According to Chinese regulations, passenger buses are not allowed to drive on the highway between the hours of 02:00 and 05:00. However, the accident occurred at 02:40 local time Sunday (18:40 GMT Saturday) after the bus departed shortly after midnight, indicating the bus had violated regulation. BBC
A senior Chinese health official has advised people to avoid physical contact with foreigners to prevent possible monkeypox infection after the first known case of the virus on mainland China was reported on Friday. “To prevent possible monkeypox infection and as part of our healthy lifestyle, it is recommended that 1) you do not have direct skin-to-skin contact with foreigners,” Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the China Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted on his official Weibo page on Saturday. Wu also called for people to avoid “skin-to-skin contact”…
SEOUL — Four months into his new administration, President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea has found himself in trouble. His national approval rating has plummeted, his governing People Power Party does not control Parliament and five of his cabinet-level appointees have been forced to step down amid accusations of nepotism, sexual harassment and other ethical lapses. Yet despite myriad domestic challenges, Mr. Yoon is hoping to boost his popularity at home and raise his profile on the world stage by pursuing a new foreign policy agenda, one that would…
A group of cross-party MPs is in talks with Taiwan to provide Mandarin teachers to the UK as the government seeks to phase out Chinese state-linked Confucius Institutes, the Observer has learned. There are currently 30 branches of the Confucius Institute operating across the UK. Although controversies have existed for many years, they have continued to teach Britons Chinese language, culture and business etiquette. These schools are effectively joint ventures between a host university in Britain, a partner university in China, and the Chinese International Education Foundation (CIEF), a Beijing-based…
Taiwan’s de facto ambassador in London received a special invitation to sign the book of condolence for the Queen, the island’s foreign ministry said, adding he was given the same treatment as other dignitaries. Britain, like most countries, has no diplomatic ties with Chinese-claimed Taiwan though they have close unofficial ones. Democratically governed Taiwan is largely excluded from most international events and bodies due to Beijing’s objections. In a statement on Sunday, Taiwan’s foreign ministry said its representative in London, Kelly Wu-Chiao Hsieh, was “specially invited” by the British government…
There has been much excited talk of a “turning point” following Ukraine’s rapid military advances in north-eastern Kharkiv region and what Kyiv cheerily calls its “de-occupation” by fleeing Russians. Less comforting for the western democracies is an alternative theory: that the war is approaching “a moment of maximum danger”. Worries that a cornered, desperate Vladimir Putin may resort to nuclear, chemical or biological weapons have resurfaced in the US and Europe, along with the argument, articulated by France’s Emmanuel Macron, that Russia’s president, despite his terrible crimes, should not be…
Our new subscriber-only newsletter, Drum Tower, offers insights and observations from inside China and the places where it seeks to extend its influence. The rise of China has been one of the most important developments of the past half-century. Now it wants to reshape the global order. Xi Jinping is the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong. But the years ahead hold many challenges for the Communist Party, which has grown more authoritarian at home and more assertive abroad. The public is increasingly frustrated by Mr Xi’s strict “zero-covid”…
HONG KONG — Many people lining up outside the British Consulate General here this week were mourning not just the death of Queen Elizabeth II but the loss of what the city once was. They were there to leave flowers, a portrait of the queen or a Union Jack, and to sign a book of remembrance for Elizabeth, who was Hong Kong’s head of state for 45 years when it was a British colony. The consulate said more than 10,000 people had paid their respects in the week ended Friday,…
Underlining Russia’s widening isolation on the world stage, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India told President Vladimir V. Putin on Friday that it is no time for war — even as the Russian president threatened to escalate the brutality of his campaign in Ukraine. The televised admonishment by Mr. Modi at a regional summit in Uzbekistan came just a day after Mr. Putin acknowledged that Xi Jinping, China’s leader, had “questions and concerns” about the war. Taken together, the distancing from Mr. Putin by the heads of the world’s two…
Advertisement Rumors have been swirling ahead of the Chinese Communist Party’s 20th National Congress, now just one month away. Outgoing Premier Li Keqiang could succeed Xi Jinping as CCP general secretary, claimed a report in late August by Taiwan’s United Daily. Soon after, some commentators claimed that Xi is losing support among party elders, including three party veterans who wrote a letter warning against personality cults and power centralization. Meanwhile, there were renewed signs of a split between China’s top two leaders following the purported Beidaihe retreat last month. Xi…