The alarm bells are ringing louder. Last week, hundreds of depositors gathered in front of the Zhengzhou branch of the People’s Bank of China in the provincial capital of Henan, demanding their frozen life savings held in rural banks. A day later, tens of thousands of homeowners threatened to stop paying mortgages on scores of unfinished housing projects they had purchased. All of this happened in a week where the officials reported lacklustre second-quarter economic performance. China’s economy is facing a dangerous cocktail of stalling growth, high unemployment, spreading mortgage…
Month: July 2022
Why did MI5 name Christine Lee as an ‘agent of influence’?
MI5 had gradually received new information suggesting money was flowing into the UK political system with its true origins in China hidden. Specifically, they believed it was linked to the United Front Works Department (UFWD). The UFWD has been referred to by the Chinese Communist Party as a “magic weapon” – not a secret intelligence agency so much as an influence agency. It is one of the organisations that the head of MI5, Ken McCallum, named in his 6 July speech as “mounting patient, well-funded, deceptive campaigns to buy and…
Chinese scientists simulate hypersonic flight to US after devising BeiDou satellite-switching system
The BeiDou navigation satellite system, with its more than 50 positioning satellites equipped with microwave and laser communication devices, is the only one in China that could support an intercontinental flight in near space between any two locations on Earth, according to Chinese researchers. Photo: AP Photo South China Morning Post
The 1992 Consensus: Why It Worked and Why It Fell Apart
Advertisement In 1986, a pilot from China Airlines – then the national airline of the Republic of China (ROC) – defected to Communist China by landing his plane in Guangzhou instead of Hong Kong. Ending 40 years of silence between the two sides, the ROC’s Kuomintang (KMT) government reneged on its “no contact” policy with the mainland to negotiate the return of the plane. The rest is history. In the years following the incident, both sides set up semi-official organizations to regulate the growing numbers of exchanges across the Taiwan…
‘Abusing China’s restraint’: Beijing accuses Australia of provocation at sea
China has accused Australia of provocation in the South China Sea and said Australia – along with the United States and Canada – must “refrain from abusing China’s restraint”. Foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin was responding to a question about recent military encounters in the South China Sea, including reports in Politico that a Chinese fighter jet had an “unsafe” and “unprofessional” interaction with an American C-130 aircraft. Politico reported that the interaction came amid more aggressive military actions by Chinese pilots involving Australian and Canadian planes. Just after the…
China banks told to bail out property developers as mortgage boycotts threaten economy
Chinese banks have been told to bail out struggling property developers to help them complete unfinished housing projects and head off the growing mortgage strike that threatens to seriously damage the economy. With thousands of homebuyers banding together to refuse to keep up with mortgage instalments on unfinished apartments bought off the plan, regulators have stepped up efforts to encourage lenders to extend loans to qualified real estate projects. The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) told the official industry newspaper on Sunday that banks should meet developers’ financing…
No longer the most populous, but still China wants to be world number one | Rana Mitter
Last week, the UN’s global population project announced a major shift in the way the world looks. Next year, India, not China, will be the world’s most populous country. Right now, China has 1.43 billion people to India’s 1.41 billion, but by mid-century there will be more than 1.6 billion Indians to around 1.3 billion Chinese. At one level, this development ought to delight Beijing, which compelled its population into a “one child” policy for some 40 years. Yet there may be a few disconsolate faces in Beijing. The idea…
Tony Blair urges western powers to stand up to China
Tony Blair has issued a rallying call to western nations to come together to develop a coherent strategy to counter the rise of China as “the world’s second superpower”. Delivering the annual Ditchley lecture on Saturday, the former prime minister called for a policy towards Beijing of “strength plus engagement” as he warned the era of western political and economic dominance was coming to an end. He said western powers needed to increase their defence spending in order to maintain their military superiority while extending their “soft power” by building…
Smiles and unity at the Pacific Islands Forum mask tough questions shelved for another day
At the close of the Pacific Islands Forum the leaders emerged from their retreat smiling, cut a giant cake with a sword and then, in an impromptu moment of diplomatic bonhomie, posed for a selfie after Anthony Albanese whipped out his phone, Ellen DeGeneres style. It was, quite literally, a picture of harmony. “It’s been a very successful meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum,” said Albanese at his post-leaders’ retreat press conference. “We are family when it comes to the Pacific and there was a good spirit of cooperation and…
China heatwave: Shanghai workers swelter in 40C heat
China is struggling with sweltering summer heat with dozens of cities across the country having issued extreme weather warnings for temperatures in excess of 40C. One of those is Shanghai, which is still a focus for China’s Zero Covid strategy. BBC News went out onto the streets of the city to find out how people were coping. BBC