This is the edition of the China, Middle-earth newsletter. Do you want to receive it every Friday in your email? Sign up here or on MinhaFolha, where you also have other newsletter options.
Follow the content on China on the blog and at foil.com/china.
10 and gold to save the mother
While Brazil were thrilled with Rayssa Leal’s performance in the women’s Skate Street competitions in Tokyo, a teenage girl has also become a darling in China: Quan Hongchan, 14, gold medalist in the 10-meter diving.
Quan made three perfect jumps which impressed the judges and earned him three tens. But that was not the only reason for the Chinese euphoria.
When she arrived in China with the medal, she explained the reason that led her to become an athlete. Coming from a modest family in the countryside, he revealed that his mother was involved in a traffic accident a few years ago and had to be hospitalized several times. The responsibility of looking after the family fell on the father, who had to work a lot more to meet the bills.
Quan began to dive into diving to pay medical bills. “My mother is sick. I don’t know what she has. I just want to earn money to treat her illness,” he said.
She also said she wanted to use the feat to visit an amusement park and zoo for the first time, as her focus on games kept her from distracting from training.
Many companies have offered to give her an apartment, and the Zhanjiang Chamber of Commerce will pay all of Quan’s mother’s processing fees. Plus, she won a lifetime pass to a local theme park, and netizens sent her several boxes of her favorite snack.
Why it matters: Little Quan’s story helps the Chinese government promote the success of heavy investment in training Olympic athletes. Since the preparation for the Beijing Games in 2008, China has not saved up on cutting-edge training centers and wants to turn the sport into a major national industry: the plan is to generate 5,000 billion yen (4.05,000 billion reais) by 2025., employing 3 million people and increasing the sector’s share from 2.5% in 2019 to 3.3% of gross domestic product in four years.
what also matters
The Swiss Embassy in Beijing used Twitter to mock reports from Chinese state media and ask the media to remove articles referring to a supposed Swiss scientist who never existed.
The article refers to a series of posts attributed to “biologist Wilson Edwards” on Facebook and reproduced by CGTN, Shanghai Daily and Global Times. The texts called into question the WHO’s investigations into the origins of Covid-19.
“We are looking for Wilson Edwards. If you exist, we would love to meet him! But this is more of fake news, and we are asking the Chinese press and internet users to remove the posts [com citações de Wilson]”wrote the diplomatic corps.
The embassy said there is no biologist in the country with that name and that the Facebook profile that the WHO interviewed was created just two weeks ago and had three friends added. The media did not comment on the accusations, but suppressed the reports.
An employee of Chinese retail giant Alibaba said she was raped by a superior. The woman told an internal network that she was forced to drink alcohol and then sexually assaulted by her boss and a company customer.
The employee reported the episode to HR, but the charges were reportedly ignored. The case did not gain attention again until it aroused the indignation of other employees of the group.
According to Alibaba Executive Chairman Daniel Zhang, the man confessed to the crime. He and the human resources manager were made redundant. The company said it was working with police on investigations and pledged to adopt zero-tolerance policies on sexual misconduct.
The Chinese court upheld the conviction of Canadian Michael Spavor. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison for espionage and theft of state secrets, in a symbolic decision that promises to deteriorate Canada-China relations.
Director of a company that promoted tourism in North Korea, Spavor was arrested in 2018 shortly after the arrest in Vancouver of Meng Wanzhou, heiress and chief financial officer of Huawei. She is accused of violating US sanctions and selling telecommunications technology to Iran.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the detention “arbitrary” with “a lack of transparency in the judicial process”.
keep an eye
Local infections caused by the delta variant of Covid-19 continue to rise in China, and Xi Jinping seems to be losing patience. According to state media, Xi addressed four questions to local governments in order to unify the national strategy to fight the disease: “1) Has the policy to fight Covid-19 been relaxed ?, 2 ) Are prevention and control measures relaxed? strictly implemented?, 3) Is there a need for improvement? and 4) Are access points to the territory covered to prevent the virus from entering? “.
Why it matters: In addition to stating that China must maintain a zero tolerance policy for Covid-19 cases, Xi Jinping’s memorandum says the country may have difficulty fully opening up to the world .
going deep
Scenes of terror after the Zhengzhou Metro flooded have traveled the world, testifying to flood damage in Henan Province. The Sixth Tone tells in this report the step by step of the tragedy. (Free, in English) In an article by journalist Phelim Kine, Politico, a traditional American news portal, analyzes Chinese investments in Latin America and argues that the country is profiting from regional corruption. (free, in English)
The New York Times uses the rape case reported on Alibaba to explain how China’s tech industry still grapples with gender issues, alcoholic games and the perpetuation of long-standing issues that make the workplace toxic. (porous paywall, in English)