Radio Free Asia has resumed broadcasts to people in China, its chief executive said on Tuesday, after Trump administration cuts last year largely forced the US-funded outlet to cease operations. For years, RFA and its sister outlets, including Voice of America (VOA), had been financed with funding approved by the US Congress and overseen by the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM). Last year Kari Lake, a former news anchor appointed by Donald Trump as the acting chief executive of USAGM, terminated their grants, alleging waste of taxpayer money and…
Tag: Asia Pacific
‘It’s a nice surprise to be treated like kings!’ Why are mid-level British indie bands massive in China?
When I joined the band Swim Deep 13 years ago, my dreams were much like those of any young musician: to play Glastonbury, to tour America and to hear our music on the radio – all of which we’ve managed to achieve. But what I hadn’t counted on was finding a fanbase in China. Despite us never having knowingly released our music there, Swim Deep recently returned triumphant from our fourth run of shows on Chinese soil in barely 10 years, and we’re not the only British indie band benefiting…
Chinese tourists shun Japan over lunar new year holiday as rift deepens
Chinese tourists are continuing to shun Japan in large numbers, with the country falling out of the top 10 destinations for those celebrating the lunar new year with a trip abroad. Japan has had a dramatic drop in the number of Chinese visitors since the end of last year as a diplomatic row between Tokyo and Beijing over the security of Taiwan continues. Chinese tourism to Japan, where a weak currency is helping fuel a tourism boom, almost halved in December compared with the same period in 2025, Japan’s transport…
China hopes for a bumper lunar new year as world’s biggest migration begins
Chinese officials are hoping that this year’s extra long lunar new year holiday will provide a boost to the country’s economy, where increasing domestic spending has been identified as a key priority for the year ahead. The government expects a record 9.5 billion passenger trips to be made across China during the 40-day spring festival period, up from 9 billion trips last year. Hundreds of millions of people will be crisscrossing the country to make what is often their only trip home to see their families for the Chinese new…
The Guardian view on Donald Trump and the climate crisis: the US is in reverse while China ploughs ahead | Editorial
Devastating wildfires, flooding and winter storms were among the 23 extreme weather and climate-related disasters in the US which cost more than a billion dollars last year – at an estimated total loss of $115bn. The last three years have shattered previous records for such events. Last Wednesday, scientists said that we are closer than ever to the point after which global heating cannot be stopped. Just one day later, Donald Trump and Lee Zeldin, the head of the US Environmental Protection Agency, announced the elimination of the Obama-era endangerment…
University expels student who called for accountability over Hong Kong fire
A Hong Kong university student who had called for accountability over a deadly fire at an apartment complex in the city has been expelled by the school for disciplinary offences. Miles Kwan, a politics student, was detained for two nights by the city’s national security police last year for “seditious intent” after handing out flyers calling for an independent investigation into a fire that killed 168 people in November. After he was released on bail, his school, the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), conducted a disciplinary review and referred…
Beijing pastry shop overrun by shoppers after Xi Jinping’s visit
A Beijing pastry shop visited by the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, on a lunar new year tour this week has been swarmed by customers hoping to get their hands on Xi-approved sweet treats. Traffic was brought to a standstill in Beijing’s capital as the president took a tour around the city on Monday and Tuesday. As well as visiting technology parks and business leaders, Xi dropped by a Chinese new year market in central Beijing’s Dongcheng district. The nine-day celebrations, the biggest holiday in China’s calendar, officially start on Sunday.…
CIA publishes recruitment video aimed at disaffected Chinese soldiers
The CIA (the US’s Central Intelligence Agency) has published a Mandarin-language recruitment video aimed at Chinese soldiers, in an apparent attempt to capitalise on the recent instability in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) after a series of high-level purges. The video, published on the CIA’s YouTube channel on Thursday, is titled The Reason for Stepping Forward: To Save the Future. It depicts a fictional Chinese military officer who contacts the CIA after becoming disillusioned with his own leaders. The voiceover of the video says: “This is the world I know,…
Japan seizes Chinese fishing boat inside its economic waters amid rift with Beijing
Authorities in Japan have seized a Chinese fishing boat and arrested its captain in a move that is likely to inflame an ongoing diplomatic row between Tokyo and Beijing. The seizure, which occurred on Thursday about 170km from the south-western port city of Nagasaki, came after the skipper refused an order to stop for an onboard inspection, according to media reports. A Japanese fisheries agency vessel intercepted the Chinese boat and its 11 crew after spotting it in Japan’s exclusive economic zone – an area within 200 nautical miles (370km)…
Father of pro-democracy activist Anna Kwok first to be convicted under Hong Kong national security law
A Hong Kong court has found the father of a wanted activist guilty of a national security violation, after he tried to end her insurance policy and withdraw the funds, drawing international criticism for the targeting of relatives of pro-democracy campaigners. Kwok Yin-sang, 68, is the first person to be charged under a homegrown national security law, also known as Article 23, for “attempting to deal with, directly or indirectly, any funds or other financial assets or economic resources” belonging to an absconder. His daughter, Anna Kwok, helps lead the…