders-halt-to-police-crackdown-on-drug-trade-2017-10&quot; &gt;Philippines' Rodrigo Duterte orders another halt to police crackdown on drug trade&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/r-us-touts-military-ties-in-philippines-as-duterte-courts-russia-china-2017-10#comments&quot;&gt;Join the conversation about this story &amp;#187;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;NOW WATCH: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/philippines-president-rodriogo-dueterte-helicopter-crackdown-drugs-impeachment-united-nations-2016-12&quot;&gt;'I have done this before, why would I not do it again?': Philippines president says he once threw a man out of a helicopter&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; </description> <media:thumbnail url="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/59ef491dddd063a2768b5e96/the-us-is-touting-its-military-ties-to-the-philippines-even-as-rodrigo-duterte-courts-russia-and-china.jpg" /> </item> <item> <guid>http://www.businessinsider.com/china-is-boosting-its-naval-presence-in-the-south-china-sea-2017-10</guid> <title>China is boosting its naval presence in the South China Sea</title> <link>http://www.businessinsider.com/china-is-boosting-its-naval-presence-in-the-south-china-sea-2017-10</link> <pubDate>Mon, 23 Oct 2017 13:55:50 -0400</pubDate> <dc:creator>Teddy Ng</dc:creator> <description> &lt;p&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;float:right;&quot; src=&quot;http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/55a82dc8ecad0430744bc9f7-2400/chinanavy2.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;China navy&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;Lamar Salter&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The Chinese South Sea Fleet has set up a new marine rescue squadron as part of moves by the People&amp;rsquo;s Liberation Army to step up its battle readiness and deploy more submarines to the region.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The new unit will enhance the navy&amp;rsquo;s capacity to conduct missions further afield, military observers said.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The unit was set up during the &amp;ldquo;latest round of military reform,&amp;rdquo; which was announced by the unit political commissar during a session devoted to studying the political report delivered by President Xi Jinping at the Communist Party congress on Wednesday.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;The army has to be prepared for battle,&amp;rdquo; Ke Hehai was quoted as saying by the PLA Daily on Thursday.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In his speech Xi had pledged to transform the PLA into a world-class fighting force by 2050.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The North Sea Fleet established a marine rescue squadron in 2011, which is designed to minimise losses in the event of submarine accidents. Having a similar unit in the South China Sea is a signal of the fleet&amp;rsquo;s enhanced status.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The South Sea Fleet&amp;rsquo;s area of responsibilities include the northern regions of the Taiwan Strait and southern areas from James Shoal, including the Paracel Islands, Macclesfield Bank and the disputed Spratly Islands.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/55db7be8bd86ef13008b5886-2400/rtxea8c.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;China Navy&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;Reuters&quot; data-mce-caption=&quot;Chinese Navy submarines and warships take part in an international fleet review to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army Navy in Qingdao, Shandong province, on April 23, 2009.&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Ni Lexiong, a Shanghai-based military affairs commentator, said the fleet had an increasing need for a rescue unit as it was carrying out more missions.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;It is a sign that the fleet is getting itself more ready for battle,&amp;rdquo; Ni said. &amp;ldquo;When the army is stressing more on combat readiness, how can a navy fleet not be equipped with a rescue unit? Rescue squadrons are crucial in war.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The South Sea Fleet plays a key role in asserting China&amp;rsquo;s territorial claim over the disputed waters, where a number of Southeast Asian nations and Taiwan also claim sovereignty.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;China has deployed most of its advanced nuclear submarines in the South China Sea, according to satellite images from overseas think tanks. But the increasing number of submarines in the area raises the risk of accidents or of being overwhelmed by powerful underwater eddies.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;float:right;&quot; src=&quot;http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/55f8acb1bd86ef0f008ba932-2400/rtr31933.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;china submarine&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;REUTERS/China Daily&quot; data-mce-caption=&quot;Chinese sailors salute on top of a submarine during the fleet's review of the China-Russia joint naval exercise in the Yellow Sea April 26, 2012. Chinese and Russian warships concluded a live ammunition exercise on Thursday, following a no-weapon joint war game earlier the same day. Xinhua News Agency reported.&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In 2014, a new diesel-powered submarine referred to as &amp;ldquo;No 372&amp;rdquo; suffered a near-fatal malfunction &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1584450/pla-reveals-how-captain-stopped-submarine-falling-3000-metre-trench&quot; title=&quot;www.scmp.com&quot;&gt;when it came close to plunging into a 3,000-metre trench&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;A sudden fall in water density and a subsequent change in water pressure caused a number of equipment failures including the bursting of a key pipe. This led to flooding that threatened to put the engine room out of action.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;After three minutes of desperate effort, which included the sealing of all flooded chambers, the submarine was able to make it back to the surface.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;When accidents happen, [submarines] cannot rely on the rescue unit of the North Sea Fleet,&amp;rdquo; Collin Koh, a maritime security expert at Singapore&amp;rsquo;s Nanyang Technological University, said. &amp;ldquo;Many submarines in the region are coming into service for regional navies. It triggers the risk of sea traffic and accidents.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Koh also said that in future the Chinese navy would expand its range of operations and would need to enhance its rescue capabilities accordingly.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SEE ALSO:&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/nato-ships-russian-sub-in-mediterranean-hint-at-changing-naval-warfare-2017-10&quot; &gt;A cat-and-mouse game between NATO ships and a Russian sub hints at changes happening in naval warfare&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/china-is-boosting-its-naval-presence-in-the-south-china-sea-2017-10#comments&quot;&gt;Join the conversation about this story &amp;#187;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;NOW WATCH: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-why-so-many-nations-want-to-control-the-south-china-sea-2017-9&quot;&gt;Here's why so many nations want to control the South China Sea — and what China wants to do&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; </description> <media:thumbnail url="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/55ba2b642acae7c23f8b8dc0/china-is-boosting-its-naval-presence-in-the-south-china-sea.jpg" /> </item> <item> <guid>http://www.businessinsider.com/tencents-strategy-to-bring-western-brands-to-its-platform-2017-10</guid> <title>Chinese tech giant Tencent has a two-word pitch to bring Western brands to its platform</title> <link>http://www.businessinsider.com/tencents-strategy-to-bring-western-brands-to-its-platform-2017-10</link> <pubDate>Mon, 23 Oct 2017 07:23:00 -0400</pubDate> <dc:creator>BI Intelligence and Robert Elder</dc:creator> <description> &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: 400;&quot;&gt; &lt;em&gt;This is a portion of an article based on an interview with Tencent's Steven Chang. To read the full article, sign up for access to&lt;span&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/intelligence/digitalmedia-insider?IR=T&amp;amp;utm_source=businessinsider&amp;amp;utm_medium=content_marketing&amp;amp;utm_term=content_marketing_subscription_newsletter_text_link_tencents-two-word-pitch-to-bring-western-brands-to-its-platform-2017-10&amp;amp;utm_content=subscription_content_marketing_text_link_2&amp;amp;utm_campaign=content_marketing_subscription_newsletter_link&amp;amp;vertical=digitalmedia&quot;&gt;BI Intelligence&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;float:right;&quot; src=&quot;http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/59e66eba909924d2008b45bf-2359/bii tencent revenue segments q2 2017.png&quot; alt=&quot;bii tencent revenue segments q2 2017&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;BI Intelligence&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: 400;&quot;&gt;Tencent is staking its claim as the main gateway into China for Western brands.&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;The tech giant recently&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.fastcompany.com/40470793/wechat-china-opens-to-us-brands-advertisers&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: 400;&quot;&gt;opened up its advertising tools&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: 400;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;to&amp;nbsp;marketers in the US &amp;mdash; building a bridge between the world&amp;rsquo;s largest and second-largest advertising markets, and giving brands new&amp;nbsp;abilities to reach Chinese audiences across its marquee messaging apps, WeChat&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2113814/chinas-tencent-taps-us-advertising-boost-wechat-revenue-growth&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: 400;&quot;&gt;and QQ&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: 400;&quot;&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: 400;&quot;&gt;To make its case to global brands and marketers, Tencent attended Advertising Week New York, the ad-industry summit held every fall, for the first time this year. BI Intelligence sat down with Steven Chang, Corporate Vice President at Tencent Online Media Group (OMG), to discuss&amp;nbsp;his company's strategy for&amp;nbsp;attracting brands&amp;nbsp;to its platforms.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: 400;&quot;&gt;According to Steven, Tencent&amp;rsquo;s strategy can be summarized in two words:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. &quot;Connector&quot; &amp;mdash; of people and businesses in China&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: 400;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;A self-described platform with &amp;ldquo;social as its DNA,&amp;rdquo; Tencent owns China&amp;rsquo;s top instant messaging and social networks &amp;mdash; WeChat (or Weixin, as it&amp;rsquo;s known locally) and QQ,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;which have 968 million and 850 million monthly users, respectively. WeChat alone had 877 million daily users in June 2017, and 10 million Official Accounts, which are akin to Facebook business Pages, at the end of 2016. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: 400;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;Each of these apps, but especially WeChat, functions as a&amp;nbsp;nexus of internet activity in China, connecting people with one another, as well as&amp;nbsp;with online and offline services. These apps' user numbers dwarf the next biggest social platform in the country, Sina Weibo, which counted 367 million monthly users at the end of Q2 2017. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-weight: 400;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;Tencent is also behind China&amp;rsquo;s second-biggest online payments platform, Tenpay, and is the biggest shareholder in the country&amp;rsquo;s second-largest online retailer, JD.com.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style=&quot;text-align: center !important;&quot;&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;display: block !important; margin: 0 auto !important;&quot; src=&quot;http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/59e66e9eddd06320008b45e7-786/bii user growth on tencent social networks wechat qq qzone.png&quot; alt=&quot;bii user growth on tencent social networks wechat qq qzone&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;BI Intelligence&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. &quot;Content&quot; &amp;mdash; an ecosystem to draw and retain users&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt; &lt;p&gt;Tencent&amp;rsquo;s other competitive advantage is the breadth of content and intellectual property (IP) featured across its apps. It's the largest online gaming company in the world by revenue. Tencent News leads the industry in China in terms of daily users. Tencent Video ranks first in China in terms of mobile video views. And Tencent Literature, its platform for online reading, counted roughly 2.5 million daily paying readers at the end of 2016.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The company also&amp;nbsp;held &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/tencent-holdings-threatens-apple-music-and-spotify-in-china-2017-1?IR=T&amp;amp;r=UK&amp;amp;IR=T&quot;&gt;77% of the Chinese music streaming&lt;/a&gt; market at the start of 2017 through its three streaming services QQ Music, Kuwo, and Kugou. In the broadcasting space, Tencent NBA reached 370 million unique users in the 2016-2017 season, with over 100 million tuning in for live games. At the end of the season, Tencent's NBA Finals broadcast attracted more than 175 million&amp;nbsp;people &amp;mdash; a world record for live streaming viewership online.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Tencent's portfolio of content allows it to experiment with IP and create custom and bespoke brand campaigns. The company&amp;nbsp;can take a successful piece of content from&amp;nbsp;any of its categories and spin it off, like taking a popular game and translating into a movie or TV show, for instance. This opens the door for brand integrations, product placements, and other forms of native advertising within Tencent's content ecosystem.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style=&quot;text-align: center !important;&quot;&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;display: block !important; margin: 0 auto !important;&quot; src=&quot;http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/59e66e879099245b018b4586-788/bii mobile time spent china tencent alibaba baidu.png&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;h2&gt;Reach in China and Beyond&lt;/h2&gt; &lt;p&gt;Altogether, Tencent&amp;nbsp;apps reach 98% of Chinese netizens and account for 55% of mobile time spent online.&amp;nbsp;WeChat accounts for 30% of total mobile time spent online in China &amp;mdash; the most of any single Chinese tech platform by a long shot &amp;mdash; but it would be remiss to not mention the popularity of other Tencent-owned apps. The karaoke app WeSing (Quanmin K Ge) had 460 million registered users in August 2017, 76% of which were monthly users, and the mobile gaming sensation Honor of Kings boasted 200 million players &amp;mdash; 55 million played the game daily, and 45% of all players were female.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Tencent can also lead brands toward some 135 million Chinese users outside of China.&amp;nbsp;The company recently began the first phase of its&amp;nbsp;international rollout&amp;nbsp;of Moments ads, which are&amp;nbsp;similar to Facebook News Feed ads, giving global brands the power to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.westoeast.com/wechat-ad/the-moment-to-act-wechat-moment-ad-is-now-available-to-overseas-advertisers/&quot;&gt;target outbound Chinese&lt;/a&gt; tourists and expatriates. China has been the world's largest outbound tourism market since 2012: Last year, its international tourism expenditure increased by $11 billion to reach $261 billion, and the number of outbound travelers increased by 6% to 135 million, per the&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://media.unwto.org/press-release/2017-04-12/chinese-tourists-spent-12-more-travelling-abroad-2016&quot;&gt;United Nations World Tourism Organization&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;img class=&quot;center&quot; src=&quot;http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/59e66ee19099241e008b45f3-784/bii digital advertising revenue of tech giants.png&quot; alt=&quot;bii digital advertising revenue of tech giants&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;BI Intelligence&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;Because its nucleus is in social networking, Tencent arguably offers the strongest combination of &amp;ldquo;connection&amp;rdquo; and &amp;ldquo;content&amp;rdquo; among any of the big Chinese tech companies.&amp;nbsp;&lt;span&gt;This is unlike Baidu, whose core product is a search engine, or Alibaba, whose specialty is online retail.&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;Yet, when it comes&amp;nbsp;to advertising revenue, Tencent still trails its local rivals and, further in the distance, global advertising juggernauts Facebook and Google. However, with approximately&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.groupm.com/news/groupm-publishes-this-year-next-year-september-edition-&quot;&gt;$188 billion expected&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to pour into digital advertising globally this year, focusing on attracting international brand spending can help Tencent make up the gap.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This&lt;span&gt; &lt;/span&gt;is a portion of an article based on an interview with Tencent's Steven Chang.&lt;span&gt; &lt;/span&gt;To&lt;span&gt; &lt;/span&gt;read the full article, sign up for access to&lt;span&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/intelligence/digitalmedia-insider?IR=T&amp;amp;utm_source=businessinsider&amp;amp;utm_medium=content_marketing&amp;amp;utm_term=content_marketing_subscription_newsletter_text_link_tencents-two-word-pitch-to-bring-western-brands-to-its-platform-2017-10&amp;amp;utm_content=subscription_content_marketing_text_link_2&amp;amp;utm_campaign=content_marketing_subscription_newsletter_link&amp;amp;vertical=digitalmedia&quot;&gt;BI Intelligence&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/tencents-strategy-to-bring-western-brands-to-its-platform-2017-10#comments&quot;&gt;Join the conversation about this story &amp;#187;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; </description> <media:thumbnail url="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/59e66eba909924d2008b45bf/chinese-tech-giant-tencent-has-a-two-word-pitch-to-bring-western-brands-to-its-platform.jpg" /> </item> <item> <guid>http://www.businessinsider.com/china-tesla-trying-to-work-out-a-deal-for-a-factory-2017-10</guid> <title>Tesla is trying to work out a deal for a factory in China (TSLA)</title> <link>http://www.businessinsider.com/china-tesla-trying-to-work-out-a-deal-for-a-factory-2017-10</link> <pubDate>Mon, 23 Oct 2017 07:14:00 -0400</pubDate> <dc:creator>Joseph White and Norihiko Shirouzu</dc:creator> <description> &lt;p&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot; src=&quot;http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/595fd30ff501841b008b4cbd-711/us-cars-a-tough-sell-in-south-korea-even-as-trump-targets-trade-deal.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;A Tesla Model S electric car is seen at its dealership in Seoul, South Korea July 6, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;Thomson Reuters&quot; data-mce-caption=&quot;A Tesla Model S electric car is seen at its dealership in Seoul&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tesla is in talks with Shanghai's municipal government to set up a factory in the region.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tesla expects a deal to be reached by the end of the year.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; &lt;hr /&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The electric-car maker Tesla Inc. on Sunday reaffirmed that it was speaking with the Shanghai municipal government to set up a factory in the region and expected to agree on a plan by the end of the year, but it declined to comment on a report that a deal had been reached.