Chinese will surpass the US for per capita intake by 2030, research shows, but Moldova claims top spot for now
The world is consuming significantly more alcohol than 30 years ago thanks in large part to heavier and more widespread drinking in China and India, researchers have claimed.
On current trends, global consumption per capita will rise another 17% over the next decade, they reported in The Lancet, after a 10% rise in drinking between 1990 and 2017 .
Continue reading...Guardian and Bellingcat investigation finds more than two dozen Islamic religious sites partly or completely demolished since 2016
Around this time of the year, the edge of the Taklamakan desert in far western China should be overflowing with people. For decades, every spring thousands of Uighur Muslims would converge on the Imam Asim shrine, a group of buildings and fences surrounding a small mud tomb believed to contain the remains of a holy warrior from the eighth century.
Pilgrims from across the Hotan oasis would come seeking healing, fertility, and absolution, trekking through the sand in the footsteps of those ahead of them. It was one of the largest shrine festivals in the region. People left offerings and tied pieces of cloth to branches, markers of their prayers.
Continue reading...The US plans to beef up its Arctic presence to keep Russia’s and China’s “aggressive behaviour” in check in the resource-rich region, the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, has warned
“The region has become an arena of global power and competition” owing to vast reserves of oil, gas, minerals and fish stocks, Pompeo said in a speech in northern Finland.
Continue reading...Wall Street set for a fall after president says trade talks are going ‘too slowly’ and threatens to more than double tariffs
Global financial markets have been sent into a tailspin after Donald Trump risked jeopardising delicate trade talks with China by unexpectedly saying he would raise tariffs further on Chinese goods this week.
Stocks in China fell almost 6% on Monday morning as investors in Asia Pacific were caught off guard by the US president’s tweets and the alarm intensified as reports indicated that the government in Beijing might pull out of this week’s scheduled talks.
Continue reading...In a highly charged attack, the Pentagon says up to 3m people could be imprisoned in detention centres
The United States has accused China on Friday of imprisoning more than a million Muslims in “concentration camps” in some of Washington’s strongest condemnation of Beijing’s treatment of minorities.
The comments by Randall Schriver, who leads Asia policy at the US defense department, are likely to increase tension with Beijing, which is sensitive to international criticism and describes the sites as vocational education training centres aimed at stemming the threat of Islamic extremism.
Continue reading...Authorities use an app to collect personal data on Uighurs as part of a vast surveillance network, Human Rights Watch says
Using too much electricity or having acquaintances abroad are among a list of reasons that prompt authorities in China’s western Xinjiang region to investigate Uighurs and other Muslims who might be deemed “untrustworthy” and sent to internment camps, according to a Human Rights Watch report.
The report, released on Thursday, analyses a mobile app used by authorities in Xinjiang to collect personal data from ethnic minorities, file reports about people and objects they find suspicious, and carry out investigations.
Continue reading...Chinese firm’s technology is security risk, says Strayer after council gives partial go-ahead
A US official has warned that the UK’s leaked proposal to adopt Huawei technology for 5G mobile phone networks risks affecting intelligence cooperation with the United States, prompting further criticism from Conservatives opposed to the plan.
Robert Strayer, a deputy assistant secretary at the US state department, said on Monday that Huawei “was not a trusted vendor” and any use of its technology in 5G networks was a risk, contradicting the British stance.
Continue reading...Destroyers William P Lawrence and Stethem transited through the waterway on Sunday as Pentagon ups the ante with Beijing
The US military has sent two navy warships through the Taiwan Strait as the Pentagon increases the frequency of movement through the strategic waterway despite opposition from China.
Sunday’s voyage risks further raising tensions with China but will likely be viewed by self-ruled Taiwan as a sign of support from the Trump administration amid growing friction between Taipei and Beijing.
Continue reading...Residents fear law will allow Beijing to demand Hong Kong hand over political dissidents
Tens of thousands of Hong Kong residents have taken to the streets to demand their government halt a plan that would make it easier to extradite people to the secretive judicial system in mainland China.
The march organisers estimated that more than 100,000 people filed through central Hong Kong on Sunday. Police said the march drew 22,800 people at its peak.
Continue reading...Beijing international horticultural exhibition is intended to give the nation a much-needed publicity boost
If you want to say something, the expression goes, say it with flowers. It is a concept that will take on new meaning in China this week, which on 29 April opens the doors to the world’s largest ever gardening show, a mammoth exhibition of plants, pavilions and soft power that forms part of celebrations marking the 70th birthday of the People’s Republic of China.
At the foot of the Taihang mountains in the Beijing suburb of Yanqing, an area the size of 500 football pitches has been fenced for the massive Beijing international horticultural exhibition, which dwarfs the Chelsea flower show by an eye-watering 495 hectares.
