As air quality plummets on the Australian east coast as a result of devastating bush fires, residents of cities clogged with smog share their coping strategies
The east coast of Australia is in the grip of a bushfire and air pollution crisis. But plummeting air quality levels are a regular occurrence in cities in India, Latin America and China. Here, residents and experts from Delhi, Beijing and Mexico City explain how they survive the smog.
Continue reading...President says China has plenty of money amid market jitters about trade talks and Beijing vow to be ‘strong backup’ for Hong Kong police
Donald Trump has called for the World Bank to stop lending money to China, a day after the institution adopted a lending plan to Beijing despite Washington’s objections.
The World Bank on Thursday adopted a plan to aid China with $1bn to $1.5bn in low-interest loans annually until 2025. The plan called for lending to “gradually decline” from the previous five-year average of $1.8bn.
Continue reading...Rushan Abbas says countries doing business with China are enabling its mass detention of 3 million people, including her sister
A leading Uighur activist, Rushan Abbas, has urged Australian MPs to take a stronger stance against the Chinese regime, while backing controversial comparisons between the state’s authoritarianism and Nazi Germany.
Abbas, who met with MPs in Canberra on Thursday and held a roundtable at the US Embassy on the plight of the Uighur Muslim minority in western China’s Xinjiang province, said that “modern day” concentration camps holding as many as 3 million Uighurs were a case of “history repeating itself”.
Continue reading...PM signals he is preparing to shut Chinese firm out after lobbying from Donald Trump
Boris Johnson has cast doubt on whether the UK will allow Huawei to invest in its 5G network, suggesting it might “prejudice” the Five Eyes intelligence relationship, after Donald Trump applied pressure for other countries to adopt the US ban.
In his strongest signal so far that he is preparing to shut Huawei out of the network, Johnson said that security concerns were paramount in the decision about the Chinese company.
Continue reading...Police have fired 10,000 canisters in protests, sparking health scare over possible harmful effects
Angel Chan is more cautious about where she takes her two children, aged three and five, to play these days.
“Police have thrown teargas all over the city – some of my friends say their children have come out in rashes,” Chan said. “I simply don’t know where to find a safe spot any more.”
Continue reading...Sydney lord mayor approached by police investigating accusations the emissions reduction minister relied on a falsified document to attack her. Follow all the day’s political news live
That’s where we’ll leave the live blog for the day. Thanks for following along.
It’s been another messy day. Many say the medevac repeal has made it one of parliament’s darkest.
Another development on the Angus Taylor front.
The City of Sydney’s lord mayor, Clover Moore, has been approached by police to provide a statement for their investigation into accusations Taylor relied on a falsified document to attack her travel-related emissions. The council said in a statement:
Continue reading...Asian markets plunge after Trump comments about trade deal delay made worse by possible Xinjiang sanctions
Global financial markets have gone into a tailspin amid mounting concern that the US and China are not going to conclude an interim trade agreement before a new set of American tariffs hit Chinese goods on 15 December.
Asian markets saw heavy selling on Wednesday after Donald Trump said a trade deal could wait until next year’s presidential election, scotching widely held expectations that he was ready to give the go ahead for an agreement.
Continue reading...He Jiankui’s original research, published for the first time, could have failed, scientists say
The gene editing performed on Chinese twins to immunise them against HIV may have failed and created unintended mutations, scientists have said after the original research was made public for the first time.
Excerpts from the manuscript were released by the MIT Technology Review to show how Chinese biophysicist He Jiankui ignored ethical and scientific norms in creating the twins Lula and Nana, whose birth in late 2018 sent shockwaves through the scientific world.
Continue reading...Legislation in response to crackdown in Xinjiang prompts angry response from Beijing
The US House of Representatives has overwhelmingly approved a bill that would require the Trump administration to toughen its response to China’s crackdown on its Muslim minority in Xinjiang, drawing swift condemnation from Beijing.
The Uighur Act of 2019 is a stronger version of a bill that angered Beijing when it passed the Senate in September. It calls on the president, Donald Trump, to impose sanctions for the first time on a member of China’s powerful politburo even as he seeks a trade deal with Beijing.
Continue reading...Cities around the world are scaling up their use of surveillance cameras and facial recognition systems – but which ones are watching their citizens most closely?
Qiu Rui, a policeman in Chongqing, was on duty this summer when he received an alert from a facial recognition system at a local square. There was a high probability a man caught on camera was a suspect in a 2002 murder case, the system told him.
The depth, breadth and intrusiveness of China's mass surveillance may be unprecedented in modern history
Continue reading...Ministry claims change will ‘protect the legitimate rights and interest of citizens in cyberspace’ but critics say it’s dystopian
All mobile phone users in China registering new SIM cards must submit to facial recognition scans, according to a new rule that went into effect across the country on Sunday.
The guidelines, first issued in September, require telecoms companies to deploy “artificial intelligence and other technical methods” to check the identities of people registering SIM cards. All physical stores in the country have had until 1 December to begin implementing the new standards.
