Day: October 29, 2021

China’s state-controlled media are put on an even shorter leash

Chin@Strategy

Oct 30th 2021 BEIJING THE COMMUNIST PARTY’S leadership, with “Comrade Xi Jinping at the core”, attaches “great importance” to managing internet content. So declared the government on October 20th when unveiling new instructions about what news could be republished online. This was an understatement. Under the party’s rule, China’s press has never enjoyed more than a small modicum of freedom. Mr Xi has relentlessly tightened controls. Reporters and editors deemed politically wayward have been disciplined, fired or jailed. Listen to this story Your browser does not support the <audio> element.…

A row about toilets reveals a lot about women’s place in China

Chin@Strategy

Oct 30th 2021 IN 2012 A GROUP of feminists protested against a shortage of public toilets for women by using men’s lavatories instead (see picture). State-security police responded by harassing and threatening them. But the government took up their cause. Cities started building more toilets for women. Last year, at the UN, China cited this as a big achievement of its efforts in the past five years to improve the lot of women. It did not mention the people who had pushed for such change. Listen to this story Your…

Origin of Virus May Remain Murky, U.S. Intelligence Agencies Say

Chin@Strategy

WASHINGTON — American intelligence agencies are unlikely to be able to draw a firm conclusion about the origin of the novel coronavirus without more information from China on the earliest cases or new scientific discoveries about the nature of the virus, said a newly declassified intelligence report released on Friday. President Biden ordered the nation’s intelligence agencies in May to conduct a 90-day inquiry into the origins of the pandemic. When the key findings of that review were released in August, they failed to offer a single answer and instead…

In U.S.-China Competition, Taiwan’s Voice Must Be Heeded

Chin@Strategy

So when Mr. Biden unambiguously said the United States was committed to defending Taiwan, the White House quickly clarified there was “no change” in its policy. Whether Biden simply misspoke or was signaling his resolve to China, the suggestion of a shift to strategic clarity prompted a cautious response from Taiwan: The president’s office cautioned Taiwan would not “rashly advance” when it receives support. That should not come as a surprise. But lost in the Beltway rhetoric is the will of Taiwan’s people. Many outsiders — myself included — are…

‘If we don’t act now it will be too late’, warns Johnson ahead of Cop26

Chin@Strategy

World leaders have been warned that Cop26 must “mark the beginning of the end of climate change” amid last-minute talks that could help determine the future of the planet. With the long-awaited environmental summit due to start on Monday, Boris Johnson issued his plea while saying “too many countries are still doing too little”. Speaking en route to Italy to meet other prime ministers and presidents from the G20 group of industrialised nations, Johnson said that without action the modern world could suffer the same fate as the Roman empire…

What Zambia’s New Debt Reveal Tells Us About the ‘China Debt Trap’ Theory

Chin@Strategy

Advertisement On October 20, the Ministry of Finance and National Planning of one of the world’s allegedly most “debt distressed” countries – Zambia – published a comprehensive summary of its public debt, as of June 2021. This autonomous “debt reveal” was surely significant domestically, as it provided a new mean for Zambian citizens to understand Zambia’s debt as it relates to their own economy. But did the data really reveal anything new internationally? Overseas narratives hold that Zambia’s debt is casting is a huge international “shadow”; that Zambia’s debt is…

Why Strawberries Turn a Ghostly Shade of White

Chin@Strategy

Strawberries are not always red. Fragaria nubicola, native to the Himalayas, can produce a vivid red fruit or a ghostly white one; another species, F. vesca, can produce a white fruit with brilliant scarlet seeds, as well as a conventional red type. What gives some strawberries such a ghostly pallor? One answer has been uncovered by scientists curious about the humble strawberry’s genetic material. There are numerous species of the fruit, and some sport five times as many chromosomes as others. Strawberry scientists think this means that as the plants…

Work Drinking in China Comes Under Fire

Chin@Strategy

Advertisement An old Chinese proverb says that “A thousand glasses of liquor among bosom buddies is too few.” Drinking rituals are fundamental to the social, political, and business fabric of China, and according to the historical record, they have been for thousands of years. China Daily traces China’s use of alcohol back 4,000 years. According to legend, it was a woman, Yi Di, wife of the semi-mythical King Yu, who “invented the method” by which to make alcohol. Sources differ widely, though, on exactly how many thousands of years alcohol…

Chinese leader Xi Jinping to attend Cop26 by video link

Chin@Strategy

China’s president, Xi Jinping, will appear at the Cop26 UN climate summit in Glasgow next week via video link, the country’s foreign ministry has said, after weeks of speculation over what role Xi might play in the meeting, which opens on Sunday. Xi has not left China since last year, when his country was first engulfed in the deadly Covid outbreak. The foreign ministry said on Friday that Xi would take part in this weekend’s G20 leaders’ summit in Rome via video link as well. Beijing published its long-awaited national…