Weekend Box: UK’s power solution, China protests & more
Welcome to the Weekend Box, Audley’s weekly round-up of interesting or obscure political, business and cultural news from around the world.
Credit: UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré
WHITE PAPER PROTESTS
This week protestors took to the streets of Shanghai and Beijing and other big cities demanding an end to China’s strict Covid measures. Many waved blank sheets of A4 paper, a powerful symbol of the freedom of speech restrictions and engaged in “collective crawling” to express their ennui with restrictions. The braver among them shouted ‘democracy, rule of law and freedom of speech” and there were calls for President Xi Jinping to stand down.
In the UK, The Chinese ambassador to the UK, Zheng Zeguang, was summoned to the Foreign Office for a meeting following the arrest and beating of a BBC journalist in Shanghai. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also used his first major foreign policy speech to warn of the creeping authoritarianism of Xi Jinping’s regime. He stopped short of calling China a threat, but described the nation as a ‘systemic challenge’.
Many of the demonstrations have been led by students and represent the biggest expression of public unrest since the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. However, many of the students protesting today may not be aware of the bloody outcome of this pro-democracy protest, given stringent censorship rules.
The protests also come at a fractious time in EU-Chinese relations. Charles Michel, president of the European Council came under significant pressure but stood by his decision to meet Xi this week. Michel would be the first world leader to meet the President since news of protests broke worldwide. From early reports, mention of Covid restrictions in the three-hour meeting has been broad-brush and the outcome remains unclear.
On the laundry list of items was Taiwan, bilateral sanctions, climate change and crucially, working together to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However, with People’s Daily, China’s biggest newspaper, leading with a story on Tuesday about strengthening China-Russia energy cooperation, Xi’s action is likely to be limited to neutral support of ‘world peace’ and assurance they are not providing weapons.
It is been clear this week, as it has been for some time, Europe is yet to square its reliance on trade with China’s disparate approach to human rights and freedoms.
UK POWERS ON
Energy policy has moved rapidly up the UK political agenda and it has resulted in a flurry of announcements from the government. As with most western countries, the UK’s energy strategy rests on achieving three objectives: securing a reliable supply of energy, keeping electricity and gas affordable for consumers, and reducing the carbon intensity of energy production. We saw all three of these interconnected issues writ large in recent decision-making.
First, with onshore wind. The official government policy since 2014 has been an outright ban on new turbines, but a Conservative backbench revolt made up of Liz Truss allies is trying to change this by adding an amendment to the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill. With Labour’s Ed Miliband indicating they will support such an amendment; we may see prime minister Rishi Sunak being forced to accept the change in policy.
Second, nuclear power. The government recently announced that Sizewell C nuclear power station will be built, and it took another serious step forward by buying out a Chinese state company’s share of the project, reportedly at a cost of £100m. More interestingly, the government is now looking at supporting small modular rectors – essentially mini nuclear power plants. Rolls Royce will be building these reactors, which are significantly cheaper than full-sized plants, on existing or decommissioned nuclear sites.
Third, energy saving. The Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy announced it will run an £18m public information campaign to advise the public on cutting energy bills without having to go cold. The Department has also promised a new scheme called Eco Plus, which will provide certain homeowners with grants to install insulation and make houses more energy efficient.
The impact of these policies won’t be seen for some time, but the sheer number of announcements show how crucial the energy issue has become – and how much will be required to fix it.
Credit: Ministry of Defense of Ukraine
DIAL S FOR SURRENDER
This week, the BBC reported that the Ukrainian government had established a ‘surrender hotline’ for Russian troops. The scheme, named ‘I Want To Live’ is said to be receiving up to 100 enquiries per day and has received over 3,500 from troops and their families since September.
We are now on month nine of Russia’s initial invasion and since then, the country has suffered significant military setbacks. Russian troops abandoned their push towards Kyiv in April and were forced back from the Kharkiv region in September. They have also withdrawn troops from key towns in the Donbas region and were defeated in Ukrainian’s latest major victory in Kherson.
Despite Russia’s Goliath mass, Ukraine seems to be advancing on the battlefield as well as in the minds of Russian troops. The ‘surrender hotline’ follows multiple stories of Russian soldiers defecting to join the Ukrainian effort. One such soldier, Pavel Filatyev, who served as a Russian paratrooper at the time of the invasion, filmed himself flushing his Russian passport and military ID away. After publishing a manifesto detailing the disarray of the military invasion, Pavel fled Russia to France to continue to expose the Kremlin, who he calls a “mafia” that has taken control of his country.
