Category Archives: China

At least four Chinese-speaking tourists killed in Utah bus crash

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A bus carrying 30 tourists lost control about seven miles from Bryce Canyon National Park

At least four people have been killed and up to 15 others critically injured when a bus transporting Chinese-speaking tourists crashed near Bryce Canyon national park in the western US state of Utah, local authorities said.

The Utah highway patrol said the crash took place Friday morning about seven miles from the park entrance, forcing the road to be shut as ambulances and rescue vehicles rushed to the site.

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Hong Kong protests: tech war opens up with doxxing of protesters and police

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Campaigns to expose personal details of those on both sides of protests skyrocket, with nearly 1,000 cases being investigated

Hong Kong has seen an unprecedented wave of doxxing – the malicious spread of private information online – since anti-government protests began in early June.

Social media forums such as LIHKG, a Reddit-like website, and encrypted apps such as Telegram have played a critical role in organising the leaderless protest movement but are now being used to share names, photos, phone numbers, ages and the occupation of individuals on both sides of the protest line.

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Outrage in China as giant panda on loan to Thailand zoo dies

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Chuang Chuang reportedly collapsed after eating bamboo in Chiang Mai Zoo

The sudden death of a giant panda on loan to a zoo in Thailand has sparked outrage in China and calls for no more of the bears to be lent to the country.

Chuang Chuang, a 19-year-old male, reportedly collapsed on Monday afternoon after eating bamboo in Chiang Mai zoo in northern Thailand, according to Thai media.

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Hong Kong protests: government fails to find PR firm to rescue battered image

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Eight companies turned down opportunity because it would harm their reputations

The Hong Kong government has tried but failed to secure help from any of the global public relations firms it has approached to salvage the financial hub’s tarnished reputation, as anti-government protests continued to wreak havoc months into its deepest political crisis in decades.

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam told a group of business people in the city in late August that the government had approached eight global PR companies to help it relaunch Hong Kong, but four “immediately declined because that would be a detriment to their reputation to support the Hong Kong government now,” according to a transcript of her speech published by Reuters last week. Two more declined later, she said.

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China extends influence in Pacific as Solomon Islands break with Taiwan

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Blow for Taipei as largest remaining ally in region switches relations to Beijing

The Solomon Islands’ government has voted to sever its longstanding ties with Taiwan and take up diplomatic relations with Beijing.

The move is a huge blow to self-ruled Taiwan, which has lost six allies since 2016, and to Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, who is seeking re-election in January amid rising tension with China. It has sparked protests in the Solomon Islands, according to local media.

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Hong Kong police fire water cannon at protesters throwing petrol bombs – video

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Officers also fired teargas at the demonstrators, who had gathered outside the government office complex on Sunday. The latest violence came after tens of thousands defied a police ban and marched toward the seat of the government, chanting: ‘Five demands, not one less.’ For the past three months, Hong Kong has been gripped by the most serious political crisis in decades, triggered by a proposal to allow extradition to mainland China

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Police fire teargas and water cannon at Hong Kong protesters

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Demonstrators surround government complex, throwing rocks and molotov cocktails

A peaceful rally in Hong Kong has descended into chaos as police fired teargas and water cannon at protesters who hurled petrol bombs, set fires and clashed with residents.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators defied a police ban and marched on the seat of the government calling for greater democracy in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory.

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Uncle Wong, 82: protecting Hong Kong protesters with his walking stick – video

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Uncle Wong is part of Protect the Children, a community group whose members put their bodies between the police and young Hongkongers protesting against the government. Waving his walking stick in the air and wearing swimming goggles to protect against teargas, he tries to reason with police and provide a distraction to allow activists to evade arrest. As tensions continue to rise between protesters and police, however, so does the emotional burden on Uncle Wong

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Gladys Liu accused of failing to declare $40,000 donation to Liberal party

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Labor renews calls for embattled MP to explain alleged links to Chinese Communist party

Labor has renewed calls for Liberal MP Gladys Liu to explain links to Chinese associations despite Scott Morrison labelling the tactic “grubby”.

On Friday the controversy around the member for Chisholm grew after the Herald Sun reported that Liu had failed to file a return declaring a $39,675 donation to the Victorian Liberal party in 2015-16.

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China detains man who reportedly shared images of troops at Hong Kong border

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Lee Meng-chu from Taiwan held on state security charges after going missing weeks ago

China has detained a Taiwanese man on state security charges after he reportedly distributed photos of Chinese troops massing equipment on the Hong Kong border.

Lee Meng-chu was being investigated after he “allegedly engaged in illegal activities that endanger state security”, said a spokesman for mainland China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, without elaborating.

