Category Archives: China

Chinese-owned firm acquires UK’s largest semiconductor manufacturer

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Tory MP Tom Tugendhat raises concerns about deal in light of global computer chip shortage

The UK’s largest producer of semiconductors has been acquired by the Chinese-owned manufacturer Nexperia, prompting a senior Tory MP to call for the government to review the sale to a foreign owner during an increasingly severe global shortage of computer chips.

Nexperia, a Dutch firm owned by China’s Wingtech, said on Monday that it had taken full control of Newport Wafer Fab (NWF), the UK’s largest producer of silicon chips, which are vital in products from TVs and mobile phones to cars and games consoles.

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The low-desire life: why people in China are rejecting high-pressure jobs in favour of ‘lying flat’

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It’s been dubbed ‘tangping’ – shunning tough careers to chill out instead. But how is the Communist party taking the birth of this new counterculture?

Name: Low-desire life.

Age: People – young ones especially – have been rebelling, dropping out, rejecting the rat race for pretty much ever, since the rat race began. But in China, it’s becoming more common. On trend, you might say.

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Malawi Pride and press freedoms in Palestine: human rights this fortnight – in pictures

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A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Chile to Cambodia

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Hong Kong police say mourning officer’s attacker is like backing terrorism

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Authorities called assailant a ‘lone wolf’ domestic terrorist who had been politically radicalised

Police in Hong Kong have told citizens that mourning the death of a man who stabbed a police officer last week is “no different to supporting terrorism”, as the case was taken over by the national security department.

The comments followed the stabbing of an officer in the back on Thursday night by a 50-year-old man at Causeway Bay. Police said the man then took his own life. The 28-year-old officer sustained a punctured lung in the attack and remains in hospital in a critical condition, according to local media.

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Astronauts at China’s new space station conduct first spacewalk

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Astronauts dock at the Tiangong station where they will remain for three months as Beijing presses on with extraterrestrial ambitions

Astronauts at China’s new space station conducted their first spacewalk Sunday, state media reported, as Beijing presses on with its extraterrestrial ambitions.

It was only the second time the country’s astronauts have stepped out of their craft while in space.

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‘Poverty divides us’: gap between rich and poor poses threat to China

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Xi Jinping himself has warned China’s wealth gap is not only economic but political and could threaten party’s legitimacy

When Wang Zhenyu moved out of his small village in central Henan province to the coastal city of Dalian at 18, he was astonished. “It was like a culture shock for me, even though it was just a big city in my country, not a foreign land.” A few years later when he was enrolled in Peking University as a graduate student, he found much fewer students in the country’s top university coming from a similar background to his.

Growing up in a small village of 2,000 farmers, many of Wang’s childhood friends dropped out of school after finishing their nine years of compulsory education. Now with a decent academic job, Wang begins to experience “reverse culture shock” every time he goes back to his village for the annual lunar new year.

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China building more than 100 ‘nuclear’ missile silos in desert

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Satellite footage shows ‘alarming development’ that signals possible expansion of nuclear capabilities

China is building more than 100 missile silos in the desert, according to an analysis of satellite photos, which researchers say signals a possible expansion of the country’s nuclear capabilities.

Analysts warned the expansion signified an “alarming development” but also urged caution against “worst-case thinking”, noting tension between major nuclear powers over disarmament.

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Chinese president Xi says China won’t be ‘bullied’ by foreigners during anniversary speech – video

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Chinese president Xi Jinping has warned 'foreign forces' who attempt to bully China will ‘get their heads bashed’. In an hour-long televised address from Tiananmen Square marking the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi pledged to build up China's military, committed to the ‘reunification’ of Taiwan with China and stressed the autonomy held by Hong Kong and Macau. Beijing faces external criticism over its clampdown in Hong Kong and treatment of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang. Xi said that anyone who tries to 'bully, subjugate or enslave' the people of China 'will have their heads bashed bloody against the Great Wall of Steel forged by over 1.4 billion Chinese people.'

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Chinese Communist Party 100th anniversary: Xi Jinping delivers key speech – live updates

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Tight security in Tiananmen Square as country marks CCP centenary and China’s president delivers ‘important’ address

He is pledging to “root out any elements who would harm the party’s purity... or viruses which would erode its health”.

Now to Hong Kong and Macau, which he says both retain a “high degree of autonomy”.

Some images from the scene at Tiananmen Square:

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Hong Kong’s courts should reflect China’s will, says official

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Statement seen as warning to judiciary to uphold Beijing’s interests or risk losing independence

Hong Kong’s judicial system should reflect the will and interests of the Chinese nation, a senior official overseeing the national security law has said.

The comments have been interpreted as a clear instruction from Beijing that Hong Kong’s once-vaunted court system is now expected to operate in the interests of the central government in Beijing, rather than the rule of law.

