中國如何監控外國人（2/2）

Recently The New York Times reported the following:

How China Keeps Tabs on Foreigners (2/2)

An unsecured police dashboard was a rare window into how the authorities track foreigners by collecting and aggregating vast amounts of private data.

The NYT - By Lily Kuo and Pei-Lin Wu (Lily Kuo is a China correspondent for The Times, based in Taipei. Pei-Lin Wu is a reporter and researcher covering Taiwan and China for The Times.)

Aug. 2, 2026, 12:03 a.m. ET

(continue)

Under Xi Jinping, the ruling Chinese Communist Party has overseen a drive to use big data in the name of public safety to stamp out dissent and prevent potential terrorist attacks.

Other countries employ similar kinds of surveillance systems, but in China, there is little protection against police overreach, according to Maya Wang, the deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

“That kind of integration of data is really quite unprecedented and illustrates China’s lack of safeguards,” Ms. Wang said.

An Unsecured Platform

When Mr. Hofer first came across the platform’s login page, a username and password had already been filled in. The fact that a system with sensitive personal information on hundreds of people was accessible to anyone who could find it on the internet suggested a major lack of privacy protections.

Greg Walton, a cybersecurity researcher who has studied similar Chinese systems, said the exposure of this one was not an anomaly. It was a consequence of China’s “surveillance sprawl,” which is fueled by an expanding ecosystem of vendors, contractors and public security agencies, he said.

Mr. Walton, a senior investigator at the SecDev Group, a Canadian research firm, said that each new platform “increases the number of places where sensitive personal data can be misconfigured, copied or left externally discoverable.”

The Times verified that data in the entries for six people besides Mr. Hofer was accurate. A Times reporter who used to be based in Beijing was in it, listed in an entry that included the name of her child. Her name was misspelled, but her passport and other information were correct.

Work on the Zhangjiakou system appeared to have started in 2021, and changes were made to it as recently as April, according to Mr. Hofer, who has documented his findings in a Substack newsletter. Several fields in the database were empty or filled with dummy text, suggesting it was still under construction.

Residents were tracked on cameras in public locations, but the platform also pulled from sources not directly connected to the police. It had a list of foreigners and Chinese citizens who had visited the city’s Thaiwoo Ski Resort, including photos of them taken there, their full names and passport numbers.

Sorting by Country and Religion

The platform labeled people from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom or the United States as being in the “Five Eyes Alliance.” That is a reference to the intelligence-sharing agreement between the five countries that Beijing frequently criticizes as promoting Cold War-style divisions.

It also highlighted residents from what it called “key countries” — a list that included Egypt, Iran, Israel, Morocco, Pakistan and Sudan.

Visitors from Hong Kong, home to widespread anti-Beijing protests in 2019, and Taiwan, a self-governing democracy that China claims as its own, had their own categories. The database also tracked international students, foreign spouses and “key persons,” a euphemism often used by the Chinese authorities to refer to activists or fugitives, or others deemed to be threats to social stability.

Many of the foreign students listed appeared to be from Pakistan and India and were studying at Hebei North University in Zhangjiakou. Profiles of the students included their religion, marital status, focus of study and times they had been captured on cameras at the school’s entrances.

The platform also claimed to be able to map a person’s relationship network. An illustration of the function showed the names of three Pakistani men in their 20s, linking them to one another after they were captured on camera together.

One set of entries that Mr. Hofer downloaded included names of residents who had been penalized under Chinese law. It showed one woman who had been fined 1,000 Chinese yuan (about $150) in 2021, for example, for not registering a change of address. Other examples included foreigners who had been cited for teaching without required licenses.

The information appeared to have been entered by an official at the Zhangjiakou police station named Zhang Jinglong, according to files downloaded by Mr. Hofer that listed him as a contributor.

An official by that name was profiled by the Zhangjiakou police in 2020. He was praised for monitoring discussions online and actively participating in them to “guide citizens to establish correct” views.

Last year, an artificial intelligence lab in the police bureau was named for him.

Translation

中國如何監控外國人（2/2）

一個未加密的警方數據看板罕見地揭示了當局如何透過收集和匯總大量私人數據來追蹤外國人

  （繼續）

在習近平的領導下，執政的中國共產黨以公共安全的名義，大力推動利用大數據來鎮壓異議和預防潛在的恐怖攻擊。

人權觀察組織亞洲區副主任 Maya Wang 表示，其他國家也採用類似的監控系統，但在中國，幾乎沒有任何措施可以防止警方濫用權力。

Wang 說： “這種數據整合方式確實史無前例，也暴露出中國缺乏保障。”

一個不安全的平台

當 Hofer 先生第一次造訪該平台的登入頁面時，使用者名稱和密碼已預先填寫好了。一個包含數百人敏感個人資訊的系統竟然可以被任何能從網絡上找到它的人登入，這表明該平台在隱私保護方面存在嚴重缺陷。

曾研究過類似中國系統的網路安全研究員 Greg Walton 表示，這次外洩並非個别案例。他說，這是中國「監控網路擴張」的後果，而這種擴張是由不斷擴大的供應商、承包商和公共安全機構組成的生態系統所推動的。

Walton 先生是加拿大研究公司 SecDev Group 的高級研究員，他表示，每個新平台的出現「都會增加敏感個人資料可能被錯誤配置、複製或被外部發現」。

《紐約時報》核實了 Hofer 先生以外的六人的資訊記錄，證實其準確性。一位曾在北京工作的《紐約時報》記者也在其中，她的資訊記錄中包含了她孩子的名字。她的名字拼錯了，但她的護照和其他資訊是正確的。

據 Hofer 先生稱，張家口的系統似乎始於2021年，最近一次更新是在4月。Hofer先生在Substack的通訊中記錄了他的發現。資料庫中的幾個欄位是空着或填了佔位的虛擬符號，表明該系統仍在建設中。

居民的行踪是透過公共場所的攝影機進行追踪，但該平台也從一些與警方沒有直接聯繫的來源獲取資訊。它有一份曾經到訪張家口 Thaiwoo 滑雪場的外國人和中國公民的名單，包括在那裡拍攝到他們的照片、全名和護照號碼。

按國家和宗教分類

該平台將來自澳洲、加拿大、紐西蘭、英國或美國的人標記為「五眼聯盟」成員。這指的是五國之間的情報共享協議，北京經常批評該協議助長了冷戰式的分裂。

該資料庫還重點標註了來自所謂「重點國家」的居民，其中包括埃及、伊朗、以色列、摩洛哥、巴基斯坦和蘇丹。

來自香港（2019年爆發大規模反北京抗議活動的地區）和台灣（中國聲稱擁有主權的自治民主地區）的訪客則被單獨歸類。該資料庫還追蹤了國際學生、外籍配偶和「關鍵人物」。 「關鍵人物」是中國當局常用的委婉說法，通常用來指稱活動人士、逃犯或其他被認為對社會穩定構成威脅的人員。

許多被列入資料庫的外國學生似乎來自巴基斯坦和印度，就讀於張家口河北北方學院。學生的個人資料包括他們的宗教信仰、婚姻狀況、專業方向以及他們在學校入口處被監視器拍到的次數。

該平台還聲稱能夠繪製個人關係網絡圖。該功能的一個例子顯示了三名20多歲的巴基斯坦男子的名字，並將他們聯繫起來，因為他們曾被監視器拍到在一起。

Hofer 先生下載的一組記錄中包含了一些因違反中國法律而受到處罰的居民姓名。例如，其中顯示一名女性因未登記地址變更，於2021年被罰款1000元人民幣（約150美元）。其他例子還包括一些因無證授課而被處罰的外國人。

根據 Hofer 先生下載的文件顯示，這些資訊似乎是由張家口派出所一名名叫 Zhang Jinglong 的官員輸入的，文件將他列為資訊提供者之一。

2020年，張家口警方曾對一名同名官員進行專題通報。他因監控網絡討論並積極參與其中，以「引導公民樹立正確」觀點而受到表揚。

去年，公安局的一個人工智能實驗室以他的名字命名。

              So, Marc Hofer has come across something called “Dynamic Control Platform for Overseas Personnel” on the internet in China. It tracked foreigners in the northern Chinese city of Zhangjiakou. The system’s dashboard said it had the record of more than 700 foreign residents living in the city. In total, it had entries for nearly 12,000 people, which included fugitives, people from Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as more than 300 foreign journalists. Apparently, China is monitoring the movement of foreigners in China.

