Category Archives: China

Scott Morrison says quick resolution of US-China trade dispute ‘unrealistic’

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PM says ‘substantial and difficult’ issues to be resolved in standoff after speaking with Donald Trump and Xi Jinping at the G20 in Osaka

Scott Morrison says it is “unrealistic” to expect a quick resolution of the damaging trade dispute between the United States and China on Saturday at the G20 meeting in Osaka.

After conversations with Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, Morrison told travelling reporters on Friday there was a determination to resolve the standoff but he was not “naive” about how quickly the two countries would come to terms because there were “real, substantial and difficult issues to be resolved”.

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Beijing will not rest until it controls Hong Kong. We must keep fighting | Joshua Wong and Johnson Yeung

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In Hong Kong, we have pushed back against the extradition bill. But China is finding other ways to attack our freedom

Let’s put it in plain words: the people of Hong Kong haven’t defeated the proposed extradition law to China yet – we have only earned a small window to catch our breath. And so have the hardliners in the administration and the Chinese government.

Related: Hong Kong protesters hold noisy rally outside police headquarters

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Iran holds back on threat to breach nuclear deal

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Country may be waiting on outcome of talks setting out plans to kickstart trade with EU

Iran has held back on its threat to make its first breach of the nuclear deal and may be waiting for the outcome of talks with EU powers, China and Russia in Vienna.

At the talks on Friday the EU countries will set out plans to kickstart trade between Tehran and the bloc, one of the Iranian preconditions for sticking with the deal.

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Why aren’t Hong Kong’s protesters backing down? – podcast

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Millions of people have taken to the streets over the past three weeks in opposition to an extradition law. The Guardian correspondent Emma Graham-Harrison discusses covering the demonstrations and what could happen next. Plus: Angie Zelter on why she doesn’t regret being arrested at an Extinction Rebellion protest

Hong Kong has been rocked by its biggest political crisis in decades, with millions of people taking to the streets in central business districts to protest against a proposed law that would allow the extradition of suspects to mainland China, where the court system has a conviction rate as high as 99%.

The chief executive of Hong Kong, Carrie Lam, eventually suspended the bill and apologised. Emma Graham-Harrison, who has been reporting from the special administrative region, tells India Rakusen about the murder case that prompted the extradition legislation and why those in Hong Kong fear Beijing is attempting to erode their democracy.

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Hong Kong protesters call on foreign leaders to raise crisis at G20

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Demonstrators march on consulates to petition overseas governments to assist in fight against ‘authoritarian regime’

Hundreds have gathered at a rally in Hong Kong and marched to foreign consulates to lobby international governments about the city’s political crisis during the G20 summit this week.

President Xi Jinping of China and the US president, Donald Trump, are expected to meet at the summit in Japan amid heightened trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies.

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Timor-Leste rejects report it is taking $16bn loan from China’s Exim bank for gas project

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State-owned company seeks partners to develop $50bn of untapped reserves in Timor Sea

Timor-Leste’s state-owned gas company has rejected reports it is set to take a $16bn loan from China’s Exim bank to finance the Greater Sunrise project.

The Timor-Leste government recently took majority ownership of the project after buying out its former partners – ConocoPhillips and Shell – with the aim of ensuring the gas is piped to its shores instead of Australia’s.

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‘We have no other choice’: as China erodes democracy Hong Kong citizens prepare to leave

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The extradition bill, exorbitant house prices and high cost of living are driving a rise in emigration

Elisa Wong had always thought she would move away from Hong Kong when her seven-year-old daughter reached university age. But the recent political crisis has prompted her to reach for an application form to emigrate to Australia now.

“I must put in an application as quickly as possible,” the 45-year-old former manager at a bank said. “It’s hard to uproot your family and start again in a new country, but the upheavals in the past weeks have made up my mind.”

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Humans v the city: the staggering scale of Chongqing – in pictures

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Chongqing’s population is estimated at just below 10 million but that rises to more than 31 million if the built-up surroundings are included. Belgian photographer Kris Provoost finds that in a city so large, individuals can get lost

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China will not allow G20 to discuss Hong Kong, says foreign minister

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Foreign powers have no right to interfere in ‘internal affair’, says Zhang Jun, as Beijing also calls for trade compromise

China has said it will not allow the G20 nations to discuss the Hong Kong issue at its summit this week, assistant foreign minister Zhang Jun said on Monday.

Millions of people demonstrated on the streets of the city this month against a bill that would allow people to be extradited to the mainland to face trial in courts controlled by the Communist party.

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Hong Kong’s elite fear extradition law could harm their reputation

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Business leaders in the region take tentative steps in face of contentious bill

Days after Hong Kong’s first major protest against its stalled extradition law, a property firm decided to take a £2.5m hit and abandon an option to develop a slice of prime city land, blaming “social contradiction and economic instability”.

The decision by Goldin Financial Holdings was made after one of its directors, a pro-Beijing lawmaker called Abraham Shek Lai-him, called an urgent meeting to discuss whether to go ahead with the project on part of the old city airport.

