Category Archives: China

Macron’s mini-summit in Paris is a snub to Trump’s trade policy | Larry Elliott

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European leaders and China’s Xi Jinping put on a show of unity in the face of US tariffs

Donald Trump was not on the guest list for Emmanuel Macron’s mini-summit in Paris, but the presence of the US president was still very much felt as Europe’s leaders sat down to talk trade, business deals and geopolitics with China’s Xi Jinping.

At one level, the message from the meeting of China’s leader with Macron, the German chancellor Angela Merkel and the European commission president Jean-Claude Juncker was obvious: this was a show of unity in the face of Trump’s tariffs aimed across both the Atlantic and the Pacific.

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Emmanuel Macron hosts Xi Jinping in attempt to strengthen EU-China relationship

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French president invited Angela Merkel to talks with Chinese leader in Paris

Emmanuel Macron has launched a charm offensive towards his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, talking of multilateralism and cooperation while tiptoeing around subjects such as human rights.

In a meeting during a bilateral three-day state visit to France, the French president took the unprecedented step of inviting the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, to Paris for the talks.

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Canada: man arrested over stun-gun abduction of Chinese student

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  • Wanzhen Lu, 22, went missing on Saturday in Ontario
  • Police shocked by ‘significant’ violence used to kidnap Lu

Police in Canada have made their first arrest in the case of a missing Chinese student, who was abducted in an armed kidnapping at the weekend.

Wanzhen Lu, 22, has not been seen since Saturday when three masked attackers attacked him with a stun gun in the city of Markham, Ontario, north of Toronto. A fourth person waited in a nearby vehicle.

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Italy and China in plan for new Silk Road-style trade network

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Xi Jinping visits Rome as Italy becomes first G7 country to back Belt and Road initiative

Italy has become the first G7 country to endorse a contentious plan by China to build a Silk Road-style global trade network, irking its EU and US allies.

The prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, and the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, have signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) that could lead to Italy’s participation in China’s Belt and Road initiative (BRI), an ambitious project that envisages Chinese investment in a network of infrastructure projects connecting Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

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Trump to lift ‘not necessary’ North Korea sanctions, White House confirms

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  • US had blacklisted Chinese shipping companies on Thursday
  • ‘Trump likes Kim and doesn’t think these are necessary’

Donald Trump has announced that he is ordering the withdrawal of recently announced North Korea-related sanctions imposed by the US treasury department.

Related: North Korea warns US sanctions could derail plans to denuclearise

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Italy pulls out red carpet for Xi Jinping in trade charm offensive

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Bocelli to sing for China’s president as Italy becomes first G7 nation to back ‘Silk Road’ plan

Rome gave a lavish welcome to the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, his wife and entourage on Friday as Italy and China controversially pledged to strengthen trade and investment ties.

Xi is in the Italian capital on a two-day state visit, along with about 200 officials. He is expected to strike a range of deals worth up to €7bn and attend a gala dinner, where the tenor Andrea Bocelli will perform, during his visit.

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‘Mindblowing’ haul of fossils over 500m years old unearthed in China

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Thousands of fossils date back to huge burst in diversity of life on Earth known as Cambrian explosion

A “mindblowing” haul of fossils that captures the riot of evolution that kickstarted the diversity of life on Earth more than half a billion years ago has been discovered by researchers in China.

Paleontologists found thousands of fossils in rocks on the bank of the Danshui river in Hubei province in southern China, where primitive forms of jellyfish, sponges, algae, anemones, worms and arthropods with thin whip-like feelers were entombed in an ancient underwater mudslide.

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Kachin women from Myanmar ‘raped until they get pregnant’ in China

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Women from Kachin minority are allowed to go home only if they leave baby behind, says HRW report

Burmese and Chinese authorities are turning a blind eye to a growing trade in women from Myanmar’s Kachin minority, who are taken across the border, sold as wives to Chinese men and raped until they become pregnant, a report claims.

Some of the women are allowed to return home after they have given birth, but are forced to leave their children, according to an investigation by Human Rights Watch, titled Give Us a Baby and We’ll Let You Go.

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Italy rattles US and EU with likely support for China’s Belt and Road

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Leaders set to endorse Italy’s role in ‘Silk Road’ trade network during Xi Jinping’s visit this week

Italy has signalled its determination to play a central role in China’s grand plan to build a Silk Road-styled global trade network, despite rattling its EU and US allies with its plan.

The country’s populist government is poised to endorse its participation in Beijing’s $1tn Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a global trade project aimed at connecting Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe via a network of ports, railways, tunnels and other infrastructure, by signing a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) during the Chinese president Xi Jinping’s visit to Italy this week.

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Chinese fishmeal plants leave fishermen in the Gambia all at sea | Hannah Summers

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Scientists and campaigners warn that factories in coastal villages are wreaking environmental and economic havoc

Before the arrival of fishmeal factories in the Gambia, Musa Duboe would catch red snapper and barracuda to be sold at the local market. But his income had begun to dwindle due to depleted stocks.

Then in 2016 the Chinese-owned fishmeal plant Golden Lead began operating out of the coastal town of Gunjur, increasing demand for fish to export for overseas aquaculture.

