China issues travel alert to its citizens, citing frequent ‘shootings and robberies’ in US
China has issued two travel alerts to its citizens going to the US, warning them about police harassment and crime.
The warnings come amid an escalating trade war between the world’s two largest economies and other tensions including attacks on each other’s human rights records.
Continue reading...Thirty years after bloody crackdown in China, visitors have IDs checked and journalists are warned against taking pictures
China has been marking 30 years since its deadly crackdown on student demonstrators in Beijing with silence and extra security measures.
The government has worked to suppress discussion of one of the darkest chapters in its history, when Beijing deployed tanks and troops to put down a countrywide movement calling for democratic reforms.
Continue reading...Kim’s sister reappears after reports she was out of favour, as he lambasts organisers of gymnastics show
Kim Jong-un’s influential younger sister has appeared in public for the first time in more than 50 days, attending the “Mass Games” propaganda displays that the North Korean leader later criticised for their “wrong spirit”.
Kim Yo-jong, who was by Kim’s side throughout both of his meetings with the US president, was shown seated next to her brother at the event in Pyongyang on Monday evening.
Continue reading...He was just a kid, but he cried like an old man in despair.” Liane was trying hard to steady her emotions when she described to me how she had attempted to hold back a young boy whose unarmed brother had been shot by soldiers during the 1989 Tiananmen massacre.
Liane was a student from Hong Kong when the 1989 Tiananmen movement erupted and she went to Beijing to support the demonstrations. On the night of 3 June, when 200,000 soldiers equipped with tanks and AK-47s were deployed against unarmed civilians, she was outside the Museum of the Chinese Revolution on the north-east corner of Tiananmen Square. She fainted after she failed to stop the young boy from dashing toward the soldiers, and was carried away covered with blood.
Continue reading...Photo shows Kim Yong-chol attended an art performance with Kim Jong-un on Sunday
A senior North Korean official who was reportedly sent to a labour camp has attended a concert alongside the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, state media have said.
There had been speculation about the fate of Kim Yong-chol after a South Korean newspaper reported last week that he had been subjected to forced labour and “ideological education”.
Continue reading...In South Korea a baby is one on the day it is born, and turns two on New Year’s Day, even if it is the very next day
A South Korean MP is attempting to overturn a centuries-old tradition in which every newborn baby turns one on the day they are born and two on the next New Year’s Day.
The unusual custom means a baby born on New Year’s Eve becomes two years old as soon as the clock strikes midnight.
Continue reading...Defence minister Wei Fenghe said China would ‘fight to the end’ on trade issues but was open to talks
Chinese defence minister Wei Fenghe criticised the United States on Sunday for its support for self-ruled Taiwan and for naval operations in the disputed South China Sea, but said conflict or war between the two countries would be a disaster.
Wei told the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Asia’s premier defence summit, that China would “fight to the end” if anyone tried to split China from Taiwan, which Beijing considers a sacred territory to be taken by force if necessary.
Continue reading...Acting US defence secretary Patrick Shanahan warns stability in the region is under threat, including the South China Sea
The United States will no longer “tiptoe” around Chinese behaviour in Asia, with stability in the region at threat on issues ranging from the South China Sea to Taiwan, acting US defence secretary Patrick Shanahan has said.
Shanahan did not directly name China when making accusations of “actors” destabilising the region, but went on to say on Saturday that the United States would not ignore Chinese behaviour, the latest acerbic exchange between the world’s two biggest economies.
Continue reading...The mayor of Okuma, home of the damaged nuclear power plant, has been in exile for eight years – here he writes about finally returning
The residents of Okuma were among more than 150,000 people who were forced to flee their homes after the March 2011 triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. As one of the wrecked plant’s two host towns, Okuma, was abandoned for eight years before authorities declared that radiation levels had fallen to safe levels, allowing residents to return. Even now, 60% of Okuma remains off-limits, and only a tiny fraction of the pre-disaster population of 11,500 has returned since their former neighbourhoods were given the all clear in April. A month later, Okuma’s mayor, Toshitsuna Watanabe, and his colleagues returned to work at a new town hall. In the first of a three-part diary for the Guardian, Watanabe describes his feelings when, after years of displacement, he and other residents ended their nuclear exile.
Continue reading...Birdwatcher Ewold Horn, kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf in 2012, dies as army fights militants
A Dutch birdwatcher held by Islamic State-linked militants was killed on Friday during a firefight between his kidnappers and soldiers in the southern Philippines, according to the military, which said he was shot by his captors as he tried to escape.
