Investors disappointed after hoped-for policy plans by Beijing to stimulate economy failed to materialise
Chinese stocks have suffered their worst fall in 27 years after efforts by Beijing to stimulate the world’s second-largest economy disappointed investors.
Stock markets in Asia fell sharply after China’s top economic planning authority failed to announce further measures to improve flagging growth.
Continue reading...IEA says faster clean energy rollout being led by solar power in China with country set to boast half of world’s renewables by 2030
China is expected to account for almost 60% of all renewable energy capacity installed worldwide between now and 2030, according to the International Energy Agency.
The IEA’s highly influential renewable energy report found that over the next six years renewable energy projects will roll out at three times the pace of the previous six years, led by the clean energy programmes of China and India.
Continue reading...Beijing also considering duties on European petrol cars after EU imposed extra levies on Chinese electric vehicles
China has imposed tariffs on EU brandy imports in an escalating tit-for-tat trade row with Brussels over extra levies on Chinese-made electric vehicles.
Beijing also said it was considering duties on imported petrol cars from Europe.
Continue reading...The Spanish tennis star Paula Badosa has apologised after she was accused of racism over a photo that appeared to show her pulling her eyes back with chopsticks while in China for a series of tournaments.
Following her defeat on Saturday in the semi-finals of the China Open, Badosa’s coach, Pol Toledo, posted the photo on his Instagram, tagging the official China Open account. Comments soon began pouring in, accusing Badosa of racism.
Continue reading...Researchers in China say their suture can speed up wound healing and reduce risk of infection by producing a charge
The humble stitch plays a crucial role in surgery, holding a gash together while tissues repair. Now scientists have created a type of suture they say can help speed up wound healing and reduce the risk of infection.
Researchers in China have created a suture that when put under strain – as occurs during movement – electrically stimulates the wound.
Continue reading...US and EU are supporting infrastructure projects in Angola, which has historically been closer to Russia and China
When Joe Biden travels to Angola on Sunday, it will be the first trip to an African country of his presidency and the first to the continent by a sitting US president since Barack Obama visited Kenya and Ethiopia in 2015.
It is a marker of how Africa’s 54 countries are increasingly courted by global powers, drawn to the continent by geopolitical shifts and an abundance of minerals needed for electric cars and other battery-powered technologies.
Continue reading...Lai Ching-te argues the reverse may be true because the Republic of China – the mantle that nationalists carried with them to Taiwan – predates the People’s Republic
It is “impossible” for the People’s Republic of China to become Taiwan’s motherland because Taiwan has older political roots, the island’s president has said.
Lai Ching-te, who took office in May, is condemned by Beijing as a separatist. He rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying the island is a country called the Republic of China that traces its origins back to the 1911 revolution overthrowing the last imperial dynasty.
Continue reading...Baloch Liberation Army claims it carried out the vehicle-borne attack in the southern Pakistani city
An explosion near the international airport of the southern Pakistani city of Karachi has killed two Chinese nationals and injured several others, officials from both countries said.
Police and the provincial government said a tanker exploded outside the airport, which is Pakistan’s biggest, on Sunday night. The nature of the blast was not immediately clear, the local broadcaster Geo News cited a provincial official as saying.
Continue reading...Decision opposed by five countries including Germany, where car firms say it could be ‘fatal’ blow for industry
EU leaders have given the green light to extra tariffs on electric vehicles from China despite opposition from five countries including Germany, where car manufacturers condemned the decision as a potential “fatal” blow for the auto industry.
The European Commission – which provisionally approved the step in June after an inquiry found that Beijing’s state aid to auto manufacturers was unfair – now has free rein to impose steep tariffs for five years from the end of this month.
Continue reading...River erosion has pushed the mountain upwards and added an extra 15 to 50 metres over the past 89,000 years
Climbing Mount Everest has always been a feat, but it seems the task might be getting harder: researchers say Everest is having something of a growth spurt.
The Himalayas formed about 50m years ago, when the Indian subcontinent smashed into the Eurasian tectonic plate – although recent research has suggested the edges of these plates were already very high before the collision.
Continue reading...Stellantis slashes growth forecast, with Aston Martin maker also warning of problems as car industry’s woes deepen
The owner of Vauxhall, Fiat and Peugeot has issued a profit warning, blaming a hit to sales from a deterioration in the global automotive market and increased competition from Chinese rivals.
Stellantis shares plunged by 14% on Monday after it said it expected profit margins to be between 5.5% and 7% for the year, down from the previous forecast of double-digit growth.
