A giant 'moon' rolled to freedom in Henan province after it escaped festival celebrations. It was not the first time a large inflatable satellite went rogue: in 2016 another model moon was blown into the streets of Fuzhou in south-east China during Typhoon Meranti. The moon festival is celebrated in many east Asian countries and coincides with the full harvest moon in September
Continue reading...Category Archives: China
China growth forecast cut by ratings agency amid Evergrande uncertainty
Downgrade by Fitch reflects jitters in markets as boss of Asia-focused bank HSBC says problems ‘concerning’
Ratings agency Fitch has downgraded its forecast for China’s economic growth because of concerns about a slowdown in the country’s colossal housing market and fears about struggling property giant Evergrande.
China enjoyed a swift economic rebound from the Covid-19 pandemic, but strict new rules on the country’s developers have caused a deleveraging rush and helped push housing giant Evergrande to crisis point.
Continue reading...Is China stepping up its ambition to supplant US as top superpower?
Analysis: Joe Biden has cleared the decks to focus on China. But how imminent is the danger?
It may have been an inelegantly, even ineptly, executed pivot, gratuitously alienating key allies, but by leaving Afghanistan and forming the Australian, US and UK security pact in the Indo-Pacific, Joe Biden has at least cleared the decks to focus on his great foreign policy challenge – the systemic rivalry with China.
Yet the concern now is how quickly this rivalry could escalate, especially in Taiwan. The linchpin of the US alliance system in south-east Asia, Taiwan is the biggest island in the “first island chain”, the group of islands that keeps China blocked in. It is China’s next target, and as the former British prime minister Theresa May pointed out, no one quite knows if the west is prepared to fight to save Taiwan or whether the new tripartite pact in some way places a new obligation on the UK to come to the country’s defence.
Continue reading...Evergrande vows to meet local debt deadline, but doubts remain over dollar bond
Embattled Chinese property giant allays some market concerns despite lack of guidance over $83.5m due on a separate offshore debt
Chinese property developer Evergrande has said it would pay some of the bond interest due on Thursday, allaying fears of an imminent and messy collapse that had spooked investors.
Markets in Taiwan and China reopened lower after a two-day break, catching up with a sharp sell-off around the world triggered by concern over Evergrande’s predicament.
Continue reading...‘Big line in the sand’: China promises no new coal-fired power projects abroad
Experts welcome Xi Jinping’s announcement at UN as hugely influential, but concerns remain over domestic emissions
President Xi Jinping has announced that China will not build new coal-fired power projects abroad, using his address at the United Nations General Assembly to add to pledges to deal with climate change.
Depending on how the policy is implemented, the move could significantly limit the financing of coal plants in the developing world.
China has been under heavy diplomatic pressure to put an end to its coal financing overseas because it could make it easier for the world to stay on course to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement to reduce carbon emissions.
“China will step up support for other developing countries in developing green and low-carbon energy, and will not build new coal-fired power projects abroad,” Xi said in his pre-recorded video address at the annual UN gathering, in which he stressed China’s peaceful intentions in international relations.
China to stop building new coal-fired power projects abroad, says Xi Jinping – video
Chinese president Xi Jinping said on Tuesday that China will step up support for other developing countries in developing green and low-carbon energy, and will not build new coal-fired power projects abroad.
Xi made the announcement in his statement delivered via video at the general debate of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly.
Continue reading...Evergrande: will it collapse and what would happen if it did?
If Chinese property company Evergrande sinks under its $300bn debt its failure would resound across the global economy
Evergrande Real Estate – or Heng Da Group in Chinese – owns more than 1,300 building projects in more than 280 cities across China.
Continue reading...Xi’s army: from ‘hiding and biding’ to building China’s dream
The combat capability of the People’s Liberation Army may still be a ‘work in progress’ but it is catching up through influence and training
When Covid-19 swept across Iran last March, killing more than 1,000 people including the senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, it was the Chinese military that Tehran turned to for help. On 19 March 2020, batch loads of testing kits, PPE and face masks arrived in the Iranian capital.
In February this year, China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) began to donate Covid-19 vaccines to counterparts overseas. The Cambodia armed forces have received two batches of 300,000 vaccines; Sierra Leone’s army was given 40,000 doses; United Nations peacekeeping forces secured 300,000.
Continue reading...Examining Aukus alliance through the lens of history | Letters
Readers respond to the new pact between the UK, Australia and the US, and its implications
The Aukus pact is not a “new global order” (17 September) but very much an old order; it is colonial gunboats. I do not expect politicians to have read history such as the first Anglo-Afghan war of 1839, but I do expect them to be aware of history in their own lifetimes. Eton may not teach the failures of empire, but China has been very clear about Taiwan since 1950.
When Biden said, “This decision about Afghanistan is not just about Afghanistan. It’s about ending an era of major military operations to remake other countries”, he was committing to another battle in the Pacific. The global dominance of China has been clear for more than 20 years, and yet we are unwillingly signed up to face this new empire?
Simon Allen
St Albans, Hertfordshire
China’s ugliest buildings: contest to celebrate unsightly architecture begins
This year’s contenders include a violin-shaped church and a ‘welcome to hell’ glass bridge joining two mountains
An infamous “hall of shame” listing of China’s top 10 “ugliest” buildings has kicked off with 87 bizarre designs in the running, including a violin-shaped church and an Inner Mongolia hotel in the form of a monstrous babushka doll.
Over the past 11 years a Chinese architecture website, archcy.com, has been inviting people to vote in the lighthearted annual contest that it hopes will encourage people to ponder the flexible notion of beauty.
