China has opened an embassy in Nicaragua for the first time since 1990, less than a month after the central American country cut ties with Taiwan. The Nicaraguan foreign minister, Denis Moncada, said there was an “ideological affinity” between the two countries and thanked China for donating 1m doses of the Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine. Nicaragua’s president, Daniel Ortega, established relations with China in 1985, but after he lost the election in 1990, Nicaragua recognised Taiwan. Ortega returned to power in 2007 and in won re-election in November. In December, Nicaragua…
Day: December 31, 2021
Covid-19: WHO chief optimistic disease will be beaten in 2022
“Narrow nationalism and vaccine hoarding by some countries have undermined equity and created the ideal conditions for the emergence of the Omicron variant, and the longer inequity continues, the higher the risks of the virus evolving in ways we can’t prevent or predict,” he said. BBC
China’s Ban on ‘Sissy Men’ Is Bound to Backfire
BEIJING — China is facing serious challenges on multiple fronts: Great power competition with the United States. Trade disputes. The future of Taiwan. But that doesn’t mean it’s too preoccupied to escalate a battle of another sort on the home front. The Chinese government, you see, has been fighting what state news outlets have called a “masculinity crisis” for the past few years, with one top official warning that “effeminate” men in popular culture were corrupting “a generation.” The Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece decreed that young men need to have…
‘Tit for tat’: why hunt for Covid’s origins still wrapped in politics and controversy
Robert Garry, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Tulane medical school in Louisiana, got a call from his university management telling him that agents from the FBI and CIA had requested a chat about his research into the origins of Covid-19. Garry agreed and on 30 July three agents flew down to Louisiana to talk to him in person. The meeting, held at a university conference room, began at 9am and ended at about 5pm. “I presented my evidence to the agents, who were properly trained scientists themselves. They…
Evergrande: ‘Everyone bet on inexorably rising Chinese property prices’
The crisis engulfing the Chinese property sector appears certain to intensify in 2022 as companies face debt repayments in the new year that are double those of the final months of 2021, risking what one China expert calls a systemic crisis for the world’s second-biggest economy. Although concerns about the stricken giant China Evergrande have receded in recent weeks behind a massive state-led restructuring operation, it missed a bond repayment of $255m (£190m) on Thursday and the debt problems that have pushed the second biggest developer in the country into…
Xi’an: Cries for help and food in quarantined Chinese city
“I heard other districts are gradually getting supplies, but I didn’t get anything. My compound bans us from going out. I ordered some groceries online four days ago, but no sign of getting it at all. I haven’t been able to get any vegetables for days,” read one comment posted on Friday. BBC
What Default? With Confetti and Fanfare, Evergrande Says It’s Ready to Build.
To mark the completion of a residential complex called World City, the indebted property giant China Evergrande Group held an elaborate red carpet ceremony on Monday, with eight cannons firing off confetti before a cheering crowd. The company then released a series of images featuring newly completed buildings covered with bright red decorations. Just weeks earlier, Evergrande had been declared in default. The developer has unpaid bills in excess of $300 billion and has struggled to pay back its creditors and business partners. Some in China saw the company’s celebrations…