Startling new research shows that in many countries – including old US allies – the public prefers Beijing to Washington Earlier this year, a spate of western TikTok and Instagram creators announced that they were at “a very Chinese time in my life” – drinking hot water and wearing slippers around their homes. The Chinamaxxing phenomenon primarily reflected the constant need of influencers for novel content. But social media trends also reflect a growing fascination with China, as the economic historian Adam Tooze has noted. While it broods over China’s…
Tag: Asia Pacific
Trump, not Iran, is the world’s greatest danger. He’s a one-man weapon of mass destruction | Simon Tisdall
Feckless and clueless, Donald Trump is lost in Iran, unable to find a way out of the disastrous war he started. Once again, the US military is pummelling the country and, increasingly, its civilian infrastructure. As before, this unlawful bludgeoning strengthens the resistance of a hardline regime that cares little for its people’s suffering. How often have Trump and Pete Hegseth, the Pentagon’s wildling lord of bones, hailed a bogus victory? The president claimed this week to be “winning big”. No one believes him. Even as it counts the vast…
Beijing’s message to the world’s tourists: come here and judge China for yourselves | Zichen Wang
Walk through central Beijing today and one thing quickly becomes apparent: foreigners are back. They are taking photos outside the Forbidden City and sitting in cafes around Gulou and Sanlitun. The shift is visible online, too; YouTube is increasingly filled with videos titled “China Shocked Me” or “My First Week in China”. Most of the creators are tourists, not China specialists or journalists, and many of them are encountering the country for the first time. The resurgence is striking because to many outside observers China’s story has become one of…
ICE arrests human rights lawyer who fled Chinese crackdown
A Chinese human rights lawyer has been arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), raising concerns he could be deported to China where he would face persecution. Wu Shaoping fled China at the end of 2019 amid a crackdown on human rights lawyers. He travelled to the US on a tourist visa and made an asylum claim in 2020, for which he is still awaiting a decision. In the US, he found work as an Amazon courier while remaining active in China’s embattled human rights community. On Wednesday, Wu…
China’s economy grows at 4.3%, one of its lowest rates on record
China has posted worse-than-expected growth figures for the three months to June as its economy expanded by just 4.3% – one of its lowest quarterly readings on record. The rate, which came in under the government’s target of 4.5% to 5%, was one of the weakest since reporting on official quarterly GDP figures began in the early 1990s. The last period when growth was lower was the final quarter of 2022 when the country was still under its three-year period of Covid-19 restrictions. The data released on Wednesday by the…
Inside the secret Laos shops selling pangolin scales, bear bile and tiger bones to tourists
The shop is dark and deserted. Though the door is open, there is clearly no expectation of any customers walking in off the street. Visits are likely by appointment and from a specific clientele. This shop is part of an organised crime network. What is being sold is highly illegal and incredibly unethical. Anyone wandering in would see large bags of specialist tea, local coffee, trinkets and cigarettes on the shelves. But the photographs of wild animals adorning the walls offer a clue to what is truly for sale here.…
China’s monthly car exports top 1m for first time as overall trade soars
China’s monthly car exports topped 1m for the first time in June as overall overseas shipments from the world’s second biggest economy rose 27%. Official Chinese customs data showed that a stronger-than-expected trade performance kept China on track to match or beat last year’s record trade surplus of $1tn (£748bn), achieved despite Donald Trump’s curtailed tariff war. Sales of Chinese brands ranging from BYD to Jaecoo are booming, eating into the market shares of long-established brands, particularly in Europe. Analysis by the Mercator Institute for China Studies (Merics) in Berlin…
Weather tracker: Unusually warm rivers affect French nuclear power plants
Above average temperatures combined with below average rainfall across much of western and central Europe during June and the first half of July have placed increasing pressure on rivers, ecosystems and energy infrastructure. Persistent high pressure brought prolonged sunshine, suppressed rainfall and enhanced evaporation, causing river levels to fall and water temperatures to increase. These unusually warm rivers are affecting electricity generation in France, as several nuclear power stations rely on river water for cooling. Under French environmental regulations, operators must limit the amount of heat discharged back into rivers,…
China’s graduate glut: millions enter a job market with little use for them
This time of year is graduation season in China: traditionally a bittersweet period of solemn goodbyes and family celebrations as university students transition from campus life into adulthood. Now it also increasingly represents trepidation about the future. Each year, millions more graduates are thrust into China’s already saturated jobs market. The situation for this year’s cohort, flooding into an increasingly crowded pool of applicants fighting for an insufficient number of positions, is arguably the bleakest yet. Jasmine, a 22-year-old who studied accounting in Shanghai, is among this year’s record 12.7…
China’s massive AI rollout – podcast
While the spread of AI has been met perhaps with a lot of scepticism in the west, China has fully embraced the technology, explains Amy Hawkins, from millions of users talking to AI doctors, to the use of intelligent robots in factories, and drones delivering food on the Great Wall of China. AI has also been eagerly taken up by the state, not least in the opportunities it provides for further surveillance, the Guardian’s senior China correspondent says. Amy talks to Annie Kelly about the prospects and pitfalls provided by…