Hong Kong police have warned people against downloading a Taiwan-developed mobile game which they say is “secessionist” and could lead to arrest. The game, Reversed Front: Bonfire, allows users to “pledge allegiance” to various groups linked to locations that have been major flashpoints or targets for China including Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tibet, Uyghurs, Kazakhs and Manchuria, in order to “overthrow the communist regime” known as the “People’s Republic”. While some aspects and place names of the game’s worldview are imagined, the website says the game is “a work of NON-FICTION”…
Category: The Guardian
Four ex-staff of Taiwan’s ruling party charged with spying for China
Taiwan prosecutors have charged four former staffers in the ruling Democratic Progressive party with spying for China while they worked in senior positions. The four include a former aide to Lai Ching-te, when he was vice-president and for a time during his current presidency, and a senior staffer to Joseph Wu, then foreign minister and now national security chief. They have been accused of sharing state secrets with China over a prolonged period of time, including “important and sensitive diplomatic information” that significantly harmed national security, prosecutors alleged in a…
US-China trade talks: ‘framework’ deal amid dispute over rare earths
Officials from the US and China have agreed on a “framework” to move forward on trade after two days of talks in London stemming from their confrontation over tariffs. The US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, expressed optimism on Tuesday that concerns about critical or “rare earth” minerals and magnets “will be resolved” as the deal is implemented. Lutnick told reporters that the framework puts “meat on the bones” of a deal reached last month in Geneva to ease retaliatory tariffs. Its implementation had faltered over China’s curbs on critical mineral…
Qiu Xigui obituary
Qiu Xigui, who has died aged 89, first made his mark as a paleographer, a scholar of ancient writing, through researching Chinese “oracle bones”. These are divinations inscribed on animal scapulae – shoulder blades – or turtle plastrons – the bottom part of their shells. The characters they employ are the earliest known forerunners of the modern Chinese writing system. Their appearance in the antiquities market led to the excavation from the late 1920s of the last capital of the Shang dynasty (c1600-1050 BC) at Yinxu, near Anyang, in Henan…
China bans banks from luring customers with popular Labubu dolls
Chinese authorities have banned domestic banks from luring customers with gifts including the hugely popular Labubu dolls, amid fierce competition among lenders as interest rates and profit margins decline. The Zhejiang branch of China’s financial regulator, the National Financial Regulatory Administration, has asked local banks to refrain from offering non-compliant perks to attract deposits, Bloomberg News reported. The new guidance came after Ping An Bank ran a promotion, offering Pop Mart’s Labubu dolls in several cities to new customers who deposit at least 50,000 yuan (£5,162) for three months. The…
US arrests another Chinese scientist for allegedly smuggling biological material
A Chinese scientist was arrested while arriving in the US at the Detroit airport, the second case in days involving the alleged smuggling of biological material, authorities said on Monday. The scientist is accused of shipping biological material months ago to staff at a laboratory at the University of Michigan. The FBI, in a court filing, described it as material related to certain worms and requires a government permit. “The guidelines for importing biological materials into the US for research purposes are stringent, but clear, and actions like this undermine…
The Prosecutor review – Donnie Yen leads mashup of legal drama and action flick
Developed by China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate and directed by butt-kicking luminary Donnie Yen, The Prosecutor is a bizarre mashup of courtroom procedural and action flick; it is just as keen on lionising due process and the “shining light” of Chinese justice as it is on reducing civic infrastructure to smithereens in several standout bouts. But Yen, who looks undeniably good in a suit, is more convincing on his habitual fisticuff grounds than the jurisprudential ones. Yen plays Fok, a one-time hotshot cop who – leaving the force after some over-zealous…
Chinese tech firms freeze AI tools in crackdown on exam cheats
Big Chinese tech companies appear to have turned off some AI functions to prevent cheating during the country’s highly competitive university entrance exams. More than 13.3 million students are sitting the four-day gaokao exams, which began on Saturday and determine if and where students can secure a limited place at university. This year, students hoping to get some assistance from increasingly advanced AI tools have been stymied. Parents take photos of students entering an exam hall. Photograph: Adek Berry/AFP/Getty Images In screenshots shared online, one Chinese user posted a photo…
Chinese aircraft carrier group enters waters near Japan’s easternmost island for first time
A Chinese aircraft carrier group has entered an area of Japan’s territorial waters for the first time, prompting concern in Tokyo over China’s expanding naval reach. The Liaoning carrier, accompanied by two missile destroyers and a supply ship, entered Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) on Saturday evening, Japan’s defence ministry said, before exiting to conduct military drills. The chief cabinet secretary, Yoshimasa Hayashi, did not say if the government had lodged a formal protest, saying only that it had “conveyed an appropriate message to the Chinese side”. “We will do…
US attacks on science and research a ‘great gift’ to China on artificial intelligence, former OpenAI board member says
The US administration’s targeting of academic research and international students is a “great gift” to China in the race to compete on artificial intelligence, former OpenAI board member Helen Toner has said. The director of strategy at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET) joined the board of OpenAI in 2021 after a career studying AI and the relationship between the United States and China. Toner, a 33-year-old University of Melbourne graduate, was on the board for two years until a falling out with founder Sam Altman in 2023.…