Category Archives: China

Global report: China reports most cases since April as pandemic gathers pace in Latin America

Posted on by

Second wave fears rise in China; Chile health minister resigns; British citizens evacuated from Colombia; European borders reopen

China has reported its highest daily number of new coronavirus cases in months as parts of Beijing remained under lockdown, offering a second-wave warning to the rest of the world as the pandemic rages in South America and global cases approach 7.8 million.

The shock resurgence in domestic infections on Sunday has rattled China, where the disease emerged late last year but had largely been tamed through severe restrictions on movement that were later emulated across the globe.

Continue reading...

How the killing of George Floyd exposed Hong Kong activists’ uneasy relationship with Donald Trump

Posted on by

The US president may be the pro-democracy movement’s biggest backer, but some protesters feel they are being used

Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement has struggled to reconcile the support it has received from Donald Trump with his administration’s brutal crackdown on protests over the police killing of George Floyd.

In the past few weeks, unprecedented Black Lives Matter protests, renewed by the killing of George Floyd by a white police officer, have spread to every US state and to countries across the world, regardless of pandemic restrictions.

Continue reading...

China death sentence for Australian not ‘necessarily’ linked to ongoing friction, minister says

Posted on by

Simon Birmingham says Cam Gilespie, arrested with over 7.5kg of methamphetamine, has 10 days to appeal

Australia’s trade minister says the sentencing to death in China of an Australian man for drug smuggling should not necessarily be linked to the ongoing friction between the countries.

Cam Gilespie was arrested with more than 7.5kg of methamphetamine in his check-in luggage in 2013 while attempting to board an international flight from Baiyun airport in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.

Continue reading...

Global report: New Beijing cases spark second wave fear as India and Brazil struggle with first

Posted on by

São Paulo to dig up cemeteries to clear spaces for coronavirus deaths; new rise of infections in Darfur, Sudan; New Zealand goes 22 days with a new case

A cluster of dozens of new coronavirus cases in Beijing has prompted authorities to lock down parts of the city again after nearly two months without any new local infections.

The outbreak has affected dozens of people, most of whom are asymptomatic, and raises concerns about how the virus might re-emerge, even in places where it appeared to be under control.

Continue reading...

Beijing reimposes lockdown measures after new Covid-19 outbreak

Posted on by

Dozens of domestically transmitted cases at city’s largest wholesale food market prompt move

Parts of Beijing have reimposed lockdown measures after a cluster of locally transmitted coronavirus cases emerged nearly two months after the Chinese capital appeared to have stamped out the virus.

The outbreak, linked to a major wholesale food market, raised serious questions about the challenges of keeping the disease at bay, even in countries such as China where authoritarian rule allows harsh containment regulations and invasive tracing systems.

Continue reading...

Chinese court sentences Australian man to death for drug trafficking

Posted on by

The man was handed the death penalty by Guangzhou intermediate people’s court

An Australian national has been sentenced to death by a Chinese court for drug trafficking, a verdict that could further inflame tensions between Beijing and Canberra.

Already troubled relations worsened recently after China reacted furiously to Australia’s call for an independent investigation into the origins of the deadly coronavirus pandemic.

Continue reading...

Hong Kong protests: arrests as thousands sing protest anthem on anniversary of clashes

Posted on by

Riot police send snatch squads to detain demonstrators throughout night after declaring gatherings illegal

Thousands of Hongkongers have sung a popular protest anthem and chanted slogans across the city as they marked the first anniversary of major clashes between police and pro-democracy demonstrators.

Riot police declared Friday’s gatherings unlawful assemblies and a breach of anti-coronavirus bans on public meetings of large groups, sending snatch squads to make multiple arrests throughout the evening.

Continue reading...

Apple removes two podcast apps from China store after censorship demands

Posted on by

Pocket Casts says it refuses to restrict its content at request of Chinese authorities

Apple has removed two podcast apps from its Chinese app store, following government pressure to censor content.

Pocket Casts and Castro were both pulled from distribution in China after the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) demanded that the apps stop allowing content that breached the country’s restrictive speech laws.

Continue reading...

Twitter deletes 170,000 accounts linked to China influence campaign

Posted on by

Content focused on Covid-19 and the protests in Hong Kong and over George Floyd in the US

Twitter has removed more than 170,000 accounts the social media site says are state-linked influence campaigns from China focusing on Hong Kong protests, Covid-19 and the US protests in relation to George Floyd.

The company announced on Thursday that 23,750 core accounts – and 150,000 “amplifier” accounts that boosted the content posted by those core accounts – had been removed from the platform after being linked to an influence campaign from the People’s Republic.

Continue reading...

Zoom admits cutting off activists’ accounts in obedience to China

Posted on by

Meetings on Tiananmen Square massacre and Hong Kong crisis were taken down because Communist government complained

Zoom has admitted it suspended the accounts of human rights activists at the behest of the Chinese government and suggested it will block any further meetings that Beijing complains are illegal.

On Thursday the video conferencing platform was accused of disrupting or shutting down the accounts of three activists who held online events relating to the Tiananmen Square massacre anniversary or discussing the crisis in Hong Kong. None were given an explanation by Zoom.

Continue reading...

Global report: India reports surge in Covid-19 cases as lockdown eased

Posted on by

Almost 10,000 new cases in India on Thursday as WHO warns situation outside Europe deteriorating

India reported almost 10,000 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, with hospitals swamped in the worst-hit cities of Mumbai, New Delhi and Chennai, and predictions that the infection rate will not peak before the end of next month.

