Japan and China are embroiled in a row about Tokyo’s potential military involvement in the event of a conflict over Taiwan. Beijing reacted angrily this month after Japan’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, said an attack on Taiwan could trigger the deployment of her country’s self-defence forces if the conflict posed an existential threat to Japan. Insisting that Japan could exercise its right to collective self-defence – or coming to the aid of an ally – Takaichi said Tokyo had to “anticipate a worst-case scenario” in the Taiwan Strait. If…
Tag: Asia Pacific
China’s CO2 emissions have been flat or falling for past 18 months, analysis finds
China’s carbon dioxide emissions have been flat or falling for 18 months, analysis reveals, adding evidence to the hope that the world’s biggest polluter has managed to hit its target of peak CO2 emissions well ahead of schedule. Rapid increases in the deployment of solar and wind power generation – which grew by 46% and 11% respectively in the third quarter of this year – meant the country’s energy sector emissions remained flat, even as the demand for electricity increased. China added 240GW of solar capacity in the first nine…
MPs preparing to examine Chinese state influence at British universities
The foreign affairs select committee is drawing up plans to examine Chinese government interference in academia as part of its inquiry into the UK’s strategy towards Beijing. MPs are broadening the scope of their investigation into the China audit, an internal government review of UK-China relations that concluded in June, to look into Chinese state influence at British universities. Ministers are under pressure to take a more robust approach after the Guardian disclosed that Sheffield Hallam University had blocked the work of a professor whose work was critical of China’s…
Taiwan vice-president presses case at EU parliament for joint efforts to counter China
Taiwan’s vice-president, Bi-Khim Hsiao, urged the EU to boost security and trade ties with the self-governing island and support its democracy in the face of growing threats by China in a rare address to a group of international lawmakers in Brussels. “Peace in the Taiwan Strait is essential to global stability and economic continuity, and international opposition against unilateral changes to the status quo by force cannot be overstated,” Hsiao told lawmakers assembled for a China-focused conference in the European parliament building. While Hsiao did not formally address the whole…
US and China seek to project power with huge and expensive aircraft carriers
In port, the 80,000-tonne Fujian aircraft carrier would be impossible to miss. More than 300 metres long and capable of carrying about 60 aircraft, the £5.4bn super-vessel places China second among the world’s navies, with three aircraft carriers, though still a long way behind the global leader, the US, which has 11. Yet for all the great power projection of the new warship, nearly 5,000 miles away from its home port another conflict appears to suggest size may not matter. In the Black Sea, Ukraine achieved an extraordinary military success…
Film festival in New York cancelled after China puts pressure on directors
An independent film festival due to start in New York this weekend has been cancelled after several film-makers pulled out due to harassment from the Chinese authorities, raising concerns about transnational repression. The inaugural IndieChina film festival was planned to take place between 8 and 15 November. But on 5 November the festival’s curator, Zhu Rikun, posted on Facebook that he had been forced to cancel 80% of the planned screenings because film-makers had pulled out. Zhu said the requests primarily came from directors based in China, who cited “personal…
China poised to lift ban on chips exports to European carmakers after US deal
The vital flow of chips from China to the car industry in Europe looks poised to resume as part of the deal struck last week between Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping. The Netherlands has signalled that its standoff with Beijing is close to a resolution amid signs China’s ban on exports of the key car industry components is easing. The dispute began when the Dutch government took control of the chipmaker Nexperia at the end of September after the US raised security concerns about the company’s Chinese…
China’s latest aircraft carrier enters service to extend reach into high seas
China’s newest and most advanced aircraft carrier officially entered service this week, signalling a new era in Chinese military expansion after a ceremony overseen by the country’s leader, Xi Jinping, state media has confirmed. The Fujian is China’s first domestically designed and built aircraft carrier, and the third for China’s rapidly expanding navy, which is already the world’s biggest by ship count. The advanced features on the new ship include an electromagnetic launch system that causes less stress to the aircraft and the ship, and allows for more precise control…
Single mothers in China find a new kind of partner – other single mothers
As divorce rates rise and the cost of living bites, single mothers in China are searching for a new kind of partner: each other. Across social media are posts from harried mothers seeking like-minded parents to share a home and child-rearing responsibilities. “I’m hoping to find another single mom to share an apartment with, so we can take care of each other,” said a popular post on Xiaohongshu, a platform known overseas as Rednote. “If our children are around the same age, that would be even better – they can…
China-critical UK academics describe ‘extremely heavy’ pressure from Beijing
UK academics whose research is critical of China say they have been targeted and their universities subjected to “extremely heavy” pressure from Beijing, prompting calls for a fresh look at the sector’s dependence on tuition fee income from Chinese students. The academics spoke out after the Guardian revealed this week that Sheffield Hallam University had complied with a demand from Beijing to halt research about human rights abuses in China, which had led to a big project being dropped. One UK-based China scholar has since described being a victim of…