Month: September 2022

Russia says that a senior Chinese official expressed support for the invasion of Ukraine.

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A senior Chinese official offered Beijing’s most robust endorsement yet of Moscow’s war in Ukraine, telling a group of Russian lawmakers on Friday that China “understands and supports Russia,” particularly “on the situation in Ukraine,” according to an official Russian description of the meeting. Li Zhanshu, the third-ranking member of the Communist Party of China, visited Moscow last week after attending an economic forum in the eastern Russian city of Vladivostok, where he met with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Mr. Li is the highest-level Chinese official to leave…

Etles Uyghur, London: ‘You’ll be well fed, and learn a little along the way’ – restaurant review

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Etles Uyghur Restaurant, 424 Finchley Road, London NW2 2HY (020 7431 5698). Starters £7.50-£9.99, mains £12.50-£16, big plate chicken £30, desserts £4.50. Unlicensed The menu at Etles Uyghur restaurant, located at the leafier Golder’s Green end of London’s Finchley Road, is not just a thrilling list of edible promises. It’s also a subtle lesson in physical and human geography. Obviously, there’s no pork listed because of the predominantly Muslim culture of the Uyghur people, which the Chinese government has been attempting to annihilate so brutally, for so long. Nor is…

Just Bread and Noodles: China’s Covid Lockdown Distress Hits Xinjiang

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This summer, Yining, a city in the Xinjiang region of far-western China, celebrated a boom of Chinese tourists seeking a sunny respite from Covid worries in their hometowns. Now Yining is under its own grueling, weekslong pandemic lockdown, with residents calling for help over limited food, difficulty getting medicines and drastic shortages of sanitary pads for women. People in the city of 600,000 have been commanded to stay in their homes since early August, forcing many to rely largely on neighborhood officials to deliver supplies. One resident contacted by telephone…

Chinese Drones: The Latest Irritant Buzzing Taiwan’s Defenses

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TAIPEI, Taiwan — At first the Taiwanese soldiers ignored the drones flying from China. Then, as the flights increased, they fired warning shots. Finally, the soldiers shot one into the sea. In the past month nearly 30 unarmed drones have buzzed two islands belonging to Taiwan near China’s southern coast. The drones were mostly civilian, or unidentified, but were clearly targeting the garrison of Taiwanese soldiers stationed on the rocky outcrops. The drones are adding to tensions between the two sides which have escalated in the past month to new…

Harvest Moon Lights Up Skies and Marks Start of Festivals Worldwide

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If you’re someone who rejoices at every sign of fall, you may want to look out at the moon this weekend. Across the United States and especially in places with clear skies, a full moon that signals summer is nearing its end will be visible. Because of the way light travels through the atmosphere and the moon’s location on the horizon, the moon appears reddish orange. The harvest moon, whose name grew out of its utility to farmers who harvested crops in the fall before the advent of artificial lighting,…

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines’ Diplomatic Efforts During the Latest Taiwan Strait Flare-up

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Advertisement U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s recent high profile and high-stakes visit to Taiwan, which made global headlines, prompted other politicians to take high-level visits of their own to the island. One month ago, Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Ralph Gonsalves entered the fray. With no outward signs of hesitation, beginning on August 8 as China was continuing to conduct unprecedented military drills around the island, he led a delegation on a six-day state visit to Taiwan. At a time when cross-strait relations rested on a knife-edge, what…

Volker Türk, an Austrian Diplomat, Takes U.N. Human Rights Post

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GENEVA — A week after Michelle Bachelet stepped down as the United Nations’ high commissioner for human rights, the U.N. has approved Volker Türk, an Austrian who is a trusted adviser to the secretary general, to take on the notoriously challenging job. The secretary general, António Guterres, forwarded the name of Mr. Türk late on Wednesday to the U.N. General Assembly, which approved the appointment without a vote on Thursday. Mr. Türk, 57, is not widely known outside the United Nations, but he was seen as the front-runner in a…

Four Years After #MeToo in China: Shrinking Digital Space for Change

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Advertisement On August 10, a Beijing court rejected the appeal of Zhou Xiaoxuan, who had accused a star presenter for state television of sexual harassment. The case was considered a landmark for the #MeToo movement in China because it galvanized other women to share their own stories of sexual harassment publicly. The impact was not only online, but it also triggered offline collective activities. For Zhou’s first trial in 2021, dozens of women gathered outside the courthouse to show their support, and the police did not intervene. However, at the…

2 Years After Deadly Fistfights, India and China Pull Back From Border

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SRINAGAR, Kashmir — Their soldiers have fought with fists, rocks and wooden clubs along a disputed frontier high in the Himalayas. Both India and China have said they don’t want a war, but the brawls led them to move thousands of soldiers to inhospitable terrain. Now, the two nuclear-armed neighbors appear to be moving toward de-escalation after a conflict that endangered regional stability, with officials from both sides agreeing to pull back soldiers from friction points along their disputed border in the Ladakh region. “The Indian and Chinese troops in…

Indian and Chinese troops pull back from disputed Himalayan border area

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Indian and Chinese troops have begun to pull back from another disputed Himalayan border area, as peace talks between senior military officials after deadly clashes in 2020 continue. The two defence ministries confirmed troops were disengaging from respective sides in the area of Gogra-Hot Springs, in a move “conducive to the peace and tranquillity in the border areas”. The withdrawal was according to a consensus reached in July during the 16th and most recent round of bilateral talks between top commanders, both ministries said. It marks the second major act…