Category Archives: China

Propaganda and sexism prove powerful contraceptives for Chinese women

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China’s push for more births fails to convince a generation of only-children

China’s government has been trying to manage a public U-turn on one of its biggest, longest running and most powerful policy and propaganda campaigns for several years now, urging a generation of only-children – born under its one-child policy – that they should have more babies themselves.

But the posters, public information campaigns and official exhortations appear to have had almost no discernible effect. Beijing on Friday reported its lowest birthrate since the founding of Communist China over seven decades ago.

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China’s birthrate falls to lowest level despite push for more babies

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Efforts by policymakers to bolster the population after decades of strict family planning seem to be failing

China’s birthrate has fallen to the lowest level since the Communist country was founded in 1949, in a sign that efforts to head off a demographic crisis have so far failed.

There were 14.6 million births in China in 2019, a drop of about 500,000 from the year before and the third year in a row that the number of births fallen, according to a report from the National Bureau of Statistics published on Friday. It was the lowest number in seven decades, with the exception of 1961, the last year of a famine that left tens of millions dead.

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Coronavirus: more cases and second death reported in China

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Experts fear numbers affected may be higher than first thought as US begins screening passengers arriving from Wuhan

More cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the Chinese city of Wuhan and a second person has died, according to local authorities. It comes as disease-modelling experts warned that far more people may have been affected by the previously unknown virus than thought.

The Wuhan municipal health commission said in a statement that four patients diagnosed with pneumonia on Thursday were in a stable condition, taking the total number of cases to nearly 50. The statement released in the early hours on Saturday is the first confirmation of new cases by the commission in nearly a week.

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UK channels aid budget as it seeks closer ties with Africa post-Brexit

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£395m trade boost is aimed at countering China’s spending on the continent

Britain has unveiled plans to channel part of the £14bn aid budget through the City as it seeks to exploit the global reach of the finance sector to boost investment in Africa.

Details of the £395m package were announced by the international development secretary, Alok Sharma, ahead of a high-level UK-Africa investment summit next Monday.

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Hong Kong could keep semi-autonomy for longer, says Lam

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Leader says ‘one country, two systems’ deal could continue if city shows loyalty to China

Hong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam, has said the “one country, two systems” framework under which the city is meant to enjoy autonomy from China could be extended beyond 2047 if loyalty to Beijing is upheld.

In her first appearance at the Legislative Council since October, Lam answered a question from a lawmaker about what might happen in 2047, the year the semi-autonomous territory is meant to return to Chinese rule.

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Trump signs China trade pact and boasts of ‘the biggest deal ever seen’

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President signs first phase of new agreement with China, hours after Democrats named team that will prosecute him in Senate

Donald Trump has signed the first phase of a new trade agreement with China after two years of tension between the two superpowers that have rattled economies around the world.

Related: Trump vaunts his China trade pact – but some say it’s too little, too late

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CCTV shows huge sinkhole swallow bus in China killing at least six – video

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A video filmed in the city of Xining in China shows the moment that a bus and several pedestrians disappear inside a huge sinkhole, killing at least six people and leaving 10 missing.

The footage, shown on state media, shows the road suddenly collapsing, swallowing the bus when it was picking up passengers at a stop. The incident, outside a hospital in Qinghai province, also triggered an explosion inside the hole

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Case of mystery Sars-like illness found outside China for the first time

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WHO is working with Thai officials after woman who travelled from China is hospitalised with new strain of coronavirus

Health authorities have confirmed that a woman travelling from China to Thailand has been infected with a new strain of the coronavirus linked to a worrying outbreak in Wuhan.

The World Health Organisation said on Monday it was working with Thai officials after the case was identified and the woman hospitalised on 8 January, marking the first case the mystery illness has been detected outside China.

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At least six dead after huge sinkhole in China swallows bus and pedestrians

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Footage on state TV shows the vehicle disappearing inside the sinkhole in the city of Xining as people run away

An enormous sinkhole has swallowed a bus and pedestrians in China, killing six people and leaving 10 missing.

Footage on state media showed people at a bus stop running from the collapsing road, as the bus – jutting into the air – sank.

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Head of Human Rights Watch denied entry to Hong Kong

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Kenneth Roth was due to launch the organisation’s latest report in the Chinese-controlled city

The global head of Human Rights Watch says he has been denied entry to Hong Kong, where he was scheduled to launch the organisation’s latest world report this week.

Kenneth Roth, the group’s executive director, said that on Sunday he was blocked at Hong Kong airport from entering for the first time, having entered freely in the past.

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Taiwan re-elects Tsai Ing-Wen as president in clear message to China

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Win marks dramatic comeback for party that campaigned against unification with China

Tsai Ing-Wen has been re-elected as Taiwan’s president, as voters delivered a sharp rebuke to Beijing by choosing a leader who had campaigned on protecting their country from China.

