A student at Ho Chi Minh City’s University of Transport says he was thrown off a training course for maritime officers because he took part in protests against a special economic zone bill. After a few months of attending the course at the Maritime Training and Manpower Center, Dang Ngoc Thanh was told by teacher Nguyen Tan he would not be allowed to continue. He was given no official document stating the reason but he said he believed it was connected to his role in the 2018 demonstrations. The 30-month…
Day: December 4, 2022
Covid is weakening, China state media claims, as major cities lift lockdowns
Coronavirus is weakening and management protocols could be downgraded, an expert on China’s state media has claimed, after unprecedented protests last week. Since January 2020, China has classified Covid-19 as a Category B infectious disease but has managed it under Category A protocols, which give local authorities the power to put patients and their close contacts into quarantine and lock down affected regions. Category A diseases in China include bubonic plague and cholera, while Sars, Aids and anthrax fall under Category B. Category C diseases include influenza, leprosy and mumps.…
China’s services sector activity shrinks to 6-month low as Covid-19 takes ‘heavy toll on economy’
“The market is in urgent need of policies to promote employment and stabilise domestic demand. Beijing should further coordinate fiscal and monetary policies to expand domestic demand and boost incomes of the poorer parts of the population.” An easing of antivirus curbs in some Chinese cities in the last few days has been met with a mix of relief and worry, as hundreds of millions await an expected shift in policies after widespread social unrest. Advertisement Most analysts believe the road to an eventual reopening will be long and bumpy,…
China’s Prominent Role in the 2022 Qatar World Cup
Advertisement Thanks to good relations with Qatar, China has been entrusted with making a major contribution to the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Several elements of the sporting event, which opened with much fanfare on November 20, have been developed by Chinese firms, ranging from stadiums and souvenirs to renewable energy vehicles. Perhaps China’s most significant contribution was its role in the development of the Lusail Stadium, the main stadium for this year’s World Cup. In 2016, China Railway Construction Corporation won a $764 million contract to build the stadium, which…
Italy home to 11 of 100-plus unofficial Chinese ‘police stations’
Italy hosts the highest number of unofficial Chinese “police stations” out of a network of more than 100 around the world, a report by a Spanish civil rights group has claimed. The northern Italian city of Milan was allegedly used by two local Chinese public security authorities as a European testing ground for a policing strategy to monitor the Chinese population abroad and force dissidents to return home. The Madrid-based Safeguard Defenders reported in September that 54 such stations allegedly existed around the world, prompting police investigations in at least…
China Reports 2 New COVID Deaths as Some Restrictions Eased
Hong Kong — China on Sunday reported two additional deaths from COVID-19 as some cities move cautiously to ease anti-pandemic restrictions following increasingly vocal public frustrations. The National Health Commission said one death was reported each in the provinces of Shandong and Sichuan. No information was given about the ages of the victims or whether they had been fully vaccinated. China, where the virus first was detected in late 2019 in the central city of Wuhan, is the last major country trying to stop transmission completely through quarantines, lockdowns and…
On China’s Covid front lines, an army of ‘big whites’ stands ready to take the fall
“People shout profanities at me when I go checking on them,” Chen said. “I can understand that because their life is affected. “But I have to follow my orders and we have been warned that heads will roll if the controls fail because these are still the priorities.” Advertisement Liu and Chen are among the millions of Chinese anti-Covid foot soldiers responsible for implementing and policing Beijing’s “dynamic zero-Covid” policies. Along with a multitude of others recruited on short-term contracts, they make up the often-reviled “big whites” – or da…
Ximei review – Ai Weiwei produces inspiring portrait of Chinese Aids activist
Produced by Ai Weiwei, this is a rousing portrait of Liu Ximei, an astonishingly resilient Aids activist; it also sheds light on a controversial government campaign that accelerated the epidemic in 1990s China. During the first half of the decade, poor farmers were encouraged to donate their blood in exchange for money. Due to a lack of health and safety standards, a staggering number of donors as well as those who received transfusions contracted HIV. In Ximei’s province of Henan, more than 300,000 villagers live with the debilitating effects of…
Chinese security firm advertises ethnicity recognition technology while facing UK ban
A Chinese security camera company has been advertising ethnicity recognition features to British and other European customers, even while it faces a ban on UK operations over allegations of involvement in ethnic cleansing in Xinjiang. In a brochure published on its website, Hikvision advertised a range of features that it said it could provide in collaboration with the UK startup FaiceTech. These included using facial recognition for retail security, border control, and anti-money laundering checks for retail banking. The brochure also advertised “Optional Demographic Profiling Facial analysis algorithms”, including “gender,…
3 Chinese Astronauts Return to Earth After 6-Month Mission
Beijing — Three Chinese astronauts landed in a northern desert on Sunday after six months working to complete construction of the Tiangong station, a symbol of the country’s ambitious space program, state TV reported. A capsule carrying commander Chen Dong and astronauts Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe touched down at a landing site in the Gobi Desert in northern China at approximately 8:10 p.m. (1210 GMT), China Central Television reported. Prior to departure, they overlapped for almost five days with three colleagues who arrived Wednesday on the Shenzhou-15 mission for…