The following year, Xu asked the expert for “system specification, design process” information. With co-operation from the company – which was working with the FBI – the employee emailed Xu a two-page document labelled as having sensitive information. BBC
Day: November 5, 2021
Xi Jinping is rewriting history to justify his rule for years to come
Nov 6th 2021 IN PREPARATION FOR a third five-year term as the Communist Party’s leader, Xi Jinping has been changing the rules of politics, business and society. He has also been pursuing another project that he sees as essential to his continued grip on power: rewriting the history of the party itself. Mr Xi wants to show his country that he is indispensable, a political giant on a par with Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping who is turning China into a global power by building on their legacy. Listen to…
UK reports 193 deaths – as it happened
Austria said only those vaccinated or recovered from coronavirus would be allowed to frequent restaurants, hotels and cultural venues. The new rule takes effect on Monday with a four-week transition phase to incentivise people to get jabbed, chancellor Alexander Schallenberg said. There have been a further 193 deaths within 28 days of a positive test for coronavirus in the UK, according to the latest official data. The government’s coronavirus dashboard also reported 34,029 more people testing positive for coronavirus on Friday, and 1,072 patients admitted to hospital. The US has…
Tennis and Politics Intertwine in China’s Highest-Profile #MeToo Case to Date
Advertisement In a since-deleted social media post, Peng Shuai, a Chinese tennis star who was once the world’s top-ranked tennis doubles player, wrote that Zhang Gaoli, a former vice premier and member of the Politburo Standing Committee, sexually assaulted her in 2018. The top official’s alleged assault led to an on-and-off relationship over three years, which Peng described as consensual yet traumatizing. Since then, state censors have removed almost all discussion of the incident from China’s social media platforms, igniting a game of cat and mouse in which internet users…
Near-Daily Covid Tests, Sleeping in Classrooms: Life in Covid-Zero China
The southwestern Chinese city of Ruili is small, remote and largely unknown internationally. It is also, when it comes to the coronavirus, perhaps the most tightly regulated place on earth. In the past year, it has been locked down four times, one lasting 26 days. Homes in an entire district have been evacuated indefinitely to create a “buffer zone” against imported cases. Schools have been closed for months, except for a few grades — but only if those students and their teachers do not leave campus. Many residents, including 59-year-old…
China, shipping and Brexit: why UK may face Christmas toy shortage
At a toy factory in south-east China, boxes of plastic dart guns are stacked across the floor. Sometimes, so many packages pile up that they stretch into the production area, slowing the work of making more toys. What to do with all the blaster guns, which have been sold to retailers in the UK but cannot find room on ships to get them there, is a problem for Nick Mowbray, the co-founder of Zuru Toys. The company expects to generate about NZ$1.1bn (£580m) in revenue this year thanks to surging…
Chinese journalist jailed over Covid reporting is ‘close to death’, family say
A citizen journalist jailed for her coverage of China’s initial response to Covid in Wuhan is close to death after going on hunger strike, her family said, prompting renewed calls from rights groups for her immediate release. Zhang Zhan, 38, a former lawyer, travelled to Wuhan in February 2020 to report on the chaos at the pandemic’s centre, questioning authorities’ handling of the outbreak in her smartphone videos. She was detained in May 2020 and sentenced in December to four years in jail for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” –…