State media says the pianist is being held by Beijing police along with 29-year-old woman
Chinese police have detained a prominent concert pianist and reality TV personality, Li Yundi, dubbed the “piano prince”, on allegations of hiring a sex worker.
The charges were revealed by Beijing police in posts on a Chinese social media network that read more like a trailer for a TV show than an official law enforcement notice.
Continue reading...Administration insists there is no change of policy after president says US has ‘a commitment’ to defend island
China has urged the US to “avoid sending any wrong signals” after President Joe Biden for a second time in three months said the US would come to Taiwan’s defence if it was attacked.
In both incidents, the White House has clarified that there has been no change in US policy, which officially maintains so-called “strategic ambiguity” regarding Taiwan. Still, Biden’s words will rattle Beijing.
Continue reading...On the streets of Taipei, Beijing’s rhetoric is a hot topic but people are focused on a peaceful future
In a small urban park on Yong Kang Jie, Taipei’s famous eat street, an elderly woman leans across the frame of her friend’s parked bicycle and shouts. “Taiwan is an independent country!”
It’s a quiet autumn morning. Children play on a nearby slide, and a young mother enjoys a takeaway bento box.
Continue reading...The struggling property giant has wired $83.5m to creditors, Chinese media says, but deadlines loom for another $193m in payments
The troubled property company China Evergrande Group has come up with the money to pay a $83.5m bond interest payment that it missed in September, according to reports.
The company, which has debts of around $305bn, wired the $83.5m payment and noteholders will receive it before Saturday, China’s state-backed newspaper Securities Times said on Friday, citing relevant channels, according to Bloomberg.
Continue reading...Nicholas Burns calls Beijing an ‘aggressor’ and that US responsibility is ‘to make Taiwan a tough nut to crack’
US president Joe Biden’s nominee to be ambassador to Beijing on Wednesday said China was aggressive and untrustworthy, insisting that boosting Taiwan’s defences against the threat of Chinese invasion should be a US priority.
Speaking to the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, which is due to confirm his appointment, Nicholas Burns denounced recent Chinese warplane incursions into Taiwan’s air defence zone, calling them “especially objectionable”.
Continue reading...A default by the property giant could have far-reaching consequences for China and global economy
The rescue of embattled Chinese property company Evergrande appears to have stalled, leaving the developer on the brink of default and threatening to unleash contagion through the country’s giant real estate sector, home prices and the economy.
The problems enveloping Evergrande, which has eyewatering total debts of $305bn, have hung over global financial markets in recent weeks and helped curb China’s post-pandemic recovery.
Continue reading...LightBasin hackers were able to obtain subscriber information and call metadata, says CrowdStrike
At least 13 phone companies around the world have been compromised since 2019 by sophisticated hackers who are believed to come from China, a cybersecurity expert group has said.
The roaming hackers – known as LightBasin – were able to “search and find” individual mobile phones and “target accordingly”, according to CrowdStrike, a group regularly cited by western intelligence.
Continue reading...Authorities using predictive policing and human surveillance on Muslims in Xinjiang, thinktank says
Authorities in the Chinese region of Xinjiang are using predictive policing and human surveillance to gather “micro clues” about Uyghurs and empower neighbourhood informants to ensure compliance at every level of society, according to a report.
The research by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) thinktank detailed Xinjiang authorities’ expansive use of grassroots committees, integrated with China’s extensive surveillance technology, to police their Uyghur neighbours’ movements – and emotions.
Continue reading...Unlike the Soviet Union, China is an economic, technological and military challenger to the US. That raises questions – especially for Taiwan
Whether China tested a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile that can circle the globe or not, there is a convincing argument that the country has emerged as a serious strategic rival to the United States. With scores of nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles, China already has the ability to strike the US mainland with devastating force. However, the hypersonic missile test – which the Chinese say was a peaceful spacecraft launch – can be read as a warning from Beijing that it could defeat, through its technological prowess, US missile defences.
What remains largely unacknowledged is that both Washington and Beijing have been building their strategic nuclear capabilities at a rapid and potentially destabilising pace. The US plans to spend up to $1.5tn to overhaul its nuclear arsenal by rebuilding each leg of its nuclear triad – with new warheads, submarines and bombers being commissioned. China is doing the same. While Monday’s test made headlines around the world, China’s first hypersonic glide test was in 2014. The US has its own plans for such technologies. The unavoidable impression is that such efforts contribute to a dangerous arms race.
Continue reading...Disarmament ambassador casts doubt on ability to defend against technology after reports of test
The United States is “very concerned” about China’s development of hypersonic technology, the US disarmament ambassador, Robert Wood, has said, after reports that Beijing had recently launched a hypersonic missile with a nuclear capacity.
“We are very concerned by what China has been doing on the hypersonic front,” Robert Wood told reporters in Geneva.