Note:

1.  Substack is a website/platform where individual writers, journalists, researchers, and other people can publish articles regularly and send them to subscribers by email. (ChatGPT)

中國如何監控外國人（1/2）

Recently The New York Times reported the following:

The dashboard (Source: The NYT)

How China Keeps Tabs on Foreigners (1/2)

An unsecured police dashboard was a rare window into how the authorities track foreigners by collecting and aggregating vast amounts of private data.

 The NYT - By Lily Kuo and Pei-Lin Wu (Lily Kuo is a China correspondent for The Times, based in Taipei. Pei-Lin Wu is a reporter and researcher covering Taiwan and China for The Times.)

Aug. 2, 2026, 12:03 a.m. ET

Most days, Marc Hofer, a cybersecurity researcher and journalist based in Amsterdam, trawls the internet for clues about how China surveils its citizens, a subject that has fascinated him since he worked there as a foreign correspondent.

Mr. Hofer, 46, was doing his usual scan earlier this year when he came across something called “Dynamic Control Platform for Overseas Personnel.” It was a futuristic dashboard — like something from the movie “Minority Report” — that appeared to track foreigners in the northern Chinese city of Zhangjiakou, a popular skiing spot that co-hosted the 2022 Winter Olympics.

The system’s dashboard said it tracked more than 700 foreign residents living in the city. In total, it had entries for nearly 12,000 people, which included fugitives, people from Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as more than 300 foreign journalists. Some of them had not been to Zhangjiakou.

Suddenly, Mr. Hofer saw his own face — in a photograph taken by Chinese immigration officials for their records. Next to it was his passport number and the cellphone number he had used in China.

He was floored. “Whoever put that stuff in there had access to real data,” he recalled. He also noticed a list of users who had recently logged into the site — it included the names of police stations in Zhangjiakou and other cities.

China monitors its 1.4 billion people on an unparalleled scale, with the help of cameras, cellphone signals and national IDs. The database Mr. Hofer found offered a rare window into how extensively the Chinese authorities also surveil foreigners, displaying entries about people categorized by nationality, with their birth date, sex, marital status, address and occupation, and sometimes their religion.

It also included instances when they were captured on camera at traffic intersections, markets, shopping malls or other locations, including a mosque.

Chinese companies hoping to sell their surveillance platforms to the police often create demo web pages that use photos and information about people taken from social media. This was different, Mr. Hofer said: “This is more than some guys playing around, or a student, or a low-level project.”

That day, in January, he began downloading as much data as possible from the site. By May, it had been taken offline.

Designed for the Police

The New York Times found links between the platform and Origin Dynamic, a Beijing company that provides robotics, surveillance services and equipment to the police, according to public tender documents.

Origin Dynamic had filed a patent application in 2023 for a similar system, which it described as an “information interface for non-Chinese citizens” and was nearly identical to the Zhangjiakou platform in its design and functions. The company is owned in part by the city government of Yancheng in Jiangsu Province.

Origin Dynamic and the Zhangjiakou Public Security Bureau did not respond to requests for comment sent by email and fax.

Mr. Hofer, who shared the data he saved with The Times, believed that the dashboard had been designed for the Zhangjiakou Public Security Bureau, the city’s police department. It included information that only the Chinese authorities would have had access to, and the user log that Mr. Hofer saw listed eight police stations in Zhangjiakou and three from other cities.

It was not clear how, or if, the police have used the database in their work. But its existence illustrates how the Chinese authorities aggregate vast amounts of data from surveillance cameras, medical records, bills, facial-recognition tools and other sources to monitor and analyze the behavior of foreign residents. It had fields for places they frequented, hospital visits and gas payments, as well as flights and trains taken, including seat numbers.

For example, it logged the movements of a woman from Mongolia as she went from a residential compound in Zhangjiakou to shopping malls, restaurants and supermarkets. In some instances, the database indicated, she had been tracked using facial recognition.

(to be continued)

Translation

中國如何監控外國人（1/2）

一個未加密的警方數據看板罕見地揭示了當局如何透過收集和匯總大量私人數據來追蹤外國人

大多數時候，常駐阿姆斯特丹的網路安全研究員兼記者Marc Hofer都會在網絡上搜尋中國如何監控其公民的線索。自從他作為駐外記者在中國工作以來，這個話題就一直讓他著迷。

今年早些時候，46歲的Hofer先生像往常一樣進行網路搜尋時，偶然發現了一個名為「海外人員動態控制平台」的東西。那是一個充滿未來感的數據看板 - 就像電影Minority Report 裡的場景 - 似乎在追蹤居住在中國北方城市張家口的外國人。張家口是熱門滑雪勝地，也是2022年冬奧的聯合舉辦城市之一。

該系統的數據看板顯示，它追蹤了700多名居住在張家口的外國居民。總共記錄了近12,000人的信息，其中包括逃犯、香港和台灣居民，以及300多名外國記者。其中一些甚至從未到過張家口。

突然，Hofer先生看到了自己的照片 - 一張中國移民官員拍攝的存檔照片。照片旁邊是他的護照號碼和他在中國使用的手機號碼。

他震驚了。 他回憶道:「把這些資訊放進去的人肯定接觸了真實的數據」。他還注意到一個最近登入過該網站的用戶清單 - 其中包括張家口和其他城市的派出所名稱。

中國利用攝影機、手機訊號和國民身分證，以前所未有的規模監控其14億人口。Hofer先生發現的資料庫罕見地揭示了中國當局對外國人的監控範圍之廣，其中列出了按國籍分類的人員信息，包括出生日期、性別、婚姻狀況、住址、職業，有時甚至包括宗教信仰。

資料庫還記錄了他們在交通路口、市場、購物中心或其他場所（包括清真寺）被攝影機拍到的畫面。

一些希望向警方出售監控平台的中國公司通常會使用從社交媒體上獲取照片和個人資訊去製作示範網頁。Hofer先生說，這個資料庫有所不同：“這絕不是某些人玩玩而已，也不是某個學生項目或一個初級計劃。”

在一月份的某一天，他開始從該網站下載盡可能多的資料。到了五月份，網站已經下線。

專為警方設計

《紐約時報》發現，根據公開招標文件，該平台與北京一家名為Origin Dynamic的公司有關連。 Origin Dynamic是一家為警方提供機器人、監控服務和設備的公司。

Origin Dynamic曾在2023年為類似系統提交專利申請，該公司將其描述為 “面向非中國公民的資訊介面” ，其設計和功能幾乎與張家口平台完全相同。該公司部分股權由江蘇省鹽城市政府持有。

Origin Dynamic和張家口市公安局均未回覆透過電子郵件和傳真發送的置評請求。

Hofer先生與《紐約時報》分享了他保存的數據。他認為，該數據看板是為張家口市公安局（即該市的公安機關）設計的。其中包含只有中國當局才能接觸到的信息，Hofer先生看到的使用者日誌列出了張家口的八個派出所和來自其他城市的三個派出所。

目前尚不清楚警方是否以及如何在工作中使用該資料庫。但它的存在表明，中國當局如何匯集來自監視攝影機、醫療記錄、帳單、人臉識別工具和其他來源的大量數據，以監控和分析外國居民的行為。資料庫包含他們常去的地點、就醫記錄、加油記錄，以及搭乘的航班和火車資訊，包括座位號碼。

例如，它記錄了一位蒙古籍女性從張家口的一個住宅小區到購物中心、餐廳和超市的行踪。資料庫顯示，在某些情況下，她曾被使用人臉辨識技術追蹤。

（待續）

中國經濟成長創多年來新低（2/2）

Recently The New York Times reported the following:

 China’s Economy Grows at Slowest Pace in Years (2/2)

Economic growth of 4.3 percent in the second quarter, versus the same period last year, reflected a broad slump outside of the country’s export-oriented manufacturing might.

The NYT -By Alexandra Stevenson and Murphy Zhao - Reporting from Hong Kong

July 15, 2026

Updated 2:38 a.m. ET

(continue)

For China’s leadership, the question now is, what to do next? Li Qiang, China’s premier, told a group of entrepreneurs this week that officials were focusing on new drivers of consumption and ensuring job stabilization.

“It is important to take a comprehensive and objective view of the current economic situation, fully recognizing the achievements made while remaining cleareyed about the problems,” said Mr. Li, according to state media, which ran a story about the meeting on the front page of the official People’s Daily.

Some economists anticipate a discussion of fresh stimulus measures at a meeting of top policymakers later this month. On Monday, officials announced a plan to target $8.85 trillion of annual retail sales by 2030, implying a 20 percent rise from last year.

Beijing also promised to raise wages and increase household consumption as a share of the economy. It is currently around 40 percent, significantly lower than the 60 percent share of gross domestic product for most developed countries.

But analysts said these goals are not particularly ambitious. And stubbornly reluctant consumers in China show few signs of opening their wallets further.