Continue reading...Sales of Mercedes-Benz cars fell 7%, partly because of manufacturing bottlenecks
Daimler’s quarterly operating profit has fallen by 16% as a €718m (£620m) one-off gain failed to offset the impact of falling sales in China and production delays at three Mercedes-Benz factories.
Sales of Mercedes-Benz cars fell 7% in the first quarter 0f 2019, partly because of manufacturing bottlenecks for the A-Class compact car in Aguascalientes, Mexico, the Mercedes-Benz van in Charleston, South Carolina, and the Mercedes-Benz GLE SUV in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Continue reading...Britain faces lobbying after Chinese firm wins approval to supply 5G network
Donald Trump’s administration is expected to put further pressure on the UK to reconsider the decision to allow Chinese telecoms company Huawei to help build parts of the UK’s 5G telecoms network.
The US has arranged for a representative from the state department, which has repeatedly warned of the risks of using Huawei, to give a briefing on Monday.
Continue reading...‘Absurd’ that US and its closest allies are not leading players in technology, former PM says
Malcolm Turnbull has revealed that he encouraged Donald Trump to “take the lead” and develop 5G networks in cooperation with allies, including Australia, to hold out “ferocious competition” from China and to safeguard networks against cyber-attacks.
In a speech in New York overnight, the former prime minister said that in response to concerns China was stealing a technological march he had urged the US president to “ensure that we had at least one viable and secure 5G vendor from the United States and/or its Five Eyes partners”.
Continue reading...Actor fined for tax evasion returns to spotlight after months of rumours she had fled China or was in prison
The Chinese megastar Fan Bingbing has appeared in public for the first time in almost a year, after a mysterious disappearance from the public eye believed to be linked to charges of tax evasion.
Fan, who is one of China’s highest-profile actors, appeared at a Beijing gala on Monday night in honour of iQiyi, a popular video-streaming platform.
Continue reading...Raft of countries including Turkey have refused to attend latest summit amid growing concern about debt diplomacy
As China fetes its Belt and Road initiative at a summit this week, Chinese officials will be working hard to defend the flagship project from growing international criticism.
The three-day forum starting on Thursday is meant to promote Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s “project of the century”, a foreign policy initiative launched in 2013 to revive ancient trading routes between Asia and Europe, as well as build new links in the Middle East, Africa, and South America.
Continue reading...Campaigners responsible for the largest civil disobedience in Hong Kong’s history face up to 16 months in prison
A group of Hong Kong pro-democracy activists have been sentenced to prison for their role in the Umbrella Movement protests, with two of its leaders jailed for 16 months.
A district court judge jailed sociology professor Chan Kin-man, 60, law professor Benny Tai, 54, and Baptist minister the Rev Chu Yiu-ming, 75, to 16 months each for conspiracy to commit public nuisance. Chu’s sentence was suspended for two years.
Continue reading...A tiny nook for an urn can cost up to £180,000. With 200,000 sets of ashes waiting for a resting place, the city is running out of options
“Per square foot, it has become more expensive to house the dead than the living,” says Kwok Hoi Pong, chairman of the Hong Kong Funeral Business Association. “A niche for an urn in a private columbarium in the best position can cost up to HK$1.8m. This is the phenomenon in Hong Kong.”
A ground burial plot can cost anywhere between HK$3m (£300,000) and HK$5m, but in the city’s congested cemeteries, vacancies rarely become available. Land is so scarce that 90% of the 48,000 people a year who die in Hong Kong are cremated. But increasingly finding the space even to store ashes is becoming nigh on impossible.
Continue reading...The video, widely shared on China’s Twitter-like Weibo, shows the parked EV emit smoke and burst into flames seconds later
Tesla has sent a team to investigate a video on Chinese social media which showed a parked Tesla Model S car exploding, the latest in a string of fire incidents involving the company’s cars.
The video, time stamped Sunday evening and widely shared on China’s Twitter-like Weibo, shows the parked EV emit smoke and burst into flames seconds later. A video purportedly of the aftermath showed a line of three cars completely destroyed.
Continue reading...Leica, whose biggest growth market is China, say short film was not officially sanctioned
Western companies trying to do business in China learned long ago that they must bow, at least in part, to the political demands of an authoritarian state. So when the German camera-maker Leica released an advert featuring perhaps the greatest political taboo in contemporary Chinese history, it looked like an unusually audacious gamble.
In fact the short film referencing the Tiananmen Square crackdown appears to have been an extraordinary – and potentially very expensive – mistake.
Continue reading...Full six minutes cut from premiere show of final season that was streamed online
While Game of Thrones fans worldwide were watching the premiere of the latest season on Monday, Chinese fans were disappointed by a censored version that streamed online in the country.
The fantasy epic on HBO is famed for its explicit content and bloody battle scenes, both known to draw the ire of China’s censors.
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