Business

By Tom Sims, Frank Siebelt and Paul Carrel

FRANKFURT (Reuters) -The chief executive of top German asset manager DWS will step down next week, he said on Wednesday, a day after raids by prosecutors over allegations that the company misled investors about “green” investments.

The raids and departure of DWS CEO Asoka Woehrmann mark another setback for Deutsche Bank, DWS’s majority owner, which has been trying to move on from regulatory breaches, including money laundering and securities misselling, leading to billions in fines.

DWS has been dogged by the accusations for months, prompting German prosecutors to conduct the raids on DWS and the headquarters of Deutsche Bank on Tuesday.

German and U.S. officials have been investigating reports and a whistleblower’s allegations that DWS had exaggerated the green credentials of investments it sold – a practice known as greenwashing. DWS has repeatedly denied that it misled investors.

The management change had been in the works for some time but was ultimately made at meetings late on Tuesday in the wake of the raids, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Woehrmann, told employees in a memo that it was a joy to see DWS flourish but that “allegations …, however unfounded or undefendable, have left a mark”.

“To quote Charles Dickens: it was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” he said in the memo, which was seen by Reuters.

Deutsche Bank, which retained majority ownership of DWS after its initial public offering, has marketed itself as bank companies can turn to as they seek a greener future.

UNCERTAINTY

On Tuesday German prosecutors said that “sufficient factual evidence has emerged” to show that environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors were taken into account in a minority of investments “but were not taken into account at all in a large number of investments”, contrary to statements in DWS fund sales prospectuses.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and German financial watchdog BaFin last year launched separate investigations into the whistleblower’s allegations. The whistleblower, a former head of sustainability at DWS, had said the company overstated how it used sustainable investing criteria to manage investments.

In February, Deutsche Bank agreed with the U.S. Department of Justice to extend the stay of a special monitor at the bank after it failed to report allegations involving DWS in a timely manner.

Shares in DWS have slumped 26% since the SEC and BaFin investigations were made public in August last year. They were down about 7% midday on Wednesday.

The accusations show “greenwashing is not a trivial offence,” said Magdalena Senn of the German consumer advocacy group Finanzwende.

“The raid and the resignation will have a signal effect for other asset managers,” she said.

Credit Suisse analysts said Woehrmann’s departure was a disappointment because he successfully implemented reform and turnaround at DWS.

“We see the change of leadership heralding a period of uncertainty for DWS’ strategy – and could even raise questions over its future as an independent asset management company,” Credit Suisse said.

DWS and Deutsche Bank on Tuesday said that the asset manager had cooperated with regulators and authorities in the past and would continue to do so.

UNDER PRESSURE

Woehrmann has been under pressure on multiple fronts since the greenwashing allegations broke.

Deutsche Bank conducted an internal investigation into Woehrmann’s possible private email usage for business purposes, and the European Central Bank also looked into corporate governance issues surrounding him.

He has also received threatening letters, including one in December with red crosshairs, white powder and a racial slur.

When asked about the allegations in a DWS earnings call with analysts, Woehrmann said he emphatically rejected all the allegations.

Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing publicly backed Woehrmann in January, saying he had done a wonderful job.

Stefan Hoops, who has been overseeing Deutsche Bank’s corporate banking division since 2019, will replace Woehrmann from June 10, the bank said.

Hoops has not been involved in asset management over the past two decades, though Deutsche Bank said he was “a proven capital markets specialist”.

Woehrmann’s resignation takes effect on June 9, the day of its annual general meeting.

(Reporting by Paul Carrel, Tom Sims and Frank Siebelt; Additional reporting by Anna PruchnickaEditing by Bradley Perrett, David Goodman, Jane Merriman and Sabine Wollrab)

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By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will grant a shorter regulatory compliance program extension to Boeing than planemaker sought, so it can ensure the company implements “required improvements,” the agency said on Tuesday.

The FAA opted to renew Boeing’s Organization Designation Authorization (ODA) program for three years rather than the five years Boeing had asked for.

Boeing did not immediately comment.

The FAA, which delegates some tasks to Boeing under a long-standing program, said Tuesday that “during the three-year period, the FAA will verify that Boeing completes required improvements” to the program including ensuring employees can “act without interference by company officials.”

In December, a U.S. Senate report said the FAA must do a better job overseeing Boeing and the certification of new airplanes, as well as review allegations raised by whistleblowers.

