Year: 2024

Listen to this story Your browser does not support the <audio> element. Interesting, safe and easy to get around, China has what it takes to be the top tourist destination in Asia. Indeed, it was. In the first half of 2019, before covid-19 hit, China’s travel agencies handled 8.6m tourist visits, more than any other country in the region, according to the government (see chart 1). China’s border authorities recorded 47.7m entries and exits by foreigners, including non-tourists, over that period. But after plummeting during the pandemic, those numbers have…

THROUGHOUT HER campaign, Kamala Harris has hewed to the foreign policy of President Joe Biden. But there is a little daylight between the two in at least one important area: America’s relations with China. To judge by her limited remarks on the topic, Ms Harris seems less hawkish than her boss. She is reluctant to treat China as an actual or potential enemy and, if elected, hopes to maintain a dialogue with its leader, Xi Jinping. Unlike her rival, Donald Trump, she is not interested in a trade war. This…

“I can’t even do the maths any more! It’s so incredible!” With those words, uttered on September 30th, a retail trader summed up the state of China’s stockmarkets during a surge that lasted from mid-September to early October. Posting on social media, the man marvelled at the boom in share prices. Others told triumphant tales of enormous returns. The Economist

CHINA’S WAR games around Taiwan on October 14th broke records for a single-day drill. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) employed 153 aircraft. Taiwan’s defence ministry also spotted 26 ships, including a Chinese aircraft-carrier. As if that were not enough, China’s coastguard carried out an unprecedented patrol around Taiwan’s main island, calling it a “practical action to control Taiwan island in accordance with the law based on the one-China principle”. The Economist

Last month a 33-year-old woman in Xi’an, in central China, posted a video on social media that showed snowflakes falling on the ancient city. It was early in the year for such weather, so netizens shared the video widely. But it turned out to be fake. When China’s police found out, they detained the woman, accusing her of being an “evil influence” on society. The Economist

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