Parliament is to ban the Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok from “all parliamentary devices and the wider parliamentary network”, citing the need for cybersecurity. The move goes further than the ban last week of the app on government mobile phones and devices, covering the whole parliamentary network. That means that MPs and parliamentary staff who continue to have TikTok installed on personal devices will find the service blocked if they try to access it over parliamentary wifi. A parliament spokesperson said on Thursday: “Following the government’s decision to ban TikTok from…
Month: March 2023
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testifies before US Congress amid growing security concerns – live
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China may face more embarrassment over its human-rights record
ON PAPER, CHINESE diplomacy was victorious. Last October the UN’s Human Rights Council (HRC) voted by 19 to 17 against holding a debate on a long-delayed report which concluded that China may have committed “crimes against humanity” by mistreating Uyghurs in Xinjiang. The Chinese delegation expended extraordinary energy in seeking to persuade HRC members to vote against the resolution, which would merely have triggered a discussion in the council lasting a few hours. China was determined to avoid what, in its eyes, would have been a humiliation. President Xi Jinping…
Controversial Gold Mine Reopens in Thailand
Khao Chet Luk, Thailand — A controversial gold mine in Thailand restarted operations on Thursday, more than six years after the government forced it to close over health and environmental concerns. The Chatree complex, which straddles three rural provinces in the kingdom’s north, had been dogged by legal disputes and protests by villagers who said it poisoned crops and livestock. The Thai government, at that point a military junta, ordered the open-cut mine to halt operations in May 2016 in a rare win for environmental campaigners. The mine’s Australian owner,…
Two Cambodians Held on Rare Royal Insults Charge After Facebook Posts
Phnom Penh — Two Cambodian opposition figures have been charged under the country’s rarely used lese majeste law with insulting King Norodom Sihamoni for posts made on Facebook about a photograph of the king and Prime Minister Hun Sen. A judge at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court also charged Yim Sinorn and Hun Kosal with incitement to cause serious social unrest in the country, a court document showed. The men, once members of the now-dissolved opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), could face a jail term of up to five…
China wraps up navy drills with Russia, Iran in Gulf of Oman amid renewed diplomacy
The militaries also conducted anti-terrorism and anti-piracy training, which included a simulated rescue mission to a hijacked merchant ship, the report said. “The exercise deepened the practical cooperation between the navies … and further showed the willingness and ability to jointly maintain maritime security,” said Qiu Maoxuan, the Nanning’s captain, in an interview with CCTV. 02:05 ‘Cobra Gold,’ SE Asia’s biggest military exercise begins with largest US involvement in years The Nanning has since returned to escort missions in the Gulf of Aden and the waters off Somalia. Advertisement The…
US Denies Chinese Military Drove Away US Destroyer in South China Sea
The United States denied a Chinese claim Thursday that Chinese forces drove away a U.S. guided-missile destroyer that had entered Chinese territorial waters. Tian Junli, a spokesman for China’s Southern Theatre Command, said the USS Milius intruded into waters around the Paracel Islands “undermining peace and stability in the South China Sea.” The U.S. Navy 7th Fleet rejected China’s statement as false, saying the destroyer was “conducting routine operations in the South China Sea and was not expelled.” “The United States will continue to fly, sail, and operate wherever international…
China’s Rise Relied on the West. Xi Jinping Is Turning Away.
In late 1978, China’s paramount leader Deng Xiaoping set in motion two major policy shifts that would change China and the world order in the decades to come. At a Communist Party meeting in December of that year, the leadership declared that China would turn its focus from political struggle to economic development. Within days, China and the United States announced that they would establish diplomatic relations. These two events marked the end of China as a hermit country where one billion people lived in extreme poverty and the start…
China’s graft-busters give rare details about corruption case in digital hub that houses Apple cloud service
Guian New District in Anshun, Guizhou province, is home to tech giants, such as Tencent and Apple, that have invested in data infrastructure as the province works towards becoming the country’s big data hub. Photo: Visual China Group via Getty Images South China Morning Post
Philippines, China in talks over sea dispute, base access for US forces
China batted on Thursday for friendly negotiations to settle simmering differences, including over the South China Sea and greater access for U.S. troops to Philippine bases, as Manila and Beijing began two days of talks to assess their relationship. The so-called bilateral “consultative” talks, which have taken place every year since 2016, are the first under Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. He has rekindled Manila’s traditionally warm ties with the United States that chilled under his more China-friendly predecessor, and promised Filipinos that he would not abandon “even one square…