Congress passed sweeping reforms in December 2020 to how the FAA certifies new airplanes after two fatal 737 MAX crashes killed 346 people and led to the plane’s 20-month grounding.

“FAA’s oversight of the certification process has eroded,” the report found, saying the agency “over time, increasingly delegated away its authority” to Boeing and others.

Then FAA Administrator Steve Dickson told Congress late last year the agency was delegating fewer tasks to Boeing.

The FAA said Tuesday the shorter renewal was in part “due to a number of items that must be tracked and completed during that timeframe.” The FAA letter said it expects “the next three years should provide ample time for these improvement activities to be completed.”

The FAA “will also track the timely implementation of corrective actions, updates to the Boeing ODA Procedures Manual, self-audits and the effective implementation of the Boeing Safety Management System.”

The FAA continues to inspect all Boeing 737 MAXs to determine airworthiness and will also inspect all 787 Dreamliners once Boeing addresses quality issues and deliveries resume.

In November, the acting head of the FAA office that oversees Boeing told the company that some appointees performing work for FAA did not have required expertise and were not meeting FAA expectations.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chris Reese and Aurora Ellis)

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By Andrew Chung

(Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked a Texas law that bars large social media companies from banning or censoring users based on “viewpoint,” siding with two technology industry groups that have argued that the Republican-backed measure would turn platforms into “havens of the vilest expression imaginable.”

The justices, in a 5-4 decision, granted a request by NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association, which count Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as members, to block the law while litigation continues after a lower court on May 11 let it go into effect.

The industry groups sued to try to block the law, challenging it as a violation of the free speech rights of companies, including to editorial discretion on their platforms, under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.

Conservative Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch issued a written dissent, saying that it is “not at all obvious how our existing precedents, which predate the age of the internet, should apply to large social media companies.” Liberal Justice Elena Kagan separately dissented but did not offer any reasons.

The Texas law was passed by the state’s Republican-led legislature and signed by its Republican governor. Its passage comes as U.S. conservatives and right-wing commentators complain that “Big Tech” is suppressing their views. These people cite as a prominent example Twitter’s permanent suspension of Republican former President Donald Trump from the platform shortly after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of his supporters, with the company citing “the risk of further incitement of violence.”

The law, formally known as HB20, forbids social media companies with at least 50 million monthly active users from acting to “censor” users based on “viewpoint,” and allows either users or the Texas attorney general to sue to enforce it.

In signing the bill last September, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said, “There is a dangerous movement by some social media companies to silence conservative ideas and values. This is wrong and we will not allow it in Texas.”

The industry groups said the state’s law would unconstitutionally allow for government control of private speech. Restricting the platforms’ editorial control, the groups said, “would compel platforms to disseminate all sorts of objectionable viewpoints – such as Russia’s propaganda claiming that its invasion of Ukraine is justified.”

“Instead of platforms engaging in editorial discretion, platforms will become havens of the vilest expression imaginable: pro-Nazi speech, hostile foreign government propaganda, pro-terrorist-organization speech, and countless more examples,” they added.

The groups also denounced what they called “viewpoint discrimination against ‘Big Tech,’” in the Texas law through its exclusion of smaller social media platforms popular among conservatives such as Parler, Gab, Gettr and Trump’s own Truth Social.

U.S. Judge Robert Pitman in the state capital Austin blocked the law last December. Pitman ruled that the constraints on how the platforms disseminate content violate the First Amendment.

The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals subsequently put Pitman’s decision on hold two days after hearing oral arguments in the case. The 5th Circuit has yet to issue a ruling on the merits of the case.

(Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York; Editing by Will Dunham)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — A divided Supreme Court has blocked a Texas law, championed by conservatives, that aimed to keep social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter from censoring users based on their viewpoints.

The court voted in an unusual 5-4 alignment Tuesday to put the Texas law on hold, while a lawsuit plays out in lower courts.

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett voted to grant the emergency request from two technology industry groups that challenged the law in federal court.

The majority provided no explanation for its decision, as is common in emergency matters on what is informally known as the court’s “shadow docket.”

Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Elena Kagan and Neil Gorsuch would have allowed the law to remain in effect.

In dissent, Alito wrote, “Social media platforms have transformed the way people communicate with each other and obtain news.”

It’s not clear how the high court’s past First Amendment cases, many of which predate the internet age, apply to Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and other digital platforms, Alito wrote in an opinion joined by fellow conservatives Thomas and Gorsuch but not Kagan.

