Category Archives: China

WTA suspends tournaments in China amid concern for Peng Shuai

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  • Association questions whether player is allowed to speak freely
  • Peng made allegations against a former senior Chinese official

The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) has announced the suspension of all tournaments in China amid concerns about the safety of the Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai, following weeks of a high-profile row with Beijing over the player’s wellbeing.

“With the full support of the WTA Board of Directors, I am announcing the immediate suspension of all WTA tournaments in China, including Hong Kong,” said the WTA chairman, Steve Simon, announcing the decision in a statement on Wednesday.

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UK spy chief suggests Beijing risks ‘miscalculation’ over west’s resolve

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Island’s status and surveillance technology making China ‘single greatest priority’ for MI6

China is at risk of “miscalculating through over-confidence” over Taiwan, said the MI6 head, Richard Moore, in a statement clearly intended to warn Beijing to back off any attempt to seize control of the island.

Giving a rare speech, Britain’s foreign intelligence chief said in London that China was at risk of “believing its own propaganda” and that the country had become “the single greatest priority” for MI6 for the first time in its history.

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Covid live: boosters may protect against Omicron, says Israel’s health minister, as US checks vaccine effectiveness

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Nitzan Horowitz says ‘already room for optimism’ that vaccines will cover new variant; US Food & Drug Administration checking if tweaks needed

Stock markets in Asia have bounced back again as investors’ concerns about the new Omicron Covid variant eased. In Australia the ASX200 was up more than 1%, while in Japan the Nikkei was up 0.75%.

It followed a stronger showing on Monday on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones industrial average closed up 0.6% and the broader S&P500 was up 1.2% after some hefty losses on Friday, when news of the new strain shook confidence.

There are so many unknowns about Omicron and the market has been jumping at shadows.

After such a strong run and with elevated valuations, the market will always be susceptible to the odd shakeout on news that could bring risk.

Hong Kong’s very stringent system of boarding, quarantine and also testing requirements has successfully stopped the transmission of the three Omicron cases, that we have identified in our designated quarantine hotel, from going into the community.

Non-Hong Kong residents from these four places will not be allowed to enter Hong Kong.

The most stringent quarantine requirements will also be implemented on relevant inbound travellers from these places.

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MI6 needs tech sector’s help to win AI race with China and Russia – spy chief

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New boss Richard Moore to say adversaries are ‘pouring money’ into technology and the agency needs outside funding to keep up

MI6 will have to become “more open to stay secret” and work with tech companies to counter threats posed by China and Russia who seek to gain advantage by mastering artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.

In his first speech as the foreign spy agency’s head on Tuesday, Richard Moore is expected to admit that “unlike Q in the Bond movies”, MI6 cannot develop the tools it needs in-house to counter hybrid physical and virtual threats.

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Leaked papers link Xinjiang crackdown with China leadership

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Secret documents urge population control, mass round-ups and punishment of Uyghurs

Excerpts from previously unpublished documents directly linking China’s crackdown on Uyghur Muslims and other minorities in Xinjiang province to speeches by the Chinese leadership in 2014 have been put online.

The documents – including three speeches by Chinese president Xi Jinping in April 2014 – cover security, population control and the need to punish the Uyghur population. Some are marked top secret. They were leaked to the German academic Adrian Zenz.

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Disney+ channel launches in Hong Kong, without the Simpsons Tiananmen Square episode

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Streaming channel went live this month, but without an episode in which the family visit China

An episode of the Simpsons in which the cartoon American family visit Tiananmen Square is absent from Disney’s streaming channel in Hong Kong, at a time when authorities are clamping down on dissent.

The missing episode adds to concerns that mainland-style censorship is becoming the norm in the international business hub, ensnaring global streaming giants and other major tech companies.

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Bosnian Serb leader: Putin and China will help if west imposes sanctions

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Exclusive: Milorad Dodik dismisses fears Serb separatists are planning breakup of Bosnia-Herzegovina

The Bosnian Serb leader accused of risking war by pursuing the breakup of Bosnia-Herzegovina has dismissed the threat of western sanctions and hinted at an imminent summit with Vladimir Putin, saying: “I was not elected to be a coward”.

