China is slamming a decision by the Biden administration to approve a $619 million potential arms sale to Taiwan that includes hundreds of missiles for F-16 fighter jets. Tensions are high between Washington and Beijing, amid Western fears that Beijing may supply weapons to help Russia win its war in Ukraine. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report. VOA
Another example is the 27km (16-mile) Nairobi Expressway built and financed by the state-owned China Road and Bridge Corporation for US$668 million. The firm will recoup its investment by charging toll fees for three decades before transferring ownership to the Kenyan government. Last month, at the inauguration of the US$1.5 billion Lekki port, Chinese ambassador to Nigeria Cui Jianchun praised the financing model used to build the country’s largest deep seaport. Referring to the port, the ambassador said it was a valuable practice for Chinese companies to move from engineering,…
Cambodian opposition leader Kem Sokha has been found guilty of treason five years after his arrest in Phnom Penh. A judge at Phnom Penh Municipal Court sentenced him to 27 years imprisonment on charges that carried a maximum 30-year term according to Am Sam Ath of the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (Licadho) who monitored the verdict. Kem Sokha was arrested and placed under house arrest after the announcement. The court also stripped him of the right to vote or run as a candidate for…
taipei, taiwan — U.S. companies no longer regard China as the primary investment destination it once was, according to an annual survey of American businesspeople operating there who, for the first time in 25 years, no longer see China as a top-three market. Most of those surveyed by the American Chamber of Commerce in China (AmCham China) say they are pessimistic, given 2022 revenue and profits, China’s economy, the overall outlook for investment and business environment, and the future of U.S.-China relations. According to the 2023 China Business Climate Survey,…
Xi Jinping is preparing a profound overhaul of China’s government and party institutions at this year’s National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s rubber-stamp parliament, which begins its annual session on Sunday. On Tuesday, the Chinese Communist party (CCP) trailed changes of “far-reaching significance” that are expected to include a reorganisation of the bodies tasked with managing the financial and technology sectors, as well as state security. The changes will all have one goal in mind: to strengthen the party’s control. Xi is China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong. At the…
China has accused the US of exaggerating national security fears about TikTok to suppress the Chinese company. US government agencies have been ordered to wipe the Chinese app from all staff devices within 30 days. There have also been similar steps taken in Canada and the EU. Ros Atkins looks at how we got here. BBC
Hong Kong will also see its top leadership in both bodies changed this year after an earlier reshuffle. Apart from Tam’s departure, the city’s first post-handover leader, Tung Chee-hwa, 85, also stepped down as a vice-chairman of the CPPCC, the country’s top political advisory body. The meetings would be the first after Beijing imposed electoral changes and the national security law on Hong Kong. Advertisement Sources told the Post earlier that the ministerial-level Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO) would be elevated to a unit answering to the leadership…
More than 100 people, including teams from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, participated in the first-ever ice wall climbing competition in northern India, to demonstrate athletic skills in brutal climatic conditions in the Himalayan Mountain region and to boost high-altitude sports and tourism in the area. The three-day event, organized by the North West Frontier Indo-Tibetan Border Police, or ITBP, in collaboration with the Ladakh Mountain Guide Association, began on Feb. 27 in Gangles in the Union Territory of Ladakh. It honors Norbu Wangdu, a high-ranking member of the border police who…
Two years after national security police rounded up dozens of former opposition lawmakers and democracy activists in mass arrests for “subversion,” politicians are calling on the British government for the immediate release of one of the arrestees on humanitarian grounds, amid reports that her husband is critically ill. The cross-party group of 54 U.K. parliamentarians and public figures called on Foreign Secretary James Cleverly to ask the Hong Kong government for the immediate release of former pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo, on compassionate grounds. The letter notes reports that Claudia Mo’s…
WASHINGTON — Burmese ethnic groups in the United States urged the Biden government to establish a no-fly zone over Myanmar and to impose jet fuel sanctions on the country’s military junta. A group consisting of several different ethnic groups, Buddhist monks, and young activists from different states across the U.S. came to Washington recently to participate in a march on the White House. Activists demanded an end to the Myanmar junta’s airstrikes on its own citizens. “We’re saying to the American people, and particularly to President [Joe] Biden, that the…