On social media forums, shoppers share tips on how to scrimp and save, rallying around the motto to “save where you can, spend where you must.”

Users share tips about “shopping cart cooling-off periods,” or leaving nonessential items in carts for three days before deciding to buy them. (The practice is a wry nod to the officially enforced “cooling-off period” for couples seeking divorces.)

Others push to replace foreign cosmetic brands with cheaper local alternatives, and to substitute skin care products with baby lotion. “Buy what’s right, not what’s pricey,” a user on the social media network Weibo posted recently.

All the while, sales have continued to fall for products as varied as cosmetics and automobiles. For categories like cars, the recent plunge has been accentuated by the end of a policy to incentivize purchases.

Since a devastating property crash, Chinese policymakers have tried to replace the growth generated by the real estate sector with more robust consumer spending. They rolled out huge subsidies for households to trade in old cars, home appliances and phones from 2024 through last year.

While it generated some activity, the policy failed to address the plummeting value of property, where most household wealth is concentrated. Now, economists say, China is in a “payback period” following the jump in policy-induced sales.

As the economy splits between the relatively few who benefit from China’s role in the global A.I. boom and the rest, the divide is having a profound impact on the country’s social fabric.

China’s property bust has led to more than 14 million people losing construction jobs. Many of those workers bought apartments in smaller cities, far from the pockets of A.I.-generated wealth that may revive parts of the property market.

The A.I. boom “doesn’t benefit ordinary people in China because this priority, the industrial focus on high tech and semiconductors, actually causes structural unemployment and underemployment,” said Dan Wang, the China director at Eurasia Group, a consulting firm.

What’s more, Ms. Wang said, disposable income growth is now lower than economic growth. If that continues, she noted, “that means the national income is skewed in distribution toward government and companies, and not consumers.”

Translation

中國經濟成長創多年來新低（2/2）

第二季經濟成長4.3%，與去年同期相比，反映出除出口導向製造業之外，中國經濟普遍下滑

（繼續）

對中國領導階層而言，現在的問題是：下一步該怎麼辦？中國總理李強本週對一群企業家表示，官員正著力尋找新的消費動力，並確保就業穩定。

根據官方媒體報道，李強總理表示：「重要的是要全面客觀地看待當前的經濟形勢，充分肯定已取得的成就，同時也要清醒地認識到存在的問題。」《人民日報》頭版刊登了關於此次會議的報道。

一些經濟學家預計，本月晚些時候，高層決策者將召開會議，討論新的刺激措施。週一，官員們宣佈了一項計劃，目標是到2030年實現8.85兆美元的年度零售額，這意味著比去年增長20%。

北京方面也承諾提高工資，並提高家庭消費佔經濟總量的比重。目前，家庭消費佔國內生產毛額（GDP）的比重約為40%，遠低於大多數已開發國家60%的水準。

但分析人士表示，這些目標並不算特別雄心勃勃。而且中國那些固執地不願花錢的消費者，幾乎沒有進一步去增加支出的跡象。

在社交媒體論壇上，購物者分享著如何精打細算的技巧，他們奉行著「能省則省，當用則用」的原則。

用戶們也分享了「購物車冷靜期」的技巧，也就是把非必需品放在購物車裡三天後再決定是否要購買。 （這種做法是對官方強制執行的離婚夫婦「冷靜期」的一種諷刺。）

另一些人則試圖用更便宜的本土品牌化妝品取代外國品牌，用嬰兒潤膚露代替保養品。 一位微博用戶最近發文說:「買合用的，不買貴價的」。

同時，包括化妝品和汽車在內的各種產品的銷量持續下滑。對於汽車等類別而言，近期的暴跌因一項旨在刺激消費政策的結束而加劇。

自從房地產市場崩盤以來，中國決策者一直試圖用更強勁的消費支出來彌補房地產行業帶來的成長。他們從2024年開始，為家庭以舊換新提供巨額補貼，用於舊車、舊家電和舊手機的置換。

雖然這項政策刺激了一些消費活動，但它未能解決房地產價值暴跌的問題，而大部分家庭財富都集中在房地產領域。經濟學家表示，在政策所刺激的急增銷售後，中國目前正處於「償還期」。

隨著經濟因出現少數受益於中國在全球人工智能熱潮的人，與其餘人群之間出現分化。這種分化正在對中國的社會結構產生深遠的影響。

中國的房地產泡沫破裂導致超過1,400萬人失去了建築業的工作。許多這些工人在較細小的城市購買了公寓房，遠離一些人工智可能創造財富而重振部分房地產市場的小區。

諮詢公司歐亞集團 中國區的總監Dan Wang表示，人工智能熱潮「並沒有惠及中國的普通民眾，因為這種優先發展高科技和半導體產業的政策實際上導致了結構性失業和就業不足」。

此外，Wang女士也指出，目前可支配收入的成長低於經濟成長。她表示，如果這種情況持續下去，“這意味著國民收入的分配將向政府和企業傾斜，而不是向消費者傾斜。”

          So, China’s economy is at the slowest point in three years, reflecting a broader slump. Although China’s factories are churning out chips and electric cars to supply a global boom in artificial intelligence and energy-saving products, many Chinese people are feeling squeezed at home. The economy is splitting between the relatively few who benefit from China’s role in the global A.I. boom and the rest. Furthermore, it is noted that people’s disposable income growth is now lower than economic growth. If that continues, it would mean that the national income is skewed in distribution toward government and companies, not consumers. Apparent, the government needs to do more to deal with the economic slowdown.

中國經濟成長創多年來新低（1/2）

Recently The New York Times reported the following:

China’s Economy Grows at Slowest Pace in Years (1/2)

Economic growth of 4.3 percent in the second quarter, versus the same period last year, reflected a broad slump outside of the country’s export-oriented manufacturing might.

The NYT -By Alexandra Stevenson and Murphy Zhao - Reporting from Hong Kong

July 15, 2026

Updated 2:38 a.m. ET

China’s economy last quarter grew at the slowest rate in three years, reflecting a broader slump that the country’s leaders signaled earlier this year when they set the lowest growth target in more than three decades.

On Wednesday, that National Bureau of Statistics said that the economy expanded by 4.3 percent in the second quarter, compared to a year ago, down from a 5 percent pace in the first quarter and short of economists’ expectations.

Although China’s factories are churning out chips and electric cars to supply a global boom in artificial intelligence and energy-saving products, many Chinese people are feeling squeezed at home.

A long-running property crisis has no end in sight, with steep declines in construction dragging down economic growth. Jobs outside of factories are hard to come by and paychecks are not growing. Retail sales of consumer goods have been choppy. They fell in May, for the first time since the end of Covid-19 lockdowns in late 2022, before recovering somewhat in June.

That is in stark contrast to China’s relentless strength in manufacturing and trade, with a government report released on Tuesday showing China’s exports surging by 27 percent in June compared with a year earlier, driven by shipments of chips, batteries and cars. China’s trade surplus in June, at more than $125 billion, was second largest on record.

In other words, China’s mighty export machine is masking weaknesses elsewhere.

“You get this A.I. boom, which is a global thing, and China is part of the leading nations on the frontier,” said Yu Song, the chief China economist at UBS Securities. “Without this, China’s economy would be in a much worse state.”

When measured on a quarter-to-quarter basis, China’s economy expanded by only 0.9 percent in the second quarter. When projected out for a year, the second-quarter data implies that the economy was growing at an annual rate of 3.6 percent, sharply down from a pace of more than 6 percent in the first quarter.

The second-quarter annualized rate also missed official targets. Shortcomings in China’s economic growth drivers prompted the ruling Communist Party earlier this year to set the lowest annual growth target in decades, with a goal of between 4.5 percent and 5 percent this year.

Stepping back to consider the trends in the first half of the year, economists say that China’s manufacturing and export prowess, however robust, cannot carry growth on its own.

Industrial production rose by 5.4 percent in the first six months of the year, versus the same period last year. High-tech manufacturing rose by more than 13 percent over that period. But fixed asset investment — which includes infrastructure, property construction and manufacturing — fell by 5.7 percent. Real estate development dropped 18 percent.

The value of China’s exports surged by more than 20 percent in the first half. But consumer spending, which a Moody’s Analytics report said “remains the economy’s weakest link,” faltered. Retail sales of consumer goods increased by 1.3 percent over the first half of the year.

The effects of the war in Iran have pinched Chinese households, with rising fuel prices prompting them to drive and fly less, at a time when many were already worried about the economy and choosing to save more.

China has softened the blow of rising fuel costs by controlling the price at the pump, but the cost of filling up for drivers is still double-digit percentages higher than a year ago.