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Hong Kong activist’s visit to Berlin draws anger from China

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Beijing criticises German foreign minister over meeting with Joshua Wong

The Chinese government has expressed its anger with Germany’s foreign minister over his meeting with the Hong Kong democracy activist Joshua Wong, saying the encounter was “disrespectful” of Beijing’s sovereignty.

Wong tweeted a picture of himself and Heiko Maas following his arrival in Berlin, saying the two had discussed the “protest situation and our cause”.

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Avoid irresponsible remarks on Hong Kong, China warns UK MPs

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Ambassador Liu Xiaoming says politicians free to express their opinion – within limits

China’s ambassador to the UK has accused British politicians of exhibiting a “colonial mindset” when they express support for demonstrators in Hong Kong or raise concerns about Huawei or freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.

Liu Xiaoming said British MPs were free to express their opinion about the Hong Kong crisis but needed to recognise there were limits. Critical comments were not a problem “as long as you do not interfere in Hong Kong’s affairs,” he said.

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Trump’s trade war with China creates unexpected winner: Canada’s lobster industry

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Prices are at record levels and demand is growing for fishermen north of the border after China imposed tariffs on live lobsters

Long hours, rolling ocean swells, and the occasional spring snowstorm are all part of the job for Francis Morrissey.

“It’s bred into you from the time you’re a child: you either like the ocean or you don’t,” said the fisherman and business owner from the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island. “Even when I’m in the office, I wish I was out there.”

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Solomon Islands poised to switch allegiance from Taiwan to China

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Pacific nation is one of the few countries that recognise Taiwan, but this may soon change

The Solomon Islands intends to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan and align itself with Beijing, the leader of a high-level government team representing the South Pacific archipelago has said.

The switch, which still needs to be formalised, would be a prize for China in its bid to peel away allies from what it considers a wayward province with no right to state-to-state ties. Only 17 countries now recognise Taiwan.

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Hong and Kong? Berlin’s panda cubs at centre of Chinese human rights row

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Competition to name Meng Meng’s twins intensifies pressure on German government

They may have captured the public’s imagination, but the tiny, pink panda cubs born at Berlin zoo a few days ago have also spurred a national debate about whether panda diplomacy is blinding Germany to the Chinese government’s human rights record.

As visitors and journalists queue around the block to catch a glimpse of Meng Meng’s cubs, a competition to name them has increased pressure on the government of Angela Merkel, who kicked off a trip to Beijing with a large economic delegation on Thursday.

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Hong Kong’s Carrie Lam vows to use ‘stern law enforcement’ to stamp out protests

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Leader refuses to resign and backs police handling of protests despite widespread claims of brutality

Hong Kong’s embattled leader, Carrie Lam, has vowed to use “stern law enforcement” to stamp out violent protests, a day after she made a dramatic announcement to formally withdraw an extradition bill that has ignited months of protests.

At a press briefing on Thursday, Lam said the purpose of her decision to formally withdraw the suspended bill was to “zhibao zhiluan” (“put a stop to violence and chaos”) – a phrase often used by mainland Chinese officials when condemning the protests in Hong Kong.

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Beijing’s Hong Kong compromise is surely too little, too late

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The incendiary extradition bill has been binned but protesters’ demands have grown

The decision by the Hong Kong leader, Carrie Lam, to withdraw the extradition bill that provoked months of turmoil represents a major and unexpected concession from Beijing, but is almost certainly too little, and too late, to end the protests.

In June when millions first poured into the streets in peaceful protest, a promise to ditch the law might well have muted the burgeoning popular uprising. But Lam is only acting after months of police brutality, thug attacks on protesters, mass arrests, and barely veiled threats of security intervention from mainland China.

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A ‘deep fake’ app will make us film stars – but will we regret our narcissism?

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Users of Zao can now add themselves into the scenes of their favourite movies. But is our desire to insert ourselves into everything putting our privacy at risk?

‘You oughta be in pictures,” goes the 1934 Rudy Vallée song. And, as of last week, pretty much anyone can be. The entry requirements for being a star fell dramatically thanks to the launch, in China, of a face-swapping app that can decant users into film and TV clips.

Zao, which has quickly become China’s most downloaded free app, fuses the face in the original clip with your features. All that is required is a single selfie and the man or woman in the street is transformed into a star of the mobile screen, if not quite the silver one. In other words, anyone who yearns to be part of Titanic or Game of Thrones, The Big Bang Theory or the latest J-Pop sensation can now bypass the audition and go straight to the limelight without all that pesky hard work, talent and dedication. A whole new generation of synthetic movie idols could be unleashed upon the world: a Humphrey Bogus, a Phony Curtis, a Fake Dunaway.

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