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China clones ‘Sherlock Holmes’ police dog to cut training times – report

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Kunxun was cloned from a police sniffer dog in Beijing but cost of process remains an obstacle

Scientists in south-west China’s Yunnan province have reportedly cloned what they called the “Sherlock Holmes of police dogs” in a programme they hope will help cut training times and costs for police dogs.

The dog, named Kunxun, was cloned from a police sniffer dog by the Beijing-based Sinogene Biotechnology Company and the Yunnan Agricultural University, with support from the Ministry of Public Security, the state-owned tabloid Global Times reported.

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Global stock markets gain as investors predict cautious Federal Reserve – business live

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Central banks in spotlight amid Brexit uncertainty and growth concerns

The Bank’s reticence to raise rates has been hinted at by Gertjan Vlieghe and Silvana Tenreyro, two of the nine-member monetary policy committee.

Weaker growth prospects have come on top of concerns about Brexit, according to Martin Beck, lead UK economist at Oxford Economics, a consultancy. He expects a 9-0 vote to keep policy unchanged, saying:

The economy’s recent performance has been broadly in line with the MPC’s expectations. But public pronouncements by some committee members on downside risks have indicated a dovish shift around the pace of future rate hikes.

In light of the continued failure to get a Brexit deal through Parliament, Brexit uncertainty remains a key block on action by the MPC.

The Bank of England will also be in action later this week, with a monetary policy announcement on Thursday at midday.

Anything other than a unanimous vote to keep interest rates on hold would be a shock, for fairly obvious reasons.

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China says it has arrested 13,000 ‘terrorists’ in Xinjiang

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Beijing launches propaganda campaign to counter abuse claims by human rights groups

China has claimed to have arrested 13,000 “terrorists” in Xinjiang over the last five years, as it launched an aggressive propaganda campaign in defence of its restrictive measures in the far-western region.

Human rights advocates and researchers believe more than 1 million Muslims – mostly Uighurs as well as Kazakhs and other groups – are being systematically imprisoned in internment camps where they are forced to undergo political re-education.

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China’s primary school students to learn how to avoid stock market pitfalls

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Ministry of education will work with country’s securities regulator to ‘increase financial literacy’ among China’s youth

Chinese primary school textbooks may soon include definitions for terms like “price-to-earnings ratio” or “buy and hold” as the country embarks on a campaign to improve investor awareness.

China’s ministry of education and the country’s securities regulator said they would be working together to “increase financial literacy” among China’s youth, according to state news agency Xinhua. Officials said the campaign to improve understanding of the country’s securities and futures markets would begin with textbooks for primary and middle schools.

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Pollutionwatch: China shows how political will can take on air pollution

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Sulphur dioxide in Beijing was reduced by 70% and particle pollution by 36% in just four years

It’s been a while since we saw images of smog-obscured Beijing landmarks in the news. A United Nations report explains this.

In four years, sulphur dioxide in the city was reduced by 70% and particle pollution by 36% by tackling the problem at source. Initially, old coal-powered industry and power stations were fitted with air pollution abatement systems before being replaced by cleaner facilities built to run on natural gas.

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Cao Shunli died five years ago. She stood up to China on human rights, and so must we | Frances Eve

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Cao died after making claims of torture and detention. The world must remember her spirit in facing up to Beijing

Five years ago today, Chinese activist Cao Shunli died in a Beijing hospital surrounded by police.

Her ordeal began in September 2013, when she tried to fly to Geneva to attend a session of the UN human rights council (UNHRC). Cao had submitted information on extralegal detention and torture in China to the UN and expressed the hope that if she could get even “50 or 100 words” into a UN report, “many of our problems could start to get addressed”.

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China is ‘in a league of its own’ on human rights violations, Pompeo says

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Pompeo singled out Beijing for detaining members of Muslim minority groups as he unveiled annual human rights report

China is “in a league of its own” when it comes to human rights violations, the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said on Wednesday as he unveiled the state department’s annual report on human rights around the world.

Related: 'If you enter a camp, you never come out': inside China's war on Islam

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The Monlam great prayer festival in Tibet – a photo essay

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Monlam, or the great prayer festival, is the most important prayer event for many Tibetans. It was banned during the Cultural Revolution in China but is now celebrated in many areas.

Considered the most important event for Tibetan Buddhists, the Monlam great prayer festival starts three days after the lunar new year in western China’s ethnic Tibetan region and is held for almost two weeks. During Monlam, millions of pilgrims travel to monasteries to pray for good fortune in the new year and make offerings to their late relatives.

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Xinjiang detention camps may be phased out, governor suggests

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Top Uighur official says there will be fewer and fewer students at centres thought to house a million people

Top officials in Xinjiang have hinted that the system of internment centres used to hold a million Muslim minorities may one day be phased out.

Researchers say huge numbers of people, mostly Uighurs, are being held in detention and re-education camps in the far western territory as part of a huge security crackdown in the name of counter terrorism efforts.

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Andrew Robb blames Turnbull and Joyce for ‘toxic’ relationship with China

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Former trade minister delivers scathing criticism of Coalition colleagues for souring relations

The former trade minister Andrew Robb, who took an $880,000 job with a Chinese company as soon as he left parliament, has blasted his former party room colleagues and Australia’s security agencies for creating a “toxic” relationship with China.

Robb confirmed he had left Landbridge, which holds the lease over the Darwin port, late last year, after a health precinct project he had been working on was rejected by Beijing.

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