Continue reading...Phillips, who the court of final appeal said was stepping down for ‘personal reasons’, is fifth foreign judge to leave city’s judiciary this year
The British judge Nicholas Phillips has stepped down from Hong Kong’s top appeals court, the fifth overseas judge to leave the city’s judiciary this year.
Phillips, 86, is leaving Hong Kong’s court of final appeal (CFA) after 22 years for “personal reasons” after his fourth term ended on Monday and he said he did not wish to extend it, the court said.
Continue reading...S&P 500 index of major US companies registers near 100% gain on year ago amid expectation of interest rate cuts
A fall in US inflation expected to pave the way for further cuts in interest rates pushed stock markets to record highs on Friday.
Ending a week of gains that began when the Chinese authorities approved a huge economic stimulus package, the S&P 500 index of major US companies soared above 5,750 to register a near 100% gain on a year ago.
Continue reading...Loss of state-of-the-art vessel in May or June is setback to Chinese push for naval parity with US
China’s efforts to achieve maritime military parity with the US have suffered a serious blow after its newest state-of-the-art nuclear submarine sank in a dock, American officials have confirmed.
The incident happened last May or June at the Wuchang shipyard near Wuhan – the same city where the Covid-19 pandemic is believed to have originated – and came to light, thanks to satellite imagery, despite efforts by the country’s communist authorities to stage a cover-up.
Continue reading...Chung Pui-kuen sentenced to 21 months while Patrick Lam gets 11-month term but is released on medical grounds
The former editor-in-chief of Hong Kong’s Stand News has been sentenced to jail on sedition charges for the publication of news reports and other articles that prosecutors said tried to promote “illegal ideologies”.
Chung Pui-kuen, 55, the former editor-in-chief and the former acting editor-in-chief Patrick Lam, 36, were found guilty of conspiring to publish seditious materials in late August after almost a year of delays. The parent company of the now-defunct Stand News, Best Pencil Ltd, was also convicted.
Continue reading...Benefits to rise for poorest and local authorities to be given powers to intervene in real estate markets
Chinese leaders have vowed to arrest a slump in the housing market and boost growth after conceding that measures by the central bank to stimulate investment this week were likely to prove inadequate.
Promising to deploy “necessary spending” by the state to meet this year’s economic growth target of 5%, China’s politburo said it would increase benefits for the poorest and give local authorities the cash and power to intervene to prevent further falls in house price values.
Continue reading...The ICBM, carrying a dummy warhead, was launched into ‘high seas’ of the Pacific Ocean
China has announced the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile into the “high seas” of the Pacific Ocean, flying over the northern point of the Philippines in what is believed to be the first such test since the early 1980s.
The launch of the missile, which the defence ministry said was carrying a dummy warhead, comes at a time of growing international scrutiny of the country’s nuclear arsenal, and prompted statements of concern from several nations.
Continue reading...Zhu Hengpeng, who worked for an influential government thinktank, has reportedly not been seen in public since making disparaging remarks on WeChat
A leading Chinese economist at a government thinktank has reportedly disappeared after being disciplined for criticising Xi Jinping in a private chat group.
Zhu Hengpeng, 55, is believed to have made disparaging remarks about China’s economy, and potentially about the Chinese leader specifically, in a private WeChat group. Zhu was subsequently detained in April and put under investigation, according to the Wall Street Journal which cited anonymous sources.
Continue reading...The People’s Bank of China announces a host of policy support measures but some experts fear they may not be enough
China’s central bank unveiled its strongest suite of economic stimulus measures since the start of the Covid pandemic, underlining the difficulty it faces in reviving an economy grappling with a prolonged property crisis and strong deflationary pressures.
Governor Pan Gongsheng said the People’s Bank of China will cut the amount of cash that banks must hold as reserves – known as reserve requirement ratios (RRR) – by 50 basis points. The People’s Bank of China will also cut a key policy rate by 0.2 percentage points to 1.5%.
Continue reading...Former diplomat Michael Kovrig, who was taken into custody in December 2018, says he spent months in solitary confinement and was interrogated daily
A former Canadian diplomat detained by China for more than 1,000 days said he was placed in solitary confinement for months and interrogated for up to nine hours every day, treatment he said amounted to psychological torture.
Michael Kovrig, speaking to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp in his first major interview since his release, also said he had missed the birth of his daughter and met her for the first time when she was two-and-a half years old.
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