From the birth of the People’s Republic, through war, revolution, protest and prosperity – these images chart the changes that have taken place in China over the last 70 years
Continue reading...Category Archives: China
Albino panda caught on camera in China in world first
Incredibly rare animal is photographed by camera trap in the forests of Sichuan province
A nature reserve in China has captured what is believed to be the world’s first image of an albino panda.
The Wolong national nature reserve in the south-western province of Sichuan released a photo taken in April of an all-white giant panda in the wild, crossing through a forest.
Continue reading...Scott Morrison to sell Pacific ‘step up’ on Solomons visit as pressure builds over climate
Australia to discuss Pacific investment bank and infrastructure amid concerns over Chinese influence
Australia is set to sound out the Solomon Islands on its infrastructure wish list and pitch its new Pacific investment bank, amid growing concerns over Chinese regional influence and debt-trap diplomacy.
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, is expected to arrive in the capital, Honiara, on Sunday for a day-and-a-half bilateral visit before he heads to the United Kingdom and Singapore.
Continue reading...Global markets rocked as US-China trade and tech rift deepens
Shares fall sharply in Asia, Europe and North America in intensifying war of words
The deepening trade and technology war between the US and China has sent global stock markets sharply lower and prompted a warning from the IMF of the increasing risks to the global economy.
Shares fell sharply in Asia, Europe and North America on a day that saw investors alarmed by the intensifying war of words between Washington and Beijing, poor news on the American economy, and political chaos in Britain.
Continue reading...‘We’ll fight to the end’: China’s media ramps up rhetoric in US trade war
Voices within Chinese state and private media grow more strident as tensions mount
Over the last week, China’s state media outlets have called the US government delusional, compared it to apes shouting on a river bank, and offered to teach the Americans a Chinese idiom: diandao heibai, “to invert black and white”, or deliberately distort the truth.
As trade tensions mount between the US and China, Beijing faces the difficult task of appealing to national pride to shore up confidence in the leadership while also keeping public anger in check.
Continue reading...Markets slide as Panasonic joins list of firms walking away from Huawei
Panasonic joins Google, Intel and Qualcomm following US ban in what is beginning to shape up as a tech cold war
Panasonic has joined the growing list of companies to sever ties with Huawei by announcing that it will stop supplying some components to the Chinese technology conglomerate after a US ban over security concerns.
The decision by the Japanese firm on Thursday sent Asia Pacific shares falling again and came a day after four major Japanese and British mobile carriers said they would delay releasing new Huawei handsets.
Continue reading...Trump’s China trade war risks damaging US economy, says OECD
Intensification of tariff dispute also likely to knock almost $600bn off world economy
Donald Trump has been warned by the west’s most influential economics thinktank that further escalation of the US-China trade war would unleash significant damage for the American economy, as well as the rest of the world.
The Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said that an intensification of the dispute between Washington and Beijing would likely knock as much as 0.7% off the level of global GDP by 2021-22.
Continue reading...The Guardian view on Google versus Huawei: no winners | Editorial
The struggle over Huawei isn’t really about technology. It is about whether China or the US is to be master
Trade wars, like real ones, are very much easier to start than to stop. The decision by Google to withhold its software from future Huawei smartphones, even if it will continue to support those presently on the market, comes after considerable pressure from the US government. Even so, it is a move that all parties will regret.
The pain for Huawei is obvious. Although it has been stockpiling chips and, presumably, preparing other defences, there is nothing it can sell to consumers outside China that does not depend on American software, and little that does not depend on American chips. As much as half of its global market could disappear, and that is without counting the 5G networking equipment which was the proximate cause of this quarrel. The ultimate cause, of course, is the American fear of losing its position of global pre-eminence, and the Chinese determination to realise that fear.
Continue reading...US ban on Huawei a ‘cynically timed’ blow in escalating trade war, says firm
Top executive says dispute is about trade, not security, after Trump issued order aimed at cutting off firm from US supplies
The US ban on sharing technology with Huawei was a “cynically timed” blow in the escalating trade war between the US and China, the Chinese firm’s top executive in the UK has said.
Huawei denounced Donald Trump’s ban on the sharing of US tech with “foreign adversaries”, after a string of US tech companies followed Google in restricting the company’s access to their products on Monday.
Continue reading...US warship sails in disputed South China Sea amid trade tensions
Destroyer moved near Scarborough Reef to ‘challenge excessive maritime claims’, says commander of Seventh Fleet
A US warship has sailed near the disputed Scarborough Shoal claimed by China in the South China Sea, a move likely to anger Beijing at a time of tense ties between the world’s two biggest economies.
The destroyer USS Preble carried out the operation on Sunday, a US military spokesman said. The busy waterway is one of a growing number of flashpoints in the US-China relationship, which also include a trade war, the blacklisting of tech company Huawei US sanctions and Taiwan.
Continue reading...Google blocks Huawei access to Android updates after blacklisting
Reported move could hit Huawei Technologies’ ability to run phone operating system
Google has suspended Huawei’s access to updates of its Android operating system and chipmakers have reportedly cut off supplies to the Chinese telecoms company, complying with orders from the US government as it seeks to blacklist Huawei around the world.
