Category Archives: China

TikTok moves to ease fears amid report workers in China accessed US users’ data

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The company has said that Oracle will store all private information and is limiting the number of employees with those privileges

TikTok has said that Oracle will store all the data from its US users, in a bid to allay fears about its safety in the hands of a platform owned by the Chinese company ByteDance.

The move comes as a report from BuzzFeed news, citing leaked audio from TikTok in-house meetings, said ByteDance employees in China have repeatedly accessed private information about US TikTok users.

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Heaven Supermarket: the Beijing bar at centre of Covid outbreak

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Self-service bar popular with locals and foreigners has been shut down after being linked to hundreds of cases

Heaven Supermarket’s ability to attract young Chinese customers and foreigners has always been viewed with envy by its competitor bars in the Chinese capital.

Located in one of the busiest nightlife districts in Beijing, the bar is modelled as a large self-service liquor store with chairs, sofas and tables. It is not the fanciest in its presentation, but on Chinese review websites, patrons highlight its affordability and down-to-earth attitude.

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China launches third aircraft carrier in military advance

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Fujian unveiled amid heightened tensions with US over self-ruled Taiwan

China has launched its third aircraft carrier, the first designed and built entirely in the country, marking a significant military advance for the Asian superpower.

The announcement comes as tensions between China and the US have ramped up in recent weeks over Beijing’s sabre-rattling towards self-ruled Taiwan, which it views as a breakaway province to be seized by force if necessary.

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‘This is another pandemic’: a female survivor of domestic abuse in China speaks out

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Chinese cyberspace is filled with videos showing violence against women and activists say only real social change will stop the abuse

Tang Ping, 31, a mother-of-two in the southern Chinese city of Nanning, says in 2014 when her first child was six months old, her husband – an academic – began routinely beating her. She felt hurt but also ashamed, blaming herself for not being a good enough wife. She did not know what to do.

Five years ago, after another round of violence, she finally summoned the courage to report her husband to the police. “I was told my injuries were not serious, therefore they could not intervene,” she says, as she prepares to legally dissolve the marriage this week.

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UN human rights chief could not speak to detained Uyghurs or families during Xinjiang visit

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Michelle Bachelet says she was supervised by China officials throughout six-day visit that critics have called a propaganda coup for Beijing

Michelle Bachelet has said wasn’t able to speak to any detained Uyghurs or their families during her controversial visit to Xinjiang, and was accompanied by government officials while in the region.

The UN human rights chief, who this week announced she would not be seeking another term, told a session of the 50th Human Rights Council in Geneva that there were limitations on her visit to the region in China, where authorities have been accused of committing crimes against humanity and genocide against the Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities.

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US says China’s support for Russia over Ukraine puts it on ‘wrong side of history’

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‘China claims to be neutral, but its behavior makes clear that it is still investing in close ties to Russia,’ state department says

Xi Jinping has assured Vladimir Putin of China’s support on Russian “sovereignty and security” prompting Washington to warn Beijing it risked ending up “on the wrong side of history”.

China has refused to condemn Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and has been accused of providing diplomatic cover for Russia by blasting western sanctions and arms sales to Kyiv.

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Albanese government urged to keep focus on human rights as it rebuilds relationships in Asia

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Thawing diplomatic relations with China shouldn’t mean ‘taking a backwards step with Beijing’, Human Rights Watch says

The Albanese government should not compromise on human rights as it seeks to repair relationships with China and south-east Asian countries, a leading advocacy group has warned.

Human Rights Watch has written to the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, urging him to “impose targeted sanctions against Chinese government officials who are responsible for crimes against humanity” in Xinjiang.

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Tensions heighten in Taiwan Strait as China acts to extend military operations

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Xi Jinping signs trial order allowing ‘military operations other than war’ beyond China’s borders

China’s president, Xi Jinping, has signed legal orders allowing a trial of military operations beyond China’s borders amid heightened tensions over claims by China’s foreign ministry that the Taiwan Strait is Chinese territorial water.

Official state media reports published this week were light on detail but said Xi had signed orders announcing trial outlines on “military operations other than war”. It said the trials would begin on Wednesday.

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New Hong Kong textbooks ‘will claim city never was a British colony’

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School books will reportedly say China never recognised the treaties that ceded it to colonial powers during opium wars

New Hong Kong textbooks will teach students that the city was never a British colony, after an overhaul of a school subject that authorities have blamed for driving the pro-democracy protests.

According to local reports, the new texts will teach students that the Chinese government didn’t recognise the treaties that ceded the city to Britain after the opium wars. They ended in 1997 when Britain returned Hong Kong to Chinese control, and therefore the texts claim Hong Kong was never a British colony.

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New Zealand to boost maritime security with Solomon Islands amid China focus on Pacific

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‘Small work plan’ is another signal of intensifying security interests in the region, in the wake of Beijing’s security deal with Honiara

New Zealand is developing its own maritime security “work plans” with Solomon Islands, its defence minister has said, months after news of China’s defence pact with the Pacific nation emerged.

New Zealand minister Peeni Henare said in an interview with Newsroom published on Tuesday that the two countries had begun discussions of a work plan, focused on maritime security, after his meeting with Solomon Islands’ national security minister, Anthony Veke, over the weekend.

