Month: September 2022

Who will be China’s next economic tsar?

Chin@Strategy

IN APRIL 2019 the Americans thought they were close to ending their trade war with China. They had a draft agreement that would oblige China to strengthen its intellectual property rights and buy more American crops, among other things. And they had confidence in their negotiating partner, Liu He, China’s “special envoy” (pictured). Fluent in English, educated at Harvard and committed to reform, he was “frankly, one of the most respected men anywhere in the world”, according to Donald Trump, then America’s president. Listen to this story.Enjoy more audio and…

China’s ‘Absurd’ Covid Propaganda Stirs Rebellion

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“We have won the great battle against Covid!” “History will remember those who contributed!” “Extinguish every outbreak!” These are among the many battle-style slogans that Beijing has unleashed to rally support around its top-down, zero-tolerance coronavirus policies. China is now one of the last places on earth trying to eliminate Covid-19, and the Communist Party has relied heavily on propaganda to justify increasingly long lockdowns and burdensome testing requirements that can sometimes lead to three tests a week. The barrage of messages — online and on television, loudspeakers and social…

Lady of the Gobi: trucking coal across the desert to China

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On Mongolia’s coal highway to the Chinese border, truck driver Maikhuu dreams of a better life and financial security for her three children. However, the road from the mines to China is riddled with accidents, toxic pollution, poor hygiene and now,  amid the Covid crisis, drivers face days of quarantine on the border. Trapped in a hazardous industry, Maikhuu’s journey reflects the human and environmental costs of Mongolia’s mining boom The Guardian

How China’s covid policy is like Prohibition in America

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As China enters its 33rd month of draconian pandemic controls, a growing number of citizens are discovering what life is like outside the law. Some of these lessons are grim. Local police departments and officials have responded to public weariness with “zero-covid” policies by emphasising the punishments that await rule-breakers. Almost every day a propaganda notice goes viral, for instance announcing someone’s detention for selling fake test certificates to long-distance lorry drivers, or for bypassing a checkpoint to go to work. A man from Shandong province is in custody after…

Paraguay asks Taiwan to invest $1bn to remain allies

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Paraguay, one of Taiwan’s few remaining formal allies, has asked the island’s government for $1bn (£930m) in investment to ensure it can resist pressure to switch its diplomatic ties to China. In an interview with the Financial Times, Paraguay’s president, Mario Abdo Benítez, said his government was working with Taiwan’s to ensure Paraguayans felt “the real benefits of the strategic alliance”. “There is Taiwanese investment of more than $6bn in countries which don’t have diplomatic relations with Taiwan, we want from that $1bn to be put in Paraguay,” he said.…

Hong Kong pro-democracy figure Ted Hui sentenced to jail over 2019 protests

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A Hong Kong court has sentenced pro-democracy figure in exile Ted Hui to three-and-a-half years in jail over charges related to the 2019 protest movement. The ruling in Hong Kong’s high court on Thursday, reported by local media, is the first time someone has been sentenced in absentia over the protests. Hui, a former legislator who fled to Australia via Europe in early 2021, was sentenced for contempt of court in cases related to his involvement in the protests, and alleged misconduct in the chamber of the legislature. In June…

Resentment Is Rising Against China’s ‘Zero-COVID’ Policies

Chin@Strategy

Advertisement On September 7, three days before the national Mid-Autumn holiday weekend, my husband and I received separate phone calls from the pandemic prevention office in the Shanghai district where we live. We were informed that we had become sub-contacts to a recently confirmed COVID-19 case and were required to be taken to a centralized quarantine facility. Having lived through the excruciating two-month lockdown of the city, we have adapted to the new post-lockdown reality: lining up for PCR tests every two or three days, scanning venue codes posted outside…

Fossilized Fish Reveal Earliest Known Prequel of ‘Jaws’

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Mention the ocean, and it’s hard not to think of jaws. The deep waters contain many tooth-lined mouths: the bear-trap maws of sharks and dolphins, the slack lips of shoaling and reef fish, the baleen-filter gape of enormous whales. Jawed fish eventually crawled out of the seas millions of years ago and gave rise to the jawboning vertebrates we are today. But when did such an evolutionary innovation arise? A pair of fossil beds discovered in Southern China suggest that the answer may lie tens of millions of years deeper…

Former Top Graft Buster at China’s Intelligence Ministry Indicted on Bribery Charges

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Advertisement A former top graft buster at China’s ministry for intelligence and counterintelligence has been indicted on bribery charges, just weeks before a major congress of the ruling Communist Party whose leader Xi Jinping has made fighting corruption a signature issue. Wednesday’s indictment of Liu Yanping, who headed the State Security Ministry’s branch of the party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, was a further reminder of Xi’s vow to attack corruption “amongst both the flies and tigers.” State media said Liu had accepted “huge” amounts of property from others in…