1. USD 390 million of taxes required to clear 1.6 million tonnes of plastic waste
According to estimates by Young World, the plastic waste generated by takeaways amounted to about 578,000 tonnes to 1.6 million tonnes annually. It would take about USD 390 million to properly dispose 1.6 million tonnes of plastic waste and most of the funding would be borne by taxpayers. Others argued that plastic waste from takeaways, stood at about 4% of the total plastic waste generated therefore did not matter much. There are greater calls for online delivery platforms to be transparent about plastic takeaway usage so that deeper insights could be surfaced for relevant policy making.
Source: https://new.qq.com/omn/20220306/20220306A06XVN00.html
2. India’s population surpass that of China’s
A rampant rumor on the internet claimed that India’s population has reached 15.1565 billion, surpassing China’s population of 14.126 billion. The rumor sparked intense discussions among the Chinese netizens. The rumor was debunked as fake news, but estimates showed that India might really surpass China in population size between 2023 and 2024. Even with China’s three children policy already in place, India’s population growth would outpace the rest. Studies showed that by 2023 or 2024, India would become the most populous country in the entire world.
Source: https://new.qq.com/omn/20220306/20220306A0295900.html
3. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasised the importance of environmental protection and its link to food resources
In a recent meeting, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out the importance of adopting a holistic perspective to agricultural and food production. Food production has long shifted away from just satisfying hunger of the people. Over the years, it has evolved around the concept of eating well and moving forward to eating healthier food. He cited the need for extensive industry transformation, from environmental protection of agricultural land, diversifying food sources, structural reform of the agriculture supply chain, to the strategy of rural revitalisation.
Source: https://new.qq.com/omn/20220304/20220304A072FQ00.html
4. Tencent may have the greatest potential to lead the metaverse race in China
Analysts speculated that Tencent’s recent recruitment drive for Project “ZPlan” was indicative of the company’s interest in the metaverse industry. Even though Tencent did not announce their business interest, industry watchers thought otherwise and pointed to the company’s recent metaverse-related trademark registrations. Industry watchers also highlighted Tencent’s intention to acquire Black Shark Technology. The potential acquisition would bolster Tencent’s virtual reality (VR) capability, and might propel the company to the leading position in the metaverse race.
Source: https://new.qq.com/omn/20220310/20220310A03UVR00.html
5. The achillies’ heel of China’s growing technological dominance
According to IDC’s report, the volume of China’s digital will reach 48.6 ZB by 2025, translating to about 27.8% of the total global digital data volume. China’s technology market rely mostly on hard drives that are manufactured by Western Digital, Seagate and Toshiba. Seagate Technology and Western Digital, dominate with a combined global market share of about 80% to 85%. Chinese market is able to produce flash drives locally but the prices are higher than imports. Estimates showed that around 70% to 90% of flash drives sales were attributed to imports.
Source: https://new.qq.com/omn/20220310/20220310A0AFF900.html
Terra Link Research 