Below is the fourth installment in our series of news summaries from China for those interested in doing business and/or traveling in China, as a complement to our Business Mandarin Chinese course.
1. A 23-foot-tall air purifier gets a tryout in smoggy Beijing
Smart city designer Mr. Roosegaarde and his partners from Studio Roosegaarde based in Rotterdam just created the world’s first outdoor air cleaner, a Smog Free Tower, which is about to be installed at a public location in Beijing in September to increase the air quality per invitation of China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection.
The tower is just 23 feet tall and uses ionization technology to suck up smog, filter out the dangerous particles and release purified air. In 36 hours it can eliminate 70 to 80 percent of the impurities in the air from an area the size of a football stadium. However, the tower just uses 1,400 watts of electricity per day, roughly that of an electric kettle.
Although the tower does not seem to make any real difference in China’s overall air quality, the tower serves as a reminder of the mission to fight against smog issues and signals that cities are finding new ways to solve problems. Over the next year, the tower will go on a sort of smog-fighting tour, with related educational events, to four other Chinese cities.
Chinese source: http://cn.nytimes.com/china/20160721/a-23-foot-tall-air-purifier-gets-a-tryout-in-smoggy-beijing/
English source: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/21/us/a-23-foot-tall-air-purifier-gets-a-tryout-in-smoggy-beijing.html?_r=1
2. China seeks top-10 automation ranking by 2020
Chinese home appliances maker Midea has just bought Germany’s Kuka in a 4.5 billion-euro ($5 billion) takeover bid that ended last week, giving it about 86 percent of the shares. This comes as China strives to modernize its manufacturing with robotics in response to labor shortages and fast-rising wages and aims for a top-10 ranking in automation for its industries by 2020.
According to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), China is still has far lower robot penetration than other big industrialized economies - just 36 per 10,000 manufacturing workers in 2015, ranking it 28th among the world’s most automated nations. In addition, Chinese producers still mainly make low- to mid-range industrial robots and the Chinese market is still dominated by foreign robot makers like ABB, Kuka and Yaskawa.
In order to reach the goal of being top 10, China aims for sales of 100,000 domestically produced industrial robots a year by 2020, up 49 percent compared with last year, and boost penetration to 150 per 10,000 workers.
Chinese source: http://cn.reuters.com/article/midea-robot-kuka-idCNKCS109084
English source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-robots-forecast-idUSKCN102104
3. China legalises Uber and Didi car-hailing apps
China’s government has formally legalised online car hailing services including San Francisco-based Uber and Beijing-based Didi Chuxing, giving a boost to an industry that has until now operated in a grey area.
Both Uber and Didi Chuxing welcomed the provisional rules. Didi referred to it as “the world’s first nationwide online ride-booking regulations” and Uber also said the regulations “send a clear message of support for ride sharing and the benefits that it offers riders, drivers, and cities”. The new rules are a departure from draft rules issued last year that Didi had lobbied to have changed, after they imposed strict limits and licensing on vehicles and drivers.
Online car hailing has been met with protests and bans in many other countries but China’s government has sought to co-opt the new technology rather than ban it, as a way to promote further economic growth. Car hailing has quickly grown from a niche sector to a big industry in China, where the ubiquity of smartphones has translated into millions of rides per day. Didi claims it is handling 14m rides per day across its platforms and predicts the Chinese ride-hailing market would be worth $50bn annually by 2020.
Chinese source: http://www.ftchinese.com/story/001068689
English source: https://next.ft.com/content/dc63e5ce-54ab-11e6-9664-e0bdc13c3bef
Photo Credit: Stuck in Customs via Compfight cc