The order follows a ruling last week by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that found a similar Florida law likely violates the First Amendment’s free speech protections.

Republican elected officials in several states have backed laws like those enacted in Florida and Texas that sought to portray social media companies as generally liberal in outlook and hostile to ideas outside of that viewpoint, especially from the political right.

The Texas law was initially blocked by a district judge, but then allowed to take effect by a panel of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

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By Oliver Hirt

ZURICH (Reuters) -Credit Suisse is in the early stages of weighing options to bolster its capital after a string of losses has eroded its financial buffers, two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

The size of the increase would be likely to exceed 1 billion Swiss francs ($1.04 billion), but this has not yet been determined, said one of the people, who declined to be named because the deliberations are still internal.

The cash injection would help Switzerland’s second-biggest bank to recover from billions of losses in 2021 and a series of costly legal headaches.

Selling shares to some of its major existing investors is the preferred option, but Credit Suisse has not ruled out tapping all shareholders, this person said.

A sale of a business, such as Credit Suisse’s asset management division, is also a possibility, the other person said. The bank had not yet decided on any potential action, they said. Any transaction was envisaged for the second half of this year.

“Credit Suisse is currently not considering raising additional equity capital,” the bank said in a statement.

“The Group is robustly capitalised with a CET1 ratio of 13.8% and a CET1 leverage ratio of 4.3%. Asset Management is an essential part of our group strategy presented last November, with four core divisions.”

The CET1 ratio is a key gauge of a bank’s financial strength.

Credit Suisse shares fell 4.2% by 1000 GMT, compared with a 0.7% drop in the Swiss blue chip index and 0.9% drop in the European banking index, following the Reuters report.

“The news, if confirmed, points to potentially more pain than we currently expect,” Jefferies analysts wrote in a research note.

The Jefferies analysts suggested the move could reflect lower earnings than expected or else a backstop plan in case the environment for revenues and costs does not improve as expected in 2023.

A major Credit Suisse shareholder, Harris Associates, said it saw no need for the Swiss bank to raise fresh equity capital.

“Given the strength of their balance sheet today, we agree with the company’s statement that no new equity raise is necessary,” David Herro of Harris Associates told Reuters.

Harris Associates holds a stake of around 5.2%, according to the bank’s https://www.credit-suisse.com/about-us/en/investor-relations/shareholders/significant-shareholders.html website, currently making it the biggest shareholder.

DEBT DOWNGRADES

Credit Suisse is reeling from billions in losses racked up in 2021 via failed investments, plus the impact of multiple legal cases, including a Bermuda court case that could cost around $600 million.

The bank has been trying to reform its risk management culture and also turn the page on a series of scandals, which have prompted several waves of management shake-ups, abrupt departures, and internal and external investigations.

The bank’s shares have fallen by more than a fifth in the past year.

Fitch and Standard & Poor’s both downgraded their debt ratings for Credit Suisse this month.

One of the sources said Swiss financial watchdog FINMA’s annual assessment of big Swiss banks had marked Credit Suisse at 4, unchanged from last year, the lowest possible grade.

One of the watchdog’s main concerns was capitalisation at group level, this source said.

FINMA declined to comment. The deliberations over a capital boost come only a year after the Swiss bank raised around 1.75 billion Swiss francs from investors via mandatory convertible notes.

In April, Credit Suisse had played down the need for fresh capital even as it reported a first-quarter loss that intensified its financial pain.

Credit Suisse executives said at the time capital could remain constrained over the next six months as the bank continues to make significant outlays towards compliance and risk, but a source familiar with the matter said a capital increase was not under consideration at the time.

The bank’s core capital ratio weakened to 13.8% at the end of the first quarter 2022 from 14.4% at the end of 2021.

But a new capital increase would bolster Credit Suisse’s balance sheet and also send a positive signal. If well-known investors provided the bank with new cash, this could be seen as a sign of confidence, one of the sources said.

($1 = 0.9586 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by Oliver Hirt; additional reporting by Simon Jessop; Editing by Jane Merriman)

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Forget breaking the sound barrier: Tom Cruise just flew past a major career milestone.

The 59-year-old superstar just got his first $100 million opening weekend with “Top Gun: Maverick.” In its first three days in North American theaters, the long-in-the-works sequel earned an estimated $124 million in ticket sales, Paramount Pictures said Sunday. Including international showings, its worldwide total is $248 million.

