Chinese authorities have said they allowed two imprisoned Canadians to phone their families at Christmas – the first time one of the men had spoken with his family in more than two years.
Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were both permitted brief calls home, a move which Chinese officials said was motivated by “humanitarian considerations”.
Continue reading...Eleven people, aged 18 to 72, have been arrested on suspicion of helping 12 democracy activists flee Hong Kong by boat last year
Hong Kong police have arrested 11 people under the national security law for allegedly helping 12 pro-democracy activists accused of attempting to flee the city by boat for Taiwan last year, local media and activists reported on Thursday.
Police arrested eight men and three women aged 18 to 72 for “assisting offenders”, according to the South China Morning Post, which cited unnamed sources.
Continue reading...Chief financial officer received multiple death threats during time in Vancouver, Canadian court told
Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, has received multiple death threats – including bullets in the mail – while under house arrest in Vancouver, a Canadian court heard on Wednesday.
The threats were revealed during testimony by Doug Maynard, chief operating officer of Lions Gate Risk Management, the company providing her security detail.
Continue reading...As a student, I learned English was the language of opportunity – a belief that keeps most Chinese invisible to the global elite
I remember the muted pain in my classmate’s voice when he raised his hand to speak. He wanted to know why, as a Chinese person studying science in China, he was required to take English and pass proficiency tests in order to graduate. “Leave English to the English majors,” he said.
The teacher explained that English is the global language of science: the best journals are published in English. The best schools are taught in English, which also means that they are located outside of China. A competent scientist, regardless of nationality, needs to be able to communicate in English.
Continue reading...Human Rights Watch lists persecutions in Xinjiang, Mongolia, Tibet and Hong Kong but notes new willingness to condemn Beijing
China is in the midst of its darkest period for human rights since the Tiananmen Square massacre, Human Rights Watch has said in its annual report.
Worsening persecutions of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and Tibet, targeting of whistleblowers, the crackdown on Hong Kong and attempts to cover up the coronavirus outbreak were all part of the deteriorating situation under President Xi Jinping, the organisation said.
Continue reading...After 10 years living in France, I returned to China to sign some papers and I was locked up. For the next two years, I was systematically dehumanised, humiliated and brainwashed
The man on the phone said he worked for the oil company, “In accounting, actually”. His voice was unfamiliar to me. At first, I couldn’t make sense of what he was calling about. It was November 2016, and I had been on unpaid leave from the company since I left China and moved to France 10 years earlier. There was static on the line; I had a hard time hearing him.
“You must come back to Karamay to sign documents concerning your forthcoming retirement, Madame Haitiwaji,” he said. Karamay was the city in the western Chinese province of Xinjiang where I’d worked for the oil company for more than 20 years.
Continue reading...Scientists express caution about what they may find and the political sensitivity around investigation
When the scientists on the World Health Organization’s mission to research the origins of Covid-19 touch down in China as expected on Thursday at the beginning of their investigation they are clear what they will – and what they will not – be doing.
They intend to visit Wuhan, the site of the first major outbreak of Covid-19, and talk to Chinese scientists who have been studying the same issue. They will want to see if there are unexamined samples from unexplained respiratory illnesses, and they will want to examine ways in which the virus might have jumped the species barrier to humans.
Continue reading...This week a team of international experts from the WHO will arrive in China to investigate the origins of Covid-19. A year into the pandemic, Guardian health editor Sarah Boseley looks at what questions still need to be answered
A World Health Organization team of international experts tasked with investigating the origins Covid-19 will arrive in China this week. Scientists want to determine how the virus jumped species into humans. A year into the pandemic there are still many unanswered questions over the origins of the novel virus.
The Guardian’s health editor, Sarah Boseley, tells Rachel Humpheys about what the WHO has uncovered over the past 12 months and the challenges it has faced. Ideally, door-to-door detective work, talking to the first people to fall ill and their families and colleagues, would have begun in Wuhan in January. But the city was in lockdown, its streets deserted. And the rest of the world had not yet understood what it was facing, Bruce Aylward, the Canadian doctor and epidemiologist appointed by WHO to lead its fact-finding mission to China in early February told Sarah in a recent phone call.
Continue reading...Experts to arrive on 14 January country’s national health authority says, but it’s unclear if they will get access to Wuhan
A World Health Organization team of international experts tasked with investigating the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic will arrive in China on 14 January, China’s national health authority has said.
The team was initially aiming to enter China in early January but China blocked their arrival, saying visas had not yet been approved, even as some members of the group were on their way.
Continue reading...Joint statement by four foreign ministers expresses ‘serious concern’ about national security law which saw dozens of activists arrested last week
The foreign ministers of Australia, the United States, Britain and Canada have issued a joint statement expressing “serious concern” about the arrest of 55 democracy activists and supporters in Hong Kong last week.
The arrests were by far the largest such action taken under a national security law (NSL) that China imposed on the semi-autonomous territory a little more than six months ago.
