ITK Daily | October 19

Happy Wednesday.

To be ITK, know this:

Ex-UK pilots lured to help Chinese military, MoD says: BBC reports former British military pilots are being lured to China with large sums of money to pass on their expertise to the Chinese military, it is claimed. Up to 30 former UK military pilots are thought to have gone to train members of China's People's Liberation Army.

This is the beginning of Xi’s great unraveling: Despite becoming world’s first techno-autocrat, his next term will see dissent lead to infighting. Roger Boyes

+ "The world’s first techno-autocrat, master of the data universe, is it seems on track with his long-term plans to revive growth and overtake the US, set global rules of trade in China’s favor, and keep the Communist Party in power for ever and a day."

+ "Yet this next term for Xi is set to be a moment of hubris. It will be when his authority publicly unravels. When dissent within and outside the party leads to factionalist infighting and an open challenge."

Why a consulate scuffle is a barometer of Xi's China: Attack on protesters at China’s consulate sparks furious British reaction over “flagrant breach” of human rights. Matthew Brooker

+ Sunday’s incident has the potential to act as a moment of clarity on the changing nature of the Beijing regime, with wider implications for how authorities approach the activities of Chinese state actors in the UK.

+ We’ve been here before. Clashes at diplomatic missions inside and outside China have sometimes proved a telling indicator of the temperature of the country’s domestic politics.

+ The Manchester scuffle is small beer beside some of these incidents. Yet there is a common thread that unites these violations of diplomatic norms: a sense of historic grievance coupled with the belief that China is not being accorded the respect it deserves.

What the eclipse of Tencent by a liquor company says about Xi’s China: Kweichow Moutai has overtaken the tech group in market capitalization thanks to the whims of one man. Tom Mitchell

+ What would it say about US innovation and President Joe Biden’s stewardship of the economy if America’s largest beer company, Anheuser-Busch InBev, had a bigger market capitalization than Apple?

+ Late last month, China’s most famous liquor maker, Kweichow Moutai, overtook Tencent as the country’s most valuable company.

Dirty metals for clean cars: Indonesian nickel could be key to EV battery industry: Rich nickel reserves attract Chinese investment but environmental hurdles remain. Nikkei

+ IMIP's plants are among a flurry of battery-related projects, at various stages of readiness, totaling at least $29 billion in investments, according to Indonesia's Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment. The projects are mostly led by Chinese companies.

+ Over the longer term, Indonesia sees its huge stores of nickel -- the country is home to the world's largest stock, roughly a quarter of the planet's proven reserves -- as a means to climb the global value chain in a key industry.

+ Industrialization has been Widodo's focus throughout his presidency, as he pushes to turn the resource-rich country's main export commodities from raw minerals to high value-added products.

USA oil: The White House is planning to release another 10 million to 15 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, with an announcement expected to come this week.

French protests highlight pressure on European leaders from energy crisis: WSJ reports thousands of people march across France to demand higher wages to cope with rising energy bills and broader inflation, a sign of the political turmoil facing the region’s leaders as the war in Ukraine rages with no end in sight.

The Times: Olaf Scholz urged to keep Germany’s nuclear plants going until 2024

Inside the US effort to arm Ukraine: Since the start of the Russian invasion, the Biden Administration has provided valuable intelligence and increasingly powerful weaponry—a risky choice that has paid off in the battle against Putin. New Yorker

+ “The counter-offensive would show that it’s one thing to take part in helping the victim,” Ukraine’s defense minister said, “another to realize you can punish the aggressor.”

+ Vladimir Putin had effectively embraced the stalemate of the war’s second phase, wagering that, as the front lines held and the conflict increasingly disrupted global energy and food supplies, the Ukrainian public would tire of the war and the West’s commitment would wane.

+ Zelensky saw Biden’s election as a chance to re-start relations with the US.

+ The Ukrainians benefitted from another factor that the US had not considered: Russian hubris and disorganization. Putin had planned the invasion with a small circle of trusted advisers, who settled on a lightning-fast raid to overthrow Zelensky and his cabinet.

+ Ukraine’s early success changed attitudes in Washington. “The Ukrainians were putting up a good fight, which helped open the floodgates for a lot more military assistance,” the Defense Department official said.

+ With the help of the US and NATO, he went on, Ukraine’s military has shown that Russia can be confronted. “We are not afraid of Russia,” he said. “And we are asking our partners in the West to also no longer be afraid.”