One silver lining, economists said, was that rising fuel prices started to feed through to broader inflation in the quarter, reversing a problem that China has struggled to shake: more than three years of a broad-based decline in prices. Such deflation tends to chill spending, with consumers putting off purchases in expectation that prices will be lower in the future.

China’s gross domestic product deflator, a broad measure of prices across the economy, was negative in 13 of the past 14 quarters — the most protracted slump on record. But it turned positive in the second quarter.

(to be continued)

Translation

中國經濟成長創多年來新低（1/2）

 第二季經濟成長4.3%，與去年同期相比，反映出除出口導向製造業以外的整個經濟領域普遍下滑

中國經濟上季成長創三年新低，反映出更廣泛的經濟下滑趨勢。今年早些時候，中國領導人設定了三十多年來的最低成長目標，也預示了這一趨勢。

週三，國家統計局公佈的數據顯示，第二季中國經濟年增4.3%，低於第一季的5%，也低於經濟學家的預期。

儘管中國工廠正源源不絕地生產晶片和電動車，以滿足全球人工智能和節能產品的需求，但許多中國人卻在國內感到生活拮据。

長期存在的房地產危機仍看不到盡頭，建築業的急劇下滑拖累了經濟成長。工廠以外的工作機會難得，薪資成長也停滯不前。消費品零售額波動不定。 5月份，自2022年底新冠疫情封鎖措施解除以來，零售額首次出現下滑，6月略有回升。

這與中國製造業和貿易的強勁勢頭形成鮮明對比。週二發佈的一份政府報告顯示，受晶片、電池和汽車出貨量的推動，中國6月出口額年增27%。 6月中國貿易順差超過1,250億美元，創史上第二高。

換句話說，中國強大的出口機器遮掩了其他方面的疲軟。

瑞銀證券首席中國經濟學家Yu Song表示：“人工智能的蓬勃發展是全球性的，而中國是走在前端的領先國家之一。如果沒有人工智能，中國經濟的狀況會糟糕得多。”

按季度環比計算，中國經濟第二季僅成長0.9%。若將第二季的數據推算至一年，則經濟年化成長率為3.6%，較第一季超過6%的成長速度大幅下降。

第二季的年化成長率也低於官方目標。由於中國經濟成長動力不足，執政的中國共產黨在今年稍早設定了數十年來最低的年度成長目標，將今年的成長率目標設定在4.5%至5%之間。

回顧上半年的發展趨勢，經濟學家指出，儘管中國的製造業和出口實力強勁，但僅靠這些優勢無法支撐經濟成長。

相比去年同期，今年上半年，工業生產年增5.4%。高科技製造業年增超過13%。但固定資產投資（包括基礎建設、房地產建設和製造業）下降5.7%。房地產開發下降18%。

中國上半年出口額成長超過20%。但消費支出卻步履維艱 - 穆迪分析公司一份報告稱，消費支出「仍然是經濟最薄弱的一環」。上半年，消費品零售額成長1.3%。

伊朗戰爭的影響給中國家庭帶來了壓力，不斷上漲的燃料價格促使他們減少駕車和乘坐飛機。當前許多人已經對經濟狀況感到擔憂，並選擇增加儲蓄。

中國透過控制油價緩解了燃油成本上漲的衝擊，但目前駕駛者的入油成本仍比一年前高出兩位數百份比。

經濟學家指出，有一線希望在於燃油價格上漲在本季開始傳導至更廣泛的通膨，扭轉了中國長期以來難以擺脫的通縮局面：三年多來物價普遍下跌。這種通貨緊縮往往會抑制消費，消費者會延後購買，預期未來價格會更低。

中國的國內生產總值平減指數（衡量經濟整體物價水準的指標）在過去14季中有13季為負值，創下歷史最長的低迷期。但該指數在第二季轉正。

（待續）

中國地下教會領袖金明日獲釋

Recently BBC News on-line reported the following:

Chinese underground church figure Jin Mingri freed from prison

BBC - Harry Sekulich

5^th July 2026

Underground church leader Jin Mingri has been released from prison in China and has travelled to the US, less than two months after his incarceration was raised directly by Donald Trump.

The pastor and founder of the Zion Church had been imprisoned following overnight raids across China in October, described by Christian groups as one of the strictest crackdowns on religious activity in the country's modern history.

The Chinese government tightly controls religion and officially promotes atheism.

Jin's family thanked supporters in a statement, adding: "We truly witnessed a miracle and we are feeling so overwhelmed with joy". The Chinese foreign ministry has not officially commented on his case.

The family thanked the US president and the Trump administration "for their tremendous leadership", and said they knew "this could not have happened without the direct intervention from [Chinese President] Xi Jinping".

"We hope this is a signal of a positive turn for people of faith in China and relations between our two nations."

US-based rights group ChinaAid, which monitors relgious (sic) persecution, confirmed Jin, also known as Ezra Jin, had arrived in Los Angeles in the US following his release.

Its founder Bob Fu welcomed his release, while noting that "countless" religious practitioners, including eight belonging to the Zion Church, remained incarcerated in China.

The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, a group of Western lawmakers that includes dozens of UK MPs, said it was "overjoyed" with the news.

Trump had urged Xi to release Jin during direct talks between the two while in Beijing for a state visit in May.

"He said he's gonna strongly consider the pastor," the US president said afterward.

Trump also raised the detention of pro-democracy Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, who was sentenced earlier this year to 20 years in prison for colluding with foreign forces under the city's controversial national security law.

Jin started the Zion Church in 2007 with just 20 people. It grew into one of China's largest unregistered churches, with a network of some 10,000 people in 40 cities across the country.

It was officially banned by the Chinese Communist Party in 2018 after resisting government pressure to install security cameras at its property in Beijing.

Many of its branch congregations across the country have since been investigated and shut down.

Christians have long been pressured to join only state-sanctioned churches that are led by government-approved pastors and toe the party line.

Thirty church leaders were reported to have been detained in overnight raids last October.

This was followed by a similar crackdown against another church in January, in which nine people were detained.

Translation:

中國地下教會領袖金明日獲釋

中國地下教會領袖金明日在被特朗普直接提出其監禁問題不到兩個月後，已獲釋並前往美國。

 錫安教會於去年10月在中國各地遭到突然搜查後，其牧師兼創辦人被捕。基督教團體稱，這是中國近代史上對宗教活動最嚴厲的鎮壓之一。

中國政府嚴格控制宗教，官方提倡無神論。

金明日的家人在聲明中感謝支持者，並表示：「我們親眼見證了一個奇蹟，我們感到無比喜悅。」中國外交部尚未就此案發表官方評論。

金明日的家人感謝美國總統和特朗普政府“卓越的領導力”，並表示他們知道“如果沒有（中國國家主席）習近平的直接幹預，這一切不可能發生”。

“我們希望這能成為中國宗教人士以及兩國關係出現積極轉變的信號。”

總部位於美國的維權組織「對華援助協會」（ChinaAid）證實，金牧師（又名Ezra Jin）獲釋後已抵達美國洛杉磯。該組織一直關注宗教迫害問題。

其創辦人Bob Fu對金牧師的獲釋表示歡迎，同時指出，包括八名錫安教會成員在內的「無數」宗教人士仍被關押在中國。

包括有數十名英國議員的一個由西方議員團體組成的「對華跨議會聯盟」表示，他們對這一消息感到「欣喜若狂」。

今年五月，特朗普在對北京進行國事訪問期間，曾與習近平直接會談，敦促習近平釋放金牧師。

美國總統事後表示:「他說他會認真考慮這位牧師的釋放」。

特朗普也提到了香港親民主媒體大亨黎智英被拘留一事。黎智英今年稍早因違反香港備受爭議的國安法，被控勾結外國勢力，被判處20年監禁。

金於2007年創立了錫安教會，當時只有20位信徒。後來，它發展成為中國最大的未註冊教會之一，在全國40個城市擁有約1萬名信徒。

2018年，錫安教會因拒絕政府要求其在北京的建築物安裝監視器而被中國共產黨正式取締。

此後，該教會在全國各地的許多分支機構都遭到調查並關閉。

長期以來，基督徒一直被迫加入由政府認可的牧師領導、並遵循黨路線的官方認可的教會。

據報道，去年10月，30名教會領袖在夜間突撃搜查中被拘留。

隨後在1月份，另一間教會也遭到類似的鎮壓，九人被拘留。

              So, in China, an underground church leader has been released from prison and has travelled to the US, less than two months after his incarceration was raised directly by Donald Trump. I am wondering what has Trump promised to Xi for this “favor”. Recently, there are signs that the US is lifting “restriction” on some officials in Hong Kong.

