Day: January 7, 2022

China’s online nationalists turn paranoia into clickbait

Chin@Strategy

Jan 8th 2022 AN ANXIOUS WORLD has long worried that rising nationalism might one day lead ordinary Chinese—especially the young—to outbursts of uncontrollable rage. If recent months are any guide, outsiders missed a more insidious threat: that anti-foreign paranoia would become a nasty but profitable game. Listen to this story Your browser does not support the <audio> element. Enjoy more audio and podcasts on iOS or Android. These are frightening times for Chinese civil-society activists, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and private businesses that see their role as building bridges between China…

China and America prepare for a human-rights showdown at the UN

Chin@Strategy

Jan 8th 2022 LAST YEAR the Human Rights Council in Geneva passed resolutions condemning abuses in Afghanistan, Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Sudan and Syria. But as in every other year since its creation in 2006, the United Nations body was silent on China. Fearful of reprisal, and uncertain of victory, member governments have been reluctant even to propose resolutions condemning, say, the erosion of civil liberties in Hong Kong or the harsh repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Listen to this story Your browser does not support the <audio> element. Enjoy…

China crushes Hong Kong’s independent news outlets

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Jan 8th 2022 LIFE AS AN independent journalist in Hong Kong, long hard, is becoming impossible. On December 29th Stand News, the territory’s leading pro-democracy news outlet, was forced to shut after hundreds of police raided its office, froze its assets and arrested seven people. The current and former editors were charged with conspiracy to publish seditious content and denied bail. Fearing for their reporters’ safety, two other news sites, Citizen News and Mad Dog Daily, halted operations on January 4th. After the enforced closure in Hong Kong last June…

Russia faces ‘massive consequences’ if it escalates aggression against Ukraine, Antony Blinken warns

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The US government on Friday pledged “massive consequences” against Moscow if an upcoming bilateral security dialogue fails to prevent any further build-up by Russia’s military on the border with Ukraine.The massing of troops and military equipment along the Russian side of Ukraine’s Donbass region border will be a key topic during talks next week between US President Joe Biden and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, and will include two working groups established as part of the “strategic stability…South China Morning Post

Chinese Rover Finds Moon Cube Is Just Rabbit-Like Rock

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Last November, China’s Yutu-2 lunar rover spotted something curious on the far side of the moon. The image was blurry, but it was unmistakable: The object looked like a cube sitting on the moon’s surface. Its shape looked too precise to be just a moon rock — perhaps something left by visiting aliens like the monolith in Arthur C. Clarke’s “2001: A Space Odyssey.” China’s space authorities called it the “mystery hut.” Others called it the “moon cube.” Yutu-2 was sent for a closer look, and at the leisurely speed…

Dozens of Hong Kong officials in Covid quarantine after birthday party

Chin@Strategy

Dozens of senior officials and legislators in Hong Kong have been sent into a 21-day quarantine after they attended a birthday party despite the government’s own pandemic warning. The embarrassing incident came as the city’s new “patriots only” legislature is scheduled to hold its first meeting next week. Concerns had been raised in recent weeks after a number of Omicron cases were identified in Hong Kong. Health officials say they cannot rule out hidden clusters in the community. Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, said it was a “deep disappointment”…

Skier Mikaela Shiffrin is Back on Top and Headed to the Olympics

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Thursday afternoon, roughly one month from the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, Mikaela Shiffrin was still a bit out of breath from a slalom training session in Austria. But it felt good, and not just because Shiffrin, an eight-time Olympic and world champion, is once again atop the Alpine World Cup overall standings. “I finally feel like myself again,” she said in a phone interview. Ten weeks ago, as she sat in the kitchen of her Colorado home, Shiffrin all but predicted her comeback after nearly two years mourning the accidental…

‘They want to remove us and take the rock’, say Zimbabweans living near Chinese-owned mines

Chin@Strategy

A convoy of trucks laden with huge black granite rocks trundles along the dusty pathway as a group of villagers look on grimly. Every day more than 60 trucks take granite for export along this rugged road through Nyamakope village in the district of Mutoko, 90 miles east of Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare. The air reverberates with blasts and heavy machinery noises as the mountain above the village is slowly reduced, slab by slab. Quarrying has been happening here since the 1980s. Mutoko stone is sought after for its lustre. It…

US sanctioned China’s top facial recognition firm over Uyghur concerns. It still raised millions

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SenseTime, China’s largest facial recognition startup, has come under increasing scrutiny by the US government for its alleged role in the surveillance of Uyghurs. Over the past two years, the US has used sanctions to escalate pressure on the company, first by adding it to the government’s entity list, which restricts US exports to the company, and this December, by banning US investment in the firm. But those sanctions have thus far had little effect on the company’s bottom line. SenseTime recently made its debut on the Hong Kong stock…