The private sector arm of the World Bank is facing claims that it contributes to global heating and the undermining of animal welfare by providing financial support for factory farming, including the building of pig farming tower blocks in China. A coalition of environmental and animal welfare groups is calling on the World Bank to phase out financial support for large-scale “industrial” livestock operations. More than $1.6bn was provided for industrial farming projects between 2017 and 2023, according to an analysis by campaigners. The International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of…
Tag: Asia Pacific
Dysfunction and division darken the WTO’s 30-year dream of free trade
When trade ministers gathered in the Moroccan city of Marrakech 30 years ago this month to sign the agreement creating the World Trade Organization (WTO), the mood was celebratory. The Berlin Wall had come down only recently, communism had collapsed, and there was optimistic talk of how the body would prise open new markets and act as the arbiter when disputes broke out between countries. The atmosphere today is much darker than it was in April 1994. Any enthusiasm for groundbreaking trade liberalisation deals disappeared decades ago and has been…
Taiwan earthquake: over 600 people remain stranded days after disaster
Rescuers in Taiwan planned to bring in heavy equipment on Saturday to try to recover two bodies buried on a hiking trail, while more than 600 people remained stranded in various locations, three days after the island’s strongest earthquake in 25 years. Four people remain missing on the same Shakadang Trail in Taroko national park, famed for its rugged mountainous terrain. Search and recovery work was set to resume after being called off on Friday afternoon because of aftershocks. At least 12 people were killed by the magnitude 7.4 earthquake…
Yolo review – smash-hit Chinese boxing drama is a tale of personal transformation
Jia Ling writes, directs and stars in this boxing drama with a twist: there’s not really very much boxing in it. In this smash hit from China, we’re introduced to Du Leying (Jia) as a no-hoper; the perspective, in fact, of the supporting characters and the film itself is that it would be hard to imagine a bigger loser. She’s 32, lives at home, doesn’t adhere to traditional beauty norms (particularly as regards body weight), and her boyfriend is cheating on her with her best friend. When this affair is…
Netflix’s 3 Body Problem is sci-fi. But beyond the alien threat lies the trauma of modern China | Tania Branigan
It has brain-bending physics, mysterious visitors and futuristic technology. Yet viewers of the new Netflix sci-fi epic 3 Body Problem could be forgiven for some confusion as its opening scenes unfold. A drama about coming contact with aliens catapults us back to China in 1966, at the height of the Cultural Revolution: we see an eminent physicist viciously attacked by zealots before a howling crowd. As incongruous as it seems, this moment is central to understanding the book on which the show is based. Liu Cixin’s The Three-Body Problem has…
Biden and Xi seek to manage tensions in phone call as US officials head to China
Joe Biden and Xi Jinping have clashed in a telephone call about Taiwan and US trade restrictions on technology, but sought to manage their tensions, as two top US officials prepare to visit Beijing. The nearly two-hour telephone conversation on Tuesday was the two leaders’ first direct interaction since a summit in November in California that saw a marked thaw in tone, if not the long-term rivalry, between the world’s two largest economies. The treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, will leave Wednesday and visit both Guangzhou, the southern city emblematic of…
Fast fashion retailer Shein doubles profits as it awaits IPO approval
Shein, the online fast fashion retailer founded in China, has more than doubled its profits to more than $2bn (£1.6bn) as it awaits approval for a stock market listing in New York or London. The company, which is growing rapidly around the world by using social media to promote its goods, recorded sales of about $45bn last year, according to a report in the Financial Times based on information from sources close to the company. Shein, which has moved its headquarters to Singapore, is among the most profitable fashion companies…
Knockout success of Yolo – the feelgood female boxing movie from China
In a country where cinemas are normally dominated by wolf warrior blockbusters or nationalist historical epics, the surprise hit of China’s box office in 2024 is a feelgood comedy about a woman who transforms her lacklustre life – and herself – through boxing. Released for the lunar new year holiday on 10 February, Yolo (You Only Live Once) has become the highest grossing film of the year in China, earning more than 3.4bn yuan (£375m) in less than two months, according to the China Movie Information Network. Globally, it is…
US-funded Radio Free Asia shuts down in Hong Kong over safety concerns
US-funded Radio Free Asia (RFA) has closed its Hong Kong bureau over safety concerns for its staff in the wake of a new national security law known as Article 23. “Actions by Hong Kong authorities, including referring to RFA as a ‘foreign force’, raise serious questions about our ability to operate in safety with the enactment of Article 23,” its president, Bay Fang, said in a statement on Friday. The new law comes with stiffer punishments from several years up to life in jail for crimes including treason, sedition, state…
Huawei shrugs off US sanctions with fastest growth in four years
Chinese telecoms firm Huawei grew faster in 2023 than it has for four years, as it shrugged off the impact of US sanctions. Revenues rose by nearly 10% to 704.2bn yuan (£77bn) as the Shenzhen-based company enjoyed a rebound within its consumer segment, which includes smartphone handsets. The performance meant Huawei defied the effect of sanctions imposed by the US in 2019, when Donald Trump’s White House accused the firm of being a security risk, something Huawei denies. The UK also vowed in 2020 to remove Huawei from 5G infrastructure…