Category Archives: China

Global report: India sets new national daily case record

Posted on by

Parisian pedestrians must wear face coverings from Friday; Spain says school children over six must wear masks; China goes 12 days without local case

India has set a new national record of daily coronavirus infections, reporting more than 77,000 cases in 24 hours, just shy of the global one-day record tally held by America.

India’s health ministry reported 77, 266 new cases on Friday. The largest ever one day rise is 78,427, reported by the US on 25 July. India also recorded more than 1,000 new deaths taking total fatalities, to 61,529, the fourth highest total in the world, behind the US, Brazil and Mexico.

Continue reading...

Twelve arrested at sea while trying to flee to Taiwan from Hong Kong

Posted on by

Chinese coastguard stopped a speedboat on Sunday suspected of an illegal border crossing

More than 10 Hong Kong residents, including an activist charged under the city’s punitive national security law, have been detained by China’s coastguard while trying to flee to Taiwan, according to reports.

China’s coastguard released a statement on Weibo saying that on Sunday at 9am, authorities in Guangdong tracked down a speedboat suspected of an illegal border crossing. The notice, posted on Wednesday evening, said more than 10 people had been arrested including two suspects surnamed Li and Tang.

Continue reading...

TikTok chief executive Kevin Mayer resigns after Trump call to sell US assets

Posted on by

In a letter to staff Meyer cited a ‘sharply changed’ political environment, after Donald Trump ordered ByteDance to sell up within 90 days

Tik Tok’s chief executive, Kevin Mayer, has quit just months after his appointment, amid a “sharply changed” political environment after Donald Trump accused the platform of threatening national security.

The Financial Times reported on Thursday that the former Disney executive would be replaced in the interim by Vanessa Pappas, the general manager. In a letter to staff, parts of which have been seen by the Guardian, Mayer said he had decided to leave after Trump ordered TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell its US assets to a US company within 90 days.

“In recent weeks, as the political environment has sharply changed, I have done significant reflection on what the corporate structural changes will require, and what it means for the global role I signed up for,” the letter said.

Continue reading...

Hong Kong Free Press journalist denied visa amid fears for media freedom

Posted on by

Irish journalist Aaron McNicholas’s visa was rejected in what’s believed to the first such case at a local title

After months of reassurance that Beijing’s national security law would not affect Hong Kong’s free press, the government has denied a visa to local media outlet, the Hong Kong Free Press.

The English-language outlet had sought to employ a new editor, Aaron Mc Nicholas, an Irish journalist already based in Hong Kong. However the immigration department rejected an application to transfer his work visa after an almost six-month wait, without giving an official reason.

Continue reading...

South China Sea: US unveils first sanctions linked to militarisation

Posted on by

The latest US move against Beijing cracks down on firms whose goods may support Chinese military activities

The United States has blacklisted 24 Chinese companies and targeted individuals it said were part of construction and military efforts in the South China Sea, its first such sanctions move over the disputed strategic waterway.

The US Commerce Department said the companies played a “role in helping the Chinese military construct and militarise the internationally condemned artificial islands in the South China Sea”.

Continue reading...

Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmakers arrested over 2019 Yuen Long protests

Posted on by

Ted Hui and Lam Cheuk-ting held over incident in July 2019 when white-clad thugs attacked activists at train station

Hong Kong police have arrested pro-democracy lawmakers over involvement in protests in 2019, including one who was injured when a large group of thugs attacked protesters and civilians at the Yuen Long transport station.

The arrests come amid a crackdown on dissent and freedom of expression.

Continue reading...

Textbook used in Victorian schools repeats Chinese government propaganda

Posted on by

The textbook, which has now been recalled, includes passages that critics believe endorse China’s authoritarian rule and are ‘straight out of the party playbook’

A textbook used in some Victorian schools includes portions that repeat Chinese Communist party propaganda and features a controversial map in which China claims most of the South China Sea in contradiction of Australian government policy.

The Guardian can reveal concerns about the material have prompted the publisher, Cengage Learning Asia, to recall unsold copies of the textbook, which the Melbourne-based authors said they had written to suit the course design of the Victorian senior school subject Chinese language, culture and society.

Continue reading...

Is this the end of the road for dollar dominance?

Posted on by

In the short term, probably not, but with China weaponising the yuan stern challenges lie ahead

The recent sharp depreciation of the US dollar has led to concerns that it may lose its role as the main global reserve currency. After all, in addition to the Federal Reserve’s aggressive monetary easing – which threatens to debase the world’s key fiat currency even further – gold prices and inflation expectations have also been rising.

But, to paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the dollar’s early demise are greatly exaggerated. The greenback’s recent weakness is driven by shorter-term cyclical factors. In the long run, the situation is more complicated: the dollar has both strengths and weaknesses that may or may not undermine its global position over time.

Continue reading...

‘It’s terrifying’: can anyone stop China’s vast armada of fishing boats?

Posted on by

Ecuador stood up for the Galápagos, but other countries don’t stand a chance against the 17,000-strong distant-water fleet

The recent discovery by the Ecuadorean navy of a vast fishing armada of 340 Chinese vessels just off the biodiverse Galápagos Islands stirred outrage both in Ecuador and overseas.

Under pressure after Ecuador’s strident response, China has given mixed signals that it could begin to reel in its vast international fishing fleet. Its embassy in Ecuador declared a “zero tolerance” policy towards illegal fishing, and this week it announced it was tightening the rules for its enormous flotilla with a series of new regulations.

Continue reading...

TikTok suing Trump administration over executive order

Posted on by

App says in blogpost it strongly disagrees with White House position that it is a national security threat

TikTok, the fast-growing video sharing app, announced it was suing the US government on Monday over an executive order banning transactions with the Chinese company in the US.

In a blogpost, TikTok said it strongly disagreed with the White House’s position that the company was a national security threat, saying it had “taken extraordinary measures to protect the privacy and security of TikTok’s US user data”.

Continue reading...

Oxford University Covid-19 vaccine firm says it is not in talks with Trump

Posted on by

AstraZeneca insists it has not discussed ‘emergency use authorisation’ with the US

The company manufacturing the Oxford University coronavirus vaccine has said it is not in talks with the Trump administration about fast-tracking its vaccine for emergency use ahead of November’s presidential elections.

With both Russia and China pressing ahead with inoculations involving experimental vaccines yet to pass final efficacy and safety trials, the Trump administration has become increasingly frustrated with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which the president has tried to suggest is slowing approval of a vaccine for “political reasons”.

Continue reading...

‘Cultural rights are human rights too’: Kiribati gesture of welcome must be understood from the island’s perspective | Katerina Teaiwa and Marita Davies

Posted on by

i-Kiribati writers say the media frenzy over the image of Tang Songgen walking on men’s backs diminishes local customs and culture

The image flew around the world, far ahead of any understanding of what it represented.

In the grainy picture, the Chinese ambassador to Kiribati was being welcomed onto the atoll island of Marakei. A row of young men lay face-down on the ground, their backs forming a path for the ambassador and his colleagues to walk across as they disembarked from a plane.

Continue reading...

Your data is not destined for China, assures TikTok’s UK boss

Posted on by

The controversial app’s users are ignoring geopolitical battle over its digital security, says Richard Waterworth

TikTok’s UK chief has strenuously denied the video-sharing app, which Donald Trump has threatened to ban, shares data with China.

Richard Waterworth told the Observer that the UK and European arm of TikTok was growing quickly, despite the “turbulent” geopolitical battle in which the Chinese-born app has found itself.

Continue reading...

A bubble? The stellar growth of China’s e-commerce upstart Pinduoduo

Posted on by

At $114bn, its market value is above HSBC – but questions remain about business model and if it will ever be profitable

It is a company that is just about to turn five years old but is valued more highly than the oil giant Shell, or HSBC, one of the largest banks in the world.

Pinduoduo is the latest behemoth produced by China’s tech machine, an online shopping site that specialises in extraordinary discounts on everything from tissues to Teslas. And its market value has more than doubled in recent months to $114bn (£87bn).

Continue reading...

China’s Cai Xia: former party insider who dared criticise Xi Jinping

Posted on by

Prominent dissident explains how she came to doubt her fervent beliefs in party orthodoxy

In the mid-1990s, Cai Xia, a devout believer in Chinese communist doctrine, experienced her first moment of doubt.

She was a teacher at the central party school for training cadres when a friend called with some questions. Cai, an expert in Marxism and Chinese communist party theory, enthusiastically answered.

Continue reading...

Papua New Guinea bans Chinese mine staff ‘given experimental Covid-19 vaccine’

Posted on by

Flight carrying workers from Chinese state-owned Ramu nickel mine cancelled by pandemic controller over concerns about vaccine trial

A planeload of Chinese mine workers have been barred from entering Papua New Guinea, over concerns they had been subjected to an unapproved Covid-19 vaccination trial before they left.

A flight from China carrying workers for the Chinese state-owned Ramu Nickel mine in Madang province was cancelled by PNG’s police commissioner and pandemic controller, David Manning, over concerns about the trial.

Continue reading...

China floods: Three Gorges dam gushes with water while streets are submerged – video

Posted on by

Extreme floods have hit the Three Gorges dam on the Yangtze River, which recorded the largest inflow of water in its history, prompting officials to promise it could withstand the flows.

Several outlets of the dam have been opened to discharge water, the largest release since its construction. A breach would be embarrassing for China, which took 12 years to build the dam, displacing millions and submerging swaths of land.

Meanwhile, upstream from the dam, officials in the city of Chongqing, Sichuan province, evacuated almost 300,000 residents. Levels along the Yangtze nearby have reached heights not seen since 1981

Continue reading...

Anxiety grows as China’s Three Gorges dam hits highest level

Posted on by

Officials seek to reassure public after world’s largest hydro-electric dam nears capacity amid heavy floods

Extreme floods have hit China’s Three Gorges dam, which recorded the largest inflow of water in its history, prompting officials to assure the public it would not be breached.

Inflows to the world’s largest hydro-electric dam reached 75m litres of water a second, according to state media. By Thursday morning, 11 outlets of the dam had been opened to discharge 49.2m litres of water a second, the largest release since its construction.

Continue reading...

Chinese state media dismisses attacks on Wuhan’s huge pool party as ‘sour grapes’

Posted on by

Global Times says celebration in city where virus began showed strong coronavirus measures had ‘paid off’

Chinese state media has defended Wuhan residents after photos and video of a huge pool party went viral this week, saying complaints by foreigners were “sour grapes” .

Thousands of people celebrated at a water park music festival in Wuhan this week, crowded in front of the stage, shoulder to shoulder.

Continue reading...

China floods: Leshan Giant Buddha statue at risk after torrential rainfall – video

Posted on by

Floods on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River in China forced authorities to evacuate more than 100,000 people and threatened a 1,200-year-old Unesco world heritage site, the Leshan Giant Buddha.

Staff, police and volunteers used sandbags to try to protect the 71-metre (233ft) statue in Sichuan province as muddy flood water rose over its toes for the first time since 1949, the state broadcaster CCTV reported

Continue reading...