Month: June 2022

Hong Kong’s Dismantled Society

Chin@Strategy

Advertisement For some Hong Kongers, saying farewell to family members and friends has become a common experience over the last two years. Hugs, tears, and waving goodbyes have become a more common sight at the departure hall of Hong Kong’s airport. The number of residents departing Hong Kong by air reached 85,000 in June, the highest number since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, with a net outflow of over 21,000. In a parallel universe, others are hopeful about the future of the city. To welcome Chinese Communist Party chief Xi Jinping’s…

China’s Baidu Races Waymo, GM to Develop Self-driving Cars

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Advertisement With no one at the wheel, a self-driving taxi developed by tech giant Baidu Inc. is rolling down a Beijing street when its sensors spot the corner of a delivery cart jutting into its lane. The taxi stops a half-car-length away. “So sorry,” a recorded voice tells passengers. The steering wheel turns on its own as the taxi makes its way around the cart. A Baidu technician watches from the front passenger seat. Baidu is China’s highest-profile competitor in a multibillion-dollar race with rival autonomous vehicle developers including Alphabet…

No 10 staff will be able to give evidence confidentially to inquiry into whether PM lied over Partygate – UK politics live

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From 1h ago No 10 staff will be able to give evidence confidentially to inquiry into whether PM lied over Partygate, committee says The Commons privileges committee has issued a statement after its first meeting to consider its inquiry into whether Boris Johnson lied to MPs about Partygate. It has issued a wide-ranging call for evidence, and it is inviting whistleblowers to give evidence anonymously if they want. This provision seems intended to encourage civil servants working in No 10, who may have heard Boris Johnson reveal in private that…

China insists Tonga loans come with ‘no political strings attached’

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China’s ambassador to Tonga has denied engaging in “debt trap” diplomacy in the Pacific, saying in his first press conference in two years that if the heavily indebted country cannot repay its loans, “we can talk and negotiate in a friendly, diplomatic manner”. Cao Xiaolin told Tuesday’s gathering in Nuku’alofa – a rare opportunity for journalists to question Chinese officials – that preferential loans from China came with “no political strings attached” and that Beijing would never force countries to repay the loans. Tonga, which was hit by a volcanic…

G7 to back Ukraine ‘for as long as it takes’, explore cap on Russian oil price

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Clockwise from left, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President Charles Michel, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and US President Joe Biden at the G7 summit in Castle Elmau, Germany, on Tuesday. Photo: AP South China Morning Post

As censorship in China increases, VPNs are becoming more important

Chin@Strategy

LI JIAQI, a popular Chinese influencer, had a talent for selling lipstick and other cosmetics. But his last performance was an unintentional advertisement for virtual private networks (VPNs), which help Chinese netizens get around strict online censorship rules. On June 3rd Mr Li live-streamed video of himself with an ice-cream cake that looked like a tank. This seemed to anger the authorities, who may have viewed it as a reference to the Tiananmen Square massacre, when soldiers and tanks fired on peaceful protesters in Beijing, killing hundreds, if not thousands,…

Hong Kong: ‘We don’t know where the red line is’

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This Friday marks the 25th anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong from UK to Chinese rule. China promised to protect democratic freedoms for 50 years, but new laws introduced in 2020 have effectively silenced all criticism in the territory. BBC Panorama has spent the last year with young journalists and protesters as they live through the most turbulent period in Hong Kong’s recent history, facing arrests and prison sentences. Viewers in the UK can watch BBC Panorama, Hong Kong: Life Under the Crackdown Tuesday 28 June at 8.30pm on…

China’s Non-Leadership in the Taliban’s Afghanistan

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Advertisement The majority of opinions on China’s strategy in Afghanistan are marked by thinking in binary patterns. In fact, almost a year after the Taliban’s takeover, the country is by all measurable standards sliding deeper into humanitarian and economic crises. But when it comes to the Chinese calculus, the situation presents a mixed picture and so seems to defy the traditional zero-sum outcome. While China does not act as a global leader and prefers what could be described as a selective engagement, it might well achieve its objectives in Afghanistan…

Alarm in Beijing after announcement zero-Covid policy may last five years

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Authorities in Beijing have sparked confusion and alarm after announcing the strict zero-Covid policy could be in place for the next five years, including mass mandatory testing and travel restrictions. The notice, published on Monday afternoon, was attributed to Cai Qi, the Beijing secretary of the Chinese Communist party. The original text said: “In the next five years, Beijing will unremittingly grasp the normalisation of epidemic prevention and control.” The notice was first posted by Beijing Daily and republished by other state media outlets. It spread widely across social media,…