In an interview with the Guardian, Milorad Dodik, the Serb member of the tripartite leadership of Bosnia-Herzegovina, said he would not be deterred by the outcry from London, Washington, Berlin and Brussels.

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Bee aware: do you know what is in that cheap jar of honey?

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British beekeepers call for stricter labelling on supermarket blends to identify the countries of origin

British beekeepers are calling for a requirement on supermarkets and other retailers to label cheap honey imports from China and other nations with the country of origin after claims that part of the global supply is bulked out with sugar syrup.

The UK is the world’s biggest importer of Chinese honey, which can be one sixth of the price of the honey produced by bees in Britain. Supermarket own-label honey from China can be bought for as little as 69p a jar. Supermarkets say every jar of honey is “100% pure” and can be traced back to the beekeeper, but there is no requirement to identify the countries of origin of honey blended from more than one country. The European Union is now considering new rules to improve consumer information for honey and ensure the country of origin is clearly identified on the jar.

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WTA still ‘deeply concerned’ over Peng Shuai’s ability to communicate freely

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Statement says Chinese player’s responses to chief of sport body were ‘clearly’ influenced by others

The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) has said it remains “deeply concerned” about the Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai, weeks after she disappeared following her allegations against a high-ranking Chinese former politician.

The WTA said in an email statement on Saturday that its chief executive, Steve Simon, had attempted to contact Peng through “various communication channels” including two emails. It said it was concerned about her welfare and ability to communicate freely and that her responses were “clearly” influenced by others.

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Covid live: WHO calls Omicron variant of concern; New York declares ‘disaster emergency’

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ECDC follows WHO in threat assessment of new variant; countries bar foreign nationals from several southern African nations; UK sees most new infections for a month

Hungary needs to increase the number of people taking booster shots against COVID-19 to curb infections, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told state radio this morning.

Reuters report that Orbán said the government would extend a special campaign making vaccinations available without any prior registration to next week following a surge in Covid-19 cases.

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Peng Shuai: the tennis star at centre of China’s biggest #MeToo allegation

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Fame and adoration could not protect her when she made sexual assault claims against a Chinese official

After Peng Shuai and Andrea Sestini Hlaváčková won the doubles final at the 2014 Beijing Open, they went to karaoke to celebrate. The fifth-seeded duo had just beaten India’s Sania Mirza and Zimbabwe’s Cara Black, who had never lost a match in the Asia-Pacific region.

“She was at the beginning of her comeback and I was happy to be there to play with her,” Hlaváčková recalls, on the phone from Rome. Their victory called for a night out so they went to a big Beijing nightclub. “She was singing a lot of Chinese songs.”

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Zhang Gaoli: official accused by Peng Shuai remains out of public eye

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While world wonders about fate of tennis star, former Chinese vice-premier has remained silent

For the past three weeks, the world has been asking #WhereIsPengShuai, after the Chinese tennis star alleged on social media she was sexually assaulted by a former senior government official.

Peng’s allegations, published on Weibo in a post, were quickly censored. She was not seen for almost three weeks, prompting an international campaign calling for information on her whereabouts and wellbeing.

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Shanghai cancels hundreds of flights, shuts schools over three Covid cases

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Over 500 flights from Shanghai’s two major airports were cancelled and six hospitals suspended outpatient services

Hundreds of flights have been cancelled while some schools were shuttered and tour groups suspended on Friday after three Covid cases were reported in Shanghai, as China continues its strict zero-Covid policy.

Beijing has largely succeeded in controlling the spread of the coronavirus within its borders through travel restrictions and snap lockdowns, but frequent domestic flare-ups have tested its no-tolerance strategy in recent months.

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‘Battery arms race’: how China has monopolised the electric vehicle industry

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Chinese companies dominate mining, battery and manufacturing sectors, and amid human rights concerns, Europe and the US are struggling to keep pace

Think of an electric car and the first name that comes to mind will probably be Tesla. The California company makes the world’s bestselling electric car and was recently valued at $1tn. But behind this US success story is a tale of China’s manufacturing might.