It’s a supersonic start for a film that still has the wide-open skies of Memorial Day itself to rake in even more cash. According to projections and estimates, by Monday’s close, “Top Gun: Maverick” will likely have over $150 million.

“These results are ridiculously, over-the-top fantastic,” said Chris Aronson, Paramount’s president of domestic distribution. “I’m happy for everyone. I’m happy for the company, for Tom, for the filmmakers.”

Though undeniably one of the biggest stars in the world — perhaps even “the last movie star,” according to various headlines — Cruise is not known for massive blockbuster openings.

Before “Maverick,” his biggest domestic debut was in 2005, with Steven Spielberg’s “War of the Worlds,” which opened to $64 million. After that it was “Mission: Impossible — Fallout” with $61 million in 2018. It’s not that his films don’t make money in the long run: They just aren’t enormously frontloaded.

“Top Gun: Maverick” had an extremely long journey to get to the theaters. The sequel to the late Tony Scott’s “Top Gun,” which was released in 1986, was originally slated to open in the summer of 2020. Its marketing campaign technically started back in July 2019. The pandemic got in the way of those plans, however, and it was delayed several times. Directed by Joseph Kosinski, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and co-produced and co-financed by Skydance, the sequel reportedly cost $152 million to make.

But even as the months, and years, went by and many other companies chose to compromise on hybrid releases, Cruise and Paramount didn’t waver on their desire to have a major theatrical release. A streaming debut was simply not an option.

“That was never going to happen,” Cruise said in Cannes.

And it is major, with 4,735 North American theaters (a record) showing “Top Gun: Maverick.” It also opened in 23,600 locations in 62 international markets.

“This is one of the longest runways for a marketing campaign for any film ever. And it only served to create more excitement around the movie,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “This movie literally waited for the movie theater to come back.”

The build up has been just as flashy, with fighter-jet-adorned premieres on an aircraft carrier in San Diego and at the Cannes Film Festival, where Cruise was also given an honorary Palme d’Or, and a royal premiere in London attended by Prince William and his wife Kate.

“The feeling you get when you watch this film with an audience, it’s pretty special,” Aronson said. “The first big screening we had, there was spontaneous applause during the movie.”

Reviews have been stellar, too, with the film notching a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences, who were 58% male, gave it an A+ CinemaScore, according to exit polls.

The new film has Cruise reprising the role of Maverick, who returns to the elite aviation training program to train the next generation of flyers, including Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Monica Barbaro, Greg Tarzan Davis, Danny Ramirez, Lewis Pullman and Jay Ellis. Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm and Val Kilmer, reprising his role from the original, also star.

“This solidifies the notion that the movie theater is a singular and a vitally important outlet for people,” Dergarabedian said. “People are looking for a great escape from everything that’s going on in the world right now.”

“Maverick” is now among the top pandemic era openings, still led by “Spider-Man: No Way Home” with $260 million, followed by “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” with $187 million and “The Batman” with $134 million.

Notably, “Top Gun: Maverick” is the only non-superhero movie in the bunch. It also attracted a wide swath of age groups to the theater. An estimated 55% of the audience was over 35.

“Superhero movies aren’t for everybody. This movie is for everyone and that’s what sets it apart,” Aronson said. “The theatrical exhibition business has challenges ahead of it, but this is a shot in the arm for that.”

“The Bob’s Burgers Movie” was the only new release that dared go up against “Top Gun.” Released by 20th Century Studios and Disney, the animated pic earned $12.6 million from 3,425 locations. It opened in third place, behind “Doctor Strange 2,” which earned $16.4 million in its fourth weekend in theaters.

“Top Gun” will continue to essentially have the skies to itself until “Jurassic World: Dominion” opens on June 10.

“It has a really nice, open marketplace to play,” Dergarabedian said. “Tom Cruise has always been about consistency. His movies are about the marathon. This is the first movie of his that is sprinting to big box office numbers. Here, he gets the sprint and the marathon.”

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Tuesday.

1. “Top Gun: Maverick,” $124 million.

2. “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” $16.4 million.

3. “The Bob’s Burgers Movie,” $12.6 million.

4. “Downton Abbey: A New Era,” $5.9 million.

5. “The Bad Guys,” $4.6 million.

6. “Sonic the Hedgehog 2,” $2.5 million.

7. “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” $2.5 million.

