Page 15 - China

Chinese representative met with protests on official visit to Taiwan

A visit by a Chinese official at the invitation of the Taiwanese capital's newly elected China-friendly mayor has drawn protests on the self-ruled island. The head of Shanghai city's Taiwan Affairs Office, Li Xiaodong, arrived Saturday morning for a three-day visit that marks a rare point of contact between the sides. China deems Taiwan a part of its territory to be conquered by force if necessary and has been courting pro-Chinese media and politicians on the island to further its unification agenda. The vast majority of Taiwanese back the status quo of de-facto independence while still maintaining close economic and social ties with the mainland. Taiwan's democratic system allows broad leeway for local governments to act without central authority. Taipei recently elected Chiang Wan-an from the opposition Nationalist Party as mayor. Dozens of protesters gathered at Sunshan Airport in downtown Taipei, while representatives of pro-China minority parties shouted welcomes. Neither L

Russia, China and S Africa to begin naval drills off Indian Ocean coast

Russia, China and South Africa are set to begin naval drills off South Africa's Indian Ocean coast Friday in a demonstration of the three countries' close ties amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine and China's tense relationship with the West. The 10 days of exercises, named Mosi II, will coincide with the first anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. A Russian frigate, the Admiral Gorshkov, arrived in Cape Town earlier this week sporting the letters Z and V on its sides, letters that mark Russian weapons on the front lines in Ukraine and are used as a patriotic symbol in Russia. In protest, a small yacht flying Ukraine's flag sailed by the Russian frigate in Cape Town's harbor. South African protesters opposed to the exercises are expected to demonstrate at the Russian Consulate in Cape Town on Friday. The arrival of the Admiral Gorshkov has stirred considerable controversy because it is armed with the latest Zircon hypersonic missiles, a weapon that Russia says can ..

Man behind China's 'Dream Come True' boosted balloon programme

China has a long history of fostering civil-military partnerships to make technological advances

China eases overseas listing rules, paving way for IPO rebound

The CSRC reiterated that Chinese companies seeking to sell shares abroad would have to register with the regulator after a transition period

Taiwan reports Chinese weather balloon found in northern city of Taiyuan

Taiwan's Defence Ministry says a Chinese weather balloon landed on one of its outlying islands, amid U.S. accusations that such craft have been dispatched worldwide to spy on Washington and its allies. The ministry's statement on Thursday said the balloon carried equipment registered to a state-owned electronics company in the northern city of Taiyuan. The islet where it was found, Tungyin, is part of the Matsu island ground lying just off the coast of China's Fujian province. Taiwan maintained control of the islands after the sides split in 1949 amid civil war and they are considered a first line of defense should China make good on its threats to bring Taiwan under its control by force if necessary. Calls and messages sent to the company identified in the report, Taiyuan Wireless (Radio) First Factory Ltd., went unanswered. Information on the equipment was written in the simplified Chinese characters used on the mainland rather than the traditional on Taiwan, the ministry ...

China's Covid Zero policy broke the system that keeps its factories running

The slow return of migrant workers shows how China's economic outlook remains uncertain, despite Beijing's desire to put the chaos of Covid Zero behind it

China sanctions Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Technologies for Taiwan sales

Washington contended that the balloon was spying and shot it down, while China claims it was a civilian airship collecting weather data that went off course

China says 200 million citizens treated, pandemic 'decisively' beaten

hina says more than 200 million of its citizens have been diagnosed and treated for COVID-19 since it lifted strict containment measures beginning in November. With 800,000 of the most critically ill patients having recovered, China has decisively beaten the pandemic, according to notes from a meeting of the ruling Communist Party's all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee presided over by President and party leader Xi Jinping. China enforced some of the world's most draconian lockdowns, quarantines and travel restrictions and still faces questions about the origins of the virus that was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019. Heavy-handed enforcement prompted rare anti-government protests and took a heavy toll on the world's second-largest economy. The official Xinhua News Agency quoted Xi as saying that policies to control the outbreak had been entirely correct. The abrupt lifting in November and December of the zero COVID" policy that had sought to ...

