Category Archives: China

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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Kazakh police arrest activist who campaigned for human rights in Xinjiang

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Serikjan Bilash, who has fought for victims of China’s Muslim internment camps, detained in Almaty

Kazakh police have arrested an activist who has campaigned for victims of China’s internment camps in Xinjiang, sealing his group’s office and taking its computers.

Serikjan Bilash, who has led a high-profile awareness drive centred on ethnic Kazakh victims of China’s crackdown in the region, was arrested in Kazakhstan’s largest city Almaty and flown to the capital Astana, his partner told AFP.

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Ethiopian Airlines crash: China grounds Boeing 737 Max 8 jets in wake of disaster

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Chinese aviation regulator suspends operation of aircraft after second tragedy involving the new plane in four months

China’s aviation authorities have ordered the country’s airlines to ground their Boeing 737 Max 8 jets after a crash in Ethiopia killed 157 people.

The disaster was the second involving the new aircraft in the last four months. In October, a Lion Air plane crashed into the sea off the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, killing all 189 onboard.

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Chinese school under fire for buying tracking bracelets for students

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Smart devices will be used to record students’ health data and when they raise their hand

A high school in southern China has come under fire for buying “smart bracelets” to track its students.

Guangdong Guangya High school has purchased 3,500 bracelets that would record students heart rate and physical activity, as well as the number of times a pupil raised his or her hand in class, according to local media reports. The bands have a location function and can be used to pay for items as well as track attendance.

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China warns US of ‘all necessary measures’ to protect Huawei

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Foreign minister suggests recent actions against Chinese firms are ‘deliberate political suppression’

China’s foreign minister has said Beijing will “take all necessary measures” to defend the rights and interests of Chinese companies such as Huawei, which is locked in an escalating legal dispute with the US.

Beijing’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, said in response to a question about the company suing the US: “It is not difficult to see that the recent actions against specific Chinese enterprises and individuals are not just judicial cases, but deliberate political suppression.

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Huawei sues US over government ban on its products

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Chinese company files lawsuit claiming restriction is unlawful, harms consumers and violates constitution

Huawei is suing the US over a government ban on its products, raising the stakes in a protracted diplomatic incident between China, the US and Canada, where a senior Huawei executive is facing extradition.

In a statement on Thursday, the Chinese telecoms equipment and smartphone manufacturer said it had filed a lawsuit in the US district court in Plano, Texas, home to the company’s US headquarters, calling for the ban on US government agencies buying Huawei equipment or services to be overturned.

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UK firms cut staff; Greek debt auction success; Carney on Brexit – business live

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Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as China sets its lowest growth target in almost three decades

Mark Carney is then asked about activist investor Edward Bramson, who has used a $1.4bn loan from Bank of America to buy his stake in Barclays (and agitate for a board seat),

Q: Would that loan affect his ability to meet the City’s ‘fit and proper person’s test’?

Earlier in the hearing, Mark Carney suggested that that City has underestimated future interest rate hikes.

The governor pointed out that Bank of England’s most recent economic forecasts - based on market expectations of borrowing costs - showed inflation above the BoE’s target over its three-year forecast period

“In other words, the path of interest rates is not firm enough, it’s not quite high enough for us to be fulfilling our mandate, which sends a broad signal in terms of the stance of policy.”

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‘Two sessions’: Beijing locked down for China’s greatest political spectacle

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Activists rounded up and dissent stifled as Xi Jinping faces public scrutiny over trade, Xinjiang and Huawei at annual meeting

China’s largest political event of the year, a meeting of legislative delegates and political advisers known as the “two sessions”, gets under way this week and comes at a time when Chinese leader Xi Jinping faces one of the most challenging periods since coming to power.

Thousands of delegates will descend on the Great Hall of the People in Beijing while authorities go into overdrive to prevent any semblance of dissent during the two weeks of meetings of the 3,000-strong National People’s Congress (NPC) , and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), an advisory body.

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Huawei: Meng Wanzhou sues Canadian government over arrest

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Chinese CFO claims she was detained and interrogated before being told she was under arrest

Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese technology company Huawei, is suing the Canadian government, its border agency and the national police force over her high-profile detention. Meng claims they detained, searched and interrogated her before telling her she was under arrest.

Lawyers for Meng said on Sunday they had filed a notice of civil claim in the British Columbia supreme court. Canada arrested Meng, the daughter of Huawei’s founder, at the request of the US on 1 December at Vancouver airport. US prosecutors will accuse her of misleading banks about the company’s business dealings in Iran.

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