Soldiers drive M60 tanks on a street as part of a military drill in Taichung, Taiwan, in November 2020. Several analysts have tried to take lessons from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and apply them to Taiwan and East Asia in general, though that risks comparing two situations that might not be analogous. Photo: Reuters South China Morning Post
Advertisement China is currently hosting the third “Meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Neighboring Countries of Afghanistan” in Tunxi, Anhui, which will run from March 30 to 31. Headed by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, the meeting will be attended by Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan – the same countries that participated in the second Meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Neighboring Countries of Afghanistan in Iran in October 2021. Taliban’s acting foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, will also be in attendance, following Wang’s surprise visit to Kabul…
Advertisement The physical destruction and human horrors being wrought by the Russian invasion of Ukraine are causing immeasurable devastation to Ukraine’s economy. There will be consequences for global supply chains in key sectors, from military arms sales to foodstuffs to semiconductors. And an important portion of those impacts will hit the country that has – so far – been Russia’s most important ally: China. Ukraine, when it begins to rebuild its infrastructure and its economy, will have some difficult decisions to make in its relationship with China, and part of…
Advertisement Britain said Wednesday that it is withdrawing its judges from Hong Kong’s top court because keeping them there would “legitimize oppression” in the former British colony. British judges have sat on the court since Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997. The British government’s move underscores the Asian financial hub’s growing isolation as the ruling Chinese Communist Party works to assert its control and silence independent voices. While the U.K. had judges serving on the Court of Final Appeal as part of efforts to safeguard the rule of…
Residents in half of Shanghai are bracing for the second phase of a citywide lockdown that will start on Friday. Long queues were seen outside some supermarkets on Wednesday, and residents emptied shelves. The Omicron outbreak in Shanghai is one of a series across the country that is testing the government’s ability to enforce a strict ‘zero-Covid’ strategy without overly disrupting the economy and people’s daily lives The Guardian
After two years of sparse crowds in Times Square and other popular attractions, New York City is finally hoping for a robust rebound of visitors this year. But the city will still be missing a main driver of its prepandemic tourism boom: big spenders from China, whose government has yet to allow travel abroad. Before the pandemic, China was the fastest-growing source of foreign visitors to the city, with more than 1.1 million Chinese tourists arriving in 2019. Their impact on New York’s economy was supersized because they tended to…
Last August, TikTok maker ByteDance acquired Chinese VR hardware maker Pico for an undisclosed amount, which was reported to be 9 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion). Tencent Holdings, the world’s largest video game company, has also indicated an interest in the metaverse. The company is reportedly pursuing an acquisition of gaming smartphone maker Black Shark, currently owned by Xiaomi, to obtain its hardware capabilities. Tan Ping, the head of XR at Alibaba’s research and development lab Damo Academy, said in a speech in October that he defines the metaverse as “the…
A rap about food shortages has become a hit in Shanghai, with the artists behind the song describing it as an attempt to “cheer up” tens of millions of residents locked down in China’s largest city amid a surging Covid outbreak and increasing restrictions. The song, Grocery Shopping, laments empty shelves and fights in the supermarket aisles, and is set to footage of residents crowding around market stalls, or lining up for PCR tests. “Set your alarm, wake up, food fight,” the lyrics say. “Order that tofu, but the sauce…
More than two years after China imposed the world’s first Covid-19 lockdown, in response to the virus’s emergence in Wuhan, tens of millions are stuck at home once more. With cases at their highest since early 2020, the leadership is wedded to its zero-Covid strategy. For much of the pandemic, it allowed most people to live without restrictions within the country’s borders, and it certainly saved countless lives. Officially, mainland China’s death toll has remained under 5,000, despite a population of more than 1.3 billion; the UK, with 67 million…
MELBOURNE, Australia — In a fiery speech confirming that the Solomon Islands has drafted a security agreement with China, the island nation’s leader said on Tuesday that the deal was “ready for signing” and criticized as “insulting” concerns from Australia and New Zealand that the pact could destabilize the region’s security. Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare’s remarks to Parliament marked the first time he had addressed the leak last week of a draft of the security agreement. The draft — which was shared by opponents of the deal and verified as…