China’s economic statistics can’t be taken at face value. This has been well understood among economists and investors for years. The country always tries to make them look better than they really are, reporting more or less inflated numbers. It’s been said that electricity-consumption numbers better represent the state of the Chinese economy than gross domestic product (GDP). Electricity numbers are more difficult to fudge than growth rates and, hence, closer to the truth, it is believed. This tendency to make themselves look better is attributed to a combination of a variety of factors: aspiration, inferiority complex, vanity, national pride, a big ego, etc. The Middle Kingdom has to be better than it is today, Communist Party leaders think. Otherwise, they would find it difficult to impose their will on other countries, especially those in the developing world. The tendency appears to have intensified the last 10 years, since Xi Jinping rose to the leadership, succeeding Hu Jintao. Xi Jinping is a great deal more nationalistic than his predecessors in the last few decades, without much tolerance for revealing China’s negative side to the world. Announcements of key economic numbers are delayed if they are believed to offend Xi Jinping ’s disposition, and these numbers could be trusted even less than those in the past. It is anyone’s guess how much deviation there is between the official size of the Chinese economy at $17.7 trillion and whatever the reality is, assuming reported growth numbers have been inflated for years....Read more https://www.theepochtimes.com/business/costs-of-fudging-statistics-5529869
Taiwan and the United States are working on a possible in-person meeting between Taipei’s envoy to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and President Joe Biden this week, a senior Taiwanese official said. Taiwan appointed Morris Chang, the founder of chip giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, as its representative to this week’s APEC summit in San Francisco. Taiwan is aiming at having a one-on-one exchange between Mr. Chang and President Biden. “The two sides are discussing related arrangements,” Wellington Koo, head of the National Security Council, told reporters when asked about potential talks between President Biden and Mr. Chang during a briefing in Taipei on Tuesday.... 
SAN FRANCISCO—The arrival of Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping for the high-stakes meeting with his American counterpart has turned the Golden State into a beacon for protests. Dozens of activists and Falun Gong practitioners on Nov. 14 gathered near the Moscone Center, the venue where many Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings are being held, calling for an end to human rights abuses in China. In front of the St. Regis hotel where Mr. Xi will be staying through the week, several Chinese petitioners briefly got into a shouting match with throngs of red-capped, flag-waving Beijing supporters, with chants of “welcome” and “give me back my property” heard in turn....
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of the urban syndromes. About 28 to 30 percent of adults in Hong Kong suffer from this disease, and the proportion is continuously on the rise. Some patients will even develop non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, which can lead to cirrhosis and liver failure in severe cases, and there are still no drugs to treat it. Hong Kong Baptist University’s (HKBU) latest research has found that a bile acid component, “hyodeoxycholic acid” (HDCA), produced in the human intestine, can reduce fat accumulation and inflammation in the liver and has great therapeutic potential. NAFLD is one of the major causes of chronic liver disease and is characterized by the accumulation of excessive fat in liver cells and is not caused by alcohol consumption. A 2022 meta-analysis estimated that NAFLD affects 32 percent of adults. Some patients can develop non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, which is characterized by inflammation of the liver, or may progress to cirrhosis and liver failure. There are currently no approved drugs on the market for the treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis....