Category Archives: China

Wuhan residents told to stay indoors again after record rainfall

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City at centre of coronavirus outbreak faces new crisis as China suffers weeks of flooding

People living in Wuhan, the central Chinese city that bore the brunt of the country’s coronavirus outbreak, have been told stay indoors once more after record rainfall prompted authorities to raise the city’s emergency response to the second highest-level.

A prolonged period of heavy rain is the latest disaster to strike China, where people are only just recovering from the coronavirus outbreak.

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Xu Zhangrun, outspoken critic of Xi Jinping, detained by police in Beijing

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Professor had been under house arrest after writing an essay lambasting the president over his response to coronavirus

Chinese professor Xu Zhangrun, known for his scathing and public criticisms of China’s leader Xi Jinping, has been detained, according to friends of the legal scholar.

Two friends of Xu, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid reprisals, told the Guardian that he had been detained on Monday morning. According to one, around 20 police officers and 10 vehicles arrived at his home in Beijing and took Xu away.

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Suspected case of bubonic plague found in city in Inner Mongolia

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Bayan Nur has forbidden the hunting and eating of animals that could carry plague and asked the public to report fever with no clear causes

Authorities in a city in the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia have issued a warning after a hospital reported a case of suspected bubonic plague.

The health committee of the city of Bayan Nur issued the third-level alert, the second lowest in a four-level system, on Sunday.

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What China’s new security law means for Hong Kong – video explainer

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Beijing has imposed sweeping new national security legislation on Hong Kong, criminalising 'secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces'. Critics fear the law will enable a crackdown on protest and dissent as China seeks to exert new levels of control over the semi-autonomous territory. The Guardian's Beijing bureau chief, Lily Kuo, explains what this means for the city after a year of unrest

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‘Hidden language’: Hongkongers get creative against security law

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Residents use wordplay including repurposed Chinese Communist party dogma to express frustration

Hongkongers are finding creative ways to voice dissent after Beijing blanketed the city in a new security law and police began arresting people displaying now forbidden political slogans.

Faced with the sudden threat of prosecution for anything that might promote greater autonomy or independence for the restless city, residents are using wordplay and even subverting Chinese Communist party dogma to express their frustration.

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Hongkongers on China’s crackdown: ‘I feel helpless and hopeless’

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Guardian readers in or from Hong Kong share their views on the new national security law

In late May, a week after Chinese officials announced a plan to impose a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong, the Guardian issued a callout to people who believed they would be affected. We wanted to hear how people felt about the law, how it might change their lives, and how they felt about the last year of protests.

The response was overwhelming. Within days we had received more than 30,000 messages from people inside and outside Hong Kong – the most for any Guardian community callout.

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Hong Kong journalists and lawyers scramble to adapt to security law

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Protective measures taken and social media erased as both question how they can operate

Journalists and lawyers in Hong Kong are scrambling to adapt as Chinese authorities set up the apparatus to enforce a controversial national security law, including appointing a hardline party official to head a new security agency.

Zheng Yanxiong, who is best known for tackling protests on the mainland, is to run the office established under the law that empowers mainland security agents to operate in Hong Kong openly and unbound for the first time.

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Hong Kong activists planning ‘parliament in exile’ after China brings in security law

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Campaigner Simon Cheng, granted asylum in UK, says shadow parliament would send ‘clear signal’ to Beijing

Hong Kong pro-democracy activists are discussing a plan to create an unofficial parliament-in-exile to preserve democracy and send a message to China that freedom cannot be crushed, campaigner Simon Cheng has said.

Hong Kong, a former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997, was convulsed by months of often violent, pro-democracy and anti-China demonstrations last year, resisting Chinese interference in its promised freedoms and posing the biggest political crisis for Beijing since the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

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Britain’s citizenship offer to Hong Kong: how China could respond

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China said UK will ‘bear all consequences’, raising possibility of retaliation

China has responded angrily to a UK promise to offer nearly 3 million residents of Hong Kong with British national overseas status (BNO), the right to settle in the UK.

China’s foreign ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian, said Britain would “bear all consequences”, and China’s ambassador to the UK later said that Beijing “reserve[d] the right to take corresponding measures”.

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Hong Kong protesters laying low following mass arrests

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More than 370 people arrested as result of demonstrations against China’s new powers

Protesters appear to be laying low in Hong Kong the day after the introduction of sweeping draconian national security laws prompted demonstrations, violence, and mass arrests.