As results came in on Saturday following a quiet day of voting in schools, temples, and community centres across the island, Tsai, of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), quickly established a lead over her opponent, Han Kuo-yu, of the Kuomintang, which promotes closer ties with China.

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‘I quit life as a BBC journalist to live as a jade carver in China’

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Andrew Shaw, 63, on how he switched to a new career and life in another continent

Name: Andrew Shaw
Age: 63
Occupation: Jade carver and author, China
Income: £48,000

I took early retirement from my job as a BBC reporter 13 years ago to travel to China to pursue my dream to learn to carve jade. At one time I loved reporting live from major events such as 9/11. It was as if I was witnessing history rather than covering the news. But the death of my mother made me rethink my life.

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Hong Kong: nearly a third of adults report PTSD symptoms – study

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Research also finds heavy use of social media to follow socio-political events appears to increase risk on mental health

Nearly one in three adults in Hong Kong reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder during months of often violent social unrest in the city, according to a study published in the Lancet medical journal on Friday.

Related: Portraits of Hong Kong's masked protesters – in pictures

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China’s Sars-like illness worries health experts

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China’s viral pneumonia outbreak may have jumped species barrier, raising fears of pandemic

The finding that the outbreak of viral pneumonia in China that has struck 59 people may be caused by a coronavirus, the family of viruses behind Sars, which spread to 37 countries in 2003, causing global panic and killing more than 750 people, means that health authorities will be watching closely.

China says the illness is not Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome), nor Mers (Middle East respiratory syndrome), both of which are caused by coronaviruses, and so far it appears milder than both. Unlike Sars, it does not appear to spread easily between humans and unlike Mers, which has a mortality rate of about 35%, nobody has died.

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World’s fastest driverless bullet train launches in China

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New service launches ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022, with trains making the 108-mile trip from the capital to ski slopes in only 45 minutes

A new driverless bullet train connecting the Chinese cities of Beijing and Zhangjiakou is capable of reaching a top speed of up to 217mph (350km/h), making it the world’s fastest autonomous train in operation.

The new service, launched in the build-up to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic games, will reduce travel time between the capital and Zhangjiakou, which will stage most of the skiing events, from three hours to less than one. Some trains will complete the 108-mile routein 45 minutes. The original Beijing-Zhangjiakou line opened in 1909, when the same journey took around eight hours.

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Mystery illness in Chinese city not Sars, say authorities

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Fears of new epidemic after people taken to hospital in Wuhan with viral pneumonia

A mysterious respiratory illness that has infected dozens of people in a central Chinese city is not Sars, local authorities have said.

The 2002-03 epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome started in southern China and killed more than 700 people. Fears of a recurrence arose this month after a number of people were taken to hospital with unexplained viral pneumonia in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province.

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Dozens held in Hong Kong after violence at parallel trading march

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Protests target mainlanders’ practice of bulk-buying goods to sell at profit in China

Petrol bombs have been thrown at a Hong Kong police station and dozens of people arrested after a march against parallel trading near the Chinese border.

The Democratic party said about 10,000 people marched peacefully in Sheung Shui district on Sunday, but violence erupted after police ordered protesters to disperse.

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China replaces top Hong Kong official as protests enter eighth month

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Beijing offers no explanation for appointing of Luo Huining to head its liaison office

China has replaced a top official in Hong Kong as anti-government protests in the semi-autonomous territory enter their eighth month.

Luo Huining, the former Communist party chief for Shanxi province, has been appointed head of China’s liaison office in Hong Kong, the official Xinhua news agency said.

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Mystery viral outbreak in Hong Kong revives fears of SARS epidemic

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City initiates ‘serious response’ level as sickness recalls deadly respiratory syndrome that killed 700 people


Hong Kong authorities has moved to “serious response” level as fears spread about a mysterious infectious disease that may have been brought back by visitors to a mainland Chinese city.

Five possible cases have been reported of a viral pneumonia that has also infected at least 44 people in Wuhan, an inland city west of Shanghai and about 900km north of Hong Kong.

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Want to lose weight? Lose the car

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A long-term resolution to leave the car at home could help waistlines as well as the environment

Since 2011 Beijing has controlled traffic growth by allocating new licence plates in a bimonthly lottery. There is less than a one in 500 chance of getting a plate in each draw but winning might not be as wonderful as it first seems.

The impact of increased motorised travel extend beyond air pollution. In the UK the total distance walked each year dropped by 30% between 1995 and 2013, and the distance cycled in England and Wales in 2012 was just 20% of that in 1952 – but these changes have been slow and are difficult to study.

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