The debt crisis at property giant China Evergrande Group poses a challenge for the Chinese government. It is unclear whether Beijing will provide the company with the funds to meet its debt obligations. So how did we get here and what’s at stake? The BBC’s Katie Silver explains. BBC
TIRANA, Albania — Accused by the United States military of being a terrorist in league with the Taliban, a devout Muslim man from western China spent four years imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay before being cleared and then dumped in Albania 15 years ago. Still stranded in a country he did not know existed until he was sent there, the man, Abu Bakker Qassim, 51, has a word of warning for the hundreds of Afghans who have fled their country over the past month and followed his path to one of…
Dr. Mirsky managed to dictate his article by phone. The next morning he cycled back to Tiananmen, where he saw soldiers shoot parents who were trying to enter the square to look for children who had not returned home. He said he also saw soldiers shoot doctors and nurses who had come to the scene to help the injured. (Many China scholars still regard as unresolved how many people were killed in the crackdown and where they died; estimates range from the hundreds to the thousands.) “Tiananmen Square became a…
Many in China’s gaming industry agree that games have some downsides. The most popular games in the country are made for smartphones and are free to play, meaning the businesses making them live and die based on how well they draw users in and get them to pay for extras. The game makers have become experts at hooking players. But top-down attempts to wean children off games — what state media has called “poison” and “spiritual pollution” — have sometimes been worse than the problem itself. Boot camps fond of…
Chinese medallists (from left) Wang Liqin, Ma Lin and Wang Hao stand at attention for the national anthem during the awards ceremony for men’s singles table tennis, at the Beijing Olympic Games on August 23, 2008. Ma won gold, defeating Wang Hao who took silver, while Wang Liqin took bronze. Photo: AFP South China Morning Post