Category Archives: China

China threatened to retaliate against UK over foreign influence rules

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Exclusive: Chinese officials warned that targeting its security apparatus would negatively affect relations

China threatened to retaliate against the UK government if ministers targeted parts of its security apparatus under foreign influence rules, the Guardian can disclose.

Chinese officials warned the Foreign Office that the move would have negative consequences for relations soon after the Guardian reported it was under consideration, according to two government sources with knowledge of the discussions.

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China remembers ‘guiding light’ Jane Goodall’s wildlife conservation work

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Tributes paid to late British primatologist whose institute trained thousands of Chinese on protecting animals

Jane Goodall has been remembered as a “guiding light” in China, with hundreds of millions of people paying tribute online to the conservationist who died this week, aged 91.

The British primatologist and founder of the Jane Goodall Institute was well known in China, and her research and findings were ubiquitous in Chinese educational materials, which listed her among “women of achievement” in text books.

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‘A life of captivity’: Canada refuses marine park’s request to export its whales to China

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Fisheries minister says rehoming Marineland’s cetaceans in China would only ‘perpetuate the treatment’ the whales have endured

Canada’s government has refused a request by the beleaguered Marineland theme park to export its remaining 30 beluga whales to China due to concerns that the whales will face further mistreatment.

Marineland, an amusement park, zoo and aquarium in Niagara Falls, has one of the largest captive whale populations in the world, and has long been mired in controversy amid reports of poor conditions for the animals on display.

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China replaces high-level diplomat after reported detention

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Liu Jianchao, previously tipped to be next foreign minister, has not been seen publicly in months

China’s ruling Communist party (CCP) has replaced the head of its powerful international department two months after he disappeared from public life.

Liu Jianchao, an influential official who had been widely tipped to be the next foreign minister, was reportedly detained while returning from an overseas trip in late July. He has not been seen publicly since.

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Albanese hopes China’s reported BHP iron ore ban ‘very much short-term’ as ASX dips

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Treasurer Jim Chalmers and BHP CEO Mike Henry to discuss reports of Chinese iron ore blockade

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, will meet with the boss of BHP amid a shock report that the world’s largest mining company faces a Chinese blockade on its iron ore shipments.

Beijing’s state iron ore buyer has told steelmakers to pause imports of BHP ore, amid hardball negotiations over the price of the crucial resource, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

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AfD politician’s former aide convicted of spying for China

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Jian Guo jailed for five years after acting as agent for Chinese intelligence while working for Maximilian Krah

A former aide to a member of parliament for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party has been sentenced to almost five years in prison for spying on behalf of China.

Jian Guo was convicted on Tuesday of acting as an agent for the Chinese intelligence service while working for Maximilian Krah, a former member of the European parliament who now sits for the AfD in Germany’s Bundestag.

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China court sentences 11 people to death over alleged role in family-run Myanmar scam operations

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Another five people given suspended death sentences over alleged role in gang that operated scam centres and illegal gambling worth $1.4bn

A court in China has sentenced 11 people to death for their alleged roles in a family-run crime syndicate accused of running illegal gambling and scam operations worth more than $1.4bn, and for the deaths of workers who disobeyed them.

The Wenzhou intermediate people’s court on Monday sentenced 11 members of the powerful Ming family in Kokang, Myanmar to death while another five were handed death sentences suspended for two years.

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Woman admits UK bitcoin fraud charges after ‘world’s largest’ crypto seizure

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Zhimin Qian pleads guilty after wallets with 61,000 bitcoins, currently worth over £5bn, seized from north London home

A woman has been convicted for her role in a multibillion-pound bitcoin fraud after what is thought to have been the world’s largest cryptocurrency seizure.

Zhimin Qian, also known as Yadi Zhang, 45, orchestrated a fraud in China between 2014 and 2017 that left 128,000 people out of pocket.

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Super Typhoon Ragasa rampages through Taiwan, Hong Kong and southern China

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Peak winds of 165mph bring 17 deaths in Taiwan, while Storm Bualoi threatens to strengthen into typhoon on its way to the Philippines

Super Typhoon Ragasa pounded Taiwan, Hong Kong and China before moving into Vietnam on Thursday night, though as a much-weakened storm.

At its peak Ragasa had mean wind speeds of 165mph as it moved to the south of Taiwan, where it brought significant heavy rain resulting in 17 deaths as a barrier lake burst.

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China has announced its first target to cut emissions in real terms. What does it mean for Australia?

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With China accounting for nearly a third of the world’s total emissions, any cuts it achieves will make a substantial difference for the world – and for fossil fuel exports

Anything China does on energy and climate change is very big news. Its plans ripple around the world, whether that’s in changing the demand for fossil fuels or affecting the impacts on the planet from global heating.

On Thursday, Australia woke to the news that China’s president, Xi Jinping, had told the United Nations that for the first time his country was setting a target to cut – in absolute terms – its greenhouse gas emissions.

Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as a free newsletter

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Taiwan convicts four former ruling party officials of spying for China

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Huang Chu-jung, previously an assistant to a New Taipei city councillor, receives longest sentence of 10 years

Four former employees of Taiwan’s ruling political party have been convicted of spying for China and handed prison sentences of up to 10 years.

The four include a former aide to Taiwan’s president, Lai Ching-te, when he was vice-president and for a time during his current presidency, and a senior staffer to Joseph Wu, then foreign minister and now the national security chief.

