Joe Biden has signed into law a bill that requires TikTok’s Chinese owner to sell the social media app’s US operations or face a ban, after the Senate passed the legislation. The law, part of a foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, sets the clock ticking on a potential ban for a platform that is hugely popular in the US. Here is a guide to the TikTok legislation and what may happen next. How does the legislation pave the way for a sale or ban? The bill gives…
Tag: Media
US-funded Radio Free Asia shuts down in Hong Kong over safety concerns
US-funded Radio Free Asia (RFA) has closed its Hong Kong bureau over safety concerns for its staff in the wake of a new national security law known as Article 23. “Actions by Hong Kong authorities, including referring to RFA as a ‘foreign force’, raise serious questions about our ability to operate in safety with the enactment of Article 23,” its president, Bay Fang, said in a statement on Friday. The new law comes with stiffer punishments from several years up to life in jail for crimes including treason, sedition, state…
‘Flat and shallow’: Netflix’s 3 Body Problem divides viewers in China
Netflix’s big-budget adaptation of Three-Body Problem, a series of novels by the Chinese author Liu Cixin, has divided opinion on Chinese social media. The eight-episode series, 3 Body Problem, was released in full on Netflix on Thursday. It is based on the first book in Liu’s trilogy, an ambitious sci-fi series spanning civilisation from the 1960s to the end of humanity. The TV series was co-created for Netflix by the Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss, and the True Blood writer Alexander Woo, working with the director…
Paul Keating says The Australian should be ‘contemptuously ignored’ ahead of Wang Yi meeting
Paul Keating has declared that The Australian newspaper should be “contemptuously ignored” as the former Labor prime minister hit back at criticism of his plans to meet with China’s visiting foreign minister. Keating, an outspoken opponent of the Australian government’s plans to acquire nuclear-powered submarines, also accused News Corp’s national broadsheet of being “trenchantly anti-Chinese”. Keating levelled the criticism one year after he accused rival papers the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age of “the most egregious and provocative news presentation” in five decades for their “red alert” series about…
Comments on Weibo giraffe post bemoan state of Chinese economy
A social media post about giraffe conservation has become the latest place for people in China who are unhappy about the economy to vent their frustration, as the Chinese government increasingly cracks down on negative commentary. On 2 February, the US embassy in China posted an update on its Weibo account about tracking giraffes in Namibia using GPS technology. As of Monday afternoon local time, the post had received approximately 166,000 comments, many of them about China’s economic pains. “Who can help me? I’ve been unemployed for a long time,”…
Jimmy Lai and the rule of law in Hong Kong | Letter
Your editorial (The Guardian view on Jimmy Lai: this sham trial is another bleak day for Hong Kong, 18 December) claims that the trial of Jimmy Lai’s case is a political one, suggesting that the British government should have acted earlier to urge China to release Jimmy Lai. It smears the National Security Law for Hong Kong, alleging that political interference has caused foreign companies to leave Hong Kong, and talks down the region’s development. These allegations misrepresent the facts and mislead the public. The Hong Kong special administrative region…
Jimmy Lai lawyers file UN appeal saying there is evidence witness was tortured
The international legal team for the imprisoned media mogul Jimmy Lai, who is on trial for national security offences in Hong Kong, has filed an urgent appeal with the United Nations special rapporteur on torture regarding one of the key prosecution witnesses in Lai’s trial. Lai’s lawyers say there is “credible evidence” that Andy Li, a 33-year-old former pro-democracy activist, was tortured while in prison in mainland China before he confessed to allegedly conspiring with Lai to collude with foreign forces. That is one of the two national security law…
Tencent and Netease Rally on Signs China May Ease Gaming Proposal
The stock prices of Chinese video game companies rebounded Wednesday after investors seized on signals that the government was having second thoughts about proposed regulations on gaming. Since the weekend, regulators have attempted to calm the market after shares of the two largest video game companies, Tencent and Netease, plunged on Friday. When trading resumed after the four-day holiday weekend in Hong Kong, Tencent rose about 4 percent and Netease jumped 12 percent, recovering some of their losses. The events of the past several days underline the push-and-pull forces in…
Chinese dancing frog goes viral doing the worm
An anthropomorphised frog has joined celebrity live-streamers and social media commentators among China’s ranks of influencers, as a trend that began with street sellers in Chinese cities takes on a new life online – and raised questions over who, if anyone, owns the intellectual property rights to a dancing amphibian. Alternatively known as a “frog seller” or “frog influencer”, the meme involves a person in a frog suit with a blue neckerchief selling frog-themed products such as balloons and toys. The magic ingredient for going viral on social media, though,…
World watches as landmark Jimmy Lai trial set to begin in Hong Kong
Hong Kong’s global reputation will be tested this week when the long-delayed trial of the pro-democracy activist and former media mogul Jimmy Lai gets under way. Lai, who turned 76 in jail this month, is charged with colluding with foreign forces under the national security law, as well as sedition. If convicted, which experts say is highly likely, the British national faces spending the rest of his life in prison. The trial starts on Monday, two weeks after another landmark hearing came to an end on 4 December. The Hong…