Tag: China News

China’s FM: Major powers should avoid rivalry in South Pacific

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BEIJING —  China’s foreign minister Wang Yi said Saturday the South Pacific region should not become an arena for major power rivalries and that its assistance to countries there is free of political conditions. The Pacific has become a source of intense competition for influence between Washington, which has traditionally viewed it as its backyard, and Beijing, which has targeted Taiwanese diplomatic allies there. Wang made the comments at a joint news conference with his Papua New Guinea counterpart during a visit to the country. “The South Pacific region should…

Analysts: Argentina F-16, naval base decisions halt China’s momentum 

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International affairs analysts see a foreign policy shift with far-reaching repercussions for the U.S. and China in Argentina’s decision this week to buy American-made F-16 fighter jets and its early April announcement to partner with the U.S. military on a naval base at the southern tip of South America. Argentina’s decision to purchase 24 F-16s from Denmark rather than go with a competing bid from China led some Chinese commentators to lament the setback. Beijing has been trying for more than a decade to sell Argentina JF-17 fighter jets China…

Fact-checker on China’s Weibo targets US Embassy, Russian state media

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washington —  This month, when a story claiming Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had secretly purchased a $24 million castle from the British royal family went viral on China’s Weibo social media platform, something interesting happened. A fake-news function on the platform debunked it as misinformation. Since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, Chinese social media platforms have been full of pro-Russia false claims and conspiracy theories, some of which the Chinese government has endorsed. Influential Chinese nationalist bloggers, as well as Russia’s state media RT, regularly post…

US calls for transparency from Cambodia over China-backed canal

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The United States is urging Cambodia to be transparent over a proposed $1.7 billion canal financed by China that is worrying Vietnam due to its potential impact on water resource management. “The Cambodian people – along with people in neighboring countries and the broader region – would benefit from transparency on any major undertaking with potential implications for regional water management, agricultural sustainability, and security,” Wesley Holzer, a U.S. embassy spokesperson in Phnom Penh, told VOA Khmer in an email on Tuesday. The proposed canal has alarmed neighboring Vietnam because…

Chinese linked e-commerce companies shake up US market

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Two Chinese-linked online marketplaces are shaking up the e-commerce market with extremely low prices, even as the firms face concerns from consumers about labor practices. The rapid rise in popularity of Temu and SHEIN has been so sudden that Amazon now sees the two firms as its biggest rivals, according to a recent report by The Wall Street Journal. China-operated Temu launched in September 2022 and now has 51 million U.S. users, while Chinese-founded fashion and lifestyle retailer SHEIN has almost 14 million U.S. downloads. Christopher Tang, a professor at…

China slaps anti-dumping levy on import of a US chemical amid rising trade tensions

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China on Friday imposed a levy on imports of an acid from the United States widely used in food, feed, pesticides and medical fields, amid heightened tensions with Washington over bilateral trade. From Saturday, imports of propionic acid from the United States will be subject to a levy of 43.5%, the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement, after a July investigation found the Chinese domestic propionic acid industry was “materially damaged.” A trade dispute between the world’s two biggest economies has been intensifying despite recent diplomatic visits. In a…

Soap operas censored in China for spreading ‘unhealthy family values’

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China’s movie regulators are rolling out new regulations on minute-long soap operas, a new genre that became popular in China during COVID-19 pandemic but which has been accused of spreading “incorrect values.” Designed for shorter attention spans during the internet age, these mini-soap operas aim to get people watching videos on their phones hooked as quickly as possible. Starting June 1, the soap operas must be registered and reviewed before they can go online. Key minute-long soap operas — those with investment of around $138,000 (1 million RMB) — must…

China rebukes US deployment of missiles in Indo-Pacific

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Beijing officials are decrying the deployment of U.S. medium-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific region for the first time since the Cold War. China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian, at a regular press briefing Thursday, said China “expresses grave concern” and “strongly opposes the U.S. … strengthening forward deployment at China’s doorstep to seek unilateral military advantage.” The U.S. military on Monday confirmed it had on April 11 placed a mid-range capability missile system on northern Luzon in the Philippines as part of joint military exercises called Salaknib 24. It’s the…

FBI calls out China for making critical infrastructure ‘fair game’ for cyber operations 

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washington —  Efforts by China-linked hackers to infiltrate computer systems and networks that run key sectors of the U.S. economy — only to lie in wait for an opportunity to strike — appear to predate Chinese cyber operations that sparked warnings by U.S. officials earlier this year. FBI Director Christopher Wray on Thursday said Chinese government efforts to penetrate critical U.S. infrastructure for the purpose of setting up a possible cyberattack go back more than a decade. “China-sponsored hackers pre-positioned for potential cyberattacks against U.S. oil and natural gas companies…