「好得令人難以置信」：一項關於癌症治療時機的中國研究被撤稿 (2/2)

Recently The New York Times reported the following:

‘Too Good to Be True’: A Chinese Study on Timing Cancer Therapy Is Retracted (2/2)

In a notice flagging a series of problems with a clinical trial, the journal Nature Medicine said its editors “no longer have confidence in the integrity of the results.”

By Rebecca Robbins - Rebecca Robbins is a Times reporter covering the pharmaceutical industry. She has been reporting on health and medicine since 2015.

June 25, 2026

(continue)

Dr. Yongchang Zhang, the study’s senior author, said in a statement that an internal review had “confirmed that part of the study execution and manuscript preparation might not reach the standards for publication in a high-impact journal.”

Dr. Zhang, a researcher at the Chinese hospital where the study was conducted, added: “We acknowledge these shortcomings and sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused to the journal and its readers.” He did not provide an explanation for the problems cited by the journal.

The study had enrolled 210 patients with advanced lung cancer at Hunan Cancer Hospital in Changsha, a city in south-central China. Patients were randomly assigned to receive infusions of an immunotherapy — Merck’s blockbuster drug Keytruda or Tyvyt, which is not approved in the United States — either before or after 3 p.m.

The study reported that tumors did not progress for 11 months in patients who received the earlier infusions, compared with six months for those given the later infusions. Patients receiving the earlier infusions lived for 28 months, compared with 17 months for those infused later in the day.

Those “were numbers we usually associate with new blockbuster drugs, not scheduling decisions,” wrote Dr. Gilberto Lopes, an oncologist at the University of Miami. And rescheduling a patient “costs nothing,” he noted.

Dr. Anil Makam, an epidemiologist and health services researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, said such a drastic benefit, if real, would have prompted infusion clinics to overhaul staffing and scheduling to shift appointments to earlier in the day.

“If we believed the effects, it would be malpractice not to,” he said.

But within days after the study’s publication in Nature Medicine, online sleuths and physicians like Dr. Makam began raising concerns on social media and in blog posts. Less than three weeks after the study was published, the journal published an editor’s note saying it was investigating the issues.

In a statement on Thursday, Dr. João Monteiro, chief editor of Nature Medicine, which is published by Springer Nature, said, “We are grateful to the research community for bringing these concerns to our attention.”

Some scientists have long been intrigued by the idea of harnessing the body’s circadian rhythms to try to make drugs more effective or less toxic. For example, enzymes that the body uses to break down certain medicines are more abundant at certain times of day.

But critics of the Chinese study argued that immunotherapy works very differently from fast-acting drugs like Tylenol. The drug Keytruda lingers in the body and takes effect over several weeks. The study did not identify a biological reason for a difference in treatment timing that would produce such a significant benefit.

“There wasn’t any sound scientific rationale behind it,” said Dr. Roy Herbst, the incoming director of the Dartmouth Cancer Center in New Hampshire and Vermont.

In March, a team led by European researchers reported the findings of an analysis that looked at whether more than 3,000 cancer patients across eight studies had received immunotherapy in the morning or the afternoon. Their study, funded by the drugmaker Roche, which sells a number of cancer drugs, concluded that timing was “unlikely to be a critical determinant” of how well patients did.

Other studies looking back at outcomes have found an association between the time of day that patients receive a cancer immunotherapy and how well they fare. But the why remains unclear.

Doctors said it was possible that more energetic, healthier patients might opt for morning slots. Poorer or rural patients who live far from an infusion center — and tend to fare worse — might ask for afternoon slots because they need to spend the morning traveling to their appointment.

Translation

「好得令人難以置信」：一項關於癌症治療時機的中國研究被撤稿 (2/2)

《自然醫學》雜誌在聲明中指出一項臨床試驗存在一系列問題，並表示其編輯「不再對研究結果的可靠性有信心」

 （繼續）

該研究的資深作者Yongchang Zhang博士在聲明中表示，內部審查「證實部分研究執行和稿件準備工作可能不符合高影響力期刊的發表標準」。

Zhang博士是該研究開展所在中國醫院的研究員，他補充說：「我們承認這些不足，並對給期刊及其讀者帶來的任何不便深表歉意」。他沒有解釋期刊所指出的問題。

這項研究在湖南省長沙市湖南省腫瘤醫院 招募了210名晚期肺癌患者。患者被隨機分配接受免疫療法輸注－默克公司的重磅藥物Keytruda或Tyvyt（該藥尚未在美國被批準）－分別在下午3點前或下午3點後進行。

研究報告顯示，接受較早輸注的患者腫瘤持續11個月沒有增大或惡化，而接受較晚輸注的患者腫瘤沒增大或惡化持續時間為6個月。接受較早輸注的患者平均存活期為28個月，而接受較晚輸注的患者平均存活期為17個月。

University of Miami腫瘤學家Gilberto Lopes博士寫道：「這些數據通常與重磅新藥相關，而不是與輸注時間安排相關的」。他還指出，重新安排患者的輸注時間「無需任何成本」。

加州大學舊金山分校 的流行病學家和衛生服務研究員Anil Makam博士表示，如果這種顯著的益處真的存在，那麼輸液診所應該會徹底改革人員配備與排班制度，調整時間，將輸液提前到一天中的早些時候。

他說:「如果我們相信這些效果，那麼不去調整就是瀆職」。

然而，這項研究發表在《自然醫學》雜誌幾天後，像Makam博士這樣的網路偵探和醫生就開始在社群媒體和部落格文章中表達擔憂。研究發表不到三週後，雜誌發表了編輯說明，表示正在調查這些問題。

《自然醫學》雜誌主編João Monteiro博士週四在一份聲明中表示：「我們感謝研究界讓我們注意到這些問題」。該雜誌由Springer Nature出版。

一些科學家長期以來一直對利用人體晝夜節律來提高藥物療效或降低藥物毒性的想法很感興趣。例如，人體用於分解某些藥物的酵素在一天中的某些時段含量更高。

但批評這項中國研究的人士認為，免疫療法的作用機制與Tylenol等速效藥物截然不同。藥物Keytruda會在體內停留數週，逐漸起效。研究並未找到治療時間差異有產生如此顯著療效的生物學原因。

即將上任的新罕布什爾州和佛蒙特州Dartmouth癌症中心主任Roy Herbst博士說:「這項研究背後沒有任何合理的科學依據」。

今年3月，一個由歐洲研究人員領導的團隊發表了一項分析結果，該分析考察了八項研究中3,000多名癌症患者接受免疫療法的時間（上午或下午）。這項由Roche製藥公司資助的研究得出結論，治療時間「不太可能是決定」患者療效的關鍵因素。Roche製藥公司銷售多種抗癌藥物。

其他回顧性研究發現，患者接受癌症免疫療法的時間與治療效果之間存在關聯。但原因尚不明確。

有醫生表示，精力更充沛、身體更健康的患者可能更傾向於選擇上午的治療時段。而居住地偏遠、遠離輸液中心的貧困患者（療效對他們往往較差）則可能要求下午的治療時段，因為他們需要花費上午的時間前往治療地點。

So, recently a medical journal article has caught the attention of cancer patients and doctors worldwide because of its extraordinary conclusion. Simply changing the time of day that immunotherapy was administered appeared to produce a stunning benefit for lung cancer patients, and eventually the study was retracted. Apparently, it is possible that healthier patients may have opted for morning slots while poorer patients, usually live in the rural area and tend to fare worse, may ask for afternoon slots because they need to spend the morning traveling to receive the immunotherapy in the afternoon.

「好得令人難以置信」：一項關於癌症治療時間的中國研究被撤稿（1/2）

Recently The New York Times reported the following:

‘Too Good to Be True’: A Chinese Study on Timing Cancer Therapy Is Retracted (1/2)

In a notice flagging a series of problems with a clinical trial, the journal Nature Medicine said its editors “no longer have confidence in the integrity of the results.”

By Rebecca Robbins - Rebecca Robbins is a Times reporter covering the pharmaceutical industry. She has been reporting on health and medicine since 2015.

June 25, 2026

Early this year, a medical journal article caught the attention of cancer patients and doctors worldwide because of its extraordinary conclusion. Simply changing the time of day that immunotherapy was administered appeared to produce a stunning benefit for lung cancer patients.

Those who received IV infusions in the morning had their cancer kept at bay for twice as long as those who got it in the afternoon, according to the results from a clinical trial in China and published in the journal Nature Medicine in February. The study also reported that the patients lived nearly twice as long.

Several oncologists said that in recent months they and their hospitals had received a flurry of calls from patients inquiring about switching to morning infusions.