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Weakened Super Typhoon Ragasa heads towards Vietnam after battering China and Hong Kong

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Huge clear-up efforts start after storm leaves trail of destruction, with 25 reported dead in Taiwan and the Philippines

Huge clear-up operations were under way in southern China and Hong Kong on Thursday, after Super Typhoon Ragasa battered the region, causing widespread flooding and damaged roads.

Ragasa, the most powerful tropical cyclone so far this year, left a trail of damage across Hong Kong, which resumed international flights on Thursday but kept kindergartens and some schools closed. In the economic hub of Guangdong province in mainland China, where more than 2 million people were evacuated ahead of the super typhoon, crews used excavators to clear thousands of toppled trees and unblock roads.

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‘Science demands action’: world leaders and UN push climate agenda forward despite Trump’s attacks

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Leaders unveil new targets to cut planet-heating pollution after Trump called climate crisis a ‘con job’

World leaders have unveiled new targets to cut planet-heating pollution at the United Nations, in a bid to spur fresh impetus to the beleaguered climate effort a day after Donald Trump called the crisis “the greatest con job ever perpetrated upon the world”.

A total of 120 countries and the European Union announced new goals to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in New York on Wednesday. The pledges most notably include one from China, the world’s leading emitter, which said it would cut emissions by 7-10% from its peak level by 2035.

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Horror film digitally altered in China to make gay couple straight

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Viewers outraged after same-sex wedding scene changed in Together, starring Dave Franco and Alison Brie

An Australian horror film featuring a scene with a same-sex wedding was reportedly digitally altered for release in mainland China, transforming the gay couple into a heterosexual one, provoking outrage from viewers who spotted the change.

The critically acclaimed film Together, starring Dave Franco and Alison Brie, was released in selected cinemas in China on 12 September. It follows the journey of a young couple who move to the countryside and encounter mysterious and grotesque changes to their bodies.

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Super Typhoon Ragasa: 17 killed in Taiwan and Hong Kong battered as storm hits China

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Chinese businesses and schools shut and residents in high-rises ordered to evacuate as storm makes landfall on Guangdong coast

Fierce winds, pounding rain and high seas battered Hong Kong as Super Typhoon Ragasa headed into southern China after causing a lake to burst in Taiwan, killing at least 17 people.

Hong Kong experienced widespread damage on Wednesday, including fallen trees and flooding in many areas, with the storm surge smashing the glass doors of an upmarket hotel and flooding its lobby, according to footage circulating online.

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UN and rights groups condemn reported jailing of Wuhan Covid citizen journalist

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Zhang Zhan sentenced to four years for second time on charge often used by China to target government critics

The UN, human rights groups and media freedom watchdogs have condemned reports that Zhang Zhan, a Chinese citizen journalist, was sentenced to jail for the second time last week.

Zhang, 42, is thought to have stood trial in Shanghai on Friday on a charge of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”, a charge often used in China to target critics of the government. Western diplomats were reportedly turned away from observing the trial.

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Arc’teryx fireworks display in Tibet prompts environmental outcry

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Outdoor brand says the Rising Dragon promotional event was out of line with its values after public criticism

The outdoor brand Arc’teryx has issued an apology after a promotional fireworks display in the Tibetan plateau led to an outcry over potential environmental damage.

The promotional Rising Dragon high-altitude show involved long stretches of choreographed pyrotechnics and coloured smoke along snow-topped Himalayan ridgelines in the Tibetan region of Shigatse. The Canadian company, part-owned by China’s Anta Group, had partnered with a Chinese artist, Cai Guo-Qiang, who oversaw similar shows for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

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Weather tracker: Flash floods and landslides wreak havoc in California

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Two-year-old boy dies and homes buried as remnants of Tropical Storm Mario bring downpours and thunder

Flash flooding and landslides led to the death of a two-year-old boy in California in the US last week, after heavy rainfall followed on the heels of Tropical Storm Mario further south. The storm skirted the Pacific coast of Mexico with minimal disruption, eventually dissipating to the west of Baja California on Tuesday, but the remnants went on to cause havoc on Thursday. Residual moist air from the tropical storm was drawn north-east towards California, bringing heavy downpours and thunder to central and southern counties.

The heaviest rainfall was in the mountains of Riverside and San Bernardino counties, where up to 68mm (2.67in) fell in a few hours. Further north, Death Valley – famously one of the driest places on Earth – received 15mm of rain, triple the average rainfall for September and a full quarter of the yearly average.

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Chinese executive jailed for 25 years in US for trafficking fentanyl chemicals

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Qingzhou Wang of Amarvel Biotech accused by prosecutors of turning chemical company into ‘pipeline of poison’

A Chinese company executive has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for trafficking in chemicals used to manufacture fentanyl, the US justice department has said.

Qingzhou Wang, 37, principal executive of Amarvel Biotech, a company based in Wuhan, and Yiyi Chen, 33, the firm’s marketing manager, were convicted in New York in February of fentanyl precusor importation and money laundering.

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Trump says Xi Jinping has agreed to approve TikTok deal, but details unclear

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Trump’s statement suggests preliminary agreement between leaders in the first direct contact between them since June

Donald Trump said on Friday that he and Xi Jinping had agreed to approve a deal over TikTok.

“He approved the TikTok deal,” Trump said about Xi to reporters in the Oval Office, suggesting the leaders signed off on a preliminary agreement. But Trump offered no details about the agreement or when it would be signed.

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