China takes over WHO after Trump retreat, BYD crushes Tesla
China is major donor at WHO, BYD is boss, Huawei launches Harmony OS laptops, Turkey and Uyghurs, new rules for "military-industrial facilities," and cool Chengdu.
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习进特退
China is in charge of the World Health Organization
“China will give an additional $500 million to the World Health Organization (WHO) over five years,” a Chinese official said last week, according to Reuters, as the United Nations agency seeks funding to replace the loss of support from its top donor, the United States. Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would withdraw from the WHO in January, shortly after he was sworn in as president.
The news was announced in Geneva, Switzerland at the 78th World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of WHO.
China is now rhetorically in charge of the WHO, judging from all the media reporting and commentary on these matters. However, it’s not clear exactly what is going on when it comes to the budget and the spreadsheets. According to Think Global Health:
Whereas the United States provided approximately $700 million in voluntary contributions for 2024, China's voluntary funding amounted to less than $30 million. The total funding gap is substantial: China's combined contributions of $202 million pale in comparison with the United States's $959 million. This places China eighth among all donors, trailing nations such as Germany and the United Kingdom as well as private entities such as the Gates Foundation.
Related: The World Health Assembly adopted a Pandemic Agreement that seeks to “enhance global capacity to prevent, prepare for and deal with the next infectious disease pandemic.” The U.S. is not a signatory.
Flex from Chinese electric car industry
BYD world domination
BYD outsold Tesla in Europe for the first time in April, according to electric car data company JATO.
Tesla sales have continued to slump worldwide, likely because the company has not released new models or new technologies, while the behavior of its CEO, Elon Musk, has continued to taint the Tesla brand.
BYD is challenging the economics of the entire electric vehicle (EV) industry: “Chinese auto stocks fell broadly after BYD offered discounts for many of its models, triggering industry concerns about another price war,” reported the Wall Street Journal on May 26.
In related news:
The founder of EV battery giant CATL Robin Zeng 曾毓群 expects that “half of all new trucks sold in China will be electric-powered by 2028,” as reported by the Financial Times.
Xiaomi “reported another quarter of strong earnings, buoyed by robust sales of its smartphones and electric vehicles despite demand headwinds,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
The end of the Windows-Mac duopoly
Huawei launches Harmony OS laptops
On May 19, Huawei launched two new laptop models running its Harmony OS, the Chinese company’s own operating system that works just about as well as the equivalent Mac and Windows systems.
Meanwhile, Jensen Huang 黃仁勛, boss of NVIDIA, the leading provider of computer chips for the AI industry, said that U.S. chip Controls on China have backfired.
Spies and scholars
Turkey and Uyghurs
“Turkish officials say they've caught Chinese intelligence using fake cell phone towers to eavesdrop on Uyghurs and the Turkish government,” reported The World.
“The protests across Türkiye have led Chinese scholars to reassess the sustainability of Erdoğan’s rule,” according to ChinaMed Project.
The advance of the security-surveillance state
Don’t get too close to army bases
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