But on Wednesday, Nature Medicine retracted the study, citing a list of inconsistencies and irregularities in the trial’s design and results.

“It was too good to be true,” said Dr. Toni Choueiri, an oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston who helped conduct the post-publication review that led to the retraction.

Among the issues that the journal cited in its retraction notice: Records that were supposed to be locked before the study started were changed midway through. There were discrepancies between the Chinese version of the study’s plan and the translated version. Every patient remained treated and tracked in the study’s first year, and no one dropped out because of side effects — highly unusual in an oncology study. And unusual patterns were found in the timing of follow-up scans.

“Due to the amount and nature of the problems identified, the editors no longer have confidence in the integrity of the results,” the journal said.

Most of the study’s 28 authors were in China, with several collaborators in Europe. The study was funded by the Chinese government.

China has been pumping money into its hospitals and drug companies, fueling a surge of patents, publications and new clinical trials. In just a few years, the country has rapidly transformed into a powerhouse in drug development, a shift that some U.S. officials, doctors and executives see as a threat to longstanding American dominance in the field.

China’s critics often question the reliability of its biomedical research. Experts said that, similar to studies in the United States, China’s research output spans a wide range in quality: Some Chinese scientists run their studies at the most meticulous standards. Others were said to cut corners.

(to be continued)

Translation

「好得令人難以置信」：一項關於癌症治療時間的中國研究被撤稿（1/2）

《自然醫學》雜誌在聲明中指出一項臨床試驗存在一系列問題，並表示其編輯「不再相信該研究結果的可靠性」

今年年初，一篇醫學期刊文章因其非凡的結論而引起了全球癌症患者和醫生的注意。文章指出，光是改變免疫療法的給藥時間，就能為肺癌患者帶來驚人的益處。

根據2月發表在《自然醫學》雜誌上的一項中國臨床試驗的結果，上午接受靜脈輸液的患者，其控制癌症的時間是下午接受輸液患者的兩倍。該研究還報告稱，上午接受輸液的患者存活期也延長了近一倍。

多位腫瘤科醫師表示，近幾個月來，他們和他們的醫院接到大量病患來電，詢問如何改為上午輸液。

但在周三，《自然醫學》雜誌撤回了這項研究，理由是試驗設計和結果有一系列不一致和不規範之處。

波士頓丹娜-法伯癌症研究所 的腫瘤科醫生Toni Choueiri博士說道:「這簡直好得令人難以置信」。她參與了協助進行發表後的審查，並最終導致撤稿的人仕。

該期刊在撤稿聲明中列舉的問題包括：本應在研究開始前鎖定的記錄在研究進行到一半時被更改；研究方案的中文版和翻譯版之間存在差異；所有患者在研究的第一年都接受了治療和隨訪，而且沒有人因副作用而退出 - 這在腫瘤學研究中極為罕見；此外，隨訪掃描的時間安排也存在異常模式。

期刊表示:「鑑於發現的問題數量之多、性質之複雜，編輯們對研究結果的可靠性已不再有信心」。

這項研究的28位作者大多來自中國，另有幾位合作者在歐洲。該研究由中國政府資助。

 中國一直在大力投資其醫院和製藥公司，推動了專利、論文發表和新臨床試驗數量的激增。短短幾年內，中國已迅速轉型為藥物研發強國，這一轉變被一些美國官員、醫生和企業高管視為對美國在該領域長期主導地位的威脅。

中國的批評者經常質疑其生物醫學研究的可靠性。專家表示，與美國的研究類似，中國的研究成果品質參差不齊：一些中國科學家以極為嚴謹的標準進行研究，而另一些科學家則被指走捷徑。

（待續）

北京向國民發出新訊號：你的錢應該留在國內（2/2）

Recently The New York Times reported the following:

Beijing’s New Message to Its Citizens: Your Money Belongs at Home (2/2)

Eager to keep capital within its borders, China is restricting the ways individuals can engage with global markets.

THE NEW NEW WORLD By Li Yuan - Li Yuan writes The New New World column, which focuses on China’s growing influence on the world by examining its businesses, politics and society.

June 16, 2026

(continue)

The Institute of International Finance, a trade association based in Washington, estimated that resident capital outflows from China reached $809 billion in 2025, the highest level on record.

In 2025, Hong Kong overtook Switzerland as the world’s largest cross-border wealth management hub, partly driven by money coming from mainland China, according to Boston Consulting Group.

But Beijing increasingly sees this outflow of Chinese wealth as unpatriotic. Hu Xijin, a former editor in chief of the nationalist tabloid Global Times and one of China’s most prominent pro-government commentators, argued on the Weibo social media platform that the government’s latest moves served “the overall interests of Chinese society.”

“If stock investors buy more A-shares and fewer U.S. stocks, or if some people refrain from hastily selling their homes in China to buy property in the West, the overall effect would be positive,” he wrote.

Keeping savings at home and interest rates low is vital to Beijing. The country’s hugely indebted local governments have been restructuring their debts, relying on cheap domestic capital to ease interest burdens that consume roughly a fifth of their revenue. The savings are also backing China’s enormous investment in infrastructure, robotics, semiconductors and other industries deemed key to self-reliance and national security.

But that is not where sophisticated investors want to be. A technology worker who asked to be identified only by his last name, Xu, for fear of government retribution, has put as much money as China’s law allows into an American brokerage account since 2023.

Now all of the difficulties created by Beijing’s financial control leave Mr. Xu wondering, “Is my money still mine?”

Currently, Chinese citizens can legally convert their renminbi savings to $50,000 in foreign currency. Officially, that money can be used only for things like tourism or education, but using the quota for overseas investment in stocks or property has long been a tolerated gray zone.

For now, the quota remains the only legitimate opening for individuals to move money abroad. But there have been reports that banks are asking more questions about the use of the money, and people are worried that converting renminbi could become more difficult.

“So many people in the world can trade the U.S. stocks. Why can’t the Chinese?” Mr. Xu asked.

He is frustrated that SpaceX has excluded investors in China from participating in its I.P.O., the biggest in history. OpenAI and other potentially lucrative artificial intelligence companies may follow suit.

Others are now trying to slip under the wire and move their money abroad before the government blocks the passage completely.

In the past two weeks, investors feverishly traded workaround tips on social media and in group chats. Some flocked to Hong Kong to open bank and brokerage accounts at smaller firms with looser requirements. Others explored options to visit the United States and open accounts in person.

“No amount of financial controls can prevent people from moving their assets to places that offer better opportunities,” said Stephen, an I.T. worker in Guangdong Province who also asked to be identified by only one name.

Translation

北京向國民發出新訊號：你的錢應該留在國內（2/2）

中國急於將資金留在境內，正在限制個人參與全球市場的方式

（繼續）

總部位於華盛頓的國際金融協會估計，2025年中國居民資本外流將達8,090億美元，創歷史新高。

波士頓顧問集團的數據顯示，2025年，香港將超越瑞士，成為全球最大的跨國財富管理中心，部分原因是來自中國大陸的資金流入。

但北京越來越將這種中國財富外流視為不愛國的行為。曾任民族主義小報《環球時報》總編輯、中國最知名的親政府評論員之一胡錫進在微博社交媒體平台上辯稱，政府的最新舉措符合「中國社會的整體利益」。

他寫道：“如果股票投資者多買A股，少買美股，或者如果一些人不要急於賣掉在中國的房產去西方置業，那麼整體效果將是積極的。”

維持國內儲蓄和低利率對北京至關重要。中國負債累累的地方政府一直在進行債務重組，依靠廉價的國內資本來減輕利息負擔，這些利息支出約佔其財政收入的五分之一。這些儲蓄也用於支持中國在基礎設施、機械人、半導體和其他被視為自力更生和國家安全關鍵產業的巨額投資。

但這並非資深的投資人想要投資的領域。一位因擔心政府報復而要求只透露姓氏為Xu的科技工作者，自2023年以來，已將中國法律允許的最大金額存入美國證券帳戶。

如今，北京的金融管控帶來的種種困難讓Xu先生不禁質疑：“我的錢還屬於我嗎？”

目前，中國公民可以合法地將人民幣存款兌換成最高5萬美元的外幣。官方規定，這筆錢只能用於旅遊或教育等用途，但長期以來，利用這筆額度進行海外股票或房地產投資一直是一個被默許的灰色地帶。

目前，這筆額度仍然是個人將資金轉移到國外的唯一合法途徑。但有報導稱，銀行正在對資金用途提出更多疑問，人們擔心人民幣兌換可能會變得更加困難。

Xu先生問: 「世界上那麼多人都能交易美國股票，為什麼中國人不行？」。

他對SpaceX將中國投資者排除在史上規模最大的IPO之外感到沮喪。 OpenAI和其他一些潛在利潤豐厚的人工智能公司可能也會效仿。

現在，其他人正試圖在政府徹底封鎖之前，偷偷將資金轉移到國外。

過去兩週，投資人在社交媒體和群組聊天中熱切地交流著各種變通方法。有些人湧向香港，在要求較為寬鬆的小型銀行和券商開設帳戶。另一些人則考慮親自前往美國開設帳戶。

一位要求只透露自己的单個名字叫史蒂芬的廣東省IT從業人員說道:「再多的金融管制也無法阻止人們將資產轉移到那些能提供更好機會的地方」。

            So, over the past few years, Chinese citizens have increasingly invested in overseas securities, and especially in the U.S. stock market. But in recent weeks, Beijing tries to close these channels. Beijing wants to keep savings at home and to keep interest rates low. The country’s hugely indebted local governments have been relying on cheap domestic capital to ease interest burdens that consume roughly a fifth of their revenue. Domestic savings are also used to back China’s enormous investment in infrastructure, robotics, semiconductors and other industries. Apparently, Chinese needs new money to support its economy.

