More than 11,000 recovered Covid-19 patients were discharged in Shanghai on Sunday, and health authorities emphasised that they must be allowed to return home despite the lockdown that has severely restricted movement in China’s largest city. “We hope their family and community will not worry about them or discriminate against them,” said Wu Jinglei, the director of the Shanghai municipal health commission. The city of 26 million people reported 1,006 confirmed infections and almost 24,000 asymptomatic cases over the previous 24 hours. Shanghai has been under lockdown since 28 March,…
Month: April 2022
What does political upheaval in Pakistan mean for the world?
Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan, was ousted from office in a no-confidence vote in parliament in the early hours of Sunday after three years and seven months in power. A new government will be formed, most likely under opposition leader Shahbaz Sharif, after parliament reconvenes on Monday to vote for a new prime minister. The country of more than 220 million people lies between Afghanistan to the west, China to the north-east and India to the east, making it of vital strategic importance. Since coming to power in 2018, Khan’s…
How Beethoven inspired 50 years of cultural exchange between the US and China
It was a big year for Tan Dun, the Oscar-winning Chinese musician who would go on to compose the soundtrack for the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. In the autumn of 1973, Tan, then a teenager, was sent to a rural commune in Hunan province to plant rice. China was at the height of the Cultural Revolution. One day, Tan heard a sound from a loudspeaker in the field. “Do you want to hear some interesting music? This is called ‘symphony’. The Philadelphia Orchestra is in China,” a friend said…
The rise of TikTok: why Facebook is worried about the booming social app
TikTok is on track to overtake the global advertising scale of Twitter and Snapchat combined this year, and to match mighty YouTube within two years, as trendsetting teens and young adults make it the hottest social app of the moment – and Facebook is worried. The Chinese-owned video-sharing platform is forecast to catch up with YouTube by 2024 when both are predicted to take $23.6bn (£18.2bn) in ad revenue, despite TikTok being launched globally 12 years after its Google-owned rival. Helped by unparalleled moments of cool at the height of…
Don’t underestimate Xi Jinping’s bond with Vladimir Putin
Apr 9th 2022 EACH NEW Russian atrocity in Ukraine prompts a question about China. Surely, foreign governments wonder, China’s leader, Xi Jinping, must distance himself from Vladimir Putin soon—if only to avoid harming his own national interests? Listen to this story.Enjoy more audio and podcasts on iOS or Android. Your browser does not support the <audio> element. Listen to this story Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitask OK Alas, the history of outsiders telling leaders in Beijing how to judge China’s interests is long, and…
When China worries about food, the world pays
Apr 9th 2022 BEIJING THE COMMUNIST PARTY has a way with words. Take the prosaic topic of food security. The pandemic, geopolitical tensions and heavy rainfall last year (which may lead to a wretched wheat crop) threaten China’s grain supply. Lately officials have been echoing the exhortation of President Xi Jinping that “the people’s rice bowl must be firmly held in their own hands at all times.” In non-party-speak, the government is thinking hard about how to keep the world’s most populous country fed. Listen to this story.Enjoy more audio…
John Lee, a tough former policeman, looks set to lead Hong Kong
Apr 9th 2022 LESS THAN three years ago, news of her imminent departure would have been greeted with joy on the streets of Hong Kong. Carrie Lam, the territory’s leader (pictured, right), was reviled by the pro-democracy protesters whose demonstrations in 2019 snowballed into the biggest unrest of its kind in the territory’s history. But Mrs Lam’s announcement on April 4th that she would not seek another term in office—meaning she has less than three months to serve—stirred little cheer. The central government plans to replace her with a tough…
A clumsy lockdown of Shanghai is testing the “zero-covid” strategy
Apr 9th 2022 SHANGHAI THE EFFORT to stamp out covid-19 in Shanghai has taken on the characteristics of a military campaign. The army has published photos of planes offloading personnel and supplies. Tens of thousands of medical workers have marched into the city. At least as many covid patients will be spirited out—bused to field hospitals in neighbouring areas, sometimes hundreds of kilometres away. The rest of the city’s 25m residents will remain locked down as the fight against the virus drags on. Listen to this story.Enjoy more audio and…
Shanghai’s Covid Lockdown Has Caused Food Shortages, Residents Say
Before Guan Zejun’s apartment block was locked down on March 27, he bought enough noodles and bread to last a week. He figured that if he ran out, he could always order in. After all, this was Shanghai. Soon afterward, however, the authorities locked down the whole city of 26 million in a bid to contain China’s worst coronavirus outbreak since the pandemic began. On Friday, Mr. Guan, a 31-year-old programmer, posted a picture on the social media platform Weibo of his nearly empty box of supplies and pleaded for…
Supply Chains Tainted by Forced Labor in China, Panel Told
WASHINGTON — Human rights activists, labor leaders and others urged the Biden administration on Friday to put its weight behind a coming ban on products made with forced labor in the Xinjiang region of China, saying slavery and coercion taint company supply chains that run through the region and China more broadly. The law, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, was signed by President Biden in December and is set to go into effect in June. It bans all goods made in Xinjiang or with ties to certain entities or…