If you are a small island state with few allies, not recognised by the United Nations, and threatened with invasion by a much larger and more powerful neighbour, then getting a visit by the third most powerful politician in the United States should be something you welcome. Right? BBC
Month: July 2022
China Adds Science Lab to Its Orbiting Space Station
Advertisement China added a laboratory to its permanent orbiting space station Monday as it moves toward completing the structure in coming months. The Wentian laboratory was launched from the Wenchang space base on the tropical island province of Hainan on Sunday with a large crowd of amateur photographers and space enthusiasts watching. After 13 hours of flight, it successfully docked with the Tianhe living area of the Tiangong space station at 3:13 a.m. Monday (1913 GMT), according to the China Manned Space Agency. Photos distributed by Xinhua News Agency later…
China Is Not Russia; Taiwan Is Not Ukraine
Advertisement Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sparked an avalanche of discussion about the implications for Taiwan. One of the most commonly discussed lessons from the Ukraine War has been that China would need to think more seriously before waging a reunification war against Taiwan, given the setbacks suffered by the Russian invading forces. In my understanding, however, the risk of Beijing launching a cross-strait war was never high to begin with, so the “lesson” has little use. History might repeat itself but not always. To illustrate the differences, we need…
Developers’ shares rise on news of China’s US$12 billion bailout fund for beleaguered sector
China’s property sector has been in a tailspin since the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) enforced its so-called three red lines on developers’ debts in September 2020. The bailout fund will be supported by China Construction Bank and the PBOC, Reuters said. Other banks will follow suit if the pilot scheme works well, aiming to raise the fund up to 300 billion yuan. 01:29 New Evergrande protests amid reports troubled Chinese property giant ordered to raze development The shares of Shanghai-based Cifi Holdings (Group), which is trying to repay its…
Beijing urges British politicians not to ‘hype the China threat’
Beijing has urged British politicians to exercise restraint in their comments on China, saying “hyping the China threat” would not help solve the UK’s own problems. Asked about Rishi Sunak’s comments, where he labelled China as Britain’s biggest long-term threat and pledged to close all UK-based Confucius Institutes, Zhao Lijian, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, declined to offer specific comments, saying the election of the next Tory leader is the UK’s internal affair. But he added: “I do want to inform some UK politicians that they can’t solve their own problems…
China launches second module for its space station Heavenly Palace
China has launched the second of three modules for its space station. It sent the first in April 2021 and hopeS the station will be operational by the end of this year. Tiangong or “Heavenly Palace” will have its own power, propulsion, life support systems and living quarters. BBC
Chinese court rules against single woman who wanted to freeze eggs
A Chinese court has overruled a rare legal challenge brought by an unmarried Beijing woman seeking the right to freeze her eggs. The Chaoyang intermediate people’s court in Beijing said in a judgment that the hospital did not violate the woman’s rights in denying her access to freeze her eggs. Teresa Xu received the court judgment Friday, almost three years after she first brought the case. In China, national law does not explicitly ban unmarried people from services like fertility treatments, and simply states that a “husband and wife” can…
Teresa Xu: Chinese woman loses court case over bid to freeze eggs
Referring to her visits to the hospital, she said: “I came here for a professional service, but instead I got someone who was urging me to put aside my work and to have a child first. “I have already received a lot of this pressure in this society, this culture.” BBC
China women: Killer of popular vlogger Lamu executed
When her husband Tang Lu was sentenced to death, the court in Aba prefecture, a remote rural area in the south-west of Sichuan province where a large number of ethnic Tibetans live, found that his crime had been “extremely cruel” and the social impact had been “extremely bad”. BBC
Chinese man executed for murder of former wife during live stream
A Chinese man has been executed after a court found him guilty of setting his former wife on fire while she was livestreaming on social media. The Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang autonomous prefecture intermediate people’s court said in a short online statement on Saturday morning that it had carried out the execution of Tang Lu. Tang set his ex-wife on fire in September 2020 while she was livestreaming on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok run by the same parent company. The 30-year-old woman, known online as Lhamo, died of…