Day: July 8, 2021

Advertisement China has emerged as the world’s largest provider of COVID-19 vaccines, having sold or donated over 200 million doses of its Sinopharm and Sinovac jabs, enough to fully vaccinate over 100 million people. By contrast, the next leading exporter, the EU, has sent just 82.3 million doses abroad. China is by far the leading provider of vaccines to the developing world, where countries have struggled to access any inoculation doses at all. What does that mean for the 15 countries around the world that recognize Taiwan – and thus…

Jul 8th 2021 FIVE OR SIX years ago, when many Chinese still associated American culture with novelty and fun, Halloween was big business in Caoxian. This rural county claims to be China’s largest source of cheap costumes for children’s parties and school concerts as well as for dramatic galas that are sometimes staged in Chinese workplaces, from small factories to government ministries. Not long ago, Caoxian’s entrepreneurs could live for a year on one month’s sales of pumpkin costumes, witches’ robes and other Halloween paraphernalia, says Ren Yafeng, a local…

Jul 8th 2021 HONG KONG PROPAGANDISTS HAD teed it up as one of this year’s blockbusters. The film “1921”, named after the year China’s Communist Party was born, was intended to grip the imaginations of young people with the story of the party’s founding 100 years ago this month. Mao Zedong would be played by different actors depending on his age in the scene depicted. One of them would be Yan Xujia, a 19-year-old pop star who frequently appears on reality television. In mid-May the heartthrob’s profile appeared on promotional…