Beijing arrests Canadian citizen on drug-related charges amid diplomatic crisis, following detention of Meng Wanzhou
A Canadian citizen detained in China is being held on drug-related offences, Beijing said Monday, at a time of tense relations between the two countries.
News of the latest arrest comes amid a diplomatic crisis sparked by the detention of Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer for Chinese tech giant Huawei, in Vancouver on a US extradition bid.
Continue reading...Officers dressed in riot gear have fought with demonstrators inside a shopping centre in the residential district of Sha Tin, as they tried to disperse tens of thousands of people rallying against an extradition bill that would allow suspects to be sent to mainland China to face trial. Millions have taken to the streets in the past month in some of the largest and most violent protests for decades
Continue reading...The cost of keeping China out of the region is too great, we must build forces that could counter its operations instead
Let’s be honest: Australians have never had much time for our South Pacific neighbours.
The island nations that lie to our north and north-east, stretching from Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands to Vanuatu, Fiji and beyond, may be close to us geographically, but we have not found them especially interesting, important or profitable.
Continue reading...Standoff in Sha Tin over extradition bill came one day after unrest in Sheung Shui
Violent clashes have erupted between Hong Kong police and protesters at the end of a peaceful demonstration against the controversial extradition bill. The incidents took place late on Sunday in a bustling town between Hong Kong island and the border with China.
The scene descended into chaos shortly before 10pm local time (1400 GMT), after riot police chased protesters into a shopping centre in Sha Tin. Police used truncheons and pepper spray against protesters, who threw objects such as umbrellas and plastic water bottles at them. Some protesters were also seen beating a police officer. Several arrests were made.
Continue reading...The successful protests against the extradition law are unleasing popular anger on a range of issues
An old Chinese idiom has become the key catchphrase of Hong Kong’s social discourse in recent days. Pien Dei Hoi Fa – flowers blooming everywhere – is the term being used to describe the emergence of local protests and so-called Lennon walls, colourful collages of sticky labels with political messages, that are popping up in local communities all over Hong Kong.
Millions in this former British colony have flocked to the streets in several mass protests over the past month to fight against a proposed law that would allow individuals to be extradited to stand trial in China’s opaque courts. Now, feeling emboldened by the solidarity and big turnout at recent protests, which have made headlines across the world, Hong Kong people are now riding on the wave of their success to speak up on a range of issues, which are generally related to their discontent with the encroachment of China into Hong Kong.
Continue reading...Police use pepper spray and truncheons after protest about cross-border traders
Clashes broke out between police and protesters in Hong Kong on Saturday after thousands took part in a peaceful march in an out-of-town district in Hong Kong.
After the end of the Reclaim Sheung Shui protest against parallel traders who snap up goods such as foreign-made formula milk, medicines and soy sauce for reselling in China in the town near the mainland border, hundreds of protesters put on goggles, face masks and hard hats and occupied the streets around the train station, which had been cordoned off for the police-sanctioned demonstration earlier.
Continue reading...China has said it will impose sanctions on US firms involved in a deal to sell $2.2bn worth of tanks, missiles and related equipment to Taiwan, saying it harmed China’s sovereignty and national security.
The Pentagon said on Monday the US state department had approved the sale of the weapons requested by Taiwan, including 108 General Dynamics Corp M1A2T Abrams tanks and 250 Stinger missiles, which are manufactured by Raytheon.
Continue reading...Police in eastern city of Xuzhou have detained seven foreign teachers and nine students but gave no further details
Four Britons have been arrested in China, the British embassy said, two days after Chinese police announced a drug bust there involving 16 foreigners.
Police in the city of Xuzhou in the eastern province of Jiangsu said on Wednesday that a total of 19 people were arrested in a drugs case centring on a local branch of a language school.
Continue reading...Steep fines and social credit penalties face people violating complex waste sorting rules – but some say the answer is all about pigs
For the last two weeks, Shanghai residents have grappled with a singular question: “What kind of trash are you?”
The question is aimed at the city’s daily 22,000 tonnes of household waste that, according to new rules implemented on 1 July, must be sorted into one of four colour-coded bins: dry, wet, recyclable and hazardous.
Continue reading...With another 2.5 billion urban dwellers predicted within the next 30 years, should we expand existing cities? Or is there a case for starting afresh?
People have been building new cities from scratch for millennia. From the foundation myths surrounding Athens and Rome, to the clearance of virgin forests in western New York state to create the “garden city” of Buffalo, to scores of purpose-built capitals – Brasília, Canberra, Astana, Washington DC – building new cities is just something that humans do.
When countries rise up, when markets emerge, people build new cities. Today, though, we are taking it to unheard-of levels. We have never before built so many new cities in so many places at such great expense as we are right now.
Continue reading...Experts say level of distrust in the city’s leader is so deep that protests will continue
On Tuesday, Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, attempted to end what has been the territory’s worst political crisis in decades by declaring a controversial extradition bill that set off weeks of protests “dead”.
