By Yimou Lee TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan has spotted Chinese drones circling the Taipei-controlled Pratas Islands in the South China Sea and may shoot them down if they stray too close, a government minister said on Wednesday, a move that could dramatically increase tensions with Beijing. Speaking at parliament, Lee Chung-wei, who heads the Ocean […]
TAIPEI (Reuters) – The China-U.S. trade war is pushing Beijing to step up its efforts to steal technology and poach talent from Taiwan to boost China’s semiconductor industry’s self-sufficiency, the government of the tech-powerhouse island said on Wednesday. Washington has taken aim at China’s tech industry during the bitter trade dispute, putting sanctions on firms […]
Former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo, a strident critic of China, on Tuesday alleged that an international report into Covid’s origins was a cover-up backed by Beijing. The long-awaited report by experts appointed by the World Health Organization and their Chinese counterparts said that the global pandemic likely came to humans from animals and […]
Leather, glitter, stilettos and a strut — voguing, the underground dance phenomenon, has seized Beijing and given China’s LGBT community a “playground” to celebrate their identities. Sashaying down the runway clad in fake-fur, mile-high wigs and dramatic makeup, performers flaunted poses for an ecstatic audience, powered by a pounding house music soundtrack. Hundreds of young […]
Chinese leaders endorsed a sweeping overhaul of Hong Kong’s electoral system Tuesday, slashing its number of directly elected seats and ensuring a majority of the city’s lawmakers will be selected by a reliably pro-Beijing committee. The new measures, which bypassed Hong Kong’s legislature and were imposed directly by Beijing, are the latest move aimed at […]
Chinese Foreign Minister in Tehran – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (R) speaks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during their meeting. – -/Iranian Presidency/dpa Iran and China inked a long-term cooperation agreement in Tehran on Saturday, state television reported. The comprehensive agreement signed by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his Chinese counterpart, Wang […]
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday vowed a new approach to work closer with allies, promising Washington would not force them to take sides against China. “When our allies shoulder their fair share of the burden, they’ll reasonably expect to have a fair say in making decisions,” Blinken said at NATO headquarters in […]
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain imposed sanctions on Monday on four Chinese officials and a construction company over human rights abuses against the mainly Muslim Uighur community in Xinjiang, part of coordinated action by some Western countries to put pressure on Beijing. Earlier on Monday, the United States announced sanctions on two more Chinese officials linked […]
BEIJING (Reuters) – The failure of this week’s U.S.-China meeting to build strategic trust has heightened the need for Beijing and Washington to improve crisis management regime, a senior Chinese military scholar and adviser told a Beijing forum on Saturday. After a fiery start, U.S. and Chinese officials concluded on Friday what Washington called “tough […]
American and Chinese diplomats clashed Thursday in their first face-to-face talks since President Joe Biden took office, with the world’s top two powers digging in on a laundry list of issues on which they diverge broadly as the meeting opened in Alaska. China’s actions “threaten the rules-based order that maintains global stability,” US Secretary of […]
Deadly small particle pollution in four of five nations exceeded World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations last year despite Covid lockdowns, according to a report released Tuesday. The partial or complete shutdown of transport and industry for months at a time in 2020 reduced average levels of so-called PM2.5 pollution across the world, including in major […]
Xiaomi was one of nine firms classified by the Pentagon as Washington (AFP) – A US judge on Friday ordered Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi temporarily removed from a government blacklist barring American investment in the company. Six days before Donald Trump left office last year, his administration cemented its trade war legacy against Beijing with […]
US President Joe Biden, then the vice president, huddles in 2014 with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi alongside John Kerry, then the US secretary of state Washington (AFP) – US President Joe Biden will hold first-ever joint talks Friday with the leaders of Australia, India and Japan, boosting an emerging four-way alliance often cast as […]
Loopholes in Microsoft’s Outlook email system have enabled hackers in Beijing to spy on American interests since the beginning of the year. Before them, it was the Russians who managed to eavesdrop on US government departments. Will there be a new wave of large-scale operations in cyberspace to put pressure on the new American president? […]
