Category Archives: China

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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Money pumped into China’s economy in attempt to fight slowdown

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People’s Bank of China allows commercial banks to hold less capital in reserve

China’s central bank has acted to pump more liquidity into the country’s economy in an attempt to prevent growth slowing in 2020.

The People’s Bank of China is allowing commercial banks to hold less capital in reserve, freeing up about 800bn yuan (£87bn) in new funds for loans. It will cut China’s banks’ reserve requirement ratio (RRR) by 50 basis points, to 12.5%, from 6 January.

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Hundreds arrested at huge New Year’s Day rally in Hong Kong

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Police detain 400 and fire teargas as anti-government protests continue into 2020

A huge New Year’s Day march in Hong Kong has ended in mass arrests and street clashes as the anti-government movement – now in its eighth month – continued into 2020.

Police detained about 400 people on charges including illegal assembly and possession of offensive weapons after the rally on Wednesday, which organisers said was attended by more than a million people. It was one of the largest numbers of arrests in a single day since the unrest began.

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Hong Kong braces for huge New Year’s Day march after night of unrest

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Marchers begin to gather after New Year’s Eve violence saw police fire teargas and activists set fire to barricades

Thousands have gathered in Hong Kong to take part in a what is expected to be a huge New Year’s Day march, hours after police fired teargas on pro-democracy protesters marking the start of 2020.

The city has been battered by more than six months of unrest with marches attended by millions, as well as confrontations in which police have fired teargas and rubber bullets – and protesters have responded with petrol bombs.

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Kim Jong-un signals North Korea could resume nuclear missile tests

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Trump says he trusts leader to refrain from testing, despite Kim’s criticism of Washington’s ‘gangster-like demands’

Kim Jong-un has signalled that North Korea will lift its moratoriums on nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests in a move likely to anger Donald Trump.

The North Korean leader told a four-day meeting of party officials in Pyongyang that the test ban, which Kim agreed to in talks with the US president, was no longer needed, state media said on Wednesday.

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This decade belonged to China. So will the next one | Martin Jacques

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The west is still finding it extraordinarily difficult to come to terms with China’s remarkable ascent

By 2010, China was beginning to have an impact on the global consciousness in a new way. Prior to the western financial crisis, it had been seen as the new but very junior kid on the block. The financial crash changed all that. Before 2008 the conventional western wisdom had been that sooner or later China would suffer a big economic meltdown. It never did. Instead, the crisis happened in the west, with huge consequences for the latter’s stability and self-confidence.

Related: Europe needs China’s billions. But does it know the price? | Juliet Ferguson

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Donald Trump says he will sign first phase of US-China trade deal

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Prospect of agreement lifts stock markets but experts question impact on long-running tensions

Donald Trump has said he will sign the first phase of a long-awaited trade deal with China on 15 January, in a move that de-escalates the tariff war between the world’s two biggest economies.

In a tweet on Tuesday, the US president said “high-level representatives of China” would attend an official ceremony at the White House, adding he would also be travelling to Beijing for talks on the second phase of the deal.

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Huawei says ‘survival is our first priority’ in 2020 as western boycott bites

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Chairman Eric Xu warns that hit from US sanctions means telecoms firm must ‘go all out’ to maintain sales

The embattled Chinese telecommunications company Huawei says “survival” is its first priority after announcing sales were hit hard by a boycott from western countries.

Eric Xu, the company’s chairman, said estimated sales revenue would reach 850bn yuan for 2019 (US$121bn) - up roughly 18% from the previous year, but much lower than initially expected.

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China jails underground pastor Wang Yi for nine years for inciting subversion

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Leader of Early Rain Covenant, which is not sanctioned by Communist party, swept up in crackdown on religion under Xi Jinping

A Chinese court has sentenced the pastor Wang Yi to nine years in prison on charges of inciting subversion of state power and illegally operating a business.

Wang was among dozens of churchgoers and leaders of the Early Rain Covenant church detained by police in December 2018. Most were subsequently released.

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He Jiankui, Chinese scientist who edited babies’ genes, jailed for three years

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The biophysicist was guilty of illegal practice in trying to alter the genetic makeup of twins Lula and Nana

The scientist who created the world’s first “gene-edited” babies has been sentenced to to three years in prison by a court in China.

He Jiankui said in November 2018 that he had used gene-editing technology known as Crispr-Cas9 to change the genes of twin girls, causing a backlash in China and globally about the ethics of his research and work.

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Taiwan’s citizens battle pro-China fake news campaigns as election nears

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Contest is in effect a referendum on the future of the self-governed island’s relationship with China

Citizen groups in Taiwan are fighting a Russian-style influence and misinformation campaign that is believed to originate across the strait in mainland China with just weeks to go before it votes for its next president,

Taiwan goes to the polls on 11 January to decide between two main candidates, incumbent president Tsai-Ing-Wen of the Democratic People’s party (DPP) under whom ties with Beijing have become fraught, and Han Kuo-Yu of the Kuomintang party (KMT), which advocates closer engagement with China.

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