Page 43 - China

S Korea scrambles jets after China, Russia planes enter air defence zone

Wagner Group may get terror tag

Zetwerk set for over $1-billion revenue in FY23 on China Plus One

Zetwerk's acquisition of Unimacts will provide the company with immediate access to marquee solar and wind-power customers

Chinese vaccine plans spark hope for end of 'zero Covid' amid protests

A campaign to vaccinate the elderly has sparked hopes China might roll back severe anti-virus controls that prompted protesters to demand President Xi Jinping resign, but the country faces daunting hurdles and up to a year of hard work before zero COVID can end. Stock markets rose after the National Health Commission on Monday announced the long-awaited campaign. A low vaccination rate is one of the biggest obstacles to ending curbs that have confined millions of people to their homes, depressed the economy and kept most visitors out of China. Health officials did not say how long it might take. A vaccination campaign will require months and China also needs to build up its hospitals and work out a long-term virus strategy, health experts and economists warn. They say zero COVID is likely to stay in place until mid-2023 and possibly as late as 2024. China is in no place right now to move away from its zero-COVID' policy toward a living with COVID' policy, said Mark Williams, chief .

Russian, Chinese bombers fly joint patrols over Pacific to show close ties

Russian and Chinese strategic bombers on Wednesday flew a joint patrol over the western Pacific in a show of increasingly close defense ties between the two countries. The Russian Defence Ministry said that the Tu-95 bombers of the Russian air force and the Chinese H-6K bombers flew over the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea during an eight-hour mission. As part of the drills, the Russian bombers for the first time landed in China and the Chinese bombers flew to an air base in Russia, the ministry said in a statement. It noted that the joint patrols weren't directed against any other country. The exercise follows a series of joint drills intended to showcase a growing military cooperation between Moscow and Beijing as they both face tensions with the United States. In September, Beijing sent more than 2,000 troops along with more than 300 military vehicles, 21 combat aircraft and three warships to take part in a sweeping joint exercise with Russia. The maneuvers marked the firs

Former President Jiang Zemin, who guided China's rise, dies at 96

Former Chinese President Jiang Zemin, who led his country out of isolation after the crushing of pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square and supported economic reforms that led to a decade of explosive growth, has died, state TV said. He was 96. A surprise choice to lead a divided Communist Party after the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, Jiang saw China through history-making changes including a revival of market-oriented reforms, the return of Hong Kong from British rule in 1997 and Beijing's entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001. Even as China opened to the outside, Jiang's government stamped out dissent at home. It jailed human rights, labour and pro-democracy activists and banned the Falun Gong spiritual movement, which it viewed as a threat to the Communist Party's monopoly on power.

China vows crackdown on ''hostile forces'' as public tests President Xi

China's ruling Communist Party has vowed to resolutely crack down on infiltration and sabotage activities by hostile forces, following the largest street demonstrations in decades staged by citizens fed up with strict anti-virus restrictions. The statement from the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission released late on Tuesday comes amid a massive show of force by security services to deter a recurrence of the protests that broke out over the weekend in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and several other cities. While it did not directly address the protests, the statement serves as a reminder of the party's determination to enforce its rule. Hundreds of SUVs, vans and armoured vehicles with flashing lights were parked along city streets Wednesday while police and paramilitary forces conducted random ID checks and searched people's mobile phones for photos, banned apps or other potential evidence that they had taken part in the demonstrations. The number of people who have been

Chinese protests not just about politics and freedom; also about Covid

'Xi is actually more worried that a relaxed policy will lead to more deaths among the elderly'

Asia stocks choppy as investors cautious after disappointing China data

China's factory activity deepened this month, an official survey showed on Wednesday, weighed down by softening global demand and COVID-19 restrictions

Chinese astronauts meet colleagues in space; makes country's first

Three Chinese astronauts aboard a spacecraft that docked with China's under-construction space station met with their colleagues on Wednesday, making it the country's first gathering of six astronauts in space. China on Tuesday successfully launched the spacecraft carrying three astronauts, Fei Junlong, Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu, to its space station. The Shenzhou-15 spaceship, atop the Long March-2F Y15 carrier rocket, blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Tuesday night, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA). The three space station occupants greeted the new three-member crew with warm hugs and then they took a group picture after the successful docking, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported. The space reunion kicked off the first in-orbit crew rotation in China's space station, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA). The six astronauts are scheduled to live and work together for about five days to complete planned

