Category Archives: China

US and Canada follow EU and UK to sanction Chinese officials over Xinjiang

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It is the first time for three decades UK or EU has punished China for human rights abuses

Britain and the EU have taken joint action with the US and Canada to impose parallel sanctions on a senior Chinese officials involved in the mass internment of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province in the first such western action against Beijing since Joe Biden took office.

The move also marked the first time for three decades the UK or the EU had punished China for human rights abuses, and both will now be working hard to contain the potential political and economic fallout. China hit back immediately, blacklisting MEPs, European diplomats and thinktanks.

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South China Sea: alarm in Philippines as 200 Chinese vessels gather at disputed reef

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Philippines defence chief says vessels at Whitsun reef are manned by militias rather than fishermen, and accuses Beijing of ‘provocation’

The Philippines’ defence chief has demanded more than 200 Chinese vessels he said were manned by militias leave a South China Sea reef claimed by Manila, saying their presence was a “provocative action of militarising the area.”

“We call on the Chinese to stop this incursion and immediately recall these boats violating our maritime rights and encroaching into our sovereign territory,” defence secretary Delfin Lorenzana said in a statement on Sunday, adding without elaborating that the Philippines would uphold its sovereign rights.

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Canadian Michael Kovrig goes on trial in China

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Canadian official is denied court access as former diplomat faces accusations of espionage in case described by Ottawa as ‘hostage diplomacy’

The second of two Canadians detained in China for more than two years, Michael Kovrig, has gone on trial on espionage charges, days after the United States raised its concerns over the cases during tense US-China talks in Alaska.

One senior Canadian diplomat said he had been denied access to the court in Beijing on Monday, echoing the scenes on Friday, when Michael Spavor was tried in secret in a court process that lasted only a few hours.

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‘Cooperative and rather active’: joy as pandas mate in French zoo

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Huan Huan, a female on loan from China at the Beauval zoo in France, was ‘put in contact’ eight times on Saturday with partner Yuan Zi

A couple of giant pandas in captivity engaged in a rare weekend of mating, although the hoped-for result, an even rarer panda offspring, is still too early to call, a French zoo has said.

Huan Huan, a female panda on loan from China at the Beauval zoo in central France, was “put in contact” eight times on Saturday with partner Yuan Zi, the zoo said on Sunday.

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Hong Kong’s arts scene shudders as Beijing draws cultural red line

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Pro-Beijing politicians accuse newly built M+ Museum of breaching the sweeping national security law

After successfully muzzling Hong Kong’s democracy protests and opposition, Beijing’s loyalists have warned art institutions about their collections as they seek to impose mainland-style orthodoxy on culture and purge the city of dissent.

Newly built on Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour, M+ Museum aims to rival western contemporary heavyweights like London’s Tate Modern and New York’s MoMA.

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China’s first local Covid case since February had been vaccinated – state media

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The hospital worker had received two doses of an unspecified vaccine, report says, as much of France re-enters lockdown

China’s first local coronavirus case since February was a staff worker at a hospital who had received two shots of a vaccine between end-January and early February, state media has reported.

The patient, identified by her surname Liu, had been working in the quarantine area of a hospital in Xian city since 4 March, and was mainly responsible for collecting samples from quarantined people for coronavirus testing, the Health Times reported on Saturday.

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Elon Musk denies Teslas used for spying after China’s military bans cars from bases

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We would get shut down if we were spying, says boss of electric car maker, after reports about security concerns in Beijing

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk says his company would be shut down if its cars were used to spy, his first comments on news that China’s military has banned Teslas from its facilities.

“There’s a very strong incentive for us to be very confidential with any information,” Musk told a prominent Chinese forum during a virtual discussion on Saturday. “If Tesla used cars to spy in China or anywhere, we will get shut down.”

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Trudeau condemns closed-door espionage trial of Canadian in China

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Michael Spavor has been detained in China since 2018 in apparent retaliation for Canada’s arrest of a Huawei executive

Justin Trudeau has reacted angrily to the closed-door trial of a Canadian man detained in China for more than two years on espionage charges, dismissing it as “completely unacceptable”.

