Mercedes-Benz announced it expects Q2 to be the company’s best 2nd quarter to date in China, a 21.6% y-o-y increase to over 207,000 units. Mercedes-Benz’s best quarter to date in China shows the impressive speed at which demand is rapidly recovering in China. https://www.daimler.com/investors/reports-news/financial-news/20200708-mbc-sales-q2.html
Tesla plans to establish an engineering team in China for self-driving vehicles
Elon Musk: Tesla plans to establish an engineering team in China for self-driving vehicles, and will work on innovative car designs and new auto engineering in China, instead of copying what has been done in the US. Tesla is now very close to level-5 self-driving technology, and is confident to complete developing basic functions of L5 self-driving this year, said Musk at WAIC 2020. He added that Tesla’s China team is doing an “amazing job”.
Russia Eyes Another Massive Gas Pipeline To China
Russia Eyes Another Massive Gas Pipeline To China 7-8-20 https://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/Russia-Eyes-Another-Massive-Gas-Pipeline-To-China.html
Gazprom and Moscow have been pushing for the ‘Power of Siberia-2 pipeline’ from Western Siberia to China’s Xinjiang region. The proposal has been met with a lukewarm response from Beijing because the region is already well-supplied with Central Asian gas. However, due to the Coronavirus pandemic and Gazprom’s adjusted plan, the Power of Siberia-2 project is gaining momentum.
China’s first aircraft with high-speed homegrown satellite internet system XstreamSAT
China’s first aircraft with high-speed homegrown satellite internet system XstreamSAT has successfully made maiden flight. XstreamSAT is built up upon China’s first and only high throughput satellite in Ka band frequency. https://www.livemint.com/news/world/china-s-first-plane-with-homegrown-satellite-internet-system-makes-maiden-flight-11594190558650.html
China has no interest in joining the US-Russia negotiation on nuclear arms reduction
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-07-08/China-will-not-join-U-S-Russia-arms-control-negotiations-RXADOSEvIY/index.html China has no interest in joining the US-Russia negotiation on nuclear arms reduction given the huge gap between the nuclear arsenal of theirs and China’s, and China has the need to improve its military capabilities.
China on Wednesday stressed that it has no plans to join the U.S. and Russia in their talks to renew a nuclear arms control treaty.
Recently, U.S. officials have been making a lot of noises about China joining the U.S.-Russia negotiation on nuclear arms. They even went so far as to tweet a staged photo.
Washington and Moscow began talks last month to try to extend the New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), which they signed in 2010. It will expire next year.
Fu Cong, Director-General of the Department of Arms Control of the Chinese Foreign Ministry reiterated China’s position during a press conference to share China’s policy mainly on arms control issues, noting that China has no interest in joining Russia and the U.S. in their bilateral negotiations.
Given the huge gap between the nuclear arsenal of China and those of U.S. and Russia, it is unrealistic to expect China to join the two countries in a negotiation aimed at nuclear arms reduction, Fu said.
First container train from China’s Wuhan arrives in Kiev
The first direct container train, which left the central Chinese city of Wuhan on June 16, arrived in Kiev on Monday, opening up new opportunities for China-Ukraine cooperation, said Ukrainian officials.
“Today’s event has important symbolic significance for Sino-Ukrainian relations. It means that future cooperation between China and Ukraine within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative will become even closer,” said Chinese Ambassador to Ukraine Fan Xianrong during a ceremony to mark the train arrival here.
“Ukraine will show its advantages as a logistics center connecting Europe and Asia, and Sino-Ukrainian economic and trade cooperation will become even faster and more convenient. All this will bring even more benefits to the peoples of the two countries,” he said.
Ukraine’s Infrastructure Minister Vladyslav Kryklii, who also attended the ceremony, said this is the first step of regular container transportation from China to Ukraine.
“This is the first time that Ukraine has not just been used as a transit platform for container transportation from China to Europe, but acted as the final destination,” said Kryklii.
Ivan Yuryk, acting head of Ukrainian Railways, told Xinhua that his country plans to expand the route of the container train.
“We have big expectations as to this container route. We can receive (trains) not only in Kiev but also in Kharkiv, Odessa and other cities,” said Yuryk.
“For now, we’ve made plans with our partners about one train per week. It’s a reasonable volume for a start,” said Oleksandr Polishchuk, first deputy head of Liski, a branch company of Ukrainian Railways that specializes in intermodal transportation.
“One time per week allows us to improve the technology, work out necessary procedures with customs and controlling authorities, as well as with our clients,” Polishchuk said.
The official added that one train can transport up to 40-45 containers, which adds up to a total of 160 containers per month. Thus Ukraine will receive up to 1,000 containers till the end of this year.
“In 2019, China became Ukraine’s most important trading partner,” said Ukrainian economist Olga Drobotyuk in a recent interview with Xinhua. “The launch of such trains can help to further expand and strengthen trade, economic, political and cultural cooperation between the two countries.”