Tag: Beijing

China lashes out at US over ‘fake news’ ahead of Covid origins report

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The Chinese government has stepped up its aggressive resistance against efforts by Western scientists to probe Covid’s origins – and is accusing the US of spreading fake news about laboratories in Wuhan. Ahead of US intelligence experts finalising a report demanded by President Joe Biden into the pandemic’s cause, which is expected on Tuesday, Beijing officials have demanded that Washington opens for public scrutiny a US military laboratory in Maryland. In this tit-for-tat, it is understood that US analysts have obtained data and research by Wuhan laboratories in order to…

China’s 47-mile-long problem with the Taliban

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Press play to listen to this article Afghanistan looms larger in the mindset of China’s leadership than you’d imagine from the countries’ mere 47-mile stretch of shared border — a curly line that you’ll easily miss if Google Maps is not sufficiently zoomed in. While China has enjoyed poking its archrival the U.S. in the eye over its humiliation in Afghanistan — with state media even gleefully warning Taiwan that America will similarly desert its friends in Taipei — Beijing also has deep fears about the security risks posed by…

China Won’t Repeat America’s Mistakes in Afghanistan

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As the United States departs Afghanistan and Kabul falls, China is not showing up with an army. It is showing up bearing gifts to all parties, not least the ascendant Taliban. Beijing’s prospects, therefore, are already looking much better—and cheaper—than the U.S. state- and military-building project. Beijing’s traditional worry in Afghanistan has been regional instability and the prospect of cross-border aid to Uyghur militants in Xinjiang—or the provision of a safe refuge for Uyghurs fleeing Chinese oppression. But the Taliban will likely have learned from the experience of the past…

Xi’s China, the Handiwork of an Autocratic Roué | by Xu Zhangrun | The New York Review of Books

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Li Xueren/Xinhua via Getty Images Chinese President Xi Jinping arriving on a visit to Tibet, July 21, 2021 Translator’s Note: Xu Zhangrun was, until last year, a professor of jurisprudence at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, one of China’s most prestigious colleges. A celebrated lecturer and author of numerous works on the law, he was a noted essayist, and also the editor of a major series of books on legal reform. In July 2018, Xu published “Imminent Fears, Immediate Hopes,” a point-by-point critique of the policies of Xi Jinping’s government. Since then,…