Continue reading...Former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon appeals to Joe Biden and Xi Jinping to meet and find common ground
US president Joe Biden and the president of China, Xi Jinping, have been urged to meet before the UN Cop26 climate talks to search for common ground by the former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon and other prominent global voices.
“We are appealing to the leaders of the US and China to see their common interest and find a way to work together. We need an ambitious 2030 [carbon] target from China and the US to deliver what they have pledged,” said Ban, speaking on behalf of the Elders group of former world statespeople and prominent community and business leaders.
Continue reading...Countries ‘colluded to provoke and stir up trouble’ in region that China claims as its territory
The Chinese military has condemned the United States and Canada for each sending a warship through the Taiwan Strait last week, saying they were threatening peace and stability in the region.
China claims democratically ruled Taiwan as its own territory, and has mounted repeated air force missions into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone (ADIZ) over the past year, provoking anger in Taipei.
Continue reading...Once used in the hunt for fugitive criminals, the global police agency’s most-wanted ‘red notice’ list now includes political refugees and dissidents
Flicking through the news one day in early 2015, Alexey Kharis, a California-based businessman and father of two, came across a startling announcement: Russia would request a global call for his arrest through the International Criminal Police Organization, known as Interpol.
“Oh, wow,” Kharis thought, shocked. All the 46-year-old knew about Interpol and its pursuit of the world’s most-wanted criminals was from novels and films. He tried to reassure himself that things would be OK and it was just an intimidatory tactic of the Russian authorities. Surely, he reasoned, the world’s largest police organisation had no reason to launch a hunt for him.
Continue reading...As attendance of President Xi of China hangs in balance, UK and US launch frantic round of meetings
The UK, the US and the EU are embarking on a frantic round of climate diplomacy in a last-ditch attempt to bring key countries into a deal on greenhouse gas emissions before the Cop26 climate summit.
Alok Sharma, the UK cabinet minister who will preside over the talks, has meetings planned with representatives of China after questions were raised over whether the president, Xi Jinping, would attend Cop26 in person, as well as the other G20 big emitters yet to produce plans on emission cuts before the summit, which opens in Glasgow on 31 October.
Continue reading...Housing activity accounts for 29% of GDP, but Evergrande’s debt crisis is sign that things could soon change
In China today, the buzz is all about how the government there too has stumbled into an energy crisis with widespread power cuts. Yet this and other supply shocks will eventually pass, while the $300bn (£218bn) of debt enveloping China’s second biggest property developer, Evergrande, is of greater significance. It suggests China’s long housing boom is over, and bodes badly for the increasingly troubled economy, with implications for the rest of the world too.
China’s real estate market has been called the most important sector in the world economy. Valued at about $55tn, it is now twice the size of its US equivalent, and four times larger than China’s GDP. Taking into account construction and other property-related goods and services, annual housing activity accounts for about 29% of China’s GDP, far above the 10%-20% typical of most developed nations.
Continue reading...Company cites ‘challenging operating environment’ in announcing site will be replaced with jobs app without social networking features
Microsoft says it will shut down LinkedIn in China, citing a “challenging operating environment” as Beijing tightens control over tech firms.
The US-based company will replace the career-oriented social network in China with an application dedicated to applying for jobs but without the networking features, according to the senior vice-president of engineering, Mohak Shroff.
Continue reading...A dramatic rise in the number of aerial sorties over the sea separating the Chinese mainland from Taiwan has served as a reminder that the strait has the potential to be one of the most dangerous places on Earth. A reported 149 incursions in four days by People’s Liberation Army planes into Taiwan's air defence zone have left the de-facto independent island on high alert as it warned that China could be capable of invading by 2025. As global leaders keep a close eye on the worsening relations in the region, Guardian correspondent Helen Davidson explains why and how tensions could escalate into war
Continue reading...Brutal death of social media star Lhamo has shone spotlight on domestic violence in the country
A Chinese man has been sentenced to death after a court found him guilty of killing his ex-wife while she was livestreaming on social media last year.
The intermediate people’s court of the Aba Tibetan and Qiang ethnic minority autonomous prefecture of Sichuan province said Tang Lu doused 30-year-old Lhamo with petrol and set her alight in September last year.
Continue reading...A group of 26 experts will also be tasked with examining new pathogens and how to prevent future pandemics
The World Health Organization has unveiled a team of scientists it wants to revive the stalled inquiry into Covid-19’s origins, with one senior official saying it may be the last chance.
The group of 26 experts will be charged with producing a new global framework for studies into the origins of emerging pathogens of epidemic and pandemic potential – and their remit includes Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.
Continue reading...Analysis: while the short-term consequences are grim, veteran analysts talk of a wobble rather than a fall
China’s decision to build more coal plants is a setback for climate action, but analysts say it could still meet its long-term emission reduction targets and may even have scope to raise its ambition at Cop26 in Glasgow.
In recent days, Beijing has announced a buildup of coal capacity to address the most severe power cuts in a decade, which have caused rolling blackouts in half its provinces.
Continue reading...