Yet the operative word protesters were looking for was “withdraw”, or chit wui, a key demand of the demonstrators to formally withdraw the bill from parliament. Lam has said the bill, already suspended last month in response to protests, would expire at the end of the legislative session that finishes next July. Instead she used a Cantonese idiom to describe “reaching the end of one’s life”.
Continue reading...Mulan has been transformed from life-affirming epic to patriotic saga, showing Hollywood is prioritising box office success
Disney have just released their hotly anticipated teaser trailer for their live-action remake of Mulan. The 1998 animated musical action film, following the triumphant story of an awkward young woman who takes her father’s place in a war by disguising herself as a boy, resonated globally. I was seven years old when it was released, and as a half-Chinese girl born and raised in pre-handover Hong Kong, the film had special importance to me, with its combination of east-west values, musical numbers (Honour to Us All, I’ll Make a Man Out of You and Reflection have aged extremely well), and female protagonist who kicks some serious butt while retaining her moral integrity and reinforcing family values. To this day, my Mulan sword, Mushu soft toy and Mulan dolls are somewhere safe in storage at home in Hong Kong.
To say I was excited by the prospect of a live action remake of Mulan is an understatement. The film joins the plethora of live-action remakes of Disney’s 90s renaissance hits, including Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King. All of these retain their musical numbers. Why then has Disney decided to make Mulan a gritty realist film? Particularly considering there are already Chinese versions of the legend: General Hua Mu-lan (1964) and Mulan: Rise of a Warrior (2009).
Continue reading...Crowds of protesters, some holding umbrellas, continued to face off with police in Hong Kong late on Sunday as their month-old protest movement showed no signs of abating. Police lined the streets holding batons and riot shields as thousands of people took part in the latest demonstrations to demand the withdrawal of a bill that would allow extraditions to the Chinese mainland
Continue reading...Foreign secretary refused to clarify Britain’s stance in row over Hong Kong protests
China’s ambassador to the UK has accused the UK’s foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, of having a “cold war mentality” in his approach to the diplomatic row over Hong Kong.
Liu Xiaoming criticised the Conservative leadership candidate for his stance of “strategic ambiguity” on the possibility of sanctions against China over the crackdown on the ongoing protests in Hong Kong.
Continue reading...Tens of thousands of protesters march to keep up the pressure on the Hong Kong government to withdraw a controversial extradition bill, in the latest of a series of mass rallies that have drawn millions of demonstrators over the past month. The march is planned to finish at the West Kowloon railway terminus, where high-speed trains link Hong Kong with mainland Chinese cities
Continue reading...Police in riot gear beat protesters as demonstration continued into late evening
Conflict has broken out between hundreds of protesters and police in riot gear in Hong Kong after tens of thousands of protesters marched peacefully earlier in the day to keep up the pressure on the government to withdraw its controversial extradition bill.
Related: Hong Kong youth vow to fight on as China gets tough on protest
Continue reading...Jeremy Hunt’s support for the Hong Kong protests has released old resentments long suppressed
Last week’s sudden outbreak of verbal hostilities with China, triggered by violent clashes in Hong Kong, provided a disturbing glimpse of post-Brexit Britain’s isolated and impotent future in a world of more muscular adversaries. It also underlined a dilemma facing all the western democracies in their dealings with Beijing: what matters most – liberal values or money-making?
Like bullies sensing weakness, Chinese officials let rip after Britain dared defend the demonstrators’ right to protest against the erosion of Hong Kong’s freedoms. The row released tensions largely suppressed since the former colony was handed back in 1997. The depth of China’s pent-up fury was cautionary.
Continue reading...Relatives tell of more than 100 missing children amid Xinjiang boarding school building drive
China is reportedly separating Muslim children from their families, religion and language, and is engaged in a rapid, large-scale campaign to build boarding schools for them.
The attempts to “remove children from their roots” exists in parallel to Beijing’s ongoing detention of an estimated 1 million Uighur adults from the western Xinjiang region in camps and sweeping crackdown on the rights of the minority group, the BBC reported.
Continue reading...Public acceptance is improving, but in some cases Chinese authorities are moving in the other direction
It was a landmark moment for LGBT rights. When Taiwan passed a law allowing same-sex couples to marry, crowds in Taipei erupted into cheers, chanting: “First in Asia”.
For those watching from across the Taiwan strait in China, where gay couples do not have that right, the moment was heartening but also profoundly sad. Matthew, 27, an LGBT activist in Chengdu, spent the day following the proceedings online on his own. A few days later he flew to Taiwan to watch two male friends register their marriage after 14 years together.
Continue reading...China’s ambassador to the UK has warned that Britain’s approach to the Hong Kong protests has damaged the relationship between the two countries. Liu Xiaoming has been summoned for a dressing down from the head of the UK’s diplomatic service, Sir Simon McDonald, over the spat. ‘The fundamental principles guiding our two countries is mutual respect, non-interference into internal affairs,’ Liu said.
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