Chinese youth are discovering surfing in increasing numbers, thanks in part to restrictions on foreign travel in the wake of the pandemic. BBC China correspondent Stephen McDonell travelled to Hainan Island to report on the boom. Produced by Ellen Jin Filmed and edited by Edward Lawrence BBC
On March 19, 1956, The New York Times carried an interview with Matyas Rakosi, who was described as “Hungary’s ebullient Communist boss.” Rakosi said that his enemies had accused him of using “salami tactics,” that is, cutting away all opposition slice by slice. He didn’t deny it: “That is the job of any good political party — including the Communists,” Rakosi said. Salami-slicing may have originated as a metaphor in Hungary, but in the decades since, it has entered the vocabulary of politicians, military tacticians and editorial writers far from…
Advertisement In 2017, President Xi Jinping identified “three crucial battles” for China’s development. Chief among them was reducing financial risk. Four years later, the current state of the nation’s real estate market poses the most significant threat to China’s economic stability since the Great Recession of 2008. Real estate prices in China’s major cities are some of the most expensive in the world, and the property market has been a key driver of economic growth since the “reform and opening” period. Purchasing real estate as an asset has been seen…
The U.S. policy toward Taiwan is “strategic ambiguity” — there is no explicit promise to defend it from Chinese attack. In this tense environment, U.S. policymakers and experts are feverishly considering ways to make U.S. commitment to Taiwan more credible and enhance overall military deterrence against China. A recent $750 million arms sale proposal to Taiwan is part of these efforts, as is talk of inviting Taiwan to a democracy summit, which undoubtedly would provoke Beijing’s ire. Some have argued that America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan undermines efforts to signal U.S.…
China has logged its highest number of coronavirus cases in nearly a month, prompting one county to shut down public transportation and test hundreds of thousands of people. On Sunday, the Chinese authorities reported 22 new locally transmitted infections, all in the southern province of Fujian and caused by the Delta variant. The number was the highest since Aug. 14, when 24 cases were recorded. The outbreak over the weekend bucked a downward trend of cases, which had fallen for more than a month since Aug. 9, when China reported…
“I don’t know much about the Filipino culture but I do know that my Lolo (grandfather) – he cooks amazing, so when I get back to Canada in Toronto when I visit, he’s gonna make really nice food, especially Filipino dishes because I do miss it,” she said in a post-game interview. BBC