Day: September 7, 2022

Your Wednesday Evening Briefing

Chin@Strategy

(Want to get this newsletter in your inbox? Here’s the sign-up.) Good evening. Here’s the latest at the end of Wednesday. 1. Voter fraud prosecution is rare, erratic and often undeserved. As part of our Democracy Challenged series, The New York Times reviewed some 400 voting-fraud charges filed since 2017. Often, voters didn’t know they’d broken a law. Serious penalties usually fell hardest on those least able to fight back: Poor and Black people were likelier to go to jail than comfortable retirees. In Florida, where the governor, Ron DeSantis,…

Zero-covid is making it tougher for Chinese strivers to get ahead

Chin@Strategy

In january, for the purpose of contact tracing, the authorities in Beijing released data on the movements of two people infected with covid-19. A 44-year-old migrant worker with the surname Yue had gone from one construction site to another, visiting nearly 30 over the course of 18 days. He worked odd jobs, supporting a big family. Then there was a young white-collar worker, reportedly with the surname Li. She spent the early days of January skiing and browsing in posh shops, such as Dior. By many measures inequality in China…

Hong Kong journalist union chair arrested weeks before Oxford fellowship

Chin@Strategy

The head of Hong Kong’s journalist union has been arrested, weeks before he was due to leave for an overseas fellowship at Oxford University. Ronson Chan, the chair of the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA), was arrested for allegedly obstructing a police officer and disorderly conduct in a public place. Channel C, the online news outlet Chan works for, said the veteran reporter was taken away by officers who asked to check his identity while he was reporting on a meeting of public housing flat-owners on Wednesday. Police said a…

How China Is Responding to Its Water Woes

Chin@Strategy

Advertisement This has been China’s driest and hottest summer since it began keeping records in 1961. The severe heatwave was brought on by a greater-than-usual Western Pacific subtropical high, further compounded by reduced rainfall. The effects of these extreme weather events are seen in many provinces and sections of the Yangtze River Basin (YRB), one of China’s strategic development regions and the country’s longest river. Estimates from the South China Morning Post (SCMP) suggest that the current heat wave has affected over 900 million people in more than 17 provinces…

China reports ‘most severe’ heatwave and third driest summer on record

Chin@Strategy

China recorded its highest temperatures and one of its lowest levels of rainfall in 61 years during a two-month summer heatwave that caused forest fires, damaged crops and hit power supplies, the national meteorological agency said. The average national temperature in August, 22.4C, was 1.2C higher than the seasonal norm, while average rainfall fell 23% to 82mm, the third lowest since records began in 1961, according to Xiao Chan, the vice-director of China’s national meteorological administration. He told reporters that 267 weather stations across China recorded their highest temperatures in…

China’s Youth Try on the Communist Cadre Look

Chin@Strategy

A dull blue jacket, oversize trousers, a Communist Party member pin adding a splash of red on the chest, a small briefcase in hand. It’s the typical dress of the typical Chinese official, and has long been the very opposite of the look that many young Chinese strive for. But now the cadre look is cool. On Chinese social media platforms where trendsetters trade fashion tips, young people — mostly men — have been sharing pictures of themselves dressed like their strait-laced, middle-aged dads working in Communist Party offices. They…