Category: BBC

China has executed a man for fatally stabbing a 10-year-old Japanese boy last September, the Japanese embassy in China has told the BBC. Zhong Changchun was sentenced to death in January for attacking the boy, who had been walking to a Japanese school in south-eastern Chinese city of Shenzhen. The case had sent shockwaves through both countries and fuelled diplomatic tensions amid allegations of it being a xenophobic attack. “The Government of Japan considers the murder of a completely innocent child to be an unforgivable crime, and we take this…

China has warned countries against appeasing the US in trade talks over President Donald Trump’s tariffs. A Chinese commerce ministry spokesperson made the comments in response to reports that Washington plans to put pressure on governments to restrict trade with Beijing in exchange for exemptions to US import taxes. The Trump administration has started talks with trading partners over tariffs, with a Japanese delegation visiting Washington last week and South Korea is set to start negotiations this week. Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has imposed hefty…

Instead, she now spends more time reading and weaving. She has also started selling her handmade products at a local market, which brings in extra cash. More importantly, Ms Wen says, this has helped her shift towards a minimalist lifestyle, which she appreciates more. BBC

Just hours before Mr Blinken stepped on the tarmac in Shanghai, the US Senate passed a bill package giving a further $8bn of military aid to Taiwan, which President Biden has said the US would defend if attacked by China. The self-governed island, which counts the US as its biggest ally, is claimed by China. BBC

Sutcliffe felt that not all of those in attendance were football fans. “Undoubtedly, international matches provided a platform for Hong Kong residents to voice their frustrations,” says Sutcliffe. “The booing of the national anthem provided great publicity for them. Attendances went up and many people came to matches who under normal circumstances would never have gone to a football match.” Sutcliffe cannot recall any complaints from Beijing. “We were certainly put under pressure by the Hong Kong SAR [Special Administrative Region] Government to do everything we could to stop it,”…

“The old rich guy in town, the US, is having problems with the new rich guy in town, China,” says Enrique Dussel of the Centre for China-Mexico Studies at the National Autonomous University in Mexico. “And Mexico – under previous administrations, and in this one – doesn’t have a strategy vis-à-vis this new triangular relationship.” BBC

The top three finishers of the Beijing half marathon have been stripped of their medals following an investigation into the controversial result. It was alleged that the three African athletes deliberately allowed China’s star runner He Jie to win Sunday’s race Footage appeared, external to show Kenya’s Robert Keter and Willy Mnangat and Ethiopia’s Dejene Hailu pointing to the line and slowing down to wave He past. Mnangat told the BBC that the trio ran as pacemakers. But the race’s organising committee, who led the investigation, said that none of…

The US wouldn’t be the first to block TikTok – India banned the app in 2020, citing security concerns. But TikTok survived that ban because the Indian market, which was then about as big as the US market is now, wasn’t as profitable, said Jayanth N Kolla, founder of technology advisory firm Convergence Catalyst. BBC

“Many trading partners of the United States, including China, are strongly dissatisfied with the United States’ frequent use of national security, non-market behaviour, overcapacity and other reasons to impose restrictions and politicise trade issues,” embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu said in a statement to the BBC. BBC

Mr Modi addressed other topics, including allegations of discrimination against minorities by his government. Rights groups say that they often face discrimination and attacks, and have been forced to live as “second-class” citizens under Mr Modi’s rule – an allegation the BJP denies. In the past 10 years, a number of cases involving violence against Muslims by right-wing groups have been reported in India. BBC