'Putin should go to hell': In an interview with DW, Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu said the Western community has not done enough yet to help Ukraine. He added that "no nation in Europe can sleep in peace when Putin's regime is in power." DW

Egypt to announce ambitious hydrogen strategy: DW reports Egypt will present a new energy vision for green hydrogen at the next climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh this November. Its diversified approach could enhance Egypt's geopolitical standing and see commercial success.

Secrets of Indian retailing: Kunaal Kumar, founder of “the Whole Foods of India,” on the charms and eccentricities of that market. Brunswick Review

+ "India is a promising market for many reasons. Our population is huge, we’re making money and we want more out of life. For all industries, and especially retail, the market is filled with so much demand."

富士康 aims to supply nearly half of world’s EVs: Taiwanese contract electronics group says it hopes one day to build ‘Tesla cars for Tesla.’ FT

+ The world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer has cornered 40-45 percent of the world’s information and communications technology market, especially in personal computers and mobile phones, Foxconn chief executive Liu Young-way told reporters.

+ The Taiwanese group, which racked up $215bn in revenues last year assembling and making components for smartphones, PCs, and other electronic products ranging from game consoles to industrial robots, started developing an EV business in 2019.

+ Foxconn has said it hopes to gain a 5 percent share of the global EV market by 2025, which will be worth about NT$1,000bn (US$31bn) in revenues.

What will the EV revolution mean for Detroit? PBS NewsHour

+ Volkswagen, the second-largest car manufacturer in the world, predicts building EVs will require 30% less labor than internal combustion engine cars.

+ EVs require fewer, more simple parts than traditional gas-burning cars, and the shift is already driving an overhaul at factories across the nation.

+ But the vehicles will also require a neighborhood-level overhaul to provide access to charging for people from densely populated cities to rural areas.

+ The US government is investing $7.5 billion to build a network of 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations across America, and $7 billion to build batteries and other critical materials.

宝马 boss says hydrogen, not electric, will be ‘hippest thing’ to drive: Amid the hype of new electric vehicles, BMW is still pursuing other leads. Bloomberg

+ “After the electric car, which has been going on for about 10 years and scaling up rapidly, the next trend will be hydrogen. When it's more scalable, hydrogen will be the hippest thing to drive.”

+ “To say in the UK about 2030 or the UK and in Europe in 2035, there’s only one drivetrain, that is a dangerous thing. For the customers, for the industry, for employment, for the climate, from every angle you look at, that is a dangerous path to go to.”

+ Hydrogen’s big advantage over electric power, which requires an extensive and so-far nonexistent charging network, is that it can supply fuel cells stored in carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic tanks.

+ Fuel cells at BMW would also help reduce its dependency on raw materials like lithium and cobalt, because the hydrogen-based system uses recyclable components made of aluminum, steel, and platinum.

GitHub’s Copilot AI can write up to 40% of the code for programmers and is heading up to 80% within five years, says GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke.

USA votes: More than 2 million Americans have already voted, the vast majority of them by mail — setting a pace of higher turnout than in 2018 or a typical midterm election.

MacKenzie Scott to donate nearly $85 million to Girl Scouts of the USA : WSJ reports the donation from the philanthropist is the Girl Scouts’ largest ever from a single individual.

America's long national nightmare is over: James Corden is no longer banned from Balthazar.

How Atlanta history shaped Lil Baby and generations of rappers: The city is home to one of the world’s most important musical ecosystems, and the 27-year-old is one of its biggest new stars. NYT

+ “It’s the upbringing, it’s the culture, it’s the things we see, the people we watched on TV,” Lil Baby said of Atlanta, his hometown. “It’s a repeating cycle of greatness.”

+ “My upbringing, my manners, my way of thinking, my way of living. Everything comes from Atlanta,” Lil Baby said.

OVO: Drake’s songs have been streamed more than 6.7 billion times so far this year.

God's Plan has been one of my favorites recently.

Bernard Arnault, the billionaire CEO of 酩悦·轩尼诗-路易·威登集团 , said he now rents private jets so the public can’t track the corporate plane: “No one can see where I go.”

Same.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) ’s big winner may be a big loser: Steph Curry and Luka Doncic chase a championship as league doormats battle for a shot at French sensation Victor Wembanyama. Jason Gay

+ "the NBA’s race for the bottom may be as compelling as the title chase"

+ "The league has tried to disincentivize “tanking” by giving the worst clubs only a 14% chance at the No. 1 pick"

Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.

-Marc

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