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;China levies a 25% duty on sales of imported vehicles and has not allowed foreign automakers to establish wholly owned factories in the country, the world's largest auto market. Those are problems for Tesla, which wants to expand its presence in China's growing electric-vehicle market without compromising its independence or intellectual property.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;China's government has considered allowing foreign automakers to set up wholly owned factories in free-trade zones in part to encourage more production of electric and hybrid vehicles &amp;mdash; which the government calls &quot;new energy vehicles&quot; &amp;mdash; to meet ambitious sales quotas.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Tesla would still have to pay a 25% duty on cars built in a free-trade zone, but it could lower its production costs.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Tesla on Sunday pointed to a statement it made in June that the company &quot;is working with the Shanghai Municipal Government to explore the possibility of establishing a manufacturing facility in the region to serve the Chinese market. As we&amp;rsquo;ve said before, we expect to more clearly define our plans for production in China by the end of the year.&quot;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;A Tesla representative in the US declined to comment further beyond referring to the June statement.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The Wall Street Journal reported that Tesla and the Shanghai government had reached a deal in that city's free-trade zone. Shanghai is China's de facto automotive capital and a significant market for luxury vehicles of all kinds.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The Chinese internet company Tencent Holdings Ltd has a 5% stake in Tesla and is seen as a potential ally for Tesla's efforts to enter the Chinese market.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;It was unclear whether the Chinese government would conclude a deal with Tesla to coincide with US President Donald Trump's visit next month.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said the company eventually will need vehicle and battery manufacturing centers in Europe and Asia.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Tesla is wrestling with production problems at its sole factory, in Fremont, California. It is trying to accelerate output of its new Model 3 sedan but conceded earlier this month that production bottlenecks had held third-quarter production to just 260 vehicles, well short of the 1,500 previously planned.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;(Reporting by Joe White and Nori Shirouzu; Editing by Dan Grebler)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SEE ALSO:&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/saudi-aramcos-ipo-is-on-track-for-2018-ceo-says-2017-10&quot; &gt;Saudi Aramco's IPO is on track for 2018, CEO says&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/china-tesla-trying-to-work-out-a-deal-for-a-factory-2017-10#comments&quot;&gt;Join the conversation about this story &amp;#187;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;NOW WATCH: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/asia-earth-ice-melted-rising-ocean-coastline-china-india-2015-3&quot;&gt;Animated map shows what would happen to Asia if all the Earth's ice melted&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; </description> <media:thumbnail url="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/595fd30ff501841b008b4cbd/tesla-is-trying-to-work-out-a-deal-for-a-factory-in-china.jpg" /> </item> <item> <guid>http://www.businessinsider.com/chinas-xi-has-an-ambitious-plan-to-catch-up-with-western-militaries-2017-10</guid> <title>China's Xi Jinping has an ambitious plan to catch up with Western militaries</title> <link>http://www.businessinsider.com/chinas-xi-has-an-ambitious-plan-to-catch-up-with-western-militaries-2017-10</link> <pubDate>Sun, 22 Oct 2017 16:08:34 -0400</pubDate> <dc:creator>Minnie Chan</dc:creator> <description> &lt;p&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;float:right;&quot; src=&quot;http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/58dce9ee8af57859008b4e8d-1500/xi jinping.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Xi Jinping&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;REUTERS/Jason Lee&quot; data-mce-caption=&quot;China's President Xi Jinping attends a welcoming ceremony for Madagascar's President Hery Rajaonarimampianina (not pictured) outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China March 27, 2017.&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The Chinese military will embark on a massive hardware upgrade and top personnel shake-up under President Xi Jinping&amp;rsquo;s orders for the PLA to become a world-class fighting force in the next three decades.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Laying out his ambitious plan for the People&amp;rsquo;s Liberation Army in a report to the Communist Party&amp;rsquo;s national congress on Wednesday, Xi said the PLA must modernise by 2035 and become a top-ranked military by 2050.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;A military force is built to fight. Our military must regard combat readiness as the goal for all its work and focus on how to win when it is called upon,&amp;rdquo; Xi said.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;He said technology was at the core of combat strength and the PLA needed to apply information technology and modern warfare strategies to advance.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Xi also said the military&amp;rsquo;s ongoing overhaul should include changes to the PLA&amp;rsquo;s top brass, better integration between the civilian and military sectors, and stronger border defence forces.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Military specialists said Xi was urging the PLA to ramp up equipment and troop changes and promote more young generals to put the military on a par with its Western counterparts.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/55e11d6abd86ef10008b6d48-2400/rtx1p5si.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;China army&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;REUTERS/Damir Sagolj&quot; data-mce-caption=&quot;Soldiers of China's People's Liberation Army attend a training session for a military parade to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two, at a military base in Beijing, China, August 22, 2015.&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The PLA has been through an upheaval this year, with its seven military regions trimmed down to five theatre commands and the navy benefiting from a major build-up.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The changes come as China continues to bicker with its neighbours over claims in the South and East China seas and is extending its military presence abroad, setting up a base in Djibouti.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Beijing has also been driven to modernise by the US&amp;rsquo; military deployment in the Asia-Pacific and Washington&amp;rsquo;s defence ties with China&amp;rsquo;s neighbours.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Beijing-based military expert Zhou Chenming said the 2050 goal suggested Xi felt China faced the looming threat of a security crisis.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;After several decades of peace with the end of the cold war, China is now facing a lot of security challenges, and Xi foresees that a war could happen at any time. But the PLA&amp;rsquo;s fighting capacity still lags behind those of the world&amp;rsquo;s superpowers like the United States,&amp;rdquo; Zhou said.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/551db2bd69bedd705ef956b2-2400/rtr4vuih.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;china army advisors&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;Reuters/Samrang Pring&quot; data-mce-caption=&quot;Chinese army advisors walk at a classroom after a graduation ceremony at Army Institute in Kampong Speu province March 12, 2015. &quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Military analysts also said the powerful Central Military Commission, which Xi chairs, was destined for big changes. Nearly 90 per cent of the military delegates to the party congress are new faces while two CMC heavyweights have been ousted.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In the past two months, General Fang Fenghui, former head of the CMC&amp;rsquo;s Joint Staff Department, has been replaced by General Li Zuocheng, a decorated veteran of the Sino-Vietnamese war; and General Zhang Yang, former head of the commission&amp;rsquo;s Political Work Department has been sacked and his position filled by Admiral Miao Hua, formerly the PLA Navy&amp;rsquo;s political commissar.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;float:right;&quot; src=&quot;http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/536a8a7aecad04d22c09b1fb-2400/rtr3o2yl.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;chinese soldiers&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;Jason Lee/Reuters&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Military sources said Xi would probably put his own men in key CMC positions to push through his reforms.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Among the front runners for advancement are Li; CMC vice-chairman Xu Qiliang; General Zhang Youxia, a former CMC member who oversaw equipment development and space projects; and General Wei Fenghe, former commander of the newly establishment Rocket Force.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Hong Kong-based military observer Liang Guoliang said Xi might promote more generals like Li with real combat experience or other young innovative senior officers to the CMC.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Xi understands that China&amp;rsquo;s military strategies created by Mao Zedong, such as partisan tactics and the human wave strategy, are all outdated. Only new generals are willing to come up with new thinking to meet the military&amp;rsquo;s modernisation,&amp;rdquo; Liang said.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SEE ALSO:&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/the-us-navy-and-coast-guard-are-looking-to-play-catch-up-in-the-arctic-2017-10&quot; &gt;The US Navy and Coast Guard are looking to play catch-up in the Arctic&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/chinas-xi-has-an-ambitious-plan-to-catch-up-with-western-militaries-2017-10#comments&quot;&gt;Join the conversation about this story &amp;#187;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;NOW WATCH: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/china-beijing-daxing-airport-biggest-in-world-2017-10&quot;&gt;China is building a mega-airport in Beijing that will open in 2019&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; </description> <media:thumbnail url="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/59ecf9a7ddd06320008b65d2/chinas-xi-jinping-has-an-ambitious-plan-to-catch-up-with-western-militaries.jpg" /> </item> <item> <guid>http://www.businessinsider.com/blackrock-geopolitical-risks-2017-10</guid> <title>BLACKROCK: 10 geopolitical risks we’re watching</title> <link>http://www.businessinsider.com/blackrock-geopolitical-risks-2017-10</link> <pubDate>Sun, 22 Oct 2017 13:00:00 -0400</pubDate> <dc:creator>Isabelle Mateos y Lago</dc:creator> <description> &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/561b94ff9dd7ccfc418b5da0-2400/rts40su.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Kim Jong Un&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;Reuters/KCNA KCNA&quot; data-mce-caption=&quot;North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (L) and senior Chinese Communist Party official Liu Yunshan (R) wave during celebration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea.&quot; data-link=&quot;https://pictures.reuters.com/CS.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&amp;amp;ALID=2C0FQEC0N84Z&amp;amp;VBID=2C0FC0EAK40S&amp;amp;POPUPPN=17&amp;amp;POPUPIID=2C0FQECYJ6TM&quot; /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Markets are calm, but there are many geopolitical risks simmering.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BlackRock is watching three in particular:&amp;nbsp;the North American trade neogtiations, North Korea, and the deteriorating US-China relations.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Most geopolitical shocks have short-lived market impacts, except in regions directly affected.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; &lt;hr /&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Markets may be a sea of calm, but geopolitics are anything but.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;We have our eyes on 10 geopolitical risks and are tracking their likelihood and potential market impact, as we write in our&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.blackrock.com/corporate/en-us/literature/whitepaper/bii-global-investment-outlook-midyear-2017-us.pdf?cid=blog:bii:blackrockblog:isabelle&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Global Investment Outlook Q4 2017&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span&gt;. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;See the&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;em&gt;A world of risk&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;map below for a quick snapshot of the risks we&amp;rsquo;re watching.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/59e8b443ddd0634e008b56de-800/37750riskmap6v3blog.png&quot; alt=&quot;blackrock risk map&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;BlackRock&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;So which ones are we most worried about? Our top three right now: North American trade negotiations, a North Korea conflict and U.S.-China tensions, with the second and third particularly interrelated.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;North American trade negotiations&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt; &lt;p&gt;The fourth round of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) renegotiations ended this week, with Mexico and Canada rejecting what they view as harsh U.S. proposals. Still, news reports did suggest apparent progress on less contentious parts of the agreement, and the negotiations aren&amp;rsquo;t over. The next round of talks are scheduled to take place in Mexico next month.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Our base case is that successful negotiations will be completed in early 2018. However, our hopes for this outcome have recently diminished given tough positions from U.S. negotiators and threatening rhetoric from U.S. President Donald Trump that has resulted in greater uncertainty. Market risks are biased to the downside given that a good outcome is priced in, in both Canadian and Mexican markets.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;North Korea&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt; &lt;p&gt;We view North Korea&amp;rsquo;s missile and nuclear weapons program as a major threat to regional stability, U.S. security and nuclear non-proliferation. The possibility of armed conflict has risen, we believe, given North Korea&amp;rsquo;s missile launches over Japan, a nuclear test and an intense war of words. This has raised the chance of misstep or miscalculation, and we could see limited action such as the shooting down of missiles.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Yet we currently see a low probability of all-out war; the costs are too high on all sides. Instead, we expect the U.S. to intensify its &amp;ldquo;peaceful pressure&amp;rdquo; campaign, evident in imposing unilateral sanctions and leaning hard on China to participate. We see the crisis straining U.S.-China relations just as economic tensions are rising.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Deteriorating U.S.-China relations&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt; &lt;p&gt;We see frictions between the U.S. and China heating up over time. The countries risk falling into the &amp;ldquo;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_T._Allison&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot;&gt;Thucydides Trap&lt;/a&gt;,&amp;rdquo; a term coined by Harvard scholar Graham Allison to describe clashes between rising powers and established ones. We see trade and market access disputes straining an increasingly competitive U.S.-China relationship in the long run, and believe markets have yet to factor in this gradual deterioration.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In the short term, tensions could rise if Chinese President Xi Jinping pursues an even more nationalistic agenda in the wake of the National People&amp;rsquo;s Congress. Economic tit for tats could lead to an erosion of relations&amp;mdash;and have sector-specific effects.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;U.S. military action against North Korea and/or an accidental clash in the South China Sea would deal a blow to the relationship, in our view, and hurt risk assets. But our base case is that the U.S. and China avoid these land mines in the short term, and try to use President Trump&amp;rsquo;s upcoming visit to emphasize cooperation.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;So what does this all mean for portfolios? Most geopolitical shocks have short-lived market impacts, except in regions directly affected. We view long-term government bonds as useful diversifiers against volatility and equity market selloffs sparked by such shocks. Read more in our full&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.blackrock.com/corporate/en-us/literature/whitepaper/bii-global-investment-outlook-midyear-2017-us.pdf?cid=blog:bii:blackrockblog:isabelle&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Global Investment Outlook Q4 2017&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://blackrockblog.com/author/imateosylago/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Isabelle Mateos y Lago&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;is BlackRock&amp;rsquo;s Chief Multi-Asset Strategist. She is a regular contributor to&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.blackrockblog.com/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Blog&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SEE ALSO:&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/isis-aiming-at-africa-2017-10&quot; &gt;ISIS is taking aim at Africa&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/blackrock-geopolitical-risks-2017-10#comments&quot;&gt;Join the conversation about this story &amp;#187;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;NOW WATCH: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-nfl-league-usfl-sued-tweet-three-dollars-2017-9&quot;&gt;Trump once won a lawsuit against the NFL — but the result was an embarrassment&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; </description> <media:thumbnail url="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/59e8b311909924f2268b4ead/blackrock-10-geopolitical-risks-were-watching.jpg" /> </item> <item> <guid>http://www.businessinsider.com/hong-kong-housing-crisis-coffin-cubicles-photos-2017-10</guid> <title>Terrifying, first-person photos show the claustrophobic conditions inside Hong Kong's 'coffin cubicles'</title> <link>http://www.businessinsider.com/hong-kong-housing-crisis-coffin-cubicles-photos-2017-10</link> <pubDate>Sat, 21 Oct 2017 09:35:00 -0400</pubDate> <dc:creator>Sarah Jacobs</dc:creator> <description> &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/59ea23ddddd0634e008b611f-1500/shot 44728r.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;shot 44728r&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;Benny Lam&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Hong Kong is in the midst of a housing crisis. As prices begin to rise and the city grows denser, some have resorted to living in the smallest of spaces.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Since 2012, photographer Benny Lam has been documenting&amp;nbsp;the housing situation in Hong Kong by focusing his camera on what have become known as &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/hong-kong-coffin-homes-housing-crisis-2017-6/&quot;&gt;coffin homes&lt;/a&gt;&quot; or &quot;coffin cubicles.&quot; Some of these homes are as small as 20 square feet, and most have no windows. Diseases can easily spread among&amp;nbsp;the more than&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://globalnews.ca/news/3192633/people-are-living-in-coffin-homes-because-of-hong-kongs-skyrocketing-property-prices/&quot;&gt;200,000 people&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;that live in the tight quarters of these homes.