Continue reading...They are at the centre of debates about freedom, nationalism and democracy, yet their individual voices are rarely heard
Chinese students in Australia have been accused of trying to stifle freedom of speech on campus, of attacking pro-democracy protesters and of undermining the quality of education at our top universities which are increasingly dependent on the money they bring.
They stand at the centre of many of our political debates as we navigate the increasing influence of China in our region, its attempts to infiltrate our politics and institutions, and Australia’s increasing economic dependence.
Continue reading...Hundreds of residents in Wenlou township were protesting against construction of large crematorium
Riot police have fired teargas and beaten residents in southern China after they took to the streets to protest against a local construction project.
Hundreds of residents in Wenlou, a township in Guangdong province about 60 miles from Hong Kong, protested on Friday against plans for a large crematorium in an area officials had previously said would become an “ecological park”.
Continue reading...Picture trailing new Frank Miller comic showed Batwoman throwing a molotov cocktail against the legend: ‘The future is young’
DC Comics has pulled an image advertising its new Batman comic on social media following an angry backlash in China, where some believed it implied support of the ongoing protests in Hong Kong.
The since-deleted image showed Batwoman throwing a molotov cocktail against a backdrop of pink lettering reading: “The future is young.” Intended to promote Frank Miller and Rafael Grampá’s forthcoming Batman title Dark Knight Returns: The Golden Child, it was shared on DC’s social media earlier this week.
Continue reading...It has been a bad week for Beijing, with new support for pro-democracy protesters and detailed evidence of the repression in the north-western region
Beijing was never going to welcome the news that the US had passed a law backing pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong. But its anger today at Donald Trump’s signing of a bill it condemns as “full of prejudice and arrogance” perhaps had extra bite. This was its third blow in a week. On Monday, leaders woke up to a pro-democracy landslide in Hong Kong’s local elections, and the publication of leaked documents exposing the workings of internment camps in Xinjiang, where at least a million Uighurs and other Muslims are believed to be detained.
China’s bullishness has already been challenged by the trade war and slowing economic growth, now at a 27-year low. Mr Trump has previously made it clear that he regards Hong Kong’s protesters as leverage, and has shown he does not want this law to hinder a trade deal that both sides need and appear to be close to agreeing. China is hoping he will not implement the law, which enables sanctions on individuals and the revocation of the region’s special trade status if annual reviews find that it has not retained sufficient autonomy.
Continue reading...The late film star was a trailblazer for diversity in fashion and film. His loss deprives the growing Chinese entertainment industry of a fine talent
Taiwanese-Canadian actor Godfrey Gao was famous for being the first Asian international supermodel but he was much more than just a pretty face – he had a reputation for being one of the friendliest stars in an intensely competitive industry.
“He was known for being a very nice guy,” says Cecilia Pidgeon, a former celebrity editor at GQ China. “He had a very good reputation among other actors. He was always nice to his fans. All of the colleagues he worked with only had good things to say.”
Continue reading...A protester recalls conditions inside campus and questions where the movement goes next
It took a lot of courage for Peter Lui to go down the sewage drain – but he thought it was better than surrendering to the police who had besieged Polytechnic University in Hong Kong.
Now, instead of celebrating his successful escape a few days ago, he has become despondent. After returning home, he burned all his protective gear and swore he would have nothing to do with the anti-government movement that began almost six months ago.
Continue reading...Teenager claims video sharing platform is censoring her posts, which TikTok denies
An American teenager who is using makeup tutorials on TikTok to spread awareness of China’s detention of at least a million Muslims in internment camps in Xinjiang has claimed her videos are being censored by the platform.
In a three-part series that has gone viral on the international version of the Chinese short video-sharing platform, Feroza Aziz, 17, begins by appearing to show viewers how to use an eyelash curler.
Continue reading...The territory’s recession is getting deeper and the US is threatening its special trading status, bringing serious consequences for Beijing
Almost six months after the protest movement that has upended life in Hong Kong began, the region is now facing serious questions about its future as Asia’s leading international business centre.
The most recent violence in the autonomous Chinese region have been the worst disturbances of the six-month long pro-democracy protests. US lawmakers have passed legislation threatening Hong Kong’s special trading status and the territory has slumped into its worst recession for 10 years.
Continue reading...From steel to railways, Beijing is spending billions in EU countries. But are there strings attached?
The Yiwu-to-London train pulls into the DB Eurohub terminus in Barking, east London, 18 days after leaving the Chinese city, a trading centre south of Shanghai. Over the course of its 7,500-mile (12,000km) journey to Europe, the train has wound its way through Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany, Belgium and France, following part of the old east-west Silk Road.
This freight-rail link is just one of many new routes that, along with roads and ports, form China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Whether the branding is an elaborate PR exercise or a new version of the Silk Road, what is real is that as China globalises, its investment is being gratefully sought across Europe. From ports to power stations, football clubs to financial companies, from the Norwegian city of Kirkenes to the Greek port of Piraeus and the Portuguese national grid, Chinese investment has become indispensable to the European economy. However, the country’s rise as a global economic power poses a strategic dilemma for European governments. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, warned in March that the “period of European naivety” about China had to end.
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