The country of 1.3bn people now has the fifth highest number of confirmed cases in the world, at 286,579. Over the last 24 hours 357 people have died from the virus, bringing the official toll to 8,102.

Continue reading...

Hong Kong to establish new police unit to enforce new security laws

Posted on by

‘Action arm’ will have intelligence-gathering capabilities, security chief says, as state media says legislators are working ‘day and night’ on new laws

Hong Kong’s security chief has announced that a dedicated police unit is being set up and would be ready to enforce controversial new national security laws from day one.

There is widespread international and commercial concern about the impact of the laws that are being imposed on the semi-autonomous region directly by Beijing, bypassing Hong Kong’s legislature. The move has prompted the UK to offer a visa to millions of Hongkongers if they felt uncomfortable staying.

Continue reading...

Coronavirus: EU accuses China and Russia of running disinformation campaigns – video

Posted on by

Russia and China have been accused by Brussels of running disinformation campaigns inside the European Union, as the bloc set out a plan to tackle an 'infodemic' of false facts about the coronavirus. While the charge against Russia has been levelled on many occasions, this is the first time the European commission has publicly named China as a source of disinformation

Continue reading...

Bird figurine is earliest Chinese artwork ever discovered, say experts

Posted on by

‘Refined’ 2cm carving found in Henan dates to palaeolithic period up to 13,000 years ago

A tiny figurine of a bird, carved from burnt bone and no bigger than a £1 coin, is the earliest Chinese artwork ever discovered, according to an international team of archaeologists. 

The carving, less than 2cm in length, has been dated to the palaeolithic period, between 13,800 and 13,000 years ago, which pushes back the earliest known date of east Asian animal sculpture by more than eight millennia. 

Continue reading...

Global report: EU nations continue steady exits from lockdown

Posted on by

Infections keep falling in EU but reports suggest Russian death toll much higher than official figures

France is to lift its state of emergency on 10 July, Denmark said opening its bars, restaurants and malls had not led to a rise in infections, and Austria will reopen its border with Italy next week as EU nations pursue their steady exits from lockdown.

However, Germany extended its coronavirus travel warnings for more than 160 countries outside Europe until the end of August and reports suggested that Moscow’s death toll may be twice as high as Russia’s official figures.

Continue reading...

EU says China behind ‘huge wave’ of Covid-19 disinformation

Posted on by

Brussels shifts position by accusing Beijing for first time of running false campaigns

China has been accused by Brussels of running disinformation campaigns inside the European Union, as the bloc set out a plan to tackle a “huge wave” of false facts about the coronavirus pandemic. 

The European commission said Russia and China were running “targeted influence operations and disinformation campaigns in the EU, its neighbourhood, and globally”. While the charge against Russia has been levelled on many occasions, this is the first time the EU executive has publicly named China as a source of disinformation. 

Continue reading...

Russia will open nuclear disarmament talks with US

Posted on by

But Moscow warns against insisting on including China in New Start negotiations

Russia has confirmed that it will open talks with the US this month on extending a major nuclear disarmament treaty but warned that Washington’s insistence on including China could scuttle efforts.

The deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov will meet the US envoy Marshall Billingslea in Vienna on 22 June to begin negotiations on New Start, which expires in February.

Continue reading...

Coronavirus may have been in Wuhan in August, study suggests

Posted on by

Research finds rise in hospital car park usage and web searches for ‘diarrhoea’ and ‘cough’

Coronavirus may have been present and spreading in Wuhan as early as August last year, according to a study that analysed satellite imagery of car parks outside major hospitals and search engine data.

The study, by researchers from Harvard medical school, Boston University of Public Health and Boston children’s hospital, looked at images captured between January 2018 and April 2020 and found a “steep increase” in vehicle counts starting in August 2019 and peaking in December 2019. Between September and October, five of the six hospitals observed had their highest daily volume of cars in the period analysed.

Continue reading...

Hong Kong protests: dozens arrested marking first anniversary in defiance of police ban

Posted on by

Fifty-three demonstrators arrested after ignoring ban on gatherings to mark one year of protests

More than 50 people were arrested in Hong Kong on Tuesday night after thousands of protesters took to the streets in defiance of a police order to mark the first anniversary of the anti-government movement.

Police riot units used pepper spray and repeatedly charged at crowds in an attempt to disperse protesters gathered near the business district of Central, occupying roads and blocking traffic until well after midnight.

Continue reading...

UK shares, sterling rise on further lockdown easing hopes – business live

Posted on by

The government is reportedly ready to let beer gardens open from 22 June as part of plans drawn up by a group of ministers, dubbed the “Save Summer Six”, who are looking at ways to restart the hospitality industry earlier than initially planned, writes my colleague Rob Davies.

The proposals, first reported in the Financial Times, would allow some of the 27,000 UK pubs that have outdoor space to serve customers for the first time in three months.

UK airline and travel stocks are up, for once, despite the new quarantine rules. The cruise operator Carnival is the biggest riser on the FTSE 100 index, up 14%, while BA owner IAG is 6.9% ahead and easyJet has gained 5.5%.

As reported earlier, Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary said the airline would fly through the 14-day UK quarantine, which he described as “rubbish”. Britain’s three biggest airlines – Ryanair, easyJet and IAG – have begun legal proceedings against the government over the quarantine rules, which they argue are illogical and unfair, and come months late.

Related: Ryanair boss: Britons know quarantine rules are rubbish

Continue reading...