Chinese billionaire Jack Ma living in Tokyo after China's crackdown: Report

Chinese billionaire and e-commerce giant Alibaba founder Jack Ma who ran into trouble with the Chinese government over violating anti-monopoly regulations and kept a low profile since 2020 is now living in Tokyo for about six months, according to a media report on Tuesday. Ma's months-long stay in Japan with his family has included stints in hot springs and ski resorts in the countryside outside Tokyo and regular trips to the US and Israel, the Financial Times reported, quoting people with direct knowledge of his whereabouts. Ma, 58, has largely disappeared from public view since he criticised the Chinese regulators in 2020, accusing the state-run banks of having a pawnshop mentality and calling for bold new players that can extend credit to the collateral poor. Since then, both the companies he founded -- Ant and e-commerce group Alibaba -- have faced a series of regulatory obstacles. Chinese regulators called off Ant's blockbuster USD 37 billion initial public offering and fined

China to have 1,500 nuclear warheads by 2035, up from current 400: Pentagon

China is likely to have a stockpile of about 1,500 warheads by 2035, up from the current estimated number of 400, the Pentagon has said. In its annual report to the Congress on China's ambitious military build-up, the Pentagon said Tuesday that over the next decade, Beijing aims to modernise, diversify, and expand its nuclear forces. China's current nuclear modernisation exercise has exceed the previous modernization attempts in both scale and complexity, it said. China is investing in and expanding the number of its land-, sea-, and air-based nuclear delivery platforms and constructing the infrastructure necessary to support this major expansion of its nuclear forces, it said. China, it said, is also supporting this expansion by increasing its capacity to produce and separate plutonium by constructing fast breeder reactors and reprocessing facilities. In 2021, Beijing probably accelerated its nuclear expansion, it said. The Pentagon said it estimates that China's operational nucl

Covid protests escalate in Guangzhou as China lockdown anger boils

China's foreign ministry has said rights and freedoms must be exercised within the framework of the law

Apple supply chain data shows receding exposure to China as risks mount

A Reuters analysis of Apple's supply chain data shows China's prominence in the company's global manufacturing is declining

China adjusts Covid-19 restrictions in city with key Apple iPhone plant

As of Nov 30, Zhengzhou will remove so-called mobility controls -- a euphemism for lockdown -- and replace them with "normal Covid-combating measures

China hints at relaxing zero-Covid norm; IMF chief urges targeted policy

Police leveraging powers of the country's surveillance apparatus against protesters

Need separate ministry for pharma to counter Chinese imports: Industry CEOs

The government needs to set up a separate ministry for the pharma sector to encourage domestic producers and decrease Chinese imports, opined CEOs while participating in a discussion on the challenges being faced by the sector. In a CEO Roundtable at the 15th edition of CPHI & PMEC India held on Tuesday, the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of companies, including those from RPG Life Science and Fermenta Biotech, also discussed ways to shift the focus of the domestic industry from volume to value. The leaders also pointed out the need to reduce dependency on China by using technology. Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI) Director General Vivek Sehgal said that the industry needs to collaborate and co-work and unite for collective voice on IPR related issues. The leaders also discussed having a single industry organisation to put across the grievances of the pharma industry before the government. Speaking at the inaugural session of the 15th edition of CPHI &

Battlegrounds in the global AI war

A revolution is underway in several aspects of our life. "When AI Rules the World" details these groundbreaking changes

Caveat emptor

Investors need to be cautious and look beyond market highs

Jack Ma enjoys hot spring, ski resort in Japan as protests erupt in China

As China faces violent protests over its harsh zero-Covid policy, Alibaba founder Jack Ma has been spotted in Tokyo, living a quiet and peaceful life amid tech crackdown in his home country

China launches 3 astronauts to its under-construction space station

China on Tuesday launched a spacecraft with a three-person crew to its under-construction space station amid intensifying competition with the United States. The Shenzhou-15 spaceship carrying the aircraft was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China. It carried three astronauts -- Fei Junlong, Deng Qingming, and Zhang Lu. Fei will be the commander of the mission, Ji Qiming, assistant to the director of the CMSA, told the media. The launch was carried out with a Long March-2F carrier rocket. The crew will stay in orbit for about six months, a period in which the construction of the low-orbit space station is expected to be completed.