北京向國民發出新訊息：你的錢應該留在國內（1/2）

Recently The New York Times reported the following:

Beijing’s New Message to Its Citizens: Your Money Belongs at Home (1/2)

Eager to keep capital within its borders, China is restricting the ways individuals can engage with global markets.

The New York Times - By Li Yuan who writes The New New World column, which focuses on China’s growing influence on the world by examining its businesses, politics and society.

June 16, 2026

Beijing has long built walls between Chinese citizens and the outside world: The Great Firewall blocks out information, and passport controls and exit bans restrict movement. But money had been different.

In an unspoken bargain between the government and its people, political limits could be tolerated as long as families were largely free to accumulate, protect and quietly diversify their wealth.

That bargain is fraying.

Over the last couple of years, Chinese citizens have increasingly invested in overseas securities, and especially in the U.S. stock market. But in recent weeks, Beijing has moved to close informal channels between Chinese households and global capital markets. It gave several Hong Kong and Singaporean-based brokerages with significant mainland clientele two years to wind down those accounts. It expanded rules on overseas investment to explicitly cover individuals for the first time, threatening to confiscate vaguely defined “illegal gains.”

In Hong Kong, long a gateway to overseas investing for mainland residents, banks and brokerages have tightened requirements for opening an account. Some brokerages told their mainland clients that the clients could sell U.S. stocks but not buy them. The Chinese social media app known as RedNote announced that it had cracked down on posts teaching people how to open U.S. stock trading accounts.

Beijing is pulling every available lever to mobilize the nation’s private wealth as a resource for its state-led drive toward technological self-reliance and national rejuvenation. In a major speech published in January, China’s leader, Xi Jinping, argued that financial latitude must be subordinated to national security, warning that China must guard against not only the risks of opening up but also risks that are “deliberately engineered” by geopolitical adversaries.

Geopolitical considerations are shrinking opportunity for Chinese investors in other ways. Amid the intense rivalry between the United States and China, SpaceX excluded Chinese investors from its history-breaking initial public offering last week. At the same time, Beijing is erecting its financial walls precisely when ordinary Chinese have the most reason to look outward for more lucrative places to put their savings.

In the United States, stocks and bonds are the default investments for long-term savings. But retail investors in China tend to shy away from the country’s stock exchanges, known as the A-shares market, viewing it less as a vehicle for building household wealth than as a speculative arena swayed by policy, rumor and sudden state intervention. The market has many nicknames, including “the meat grinder.”

Instead, for two decades, middle-class families invested in real estate. The housing market was booming, and people bought apartments not just to live in but as retirement plans, college funds and assets for their children. Nearly one-third of urban households owned two apartments, and more than 10 percent owned three or more apartments, according to a 2020 survey by China’s central bank.

After the housing market collapsed in 2021, however, many people lost faith in the asset that had underpinned their sense of security. Already big savers because of the country’s spare social safety net, Chinese people retreated into defensive savings. By the end of 2025, China’s household bank deposits had reached the equivalent of $24.4 trillion, nearly tripling over a decade.

But that money is earning diminishing returns. Three-quarters of household savings are in fixed-term deposits. But those rates have fallen to around 1 percent, while high-yield savings accounts in the United States offer up to around 4 percent.

At the same time, the U.S. stock market kept going up. For financially sophisticated members of the Chinese middle class, overseas markets became a hedge against China’s economic slowdown, political uncertainty and weakening domestic returns.

(to be continued)

Translation

北京向國民發出新訊息：你的錢應該留在國內（1/2）

中國急於將資金留在境內，正在限制個人參與全球市場的方式

長期以來，北京在中國公民與外部世界之間築起了高牆：防火牆阻隔資訊傳播，護照管制，和出境禁令限制了人員流動。但金錢卻並非如此。

在政府與人民之間一項不成文的協議中，只要家庭能夠大體上自由地累積、保護和低調地分散財富，政治限制就可以被容忍。

然而，這項協議正在瓦解。

過去幾年，中國公民越來越多投資海外證券，尤其是美國股市。但近幾週來，北京採取行動，關閉中國家庭與全球資本市場之間的非正式管道。它要求幾家在香港和新加坡擁有大量內地客戶的券商在兩年內關閉這些帳戶。北京首次將境外投資規則明確涵蓋每一個人，並威脅要沒收定義模糊的「非法所得」。

香港，長期以來一直是內地居民進行海外投資的門戶，它的銀行和券商現收緊了開戶要求。一些券商告知其內地客戶，他們可以出售美國股票，但不能購買。中國社交媒體應用程式 “小紅書” 宣佈，已打擊教人如何開設美國股票交易帳號的貼文。

北京正竭盡所能，調動國民財富，用作為國家主導的科技自立和民族復興運動的資金。今年1月，中國領導人習近平發表重要講話，強調金融自由必須服從國家安全，並警告中國不僅要防範對外開放的風險，還要防範地緣政治對手「蓄意製造」的風險。

地緣政治因素也在其他方面擠壓著中國投資者的機會。在中美競爭白熱化的背景下，SpaceX上週將其歷史性的首次公開發行（IPO）把中國投資者排除在外。同時，正值一般中國群眾最有理由尋求更有利可圖的投資管道之際，北京卻在築起金融壁壘。

在美國，股票和債券是長期儲蓄的首選投資。但中國的散戶投資者往往對叫做A股的中國股市場敬而遠之，他們認為A股市場與其說是累積財富的工具，不如說是一個容易受到政策、謠言和政府突然幹預影響的投機場所。股票市場有很多別稱，其中之一就是「絞肉機」。

然而，在過去的二十年裡，中產階級家庭紛紛投資房地產。房地產市場一片繁榮，人們購買公寓不僅是為了自住，更是為了退休養老、為子女教育費、為子女累積財富。根據中國人民銀行2020年的一項調查，近三分之一的城鎮家庭擁有兩套公寓，超過10%的家庭擁有三套或更多公寓。

然而，在2021年房地產市場崩盤後，許多人對這種曾經支撐他們安全感的資產失去了信心。由於中國社會保障體系的薄弱，中國人原本已儲蓄較多，如今更退向防禦性儲蓄。到2025年底，中國居民銀行存款總額已達24.4兆美元，十年內增加了近三倍。

但是那筆錢的收益卻越來越少。。四分之三的居民儲蓄都以定期存款的形式存在。但這些利率已降至1%左右，而美國的高收益儲蓄帳戶利率高達4%左右。

與此同時，美國股市持續上漲。對於中國中產階級裡那些具備一定金融知識的人來說，海外市場已成為對沖中國經濟放緩、政治不確定性和國內收益下降風險的工具。

 （待續）

影片顯示中國企業兜售北韓勞工

Recently The New York Times reported the following:

Videos Show Chinese Businesses Hawking North Korean Labor

On social media, Chinese entrepreneurs are touting cheap labor across the border, as trade between the two countries regains momentum.

The NYT - By Jiawei Wang and Choe Sang-Hun - Reporting from Seoul

June 8, 2026

Quick deliveries of large orders for stuffed toys, fake eyelashes and crocheted bags that are made with cheap labor, including some workers who are on the job for 16 hours straight.

This is the pitch some Chinese businesses are making on social media to potential customers. But the products they are selling are made in North Korea, like in this video of a wig factory.

