China

Parts of Beijing locked down, wholesale market shut after fresh COVID-19 cluster
13Jun By Yusara AskariNo Comments
China

Parts of Beijing locked down, wholesale market shut after fresh COVID-19 cluster

Beijing has returned to “wartime” footing and banned tourism, locked down 11 residential estates and shuttered a wholesale market after a fresh cluster of COVID-19 cases sparked fears of a new wave of infections.Chu Junwei, an official of Beijing's southwestern Fengtai district, told a briefing on Saturday that the district was in "wartime emergency mode".“Throat swabs from 45 people, out of 517 tested at the district's Xinfadi wholesale market, had tested positive for the new coronavirus, though none of them showed symptoms of COVID-19”, Chu said.A city spokesman told the briefing that all six COVID-19 patients confirmed in Beijing on Friday had visited the Xinfadi market.The capital will suspend sports events and inter-provincial tourism effective immediately, he said.“One person at an a
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Hong Kong government rejects UK criticism of new security law as “biased”
12Jun By Yusara AskariNo Comments
Business, China

Hong Kong government rejects UK criticism of new security law as “biased”

In a sharp response to Britain’s report criticizing China’s imposition of national security legislation, the Hong Kong government said that the report is “inaccurate and biased” and that the legislation will not curb the freedoms of anyone.The British government said the proposed security law was a clear violation of China's international obligations and a breach of the "one country, two systems" formula that has governed the former British colony since its handover to Chinese rule in 1997."There is still time for China to reconsider, to step back from the brink and respect Hong Kong’s autonomy and respect its own international obligations," British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab wrote in the foreword to his government's six-monthly report on Hong Kong.Raab said a solution to the unrest fom
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A look at China’s military amid COVID-19-induced economic slowdown
11Jun By Yusara AskariNo Comments
China

A look at China’s military amid COVID-19-induced economic slowdown

Due to the coronavirus induced economic slowdown, thousands of demobilized People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers in big and medium-sized cities are currently facing unemployment or under-employment.Most of them, sources said, were demobilized between 2015 and 2018. Their number is said to be close to 300,000. Because of the 2016 decision, most of them were given only a lump sum payment.They were working as delivery boys, or as bearers in hotels, restaurants and salespersons in malls and shops etc. The technically qualified ones joined manufacturing units.There have been small size demonstrations asking for special help from the government by these ex-soldiers in various cities. “While not yet alarming, local authorities see these agitations as generators of negative sentiments against go
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India, China agree not to turn ‘differences into disputes’: Chinese Foreign Ministry
11Jun By Yusara AskariNo Comments
China

India, China agree not to turn ‘differences into disputes’: Chinese Foreign Ministry

Amid rising border tension between India and China along Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh, the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Monday said that both the countries want to maintain close communication on resolving the issue and that they don’t want to turn their differences into disputes.Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said that India and China want to defuse their simmering tension through “diplomatic and military channels”.The remarks comes days after the military-level talks between Indian and Chinese military commanders on Chushul-Moldo point along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh.Taking to Twitter China’s ambassador to India Sun Weidong quoted the Foreign Ministry spokesperson as saying “border areas’ situation” were discussed during the meeting
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Show no mercy: The tragedy in China’s Xinjiang
9Jun By Yusara AskariNo Comments
China

Show no mercy: The tragedy in China’s Xinjiang

In 2012, media across the world speculated that Xi Jinping who hadn’t yet assumed the Chinese presidency would “be more tolerant of Muslim Uighurs in the western region of Xinjiang.”Eight years on, Xinjiang, formally an autonomous region of China, is practically the largest internment camp in the world today. Its worsening condition is the direct consequence of Xi’s decisions.In 2014, after undertaking a brief tour of Xinjiang, Xi instructed the cadres of the Communist Party of China (CPC) to “show absolutely no mercy” to its Uighur Muslim population.The regime that now decries any allusion to the genesis of the coronavirus as bigoted then proceeded to describe Islam as a “virus”. And according to a party document, its prescription for the eradication of this pathogen was the swift “hospit
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China pushing territorial claims under cover of coronavirus: US military commander
7Jun By Yusara AskariNo Comments
China