Businessman Michael Spavor, whose hearing finished after less than three hours on Friday, is one of two Canadians detained, in apparent retaliation for Canada’s arrest on a US extradition warrant of the Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, and formally charged last June with spying.

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Will a chilly meeting in Anchorage set the tone for US-Chinese relations? | Emma Graham-Harrison

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Openings of summits are often dull affairs, but the tense exchanges in Alaska hint at turbulent times ahead

In a protracted, unplanned public spat in Anchorage late on Thursday, China and America’s top diplomats traded barbs for over an hour in front of astonished journalists.

The openings to diplomatic summits are usually dull and carefully choreographed, a showcase for the world’s cameras before the doors close and the real talks begin.

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‘Deep concerns’: US and China trade criticism in Alaska meeting – video

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The United States and China publicly rebuked each other in the first face-to-face talks between senior officials from the two countries since Joe Biden took office. Representatives from the two countries met in Alaska, where a highly unusual extended back-and-forth took place in front of the cameras. When US secretary of state Antony Blinken pointed out "deep concerns" over China's actions relating to "Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan, cyber attacks on the United States, economic coercion of our allies", China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi responded with a 15-minute speech in Chinese lashing out out at what he called a struggling democracy in the US, poor treatment of minorities and foreign and trade policies.

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US and China publicly rebuke each other in first major talks of Biden era

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Antony Blinken criticises China over Hong Kong and Xinjiang while his counterpart says US can no longer ‘speak to China from a position of strength’

The United States and China have publicly clashed during their first face-to-face high-level talks since Joe Biden took office, with one senior Chinese official urging the US to address “deep-seated” issues such as racism, and accusing his American counterparts of “condescension”.

Any hopes that the meeting, in Anchorage, would reset bilateral ties after years of tensions over trade, human rights and cybersecurity during Donald Trump’s presidency evaporated when the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, opened their meeting with China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi and the state councillor Wang Yi.

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China may need Britain more than it cares to admit | Jeevan Vasagar

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The value of British cultural capital in China makes the souring of relations all the more painful

When it is fully open later this year, the Londoner Macao hotel will be a kitsch recreation of tourist Britain, with a facade modelled on the Houses of Parliament, actors in bearskin hats performing the changing of the guard, and an English fried breakfast served at a restaurant called Churchill’s Table.

The new casino resort in China is one of the more tacky examples of the country’s fondness for British culture. Alongside the US and the Gulf, China is a crucial overseas market for English Premier League football broadcast rights. Britain’s heritage attractions, private schools and designer brands are immensely popular with China’s elite. The UK is also a favoured destination for higher education: numbers of Chinese students at UK universities soared by 56% from 2015 to 2019.

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Kovrig and Spavor: China set to begin trial of two Canadians

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Canada criticises pair’s detention as ‘arbitrary’ as Beijing says trial will begin on Friday

China has announced it will begin trials for the two Canadians it detained in apparent retaliation for Canada’s arrest of a telecoms executive.

Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were detained in December 2018, days after Canada arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at the request of the United States.

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Why Japan’s carmaking heavyweights could be facing an electric shock

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Analysis: The rapid development of battery-only cars is eclipsing petrol vehicles and even hybrids, leaving Japan’s big producers racing to catch up

Japan’s traditional carmaking giants need to raise their game in the race to develop pure, battery-driven electric vehicles or risk being left behind by Chinese, American and European producers, analysts have warned.

Despite dominating car production in Asia for decades, Japan’s big players have been slow to fully develop the battery-only technology that is now eclipsing hybrid vehicles as the most likely type of car to plug petrolheads into the automotive revolution.

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China to only allow foreign visitors who have had Chinese-made vaccine

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Move raises questions as China’s vaccines not approved in many countries to which it is opening travel

China is resuming visa processing for foreigners from dozens of countries, but only if they have been inoculated against Covid-19 with a Chinese-made vaccine.