In the posts, which have proliferated in recent years, some Chinese entrepreneurs say that they own factories in North Korea and openly share contact information, splashing their account handles on videos of their products — in a clear violation of sweeping U.N. Security Council sanctions that bar nations from running “joint ventures or cooperative entities” in North Korea.

The videos have been viewed tens of thousands of times and offer a rare glimpse into factory life in North Korea. They are also a sign of the renewed ties between the neighbors — official trade between the countries has jumped recently and the Chinese leader Xi Jinping arrived in Pyongyang on Monday for a summit with his North Korean counterpart, Kim Jong-un.

The New York Times reviewed 34 social media accounts and over 400 posts that promoted goods made in North Korean factories on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, and Xiaohongshu, which is also known as Red Note. The Times used satellite imagery and other online footage to verify where the videos in this article were recorded. People behind two of the accounts that posted the videos declined to comment and the others did not respond.

The social media accounts touted the same marketing line: thousands of cheap and skilled workers. As one post put it in Chinese, with a smiley-face emoji: “Good value for money.”

“Chinese entrepreneurs are returning to North Korea to run joint ventures,” said Lee Sang-Yong, research director at Daily NK, a Seoul-based website specializing in North Korean affairs. “While the rest of the world was not paying much attention, bilateral trade has quietly recovered to prepandemic levels.”

North Korea is not completely cut off by U.N. sanctions. Firms can export items like wigs and tungsten ores, as long as they are not part of a joint venture with foreign companies. Official trade between North Korea and China reached nearly $1 billion in the first four months of this year, jumping about 23 percent from the same period a year ago, according to Chinese customs data.

Much of the factory activity appears to be happening in the northeastern city of Rason, near North Korea’s borders with China and Russia. Pyongyang designated the city as a special economic zone in 1991, aimed at attracting foreign investment — particularly from China — to build and run factories using low-cost North Korean labor.

It was not possible to determine if the social media videos have actually led to orders. But as contract manufacturers, many North Korean factories do not have a robust domestic supply chain. The country has “relied heavily on importing raw materials and intermediate goods from China, then manufacturing and reselling finished products by leveraging its relatively abundant labor force,” said Yi Ji-sun, a research fellow at the Institute for National Security Strategy in Seoul.

Many of the social media posts emphasized the handiwork of the large work force. A video at one factory shows more than 150 men and women assembling false eyelashes, using small tools to nimbly weave the fabric and hammer the lashes onto a base. The caption reads, “North Korea Rason eyelash factory.”

When the product is ready, workers prepare for export by packing boxes labeled with the quantity and the name of the lash style, “Mega Volume” or “Crisscross,” in Chinese characters. Businesses pitched the rapid turnaround of large orders as a key advantage of working with North Korean factories. A video posted last August shows a table covered with more than 200 boxes, with the caption “Shipping out today.”

U.N. sanctions bar nations from buying textiles, including “fabrics and partially or completed apparel products,” from North Korea. However, posts showed a variety of goods that appeared to violate the ban, including hand-knit bags and crocheted toys.

One account hawked a traditional Chinese dress called qipao with the caption, “New pieces fresh off the frame by North Korean embroiderers. Seeking their destined owner.”

The social media posts also offer a look at life inside North Korean factories. The laborers work and live under military-style discipline. They eat at communal dining areas and participate in collective exercises.

Government propaganda slogans hang on the factory walls, continuously reinforcing loyalty to Mr. Kim.

North Korea has historically likened its foreign investment strategy to “putting up mosquito nets” — a policy designed to catch external capital while blocking foreign cultural influence. The remote geography of the Rason Special Economic Zone serves this purpose, allowing Pyongyang to isolate foreign investors from the general population.

To prevent the spread of outside information, the regime favors ethnic Chinese investors over Chinese business people of Korean descent who could communicate with locals, according to South Korean officials and analysts.

Translation

影片顯示中國企業兜售北韓勞工

隨著中美貿易復甦，一些中國企業家在社交媒體上大力宣傳其廉價的北韓勞動力

大量毛絨玩具、假睫毛和鉤針編織包等產品，均由廉價勞動力生產，部分工人甚至連續工作16小時。

這是部分中國企業在社交媒體上向潛在客戶推銷的廣告。然而，他們銷售的產品卻產自北韓，例如這段假髮工廠的影片。

近年來，這類貼文層出不窮。一些中國企業家在貼文中聲稱他們在北韓擁有工廠，並公開分享聯繫方式，在產品影片中大肆宣傳他們的帳號 - 這顯然違反了聯合國安理會禁止各國在北韓開展「合資企業或合作實體」的全面制裁。

這些影片已被觀看數萬次，讓人們得以罕見地窺看北韓工廠的日常生活。它們也標誌著中朝兩國關係的復甦 - 兩國間的官方貿易額近期大幅增長，中國國家主席習近平週一抵達平壤，與北韓最高領導人金正恩舉行峰會。

《紐約時報》查閱了抖音（中國版TikTok）和小紅書（又名Red Note）上的34個社交媒體帳號和400多條宣傳北韓工廠產品的推文。 《紐約時報》利用衛星影像和其他網路影片資料核實了本文中影片的拍攝地點。發佈這些影片的兩個帳號的經營者拒絕置評，其他帳號則未作回應。

這些社交媒體帳號宣傳的都是同一套說法：成千上萬廉價且技術純熟的工人。正如一篇中文帖子用笑臉表情符號寫道：“物超所值。”

總部位於首爾、專門報道朝鮮事務的網站Daily NK的研究主管Lee Sang-Yong表示:「中國企業家正在返回北韓經營合資企業」; 「在世界其他國家並未過多關注的情況下，雙邊貿易已悄悄恢復到疫情前的水平」。

北韓並未完全被聯合國制裁所封鎖。只要不與外國公司成立合資企業，企業就可以出口假髮和鎢礦等商品。根據中國海關數據顯示，今年前四個月，朝中官方貿易額接近10億美元，比去年同期成長約23%。

大部分工廠活動似乎都集中在北韓東北部靠近中國和俄羅斯邊境的羅先市(Rason)。 1991年，平壤將羅先市劃為經濟特區，旨在吸引外資 - 尤其是來自中國的投資 - 利用北韓低成本勞動力建設和營運工廠。

目前尚無法確定這些社交媒體影片是否真的帶來了訂單。但作為代工生產商，許多北韓工廠缺乏完善的國內供應鏈。首爾國家安全戰略研究所研究員Yi Ji-sun表示，北韓「嚴重依賴從中國進口原料和半製成品，然後利用其相對豐富的勞動力進行生產和再銷售成品」。

許多社交媒體貼文都強調了龐大勞動力的精湛技藝。一段影片顯示，在一家工廠裡，150多名男女正在組裝假睫毛，他們使用小型工具靈巧地編織布料，並將睫毛釘在底座上。影片標題為「北韓羅先眼睫毛工廠」。

產品完成後，工人會準備出口，將有用中文標註數量和眼睫毛款式名稱，或標註着 ”特大” 或 ”交叉” 的盒子裝箱。北韓工廠的賣點是能夠迅速處理大量訂單。去年八月發佈的一段影片顯示，一張桌子上擺放著200多個箱，標題是「今天發貨」。

聯合國的制裁是禁止各國向北韓購買紡織品，包括「布料和半成品或成品服裝」。然而，一些貼文顯示，北韓出售的多類商品似乎違反了禁令，其中包括手工編織的包包和鉤針編織的玩具。

一個帳號兜售一種叫旗袍的傳統中國服飾，並配文：“朝鮮刺繡工匠新鮮出爐的新款，正在尋找它們命中注定的主人。”

這些社交媒體貼文也展現了北韓工廠內部的生活。工人們在類似軍事化的紀律下工作和生活。他們在公共食堂用餐，並參與集體体操。

工廠牆上懸掛著政府宣傳標語，不斷強化對金正恩的忠誠。

北韓歷來將對外投資策略比喻為「架設蚊帳」 - 旨在吸引外來資本，同時阻止外國文化的影響。羅先經濟特區的偏遠地理位置正符合這一目的，使平壤能夠將外國投資者與普通民眾隔離。

據韓國官員和分析人士稱，為了防止國外資訊流傳，北韓政權更傾向華裔投資者，而不是能夠與當地人交流的朝鮮族裔華商。

So, in some posts on social media in China, Chinese entrepreneurs say that they own factories in North Korea, yet these investments are in a clear violation of the U.N. Security Council sanctions that bar nations from running “joint ventures or cooperative entities” in North Korea. North Korea all along has likened its foreign investment strategy as “putting up mosquito nets” — a policy designed to attract outside capital while blocking foreign cultural influence, a goal which China also wants to achieve and with some success. Apparently, North Korea needs outside money to support its economy.