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;With help from the Society for Community Organization, which&amp;nbsp;fights for&amp;nbsp;human rights in Hong Kong, Lam has been able to exhibit his work and help spread the word about these dangerous&amp;nbsp;living conditions. See some of this photos below.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SEE ALSO:&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/these-chinese-cities-are-ghost-towns-2017-4&quot; &gt;12 eerie photos of enormous Chinese cities completely empty of people&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;h3&gt;Lam's series is titled &quot;Trapped.&quot;&lt;/h3&gt; &lt;img src=&quot;http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/59ea23dd90992439008b5e42-400-300/lams-series-is-titled-trapped.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt; &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;h3&gt;His work was recently recognized by Prix Pictet, a photography award that highlights work documenting environmental sustainability issues.&lt;/h3&gt; &lt;img src=&quot;http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/59ea23ddddd063d34a8b561f-400-300/his-work-was-recently-recognized-by-prix-pictet-a-photography-award-that-highlights-work-documenting-environmental-sustainability-issues.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt; &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;h3&gt;Hong Kong does not have much land that is suitable for development, and the city is getting denser.&lt;/h3&gt; &lt;img src=&quot;http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/59ea23ddddd0632d008b60cf-400-300/hong-kong-does-not-have-much-land-that-is-suitable-for-development-and-the-city-is-getting-denser.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt; &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/hong-kong-housing-crisis-coffin-cubicles-photos-2017-10#/#these-spaces-can-only-fit-one-person-which-has-forced-some-families-to-separate-4&quot;&gt;See the rest of the story at Business Insider&lt;/a&gt; </description> <media:thumbnail url="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/59ea4a07ddd063a2768b5353/terrifying-first-person-photos-show-the-claustrophobic-conditions-inside-hong-kongs-coffin-cubicles.jpg" /> </item> <item> <guid>http://www.businessinsider.com/president-xi-jinping-china-successor-2017-10</guid> <title>Why China's president is unlikely to anoint a successor</title> <link>http://www.businessinsider.com/president-xi-jinping-china-successor-2017-10</link> <pubDate>Fri, 20 Oct 2017 20:00:00 -0400</pubDate> <description> &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/57a994f1ce38f245188b56a6-1500/xi jinping.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Xi Jinping&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;REUTERS/Marko Djurica&quot; data-mce-caption=&quot;Chinese President Xi Jinping smiles after a joint news statement with Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic after their meeting in Belgrade, Serbia June 18, 2016.&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The man once believed to become Chinese President Xi Jinping's successor is now fading from power.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Another political rising star is expected to be promoted to the Politburo, but will not likely be advanced to a higher committee.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If both politicians are not promoted to the Politburo Standing Committee, there may be no presumptive heir to take over from Xi Jinping.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; &lt;hr /&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The man once tipped to become President Xi Jinping&amp;rsquo;s successor, Guangdong party boss Hu Chunhua, is likely to become a vice-premier in March but his prospects of inclusion in the Communist Party&amp;rsquo;s top echelon of power, the Politburo Standing Committee, are fading, sources have told the South China Morning Post.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Meanwhile, Chongqing party boss Chen Miner, another rising star who is widely seen as the president&amp;rsquo;s prot&amp;eacute;g&amp;eacute;, is expected to win promotion to the 25-member Politburo but will probably not make it into the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee, sources familiar with top-level party discussions said.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Hu is already a Politburo member while Chen is now a Central Committee member &amp;mdash; one rank lower in the party hierarchy. The Politburo Standing Committee sits on top, making it the highest decision-making body in Chinese politics.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;If Hu, 54, and Chen, 57, do not win promotion to the Politburo Standing Committee next week, after the party&amp;rsquo;s national congress concludes on Tuesday, it would contain no putative heir in the position to take over from Xi after he completes his second five-year term as party general secretary in 2022.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Another contender, 54-year-old former Chongqing party chief Sun Zhengcai, suffered a spectacular fall from grace this year. He was expelled from the party last month and is now facing criminal prosecution for corruption.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;float:right;&quot; src=&quot;http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/59ea81ffddd063a2768b55a8-2400/gettyimages-863015766.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Chen Miner&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;Lintao Zhang/Getty Images&quot; data-mce-caption=&quot;BEIJING, CHINA - OCTOBER 19: Chongqing Communist Party Secretary Chen Miner attends a meeting of the 19th Communist Party Congress at the Great Hall of the People on October 19, 2017 in Beijing, China. The 19th CPC National Congress is going to run 7 days and a new central committee of CPC will be produced.&quot; /&gt;Such arrangements, if confirmed, will inevitably add to speculation that Xi plans to carry on beyond his second term. But sources said it was premature to draw such a conclusion.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Rather, they said, it reflected Xi&amp;rsquo;s dissatisfaction with the party&amp;rsquo;s present power transition mechanism. While it provides some certainty and stability, it also has some problems.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Leadership transitions in China have historically been a difficult and risky process. Mao Zedong changed his chosen successor three times, with the first two dying in controversial circumstances. Deng Xiaoping, after pushing aside Mao&amp;rsquo;s last pick, Hua Guofeng, ditched two of his own prot&amp;eacute;g&amp;eacute;s before endorsing a third, Jiang Zemin.&lt;br /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;Only in 2002 did the party leadership transition begin to have any resemblance to an institutionalized process. That year Jiang stepped down for Hu Jintao, Xi&amp;rsquo;s predecessor. Hu Jintao had been a Politburo Standing Committee member for 10 years by then, having been elevated to that position by Deng in 1992 as Jiang&amp;rsquo;s &amp;ldquo;designated successor&amp;rdquo;. Even then, Jiang only vacated the powerful chairmanship of the Central Military Commission two years later.&lt;br /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;In 2012, Hu handed over all his party positions to Xi, who had been promoted to the Politburo Standing Committee in 2007 and became vice-president the following year. Xi publicly praised Hu&amp;rsquo;s &amp;ldquo;high ethics&amp;rdquo; for making a clean break possible.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Sources said that while the practice of having a &amp;ldquo;designated successor&amp;rdquo; waiting in the wings could give a sense of stability, it also put premature pressure on that person. Both Xi and Hu Jintao had to play the role of a cautious heir-apparent for years, taking care not to reveal too much of themselves or upstage their seniors.&lt;br /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&amp;ldquo;It also makes the heir-apparent an easy target,&amp;rdquo; one source said. &amp;ldquo;Other factions could set up traps to undermine him. People looking for advancement would seek to curry favour with him.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;float:right;&quot; src=&quot;http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/59ea8271ddd063d34a8b5a98-848/gettyimages-862983348.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Hu Chunhua&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;Lintao Zhang/Getty Images&quot; data-mce-caption=&quot;BEIJING, CHINA - OCTOBER 19: Hu Chunhua, Secretary of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee, attends a meeting of the 19th Communist Party Congress at the Great Hall of the People on October 19, 2017 in Beijing, China. The 19th CPC National Congress is going to run 7 days and a new central committee of CPC will be produced.&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;There was a risk a strong candidate could end up competing with the incumbent leader for influence. A weak heir-apparent, on the other hand, would create openings that would encourage factional rivalry and jockeying for power.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Sun Zhengcai&amp;rsquo;s case, and the timing of its revelation, is a strong indication that Xi wants to break away from the designated successor system and reform it,&amp;rdquo; the source said.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;While details of Xi&amp;rsquo;s plan were not immediately clear, the general idea was to eventually choose a successor from several possible candidates in a bigger pool, based on their performance.&lt;br /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&amp;ldquo;Xi is in no hurry to settle on the issue for now,&amp;rdquo; the source said. &amp;ldquo;His priority and focus is how to make use of his second term to achieve his goals. A lot of things can happen in five years.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The party&amp;rsquo;s 19th national congress opened on Wednesday and will close on Tuesday. The new party Central Committee it elects will have its first plenum meeting the following day and officially produce the new line-up for the Politburo and the Politburo Standing Committee &amp;ndash; thus completing the party&amp;rsquo;s leadership reshuffle.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The party leaders will then discuss and decide on personnel changes at the state level at the Central Committee&amp;rsquo;s second plenum in the spring, just ahead of the annual meeting of the National People&amp;rsquo;s Congress in March, which will formally endorse the proposed changes.&lt;br /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;Both Hu Chunhua and Chen are most likely to be in the 25-member Politburo when the new list is unveiled next Wednesday, but would have to wait until March to have their new government posts confirmed.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Hu Chunhua, who has been the party chief of Inner Mongolia and Guangdong, has already garnered rich experience at the provincial level, preparing him for the vice-premier role.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Chen has been praised for his work on poverty alleviation and innovation in his previous post of Guizhou party chief. He was transferred to Chongqing in July to steady the boat after Sun&amp;rsquo;s shock removal &amp;ndash; a move seen by political pundits as a show of leadership confidence in Chen.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SEE ALSO:&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/when-will-china-overtake-world-power-xi-jinping-2017-10&quot; &gt;Xi Jinping declares China's intent to be a 'leading power' by 2050&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/president-xi-jinping-china-successor-2017-10#comments&quot;&gt;Join the conversation about this story &amp;#187;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;NOW WATCH: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/lash-tabs-square-patch-backpacks-hiking-gear-trend-2017-1&quot;&gt;Here's what that square patch on your backpack is actually used for&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; </description> <media:thumbnail url="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/59ea7f5addd0631c008b648c/why-chinas-president-is-unlikely-to-anoint-a-successor.jpg" /> </item> <item> <guid>http://www.businessinsider.com/worlds-largest-cities-megacity-cost-of-living-2017-10</guid> <title>Here's how much it would cost you to live in the 10 largest megacities around the world</title> <link>http://www.businessinsider.com/worlds-largest-cities-megacity-cost-of-living-2017-10</link> <pubDate>Fri, 20 Oct 2017 11:30:00 -0400</pubDate> <dc:creator>Tanza Loudenback</dc:creator> <description> &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/59ea14d2ddd0631c1e8b5b49-1705/tokyo.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;tokyo&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;Shutterstock&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The world's largest cities, called megacities, have more than 10 million residents.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;By 2030 the UN predicts there will be 41 megacities, up from 31 now.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Finding affordable housing can be&amp;nbsp;a challenge in large cities.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; &lt;hr /&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In 1975, just three of the world's urban centers &amp;mdash; Tokyo, New York, and Mexico City &amp;mdash; had more than 10 million residents.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Now, about 7% of people live in cities with eight-figure populations, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/publications/pdf/urbanization/the_worlds_cities_in_2016_data_booklet.pdf&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot;&gt;according to the United Nations&lt;/a&gt;. They even have a special name: megacities.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The UN projects the global number of megacities to grow from 31 to 41 by 2030, housing some 8.7% of the global population.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Tokyo, Japan, is the largest city in the world with 38 million residents. That's about 12 million more people than New Delhi, India, the second-largest. Although Tokyo is projected to lose approximately 1 million residents by 2030, it's expected to remain the top megacity, according to the UN.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But with rapidly increasing populations, many of these urban centers face major housing shortages. By 2025, 1.6 billion people could struggle to find decent housing that doesn't eat up more than 30% of their income, the standard measure of housing affordability, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.mckinsey.com/global-themes/urbanization/tackling-the-worlds-affordable-housing-challenge&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot;&gt;according to a report by McKinsey&lt;/a&gt;. Ultimately, there could be 106 million more low-income households in cities by 2025.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Below is a list of the 10 largest megacities in the world. For each, we've included population in 1975, population projections for 2030, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.brookings.edu/research/redefining-global-cities/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot;&gt;GDP per capita&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot;&gt;the cost of monthly rent and utilities in the city&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SEE ALSO:&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/worlds-most-livable-cities-cost-of-living-2017-9&quot; &gt;Here are the world's top 10 most livable cities — and how much it costs to live there&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;DON'T MISS:&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/maps-show-megacities-expansion-over-the-last-30-years-2017-10/&quot; &gt;Mesmerizing maps show how much megacities have expanded over the last 30 years&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;h3&gt;New York, United States: 19 million people&lt;/h3&gt; &lt;img src=&quot;http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/59dd2b396d80ad1b768b4af8-400-300/new-york-united-states-19-million-people.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Population in 1975:&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;16 million&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Projected population in 2030:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;20 million&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;GDP per capita:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;$74,000&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Monthly rent and utilities:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;$3,057&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;h3&gt;Cairo, Egypt: 19 million people&lt;/h3&gt; &lt;img src=&quot;http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/59dd344e92406c211b8b5576-400-300/cairo-egypt-19-million-people.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Population in 1975:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;6 million&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Projected population in 2030:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;24 million&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;GDP per capita:&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;$7,843&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Monthly rent and utilities:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;$206&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;h3&gt;Osaka, Japan: 20 million people&lt;/h3&gt; &lt;img src=&quot;http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/59dd2bde92406c2a008b5922-400-300/osaka-japan-20-million-people.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Population in 1975:&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;10 million&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Projected population in 2030:&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;20 million&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;GDP per capita:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;$36,335&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Monthly rent and utilities:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;$1,174&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/worlds-largest-cities-megacity-cost-of-living-2017-10#/#mexico-city-mexico-21-million-people-4&quot;&gt;See the rest of the story at Business Insider&lt;/a&gt; </description> <media:thumbnail url="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/56a10f28e6183e50008bb11f/heres-how-much-it-would-cost-you-to-live-in-the-10-largest-megacities-around-the-world.jpg" /> </item> <item> <guid>http://www.businessinsider.com/transportation-and-logistics-briefing-lyft-raises-1-billion-led-by-alphabet-idg-capital-and-foxconn-to-invest-in-auto-startups-faa-opening-up-airspace-for-commercial-drones-2017-10</guid> <title>TRANSPORTATION AND LOGISTICS BRIEFING: Lyft raises $1 billion, led by Alphabet — IDG Capital and Foxconn to invest in auto startups — FAA opening up airspace for commercial drones</title> <link>http://www.businessinsider.com/transportation-and-logistics-briefing-lyft-raises-1-billion-led-by-alphabet-idg-capital-and-foxconn-to-invest-in-auto-startups-faa-opening-up-airspace-for-commercial-drones-2017-10</link> <pubDate>Fri, 20 Oct 2017 09:30:00 -0400</pubDate> <dc:creator>Nicholas Shields and Jonathan Camhi</dc:creator> <description> &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Welcome to Transportation &amp;amp; Logistics Briefing, a new morning email providing the latest news, data, and insight on how digital technology is disrupting transportation and delivery, produced by BI Intelligence.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/intelligence/transportation-and-logistics-briefing&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot;&gt;Sign up and receive Transportation &amp;amp; Logistics Briefing free to your inbox.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Have feedback? We'd like to hear from you. Write me at:&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;mailto:jcamhi@businessinsider.com&quot;&gt;jcamhi@businessinsider.com&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;hr /&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;LYFT GAINS $1 BILLION IN NEW FUNDING LED BY ALPHABET:&lt;/strong&gt; US ride-hailing startup Lyft &lt;a href=&quot;https://blog.lyft.com/posts/alphabet-capitalg-leads-1-billion-round-in-lyft&quot;&gt;announced&lt;/a&gt; that it has closed a new $1 billion funding round led by CapitalAG, Alphabet&amp;rsquo;s growth investment fund. The new round valued Lyft at $11 billion, up from its previous valuation of $7.5 billion in March of this year.