Tag: International Relations

Wang Fang Criticized for Mariupol Performance

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The Chinese singer stands on a balcony inside a bombed-out theater in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, the site of a deadly attack last year by Russian forces. Looking at the camera, she sings an excerpt from the Soviet-era patriotic song “Katyusha” and lifts her arms triumphantly into the air. The video of the singer, Wang Fang, a 38-year-old performer of patriotic songs and Chinese opera, has circulated widely online in recent days, fueling outrage in Ukraine and abroad. She appeared in Mariupol last week as part of a visit…

Vietnam in Secret Talks to Buy Arms From Russia

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When President Biden is greeted by Vietnamese officials in Hanoi on Sunday, he will be celebrating the prospect of adding another friend in Asia to a coalition that his administration hopes will side with American interests rather than China’s and Russia’s. During Mr. Biden’s visit, the two nations will underscore their commitment to “increase peace, prosperity, and stability in the region,” a White House press statement said. Nguyen Phu Trong, the top Vietnamese leader, is expected to confer upon the United States an upgrade of strategic ties. The Biden administration…

China Is Full of Risk For U.S. Companies

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For decades, America’s corporate chieftains saw China as a money spinner. They gushed about its hundreds of millions of consumers, called it “one of the biggest opportunities” and made predictions that this would be “China’s century.” Now, those executives have come away from recent visits to the country with a more sober view. Western companies doing business in China are facing pressures that were unimaginable several years ago. The country’s economy is floundering and its relationship with the United States is strained. Three years of border restrictions and an effective…

Apple’s Stock Falls on Reports of a Chinese Government iPhone Ban

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Apple’s China conundrum Shares in Apple, the world’s most valuable public company, suffered their biggest single-day fall in a month on Wednesday following a report that China would extend a ban on iPhones for government workers. Any hint that the company’s business in China is under threat would understandably give investors a fright, and its shares are down another 3 percent in premarket trading Thursday morning. But the ripples will be felt more broadly: If one of the most successful operators in the world’s second-largest economy is at risk, can…

Vanuatu Prime Minister Is Ousted Amid Criticism of Being Pro-West

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With 1,200 miles of almost empty ocean to its west and more than 7,000 miles of the same to its east, the tiny Pacific archipelago nation of Vanuatu has long sought a position of neutrality toward its faraway would-be foreign partners. Now, as the United States and China jockey for more influence in the South Pacific, that balancing act has become fraught. Take the case of Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsakau, who in recent months signed a security pact with Australia, met with President Emmanuel Macron of France, welcomed American plans…

When It Comes to China, Pope Francis Keeps Criticism in Check

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The small group of Chinese Catholics who crossed the border to see Pope Francis covered their faces for fear of reprisal. Church officials blamed the Communist government for preventing mainland China’s bishops from coming to see the pope. And diplomats said that China had watched the pope’s activities closely, and warily. Yet as Pope Francis returned to Rome on Monday from a four-day trip to Mongolia, he had nothing but positive things to say about China. “The relations with China are very respectful — I personally have great admiration for…

China’s Leader, Xi Jinping, Set to Skip G20 Summit in Snub to India

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China indicated on Monday that its top leader, Xi Jinping, will skip the Group of 20 summit meeting in New Delhi this weekend, dealing a blow to India, the event’s host nation, and raising questions about Mr. Xi’s profile as a global statesman. China will send the premier, Li Qiang, to the event, said Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for China’s Foreign Ministry, at a news briefing. Ms. Mao declined to explain the reason for the decision and refused to answer questions about Mr. Xi. The Chinese leader has never missed…

China to Its People: Spies Are Everywhere, Help Us Catch Them

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Beijing sees forces bent on weakening it everywhere: embedded in multinational companies, infiltrating social media, circling naïve students. And it wants its people to see them, too. Chinese universities require faculty to take courses on protecting state secrets, even in departments like veterinary medicine. A kindergarten in the eastern city of Tianjin organized a meeting to teach staffers how to “understand and use” China’s anti-espionage law. China’s Ministry of State Security, a usually covert department that oversees the secret police and intelligence services, has even opened its first social media…

Pope Visits Mongolia, With an Eye on Russia and China

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Pope Francis has long expressed a desire to visit Russia and China in hopes of healing the church’s historical rifts and ensuring the faith’s future in the populous East. On Friday, he came very close, landing in Mongolia, a country sandwiched between the two geopolitical giants, with a minuscule Catholic population that no pope has visited before. “The inhabitants are few,” Francis acknowledged in brief remarks on the plane to Mongolia, but he said the country that at times seemed so vast as not to end was also a place…

China’s Misinformation Fuels Anger Over Fukushima Water Release

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In Guangdong Province, on China’s southern coast, a woman posted a photo of a boxed-up Japanese-brand air-conditioner that she planned to return in protest. In southwest China, the owner of a Japanese pub posted a video of himself ripping down anime posters and smashing bottles, saying he planned to reopen the business as a Chinese bistro. In many social media posts like these, the phrase “nuclear-contaminated wastewater” has appeared — the same wording used by the Chinese government and state media to refer to Japan’s release into the ocean of…