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Five Asian countries account for 80% of new coal power investment

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China, India, Indonesia, Japan and Vietnam plan to build more than 600 coal power units

Five Asian countries are jeopardising global climate ambitions by investing in 80% of the world’s planned new coal plants, according to a report.

Carbon Tracker, a financial thinktank, has found that China, India, Indonesia, Japan and Vietnam plan to build more than 600 coal power units, even though renewable energy is cheaper than most new coal plants.

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Huawei lawyers claim emails prove US has no grounds to extradite CFO from Canada

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Lawyers will try to persuade Canadian court to permit new documents to be introduced as evidence to clear Meng Wanzhou

US justice department’s battle to extradite Meng Wanzhou from Canada has taken a fresh turn as lawyers for Huawei’s chief financial officer claimed that internal emails and bank documents prove there is no grounds to extradite her to the US.

Meng, 48, was arrested on a US warrant at Vancouver airport in late 2018, and has been battling extradition to the US. Her detention infuriated the Chinese government and has helped drag relations between Beijing and Ottawa to their lowest point in years.

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China blasts Japanese minister’s ‘sinister’ remarks about Taiwan

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Beijing lodges diplomatic protest with Japan after defence minister calls island a ‘democratic country’

China and Japan are once again embroiled in a diplomatic row over Taiwan, in the latest example of Beijing’s extreme sensitivity over the status of the self-ruled island and Tokyo’s changing attitude towards Beijing.

Speaking to the US conservative thinktank Hudson Institute on Monday, Japan’s state minister of defence, Yasuhide Nakayama, spoke of a growing threat posed by Chinese and Russian collaboration, and said it was necessary to “wake up” to Beijing’s pressure on Taiwan and protect the island “as a democratic country”.

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Hong Kong police arrest senior Apple Daily journalist at airport

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Fung Wai-kong is seventh senior figure from publication to be arrested in two weeks

Hong Kong police have arrested a former senior Apple Daily journalist at the airport while he was attempting to leave the city.

The 57-year-old journalist is the seventh staff member of the now-closed pro-democracy newspaper to be detained, after police accused them and the paper of foreign collusion under the national security law.

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China releases footage from its Mars rover – video

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China’s National Space Administration has released footage recorded by the country’s Mars probe. The videos and photos taken by the camera installed on the Zhurong rover of the Tianwen-1 spacecraft show the lander deploying a parachute before touching down on the surface of Mars and the rover driving away from its landing platform. State broadcaster CCTV said Zhurong had been working on the red planet for 42 days and had moved 236 metres so far

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The Chinese Communist party: 100 years that shook the world

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As China marks the centenary of its ruling party, we examine key episodes in its tempestuous history, including the Long March, Mao’s purges and Xi Jinping’s rise to the top of an emerging superpower

Anyone visiting First Meeting Hall in Shanghai, the museum recreating the site of the first conclave of the Chinese Communist party (CCP) in 1921, will also find themselves in one of the city’s fanciest districts.

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Fire at martial arts school in China kills 18 children

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Local media say victims of the fire in central China were boarding pupils aged between seven and 16

At least 18 people have been killed and 16 injured after a fire broke out at a martial arts school in central China, according to the local government.

Official state news agency Xinhua reported that all victims were boarding pupils, while local media said they were aged between seven and 16.

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Beijing using its financial muscle to target Uyghurs living abroad – report

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Cases of transnational repression found in 28 countries are ‘just the tip of the iceberg’, say rights researchers

China is using its unprecedented economic clout across vast swathes of Asia and the Middle East to target Uyghur Muslims living beyond its borders through a sprawling system of transnational repression, a new report says.

Beijing’s crackdown on Xinjiang province, where more than 1 million people are thought to have been detained in a network of internment camps in recent years, has coincided with a rise in efforts to control Uyghurs living overseas, the report found.

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‘The pressure is unbearable’: final days of Hong Kong’s Apple Daily

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Newspaper’s closure shows how pro-democracy movement and press freedom are being crushed

On Wednesday morning, the Apple Daily reporter Angel Kwan was at a government press conference for the Hong Kong census when her phone started buzzing with notifications. Six days earlier, hundreds of police had raided her workplace, arrested her bosses and seized dozens of computers. On Monday, the company board had said it would have to shut the paper unless authorities unfroze its finances.

As she stood holding her microphone towards the government official, Kwan did not dare look at her phone and the news it heralded: Apple Daily was shutting down. Today.

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Unions join call for Australian anti-slavery law to prevent profiting from forced labour, including in Xinjiang

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Coalition facing growing pressure – including from own MPs – to join international efforts to curb modern slavery

A top union leader has called on the Morrison government to urgently introduce laws to prevent Australian businesses from “profiting by importing goods made by slavery”, as the push gains support from across the political spectrum.

The president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Michele O’Neil, told Guardian Australia it “should appall all Australians that there is no ban on the importation of goods produced by forced labour”.

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