China has reportedly refused to reschedule a visit from the US secretary of state, as Antony Blinken kicked off a trip to Vietnam, a crucial South-east Asian trade partner that Washington is looking to bolster ties with as it works to balance Beijing’s growing assertiveness in the region and beyond. In his first visit to the country as the top US diplomat, Blinken will meet with top Vietnamese officials, including Vietnam’s general secretary, Nguyen Phu Trong, and formally break ground on Saturday on a new US embassy compound in Hanoi.…
Day: April 14, 2023
Brazil’s Lula Meets Xi in China as They Seek Path to Peace in Ukraine
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil met in Beijing on Friday with China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, and the two leaders declared in a joint statement that negotiation was “the only viable way out of the crisis in Ukraine.” In the statement, they avoided the words “invasion” or “war” and offered few specifics about how to bring Russia or Ukraine to the table after more than a year of war. At the same time, Mr. Lula called on Friday for China’s territorial integrity to be respected with regards…
In China, Lula Seeks Help Building Back Brazilian Industry
beijing — The trip by Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to Beijing has made clear he is counting on China to help reinvigorate the South American nation’s ailing industrial sector — particularly by picking up the slack of exiting U.S. companies. After Lula met Friday with China’s President Xi Jinping, Brazilian finance minister Fernando Haddad told reporters the nations are planning a “leap forward” in their relationship. “President Lula wants a policy of reindustrialization. This visit starts a new challenge for Brazil: bringing direct investments from China,” Haddad…
How a totem pole gifted as a symbol of unity came to represent crumbling Chinese-Canadian relations
The totem pole was carved by Reg Davidson, a Canadian artist and a member of the Haida people, a First Nations group hailing from the archipelago of Haida Gwaii, off the coast of northern British Columbia near the Alaska Panhandle. It arrived in China as a gift from the Vancouver Port Corporation to the Guangzhou Port Group on April 11, 1996, to mark the signing of a sister port agreement. In the olden days, there used to be totem poles at every house, and you knew which clan was living…
Montana Legislature Approves Outright Ban of TikTok
The Montana House of Representatives on Friday approved a total ban on TikTok inside the state, setting up the state’s Republican governor to sign the first-of-its-kind prohibition into law. The legislation, which would also bar app stores from carrying TikTok, the wildly popular viral video app, was approved 54 to 43 in the last of two votes in the State House. The State Senate passed it in March. Gov. Greg Gianforte must decide whether to sign the bill into law, veto it or do nothing for 10 days after receiving…
China’s Repression of Uyghurs Extends Beyond Borders, Report Says
washington — Najmudin Ablet, a Uyghur man from Xinjiang in northwest China, traveled to Turkey in 2016 with a Chinese-issued passport. But since 2017 he has been unable to reach his family still living in Xinjiang, including his wife, two sons and three brothers. All of them were detained and subsequently sentenced for various alleged offenses. One brother died in prison, and another died two months after leaving an internment camp, according to a recent report published by the University of Sheffield in England. Many Uyghurs have similar stories of…
TikTok ban: Montana set to become first US state to completely prohibit China-owned app
In a statement issued soon after the Montana vote, a TikTok spokeswoman in the US called the move an act of censorship. “The bill’s champions have admitted that they have no feasible plan for operationalising this attempt to censor American voices and that the bill’s constitutionality will be decided by the courts,” said TikTok’s Brooke Oberwetter. Advertisement “We will continue to fight for TikTok users and creators in Montana whose livelihoods and First Amendment rights are threatened by this egregious government overreach.” While Republicans have made banning TikTok a priority,…
China EV war: how BYD grew from Elon Musk’s ridicule to Berkshire Hathaway’s ‘ridiculous’ US$98 billion success in 12 years
Tesla would launch its upmarket, high-performance Model S electric car the next year, an event that would add glamour, tech-savviness and bragging rights to owning battery-powered vehicles, ushering in the demise of the internal combustion engine. Fast forward a dozen years, BYD is now having the last laugh in Shenzhen, where a battery-powered monorail carries staff and visitors throughout its sprawling campus. Advertisement The carmaker, which exhorts customers to “Build Your Dreams” with the words emblazoned across the rears of its top models, delivered 1.86 million fully electric and plug-in…
Blinken’s trip to Vietnam may result in possible upgrade for US-Vietnam ties
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is hoping to upgrade relations with Vietnam to a strategic partnership from the current comprehensive one during meetings with officials in Hanoi on Friday and Saturday, amid China’s rising regional power and aggression in the South China Sea. Blinken is scheduled to meet with senior Vietnamese officials to discuss “our shared vision of a connected, prosperous, peaceful, and resilient Indo-Pacific region,” the State Department said in an April 10 statement. Blinken also will break ground on a new U.S. embassy compound in Hanoi. Blinken’s…
An Uptown Cat Became a Chinese Artist. Then He Returned Home.
People weren’t quite sure what to make of Miguel Ángel Payano Jr. when, like some kind of prodigal son, he came back to New York in 2016, after making a life in Beijing. His family had long known he was a wanderer, ever since he went to boarding school at his own insistence at age 11. But in the graduate art program at Hunter College, where Payano showed up on his return from China — older than most classmates, with a prior M.F.A., exhibition history and collectors — he stood…