Tesla’s factory in Shanghai now produces more cars than its plant in California. Some of the batteries that drive them are Chinese-made and the minerals that power the batteries are largely refined and mined by Chinese companies.

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China accuses US of ‘mistake’ after Biden invites Taiwan to democracy summit

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Beijing urges Washington to stick to the ‘one China’ principle amid rising tensions over Taiwan

China’s government has accused Joe Biden of “a mistake” in inviting Taiwan to participate in a democracy summit alongside 109 other democratic governments.

Taiwan was included in a list of participants for next month’s Summit for Democracy, published by the state department on Tuesday. Taiwan is a democracy and self-governing, but Beijing claims it is a province of China and has accused its government of separatism.

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China condemns ‘malicious hyping’ over Peng Shuai

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Foreign ministry takes unrepentant stance to concerns in west over wellbeing of tennis player

China’s foreign ministry has accused unnamed people of “malicious hyping” in the case of the tennis star Peng Shuai, in a hardline and unrepentant response to questions in the west over her wellbeing.

The whereabouts and wellbeing of Peng, a former doubles world number one, has become a matter of international concern over the past three weeks, after she alleged in a message on the Chinese social media site Weibo that the country’s former vice-premier, Zhang Gaoli, had sexually assaulted her. Peng ceased to be seen in public shortly after she made her allegation on 2 November.

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Chinese birthrate falls to lowest since 1978

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Official statistics show 8.5 births per 1,000 people in 2020, the first time under 10 in decades

China’s birthrate has plummeted to its lowest level since 1978 as the government struggles to stave off a looming demographic crisis.

Data released by the country’s national bureau of statistics shows there were 8.5 births per 1,000 people in 2020, the first time in decades that the figure has fallen below 10. The statistical yearbook, released at the weekend, said the natural rate of population growth – taking in births and deaths – was at a new low of 1.45.

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To fight global crime, Taiwan must be included in Interpol | Letters

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Huang Chia-lu responds to the news that a Chinese official is seeking election to Interpol’s executive committee, and urges the international community to support Taiwan’s participation

You rightly point out the concerns of human rights activists and international politicians that China could misuse Interpol’s capabilities to track down overseas dissidents if Hu Binchen is elected as an executive committee member (Chinese official seeks Interpol role, sparking fears for dissidents, 15 November). One should also note that Taiwan is not included in Interpol, meaning there is a missing part in the global fight against international crime and cybercrime.

As cybercrime transcends borders, transnational cooperation is key to bringing international crime rings to justice. Taiwan’s police authorities have a hi-tech crime investigation unit and professional cybercrime investigators. Taiwan’s expertise will benefit global efforts to build a safer cyberspace.

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Peng Shuai backlash leaves IOC facing familiar criticism over human rights

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Analysis: Olympic committee is accused of engaging in a ‘publicity stunt’ by taking part in video call

As human rights organisations and the world’s media questioned the whereabouts of the Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai, the International Olympic Committee opted for a “quiet diplomacy” approach, arguing that was the most effective way to deal with such a case.

“Experience shows that quiet diplomacy offers the best opportunity to find a solution for questions of such nature. This explains why the IOC will not comment any further at this stage,” the Lausanne-based organisation said in an emailed statement on Thursday about the case of Peng, who disappeared from public view after she made an accusation of sexual assault against a former senior Chinese official.

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West weighs up costs of boycotting China’s Winter Olympics

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Analysis: calls growing amid Xinjiang allegations and Peng Shuai fallout, but Beijing takes slights very seriously

Boycotting the Beijing Winter Olympics in February may seem a simple, symbolic diplomatic gesture – when put alongside the allegations of labour camps in Xinjiang province and the apparent sexual exploitation of the Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai – but such is the contemporary economic power of China that the step will only be taken after much agonising.

The threats and economic boycotts that Australia, Canada and more recently Lithuania have suffered at the hands of the Chinese for challenging Beijing’s authority in one way or another are not experiences other countries will want to copy lightly.

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