Month: October 2024

LAST MONTH, as tensions escalated between Iran and Israel, China helped organise a Chinese film festival in the Iranian capital, Tehran. It opened with a blockbuster: “The Battle at Lake Changjin”. The drama portrays the heroism of Chinese soldiers who fought against American troops in the Korean war of 1950-53. “Strike one punch to avoid a hundred,” Mao Zedong is shown exhorting his colleagues. Nationalist bloggers in China crowed about the film’s showing. “Iran cannot sit idly by, even if the United States is behind Israel!” wrote a widely read…

Your browser does not support this video. How to escape from China to America We travel with Chinese migrants on the deadly journey to America’s border Illustration: Hokyoung Kim Oct 8th 2024 They come for different reasons. Some are seeking economic opportunity. Others are disillusioned with Xi Jinping’s rule. Many have seen videos online of other Chinese migrants trekking across the lawless strip of jungle between Colombia and Panama on their way to a better life. Tens of thousands of Chinese citizens have travelled to South America, the first step…

THE GOGGLES were bothersome. They fogged up when worn with glasses, rendering the world fuzzy when Michael Kovrig wanted to send his accusers the clearest possible message. It was late March 2021. After more than two years locked up in the Beijing State Security Detention Centre the Canadian former diplomat had been placed in handcuffs and leg irons and driven to a windowless courtroom for a one-day trial, charged with procuring state secrets. The Economist

Milk is “indispensable for a healthy China and a strong nation”. So said officials in 2018 when they launched a campaign to supercharge the country’s dairy industry. They wanted to boost China’s food security by cutting its reliance on imported milk. At the same time, they hoped that the Chinese would become fitter by consuming more dairy products, which are rich in protein and calcium. Officials gave farmers subsidies to increase their herds of cows. They urged state propagandists to “nurture the habit of consuming dairy products”. The Economist