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The new funding signals Alphabet and Lyft are deepening their partnership as Alphabet&amp;rsquo;s relationship with Uber sours.&lt;/strong&gt; Lyft &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/14/technology/lyft-waymo-self-driving-cars.html?_r=0&quot;&gt;partnered&lt;/a&gt; earlier this year with Waymo, Alphabet&amp;rsquo;s self-driving car spinoff, to collaborate on technology development and tests for autonomous vehicles. As part of the new investment round, CapitalAG partner David Lawee will join Lyft&amp;rsquo;s board. Alphabet&amp;rsquo;s other investment arm, Google Ventures, has &lt;a href=&quot;https://gizmodo.com/a-brief-history-of-uber-and-googles-very-complicated-re-1792713811&quot;&gt;invested&lt;/a&gt; more than $300 million in Uber, making it Google Ventures&amp;rsquo; biggest investment ever. However, the&amp;nbsp;Alphabet and Uber are now engaged in a contentious legal battle over alleged theft of documents related to Alphabet&amp;rsquo;s self-driving technology, which is set to go to &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/3/16413422/uber-waymo-trial-date-postponed&quot;&gt;trial&lt;/a&gt; in December. A deep relationship the Waymo-Alphabet family is extremely beneficial for Lyft, as Waymo&amp;rsquo;s self-driving technology, which the company has been testing since 2009, is among the most advanced in the world. It could help Lyft incorporate autonomous vehicles into its ride-hailing service before Uber does, thus realizing the huge cost advantages of driverless vehicles.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lyft will be able to use the funding to continue its rapid growth in the US and to expand internationally.&lt;/strong&gt; Lyft is now available to 95% of consumers in the US. The company also booked more total rides in the first half of this year than in all of last year, and grew its gross bookings by 25% sequentially in Q2, compared to Uber&amp;rsquo;s 17% growth in the quarter. Meanwhile, media outlets reported earlier this year that Lyft could enter Canada by the end of this year, and is already contemplating other international markets as well, including the UK and Australia. This would allow Lyft to put pressure on Uber in multiple markets while the bigger ride-hailing firm fights through an array of legal challenges and fills out a number of empty executive positions.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/59bc1e7038d20d2a008b6cc6-2400/uber lyft rides updated logo.png&quot; alt=&quot;uber lyft rides updated logo&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;BI Intelligence&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;FOXCONN, IDG TO RAISE $1.5 BILLION FOR AUTO STARTUP FUND: &lt;/strong&gt;Foxconn and Beijing-based private equity firm IDG Capital are looking to raise $1.5 billion for an investment fund for automotive startups in China, Japan, and the US, according to &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-18/foxconn-idg-are-said-to-seek-1-5-billion-for-car-tech-fund-j8wdwhlj&quot;&gt;Bloomberg&lt;/a&gt;. This could include companies working in connected car, self-driving, ride-hailing, and electric vehicle (EV) spaces. Under the proposed plan, both companies would invest 10% of the $1.5 billion, and would raise the rest from the governments and financial institutions as well as other investors.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Foxconn hopes moving further into the automotive space will help supplement its core electronics manufacturing business&lt;/strong&gt;. The company, which assembles Apple&amp;rsquo;s iPhone, recently started moving into the automotive world &amp;mdash; earlier this year it participated in a Series F funding round for electric carmaker Future Mobility.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;China in particular could provide a massive opportunity for companies developing new car technologies.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The country is already the world&amp;rsquo;s largest automotive market, &lt;/strong&gt;according to McKinsey &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/automotive-and-assembly/our-insights/riding-chinas-huge-high-flying-car-market?cid=other-soc-twi-mip-mck-oth-1710&amp;amp;kui=XKccY2Z3qFTnlscrCuL8qQ&quot;&gt;estimates&lt;/a&gt;. In fact,&amp;nbsp;40% more vehicles were sold in China than in all of Europe last year.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Changes in government policies will create a larger opportunity for electric and autonomous vehicles. &lt;/strong&gt;The country&amp;rsquo;s government recently &lt;a href=&quot;http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/11/news/china-gas-electric-car-ban/index.html&quot;&gt;began working&lt;/a&gt; on a timeframe for banning gas and diesel cars from its roads, which could happen as soon as 2020. That will drastically expand the market for EVs, and could also expand the market for self-driving cars since their technologies &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2016/09/19/why-most-self-driving-cars-electric/90614734/&quot;&gt;work better&lt;/a&gt; with electric motors than with gas engines.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But the companies aren&amp;rsquo;t alone in eyeing the global automotive startup space. &lt;/strong&gt;Chinese search giant Baidu consolidated its self-driving investments into a similar &lt;a href=&quot;https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/21/baidu-announces-1-5b-fund-to-back-self-driving-car-startups/&quot;&gt;fund&lt;/a&gt; earlier this year to help accelerate the development of its Apollo open self-driving platform. Meanwhile, Softbank&amp;rsquo;s Vision Fund has invested in several auto startups, and is &lt;a href=&quot;https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/16/uber-softbank-deal-very-likely-to-be-finalized-in-the-next-week/&quot;&gt;on the verge&lt;/a&gt; of a major investment in Uber, while Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/01/didi-chuxing-says-to-invest-and-partner-with-ubers-european-rival-taxify.html&quot;&gt;poured&lt;/a&gt; several millions into European ride-hailing firm Taxify. These investments have helped global venture funding for automotive startups working on connected, autonomous, and cybersecurity technologies climb to $2.8 billion in&amp;nbsp;aggregate since 2012, according to &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.cbinsights.com/research/auto-tech-startups-2016-recap/&quot;&gt;CB Insights&lt;/a&gt;. That amount is dwarfed by the $30.4 billion that venture capital firms have &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.cbinsights.com/research/auto-tech-startups-2016-recap/&quot;&gt;invested&lt;/a&gt; in global ride-hailing startups over the same period.&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;FAA OPENING UP COMMERCIAL DRONE USE CASES:&lt;/strong&gt; Several updates this week indicate that the FAA is moving forward with easing restrictions on businesses looking to use drones for commercial purposes.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Within the next few days, the FAA is &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wsj.com/articles/white-house-to-test-federal-local-sharing-of-drone-regulation-1508320807?mod=djemlogistics&quot;&gt;expected&lt;/a&gt; to announce a series of tests involving several programs designed to link federal, state, and local regulations.&lt;/strong&gt; The goal is to reduce FAA authority to commercial drones flying at altitudes between 200-400 feet, with state and local government responsible for lower altitude flights. Right now, the FAA has oversight responsibilities for all commercial drone flights in the US. However, many states, counties, and localities have developed their own drone regulations as well. The tests aim to clarify this regulatory patchwork by drawing distinct areas of jurisdiction for different levels of government in order to simplify compliance for businesses launching drones.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The FAA also &lt;a href=&quot;https://skyward.io/skyward-is-an-faa-approved-laanc-airspace-vendor/&quot;&gt;awarded&lt;/a&gt; Verizon-owned enterprise drone software company Skyward approval to give commercial drones instant access to controlled airspace. &lt;/strong&gt;The approval means that companies using Skyward&amp;rsquo;s drone management platform can get instant authorization to fly drones near airports in Cincinnati, Reno, San Jose, and Lincoln, Nebraska. That authorization will be enabled by the FAA&amp;rsquo;s Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC) software &lt;a href=&quot;https://jrupprechtlaw.com/low-altitude-authorization-notification-capability-laanc-system&quot;&gt;service&lt;/a&gt;. The service, which cuts the time it takes to gain approval for temporary commercial drone flights in restricted airspace from months down to minutes, is currently being tested by the FAA with a number of drone software vendors, including Skyward. It will be expanded to a nationwide test in early 2018.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Finally, the FAA also &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.engadget.com/2017/10/18/cnn-gets-the-first-faa-waiver-to-fly-drones-over-crowds/?sr_source=Twitter&quot;&gt;granted&lt;/a&gt; CNN the first ever waiver to fly drones over public crowds,&lt;/strong&gt; allowing the news organization to collect aerial footage over public events. CNN said that it took two years of research together with drone manufacturer Vantage Robotics to gain the necessary FAA approval and pilot certifications.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Companies looking to use drones are likely encouraged by these announcements, which show the FAA is committed to making progress on commercial drone regulations.&lt;/strong&gt; The US has trailed behind other major markets like the EU and China in opening up airspace for commercial drones. Recent news &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/transportation-and-logistics-briefing-lyft-to-test-self-driving-cars-in-california-update-on-faa-commercial-drone-regulations-postmates-expands-prime-style-subscription-service-2017-9&quot;&gt;reports&lt;/a&gt; have suggested that law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, have hamstrung efforts to expand commercial drone approvals by the FAA over safety concerns. This has led to speculation that the FAA may delay the new set of commercial drones regulations it is scheduled to issue next year. Drone operators can take this week&amp;rsquo;s news as a clear signal that the FAA is trying to make progress on this front by making it easier to operate in previously restricted airspace and streamlining compliance procedures.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In other news&amp;hellip;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mitsubishi will invest $5 billion over the next three years on research and development and to revamp its factories around the world, &lt;/strong&gt;according to &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wsj.com/articles/mitsubishi-motors-maps-out-road-to-recovery-after-fuel-economy-scandal-1508301299?mod=djemlogistics&quot;&gt;The Wall Street Journal&lt;/a&gt;. The money will be used to explore new vehicles, including a potential lineup of electric vehicles. The company hopes this effort, which was made possible by an investment from Nissan&amp;nbsp;last&amp;nbsp;fall, will help it overcome a tattered image and financial losses in the wake of a scandal where it was found to have falsified fuel economy data about its vehicles.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nissan announced that its 2018 Rogue crossover models will come with an option to add a semi-autonomous feature, known as ProPilot Assist,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;according to &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.engadget.com/2017/10/19/nissans-rogue-is-its-first-us-car-with-semi-autonomous-driving/?sr_source=Twitter&quot;&gt;Engadget&lt;/a&gt;. The feature will cost about $11,000 extra, and allows drivers to take their hands off the wheel during single-lane highway driving.&amp;nbsp;ProPilot Assist keeps the vehicle in-lane, adapts to the speed of traffic, and alerts drivers when other vehicles are in its blind spots. The vehicle is one of a handful of semi-autonomous cars currently on the market, including some Audi, Cadillac, and BMW sedans, and all of Tesla&amp;rsquo;s electric cars.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/transportation-and-logistics-briefing-lyft-raises-1-billion-led-by-alphabet-idg-capital-and-foxconn-to-invest-in-auto-startups-faa-opening-up-airspace-for-commercial-drones-2017-10#comments&quot;&gt;Join the conversation about this story &amp;#187;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; </description> <media:thumbnail url="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/59e8fd85ddd0631c008b5aac/transportation-and-logistics-briefing-lyft-raises-1-billion-led-by-alphabet--idg-capital-and-foxconn-to-invest-in-auto-startups--faa-opening-up-airspace-for-commercial-drones.jpg" /> </item> <item> <guid>http://www.businessinsider.com/moscow-wants-backing-on-a-russia-chinese-roadmap-for-north-korea-2017-10</guid> <title>Moscow wants the world to get behind a Russia-Chinese roadmap to dealing with North Korea</title> <link>http://www.businessinsider.com/moscow-wants-backing-on-a-russia-chinese-roadmap-for-north-korea-2017-10</link> <pubDate>Fri, 20 Oct 2017 04:49:00 -0400</pubDate> <dc:creator>Christian Lowe</dc:creator> <description> &lt;p&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;float:right;&quot; src=&quot;http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/59e9b6655124c98f4e5d225b-728/moscow-seeks-support-for-russia-chinese-roadmap-on-north-korea.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;FILE PHOTO: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaks during a joint news conference with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian following their meeting in Moscow, Russia June 20, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin &quot; data-mce-source=&quot;Thomson Reuters&quot; data-mce-caption=&quot;Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov speaks during a joint news conference with French Foreign Minister Le Drian following their meeting in Moscow&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged world powers on Friday to get behind a joint Russian-Chinese roadmap for settling the crisis over North Korea's weapons program.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Speaking at a conference on non-proliferation in Moscow, Lavrov said that the break-up of a deal on Iran's nuclear program would send an alarming message about international security mechanisms, and could impact the situation on the Korean peninsula.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SEE ALSO:&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-nuclear-missile-atmospheric-test-pacific-2017-10&quot; &gt;North Korea has been threatening an aboveground nuclear detonation — here's how it could go down&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/moscow-wants-backing-on-a-russia-chinese-roadmap-for-north-korea-2017-10#comments&quot;&gt;Join the conversation about this story &amp;#187;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;NOW WATCH: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/annoying-hidden-changes-new-iphone-ios11-update-2017-10&quot;&gt;The 5 most annoying changes in the new iPhone update — and how to fix them&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; </description> <media:thumbnail url="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/59e9b85b90992428008b5b6f/moscow-wants-the-world-to-get-behind-a-russia-chinese-roadmap-to-dealing-with-north-korea.jpg" /> </item> <item> <guid>http://www.businessinsider.com/the-us-navy-and-coast-guard-are-looking-to-play-catch-up-in-the-arctic-2017-10</guid> <title>The US Navy and Coast Guard are looking to play catch-up in the Arctic</title> <link>http://www.businessinsider.com/the-us-navy-and-coast-guard-are-looking-to-play-catch-up-in-the-arctic-2017-10</link> <pubDate>Thu, 19 Oct 2017 16:25:04 -0400</pubDate> <dc:creator>Christopher Woody</dc:creator> <description> &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/55c0f38b371d22a10e8bc8bb-804/polar star.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Polar Star&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;USA.Gov&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Coast Guard and Navy have released a draft joint request for proposals to design and build a heavy icebreaker.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Melting ice has raised interest in shipping, mining, and other activities in Arctic and Antarctic waters.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The US has two operational icebreakers, far fewer than what other countries, including Russia, can field.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; &lt;p&gt;The US Navy and Coast Guard released a joint &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&amp;amp;mode=form&amp;amp;id=f5ca62d6c22e656b20a87945134c5fba&amp;amp;tab=core&amp;amp;_cview=0&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot;&gt;draft request for proposal&lt;/a&gt; for a heavy polar icebreaker on Thursday &amp;mdash; another signal the US military is jockeying keep up with activity in increasingly busy Arctic and Antarctic waters.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The request is for the &quot;Detail, Design and Construction&quot; of one heavy polar icebreaker cutter with the option for two more. Responses are due by December 11.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;According to the announcement, the eventual contract is likely to include a number of services relating to operations and maintenance, including materials and spare parts, engineering industrial services, special studies for government-directed engineering tasks, and crew familiarization.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The draft of the request is released to give advance notice for proposals and allow for more sophisticated designs to be submitted. The government said it expects to release the official request for proposal during the&amp;nbsp;first three months of&amp;nbsp;2018.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/54e39d026da8114f4ad059d2-2400/1769235.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Polar Star&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;Petty Officer 1st Class George Degener/US Coast Guard&quot; data-mce-caption=&quot;Members of the military dive team aboard Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star launch a remote operated vehicle into the water to inspect the disabled fishing vessel Antarctic Chieftain, beset by ice near Cape Burks, Antarctica, Feb. 14, 2015. Dive team members used the ROV to inspect Antarctic Chieftain's damaged propellers. Polar Star's crew has been underway in Antarctica in support of Operation Deep Freeze 2015, part of the U.S. Antarctic Program, managed by the National Science Foundation&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Melting sea ice has opened Arctic and Antarctic waters to commercial traffic and mining operations, but ice there still poses a risk to vessels.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Coast Guard Command Adm. Paul Zufunft said in early 2016 that the US needed icebreakers in Antarctica to support national-security infrastructure there. In May, Zufunkt told a House committee that the Coast Guard needed to maintain a &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;https://news.usni.org/2017/05/18/zukunft-changing-arctic-environment-could-lead-to-more-armed-icebreakers-in-future-fleet&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot;&gt;persistent presence&lt;/a&gt;&quot; in the Arctic and Antarctic.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;He said the service was working to design three heavy and three medium polar icebreakers and could increase that order or add offensive weapons to the ships if conditions in their area of operations change.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;float:right;&quot; src=&quot;http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/52c8b0e369bedd351e9de48f-1932/uscgcpolarstar-1.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;us coast guard polar star icebreaker&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;Wikimedia Commons&quot; data-link=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Uscgc_polar_star.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The proposed Coast Guard budget for fiscal year 2018 asked for $19 million to acquire a new polar icebreaker it wants to start building in fiscal year 2019, which runs from October 2018 to September 2019.