China pushing territorial claims under cover of coronavirus: US military commander

In yet another claim against China’s expansionist policy, the commander of U.S. Forces in Japan on Friday said that China is using coronavirus as a cover to push territorial claims in the South China Sea through a surge in naval activity meant to intimidate other countries that claim the waters.“There has been a surge of activity by China in the South China Sea with navy ships, coast guard vessels and a naval militia of fishing boats in harassing vessels in waters claimed by Beijing”, said Lieutenant General Kevin Schneider.“Through the course of the COVID crisis we saw a surge of maritime activity,” he said.He added that Beijing had also increased its activity in the East China Sea, where it has a territorial dispute with Japan.Meanwhile, China says its maritime activities in the area are
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China targets land grabs, forced evictions in new law
6Jun By Yusara AskariNo Comments
Business, China

China targets land grabs, forced evictions in new law

Farmers in China have faced forced evictions and illicit land grabs for decades often with little or no compensation in return as China raced to urbanize and settle social unrest in the country.Millions of hectares of rural land were taken away from farmers in the past three decades and given to developers. Rural migrants living in run-down inner-city areas have also been forcefully evicted in recent years as cities fight congestion."Land disputes trigger half of an estimated 100,000 social protests in China every year, making them the second leading cause for public unrest after labour disputes," Ni Yulan, a lawyer who advocates for property rights of low-income families in Beijing said.Ni has been jailed twice for her advocacy and is paralyzed from the waist down, a result she says of be...
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China doesn’t want a new world order. It wants this one
6Jun By Yusara AskariNo Comments
China

China doesn’t want a new world order. It wants this one

Under fire for introducing and spreading Coronavirus across the world and reproached for their move to assert control over Hong Kong, China’s officials are in firefighting mode. Their approach has two parts. First, sell the China story - emphasizing its success in the fight against the coronavirus. Second, attack those who seek to tarnish the country’s image.President Xi Jinping has left this battle to his subordinates. With the world spinning into crisis, he has a bigger campaign to occupy him: taking over the international institutions, like the World Health Organization and the United Nations, that manage the world.Interestingly, the plan also bears a suitably benign title - “Community with a Shared Future for Mankind.” First proposed by Jinping in 2013 and introduced at the United Nati
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4Jun By Yusara AskariNo Comments
China

China misusing Confucius Institute to spread its propaganda, claims a petition

China is involved in suppressing the democratic movement in Hong Kong, conducting military exercises in South China Sea, suppressing freedom of press, carrying out military intrusion into Ladakh and Sikkim, and deploying military forces along the Indo-Tibetan border, said a petition calling for the closure of China’s Confucius Institute.On May 18, France-Tibet Occitanie and Association Initiative Citoyenne jointly submitted a petition to François Bayrou, Mayor of Pau, France calling for closure of the Confucius Institute (CI) which was inaugurated on October 28, 2019 by Lu Shaye, Chinese Ambassador to France.The petition states that Beijing has “wilfully concealed information on the CoVID-19 virus spread in Wuhan” and “put pressure on WHO to delay declaration of the pandemic situation” res
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China’s new high-security compound in Pakistan may indicate naval plans
3Jun By Yusara AskariNo Comments
China

China’s new high-security compound in Pakistan may indicate naval plans

With recent satellite images of several new complexes at the western end of Pakistan’s coast, analysts are now more confident than ever of the long-expected Chinese naval base at Gwadar in Pakistan.One of the several complexes has been identified as a Chinese company involved in port development and has unusually high security. The base, to complement the one at Djibouti, would strengthen China’s foothold in the Indian Ocean.Located at the western end of Pakistan’s coast, Gwadar is expected to be a major port in China’s Belt and Road Initiative. This will allow Chinese goods to shortcut through Pakistan, instead of sailing all the way around South Asia.China was first reported to be planning a naval base there in January 2018. While the plan has never been confirmed officially, it would be
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