Day: August 20, 2021

Aug 21st 2021 HONG KONG ONCE CHINESE state media labelled the group a “poisonous tumour”, it was clear that its time was running out. Within hours of that slur, in late July, the Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union was disowned by the city’s education bureau. For ten days the union, which represents about 80% of the city’s teachers, sought a reprieve. It cut ties with pro-democracy groups and with Education International, a global umbrella group. It promised to dream up new ways for schools to promote Chinese culture. But in…

Aug 21st 2021 ON THE AFTERNOON of August 17th, as scenes of horror unfolded around Kabul, China’s envoy to Afghanistan recorded the tranquil mood at his own embassy. The ambassador’s smartphone images, proudly shared on social media by Hu Xijin, the editor of a Communist Party tabloid, show the Chinese flag snapping crisply against a summer sky, and front doors guarded by nothing more menacing than a tall porcelain vase. China’s propaganda machine is enjoying the fall of Afghanistan, at least for now. Chinese diplomats and state media have missed…

Advertisement When Meng Wanzhou’s flight touched down in Vancouver on December 1, 2018, she expected it to be a brief layover. Instead, unbeknownst to the Huawei CFO, the daughter of the telecoms giant’s founder Ren Zhengfei, she would have to stay for the long haul. Meng was detained and has been under house arrest for over two years, fighting extradition to the United States. Meng is accused of misrepresenting Huawei’s relationship with another telecom equipment seller doing business in Iran during a 2013 PowerPoint presentation to HSBC, allegedly defrauding the…

Advertisement China is tightening control over information gathered by companies about the public under a law approved Friday by its ceremonial legislature, expanding the ruling Communist Party’s crackdown on internet industries. The law would impose some of the world’s strictest controls on private sector handling of information about individuals but appears not to affect the ruling party’s pervasive surveillance or access to those corporate data. Its passage follows anti-monopoly and other enforcement actions against companies including e-commerce giant Alibaba and games and social media operator Tencent that caused their share…

Advertisement When the United States and its allies began evacuating from Kabul on August 15, as the Taliban entered the Afghan capital, China decided to keep its embassy open and claimed it was ready for friendly relations with the Taliban. State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi had already met with Taliban representatives in late July in Tianjin to discuss the reconciliation and reconstruction process in Afghanistan. During that meeting, the Taliban also agreed not to support Uyghur separatists who might threaten stability in Xinjiang. China has a principle of…