Continue reading...Post claimed women in Xinjiang had been ‘emancipated’ as a result of China’s claimed efforts to eradicate extremism
Twitter has removed a post by China’s US embassy claiming that Uighur women have been “emancipated” from extremism and were no longer “baby-making machines”. The post linked to an article denying allegations of forced sterilisation in Xinjiang.
Twitter said the post had “violated the Twitter rules” but did not provide further details.
Continue reading...Mass arrests raise question of what, if anything, dissenting politicians are actually allowed to do
Wednesday’s sweeping arrests of more than 50 pro-democracy activists, pollsters, politicians and fundraisers in Hong Kong seemed to all but criminalise opposition politics in the city.
Those arrested face charges of subversion for their role in unofficial primary elections held last summer that aimed to maximise the pro-democracy bloc’s performance in elections to the city’s legislative council.
Continue reading...UN body says scientists were due to be deployed to country on Tuesday, but China says negotiations ongoing
China has attempted to downplay concerns over its refusal to authorise a fact-finding mission to the country by the World Health Organization to study the origins of Covid-19, saying it is still negotiating access with the UN body.
A day after the head of the WHO, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he was “very disappointed” that China had not authorised the entry of the 10-strong research team, led by Dr Peter Ben Embarek, China insisted there had been a “misunderstanding” between the two sides about agreed dates for the visit, adding that discussions were ongoing.
Continue reading...Campaigners and politicians held in wave of arrests under the national security law
More than 50 people, including pro-democracy politicians and campaigners, have been arrested in early-morning raids across Hong Kong in a crackdown by authorities that was condemned as a “despicable” assault on freedom.
In a police operation involving more than 1,000 officers, the 53 individuals were detained under the territory’s controversial national security law (NSL), accused of “subverting state power” by holding primaries for pro-democracy candidates for the Hong Kong election.
Continue reading...Foreign minister Marise Payne issues mild statement, but opposition parties attack China’s ‘unacceptable’ actions and ‘paranoia’
The Australian government has called on China to allow a visit by World Health Organization experts investigating how the coronavirus pandemic started, insisting the country should grant them visas “without delay”.
Canberra raised its concerns on Wednesday over reports that Chinese authorities had blocked the arrival of a WHO team investigating the early cases of Covid-19 in Wuhan.
Continue reading...Moderna is second vaccine to get EU approval; Japan under pressure to impose state of emergency for Tokyo
Ukrainian police and health officials are investigating reports that some citizens have been illegally getting inoculated against Covid-19 with vaccines that have not been officially approved, prime minister Denys Shmyhal said.
Ukraine, which has registered more than one million Covid-19 infections and 19,357 deaths so far, has yet to approve any of the newly developed vaccines, though it signed a contract in December to buy 1.9m doses of China’s Sinovac vaccine and the shots are expected to be delivered soon.
The Covid-19 vaccine developed by Moderna is expected to also be effective against the new variant of coronavirus detected in Britain, the Dutch national drugs authority CBG said.
The CBG said the European Commission was expected to give the final stamp of approval to the Moderna jab on Wednesday, after the European Medicines Authority gave its approval earlier.
Continue reading...Alibaba co-founder has fallen out of favour with Beijing, but observers cautious about drawing conclusions
Speculation is mounting over the whereabouts of the Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, who has not been seen or heard in public for more than two months.
Ma, the co-founder and former chairman of the technology firm Alibaba, has fallen out of favour with China’s leadership. In late October, he stood alongside senior officials and delivered a blunt speech criticising national regulators, reportedly infuriating China’s president, Xi Jinping.
Continue reading...Authorities threaten to revoke licences of pair who assisted group of 12 that tried to flee to Taiwan
Chinese authorities have threatened to end the careers of two lawyers who assisted 12 activists who tried to flee Hong Kong for Taiwan last August, 10 of whom were given jail terms by a Chinese court last week.
Ren Quanniu – who also represented the Wuhan citizen journalist Zhang Zhan – and Lu Siwei received notices from local departments of justice on Monday that authorities intended to revoke their licences and they had three days to arrange for a defence hearing.
Continue reading...The high commissioner in London offers sharp observations on the dispute between Canberra and Beijing
Australia is “not for turning” in its dispute with China and must cut its reliance on supply chains “over which we had little to no sovereign control”, the country’s top envoy to the UK has said.
George Brandis, Australia’s high commissioner in London, argued the situation “must change” as he called for a trade deal between Australia and Britain to be completed by the end of this year.
Continue reading...Burst of optimism over approvals has been followed by delays, shortages and bureaucratic errors
The global introduction of newly approved coronavirus vaccines has been marked by delays, shortages and bureaucratic errors as it has become clear that many governments will miss their targets for mass inoculation.
The burst of optimism that arrived with approvals of new vaccines – encouraged by unrealistic expectations raised by politicians – is colliding with the reality of the challenge of vaccinating a large part of the world’s population.
Continue reading...