Biden’s pick for China ambassador says ‘we cannot trust the Chinese’ on Taiwan

US president Joe Biden’s nominee to be ambassador to Beijing on Wednesday said China was aggressive and untrustworthy, insisting that boosting Taiwan’s defences against the threat of Chinese invasion should be a US priority. Speaking to the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, which is due to confirm his appointment, Nicholas Burns denounced recent Chinese warplane incursions into Taiwan’s air defence zone, calling them “especially objectionable”. “We certainly cannot trust the Chinese” on the issue of Taiwan, Burns said. “Our responsibility is to make Taiwan a tough nut to crack.”…

Beijing updates list of approved news sources, tightening its control over internet content

The Cyberspace Administration of China has updated a list of official news sources that others are allowed to republish, increasing it to more than 1,350 sources. Consisting mainly of government websites and state-owned media, like Xinhua and People’s Daily, the list is the latest example of Beijing moving to increase its control of content online. Photo: Shutterstock South China Morning Post

Burns Calls for a Mix of Competition and Cooperation with China

R. Nicholas Burns, President Biden’s nominee to be U.S. ambassador to China, told a Senate panel on Wednesday that if he was confirmed he would help Mr. Biden pursue a strategy of competition and cooperation with a rising Beijing, which he called “the biggest geopolitical test of the 21st century.” A lifelong diplomat who has held senior foreign policy posts in Democratic and Republican administrations, Mr. Burns was appearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which is considering his nomination. He was searing about China’s recent international role, saying that…

Op-Ed in China Draws Backlash for Advocating Women ‘Warm Rural Bachelor’s Beds’

Advertisement Red Net, a news site affiliated with the Hunan Provincial Government, published an opinion piece on October 7 titled “The work of warming rural bachelors’ beds is highly necessary.” The piece highlighted existing concerns about the cost to women’s rights of China’s drive to push up the birth rate. The author, Jiang Wenlai, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, wrote, “The question of rural men’s marriage has evolved from an individual issue into a social issue,” quoting directly from a recent policy document from the local…

Can Russia and Mongolia Replace Australia’s Coal Supply to China?

Advertisement Since the beginning of the pandemic, China has faced several unexpected challenges. The trade spat with Australia, the continued South China Sea shipping congestion, and a shortage of coal supply are testing the country’s economic capabilities and problem-solving skills. China has stepped up its efforts to engage Russia, Mongolia, and other third parties to fill their coal shortage. Exactly a year ago, in October 2020, Chinese state-owned companies were ordered to stop the import of Australian coal, widely viewed as retaliation for Australia’s more critical stance on China. The…

The Olympic Torch Arrives in Beijing Under Cloud of Protests, Covid

The Olympic torch arrived in Beijing on Wednesday, beginning a countdown to a Winter Games being held under the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic and calls for a boycott over China’s rights abuses in Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinjiang. The arrival ceremony, like the official lighting of the Olympic flame in Athens on Monday, unfolded without spectators, one of many concessions to Covid-19 that will severely restrict access to the games, which begin on Feb. 4. China, with the “full support” of the International Olympic Committee, is planning to hold…

Can China grow out of its coal habit? Inside the 22 October Guardian Weekly

China revealed its vision for a greener future at the UN biodiversity summit in Kunming last week. But with confirmation that Xi Jinping will not travel to the Cop26 summit in Glasgow at the end of the month, what does the president’s idea of an “ecological civilisation” really entail? It’s a notion that it seems will be hard to realise when coal still plays such a dominant role in the economy as our China affairs correspondent Vincent Ni discovers in a report that looks at life in a mining town…