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;The first heavy icebreaker is expected to be delivered in 2023, &lt;a href=&quot;https://news.usni.org/2017/05/18/zukunft-changing-arctic-environment-could-lead-to-more-armed-icebreakers-in-future-fleet&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot;&gt;according&lt;/a&gt; to USNI News.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The US icebreaker fleet is relatively small. The Coast Guard has three ships &amp;mdash; two of which are operational &amp;mdash; and the National Science Foundation has another.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Two of the Coast Guard's ships, the Polar Star and Polar Sea, are some of the world's most powerful nonnuclear icebreakers, capable of breaking through up to 6 feet of ice at a speed of three knots. But the Polar Sea, which entered service in 1978 with a 30-year service life, is not currently operational. The Polar Star, launched in 1976 with a 30-year service life, was refurbished in 2012 for continued operations.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The Healy, the Coast Guard's third icebreaker, is a medium icebreaker that entered service in 2000 to complement the Polar Star and Polar Sea. It is bigger in size than those two ships but has less icebreaking capability.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The Nathaniel B. Palmer, built for the NSF in 1992, is much smaller than the Coast Guard's ships and focuses on scientific research.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;A number of countries have more icebreakers at sea.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/55e75767bd86ef1b008b7b64-2400/yamal2009.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Russian icebreaker&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamal_%28icebreaker%29#/media/File:Yamal_2009.JPG&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Russia has more than 40 in its inventory, including four operational heavy icebreakers and six medium icebreakers. Finland has seven, though they're privately owned medium or light icebreakers. Sweden and Canada each&amp;nbsp;have six, though neither has a heavy icebreaker.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Moscow's activity in the Arctic has been a US concern for some time.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;&quot;We're not even in the same league as Russia right now,&quot; Zukunft &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/us-lagging-behind-russia-in-arctic-icebreakers-2016-8&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot;&gt;reportedly said&lt;/a&gt; in July 2015. &quot;We're not playing in this game at all.&quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Russia state-owned media &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/russias-northern-fleet-beefs-up-its-nuclear-capabilities-phase-nato-out-arctic-2017-6&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot;&gt;has said&lt;/a&gt; the country's Northern Fleet has added or upgraded surface ships with the goal of phasing &quot;NATO out of the Arctic.&quot; State-owned media has also reported that Moscow &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/russia-plans-build-arctic-military-research-center-2017-5&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot;&gt;plans to build&lt;/a&gt; military research and testing facilities in the Arctic.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;The Russia build-up in the region is its biggest since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Reuters &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/r-putins-russia-in-biggest-arctic-military-push-since-soviet-fall-2017-1&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot;&gt;reported&lt;/a&gt; in January, citing experts and government documents.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/5888e18cee14b6aa5c8b94ce-2400/russiaarcticbuildup012316e.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;russia arctic map&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;via Foreign Policy&quot; data-link=&quot;https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/01/25/heres-what-russias-military-build-up-in-the-arctic-looks-like-trump-oil-military-high-north-infographic-map/&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;China, which only has one light icebreaker in service, also has Arctic ambitions. That ship, the Xue Long, or Snow Dragon, recently traversed the Northwest Passage through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. It has also traveled through the Central Arctic Route and the Northern Sea Route along Russia's Arctic coast.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;&quot;Polar regions ... have become new but strategic areas where China is seeking to develop in the future,&amp;rdquo; Wang Chuanxing, a polar researcher at Tongji University in Shanghai, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/china-is-carving-out-a-foothold-in-the-arctic-2017-10&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot;&gt;told&lt;/a&gt; The South China Morning Post this month.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Beijing also plans to launch a medium icebreaker in the near future.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;&quot;I don&amp;rsquo;t know what the long-range plan is &amp;mdash; you know what is China&amp;rsquo;s vision for an Arctic strategy,&quot; Zukunft &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/coast-guard-we-are-increasingly-concerned-about-chinas-arctic-ambitions-2016-6&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot;&gt;said&lt;/a&gt; this summer. &quot;Beyond the global commons, where are those lines drawn and will it encroach upon the sovereign interest of the United States? I can&amp;rsquo;t answer that question so obviously that does cause me great concern.&quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SEE ALSO:&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/video-shows-uss-john-s-mccain-loaded-aboard-massive-heavy-lift-ship-2017-10&quot; &gt;Time-lapse video shows damaged destroyer USS John S. McCain loaded aboard massive heavy-lift ship&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/the-us-navy-and-coast-guard-are-looking-to-play-catch-up-in-the-arctic-2017-10#comments&quot;&gt;Join the conversation about this story &amp;#187;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;NOW WATCH: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/changes-earth-artic-ice-melted-animated-map-nasa-2017-3&quot;&gt;Arctic and Antarctic sea ice just hit record lows — here's what would happen if all the ice melted&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; </description> <media:thumbnail url="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/55f30aecbd86ef1f008b9bda/the-us-navy-and-coast-guard-are-looking-to-play-catch-up-in-the-arctic.jpg" /> </item> <item> <guid>http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-watch-lte-wireless-service-not-supported-in-china-2017-10</guid> <title>The most important new Apple Watch feature has been shut down in China (AAPL)</title> <link>http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-watch-lte-wireless-service-not-supported-in-china-2017-10</link> <pubDate>Thu, 19 Oct 2017 12:18:59 -0400</pubDate> <dc:creator>Kif Leswing</dc:creator> <description> &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/59e8ce979099241f008b5632-1457/apple watch-7.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Apple Watch&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;Hollis Johnson&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There is no carrier currently offering service for the Apple Watch Series 3 with LTE in China.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A cellular connection is the biggest new feature on this year's Apple Watch.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Chinese government could be looking to more closely regulate the eSIM technology the device uses.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; &lt;hr /&gt; &lt;p&gt;The&amp;nbsp;single wireless carrier supporting Apple's latest Apple Watch in China has&amp;nbsp;ceased offering service for the device, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-watch-hits-cellular-snag-in-china-1508409817&quot;&gt;the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday&lt;/a&gt;.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;China Unicom, one of three state-owned wireless carriers, initially offered cellular service for the Apple Watch Series 3 with LTE, but stopped supporting it on September 28, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-watch-hits-cellular-snag-in-china-1508409817&quot;&gt;according to the report&lt;/a&gt;.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In the United States, the LTE Apple Watch is supported by all four major carriers for an additional charge of $10 per month. LTE service is the primary new feature on this year's Apple Watch model.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;One reason why China Unicom may have stopped service is because Apple uses a new kind of SIM card in the Apple Watch, called eSIM. Chinese regulators may be slowing adoption to figure out the policy around eSIM cards, which are built into the watch.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Apple does not reveal Apple Watch sales numbers but several analysts believe the Apple Watch 3 is gaining momentum and is poised to be a hit, partially due to the new cellular version of the device.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&quot;Roughly 80% of consumers we have polled that are interested in the Watch are buying the new LTE/cellular version as this looks to be a major selling point for Apple Watch sales vs. prior versions given its new standalone product offering,&quot; GBH Insights analyst Daniel Ives wrote about United States-based polls in a research note on Wednesday.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;UBS analysts&amp;nbsp;analyzed Google search trends for the new model of the Apple Watch and based on that data and other trends, forecast 19% year-over-year growth in Apple's &quot;Other&quot; products category, which is how the company reports Apple Watch revenue.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&quot;The Apple Watch appears to be gaining traction, with interest in the Series 3 around its announcement greater than for the Series 2, in all geographies,&quot; UBS analyst Edward Yen wrote.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The lack of cellular service could cool interest in the new Apple Watch in China, and could raise fears again that the Chinese government is looking to more deeply regulate Apple, which has caused the Apple stock to drop in the past.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SEE ALSO:&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-stock-price-impact-iphone-x-launch-2017-10&quot; &gt;The most bullish Apple analyst says to 'buy into the iPhone 8 gloom and doom ahead of the iPhone X'&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-watch-lte-wireless-service-not-supported-in-china-2017-10#comments&quot;&gt;Join the conversation about this story &amp;#187;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;NOW WATCH: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-ios11-iphone-software-features-tips-tricks-power-user-video-2017-9&quot;&gt;The 5 best hidden features from the latest iPhone update&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; </description> <media:thumbnail url="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/59e8cf369099241f008b563f/the-most-important-new-apple-watch-feature-has-been-shut-down-in-china.jpg" /> </item> <item> <guid>http://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-nuclear-missile-atmospheric-test-pacific-2017-10</guid> <title>North Korea has been threatening an aboveground nuclear detonation — here's how it could go down</title> <link>http://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-nuclear-missile-atmospheric-test-pacific-2017-10</link> <pubDate>Thu, 19 Oct 2017 11:41:32 -0400</pubDate> <dc:creator>Alex Lockie</dc:creator> <description> &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/59c4d8405124c93e573564c6-800/a-north-korea-nuclear-test-over-the-pacific-logical-terrifying-2017-9.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;FILE PHOTO: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watches the launch of a Hwasong-12 missile in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on September 16, 2017. KCNA via REUTERS &quot; data-mce-source=&quot;Thomson Reuters&quot; data-mce-caption=&quot;FILE PHOTO: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watches the launch of a Hwasong-12 missile in this undated photo released by North Korea's KCNA&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;North Korea has threatened to detonate a nuclear device aboveground.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Such a test could turn China, and the world, against it.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The US may even strike to prevent it, but North Korea may do it anyway.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; &lt;p&gt;North Korea &lt;a href=&quot;http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/16/politics/north-korea-negotiations-trump-tillerson/index.html?adkey=bn&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot;&gt;recently repeated its threat&lt;/a&gt; to test a nuclear device aboveground, in what would be its most dangerous and provocative move ever, unleashing a massive explosion and hale of radiation that could turn the world decisively against it.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;After President Donald Trump threatened to &quot;totally destroy&quot; North Korea if provoked, Pyongyang responded by saying it may test &quot;an unprecedented scale hydrogen bomb,&quot; which experts interpreted as possibly meaning a &lt;a href=&quot;http://edition.cnn.com/2017/09/03/asia/hydrogen-bomb-north-korea-explainer/index.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot;&gt;detonation of a nuclear-armed missile above the Pacific&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But regardless of what Trump says, North Korea has reasons to test aboveground.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;For one, North Korea's last test of a massive hydrogen bomb nearly destroyed the mountain they tested under. Earthquakes rumbled from under the mountain &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&amp;amp;rct=j&amp;amp;q=&amp;amp;esrc=s&amp;amp;source=web&amp;amp;cd=2&amp;amp;cad=rja&amp;amp;uact=8&amp;amp;ved=0ahUKEwj60oWJ7_zWAhUBuRoKHWymDMEQFggsMAE&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fuk.businessinsider.com%2Fan-earthquake-was-detected-in-north-korea-and-it-could-be-from-a-missile-test-2017-9&amp;amp;usg=AOvVaw33nJetkVEluRYQxLVOk0p9&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot;&gt;weeks after the test&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/satellite-images-north-korea-nuclear-test-site-could-collapse-2017-9&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot;&gt;satellite imagery suggested&lt;/a&gt; a giant shift. The tunnels North Koreans use to access the site may have &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.38north.org/2017/10/mtmantap101717/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot;&gt;totally collapsed&lt;/a&gt;, and no reports indicate renewed efforts to dig into the site.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Doubts also remain about North Korea's ability to field a reentry vehicle, or the part of a missile that carries the warhead to the point of its detonation. In previous tests, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-icbm-launch-reentry-vehicle-failure-2017-7&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot;&gt;the vehicle reportedly failed&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;North Korea has &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-hydrogen-bomb-test-evidence-2017-9&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot;&gt;tested a thermonuclear device&lt;/a&gt; and tested intercontinental and intermediate-range ballistic missiles but never demonstrated its ability to combine the two. Launching a nuclear-armed missile and having it detonate above the Pacific would prove its mettle.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But political and nuclear fallout from such a test could range from severe to catastrophic, according to experts.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&quot;If North Korea does do an atmospheric test, it really does change the game,&quot; Jenny Town, the assistant director of the US-Korea Institute and a managing editor at 38 North, told Business Insider.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/59b8e8a89803c51e008b534d-2000/rtx3eifu.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Kim Jong-un North Korea nuclear bomb&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;KCNA via REUTERS&quot; data-mce-caption=&quot;North Korean leader Kim Jong Un provides guidance with Ri Hong Sop (2nd L) and Hong Sung Mu (R) on a nuclear weapons program in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang September 3, 2017.&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In the event that North Korea does an aboveground test within its own borders, and not on a missile, it presents a huge risk of nuclear contamination spreading into China's borders. Beijing would&lt;span&gt; &quot;see that as an attack on China,&quot; said Town.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Tong Zhao, a leading expert on North Korea at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Nuclear Policy Program in Beijing, told Business Insider that if North Korea does detonate a nuclear bomb over the Pacific, &quot;the Chinese position to North Korea can be fundamentally changed.&quot;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Ultimately Zhao doubts that North Korea would pull such a stunt, given it relies on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/china-disarm-north-korea-trump-icbm-test-2017-7&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot;&gt;outside help from countries like China&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But according to Yun Sun, an expert on Korean and Chinese relations with the Stimson Center, even an aboveground nuclear test wouldn't make China fully turn its back.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&quot;If question is whether China will abandon North Korea or support regime change, I think that's far fetched,&quot; Sun told Business Insider.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Time and time again, North Korea has expertly escalated tensions to a point just short of all-out war, but experts remain divided on whether firing a nuclear-armed missile over the Pacific for the first time in history would cross the threshold of kinetic action.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/59861b915124c98657aa1099-800/un-security-council-imposes-new-north-korea-sanctions-over-missile-tests-2017-8.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) Hwasong-14 is pictured during its second test-fire in this undated picture provided by KCNA in Pyongyang on July 29, 2017. KCNA via Reuters &quot; data-mce-source=&quot;Thomson Reuters&quot; data-mce-caption=&quot;Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) Hwasong-14 is pictured during its second test-fire&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Bonnie Glaser, director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/us-attack-north-korea-insane-2017-5&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot;&gt;previously told Business Insider&lt;/a&gt; that such a test may elicit a kinetic US response.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&quot;If North Korea has a ballistic missile on a launchpad that we think is armed with a nuclear warhead,&quot; then the US would seek to eliminate that one single missile, Glaser said. &quot;But even a strike on a missile on a launchpad could result in retaliation.&quot;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;US intelligence will continue to watch North Korea's movements closely and determine how to proceed, but North Korea's defiance of international law and determination to continue its dangerous testing brings the world closer to war.