Day: August 30, 2022

Solomon Islands Suspends Visits by Foreign Navies, Raising Concerns Over China

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WASHINGTON — The Solomon Islands has suspended visits by U.S. and other foreign military vessels, American officials said Tuesday, raising concerns in Washington that the Pacific nation is turning away from engagement with the United States in favor of working with China. The Solomon Islands gave notice of the decision after a U.S. Coast Guard ship and a British Royal Naval ship failed to get timely approvals last week to make routine stops in a port. The Solomon Islands government formally notified the United States on Monday that it had…

‘It’s getting extremely hard’: climate crisis forces China to ration electricity

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There were still some streetlights on the Bund, one of the main roads in central Shanghai. But the decorative lights which light up the city skyline – blue, pink, and red – were turned off for two days to cope with the peaking power demand. The power restriction imposed by the city authorities, was the first in Shanghai, the financial hub of China. But across the rest of the country similar restrictions have been put in place, as cities, notably in the south-western region, grapple with ongoing power shortages caused…

Review: “A Continent Erupts,” by Ronald H. Spector

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A CONTINENT ERUPTS: Decolonization, Civil War, and Massacre in Postwar Asia, 1945-1955, by Ronald H. Spector Early on the morning of Sept. 2, 1945, Gen. Douglas MacArthur boarded the battleship U.S.S. Missouri to preside over the ceremony marking the Japanese surrender in World War II. Among the representatives of the nine Allied nations was a group of defeated colonial officials. Lt. Gen. Arthur Percival, who had surrendered Malaya to the Japanese, was there. So was General Philippe Leclerc, “a hero of the European war, who had been recently dispatched to…

China’s Crucial Party Congress Has a Date: October 16

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Advertisement The 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has a date: It will begin on October 16, according to a state media summary of a CCP Politburo Central Committee meeting held on August 30. The National Congress will select the CCP’s – and, by extension, China’s – top leaders for the next five years, although in practice the question of who will make the various leadership bodies is determined well before the CCP delegates make it official through their votes at the Congress. Since the reform and…

What Do Foreign Delegations Mean for Taiwan?

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Advertisement Following U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan and growing tensions in the Taiwan Strait in the aftermath, the Cold War mentality is back in force, highlighting Taiwan as a potential flashpoint between the United States and China. The unfolding crisis between Washington and Beijing could rewrite the future of both powers as well as regional countries in a way that the world can barely imagine. In his latest book “The Avoidable War: The Dangers of a Catastrophic Conflict Between the US and Xi Jinping’s China,” Kevin Rudd,…

Xi Jinping Poised to Win 5 More Years at China’s Congress in October

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A Communist Party congress that is poised to anoint Xi Jinping as China’s top leader for another five years will open in Beijing on Oct. 16, officials announced on Tuesday. The starting date of the party’s 20th congress — a pivotal event in China’s political life cycle — was revealed after the Politburo, a council of 25 senior officials, settled on plans for the event. Such congresses are choreographed rituals held every five years, bringing together about 2,300 delegates who rarely, if ever, dissent. This one will reveal China’s broad…

Lockdowns in China, and North Korea, Deal Double Blow to Bridge City

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SHENYANG, China — There are plenty of reasons that business has been lousy recently at Steven Wen’s clothing store in Shenyang, the largest city in northeastern China. Local officials locked down the city for one month this spring after detecting just a few dozen coronavirus cases among its nine million people. Residents have guarded their spending closely since the lockdown was lifted. And in a region often referred to as China’s Rust Belt, the local economy had already been shaky for years. Possibly the main problem, though, is that Ms.…

Rain eases China’s record heatwave but fresh energy crisis looms

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Rain across central China this week is expected to relieve the country’s worst heatwave on record, but weather agencies are now warning of potential floods, while analysts say the energy crisis exacerbated by the months-long drought is not over. Almost half of China has been affected by the latest heatwave, the hottest since record-keeping began in 1961. Hundreds of temperature records have been broken, and the heat has exacerbated the effects of low rainfall, drying up rivers and reservoirs across the country. Light to moderate showers have moved into central…