Day: November 26, 2022

China’s zero-Covid policy comes under fire, but experts don’t expect big changes any time soon

Chin@Strategy

Videos posted on social media platforms showed people marching in the streets, singing the national anthem, waving the national flag and shouting “lift the lockdown!” The city has been under lockdown for more than 100 days. Shanghai residents mourn the victims of a deadly fire in Urumqi city. Photo: AP In downtown Shanghai, mourning over the Urumqi deaths on Saturday night later turned into a protest against the strict Covid-19 controls, with demonstrators shouting slogans such as “no PCR tests, no health code”. Advertisement The social media article had earlier…

COVID Protests Hit Shanghai as Anger Spreads Across China

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SHANGHAI —  Protests simmered in Shanghai early Sunday, as residents in several Chinese cities, many of them angered by a deadly fire in the country’s far west, pushed back against heavy COVID-19 curbs nearly three years into the pandemic. A fire Thursday that killed 10 people in a high-rise building in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang region, has sparked widespread public anger as many internet users surmised that residents could not escape in time because the building was partially locked down, which city officials denied. In Shanghai, China’s most populous…

Anti-lockdown protests spread across China amid growing anger at zero-Covid strategy

Chin@Strategy

Demonstrations have broken out across Chinese cities and university campuses, triggered by widespread anger at stringent Covid restrictions imposed for almost three years and outrage over a deadly fire widely blamed on lockdowns. In an unusually bold act showing people’s desperation, a crowd in Shanghai called for the removal of the Communist party and Xi Jinping in a standoff with police on Saturday, according to videos circulated on Twitter. Chinese usually refrain from criticising the party and its leaders in public for fear of reprisals. “Communist party! Step down! Xi…

Kim Jong Un Says North Korea’s Goal is for World’s Strongest Nuclear Force

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SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA —  North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country’s ultimate goal is to possess the world’s most powerful nuclear force, as he promoted dozens of military officers involved in the recent launch of North Korea’s largest ballistic missile, state media reported Sunday. The announcement came after Kim inspected a test of the country’s new Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and pledged to counter U.S. nuclear threats with nuclear weapons on Nov. 18. Building the nuclear force is for reliably protecting the dignity and sovereignty of the…

China Willing to Work with North Korea for ‘World Peace,’ State Media Says

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SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA —  Chinese President Xi Jinping told North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that Beijing was willing to work with Pyongyang for world peace, North Korean state media said Saturday. The message from Xi came days after North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile in one of its most powerful tests yet, declaring it would meet perceived U.S. nuclear threats with nukes of its own. North Korea has conducted a record-breaking blitz of missile launches in recent weeks, and fears have grown that it is building up to…

US-led diversification push tests India’s potential as a China supply chain alternative

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Rudd’s words highlight a growing consensus among policymakers and analysts that India is emerging as an alternative production base to China. India is hoping to benefit economically from Western concerns about growing Chinese hegemony Sadanand Dhume “What we are seeing geopolitically is effectively a new cold war,” said Sadanand Dhume, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. “Against this backdrop, India is hoping to benefit economically from Western concerns about growing Chinese hegemony.” Advertisement While China’s growth outlook has been slashed to 4.4 per cent next year by the International…

Xinjiang Loosens Some Restrictions After Lockdown Protests

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taipei, taiwan —  Authorities in China’s western Xinjiang region opened up some neighborhoods in the capital of Urumqi on Saturday after residents held extraordinary late-night demonstrations against the city’s zero-COVID lockdown that had lasted more than three months. The displays of public defiance were fanned by anger over a fire in an apartment compound that killed 10 people, according to the official death toll, as emergency workers took three hours to extinguish the blaze — a delay many attributed to obstacles caused by anti-virus measures. The demonstrations, as well as…

Protests Erupt in Shanghai and Other Chinese Cities Over Covid Controls

Chin@Strategy

Protests spread to cities and campuses in China on Saturday night amid rising public anger at the country’s strict but faltering controls against the spread of Covid, with a crowd in Shanghai going so far as to call for the removal of the national leader, Xi Jinping. The demonstration occurred after an outpouring of anger online and after a street protest erupted on Friday in Urumqi, the regional capital of Xinjiang in western China, where at least 10 people died and nine others were injured a day earlier in an…

To North Korea, from China: put fresh focus on regional peace

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“Under the new situation, I am ready, together with you, to make a fresh and positive contribution to providing the peoples of the two countries with better well-being, promoting the development of the socialist cause in the two countries, and hastening the peace, stability, development and prosperity of the region and the rest of the world,” KCNA quoted Xi as saying. Chinese and North Korean leaders have a long tradition of regular exchanges of letters, especially on important events. Xi’s last letter to Kim was on October 16 before the…

Gordon Brown says China must pay into climate fund for poor countries

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China must pay into a new fund for poor countries stricken by climate-driven disaster on the basis of its high greenhouse gas emissions and large economy, the former UK prime minister Gordon Brown has said. “America and Europe will have to provide most, but China will have to contribute more too,” he told the Guardian. Last week, at the Cop27 UN climate summit, rich governments finally agreed to a fund for poor countries suffering the impact of extreme weather, known as “loss and damage”. But there is no agreement yet…