More than 370 people were arrested on Wednesday, including 10 under the new laws imposed directly by Beijing and without the involvement of Hong Kong’s semi autonomous legislature.

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Hong Kong: Dominic Raab announces citizenship pathway as China imposes security law – video

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Up to 3 million people in Hong Kong could be eligible to live, work or study in the UK under a bespoke immigration system announced by Dominic Raab in response to the imposition of national security legislation on Hong Kong by China. The foreign secretary accused China of a 'clear and serious violation' of the joint declaration signed with the UK, and pledged the government would 'honour' its commitment to citizens of the former British colony 

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Hong Kong: hundreds arrested as security law comes into effect

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Teenager waving independence flag among those held as thousands take to the streets

More than 370 protesters have been arrested as police fired teargas, pepper spray and water cannon at thousands of people protesting against a national security law imposed by Beijing.

The extent of Beijing’s mandate was made clear as full details of the law were released late on Tuesday, giving authorities sweeping powers to crack down on dissent and allowing China new levels of control over the semi-autonomous territory.

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Police use water cannon during protests over Hong Kong’s new security laws – video report

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Hong Kong police have arrested more than 300 protesters on the first day of life under the controversial national security laws imposed by Beijing, as China confirmed that some suspects could be extradited to the mainland under the new rules. Police were said to have used water cannon and pepper spray on activists and journalists during the demonstrations.

Earlier, the city’s leader, Carrie Lam, had told a ceremony marking the 23rd anniversary of Hong Kong's handover to China that the security laws were 'the most important development in relations between central – HKSAR [Hong Kong Special Administrative Region] since Britain handed over the territory to Beijing

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European leaders condemn China over ‘deplorable’ Hong Kong security bill

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Beijing move to stamp out anti-government protests poses diplomatic test for UK

European leaders condemned China’s “deplorable decision” to press ahead with its new security laws in Hong Kong, warning that it will speed up the reassessment of China as a trustworthy economic partner.

The European Union council president, Charles Michel, said “we deplore the decision” and the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said the bloc was now discussing with international partners on any possible measures in response.

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China passes controversial Hong Kong national security law

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Critics say the measure, which criminalises secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, erodes Hong Kong’s autonomy

Beijing has passed a sweeping national security law for Hong Kong that critics fear will crush political freedoms and pave the way for China to cement its control over the semi-autonomous territory.

Less than 40 days after Chinese lawmakers first proposed imposing an anti-sedition law on Hong Kong, the standing committee of the National People’s Congress, on Tuesday approved the measure, according officials and multiple media reports.

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New swine flu with pandemic potential identified by China researchers

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G4 strain has already infected 10% of industry’s workers in China but no evidence yet that it can be passed from human to human

Researchers in China have discovered a new type of swine flu that is capable of triggering a pandemic, according to a study in the US science journal PNAS.

Named G4, it is genetically descended from the H1N1 strain that caused a pandemic in 2009.

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India bans TikTok after Himalayan border clash with Chinese troops

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Government blacklists more than 50 Chinese-made apps, citing ‘threat to sovereignty’

The Indian government has banned TikTok, the hugely popular social media app, as part of sweeping anti-China measures after a violent confrontation between Indian and Chinese troops.

TikTok is one of more than 50 Chinese-made apps that have been banned by the Ministry of Information over concerns that they “pose a threat to sovereignty and security” of India.

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Chaotic world order and rising tensions with Beijing push Scott Morrison to overcome fear of ‘negative globalism’

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The Australian government has realised that strengthening international institutions is preferable to the alternative – relying on Trump or Xi

Last October, Scott Morrison continued a proud Australian political tradition and admitted that – despite being prime minister – he has only a passing interest in international affairs.

Days after returning from a lengthy visit to Washington, Morrison explained, almost apologetically, that his various foreign travels had been forced upon him by the unfortunate intrusion of global events. “My instincts and passions have always been domestic,” he said in a speech to the Lowy Institute. “I am not one who naturally seeks out summits and international platforms.”

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China sterilising ethnic minority women in Xinjiang, report says

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Uighurs are among those facing involuntary contraception or threats over birth quotas

Chinese authorities are carrying out forced sterilisations of women in an apparent campaign to curb the growth of ethnic minority populations in the western Xinjiang region, according to research published on Monday.

The report, based on a combination of official regional data, policy documents and interviews with ethnic minority women, has prompted an international group of lawmakers to call for a United Nations investigation into China’s policies in the region.

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