Day: June 30, 2023

Will China’s experiment to promote low-carbon living to its 1.4 billion people work?

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As China goes all out to deliver on its pledge to peak greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and reach net-zero emissions by 2060, from increasing renewable energy use to setting up the world’s largest carbon trading market, local governments and companies are trying to cut emissions at the individual level. The per capita annual lifestyle carbon emissions of a Chinese citizen was 5 tonnes in 2019, just over a third of the average Canadian’s, according to a report by Berlin-based think tank Hot or Cool Institute in 2021, which studied…

Citizens’ Radio Closes Because of Hong Kong’s National Security Law 

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BANGKOK – A Hong Kong radio station shut down Friday, citing the city’s “dangerous” political situation. Citizens’ Radio, a Cantonese-language station, said it was forced to close after officials blocked it from accessing funds via crowdsourcing and donations. The closure came on the third anniversary of Hong Kong’s enactment of its national security law, which roughly a dozen other media outlets have cited for their decisions to close since 2020. Separately, Hong Kong officials denied entry to a freelance journalist from Japan. The journalist, Yoshiaki Ogawa, was cited in media…

Chinese Army Invasion of Taiwan Not a Given, US General Says

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WASHINGTON – There is still time to dissuade Beijing not to use force to reunify Taiwan with mainland China, according to America’s most senior military official. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, said Friday that despite well-publicized plans calling for the Chinese military to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027, there is no indication Chinese President Xi Jinping has made a decision one way or the other. Speaking to an audience at the National Press Club in Washington, Milley said that gives the U.S.…

US state department faults Biden and Trump for chaotic Afghan pullout

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Receive free US foreign policy updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest US foreign policy news every morning. A report by the US state department on Friday criticised the Biden administration’s handling of the military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, saying it had failed to prepare for “worst-case” scenarios and made critical mistakes during the evacuation from the country. The report — some of the findings of which remain classified — represents the clearest admission of fault from Washington about its execution of the…

US state department faults both Biden and Trump for chaotic Afghan pullout

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Receive free US foreign policy updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest US foreign policy news every morning. A report by the US state department on Friday criticised the Biden administration’s handling of the military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, saying it had failed to prepare for “worst-case” scenarios and made critical mistakes during the evacuation from the country. The report — some of the findings of which remain classified — represents the clearest admission of fault from Washington about its execution of the…

China’s state financial sector braces for ‘one of the toughest years’

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They described the uncertainty brought by the “relentless” ideological and anti-corruption drives, and sharp pay cuts in the range of 15 to 20 per cent of their basic salaries, with annual bonuses set to be slashed by at least 30 per cent this year. A manager at a state-owned securities firm in Shanghai said a recent ideological study session at the company was on the Red Army’s Long March. Advertisement “Probably our party secretary wants us to be mentally prepared for tougher times ahead,” he said. “State-owned financial companies aren’t…

Fears for people and firms as China’s new anti-espionage law comes into effect

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A revised law dramatically expanding China’s definition of espionage has come into force, giving Beijing even more power to punish what it deems threats to national security. The US government, analysts and lawyers say that the revisions to Beijing’s anti-espionage law are vague and will give authorities more leeway in implementing already opaque national security legislation. The US National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) said the law, which came into effect on Saturday, gives Beijing “expanded legal grounds for accessing and controlling data held by US firms in China”. The…

Chinese authorities monitor Tibetans to prevent communication with outside world

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Chinese authorities in Tibet have intensified monitoring of Tibetans, and continue to interrogate them in the regional capital Lhasa to prevent communication with people outside of Tibet, RFA has learned. The Chinese government has been intensifying its monitoring of Tibetans and maintained their interrogations of Tibetans living in Lhasa to determine if they have contacted people outside Tibet and stepped up surveillance measures to prevent such communication. Now the Chinese authorities are interrogating Tibetans in Lhasa specifically targeting and warning them to stop communication.  In March, two major anniversaries prompted…

Have you heard the one about stand-up in China?

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In 2018, Le Le Farley took his first steps to a stand-up career with two nervous, and he says, poorly received, performances in China. Back then, Farley was among a vanguard of young entertainers experimenting with what was a relatively new form of comedy in the country. Much has changed in the five years since. Farley, an American who spent most of his 20s in China, is back in the States, where his comedy routines have grown more sure-footed. His YouTube videos, which often feature Chinese-related content, are viewed by…

Xi Jinping has yet to decide whether to order Taiwan unification by 2027: top US military adviser

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“You want to make sure that every single day President Xi wakes up and says today’s not that day, and that decision never comes,” Milley said. “The faster we move [on military modernisation], the faster we can retain military superiority, then I believe … we are more likely than not to deter war … and if war does happen, we will prevail.” Advertisement US military and government officials have recently offered different time-frame assessments for Beijing’s Taiwan reunification plans, predictions that include military capability and actual attack intentions. Admiral Michael…