The move has raised questions about the motivations behind the demand, given China’s vaccines are not approved in many of the countries to which it has opened travel and that it will not accept foreign vaccines made elsewhere, including those approved by the World Health Organization.

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UK urged to ban fur imports from China over animal abuse claims

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Investigation appears to show unnecessary cruelty, suffering and disregard for Covid health precautions at more than a dozen farms

Campaigners are urging the UK government to ban fur imports after an investigation appeared to show widespread animal abuse and disregard for Covid-19 health protocols at more than a dozen fur farms in China.

Videos and photos from 19 farms visited in northern and north-eastern China last November and December appear to show foxes and raccoon dogs packed tightly in unsanitary cages and animals being electrocuted in ways that prolong their pain before death, often in front of others awaiting the same fate.

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Why home-produced Covid vaccine hasn’t helped India, Russia and China rollouts

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Challenge of reaching vast, far-flung populations is combined with a lack of public interest

The day India started coronavirus vaccinations, Amit Mehra’s name was on the priority list. But he never made an appointment. “I’m not inclined to get vaccinated just because it’s available,” says the 47-year-old Delhi hospital worker.

Two and a half thousand miles away, strolling past a popup inoculation centre near Red Square in Moscow, Magomed Zurabov is similarly reluctant. Suspicious that the pandemic was deliberately engineered, he has no intention of being vaccinated, he says. Instead, he is “taking the necessary precautions”: wearing a mask and using disinfectant.

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Boris Johnson says UK wants to work with China, though it poses ‘great challenges for an open society’ – live

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Latest updates: PM says UK’s greatest ally will be US as he makes statement to MPs on defence review

In his Sky News interview Tobias Ellwood, the Conservative chair of the Commons defence committee, said the security and defence review said that the UK could use nuclear weapons to respond to an attack with chemical or biological weapons. That was a “big change” in policy, he said.

He was referring to this passage on page 77 of the document (pdf).

The UK will not use, or threaten to use, nuclear weapons against any non-nuclear weapon state party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons 1968 (NPT). This assurance does not apply to any state in material breach of those non-proliferation obligations. However, we reserve the right to review this assurance if the future threat of weapons of mass destruction, such as chemical and biological capabilities, or emerging technologies that could have a comparable impact, makes it necessary.

Here is the Scottish government’s summary of the latest plans for easing lockdown restrictions in Scotland. And here is a graphic summarising what it says.

Scotland’s indicative route out of lockdown. If we all stick with it and get the virus more under control as the vaccines do their work, there is hope for a much better summer on the horizon ☀️ pic.twitter.com/gTKHtJTNn5

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UK defence policy review lacks clarity on China and Indo-Pacific

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Analysis: focus shifts away from cooperation with the EU but fails to balance far east investment and security issues

Prof John Bew, the historian appointed by Boris Johnson to write the foreign and defence security review, has privately insisted the document should not be seen as an apology for Brexit or a turning away from Europe, the charge sometimes levelled by pro-EU critics such as the former national security adviser Lord Ricketts and Sir Simon Fraser, the former foreign office permanent secretary.

It is instead intended as a hard-headed look at the new collective security threats facing Britain, many of which, notably the rise of China, the spread of authoritarianism, the challenge of the climate crisis and the ubiquity of cyberwarfare, the UK would have faced in or out of the European Union.

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China tells Alibaba to divest media assets to curb influence – report

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Beijing fears ecommerce giant has too much sway over public opinion through stakes in platforms such as Twitter-like Weibo, Wall Street Journal says

Beijing has reportedly told the Chinese e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba to divest its assets in the media sector out of concern over the company’s growing public influence.

Its founder, Jack Ma, the ebullient and unconventional billionaire who officially retired from Alibaba in 2019 but remains a large shareholder, has been in authorities’ crosshairs in recent months.

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