8. “The Lost City,” $1.8 million.

9. “Men,” $1.2 million.

10. “F3: Fun and Frustration,” $1 million.

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Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr

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BERLIN (Reuters) – German carmaker Volkswagen said on Sunday it was taking seriously an investigation by Brazil’s public prosecutors into alleged human rights violations in the country as reported by German media.

“We can assure you that we take the possible events at Fazenda Rio Cristalino, to which the investigation by the Brazilian investigating authorities refers, very seriously,” Volkswagen said in an emailed statement, referring to a cattle farm in Brazil.

The Sueddeutsche Zeitung paper and public broadcaster NDR on Sunday reported that Brazil is investigating alleged human rights violations at the farm during 1974-1986 when the military dictatorship was in power in Brazil.

NDR reported that Brazil’s military government made an offer to VW to buy and develop the land.

“Please understand that we are not commenting further due to possible legal proceedings in Brazil,” VW said.

(Reporting by Zuzanna Szymanska and Kirsti Knolle. Editing by Jane Merriman)

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Saudi Arabia To Invest Over $1 Trillion in Tourism

Kingdom hopes for 100 million visits by 2030 as it pivots away from the oil sector to a more sustainable economy

Saudi Arabia is set to spend over $1 trillion in tourism in the coming decade in a bid to attract100 million visitors by 2030 and diversify its primarily oil-based economy.

The kingdom is pivoting from religious to leisure tourism, which it views as being a key sector inits Vision 2030 program that aims to modernize the country’s economy, according to a specialreport recently published by Entrepreneur Middle East in partnership with Lucidity Insights.

Erika Masako Welch is the chief content officer of special reports for Entrepreneur Middle Eastand helped put together the report. She told The Media Line that Saudi Arabia is hoping tobecome a global tourism leader.

“Working [women] are entering the workforce at breakneck speed,” Masako Welch said. “Ten or 15 years ago, you had maybe 5% of the Saudi female population in the workforce and now it’s 34%. That’s a lot of jobs that young Saudis are vying for, and those jobs wouldn’t exist unless brand new industries in tech and tourism were being developed.”

Leisure tourism accounted for 55% of all global travel in 2019, according to Masako Welch’sreport, which was sponsored by Saudia Airlines. Saudi Arabia has mainly relied on religiousvisitors – who undertake the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages – and is presently building up itsleisure portfolio from scratch.

“They’re not completely new to welcoming outsiders but they’re new to welcoming everyone,”she said. “Before it was just Muslim pilgrims, which is a big business. That by itself hascatapulted Saudia Airlines to make it just as big as British Airways.”

Masako Welch recently visited the kingdom to get a better idea of how their tourism industry has developed and said she noticed a “huge difference” in terms of infrastructure development, road works, and airports from just a few years ago. Among the top attractions under development are holiday packages in Al’Ula, a Grand Canyonesque locale in the kingdom’s northwest and UNESCO World Heritage site.

Still, tourism in Saudi Arabia is very in its infancy and can be quite pricy for the average traveler.

“In Dubai, I know what I’m going to get, but in Saudi Arabia, it feels like you spend a lot more and you’re not really getting that service that you get globally,” Masako Welch said.

Other countries in the MENA region are also trying to shore up their tourism sectors. According to research conducted by D/A, a Dubai-based consumer intelligence company, the United Arab Emirates remains the most popular destination in that regard, followed by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, and Qatar. Dubai alone attracted nearly 17 million visitors in 2019.

Experts believe that Saudi Arabia holds the potential to become a significant player as it takesaim at travelers from every segment of the market. This could “pose a threat” to other touristdestinations in the region.

“It is a market with amazing opportunities; they have the space, the history, deep pockets, and most importantly a plan that they are absolutely committed to,” Faisal Khan, vice president of Sila and D/A Labs, told The Media Line. “I haven’t seen any entity as committed to a vision and a plan as is Saudi.

“Religious restrictions are a thing of the past and they’ve come a long way and continue toreshape the image global visitors perceive of them,” he added.

The kingdom may be undergoing a shift in public perception as a tourism destination, but it wasnot until 2019 that visas began to be issued to travelers wishing to visit the country for reasonsother than religious pilgrimage or business.

Nevertheless, it is important to note that Saudi Arabia remains deeply religious, and somerestrictions might make some Western travelers think twice before jumping on the next flight.Namely, significant issues remain in terms of gender disparity, alcohol is illegal, and modestylaws are required for locals and visitors alike.

