Beijing’s Winter Olympics organising committee has rejected accusations that journalists have been blocked in their attempts to cover preparations for the Games. Earlier this month the Foreign Correspondents Club of China (FCCC) accused the Chinese authorities of “continuously stymying” attempts by foreign media to cover the Winter Olympics due to begin near the Chinese capital in February. In a scathing statement, the FCCC alleged a pattern of authorities denying or ignoring requests for access, and following, harassing and abusing journalists. It contained several accounts of specific instances from foreign journalists,…
Day: November 10, 2021
COP26: Cautious welcome for unexpected US-China climate agreement
Reacting to the US-China declaration, Genevieve Maricle, director of US climate policy action at pressure group WWF, said: “This announcement comes at a critical moment at COP26 and offers new hope that, with the support and backing of two of the world’s most critical voices, we may be able to limit climate change to 1.5 degrees. BBC
International Space Station Dodges Chinese Space Junk
On Wednesday, about six hours before NASA’s Crew-3 mission launched to orbit, the International Space Station was forced to maneuver itself to avoid a piece of debris spawned by a Chinese antisatellite weapon test in 2007. The piece of junk was projected to enter what’s called the “pizza box,” a square-shaped zone 2.5 miles deep and 30 miles wide, where the station sits in the middle. NASA officials keep close eyes on the zone using data models on the location of objects in space kept by the U.S. Space Command.…
America Isn’t Ready for the Electric-Vehicle Revolution
China’s buildup continues to this day. Just a few weeks ago, Contemporary Amperex Technology, China’s largest battery manufacturer, said it would invest up to $4.96 billion on a plant to recycle used E.V. batteries. That was on top of the company’s $297 million acquisition of Canada’s Millennial Lithium Corp., which was announced in September. Can the United States hope to ever catch up? In recent months, General Motors, Stellantis and Toyota have each announced plans to build massive battery factories in North America. Ford said it and its South Korean…
COP26: US and China issue a surprise statement pledging increased collaboration on climate
“This is only the beginning, and if we work hard we can take this to a better level,” John Kerry, the US special presidential envoy for climate, said on Wednesday, discussing a US-China joint declaration on working together to meet climate objectives. Photo: AP South China Morning Post
China’s Global Network of Vocational Colleges to Train the World
Advertisement Despite questions from U.S. President Joe Biden’s foreign policy team about the lack of local benefits for countries along the Belt and Road, China and Chinese companies are serious about upskilling and employing more locals on overseas projects. China is so serious that it is setting up a network of vocational colleges around the world, called Luban Workshops after Lu Ban, a mythical figure revered as an inventor. The workshops train students in dozens of countries in technical areas such as industrial sensors, control and robotics technologies, machinery equipment…
Covid live: Russia’s coronavirus death toll passes 250,000; UK records another 214 deaths and 39,329 cases
The US Food and Drug Administration classified the recall of Ellume’s over-the-counter Covid home test as Class 1, the most serious type of recall, after the Australian diagnostic test maker removed some of its tests from the market last month. Ellume had cited higher-than-acceptable false positive test results for SARS-CoV-2 as the reason for the recall. A ‘false positive’ indicates that a person has the virus when they actually do not. The antigen test, which detects proteins from the SARS-CoV-2 virus from a nasal sample, is available without a prescription…
As Other Countries Try Living With COVID-19, China Keeps up Zero Tolerance
Advertisement Wang Lijie planned to spend three days in the Gobi Desert last month to take in the area’s famous poplar forest as its trees turned a golden yellow. Instead, the Beijing resident has been stuck for more than three weeks, much of it in quarantine, after authorities discovered a cluster of COVID-19 cases in a nearby city. He was among more than 9,000 tourists who became trapped in Ejin Banner, a remote part of China’s Inner Mongolia region that is in the Gobi. As vaccination rates rise in many…
Can China’s Singles’ Day Go Green?
Advertisement Singles’ Day, China’s annual shopping fest on November 11, is by now as renowned for wastefulness as it is for commerce. My email inbox every November attests to this anxiety, which rises as predictably and short-lived as the shopping holiday. Tech companies’ response has been a smattering of quick fixes. Take Alibaba as an example. The owner of Taobao.com and TMall has put forward a series of individual efforts, ranging from optimizing packaging with AI technology and establishing recycling stations to the award-winning tree-donating Ant Forest app. But the…
This Chinese City Requires 28 Days of Quarantine. Then Another 28.
Some places have come under criticism for their long quarantines, but few can compare to the northern Chinese city of Shenyang. Travelers arriving there from overseas must spend 28 days in hotel quarantine, and during the hotel stay they are not allowed to open the door except to take in food deliveries. They are tested seven times for the coronavirus over that period. And once that hotel quarantine is over, they are expected to avoid going outside their home for another 28 days. The latest restrictions, which have been in…