Ewold Horn, held hostage since 2012 by Abu Sayyaf, was fatally wounded as soldiers fought a 90-minute gun battle with the jihadists in Sulu province on their stronghold, Jolo island.
Continue reading...Container ship M/V Bavaria, with tonnes of garbage on board, has left Subic Bay on a 20-day journey to Vancouver
The Philippines has made good on a threat by President Rodrigo Duterte and put 69 containers of what its officials called illegally transported garbage on a ship that is heading to Canada.
The nation is one of two in south-east Asia that have protested being treated like dumpsites by wealthier countries.
Continue reading...South Korean paper claims Kim Hyok-chol has been killed and senior negotiator Kim Yong-chol subjected to forced labour
North Korea’s special envoy to the US, who was credited with paving the way for nuclear talks with Washington, has reportedly been executed over the failure of the recent summit between North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, and Donald Trump.
The South Korean Chosun Ilbo newspaper cited unnamed sources as saying that Kim Hyok-chol and foreign ministry officials who conducted working-level preparations for February’s doomed Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi, were executed in March.
Continue reading...‘Not knowing if anyone would walk in gave me energy and inspired my powerful stance’
On a trip through Jiangxi province in south-east China two years ago, my friend and I were wandering around one of the area’s many small villages. It was tiny and empty apart from a few old men and women sitting in front of their houses.
There was a single street which all the doors of the village opened on to. One had a normal black door with a sign above it that said something like “club” or “meeting hall”. It was the only indication of it being non-residential, so I pushed it open. We found an empty theatre with two raised stages. Chairs were stacked on one and on the other was this set: two chairs and a table, draped in red fabric. I instantly knew I had to take a photograph.
Continue reading...Senior official says China is ‘not afraid’ of a trade war as Beijing signals potential restrictions on rare-earth exports
Provoking trade disputes is “naked economic terrorism“, a senior Chinese diplomat said on Thursday, ramping up the rhetoric against the US amid a bitter trade war that shows no signs of ending soon.
Zhang Hanhui, China’s vice foreign minister told reporters in Beijing China opposed the use of “big sticks” such as trade sanctions, tariffs and protectionism.
Continue reading...Officials wanted ship bearing the name of Trump’s nemesis blocked from view during president’s trip to Japan
The White House made it clear that Donald Trump was not to catch sight of a warship named after his Republican nemesis, the late Arizona senator John McCain, during his visit to a naval base in Japan this week, according to media reports.
Citing an email dated 15 May from an official at the US Indo-Pacific Command to US navy and air force officials, the Wall Street Journal said the USS John McCain “needs to be out of sight” during Trump’s Memorial Day visit to Yokosuka base on Tuesday, the final day of his state visit to Japan.
Continue reading...Defector calls on European tourists and online viewers to shun cultural displays that take children out of school
The highest-ranking official to defect from North Korea has called for Europeans to stop being an audience for the “child exploitation” in the country’s famous mass games.
Thae Yong-ho, the former deputy ambassador to the UK, who defected in 2016, said travel companies and tourists should boycott the cultural displays, which attract large numbers of visitors and social media viewings. He said North Korean children already faced appalling rates of malnutrition, brainwashing and forced labour and the displays were yet another act of cruelty.
Continue reading...Dow Jones slumps after Beijing signals readiness to restrict exports of rare-earth elements
Financial markets around the world have sold off sharply after Beijing signalled a readiness to strike back at Washington in their escalating trade war by restricting exports of rare-earth elements.
Wall Street recorded steep losses on Wednesday as the Dow Jones slumped to the lowest level in almost four months, losing about 200 points to trade at 25,149. The S&P 500 index also fell to a two-month low, sliding by 18 points to 2,784.
Continue reading...The Malaysian government says the country has become a dumping ground for rich nations as it announces it will send as much as 3,000 tonnes of plastic waste back to the countries it came from. Malaysia became the world's main destination for plastic waste after China banned its import last year. 'We will fight back,' Malaysia’s environment minister, Yeo Bee Yin, said. 'We will fight back. Even though we are a small country, we cannot be bullied by developed countries'
From the birth of the People’s Republic, through war, revolution, protest and prosperity – these images chart the changes that have taken place in China over the last 70 years
Continue reading...Jeepneys are being phased to help ease city congestion, but the move will also cause unemployment for experienced drivers – and higher fares for commuters
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