Planting Trees and Droughts in Parts of US and Asia ABCF Week 34 Update

Planting trees could lead to more droughts in parts of US and Asia: Chinese-led study | South China Morning Post
Planting trees in some parts of the world could cause droughts, according to a Chinese-led study that suggested greening efforts should take regional conditions into account to be effective.
Through a complex multi-decade study of vegetation and soil moisture patterns combining several databases and models, the researchers found that nearly half of the world had experienced a pattern of “greening-drying.”
This included parts of the United States, Central Asia, Central Africa, inland Europe, southern Australia and South America, where increasing vegetation cover resulted in a drop in soil moisture levels.

Married Chinese man dies after hotel sex with lover; his family seeks US$77,000 payout | South China Morning Post
Family of philandering 66-year-old sues hotel and lover over death; court makes final ruling that they only get US$8,600 in compensation.

‘Still believe in love’: China tycoon whose divorce gripped public remarries ex-classmate | South China Morning Post
Decision of ‘pure and sweet’ wealthy businessman, 61, to ‘intellectual’ woman of same age challenges stereotypes and earns online praise.

U.S. podcasters thrive, and the Chinese are just getting started
In mid-August, Luo Yonghao—China’s entrepreneur-turned-internet celebrity—launched a long-form video podcast, Luo Yonghao’s Crossroads, across Chinese platforms featuring in-depth conversations; his first guest was Li Xiang, founder of emerging EV brand Li Auto. Stretching up to five hours, the format immediately surged in popularity, hitting over two million views on a single platform almost instantly — evidence that heavyweight Chinese creators are beginning to mimic Lex Fridman and Dwarkesh Patel.
Almost simultaneously, Edward White at Financial Times reported that China's podcast audience may reach ~150 million in 2025, rising from fewer than a million just five years earlier—a surge led by creators navigating both growing curiosity and regulatory boundaries.
Even with celebrities launching podcasts and listenership booming, Chinese independent podcasters are still struggling. The reason lies in structural differences between the ecosystems: in the U.S., creators own their audiences and monetize trust; in China, creator autonomy is limited by platform control, transactional monetization, and constrained attention environments—exacerbated, though subtly, by censorship.

Zhou Ming, top engineer involved in Boeing 787 and A380 design, leaves US for China | South China Morning Post
Zhou Ming, renowned as the mastermind behind key industrial software used in planes such as the Boeing 787 and Airbus A380, has left his leadership role at US-based global engineering giant Altair to return to China.
An announcement on the website of the College of Engineering at the Eastern Institute of Technology in Ningbo said Zhou had joined as a chair professor and the first dean of the college in June and was already setting up a research team.
Zhou also confirmed the move on his personal social media accounts, saying: “I’m excited to drive frontier research addressing global challenges while inspiring the next generation of technology innovators. It’s incredibly energising to be part of a mission far larger than ourselves.”

What Does China Want? - by Zichen Wang - Pekingnology
A more coherent reading applies one symmetrical test. Treat both sets of statements as data, and both things are simultaneously true. First, China’s official discourse emphasizes peaceful development, non-hegemony, and no intention to replace the United States or overturn the world order; this message is carried across Xinhua readouts, China Central TeleVision evening news, provincial outlets, Party training, and schoolbooks. Second, on a narrow set of “core interests,” Beijing’s posture is unyielding and willing to employ coercive measures—and, in one uniquely sensitive case (Taiwan), to reserve the option of force.
The analytical task is not to deny one truth in favor of the other. It is to map the boundary between them: to clarify which domains Beijing places inside the coercion-tolerant perimeter, how narrow that perimeter actually is, and how it has changed across time—from 1949, through reform and opening, and over the past decade or two as economic and especially military capabilities have grown. The central question is whether rising capabilities have expanded the perimeter or thickened enforcement within a longstanding, limited set of issues. That boundary—its scope, its stability, and the conditions under which it might move—is the right object of analysis.
By framing the problem this way, we avoid the logically brittle habit of treating peaceful rhetoric as disposable and only the hard-edged rhetoric as “real.” Instead, we read both together: a peace-first self-image that is domestically constitutive, alongside a tightly bounded set of red lines where coercion (and, in the Taiwan case, force) is contemplated.

How is market reading the tea leaves as China’s Puer bubble comes off the boil? | South China Morning Post
Aromatic infusions of fermented and aged Puer tea have been popular in China for centuries, but later generations of enthusiasts came to value its investment potential even more, dubbing it a “drinkable antique”.
Chinese entrepreneurs and members of the country’s growing middle class long regarded the tea, produced in Yunnan province, as a wealth preservation investment rivalling stocks and real estate, but the market has come off the boil recently as the economy slows and investor appetite wanes.
The Puer tea market has been much more volatile this year, with prices for most premium products – once treated as hard currency by speculators and collectors – plummeting to their lowest levels since 2019.

Chinese woman keeps getting pregnant, has 3 kids in 4 years to avoid 5-year jail sentence | South China Morning Post
Investigation finds woman convicted of fraud gives babies away, is already divorced from man with whom she conceived them.

Two decade-old, 80-mln-yuan intercity bus stations remain idle in one city, People's Daily reports
The Suihua East City Passenger Transport Station in Heilongjiang Province was completed in 2015 with an investment of over 36 million yuan, yet it has remained unopened for a decade. In the meantime, passengers continue to use a small, dilapidated facility near the railway station, where buses operate in cramped conditions and basic services lack proper safety checks. The contrast between the idle, modern structure and the overburdened, outdated station has caused ongoing inconvenience for travelers and frustration among nearby businesses that had expected economic benefits from the new site.
An investigation by People’s Daily reporters revealed multiple explanations for the delay. City transportation officials cited unresolved demolition at the station’s entrance, the contractor’s failure to submit inspection documents on time, and incomplete project settlement. 

Will retirees be job market winners as China targets social insurance dodgers? | South China Morning Post
Increased scrutiny of businesses in China that evade their social insurance obligations looks set to further boost the employment of retirees, prompting widespread concerns as a record number of university graduates tries to find work.
It all came to a head recently when recruitment notices put out by the McDonald’s fast food chain, which has been employing retirees for years, sparked an emotional response on Chinese social media platforms.
“The logic behind it is simple – hiring retirees means companies don’t have to pay social insurance contributions,” one user wrote on the Weibo microblogging platform.
 

This weekly newsletter is put together by DeLisle Worrell, President of the ABCF. Visit us at Association for Barbados China Friendship | (abcf-bb.com).
Thanks to everyone who sent contributions for this week’s Update. Please send items of interest to me via the contact page at ABCF-BB.com or to info@DeLisleWorrell.com