China in the fast lane (and no, I'm not a spy)

An update on my latest columns

For almost as long as I’ve been in journalism, sympathetic colleagues have told me that they’ve been warned: Cindy Yu is really a spy.

It would be a good ruse – Oxford-educated, RP-speaking, heart of British journalism… It’s hard not to play up to the gag, but that’s my way of making light of what is really a very serious and unfunny accusation. Most of all I think it reveals the lack of imagination of my critics – that someone of my skin colour could have anything other than bad to say about China.

In my debut for Times Magazine, I tackle these accusations head on, writing about how my family came to the UK, and about my true mission.

And then, back in the day job, my latest column (out yesterday) is a dive into the accelerating world of China’s electric cars. Many of you have experience doing business, living or travelling in China, so you’ll know what I’m talking about: the EV transition is real. In the column I look specifically at the impressive work being done to solve the question of charging – when can EVs be as easily recharged as refuelling a petrol car? Here’s a little snippet:

The country’s biggest electric car and battery companies are racing against each other to invent and produce charging tech that could really make petrol stations obsolete.

In March, BYD, China’s biggest electric vehicle brand, launched a superfast charger that takes only five minutes to dispense enough power to drive 250 miles, twice as fast as Tesla’s best offering. The battery maker CATL has been working on swapping stations, where a car’s battery can be popped out and replaced within three minutes. There are already over 3,000 such swapping stations in China.

This year, CATL is aiming to build 1,000 more and BYD has ambitions to set up 4,000 superfast charging points.

And finally, in non-China activity, I was happy (though stressed) to be back on BBC Radio 4’s comedy current affairs show, ‘The News Quiz’, last week. You can listen to it here – but there’s very little China, and a lot more Brexit and Trump.