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SEE ALSO:&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/us-navy-seals-south-korea-covert-submarines-uss-michigan-2017-10&quot; &gt;The monster nuclear submarine the US sent to South Korea looks like it may be packed with Navy SEALs&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-nuclear-missile-atmospheric-test-pacific-2017-10#comments&quot;&gt;Join the conversation about this story &amp;#187;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;NOW WATCH: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/watch-the-us-and-south-korea-perform-in-a-defense-exhibition-north-military-jets-f-22-raptor-35-air-force-show-routine-2017-10&quot;&gt;Watch The US and South Korea show off their air force jets in a defense exhibition amid tensions with North Korea&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; </description> <media:thumbnail url="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/59e8b8a6ddd063a2768b476f/north-korea-has-been-threatening-an-aboveground-nuclear-detonation--heres-how-it-could-go-down.jpg" /> </item> <item> <guid>http://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-space-station-when-it-will-crash-2017-10</guid> <title>China's first space station is going to crash into Earth — but objects inside of it may reach the ground unharmed</title> <link>http://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-space-station-when-it-will-crash-2017-10</link> <pubDate>Thu, 19 Oct 2017 10:32:00 -0400</pubDate> <dc:creator>Dave Mosher</dc:creator> <description> &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/59e8b70b9099245b018b544f-1200/tiangong-1-chinese-space-station-cmsa.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;tiangong 1 chinese space station cmsa&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;China Manned Space Agency&quot; data-mce-caption=&quot;An illustration of China's first space station, Tiangong-1, orbiting Earth.&quot; data-link=&quot;http://en.cmse.gov.cn/&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tiangong-1, China's first space station, is expected to break up in Earth's atmosphere within months.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Some pieces, such as those made of titanium, will be strong enough to hit the ground.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Whole objects may survive intact due to the onion-like layering of spacecraft modules.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; &lt;hr&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;Launched in September 2011, China's first space station — Tiangong-1 — will soon burst into a fiery rain of debris over Earth.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;China recently told the United Nations that Tiangong-1 could reenter our atmosphere by early 2018. When it does, extreme heat and pressure caused by plowing through air at more than 15,000 miles per hour will destroy the 8.5-ton spacecraft.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But not everything may vanish.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;float:right;&quot; src=&quot;http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/59e77c26909924f2268b4717-1885/china-tiangong-1-space-station-model-reuters.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;china tiangong 1 space station model reuters&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;Jason Lee/Reuters&quot; data-mce-caption=&quot;A scale model of China's Tiangong-1 space station.&quot; data-link=&quot;https://pictures.reuters.com/archive/CHINA--GM2E86F18YS01.html&quot;&gt;Bill Ailor, an aerospace engineer and atmospheric reentry specialist, says there's actually a good chance gear and hardware left onboard could survive intact all the way to the ground, thanks to Tiangong-1's onion-like layers of protective material.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&quot;The thing about a space station is that it's typically got things on the inside,&quot; Ailor, who works for the Aerospace Corporation, told Business Insider. &quot;So basically, the heating will just strip these various layers off. If you've got enough layers, a lot of the energy is gone before a particular object falls out, it doesn't get hot, and it lands on the ground.&quot;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;When NASA's Columbia space shuttle broke up over the US, for example, he said investigators recovered a working flight computer — an artifact that ultimately helped explain how the deadly incident happened.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;h2&gt;How the sun could make Tiangong-1 crash sooner&lt;/h2&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/57175b18dd0895a76c8b4590-1440/giant_prominence_on_the_sun_erupted.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;solar flare&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;Wikimedia Commons&quot; data-link=&quot;http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Giant_prominence_on_the_sun_erupted.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;China's Tiangong-1 or &quot;Heavenly Palace&quot; space station is 60 times smaller by volume than the International Space Station. It was superseded in 2016 by a follow-up Chinese space station, Tiangong-2.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;However, China and experts alike hail it as a major achievement for &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/chinas-space-program-cnsa-photos-2015-11&quot;&gt;the nation's space program&lt;/a&gt;, since it served as a prototype toward establishing a permanent Chinese presence in orbit.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&quot;It conducted six successive rendezvous and dockings with spacecraft Shenzhou-8, Shenzhou-9 and Shenzhou-10 and completed all assigned missions, making important contributions to China's manned space exploration activities,&quot; according to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.unoosa.org/res/oosadoc/data/documents/2017/aac_105/aac_1051150_0_html/AC105_1150E.pdf&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot;&gt;a memo&lt;/a&gt; China submitted in June 2017 to the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In the same note, China also said it lost contact with the spacecraft on March 16, 2016, after it'd &quot;fully fulfilled its historic mission.&quot;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;By May 2017, Tiangong-1 was coasting about 218 miles above Earth yet dropping by about 525 feet per day. Its altitude has since plummeted to about 180 miles, according to &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/oct/13/tiangong-1-chinese-space-station-will-crash-to-earth-within-months&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot;&gt;The Guardian&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;float:right;&quot; src=&quot;http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/56d2cd665124c9de0f8b4567-800/china-to-launch-second-space-lab-in-third-quarter-state-media.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;A view of China's Tiangong (Heavenly Palace) 1 module (top L) just before it docks with the Shenzhou 8 spacecraft (top R) is seen on a monitoring screen showing a computer animation (bottom) of the docking process at the Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center November 3, 2011. REUTERS/CCTV via Reuters TV &quot; data-mce-source=&quot;Thomson Reuters&quot; data-mce-caption=&quot;A view of China's Tiangong 1 module just before it docks with the Shenzhou-8 spacecraft on a monitoring screen at the Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center&quot;&gt;China expects its space station to reenter Earth's atmosphere and be destroyed &quot;between October 2017 and April 2018,&quot; according to the UN memo.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&quot;For any vehicle like this, the thing that brings them down is atmospheric drag,&quot; Ailor said. &quot;Why there's a lot of uncertainty in the predictions is that it depends on what's the sun's doing, to a large measure.&quot;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The sun can unleash &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/solar-storm-risk-map-united-states-2016-9&quot;&gt;solar storms&lt;/a&gt; and solar flares — bursts of X-rays and ultraviolet light — that &lt;a href=&quot;https://hesperia.gsfc.nasa.gov/sftheory/spaceweather.htm&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot;&gt;heat Earth's outer atmosphere&lt;/a&gt;. This heating causes the air to expand, rise higher above the planet, and force low-flying objects like Tiangong-1 to plow through denser gases.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&quot;This puts just a little bit of a higher force on these objects that causes them to come down,&quot; Ailor said.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;h2&gt;When and where China's space station might crash&lt;/h2&gt; &lt;p&gt;Ailor said he doesn't think Tiangong-1's crash is imminent, but added it's also not too far off.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&quot;If you look at the range of predictions that have been made, it's been gradually moving earlier in time,&quot; he said. &quot;People are speculating anywhere from the end of this month until sometime in January or February of early next year.&quot;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Business Insider asked NASA for comment on reentry forecasts for Tiangong-1, as well as whether the spacecraft posed a threat to any ongoing missions.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&quot;We're not commenting on this piece of hardware coming in. NASA actually doesn't track any debris,&quot; a space agency spokesperson told Business Insider.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;He then directed us to contact the US Strategic Command's Joint Space Operations Center — the military group that tracks space debris and lets NASA know if and when &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/space-debris-junk-dangerous-nasa-esa-2017-4&quot;&gt;it poses a threat&lt;/a&gt;. JSpOC responded to our queries but did not provide an interview or comment in time for publication.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div&gt; &lt;div style=&quot;position:relative;padding-bottom:54%&quot;&gt;&lt;iframe src=&quot;https://gfycat.com/ifr/ConsiderateAnchoredHarpseal&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; scrolling=&quot;no&quot; width=&quot;100%&quot; height=&quot;100%&quot; style=&quot;position:absolute;top:0;left:0&quot; allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;When Tiangong-1 does crash, it's most likely to happen over the ocean, since water covers about 71% of Earth's surface. But there's a decent chance some pieces may strike land as it breaks up over a long and thin oval-shaped footprint.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&quot;The whole footprint length for something like this could be 1,000 miles or so,&quot; Ailor said, with heavier pieces at the front and lighter debris toward the back.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;He said pieces of China's space station are &quot;really unlikely&quot; to hit anyone or anything: &quot;It's not impossible, but since the beginning of the space age .... a woman who was brushed on the shoulder in Oklahoma is the only one we're aware of who's been touched by a piece of space debris.&quot;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Should a hunk of titanium, an intact computer, or other pieces smash through someone's roof or windshield, however, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/11-laws-that-govern-space-2015-12&quot;&gt;international space law&lt;/a&gt; assures that victims will be compensated.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&quot;It's China's responsibility if someone gets hurt or property gets damaged by this,&quot; NASA's spokesperson said.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SEE ALSO:&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-internet-satellite-constellation-china-threat-2016-11&quot; &gt;Elon Musk's plan to blanket Earth in high-speed internet may face a big threat: China&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;DON'T MISS:&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/china-teleportation-space-quantum-internet-2017-7&quot; &gt;China has pulled off a 'profound' feat of teleportation that may help it 'dominate the way the world works'&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-space-station-when-it-will-crash-2017-10#comments&quot;&gt;Join the conversation about this story &amp;#187;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;NOW WATCH: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/lockheed-martin-nasa-mars-base-camp-2017-10&quot;&gt;NASA and Lockheed Martin reveal their plans to build the first-ever Mars space station&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; </description> <media:thumbnail url="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/59e8b711ddd06301018b5644/chinas-first-space-station-is-going-to-crash-into-earth--but-objects-inside-of-it-may-reach-the-ground-unharmed.jpg" /> </item> <item> <guid>http://www.businessinsider.com/china-gdp-q3-2017-2017-10</guid> <title>China's economy slows down a bit</title> <link>http://www.businessinsider.com/china-gdp-q3-2017-2017-10</link> <pubDate>Thu, 19 Oct 2017 08:04:00 -0400</pubDate> <dc:creator>David Scutt</dc:creator> <description> &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/55c39e84dd089562258b4651-2048/rtxjt5w.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;china construction workers&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;Bobby Yip/Reuters&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;China's GDP slowed to 6.8% in the third quarter, down from 6.9% in the second quarter, matching estimates.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Retail sales were also released, edging out expectations.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; &lt;hr /&gt; &lt;p&gt;Chinese economic growth met expectations during the September quarter, maintaining the familiar pattern seen in each of the past ten GDP reports.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), GDP grew by 6.8% in the third quarter, down slightly on the 6.9% pace seen in the year to June.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The result was in line with economist expectations.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Over the quarter, GDP grew by 1.7% in seasonally adjusted terms, down fractionally on the upwardly-revised 1.8% pace seen in the June quarter.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;That result too was in line with expectations.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/59e89424ddd0631d008b54f5-807/screen shot 2017-10-19 at 80031 am.png&quot; alt=&quot;China&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;Business Insider Australia&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;The national economy grew steadily with continuously optimising structure, rapidly growing new driving forces and remarkably improving quality and efficiency, sustaining the momentum of stable and sound development,&amp;rdquo; the NBS said following the release of the report.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;However, we must be aware that international conditions remain complicated and volatile and the national economy is still at a crucial stage of restructuring with the foundation for sound development yet to be consolidated.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;By sector, the bureau said that tertiary industries, dominated by services firms, grew by 7.8% from a year earlier. Growth in secondary industries, largely reflecting the performance of China&amp;rsquo;s industrial sector, stood at 6.3%. Value add for primary industries grew by a smaller 3.7%.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Alongside the GDP report, the NBS also released annual growth figures for retail sales, industrial output and urban fixed asset investment, with all bar the latter topping expectations.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/59e8940bddd0631c008b5510-807/screen shot 2017-10-19 at 80041 am.png&quot; alt=&quot;China&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;Business Insider Australia&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Retail sales grew by 10.3% from a year earlier, above the 10.1% level of August and marginally above forecasts for an increase of 10.2%.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;So far this year, total retail sales rose to 26.3 trillion yuan, up 10.4% on the same period in 2016. Online retail sales grew even faster, lifting 34.2% to 4.9 trillion yuan over the same period.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Industrial output also rebounded, growing by 6.6% from 12 months earlier. That easily breezed past expectations for a smaller gain of 6.2%, and was a noticeably stronger than the 6% level of August.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Output across the mining sector fell 1.6%, offset by strength in manufacturing and electricity, heat, gas and water output which rose by 7.3% and 8.4% respectively.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The NBS lavished praise on the success of cutting overcapacity across the nation&amp;rsquo;s mining and industrial sectors.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;The work of cutting overcapacity, reducing excess inventory, deleveraging, lowering costs and strengthening areas of weakness went on smoothly,&amp;rdquo; the NBS said.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;The industrial capacity utilisation rate in the first three quarters reached 76.6%, 3.5 percentage points higher than the same period last year.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Revealing the benefits of reducing overcapacity, it said that industrial profits at large enterprises rose to 4.9 trillion yuan between January to August, up 21.6% from the same period in 2016.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;While retail sales and industrial output impressed, the only report to disappoint was urban fixed asset investment which grew by 7.5% between January to September compared to same period a year earlier.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Markets had been expecting an increase of 7.7% following growth of 7.8% in the first eight months of the year.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The NBS said investment by the government grew by 11% year-on-year between January to September, outpacing that from the private sector which grew by a smaller 6%.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The private sector accounted for 60.5% of total investment over the first nine months of the year.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Total real estate investment stood at 8.06 trillion yuan for the year, up 8.1% on the same period in 2016.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Despite the strong overall report card on the health of the economy, financial markets have weakened modestly in the wake of the GDP release, perhaps reflecting disappointment that the GDP growth rate was not even quicker.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;As a whole, the movements have been modest in scale, continuing the pattern seen around most Chinese economic data points of late.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SEE ALSO:&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/mexico-peso-nafta-reaction-2017-10&quot; &gt;One economist says the peso could crash by as much as 25% if NAFTA collapses&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/china-gdp-q3-2017-2017-10#comments&quot;&gt;Join the conversation about this story &amp;#187;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;NOW WATCH: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/stock-market-news-rotation-has-turned-indexes-upside-down-2017-9&quot;&gt;The stock market has been turned completely upside down&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; </description> <media:thumbnail url="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/59e893b0909924f2268b4d7b/chinas-economy-slows-down-a-bit.jpg" /> </item> <item> <guid>http://www.businessinsider.com/an-alibaba-backed-fintech-company-founded-by-a-34-year-old-just-had-an-amazing-ipo-2017-10</guid> <title>An Alibaba-backed fintech company founded by a 34-year-old just had an amazing IPO</title> <link>http://www.businessinsider.com/an-alibaba-backed-fintech-company-founded-by-a-34-year-old-just-had-an-amazing-ipo-2017-10</link> <pubDate>Thu, 19 Oct 2017 00:34:00 -0400</pubDate> <dc:creator>Frank Chaparro</dc:creator> <description> &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/59e79c99909924f2268b4931-1200/unnamed-40.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;unnamed 40&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;Kerry Gao&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Qudian, an online small credit provider, went public on the New York Stock Exchange. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The company, which was founded by a 34-year-old named Min Luo, is going after a market it says China's biggest banks can't serve.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; &lt;p&gt;Stock of Qudian, an online small credit provider, popped more than 43% after the company went public on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday morning, opening at $24 a share.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The China-based company, which was founded by a 34-year-old named Min Luo, targets China's younger and underserved markets with small loans via its mobile app.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The stock jumped to a high of $34 a share Wednesday morning before falling back to $30 at the time of publication.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Qudian, according to its prospectus, offered 37.5 million shares. &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.reuters.com/article/qudian-ipo-pricing/online-micro-lender-qudian-ipo-prices-at-24-per-ads-sources-idUSL4N1MS5QQ&quot;&gt;Reuters reported that the company raised $900 million&lt;/a&gt; from the initial public offering, making it one of the largest IPOs of a Chinese company in the US this year.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The company counts Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce and technology company also listed on the New York Stock Exchange, as a backer.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Carl Yeung, the company's chief financial officer, told Business Insider the firm was going after a market the country's traditional banks couldn't serve. Yeung said reaching the hundreds of millions of Chinese people with modest incomes is too expensive for larger financial-services players. Qudian is using nascent technology to capture that market.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&quot;We are looking to use behavioral data, more and more data, to discover business opportunities,&quot; Yeung said. &quot;We are tracking the cutting-edge data with artificial intelligence to see who has a high willingness to repay.&quot;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;With such technology, the company is able to offer folks higher credit limits and earn a larger margin.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Qudian, according to a press release, &quot;facilitated $5.6 billion in transactions&quot; to 7 million customers in the first half of the year.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;h2&gt;Chinese fintech is red-hot&lt;/h2&gt; &lt;p&gt;Qudian's strong IPO illustrates the red-hot market for fintech in China. Some of the world's largest privately owned financial technology companies are based in China, including Lu.com, a Shanghai-based personal finance company, valued at $18.5 billion, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.cbinsights.com/reports/CB-Insights_Fintech-Report-Q3-2017.pdf&quot;&gt;according to CB Insights&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;A recent study by the consultancy EY found that one in three digital consumers used two or more fintech products. This level, according to EY, indicates that fintech has crossed the threshold of early mass adoption. The firm said adoption was being driven by emerging markets, such as China.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&quot;FinTech adoption by digitally active consumers in Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa average 46%, considerably higher than the global average,&quot; the report said. &quot;From an individual market perspective, China and India have the highest adoption rates at 69% and 52% respectively.&quot;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The firm said emerging markets were more open to fintech disruption because of the large populations of people who are underserved by existing financial infrastructures. Here's EY:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style=&quot;padding-left: 30px;&quot;&gt;&quot;Our five emerging markets are characterized by having growing economies and a rapidly expanding middle class, but without traditional financial infrastructure to support demand. Relatively high proportions of the populations are underserved by existing financial services providers, while falling prices for smartphones and broadband services have increased the digitally active population that FinTechs target.&quot;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Yeung said this environment would open the door to many multibillion-dollar financial technology companies in China. He hopes Qudian will be among them.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SEE ALSO:&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/wall-street-banks-have-realized-they-cant-do-it-all-themselves-2017-10&quot; &gt;Wall Street banks have realized they can't do it all themselves&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/an-alibaba-backed-fintech-company-founded-by-a-34-year-old-just-had-an-amazing-ipo-2017-10#comments&quot;&gt;Join the conversation about this story &amp;#187;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;NOW WATCH: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/excel-index-match-versus-vlookup-masters-find-data-2015-9&quot;&gt;This is what separates the Excel masters from the wannabes&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; </description> <media:thumbnail url="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/59e79c9dddd0634e008b5002/an-alibaba-backed-fintech-company-founded-by-a-34-year-old-just-had-an-amazing-ipo.jpg" /> </item> <item> <guid>http://www.businessinsider.com/china-sex-ratio-president-xi-jinping-2017-10</guid> <title>China's skewed sex ratio is making President Xi's job a whole lot harder</title> <link>http://www.businessinsider.com/china-sex-ratio-president-xi-jinping-2017-10</link> <pubDate>Wed, 18 Oct 2017 23:26:33 -0400</pubDate> <dc:creator>David Skidmore</dc:creator> <description> &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/59e80436ddd06301018b5443-2000/ap17291260305472.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Xi Jinping congress china&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;Ng Han Guan/AP&quot; data-mce-caption=&quot;Chinese President Xi Jinping, center, presides over the opening ceremony of the 19th Party Congress held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2017. Xi on Wednesday urged a reinvigorated Communist Party to take on a more forceful role in society and economic development to better address &amp;amp;quotgrim&amp;amp;quot challenges facing the country as he opened a twice-a-decade national congress.&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;China&amp;nbsp;may be at risk of economically stalling if it doesn&amp;rsquo;t restructure the economy.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But restructuring may lead to unrest in the millions of unmarried men who could be laid off from unneeded factories.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span&gt;This dilemma has been building for almost a decade.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; &lt;hr /&gt; &lt;p&gt;As odd as it sounds, China&amp;rsquo;s economic policy is being held hostage by its heavily skewed sex ratio.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;China&amp;rsquo;s excess of young, unmarriageable males poses an acute dilemma for &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-11551399&quot;&gt;President Xi Jinping&lt;/a&gt; and other leaders as they set the country&amp;rsquo;s path for the next five years during the &lt;a href=&quot;http://thediplomat.com/tag/19th-party-congress/&quot;&gt;19th Chinese Communist Party Congress&lt;/a&gt;, which opened on Oct. 18.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;After years of heavy spending and investment to boost growth and employment, China is at risk of economic stagnation if it doesn&amp;rsquo;t restructure the economy. Yet there is peril that doing so will lead to dangerous levels of unrest among the millions of unmarried men &amp;ndash; known as &amp;ldquo;bare branches&amp;rdquo; &amp;ndash; who will be laid off from shuttered unneeded steel, coal and auto factories.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;So far Xi has tempered reform and kept the money taps open in order to avoid political instability. As the costs of domestic economic imbalances rise and international pressures to cut excess industrial capacity grow, Xi will have to decide what to do about the bare branches strewn in his way. And that won&amp;rsquo;t be an easy task, as &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.abebooks.com/9780030545894/International-Political-Economy-Struggle-Power-0030545897/plp&quot;&gt;my research&lt;/a&gt; on the intersection of economics and politics suggests.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;float:right;&quot; src=&quot;http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/568bfd99e6183ebe4a8b699c-2400/gettyimages-493421310.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;china stock market brokerage&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;Getty Images&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;h2&gt;China&amp;rsquo;s spending spree&lt;/h2&gt; &lt;p&gt;This dilemma has been building for almost a decade, since Chinese leaders responded to the 2008 global financial crisis by channeling massive investments into infrastructure and heavy industry to sustain economic growth and prevent political unrest.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The proportion of China&amp;rsquo;s economy devoted to investment &lt;a href=&quot;http://fromtone.com/what-is-happening-in-china/&quot;&gt;shot up&lt;/a&gt; from roughly a third to close to half &amp;ndash; a level &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2016/12/31/Is-China-Over-Investing-and-Does-it-Matter-40121&quot;&gt;unprecedented&lt;/a&gt; among modern economies (that compares with only &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.theglobaleconomy.com/USA/Capital_investment/&quot;&gt;20 percent&lt;/a&gt; in the U.S. in 2015).&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Since 2008, for example, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.meti.go.jp/english/mobile/2016/20160727001en.html&quot;&gt;China&amp;rsquo;s crude steel production capacity&lt;/a&gt; has more than doubled, reaching close to half of the world total.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;This investment has proven &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecri/2011/492325/&quot;&gt;remarkably successful&lt;/a&gt;, at least in the short term, helping China avoid the economic downturn experienced by Western countries. China&amp;rsquo;s investment binge also created the world&amp;rsquo;s &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.economist.com/news/china/21714383-and-theres-lot-more-come-it-waste-money-china-has-built-worlds-largest&quot;&gt;largest bullet train network&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-china-is-dominating-the-solar-industry/&quot;&gt;made it a global leader&lt;/a&gt; in solar panel production.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The binge, however, has also left China with a morning-after hangover that threatens to become a &amp;ldquo;national financial and economic crisis&amp;rdquo; unless it implements reforms, &lt;a href=&quot;https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1609/1609.00415.pdf&quot;&gt;according to a group&lt;/a&gt; of Oxford-based economists. The report suggests that China focus on fewer but higher-quality infrastructure projects while accelerating a shift in demand from investment to consumption.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Yet China &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.ft.com/content/1fe4e1e8-88b0-11e7-bf50-e1c239b45787&quot;&gt;continues to rely&lt;/a&gt; heavily upon infrastructure investment to drive growth. Besides steel, the economy also remains plagued by industrial overcapacity in autos, cement, glass, solar cells, aluminum and coal. Recent &lt;a href=&quot;https://thediplomat.com/2017/03/chinas-two-sessions-and-the-2017-economic-outlook/&quot;&gt;efforts&lt;/a&gt; to close old and inefficient factories have had little effect so far.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;This has international consequences as well because all that excess steel, glass and aluminum must go somewhere and often ends up in other countries, hurting domestic markets. Steel exports to the U.S., for example, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2108732/trump-rejected-chinese-offer-cut-steel-overcapacity&quot;&gt;surged 22 percent&lt;/a&gt; from August 2016 to July 2017, &lt;a href=&quot;http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/08/trump-seems-to-genuinely-want-a-trade-war-with-china.html&quot;&gt;prompting retaliatory threats&lt;/a&gt; from President Donald Trump.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;So why did Chinese policymakers extend the investment spree do long? Why have they been reluctant to close down factories producing excess &lt;a href=&quot;https://qz.com/699979/how-chinas-overproduction-of-steel-is-damaging-companies-and-countries-around-the-world/&quot;&gt;steel&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.europeanchamber.com.cn/en/publications-overcapacity-in-china&quot;&gt;solar cells or glass&lt;/a&gt; or stop funding the development of uninhabited &amp;ldquo;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.wired.com/2016/02/kai-caemmerer-unborn-cities/&quot;&gt;ghost cities&lt;/a&gt;&amp;rdquo;?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;While there are many factors at play, one deserves more attention than it has received: China&amp;rsquo;s leaders fear the consequences of high unemployment among &amp;ldquo;bare branches,&amp;rdquo; a term used in China for young, low-status men who, because they are typically unmarriageable, represent endpoints on the family tree.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;float:right;&quot; src=&quot;http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/595a1d3ea3630f65358b6c64-2000/rts19c8c.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;China&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;Reuters/Stringer&quot; data-mce-caption=&quot;Chinese paramilitary policemen take an oath ahead of the 96th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in Kunming, Yunnan province, China.&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;h2&gt;Growth of the &amp;lsquo;bare branches&amp;rsquo;&lt;/h2&gt; &lt;p&gt;Bare branches are a result of one of the most skewed sex ratios in the world.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;China has &lt;a href=&quot;https://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/Download/Standard/Population/&quot;&gt;106.3 males for every 100 females&lt;/a&gt;, compared with a global ratio of 101.8 to 100.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In coming years, the workforce imbalance will only worsen because there are &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ch.html&quot;&gt;117 boys under age 15 for every 100 girls&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;This is a result of extreme gender discrimination favoring males, a tendency exacerbated by &lt;a href=&quot;http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/11/151113-datapoints-china-one-child-policy/&quot;&gt;China&amp;rsquo;s one-child policy&lt;/a&gt;, which was in force from 1979 to 2015. Typically, unwanted female fetuses, identified through ultrasound, are &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3168620/&quot;&gt;aborted&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;This has resulted in a surplus of young bare branch males. Bare branches are typically low-status, since better educated and higher income males have better odds of attracting marriage partners. Lacking either skills or the strong community ties brought on by family life, these young, unmarried men make up a large proportion of the internal migrant population that relocates from rural areas to cities in search of work.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Researchers &lt;a href=&quot;https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/bare-branches&quot;&gt;Valerie Hudson and Andrea den Boer&lt;/a&gt; established that societies with large and growing numbers of bare branches are at risk of rising crime and civil unrest. This is especially true if inadequate employment opportunities are available for unmarried young men. The skewed sex ratio is accompanied by other worrisome trends, including &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahsu/2016/11/18/high-income-inequality-still-festering-in-china/#5e33eaa21e50&quot;&gt;high income inequality&lt;/a&gt; and the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.theguardian.com/world/datablog/2015/oct/29/impact-china-one-child-policy-four-graphs&quot;&gt;rising number of elderly&lt;/a&gt; that must be supported by each working age person.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;float:right;&quot; src=&quot;http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/59bf426d5124c94b414a98b4-800/chinese-space-official-promoted-as-part-of-military-reshuffle-2017-9.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Soldiers carry a PLA flag and Chinese national flags before the military parade to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the foundation of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) at Zhurihe military base in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China, July 30, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer &quot; data-mce-source=&quot;Thomson Reuters&quot; data-mce-caption=&quot;Soldiers carry a PLA flag and Chinese national flags before the military parade to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the foundation of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) at Zhurihe military base in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;h2&gt;A growing risk of unrest&lt;/h2&gt; &lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s this fear of rising unemployment and unrest that has caused China&amp;rsquo;s hesitation to carry out economic reform.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Some economists believe that China&amp;rsquo;s &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-jobs/chinas-unemployment-rate-falls-below-4-percent-at-end-of-first-quarter-idUSKBN17R0JN&quot;&gt;official unemployment rate&lt;/a&gt; of 4 percent understates the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nber.org/digest/oct15/w21460.html&quot;&gt;reality&lt;/a&gt;, which may be more than double that. The rate of unemployment is politically sensitive since unemployed workers are more likely to engage in civil unrest and other anti-regime activities.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;And males are &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---asia/---ro-bangkok/documents/publication/wcms_371375.pdf&quot;&gt;overrepresented&lt;/a&gt; in the industries that would be hardest hit by reform like construction and heavy industry. On the other hand, females make up a disproportionate share of workers in the service sector, which must expand in order to sustain economic growth as spending on infrastructure and industry slows.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;China&amp;rsquo;s growth model has actually exacerbated the unemployment problem because infrastructure, construction and heavy industry are relatively capital-intensive, meaning that a given level of investment produces fewer jobs than would be the case were the same investment devoted to service sectors (which are relatively labor intensive). In other words, a greater emphasis on services would soak up more labor overall and reduce dangerous levels of unemployment.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;If China shifts to sector-led growth, the risk of unrest will grow as women find more jobs &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/1975810/china-will-need-cut-35-million-jobs-across-six-core-industries&quot;&gt;at the expense of men&lt;/a&gt;, especially those bare branches. So even if China manages a &amp;ldquo;soft landing&amp;rdquo; that &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/17/world/asia/china-premier-li-keqiang-economy.html?_r=0&quot;&gt;increases employment overall&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-26/chinas-strikes-and-mass-unemployment-a-growing-worry/7649770&quot;&gt;civil and political unrest&lt;/a&gt; could rise as well if the proportion of bare branch males among those who remain unemployed also climbs.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;This helps explain why Chinese authorities have directed massive amounts of investment into those male-dominated sectors following the global financial crisis. And why, in recent years, they have been slow to implement economic reforms that &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/17/world/asia/china-premier-li-keqiang-economy.html?_r=1&quot;&gt;they themselves acknowledge&lt;/a&gt; are needed for the overall health of the Chinese economy.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;From the perspective of Beijing, better some inefficient investments than the political risks of tossing millions of unemployed young males into the streets of urban China.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;float:right;&quot; src=&quot;http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/59e81b44ddd0631c1e8b503f-1119/xi jinping.