China

US: pro-China media spreading misinformation about covid spread in world
11Sep By News DeskNo Comments
Asia, China, World

US: pro-China media spreading misinformation about covid spread in world

SAN FRANCISCO: A campaign spreading misinformation about the origin of covid-19 is being circulated in many platforms of different language. Defending the Chinese Government and blaming the US government for the transmission if coronavirus. Experts at security company FireEye and Alphabet´s Google said the operation was identified in 2019 as running hundreds of accounts in English and Chinese aimed at discrediting the Hong Kong democracy movement. The effort has broadened its mission and spread from Twitter, Facebook and Google to thousands of handles on dozens of sites around the world. This expansion suggests Chinese interests have made a deeper commitment to the sort of international propaganda techniques Russia has used for several years, experts said. Some of the new account
Read More
Fixing the US-China tech split
11Sep By News DeskNo Comments
Asia, Business, China, Singapore, World

Fixing the US-China tech split

Fixing the US-China tech split Heightened US-China tensions have raised the prospect of a deep global technology divide, potentially forcing other countries to choose which camp to join. There are plenty of grim scenarios involving irreconcilable splits between core technologies that power a wide range of products and services, from aircraft and automobiles to precision engineering for robotics and payment systems for e-commerce. Should these scenarios materialise, the world's two largest economies will pour huge amounts of resources into a zero-sum race to control technology's cutting edge. Both the United States and China understand the central role of technology in driving their economies and global development. They also know that mastering it, as well as safeguarding relevant intell...
Read More
Virus cases pass 1 million
11Sep By News DeskNo Comments
Business, China, Opinion, World

Virus cases pass 1 million

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha talks to a Covid patient via a telehealth system during his visit to 'Sanam Saeng Haeng Jai' field hospital in Samut Prakan province on Friday. The facility has 450 beds and uses robots to get food and medicines to patients. (Government House photo) There are several lessons the country must learn from the mishandling of the Covid-19 crisis after Thailand reached the grim milestone of more than one million accumulated cases on Friday, according to the president of the Rural Doctors Society. The first domestic case on Jan 12 last year was a 61-year Chinese woman from Wuhan where Covid-19 had first been detected the previous month. Then, the first Thai to test positive was on Jan 31 after a 50-year-old taxi driver drove an infected arrival from Wuhan to ho...
Read More
Nearly 65,000 Hong Kongers apply for UK visa scheme
11Sep By Desk TeamNo Comments
Business, China, World

Nearly 65,000 Hong Kongers apply for UK visa scheme

Nearly 65,000 Hong Kongers apply for UK visa scheme Passengers wearing protective masks walk through MRT Central Station in Hong Kong on Aug 17, 2021. (Reuters photo) HONG KONG: Around 64,900 Hong Kongers applied for a new pathway to British citizenship in the first five months of the scheme, with 47,300 approved, continuing a wave of emigration after the introduction of the national security law. Some 71% of those applications for the British National (Overseas) visa scheme were filed from outside Britain, while the rest were made inside the country, according to official figures released on Thursday. Of the applications approved so far, 35,000 - or 74% - were filed overseas. There were 27,900 main applicants, with 19,400 dependants. However, the number of applicants for the scheme f...
Read More
Brutal benchmark: Arizona passes 1 million COVID-19 cases
11Sep By News DeskNo Comments
Business, China, Conflict, World

Brutal benchmark: Arizona passes 1 million COVID-19 cases

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona surpassed 1 million COVID-19 cases Friday, becoming the 13th state to reach the grim milestone while contending with yet another major spike in infections. The benchmark is the latest in a tumultuous year and a half where Arizona went from being touted as a pandemic success story to being “the hot spot of the world” and then being a model again when vaccinations became available. Now, the state, like the rest of the country, is coping with a surge — mostly of the unvaccinated — and ongoing conflicts over mask and vaccine mandates. It ranks 13th nationwide in the number of cases per 100,000 residents, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID Data Tracker. COVID-19 came early to Arizona. In January 2020, a person with ties to Arizona
Read More
‘What will happen to people left behind?’ Afghanistan’s future shaped by big questions
10Sep By Desk TeamNo Comments
Asia, Business, China, Conflict, Politics, World