Women should generally wear loose-fitting clothes, refrain from showing skin above their kneesor elbows, and men should avoid going shirtless or sleeveless. Clothes that are consideredoffensive can result in fines. Public displays of affection are also a no-go.

Moreover, the city of Mecca – considered to be the holiest city in Islam – is off-limits to non-Muslims.

“There are several destinations around the world that can pose an ethical dilemma to would-betravelers,” Sarah Faith, content and communications manager at Responsible Travel, told TheMedia Line. “Saudi Arabia is one of them. It is home to one of the world’s most oppressiveregimes if you are a woman or LGBTQ, it has no free speech, a terrible human rights record, andis the second-largest producer of fossil fuels globally.”

Despite this, Faith believes it is still possible to travel there.

“If you do travel to Saudi Arabia, pick a tour which allows you to meet local women andsupport female-run businesses, which have been on the increase since a ban on them was lifted in2018,” she said.

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BEIJING (AP) — Shoppers returned to the malls of Beijing on Sunday as the Chinese capital relaxed pandemic restrictions after declaring a small but persistent COVID-19 outbreak effectively under control.

A partial reopening of stores and offices in Beijing was welcomed by a weary populace and struggling shopkeepers eager for life to return to normal. Coupled with a gradual easing of restrictions in Shanghai, it signaled that the worst is over in the twin outbreaks in China’s most prominent cities.

The lockdowns and other restrictions under China’s “zero-COVID” strategy have increasingly frustrated residents as they see other countries ease up and re-open their borders. Some have resisted and staged protests at apartment complexes and university dormitories, in an authoritarian country where people think twice about speaking out publicly because of possible repercussions.

Restaurants remain closed in Beijing, except for takeout and delivery, and many people in Shanghai still can only go out with special passes and for a limited time period, even as the number of new cases has plummeted. Officials tend to err on the side of caution under a system that readily punishes them for lax enforcement if outbreaks flare up or come back.

China recorded 293 new cases on Saturday, of which 78 were among people who had arrived from overseas. Shanghai had the most non-imported cases, with 122, and Beijing had 21. That’s in a population of more than 20 million people in both cities.

Beijing allowed public parks, gyms and cinemas to reopen on Sunday, all at 50% of their capacity. A portion of the Great Wall in a rural part of Beijing, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) from downtown, reopens to visitors on Monday.

Xu Hejian, a city spokesperson, said Saturday that sporadic cases are still being found in some districts, but they are within a controllable range. “This round of outbreak has been put under effective control,” he said.

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The last week of April was a whirlwind for San Francisco’s Chinatown.

The storied neighborhood debuted the “AAPI Community Heroes Mural,” a mostly black and white depiction of 12 mostly unsung Asian American and Pacific Islander figures on the wall of a bank. Three days later “Neon Was Never Brighter,” the first ever Chinatown contemporary arts festival, took over the streets throughout the night. Traditional lion and dragon dances, a couture fashion show and other public “art activations” were featured in the block party-like event.

Cultural and arts organizations in Chinatowns across North America have worked for decades on bringing greater appreciation and visibility to these communities. But they faced an unprecedented one-two punch when the pandemic caused shutdowns and racist anti-Asian attacks increased — and continue. As painful as those events are, they also indelibly influenced the reemergence of various Chinatowns as close-knit hubs of vibrancy and culture.

Cynthia Choi, co-founder of the Stop AAPI Hate reporting center, is still “blown away” to be one of the heroes painted in the San Francisco mural. But being at the festival was equally touching for her.

“I got really emotional because it’s been so long since I’d seen so many people come out to Chinatown, especially at night. I had heard so many of my friends or family saying, ‘I don’t want to go to Chinatown,” she said. “I knew it was going to be fun and exciting, but I was really moved.”

There has been renewed attention from cities, companies and younger Asian Americans from outside these historic Chinatowns. Wells Fargo partnered with the Chinatown Media & Arts Collaborative on the “heroes” mural. Everyone wanted to “really address anti-Asian hate and to uplift Asian American voices,” said Jenny Leung, executive director of the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco, which is part of the Collaborative. Youths voted on who to put on the mural.

“Frequently the way that Chinatown looks is imported as a tourist kind of attraction and fantasy for visitors to see,” Leung said. “It’s never really about celebrating the community’s perspective and voice.”

