From 1h ago No 10 staff will be able to give evidence confidentially to inquiry into whether PM lied over Partygate, committee says The Commons privileges committee has issued a statement after its first meeting to consider its inquiry into whether Boris Johnson lied to MPs about Partygate. It has issued a wide-ranging call for evidence, and it is inviting whistleblowers to give evidence anonymously if they want. This provision seems intended to encourage civil servants working in No 10, who may have heard Boris Johnson reveal in private that…
Author: [email protected]
China insists Tonga loans come with ‘no political strings attached’
China’s ambassador to Tonga has denied engaging in “debt trap” diplomacy in the Pacific, saying in his first press conference in two years that if the heavily indebted country cannot repay its loans, “we can talk and negotiate in a friendly, diplomatic manner”. Cao Xiaolin told Tuesday’s gathering in Nuku’alofa – a rare opportunity for journalists to question Chinese officials – that preferential loans from China came with “no political strings attached” and that Beijing would never force countries to repay the loans. Tonga, which was hit by a volcanic…
G7 to back Ukraine ‘for as long as it takes’, explore cap on Russian oil price
Clockwise from left, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President Charles Michel, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and US President Joe Biden at the G7 summit in Castle Elmau, Germany, on Tuesday. Photo: AP South China Morning Post
As censorship in China increases, VPNs are becoming more important
LI JIAQI, a popular Chinese influencer, had a talent for selling lipstick and other cosmetics. But his last performance was an unintentional advertisement for virtual private networks (VPNs), which help Chinese netizens get around strict online censorship rules. On June 3rd Mr Li live-streamed video of himself with an ice-cream cake that looked like a tank. This seemed to anger the authorities, who may have viewed it as a reference to the Tiananmen Square massacre, when soldiers and tanks fired on peaceful protesters in Beijing, killing hundreds, if not thousands,…
Hong Kong: ‘We don’t know where the red line is’
This Friday marks the 25th anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong from UK to Chinese rule. China promised to protect democratic freedoms for 50 years, but new laws introduced in 2020 have effectively silenced all criticism in the territory. BBC Panorama has spent the last year with young journalists and protesters as they live through the most turbulent period in Hong Kong’s recent history, facing arrests and prison sentences. Viewers in the UK can watch BBC Panorama, Hong Kong: Life Under the Crackdown Tuesday 28 June at 8.30pm on…
China’s Non-Leadership in the Taliban’s Afghanistan
Advertisement The majority of opinions on China’s strategy in Afghanistan are marked by thinking in binary patterns. In fact, almost a year after the Taliban’s takeover, the country is by all measurable standards sliding deeper into humanitarian and economic crises. But when it comes to the Chinese calculus, the situation presents a mixed picture and so seems to defy the traditional zero-sum outcome. While China does not act as a global leader and prefers what could be described as a selective engagement, it might well achieve its objectives in Afghanistan…
Alarm in Beijing after announcement zero-Covid policy may last five years
Authorities in Beijing have sparked confusion and alarm after announcing the strict zero-Covid policy could be in place for the next five years, including mass mandatory testing and travel restrictions. The notice, published on Monday afternoon, was attributed to Cai Qi, the Beijing secretary of the Chinese Communist party. The original text said: “In the next five years, Beijing will unremittingly grasp the normalisation of epidemic prevention and control.” The notice was first posted by Beijing Daily and republished by other state media outlets. It spread widely across social media,…
Under Xi Jinping China-Russia ties are defined by global interests and unity in opposition, report finds
Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Beijing, China, on February 4, 2022 when Putin arrived for the opening of the Winter Olympic Games and talks with his Chinese counterpart. Photo: Kremlin Pool Photo via AP South China Morning Post
‘Things aren’t going back’: Australia braces for step-up in China’s Pacific push
The Australian government is bracing for China to step up its push to expand influence in the Pacific, with a senior figure privately conceding Canberra has a lot of work to do to regain lost trust and strengthen regional unity. Despite initial relief at a decision by Pacific island countries to defer a sweeping 10-country security and economic pact proposed by China, the Australian government now believes this may be only a temporary reprieve. “Things aren’t going back to the way they were,” said a senior Australian government figure who…
How TikTok is turning a generation of video addicts into a data goldmine
Question: what do men and Excel have in common? Answer: they’re always automatically turning things into dates when they’re not. To younger people – that is, anyone under the age of 20 – Microsoft’s spreadsheet program, a tool as essential to accountants as saws are to carpenters, is the contemporary equivalent of mom jeans, handwritten thank-you notes and cravats: stuff that oldies care about. How come, then, that the hashtag #excel has had 3.4bn views on a certain social media platform and that one Excel expert on that platform has…