‘What will happen to people left behind?’ Afghanistan’s future shaped by big questions

WASHINGTON—The departure of the last U.S. military plane from Afghanistan left the region facing uncertainty, with the Taliban seeking to cement control of a nation shattered by two decades of war and an economy long dependent on foreign aid and opium sales. Now the U.S., its allies, and adversaries including Russia and China must all regroup and assess how they’ll approach the Taliban, which swept to power with stunning speed as American and NATO troops withdrew over the summer. The chaos of the American withdrawal following the collapse of Ashraf Ghani’s government only underscores the country’s fragility and the daunting challenges that await. After evacuating some 120,000 people, the U.S. says it will look to help any Americans who remain in the country. Less certain is the fate of t
Read More
To avoid another Afghanistan, Canada must leave NATO
10Sep By Desk TeamNo Comments
China, Conflict, World

To avoid another Afghanistan, Canada must leave NATO

Wherever they go on the campaign trail, federal political leaders are asked about the Afghanistan crisis and Canada’s failure to evacuate all those who risked their lives to support our soldiers, diplomats, and aid workers. But reporters seem unwilling to press the party bosses on the broader implications of Canada’s military and moral defeat in Afghanistan. I am one of the 40,000 Canadians who served in Afghanistan under the auspices of NATO’s 2001-2014 International Security Assistance Force. Most of Canada’s Afghanistan veterans believed they were fighting for human rights and the protection of women and girls from oppression and violence. That was certainly my belief. But it now seems we were on a fool’s errand for geopolitical reasons we may never understand. Working at the multin
Read More
China’s kids being schooled in ‘Xi Jinping thought’
10Sep By Desk TeamNo Comments
China, World

China’s kids being schooled in ‘Xi Jinping thought’

China's kids being schooled in 'Xi Jinping thought' China's new school year began on Wednesday. BEIJING: Chinese pupils returned to school on Wednesday with new textbooks peppered with "Xi Jinping thought", as the Communist Party aims to extend his personality cult to children as young as seven and rear a new generation of patriots. The education ministry has said it will incorporate Xi's vaguely defined political ideology into the national curriculum, from primary schools to graduate programmes, at the start of the new school year on Wednesday. Primary school teachers must "plant the seeds of loving the party, the country and socialism in young hearts", according to a government notice on the new curriculum. The new school books are decorated with the president's pithy quotes and ima...
Read More
Hong Kong police arrest Tiananmen vigil organisers
10Sep By Desk TeamNo Comments
Business, China, World

Hong Kong police arrest Tiananmen vigil organisers

Hong Kong police arrest Tiananmen vigil organisers The Hong Kong Alliance organised three decades of vigils commemorating the victims of Beijing's Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989. HONG KONG: Hong Kong police on Wednesday arrested multiple members of the group behind the city's Tiananmen Square vigils, a day after their organisation declared they would refuse to cooperate with a national security investigation. In a short statement to reporters, the Hong Kong Alliance confirmed three members -- Simon Leung, Sean Tang and Chan To-wai -- were arrested on Wednesday morning. An AFP reporter also saw another member, barrister Chow Hang-tung, being led away by police in handcuffs from her office in the city's central business district. Police have not yet confirmed the arrests or charges. ...
Read More
Russian defense chief hails joint military drills with China
10Sep By Desk TeamNo Comments
China, World

Russian defense chief hails joint military drills with China

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s defense minister on Friday hailed joint war games with China this week as a sign of increasingly close military cooperation that should expand further. Sergei Shoigu flew to China to attend the drills that wrapped up Friday in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. “We have achieved a high level of cooperation between our militaries on land, in the air and at sea,” Shoigu said during a meeting with his Chinese counterpart, “Expanding it is an important part of our future activities.” The Russian military sent several Su-30SM fighters and a motorized infantry unit to take part in the maneuvers. Shoigu noted that the exercise marked the first time that Russian troops had taken part in joint drills on the territory of China, adding that it reflected a “new level” of mil
Read More