Continue reading...Japan urges Europe to speak out against China’s military expansion
Exclusive: in the first piece in a new Guardian series on China and tensions in the Indo-Pacific, Japan’s defence minister says the international community must bolster deterrence efforts against Beijing’s military
Japan has urged European countries to speak out against China’s aggression, warning that the international community must bolster deterrence efforts against Beijing’s military and territorial expansion amid a growing risk of a hot conflict.
In an interview with the Guardian, Japan’s defence minister, Nobuo Kishi, said China had become increasingly powerful politically, economically and militarily and was “attempting to use its power to unilaterally change the status quo in the East and South China Seas”, which are crucial to global shipping and include waters and islands claimed by several other nations.
Continue reading...Shares in China’s Evergrande plunge again as fears of contagion grow
Hong Kong stock fell almost 17% amid default fears that are beginning to have a knock-on effect on other markets
Shares in the embattled Chinese property company Evergrande have plunged 17% as investors weigh up whether the group’s massive debt problems could trigger a broader sell off across all financial markets.
Related: ‘China’s Lehman Brothers moment’: Evergrande crisis rattles economy
Continue reading...Jonathan Mirsky: reporter who went from Mao fan to fierce Beijing critic
The career of the Observer’s former China correspondent who died last week, was marked by a willingness to review his convictions
Jonathan Mirsky, the Observer’s former China correspondent who has died aged 88, was acutely aware of the mounting danger from the bullets criss-crossing Tiananmen Square on 4 June 1989 as units of the People’s Liberation Army were sent in to break up the protests. He was aware too that he desperately needed to get his copy to London.
Writing about the experience 30 years later, Mirsky admitted that few at first had any sense of the scale of the violence that was being unleashed either on the students in the square. All that, however, was to change quickly.
Continue reading...The Aukus pact is a sign of a new global order | Rana Mitter
The deal has upset China, but it also binds the US into European security, in a world where Nato may be less relevant
France is furious. Theresa May is worried. The announcement of the new Australia-UK-US alliance (Aukus) and the ditching of a previous French-Australian submarine deal has led France’s foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, to term the pact “a stab in the back”, while the former British prime minister is concerned about Britain being dragged into a war over the future of Taiwan.
Oddly enough, Beijing’s reaction has been rather muted. Yes, it has accused the west of a “cold war mentality”, and Xi Jinping has warned foreigners not to interfere in the region, but its warning that China would “closely monitor the situation” was close to a “cut and paste” outrage.
Continue reading...China vows to resist ‘interference’ as Taiwan welcomes support from Aukus allies
Australia and US pledge stronger ties, EU calls for trade deal and Johnson refuses to rule out getting involved in a conflict involving the island
China’s president, Xi Jinping, has vowed to resist “interference from external forces” as Taiwan welcomed support from major allies after a US-Australia ministerial forum pledged stronger ties with the island and the European parliament called for a bilateral trade deal.
Speaking at a meeting of the heads of state of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Tajikistan via video link, Xi urged members of the grouping to “absolutely resist external forces to interfere [in] countries in our region at any excuse, and hold the future of our countries’ development and progress firmly in our own hands”.
Continue reading...More US military to deploy to Australia as Dutton dismisses China ‘outbursts’
Australia’s defence minister says Aukus pact makes region safer and ‘no amount of propaganda can dismiss the facts’
The defence minister, Peter Dutton, has dismissed “outbursts” from China over Australia’s decision to develop nuclear-powered submarines, as he flagged plans for more US military aircraft to deploy to Australia.
Speaking after talks with the Biden administration in Washington, Dutton said Australia was a “proud democracy in our region” and “no amount of propaganda can dismiss the facts”.
Continue reading...Aukus pact: UK and US battle to contain international backlash
Nuclear submarine deal with Australia draws criticism from allies and China amid fears of conflict
Britain and the US are battling to contain an international backlash over a nuclear submarine pact struck with Australia amid concerns that the alliance could provoke China and prompt conflict in the Pacific.
Boris Johnson told MPs that the Aukus defence agreement was “not intended to be adversarial” to China. But Beijing accused the three countries of adopting a “cold war mentality” and warned they would harm their own interests unless it was dropped.
Continue reading...Aukus deal showing France and EU that Biden not all he seems
Analysis: the western alliance is the main victim – and China will win out unless US can soothe Paris’s anger
Fury in Paris at Australia’s decision to tear up plans to buy a French-built fleet of submarines is not only a row about a defence contract, cost overruns and technical specifications. It throws into question the transatlantic alliance to confront China.
The Aukus deal has left the French political class seething at Joe Biden’s Trumpian unilateralism, Australian two-facedness and the usual British perfidy. “Nothing was done by sneaking behind anyone’s back,” assured the British defence minister, Ben Wallace, in an attempt to soothe the row. But that is not the view in Paris. “This is an enormous disappointment,” said Florence Parly, the French defence minister.
Continue reading...Diplomacy dialled up to 11: Australia saddles up with US as Indo-Pacific heads for cold war | Katharine Murphy
Australia didn’t announce the ‘forever partnership’ while Donald Trump was in the White House. What happens if he returns?
Ever flexible, ever the pragmatist, Scott Morrison started thinking about his new “forever partnership” with the United States and Britain 18 months ago while Australia was still tied to a $90bn contract with France to build submarines.
Australia looked to America because of a practical consideration. If the Morrison government was going to jettison the troubled French proposal, and countenance the acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines, the US possessed the technology that would suit Australia’s purposes.
Continue reading...China warns US-UK-Australia pact could ‘hurt own interests’
Aukus described as ‘exclusionary’ amid French anger at scrapping of $90bn submarine deal with Australia
China has told the US, the UK and Australia to abandon their “cold war” mentality or risk harming their own interests after the three countries unveiled a new defence cooperation pact.
The trilateral security partnership, named Aukus, was announced on Thursday by the three nations’ leaders via video link, and will include an 18-month plan to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines.
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