China lifts suspension from 99 Indian seafood processing, exporting units

China has lifted the suspension of shipments from 99 Indian seafood processing and exporting units following India's assurances over source control, a move which would boost marine products exports to the neighbouring country, an MPEDA official said on Thursday. China had suspended a total of 110 units since December 2020 over Covid concerns, but the sustained efforts by the seafood export development body -- Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA), were crucial to India's eventual success in getting lifted China's suspension order, according to top officials. Centre had projected to nearly double the seafood exports to USD 14 billion by 2025. "The lift on the suspension of the 99 seafood processing units was done on February 14 and is expected to raise India's export of marine products by 5 per cent to 10 per cent in the next financial year. The suspension of 11 units was revoked earlier, MPEDA chairman D V Swamy said. Non-conformity with the trade norm requirements o

China, Iran urge Afghanistan to end work related restrictions on women

China and Iran have urged mutual neighbour Afghanistan to end restrictions on women's work and education. The call came in a joint statement Thursday issued at the close of a visit to Beijing by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during which the two sides affirmed close economic and political ties and their rejection of Western standards of human rights and democracy. Since taking over Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban has banned women and girls from universities and schools after the sixth grade and forced out those in elected offices and other prominent positions. The two sides ... called on the Afghan rulers to form an inclusive government in which all ethnic groups and political groups actually participate, and cancel all discriminatory measures against women, ethnic minorities and other religions," the statement said, adding that the US and its NATO allies should be responsible for the current situation in Afghanistan." The US had backed Afghanistan's elected government ..

Goldman growth fund increases bets on India as China interest cools

The New York-based bank is targeting to invest a quarter of its newly-raised $5.2 billion growth fund in the region, people familiar with the matter said

Three mystery objects shot down have no China link: Biden administration

Those fears were stoked by the series of shootdowns over Alaska, Canada and Michigan starting Friday and raised pressure on the Biden administration to explain the nature of the high-altitude craft

China's world-beating drop in Covid-19 deaths revives data concerns

After meticulously tracking cases for most of the pandemic, China abruptly abandoned its signature zero-tolerance policy at the end of 2022, halting mass testing, quarantines and lockdowns

Supply chains back to pre-Covid levels for consumer durable firms

Constraints still easing for auto firms; companies wary of commodity prices as Chinese demand may push them up

India calls on China to take losses on loans in poor-nation debt rework

China needs to come out openly and say what their debt is and how to settle it," said Amitabh Kant, the sherpa for India during its presidency of the Group of 20 forum of the world's biggest economies

Rumors swirl about balloons, UFOs as American officials stay quite

Maybe they came from China. Maybe from somewhere farther away. A lot farther away. The downing of four aerial devices by US warplanes has touched off rampant misinformation about the objects, their origin and their purpose, showing how complicated world events and a lack of information can quickly create the perfect conditions for unchecked conjecture and misinformation. The presence of mysterious objects high in the sky doesn't help. There will be an investigation and we will learn more, but until then this story has created a playground for people interested in speculating or stirring the pot for their own reasons," said Jim Ludes, a former national defence analyst who now leads the Pell Center for International Relations at Salve Regina University. In part," Ludes added, "because it feeds into so many narratives about government secrecy. President Joe Biden and other top Washington officials have said little about the repeated shootdowns, which began with a suspected Chinese sp

Joe Biden seeks broad assessment of China's intelligence capabilities: WH

President Joe Biden has directed the US Intelligence community to do a "broad assessment" of China's intelligence capabilities after assuming office, the White House said following the detection of a spy balloon and high-altitude flying objects over American airspace. In recent days, there have been three incidences of balloon sightings in the US. A US F-22 fighter jet on Saturday shot down an unidentified cylindrical object over Canada, a day after another similar object was downed near Alaskan waters, and a week after the American military brought down a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon off the South Carolina coast. When President Biden came into office (in 2021), he directed the US Intelligence community to do a broad assessment of Chinese intelligence capabilities and assure -- and to ensure that we were working to detect and to protect against them, John Kirby, Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council in the White House, told reporters on .

China, US to participate in first meeting of new debt roundtable on Feb 17

The meeting will be co-chaired by the IMF, the World Bank and India, the current leader of the Group of 20, and comes a week before G20 finance officials are due to gather in Bengaluru

Aliens? Not ruling out, says US General as 4th UFO shot down

China spots UFO, says will take it down. Also, it says US balloons have flown illegally over its territory more than 10 times since 2022

India introduces new Covid-19 rules for travellers from six countries

However, random testing of 2 per cent of all travellers landing in India will continue, the health ministry has said