The idea for the “Neon” festival was briefly discussed pre-pandemic. But the events of the last two years lent urgency to it.

“We wanted to kind of push that deadline a little bit earlier in order to be able to address the 20, 30, 40, empty storefronts that are increasingly rising in the community,” said Leung, who characterizes Chinatown as a “museum without walls.”

Josh Chuck, a local filmmaker behind the documentary “Chinatown Rising,” has noticed younger generations dining or participating in events in Chinatowns. A friend who works in tech began last year picking up orders for friends who wanted to support Chinatown restaurants. Soon he was making spreadsheets to track 400 deliveries.

“Honestly, there’s no way I could have imagined something that would galvanize these people that I know. Even myself, like, I feel much more connected and committed,” Chuck said. “It’s a silver lining.”

In New York, the first of five summer night markets start next month in the city’s Chinatown. It will be the biggest event to date for Think!Chinatown. The 5-year-old nonprofit has done numerous projects like artists-in-residency programs and oral histories. But last year after a series of verbal and physical assaults against Asians, they partnered with Neighborhoods Now, a local pandemic relief initiative, on Chinatown Nights.

It was a small-scale gathering of less than 10 artist booths and food trucks in Forsyth Plaza park. Despite a “crazy” two-month prep window, there was a collective feeling of “we just need to be together,” said Yin Kong, Think!Chinatown co-founder and director. And there was a “tectonic shift” with philanthropy focusing on equity.

“It reprioritized these other organizations that traditionally would have funded other things to focus on how to support communities of color in a different way,” Kong said.

The expanded event next month will have 20 booths and sponsorships, and will be scheduled when most Chinatown restaurants are closed so owners can participate.

“The mechanisms that got us there would not have happened without the pandemic,” said Kong, who feels Think!Chinatown is now seen as more “legit” with better funding, full-time staff and the possibility of an office space instead of her dining table.

In Vancouver’s Chinatown, the pandemic only exacerbated ongoing issues of vandalism, graffiti and other crimes. But within the last year, the Canadian city managed to launch cultural projects planned before COVID-19.

Last month, the Chinatown Mural Project showed off a series of pastoral murals painted by a local artist on six roller shutters of a tea shop. In November, the interactive Chinatown Storytelling Centre with relics and recorded oral histories opened.

“We would have done this anyway (regardless of the pandemic),” said Carol Lee, chair of the Vancouver Chinatown Foundation, which oversees the Centre. “But you know, in some ways, it makes you feel like you have more purpose because it’s more necessary.”

Jordan Eng, president of the Vancouver Chinatown Business Improvement Association, agreed that there’s more collaboration and “a lot more youth interest than there was five, 10 years ago.”

There are fewer than 50 Chinatowns across the U.S. with some more active than others.

Many Chinatowns took shape in the 19th century as Chinese laborers arrived to mine for gold out West or work on the railroad. They lived there because of blatant discrimination or self-preservation. Their housing was single-room-occupancy units, or SROs, with communal kitchens and bathrooms, said Harvey Dong, a lecturer in ethnic studies and Asian American studies at University of California, Berkeley. Many older Chinese Americans and immigrants in Chinatown reside in these units still.

Another constant in Chinatowns: development—from the sales of no longer affordable SROs in San Francisco to a light rail expansion in Seattle to a proposed new jail in New York City. Chinatowns elsewhere have shrunk to a block or disappeared altogether because of gentrification. It’s a tricky juxtaposition for a city to tout Chinatowns to tourists yet offer few resources to its residents.

“So you have these huge festivals to bring in businesses. You have these parades and all this stuff. But definitely, it’s important that the needs of the community, especially the working class and the poor, are addressed,” Dong said.

Meanwhile, excited arts and culture advocates are moving forward to put their own stamp on Chinatown. Chinatown Media & Arts Collaborative in San Francisco is designing Edge on the Square, a $26.5 million media and arts center set to open in 2025. In New York, Think!Chinatown plans to lease a space with a kitchen for art exhibitions and cooking classes. The hope is to keep engaging with Asian Americans inside and outside of Chinatown.

“What draws them to Chinatown is that cultural connection,” Kong said. “It’s something you can’t really put your finger on. … But it’s really the soul of Chinatown. And we need to keep protecting it and make sure it can grow.”

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Tang reported from Phoenix and is a member of The Associated Press’ Race and Ethnicity team. Follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ttangAP

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