However, such activity should not be overstated. Moscow shows no signs of raising the white flag just yet and troops are not surrendering in their droves. Satellite images showing an “unusually high number of aircraft bombers on the tarmac” at a Russian military base have led experts to predict an imminent attack is underway. On Thursday, an air raid warning went out across all of Ukraine – signalling that authorities were preparing for this new attack. President Putin’s “I’m not bluffing” nuclear posture, means we should be wary of celebrating any Ukrainian success too prematurely.
That being said, Putin’s legitimacy requires his regime to appear popular to survive. Particularly amongst his army. It appears for some, the Russian-state propaganda does not stretch as far as Ukraine, where numbers of troops are facing the harsh reality of Putin’s diktat. Falling numbers of military personnel will lead to Russia’s ultimate defeat. Simple but efficient initiatives such as the hotline demonstrate Ukraine’s aptitude for communications, which come to be even more important as Russian morale plummets.
PARTY’S OVER FOR MIAMI’S CRYPTO NERDS
The nightclub scene in Miami is in despair this week. Crypto traders, who once saw the city as their playground, are no longer splashing their cash – or should we say coins.
Last year during ‘Spring Break’, Miami’s clubs were crammed full of newly crowned crypto princes, reaping the rewards from their bullish investments. Amid the crypto-boom, the most popular location in the Magic City, E11even Nightclub, processed more than $6m worth of transactions last year in cryptocurrency. And these traders spent lavishly - ordering bathtubs of the most expensive champagne and (literally) throwing wads of cash into the crowd.
However, this week, Andrea Vimercati, former Director of Groot Hospitality based in Miami told a very different story – these young, mostly male, guests had disappeared. In November 2021 the price of one bitcoin went up to $60,000, at the time of writing it is at $16,000. This downturn has meant that many young entrepreneurs have lost their fortunes nearly as quickly as they made them. Now cryptocurrency transactions in Miami clubs are in the thousands, not the millions.
The Florida city’s after-hours scene is a damning metaphor for the whole world of crypto, as Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX Exchange bankruptcy file continues to have knock-on effects for the industry as a whole. According to a court filing earlier this month, FTX currently owes its 50 largest creditors almost $3.1bn.
Bankman-Fried and FTX’s behaviour mirrors the attitudes of those unleashed crypto entrepreneurs last year. Reports suggest the company spent $300m on real estate in the Bahamas, while also setting up a private courier service because Amazon wouldn’t deliver to the island of Nassau. In his first public appearance since the collapse this week, Bankman-Fried said that while he had made mistakes, he did not knowingly commit fraud.
Andrea Vimercati admitted that he doesn’t expect those crypto bros to come back to his bars. And if they do, their crypto wallets might be a little lighter.
ONE FOR THE AGES
During the first national lockdown of 2020, whilst much of the population were knees-deep in Netflix, Jim Irvine found himself in quite a different position. In a field, on his family’s farm in Rutland, Mr Irvine made a discovery. And it would turn out to be one of the most significant archaeological discoveries ever uncovered in Britain.
What at first appeared to be some unusual pottery spotted during a walk, soon turned into a “treasure trove” of finds. After the initial discovery, Historic England funded urgent excavation work and, in 2021, they discovered a roman villa which was housing a rare mosaic depicting Homer’s Iliad. The mosaic is thought to be the only one of its kind in the UK.
And the discoveries didn’t end there. This week, upon returning to the area, archaeologists have uncovered yet more “lavish” buildings and another mosaic. Historic England have described it as one of the most important archeological finds in Britain. The new discoveries included a large hall, which housed a bath suite (equipped with hot and cold rooms) and large living spaces. The property is thought to have last been inhabited during the late Roman period.
Now that the site has been found, there comes the question of preservation. Across the UK, historic sites are falling into disrepair each year, due to lack of funding, or damage from development, simple neglect or risk from climate change. Many of Scotland’s historic sites, including Doune Castle, are now closed to visitors, with the official reason given being climate change-related conservation challenges. Historic Environment Scotland stated that it had a £53 million financial void in 2020.
However, it’s not all doom and gloom. National Trust Scotland are hoping to boost tourism and bring visitors back to these historic places, aiming to increase visitors to more than six million per year by 2032, and helping to fill funding gaps. Meanwhile, Historic England recently updated their risk register, and this year saw 233 more sites removed (i.e., saved), all of which gives history and archaeology enthusiasts hope for the future.
And that’s it for this week. I hope you found something of interest that you might want to delve into further. If so, please get in touch at cwilkins@audley.uk.com.
For now, that’s the weekend box officially closed.