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Hong Kong protesters disperse after blockade of police HQ

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City heads into third weekend of potential unrest about extradition bill that is before legislature

Thousands of protesters who had blockaded police headquarters in Asia’s leading financial centre had mostly dispersed by Saturday morning with some roads reopened for traffic as normal, but it remained unclear whether further mass protests would take place.

Hong Kong has been bracing for a third weekend of widespread protests against an extradition bill that has plunged the Chinese-ruled city into crisis, posing the greatest popular challenge to President Xi Jinping since he took power on the mainland in 2012.

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Hong Kong, China and universal values | Letter

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Michael Minden says we must grapple with the different realities of those who think and feel not as we do

I agree with Natalie Nougayrède’s point that “universalism is not a dirty word” (Hong Kong’s struggles are ours too, Journal, 19 June), but I don’t think it is “beautiful” either.

As I understand it, it entails a challenge to all of us to assume responsibility for our condition. This cannot be achieved by affirming values as universal because they belong to our particular vocabulary (“basic human aspirations”, “fundamental rights and freedom”, “essential, individual rights”, etc). It can only be achieved by grappling with the different realities of those who think and feel not as we do.

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Thousands gather outside police HQ in renewed Hong Kong protests – video

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Demonstrators including the activist Joshua Wong have blocked a main road through the city centre in Hong Kong and massed outside the police headquarters to demand the total withdrawal of a new extradition law, the release of detained activists and apologies for police brutality. The protest on Friday is the fourth major demonstration in the city in less than two weeks

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North Korea rolls out red carpet for Xi Jinping – in pictures

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Xi Jinping is greeted warmly in North Korea on his first state visit there as China’s president. He has backed North Korea’s new focus on economic development, saying in a speech in the capital that the nation under leader Kim Jong-un had ‘initiated a new strategic line of economic development and improving people’s livelihoods, raising socialist construction in the country to a new high tide.’ North Korea remains heavily dependent on aid, mainly from China and food security is a constant concern.

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Shanghai Sacred: inside China’s religious revival – photo essay

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Photographer and anthropologist Liz Hingley uncovers the spiritual landscape of China’s largest city, revealing the spaces and rituals of this cosmopolitan megalopolis that is home to 26 million people – and to religious groups from Buddhism to Islam, Christianity to Baha’ism, Hinduism to Taoism

  • Shanghai Sacred is at the Victoria Art Gallery & Museum at the University of Liverpool until 26 September as part of LOOK Photo Biennale, the forthcoming book will be published by GOST in November

By ritual, heaven and earth harmoniously combine

For the last thirty to forty years China has been undergoing one of the great religious revivals of our time. Alongside the country’s rapid pace of development, the search for meaning and celebration of the Sacred are shaping China’s future in new and significant ways.

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Two whales flown from Shanghai aquarium to sanctuary in Iceland

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Female 12-year-old beluga whales Little Grey and Little White arrive at Klettsvik Bay

Two beluga whales from a Shanghai aquarium have arrived in Iceland to live out their days in a unique marine sanctuary that conservationists hope will become a model for rehoming 3,000 of the creatures currently in captivity.

Little Grey and Little White, two 12-year-old female belugas, left behind their previous lives entertaining visitors at the Changfeng Ocean World and were flown across the globe in specially tailored containers.

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Himalayan glacier melting doubled since 2000, spy satellites show

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Ice losses indicate ‘devastating’ future for region and 1 billion people who depend on it for water

The melting of Himalayan glaciers has doubled since the turn of the century, with more than a quarter of all ice lost over the last four decades, scientists have revealed. The accelerating losses indicate a “devastating” future for the region, upon which a billion people depend for regular water.

The scientists combined declassified US spy satellite images from the mid-1970s with modern satellite data to create the first detailed, four-decade record of ice along the 2,000km (1,200-mile) mountain chain.

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Fears Hong Kong protests could turn violent amid calls to ‘escalate action’

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Protesters have given authorities until Thursday afternoon to answer demands to retract extradition bill

Hong Kong is bracing for fresh rallies on Friday, which many fear could turn violent, as protesters gave city authorities until Thursday to meet their demands on the retraction of the city’s controversial extradition bill.

Anonymous messages have circulated on social media and messaging services calling for people to gather outside the government headquarters in the Admiralty business district to “escalate their actions” if the Hong Kong government fails to meet their demands by 5pm on Thursday. It called on people to strike, close shops and stay off school on Friday. On one popular chat platform alone, the message received nearly 89,000 “likes”. A user called this “Hong Kong’s last battle”.

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Carrie Lam ignored public opinion, says freed activist

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Joshua Wong blames Hong Kong leader for city’s protests, despite her apology

Hong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam, is the person responsible for mobilising the biggest protests in the city’s history, the freed student activist Joshua Wong has said.

The 22-year-old, who was the face of the last major demonstrations in Hong Kong in 2014, was released from jail on Monday following a two-month term for contempt of court.

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