Mask-wearing had become less commonplace than at the start of the pandemic, and mass gatherings had become the norm again. A theatre performance at the tourist destination of Zhangjiajie, in Hunan province, attended by around 2,000 people has been identified as a potential super-spreader event in the current outbreak. BBC
Advertisement The Delta variant is challenging China’s costly strategy of isolating cities, prompting warnings that Chinese leaders who were confident they could keep the coronavirus out of the country need a less disruptive approach. As the highly contagious variant pushes leaders in the United States, Australia, and elsewhere to renew restrictions, President Xi Jinping’s government is fighting the most serious outbreak since last year’s peak in Wuhan. The ruling Communist Party is reviving tactics that shut down China: Access to a city of 1.5 million people has been cut off,…
A Facebook spokesman said: “In September 2019, we removed a network of spam activity that posted lifestyle and political clickbait, primarily in Chinese. This network had almost no engagement on our platform, and we continue to work with researchers and our industry peers to detect and block their attempts to come back, like those accounts mentioned in this report.” BBC
Advertisement Macau authorities on Wednesday ordered the closure of entertainment venues and coronavirus tests for its 600,000 residents, after the gambling city confirmed four new infections. The closure covers gyms, bars, massage parlors, and karaoke places, but not the casinos for which Macau, a special administrative region of China, is famous. The city plans to test some 600,000 residents after a family of four tested positive for the more infectious Delta coronavirus variant. The mass testing is expected to last three days. The daughter had recently returned from an exchange…
Advertisement Taiwanese athletes have so far won 11 medals at the Tokyo Olympics, including gold medals in men’s doubles badminton and women’s 59 kg weightlifting. That places Taiwan in 18th place in the overall medal counts. It’s by far Taiwan’s best performance at the Olympics – it previous highest medal was five, a mark reached at both the 2004 Games in Athens and the 2000 Games in Sydney. But if you’re looking for the official results, you won’t find them under the name “Taiwan” or the formal name of the…
Advertisement China suspended flights and trains, canceled professional basketball league games, and announced mass coronavirus testing in Wuhan on Tuesday as widening outbreaks of the Delta variant reached the city where the disease was first detected in late 2019. While the total number of cases is still in the hundreds, they are far more widespread than anything China has dealt with since the initial outbreak that devastated Wuhan in early 2020 and over time spread to the rest of the country and the world. China has not eliminated but largely…
Advertisement China can’t seem to shake the charge of committing genocide of the Uyghur Muslim population of Xinjiang. Yet its accusers cannot seem to make the charge stick. Skeptics, and not just those affiliated with the Chinese government, question whether the repression in Xinjiang amounts to genocide. Even if it is, many argue, asserting the charge can only make matters worse. The truth is that the skeptics are wrong on both counts. The irony is, even if they were right, the debate shouldn’t matter. The genocide charge will not go…
BEIJING (AP) — China said Friday it will no longer recognize the British National Overseas passport as a valid travel document or form of identification amid a bitter feud with London over a plan to allow millions of Hong Kong residents a route to residency and eventual citizenship. The announcement by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian on Friday throws up new uncertainty around the plan just hours after the U.K. said it would begin taking applications for what are called BNO visas beginning late Sunday. Under the plan, as many…
Over the last two decades, China has moved from the periphery to the very center of the world’s international relations. Given that China’s economy is now more than five times as large as it was at the turn of the millennium, that transition is hardly surprising. But many of China’s new international relationships, initially hopeful, have now turned hostile. China still has some down-at-the-heel allies, such as Pakistan and North Korea, but it is increasingly isolated from the developed countries that alone can facilitate its continued economic growth. For China,…
A Chinese flag attached to the back of a boat flaps in the wind as cargo containers sit on the dock of Shenzhen Port in Shenzhen, China. Daniel Berehulak | Getty Images News | Getty Images China is diversifying its supply of critical natural resources — a move that will shore up Beijing’s ability to weaponize trade against its geopolitical rivals, according to a newly published report by risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft. “If China has a soft underbelly, it is its high dependency on foreign natural resources,” read the report…