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Haze Fan: China says Bloomberg staffer released on bail earlier this year

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US media firm says it has not made contact with Fan who was detained in Beijing in 2020 on suspicion of national security crimes

Haze Fan, a Bloomberg News staff member in China who was detained in late 2020, was released on bail early this year, according to a statement by the Chinese embassy in Washington that was dated May and reported by the news organisation on Tuesday.

New York-based Bloomberg said in a news report that it was made aware of the embassy statement over the weekend, and that it had not been able to contact Fan.

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Australia news live updates: Queensland on brink of power outage as eastern states battle big chill; WA to shut state-owned coal plants

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Penny Wong to visit New Zealand foreign minister; at least 31 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed

Lack of reserve notice from energy regulator

It’s going to be a long day by the looks of it when it comes to “lack of reserve” notices and intervention by the Australian Energy Market Operator, such as this early one in NSW:

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Beijing in ‘race against time’ to tackle serious Covid outbreak

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Latest batch of at least 287 cases has raised new worries about outlook for Chinese economy

Authorities in Beijing have warned that a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases linked to a 24-hour bar was critical and the city of 22 million people was in a “race against time” to get to grips with its most serious outbreak since the pandemic began.

The flare-up means millions of people are facing mandatory testing and thousands are under targeted lockdowns, just days after the city started to lift widespread curbs intended to tackle a broader outbreak since late April.

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We needed China deal to protect ‘domestic security’, says key Solomon Islands official

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Exclusive: Collin Beck, who is believed to have been involved in negotiating the pact, offers most comprehensive defence yet of the controversial deal

The controversial security deal struck between Solomon Islands and China that caught the western world off guard was needed to maintain internal security and help fight climate change, a leading Solomon Islands official has said, defending his country’s right to choose its allies.

Speaking to the Guardian in his first interview since the deal between China and Solomon Islands was leaked, Collin Beck, the permanent secretary of foreign affairs and a senior figure in the Solomons government, also said Australia should question whether it had been “fair” to Solomon Islands in its intense scrutiny of the deal.

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Pop star Kris Wu tried in China for alleged rape

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Announcement of closed trial coincides with uproar over unrelated assault at restaurant in Tangshan

The Chinese-Canadian pop star Kris Wu has gone on trial for alleged rape and other offences in Beijing, as China is in uproar over a video showing a group of men physically assaulting four women in the city of Tangshan.

Wu’s closed trial on Friday at the Chaoyang people’s court was reported late on Friday night by Chang’An Net, which belongs to China’s Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, in turn controlled by the ruling Communist party.

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UN human rights chief to forgo second term amid China trip criticism

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Michelle Bachelet, strongly criticised over Xinjiang visit, cites personal reasons for decision

The United Nations’ human rights chief has announced her decision to step down, citing “personal reasons”, amid weeks of speculation following her recent China trip that drew fierce criticism from activists and western politicians.

Writing on Twitter, Michelle Bachelet, who assumed the office of the UN high commissioner for human rights in 2018, said: “It is time to go back to Chile and be with family.”

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‘Ferocious’ Covid outbreak in Beijing traced to raucous bar

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Cluster comes a week after city eased restrictions, raising fresh concerns over ‘zero Covid’ policy and economy

Authorities in Beijing are racing to contain a Covid outbreak traced to a 24-hour bar known for cheap liquor and big crowds, with millions of people facing mandatory testing and thousands under targeted lockdowns.

The outbreak of 228 cases linked to the Heaven Supermarket bar, which had just reopened as curbs in the Chinese capital eased last week, highlights how difficult it will be for China to make a success of its “zero Covid” policy as much of the rest of the world tries to live with the virus.

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Richard Marles’s ‘full and frank’ meeting with China ends Australia’s diplomatic freeze

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Defence minister says the controversial interception of an Australian aircraft by a Chinese jet last month was discussed, as well as broader issues in the Pacific

Australia’s deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, has had a “frank” hour-long discussion with China’s defence minister in Singapore, marking the highest level in-person contact between the countries in almost three years.

Marles, also the defence minister, said he raised the controversial interception of an Australian aircraft by a Chinese jet last month and broader issues in the Pacific with China’s minister of national defence, Wei Fenghe, during a meeting on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue ministerial conference in Singapore.

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‘China’s Taiwan’: Beijing’s defence minister rails against ‘smearing and interfering’ US

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Wei Fenghe says ties are at critical juncture and puts onus on United States to improve bilateral relationship

China will “fight to the very end” to stop Taiwan from declaring independence, the country’s defence minister has vowed in a speech amid his counterparts from other countries including the United States.

“We will fight at all cost and we will fight to the very end. This is the only choice for China,” Wei Fenghe told the Shangri-La Dialogue security summit in Singapore, where he called Taiwan “first and foremost China’s Taiwan”.

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Hong Kong NETs – foreign teachers of English – forced to take allegiance oath

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Authoritarian measures are widened to meet Chinese loyalty requirements, despite fears it will worsen teacher shortages

Foreign English-language teachers working in Hong Kong government schools will need to swear allegiance to the city, officials have ordered, as fears grow about the territory’s ability to retain educators in the face of increasing restrictions.

Hong Kong’s education bureau said on Saturday that native-speaking English teachers (NETs) and advisers working in government-run schools must sign a declaration by 21 June in order to continue working.

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