Month: August 2021

Advertisement Emerging from the Guizhou Connect political faction, a southwestern China clique with many crossovers with the Zhijiang New Army, Shen Yiqin is the most obvious female candidate for promotion to the Politburo in 2022. Shen’s party-building experience and fast-track into provincial-level cadre leadership positions point to her ascending into the Politburo in 2022. Before 2002, there had been no women in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Politburo since the 1982 12th Central Committee, where Kang Keqing served on a then 29-member Politburo. Having at least one woman on the…

The situation was not helped by Mr Biden who, in his ABC interview, appeared to conflate Taiwan with South Korea and Japan, with whom the US has formal agreements to defend if war breaks out. Unlike the others, Taiwan does not have a defence treaty with the US and only an implicit security guarantee. BBC

Advertisement Over the past 180 years, Afghan fighters have prevailed over the British, Soviet, and now American forces that have challenged them within their own mountainous, desert-ridden borders. Indeed, the annihilation of nearly 16,000 British soldiers, civilians, and families in 1842 as they fled Kabul remains one of the most humiliating defeats in British military history, second only to the fall of Singapore in World War II. The Soviet Union left in ignominy in 1989, although not in disarray. And the Americans are now leaving under the full weight of…

This latest wave has swept across 17 provinces and more than 30 cities since July 20, with 1,262 local cases reported as of August 20, but new infections are tapering off, National Health Committee data shows. Two routes of infection Accumulated cases from July 20 to August 19 The clusters have been traced back to an airport in Nanjing in east China, and a hospital in Zhengzhou in central China Hover over/tap the graphic to see more details Route 1: Nanjing Lukou International Airport Route 2: The No.6 People’s Hospital…

Using everything from rap music to fake Facebook posts, experts say the propaganda efforts have been successful at convincing the domestic Chinese audience to cast scepticism on international criticism of the country’s role in the Covid-19 pandemic. But, experts say, it has done little to legitimise China to the outside world. BBC