Xi Jinping could meet Vladimir Putin in mid-September at a regional summit in the Uzbek city of Samarkand, it has been reported. According to the Wall Street Journal, preparations are being made for the Chinese president to travel to Samarkand on 15 September for a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). Xi’s office signalled he might attend in person, the report said, and that as well as Putin, bilateral meetings could also be held with the leaders of Pakistan, India and Turkey. However, officials cautioned that the Chinese leader’s…
Month: August 2022
China Moves to Fill The Void Left By Russia Sanctions – On Its Own Terms
Advertisement Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, China has been careful to officially maintain its “pro-Russian neutrality.” Nevertheless, Beijing’s propaganda machine is hard at work amplifying Russian narratives in line with its recent “friendship without limits.” Beijing has refused to impose any sanctions on Moscow and, following an initial adjustment period marked by economic disengagement, has not restrained from deepening economic ties with Russia. At the same time, China is aiming to minimize its exposure to OECD sanctions and is demanding high export prices of its northern neighbor,…
Billionaire Xiao Jianhua jailed for 13 years in China
Xiao Jianhua, a Chinese-Canadian billionaire at the centre of an alleged abduction scandal in Hong Kong in 2017, has been sentenced by a Shanghai court to 13 years in prison and his company fined a record 55.03bn yuan (£6.8bn). Xiao, 50, and his Tomorrow Holdings conglomerate were charged with illegally absorbing public deposits, betraying the use of entrusted property, and the illegal use of funds and bribery, the Shanghai first intermediate court said. Xiao was also fined 6.5m yuan for the crimes, the Shanghai court said, accusing him and Tomorrow…
Chinese city dims lights as record heatwave hits energy supplies
A provincial capital in south-west China has dimmed outdoor advertisements, subway lighting and building signs to save energy as the area struggles with a power crunch triggered by record-high temperatures. Temperatures rose past 40C (104F) in Sichuan province this week, fuelling massive demand for air conditioning and drying up reservoirs in a region reliant on dams for most of its electricity. Factories including a joint venture with the Japanese car maker Toyota in the provincial capital, Chengdu, have been forced to halt work, while millions in another city, Dazho, grappled…
China’s Covid Lockdowns Strand Tourists
A few days into a two-week tour through the island province of Hainan — known as the Hawaii of China — Nicole Chan received a message from local authorities that no traveler in the country wants to see in the pandemic. On Aug. 3, a day after officials reported 11 cases of Covid-19 in Sanya, a city of more than one million in Hainan, Ms. Chan was identified by the authorities as at risk because she had been in the area that day. She was told to quarantine right away…
How Pelosi’s Visit to Taiwan Drove Chinese Public Opinion Toward Reunification by Force
Advertisement On the night of August 2, many Chinese people were tracking U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s travels online. They either joined the millions of people looking at Flightradar24, or watched live streaming and discussed online. People believed that they were witnessing history – a possible shoot-down of the House speaker’s plane or a sudden military operation to reunify Taiwan. That, obviously, did not happen. However, the direction of history has changed. Since Pelosi’s visit, the future of the cross-strait issue has surged toward military conflict, in the minds of…
China to send troops to Russia for joint week-long military drills
Chinese troops will travel to Russia for large military exercises amid heightened tensions over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. The joint exercises in Russia’s far east, which will include India, Belarus, Mongolia, Tajikistan and other countries, are held every four years. But the week-long manoeuvres will be presented by Russia as a symbol of international support despite sanctions and other efforts to isolate the country due to its war with Ukraine. China’s defence ministry said its participation in the exercises was “unrelated to the current international and regional situation”. Beijing recently…
China’s Heat Wave Strains Its Economy
Faced with China’s most searing heat wave in six decades, factories in the country’s southwest are being forced to close. A severe drought has shrunk rivers, disrupting the region’s supply of water and hydropower and prompting officials to limit electricity to businesses and homes. In two cities, office buildings were ordered to shut off the air-conditioning to spare an overextended electrical grid, while elsewhere in southern China local governments urged residents and businesses to conserve energy. The rolling blackouts and factory shutdowns, which affected Toyota and Foxconn, a supplier for…
China beats US in most-cited science papers, moving to top of new rankings: report
However, a decade ago, it only accounted for 6.4 per cent of the world’s most-cited papers, lagging far behind the United States’ 41.2 per cent, said the report, which is compiled annually by the Tokyo-based National Institute of Science and Technology Policy. Citations are a standard way for a research paper to refer to earlier works and acknowledge where the paper’s ideas and methods come from. They have become a common measure of the importance and impact of research. Advertisement The report uses “fractional counting” to divvy up credit for…
China’s chips push is mired in corruption allegations
China’s habit of pouring cash into strategic industries creates opportunities for corruption. Just look at the microchip business. The “Big Fund” was created in 2014 to spur self-reliance in chipmaking. Backed by state investors, it has raised 343bn yuan ($50bn). But several of the fund’s executives are suspected of corruption, including its head, Ding Wenwu. 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…