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Xi Jinping&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;REUTERS/Fred Dufour/Pool&quot; data-mce-caption=&quot;Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks during a press conference at the BRICS Summit in Xiamen, Fujian province, China September 5, 2017.&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;h2&gt;No good options&lt;/h2&gt; &lt;p&gt;In his opening address to the 19th Party Congress, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-congress/chinas-xi-lays-out-vision-for-new-era-led-by-still-stronger-communist-party-idUSKBN1CM35L?il=0&quot;&gt;Xi made the usual promises&lt;/a&gt; about deepening market reforms, reducing industrial overcapacity and shifting the economy from investment-led to consumption-led growth and focusing on fewer but higher quality infrastructure projects.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Given that these promises are not new, there is room for skepticism about implementation.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But even if reform is successful, it will mean large numbers of unemployed bare branches. That is why economic restructuring must be accompanied by generous unemployment benefits, job retraining programs and support for workers who need to relocate in order to find jobs. The gender composition of the service sector must also change in order to absorb unemployed males.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In short, Xi could forestall reform, thus keeping the bare branches busily employed at the risk of an economic crisis and &lt;a href=&quot;http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/08/trump-seems-to-genuinely-want-a-trade-war-with-china.html&quot;&gt;punitive tariffs&lt;/a&gt; from trading partners like the U.S. Or he could cut investment and close thousands of factories, creating a significant risk of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/22/asia/china-labor-unrest-we-the-workers/index.html&quot;&gt;domestic unrest&lt;/a&gt; and potentially necessitating some combination of a strengthened social safety net and &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-congress/chinas-xi-lays-out-vision-for-new-era-led-by-still-stronger-communist-party-idUSKBN1CM35L?il=0&quot;&gt;political repression&lt;/a&gt; to contain it.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Whichever path Xi picks, bare branches will be part of the journey.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt; &lt;script type=&quot;text/javascript&quot; src=&quot;https://theconversation.com/javascripts/lib/content_tracker_hook.js&quot; id=&quot;theconversation_tracker_hook&quot; data-counter=&quot;https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84341/count?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced&quot; async=&quot;async&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SEE ALSO:&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/china-is-carving-out-a-foothold-in-the-arctic-2017-10&quot; &gt;China is carving out a foothold in the Arctic&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/china-sex-ratio-president-xi-jinping-2017-10#comments&quot;&gt;Join the conversation about this story &amp;#187;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;NOW WATCH: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/asia-earth-ice-melted-rising-ocean-coastline-china-india-2015-3&quot;&gt;Animated map shows what would happen to Asia if all the Earth's ice melted&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; </description> <media:thumbnail url="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/59e81b44ddd0631c1e8b503f/chinas-skewed-sex-ratio-is-making-president-xis-job-a-whole-lot-harder.jpg" /> </item> <item> <guid>http://www.businessinsider.com/why-there-arent-chinese-takeout-boxes-in-china-2017-10</guid> <title>Here's why you'll never find Chinese takeout boxes in China</title> <link>http://www.businessinsider.com/why-there-arent-chinese-takeout-boxes-in-china-2017-10</link> <pubDate>Wed, 18 Oct 2017 15:32:01 -0400</pubDate> <dc:creator>Claire Nowak</dc:creator> <description> &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/59e7ad52b0c29214192056d8-895/screen shot 2014-01-15 at 53208 pm.png&quot; alt=&quot;chinese food takeout&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;Flickr/mauriz&quot; data-link=&quot;http://www.flickr.com/photos/mauriz/2886710685/&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It's known that&amp;nbsp;some Chinese takeout dishes aren't actually served in China, and the same goes for the iconic takeout boxes.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The folded boxes were originally created by an&amp;nbsp;inventor in Chicago to minimize leaks.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chinese restaurants&amp;nbsp;grew in popularity with the&amp;nbsp;influx of Chinese immigrants during the&amp;nbsp;late 1800s and opted for the takeout boxes.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In the 1970s, a Fold-Pak employee added a pagoda and &quot;Thank You&quot; mimicking&amp;nbsp;Chinese calligraphy to&amp;nbsp;the side of the box.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; &lt;hr /&gt; &lt;p&gt;Ordering Chinese takeout is about more than just eating General Tso's chicken with a side of fried rice in the comfort of your pajamas. Whether you're conscious of it or not, you do it for the experience: the fortune cookie, the umpteenth attempt to pick up any amount of rice with chopsticks before resigning to a spoon, and of course, the iconic paper boxes with the red building &amp;mdash; it's called a pagoda, FYI &amp;mdash; on the side that are so fun to open.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But those are no ordinary paper boxes. No, the secrets they hold within their folds can forever change society's perception of what it means to &quot;order Chinese takeout.&quot; First, because &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.rd.com/food/fun/food-container-hacks/1&quot;&gt;you've been using the container wrong this whole time&lt;/a&gt;. Second, because Chinese takeout is a lie.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;You may already be aware that the food served at Chinese restaurants in the US is vastly different from what is actually served in China. In fact, many American Chinese restaurants serve dishes made with produce &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/chinese-food-history-how-american-chinese-cuisine-is-different-thrillist-nation&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot;&gt;that isn't even native to China&lt;/a&gt;. And it turns out that Chinese takeout boxes are just as Americanized as the food inside them.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div&gt; &lt;div id=&quot;mb_video_syncad&quot;&gt; &lt;div id=&quot;mb_new_container&quot;&gt; &lt;div id=&quot;mb_moving_container&quot;&gt; &lt;div id=&quot;mb_container&quot;&gt; &lt;div id=&quot;mb_video_4737c4f8c857925359c3987ca317b12d&quot;&gt; &lt;div poster=&quot;//static.mediabong.com/picture/e/758/426/aHR0cDovL3N0YXRpYy5tZWRpYWJvbmcuY29tL2ltZy9kZWZhdWx0X3ByZXJvbGxfcGljdHVyZV9mci5wbmc,&quot; webkit-playsinline=&quot;true&quot; webkit-transform-style=&quot;preserve-3d&quot; data-setup=&quot;{&amp;quot;nativeControlsForTouch&amp;quot;: true, &amp;quot;controls&amp;quot;:true}&quot; preload=&quot;none&quot; id=&quot;videoContent_mb_video_4737c4f8c857925359c3987ca317b12d&quot;&gt; &lt;div&gt; &lt;div role=&quot;button&quot; aria-live=&quot;polite&quot; tabindex=&quot;0&quot;&gt; &lt;div&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;The folded takeout boxes were inspired by traditional Japanese origami, but their creator was Frederick Weeks Wilcox, an inventor in Chicago. In 1894, Wilcox patented the &quot;paper pail,&quot; a single sheet of paper that could be folded into a box in such a way that would minimize leaks. A thin wire on top served as the handle.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;As more Chinese immigrants came to America, especially during the California Gold Rush, Chinese culture spread throughout the country. Chinese restaurants were born, along with the option of takeout using Wilcox's boxes. One producer of these choice containers was a company now known as Fold-Pak. In the 1970s, a Fold-Pak employee, a graphic designer whose name is unknown, decided to add a pagoda to the side of the box and added &quot;Thank you&quot; on top, stylized to mimic Chinese calligraphy. Both were printed in red, a sign of good fortune in Chinese culture.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The rest is history. That stylized box became synonymous with Chinese takeout and still is to this day &amp;mdash; in America that is. As Fold-Pak's marketing manager told &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/magazine/the-chinese-takeout-container-is-uniquely-american.html&quot;&gt;The New York Times&lt;/a&gt;, &quot;We don&amp;rsquo;t sell them in China.&quot;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;With this mind-boggling knowledge, you may never view your takeout in the same way. You might just order it more often because you know the history. So if you're craving the takeout but not the calories, here are the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.rd.com/health/healthy-eating/healthy-chinese-takeout-options/1&quot;&gt;nutritionist-approved Chinese food dishes&lt;/a&gt; you can order guilt-free.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/why-there-arent-chinese-takeout-boxes-in-china-2017-10#comments&quot;&gt;Join the conversation about this story &amp;#187;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;NOW WATCH: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-nfl-league-usfl-sued-tweet-three-dollars-2017-9&quot;&gt;Trump once won a lawsuit against the NFL — but the result was an embarrassment&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; </description> <media:thumbnail url="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/59e7ad52b0c29214192056d8/heres-why-youll-never-find-chinese-takeout-boxes-in-china.jpg" /> </item> <item> <guid>http://www.businessinsider.com/china-is-carving-out-a-foothold-in-the-arctic-2017-10</guid> <title>China is carving out a foothold in the Arctic</title> <link>http://www.businessinsider.com/china-is-carving-out-a-foothold-in-the-arctic-2017-10</link> <pubDate>Wed, 18 Oct 2017 14:01:00 -0400</pubDate> <dc:creator>Laura Zhou</dc:creator> <description> &lt;p&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;float:right;&quot; src=&quot;http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/52be25d3ecad041239204516-1500/teadlasedjl.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Xue Long icebreaker China&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;Wikimedia Commons&quot; data-link=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Teadlased_j%C3%A4%C3%A4l.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;China has made progress on its ambition to establish a foothold in the Arctic with the first voyage by its research icebreaker through the frozen waters of the Northwest Passage.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div&gt;&lt;form id=&quot;scmp-newsletter-subscription-form-322279&quot; accept-charset=&quot;UTF-8&quot; action=&quot;https://www.scmp.com/api/rest/public/v2/newsletter/subscribe.json&quot; method=&quot;POST&quot; data-newsletter-name=&quot;China at a Glance&quot; data-newsletter-tid=&quot;322279&quot;&gt; &lt;p&gt;In a journey spanning more than 20,000 nautical miles and 83 days, the Xue Long, or Snow Dragon, made its way through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago before returning to Shanghai on Tuesday.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The polar research vessel is now the first from China to have navigated all three major shipping routes through the Arctic. About a week before starting its crossing of the Northwest Passage, Xue Long travelled through the Central Arctic Route (also known as the Transpolar Sea Route), while in 2012, it navigated the Northern Sea Route (part of the Northeast Passage) along Russia&amp;rsquo;s Arctic coast.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Experts said the latest voyage could pave the way for commercial development in the resource-rich northernmost region of the world.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Polar regions, together with the oceans, the internet and space exploration, have become new but strategic areas where China is seeking to develop in the future,&amp;rdquo; Wang Chuanxing, a polar researcher at Tongji University in Shanghai, said.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;This voyage is just one of [China&amp;rsquo;s] practical moves in the Arctic though it remains at a very early stage in terms of commercial development.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/53c29ca2eab8ea2625f472fa-2400/china xue long icebreaker.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;china xue long icebreaker&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;Stringer Shanghai/Getty Images&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The State Oceanic Administration, which oversees China&amp;rsquo;s polar programmes, said the expedition helped it &amp;ldquo;acquire navigation techniques and experience in the complicated and frozen environment of the Arctic &amp;hellip; and obtain first-hand information on its shipping routes&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;It was China&amp;rsquo;s eighth scientific expedition to the Arctic and came after President Xi Jinping reiterated in Moscow in July that China wanted to work with Russia to develop an &amp;ldquo;Ice Silk Road&amp;rdquo; along the Northern Sea Route to be a &amp;ldquo;new growth driver&amp;rdquo; of cooperation between the countries.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;China has stepped up its engagement in the mineral-rich Arctic in recent years, becoming one of only six nations with observer status on the Arctic Council in 2013 &amp;mdash; which gives Beijing input on governance of the region.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The Arctic Circle is also part of Beijing&amp;rsquo;s ambitious belt and road trade and infrastructure initiative spanning Asia, Africa and Europe.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Meanwhile, in its first white paper on Antarctica, released in May, it pledged to further expand its presence in the largely uninhabited continent, including building its fifth research station there. It vowed to &amp;ldquo;elevate Antarctic infrastructure and comprehensive support &amp;shy;capabilities&amp;rdquo; and boost &amp;ldquo;scientific investigation and research capability&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But it has yet to release a clear policy on its plans for the Arctic region, which has some nations worried.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/55a82dc8ecad0430744bc9f7-2400/chinanavy2.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;China navy&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;Lamar Salter&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;China is now seeking resources from all around the world &amp;ndash; and Chinese investment is almost everywhere &amp;ndash; but we are still waiting to see a detailed policy from China &amp;hellip; then we [will] be more clear about what China wants to do in the Arctic,&amp;rdquo; a diplomat from an Arctic nation told the South China Morning Post on condition of anonymity.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Speculation about China&amp;rsquo;s ambitions in the Arctic region is mounting. The world&amp;rsquo;s second largest economy has been on the hunt to secure enough energy resources to meet its growing demand &amp;ndash; and the Arctic has 30 per cent of the world&amp;rsquo;s undiscovered natural gas and 13 per cent of its undiscovered oil reserves.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;And as rising temperatures result in sea ice melting across the Arctic, there are also new opportunities for ships to travel through previously inaccessible, resource-rich areas.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;An Arctic trade route would also be more convenient for China. The shortest and most common shipping route from Asia to Europe goes through the Strait of Malacca and the Suez Canal and takes 35 days, while a route through the Arctic would take just 22 days.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Russia remains China&amp;rsquo;s biggest partner in the Arctic. China&amp;rsquo;s state-owned Silk Road Fund and China National Petroleum both hold stakes in Arctic gas project Yamal LNG &amp;ndash; in partnership with Russia&amp;rsquo;s Novatek and France&amp;rsquo;s Total &amp;ndash; while a proposed deep-water port near Arkhangelsk, on Russia&amp;rsquo;s White Sea, has been on Beijing and Moscow&amp;rsquo;s agenda.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/5556e3776bb3f7c01f806afe-2400/rtr3qpyl-3.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Russia and China&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;REUTERS/China Daily&quot; data-mce-caption=&quot;Chinese and Russian naval vessels participate in naval exercise.&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;China is very aware that Russia holds the keys to much of Beijing&amp;rsquo;s Arctic interests, including in regards to current and future shipping, so there is great interest between the two governments in cooperating further in Arctic economic development,&amp;rdquo; said Marc Lanteigne, an expert in China, East Asia and polar regions at Massey University in New Zealand.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;China is interested in helping the Putin government develop various projects, including port and transport infrastructure, in both Siberia and the Russian Far East.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Cheng Baozhi, an associate researcher at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, said the Arctic was an area of untapped potential for China.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Russia is the largest Arctic nation in the world and there&amp;rsquo;s no way to bypass it in any Arctic-related activity,&amp;rdquo; Cheng said. &amp;ldquo;The two nations realise there is huge potential for them to cooperate, so why not exploit that potential?&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;float:right;&quot; src=&quot;http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/54f638c86da811f064df0cf4-2400/86150569.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;china navy&quot; data-mce-source=&quot;Guang Niu/Getty&quot; data-mce-caption=&quot;Chinese navy soldiers guard Great Wall - 218 of Navy Submarine at Qingdao Port on April 22, 2009 in Qingdao of Shandong Province, China. The submrine will attend an international fleet review to be held on April 23 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But China&amp;rsquo;s path through the Arctic will not be easy &amp;mdash; aside from the technical and environmental challenges, it will also face political uncertainties and potential cultural conflicts in its commercial development plans.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Chinese companies need to carefully study the possible risks before they set foot in the Arctic &amp;mdash; otherwise they could end up involved in disputes,&amp;rdquo; Wang from Tongji University said.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;There was the possibility of conflict with cultural and environmental agencies, local governments and even the region&amp;rsquo;s aboriginal peoples, he said.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In the meantime, China has started building its second icebreaker, the Xue Long II, which is expected to set sail in 2019. Also, state-owned cargo shipping giant Cosco is planning to send six vessels along the Northern Sea Route to transport items including equipment, steel and pulp, Xinhua reported.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/form&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SEE ALSO:&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/indias-concern-with-beijing-expansion-grows-with-sri-lanka-port-deal-2017-8&quot; &gt;'China is not Father Christmas': India's concern about Beijing's expansion grows after a new port deal&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/china-is-carving-out-a-foothold-in-the-arctic-2017-10#comments&quot;&gt;Join the conversation about this story &amp;#187;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;NOW WATCH: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.businessinsider.com/china-beijing-daxing-airport-biggest-in-world-2017-10&quot;&gt;China is building a mega-airport in Beijing that will open in 2019&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; </description> <media:thumbnail url="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/52be25e369beddef1bce3308/china-is-carving-out-a-foothold-in-the-arctic.jpg" /> </item> </channel> </rss>