Tag: China

EU blames China for ‘huge wave’ of Covid-19 disinformation
15Jun By Joanne SerriehNo Comments

EU blames China for ‘huge wave’ of Covid-19 disinformation

China has been accused by the European Union of running "targeted influence operations and disinformation campaigns" globally, as the bloc set out a plan to tackle a "huge wave" of false facts about the coronavirus pandemic.At the height of Europe's coronavirus outbreak, French politicians were left furious when a Chinese embassy website claimed in mid-April that care workers in France had abounded their jobs and had left patients to die. It was also claimed, falsely, that over 80 French lawmakers had used a racist slur against World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus."I believe if we have evidence we should not shy away from naming and shaming," Vera Jourova, a European Commission vice-president, said. This is the first time an EU executive has publicly named China as a ...
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China reports 57 new virus cases, highest daily count since April
14Jun By Yusara AskariNo Comments

China reports 57 new virus cases, highest daily count since April

China reported 57 new cases of the coronavirus on Sunday, the highest daily figure since April, as concerns grow about a resurgence of the disease.Through strict lockdowns, the domestic outbreak in China had been brought largely under control early this year – but a new outbreak has been linked to a meat and vegetable market in south Beijing.The National Health Commission said 36 of the new cases were domestic infections in the capital, Beijing.The other two domestic infections reported on Sunday were in north-eastern Liaoning province, and local health officials said they were close contacts of the Beijing cases.“The capital should expand the scope of nucleic acid testing for the virus”, a city government spokesman said on Sunday.  He told a news conference that Beijing has entered an “ex
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Tibet, Taiwan key in reforming India policies towards China: Experts
14Jun By Joanne SerriehNo Comments

Tibet, Taiwan key in reforming India policies towards China: Experts

Amidst the stand-off between India and China on the Line of Actual Control (LAC), strategic experts and intellectuals said that to counter Xi Jinping’s ‘One China Policy’, India should support Tibet and Taiwan, and give Dalai Lama more visibility in India’s political circles.“India should be supporting Tibet and try that the Dalai Lama should be given a higher position and more visibility in India’s political circles. Along with this, we must begin economic and technological engagements with Taiwan, besides supporting it politically,” Director of Vivekananda International Foundation Dr. Arvind Gupta said.He was speaking at webinar titled, "Revisiting One China policy: Economic and Political Options for India: Hong Kong, Tibet, Taiwan, and Xinjiang" jointly organized by the Law and Society
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Counter China on all fronts, not just on borders, say experts
14Jun By Yusara AskariNo Comments

Counter China on all fronts, not just on borders, say experts

As tensions continue to rise between India and China along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), Indian strategists and experts said that India needs to build up its own capabilities in order to counter China on all fronts and not just on the border.“The tensions between the US and China will certainly either put us in a sweet or in a delicate position in the time to come. India needs to build up its own capabilities in countering China – not just on the border, but we need to take them on all other fronts,” President of Centre for China Analysis and Strategy Jayadeva Ranade said.He was speaking at webinar titled, "Revisiting One China policy: Economic and Political Options for India: Hong Kong, Tibet, Taiwan, and Xinjiang" jointly organized by the Law and Society Alliance and Defense Capital
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Fearful Hong Kongers rush to secure limited British passports
13Jun By Joanne SerriehNo Comments

Fearful Hong Kongers rush to secure limited British passports

As China continues with its plan to roll out the new Security Law, Hong Kongers are in a rush to avail the citizenship offered by Britain and leave the troubled territory.Shortly before Hong Kong was handed back to China, Simon Ng applied for a British National (Overseas) passport, a document he never thought he would need.His predicament is not new for the people in that region, as thousands of Hong Kongers rush for British passports with China tightening its grip on the territory.China's plan to impose a sweeping national security law on the city in response to huge pro-democracy protests has Ng mulling the prospect of leaving, the first time he has contemplated such action since Britain returned the former colony in 1997."Back then, like many of my peers, I thought China would reform an...
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Parts of Beijing locked down, wholesale market shut after fresh COVID-19 cluster
13Jun By Yusara AskariNo Comments

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

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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China’s ‘repression against all religions continues to intensify’, says US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
12Jun By Joanne SerriehNo Comments

China’s ‘repression against all religions continues to intensify’, says US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday accused the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) of seeking to “infuse communist dogma” into faith groups’ teachings, saying that the state of religious freedom in China has further deteriorated over the past year.China’s “state-sponsored repression against all religions continues to intensify”, Pompeo told reporters at the release of the “2019 International Religious Freedom Report”.“The mass detentions of Uygurs in [the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region] continues, so does the repression of Tibetan Buddhists and Falun Gong and Christians,” said Pompeo.Last year began with China’s formal adoption of a five-year plan to “Sinicise” Islam, a strategy to bring the religion and its practitioners in line with Party doctrine.In 2019, the Chinese government
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Coronavirus has exposed ‘US-style human rights’ crisis, says Chinese report
11Jun By Joanne SerriehNo Comments

Coronavirus has exposed ‘US-style human rights’ crisis, says Chinese report

The China Society for Human Rights Studies issued a report on Thursday terming the US response to the coronavirus pandemic as “self-interested, short-sighted, inefficient, and irresponsible,” saying that it exposed the long-existing problems within the country.In the report titled, “The COVID-19 Pandemic Magnifies the Crisis of US-Style Human Rights”, the Rights group said “inequality within the US society was being fully exposed during the pandemic."“The US response to the pandemic has not only caused the tragedy in which about 2 million Americans became infected with the virus and more than 110,000 have died from it, but also caused the exposure and deterioration of the long-existing problems within the United States, such as a divisive society, the polarization between the rich and the
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A look at China’s military amid COVID-19-induced economic slowdown
11Jun By Yusara AskariNo Comments

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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