In a fresh blow to Huawei, Google said it was complying with Donald Trump’s executive order and was reviewing the “implications”, after Reuters initially reported the story.
Continue reading...China wants us to forget the horrors of Tiananmen as it rewrites its history | Louisa Lim and Ilaria Maria Sala
The state is enforcing a collective amnesia about not only recent political events but those that happened thousands of years ago
Remembering the deaths of 4 June 1989 is no neutral task. It is a civic duty, a burden and an act of resistance in countering a state-level lie that risks spreading far beyond China’s borders.
On that day the Communist party sent tanks to clear protesters from Tiananmen Square in the centre of Beijing, killing hundreds of people, maybe more than a thousand. In the intervening years, China has systematically erased the evidence and memory of this violent suppression using its increasingly hi-tech apparatus of censorship and control.
Continue reading...Grindr and the ‘new cold war’: why US concerns over the app are dangerous
The Chinese-owned app does pose data risks – but wrongly framing such fears can fuel racism and homophobia
For years, American leaders claimed that the internet would bring free markets and liberal democracy to China. Today, they are more likely to express worry about how Chinese power and Chinese money are reshaping American tech. Conventional strategic areas, like artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, have received the most scrutiny. But this week the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS) reached an agreement after an investigation of a different kind of target: the popular gay social networking app Grindr.
Grindr is based in West Hollywood and boasts more than 27 million users. The Chinese gaming firm Beijing Kunlun Tech Company acquired it over two years, purchasing a 60% stake in January 2016 and the remaining 40% in January 2018.
Continue reading...The 20 photographs of the week
Conflict in Syria, shocking pink fashion at Cannes, and a seal pup making a splash – the last seven days, as captured by the world’s best photojournalists
Continue reading...Ex-CIA officer Kevin Mallory sentenced to 20 years for spying for China
Former special agent jailed for selling classified US ‘defence information’ for $25,000 in 2017
An ex-CIA officer was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Friday for spying for China in a case called part of an “alarming trend” in the US intelligence community.
Kevin Mallory, 62, was convicted under the Espionage Act for selling classified US “defence information” to a Chinese intelligence agent for $25,000 during trips to Shanghai in March and April 2017.
Continue reading...In pictures – IM Pei’s finest works
IM Pei, one of the most celebrated and prolific architects of the 20th century, has died aged 102. The son of a prominent Chinese banker, he favoured stone, steel and glass in his creations that bore his hallmark geometry and reverence for light
Continue reading...Huawei hits back over Trump’s national emergency on telecoms ‘threat’
Chinese firm says ban on tech from ‘foreign adversaries’ will harm US consumers
Huawei has hit back at Donald Trump’s administration after it declared a national emergency to ban technology from “foreign adversaries” and subjected the Chinese telecommunications company to strict export controls.
An executive order issued by the US president on Wednesday declared a national economic emergency that empowers the government to ban the technology and services of “foreign adversaries” deemed to pose “unacceptable risks” to national security, including from cyber-espionage and sabotage.
Continue reading...Merkel: Europe must unite to stand up to China, Russia and US
German chancellor also shares views on Brexit and climate crisis in interview
Europe must reposition itself to stand up to the challenges posed by its three big global rivals, China, Russia and the US, Angela Merkel has said before her final European election as German chancellor.
Facing challenges that range from Russian interference in elections to China’s economic clout and the US’s monopoly over digital services, Europe needs to get better at putting up a united front, Merkel said in a wide-ranging interview shared with the Guardian.
Continue reading...Trump praises Hungary’s far-right leader Orbán: ‘He’s a respected man’ – as it happened
Trump welcomes Viktor Orbán to White House as Pompeo heads to meeting of EU nations in apparent attempt to soothe relations over Iran deal
Oh, the places you’ll go indeed, Rod Rosenstein.
After giving a commencement address and quoting Robert Mueller - you know, the man whose investigation he oversaw - Rosenstein went on to speak at the annual meeting of the Greater Baltimore Committee, where he continued to make waves.
Ex-Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein in a speech in Baltimore tonight is defending his handling of the Mueller probe and taking aim at ex-FBI director James Comey.
Rosenstein also says: “Based on what I knew in May 2017, the investigation of Russian election interference was justified.”
In his prepared remarks, Rosenstein said Trump, “did not tell me what reasons to put in my memo,” but noted what the special counsel report had said. He said he did not include what Trump wanted because it was not relevant, and he did not have personal knowledge of what Comey had told Trump.
Rosenstein said he “did not dislike” Comey but that Comey took steps that were “not within the range of reasonable decisions” during the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. Rosenstein suggested that if he — rather than Trump — had been in charge, “the removal would have been handled very differently, with far more respect and far less drama.”
Continue reading...Trump defends China tariffs as trade war leaves allies and opponents in bind
Trump’s hardline stance against China puts Republicans in an awkward position, while Democrats are split
Donald Trump has again defended tariffs as his dogged, often self-contradictory pursuit of a trade war with China put allies and opponents alike in a difficult spot.
Related: China hits back at US with tariffs on $60bn of products
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