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi – Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks during a press conference with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (Not Pictured) following their meeting. China’s understanding of its relationship to self-ruled Taiwan, known as the “One China” policy, is a “red line that should not be crossed” by the United States, Beijing’s top diplomat […]
Covid-19 vaccines are not just coveted as protection from the deadly virus, they are also a currency in the battle for global influence, experts say, especially between China and Russia. While the United States has been saving its vaccines for Americans, and Europeans struggle with delivery, Beijing and Moscow, as well as India, have been […]
Microsoft has said a state-sponsored hacking group operating out of China is exploiting previously unknown security flaws in its Exchange email services to steal data from business users. The company said the hacking group, which it has named “Hafnium”, is a “highly skilled and sophisticated actor”. Hafnium has in the past targeted US-based companies including […]
Japan has asked China to avoid using anal swabs to test its citizens for coronavirus, saying the method prompted complaints of “psychological distress”. Tokyo’s intervention comes after reports that US diplomatic personnel in China had complained of being subjected to the intrusive tests — a claim Beijing denied. China, which has largely brought the virus […]
By Greg Torode and Marius Zaharia HONG KONG (Reuters) – Chinese officials have signalled that Beijing plans sweeping electoral changes for Hong Kong, possibly as soon as next week, when China’s parliament, the National People’s Congress (NPC), opens in Beijing. WHAT IS BEIJING PLANNING? Xia Baolong, director of China’s Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office, […]
A top Chinese official on Monday outlined plans to ensure only “patriots” run Hong Kong as Beijing seeks to neuter any remaining democratic opposition and take a more direct role in how the business hub is run. The landmark speech by Xia Baolong, head of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, came just two […]
TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan’s government expressed its thanks to and “admiration” for U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday after he told his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping of his concerns about Beijing’s pressure against the island China, which claims as its own territory. Biden’s government, which took office on Jan. 20, has moved to reassure democratic […]
President Joe Biden announced a review of the US military stance toward China, saying the country needs a “strong” approach, while pledging that his administration will use force only as a last resort. On his first visit to the Pentagon as president, Biden also sought to break from the policies of his predecessor Donald Trump, […]
The World Health Organization expert mission to China ended this week without finding the source of the coronavirus that has killed over 2.3 million worldwide. But the team of foreign experts did agree the novel coronavirus likely jumped from bats to an unknown animal species, before being transmitted to humans. It also concluded that it […]
The Chinese city of Wuhan marked one year since the start of its traumatic 76-day coronavirus lockdown Saturday while the pandemic continued to rage elsewhere, with US President Joe Biden warning America’s death toll could pass 600,000. Traffic hummed, sidewalks bustled, and citizens packed parks and public transport in Wuhan, underscoring the scale of the […]
The pope and Britain’s Queen Elizabeth became the latest high-profile figures to join the global vaccination campaign against the coronavirus as Germany on Sunday reported 40,000 fatalities since the pandemic began a year ago. And German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that the worst was still to come. More than 1.9 million people worldwide have now […]
[Intro] I thought I, I didn't know anything Like a ghost When I was little, the sky was closer, so much closer That's why I like the rain, it's like I can smell the sky coming [Verse] I run it up, don't have no time to be tied down She f*ck me good in the […]
A multi-million-dollar property sale by the US Consulate in Hong Kong has been put on ice because it has not received permission from Beijing, the prospective buyer said Wednesday. The deal for six luxury pads in a swanky part of the island would have seen the US State Department pocket US$330 million. But it appears […]
President Donald Trump has signed a law that authorizes US sanctions on Chinese officials if they interfere in Tibetan Buddhists’ selection of the next Dalai Lama. Congress overwhelmingly approved the Tibetan Policy and Support Act amid growing concern that Beijing will seek to handpick a successor to the 85-year-old spiritual leader, hoping the movement for […]
Paris (AFP) – The Covid-19 pandemic cast a long pall over 2020 but it also saw President Donald Trump beaten by Joe Biden in a tumultuous US election and the Black Lives Matter movement shake the world. Here are some of the key events of the year: Rampaging virus – On January 11, less than two […]
A Chinese probe sent to the Moon to bring back the first lunar samples in four decades successfully landed on Tuesday, Beijing’s space agency said. China has poured billions into its military-run space programme, with hopes of having a crewed space station by 2022 and of eventually sending humans to the Moon. The latest mission’s […]