Emanuele Scimia

For the first time since its inception in 1950, the event will not take place. Each year it attracted more than two million people from Japan and abroad, generating US$ 625 million, featuring snow statues up to 15 metres high. Pictures from past editions will be posted online. The number of coronavirus cases is rising.

117 out of 387 worldwide according to Reporters Without Borders. Top five positions occupied by Asian countries and the Middle East. Rise in arrests after the outbreak of the pandemic. Most of the imprisoned Chinese reporters are of Uyghur origin. Independent Chinese and foreign reporters and those active in Hong Kong are targeted.

For Ji Seong-ho, who was elected to South Korea’s parliament, doing the opposite means building a "sand castle". He has confidence in Joe Biden's new US administration. With the northern economy in dire straits, the time is right to press Pyongyang.

She is accused of threatening national security. The EU calls for the release of all reporters imprisoned in China. Chinese authorities: it is a domestic matter. Press targeted by Chinese and Hong Kong authorities.

Her lawyer made the allegation, demanding her immediate release. After she went on a hunger strike to protest her incarceration, she was force-fed through a tube. She refuses to break her fast and finds comfort in prayer. She ended up in the crosshairs of the authorities after writing about the outbreak in Wuhan, the pandemic’s ground zero.

Reinhard Bütikofer wants Chen Quanguo, architect of the internment camps for Uyghurs, punished under the new EU mechanism for the protection of human rights. Discussions will start shortly on a list of offenders. For several observers, the European bloc must move from words to deeds.

It is one of the crimes under the national security law wanted by Beijing. Accused of giving interviews to foreign newspapers and calling for sanctions against city authorities. The democracy supporter and tycoon is already in jail on a fraud charge.

A group of Protestant Christians assists "heroic mothers" who bring their children into the world while under pressure to have an abortion. With help, more than 83% of women who aborted in China would have brought tehir children to term. 12 lessons to form "supporters" for human life.

This is the first time that a Chinese metropolis is among the top 10 in the Global Power City Index. Shanghai has benefitted from new ways of working during the pandemic. The Chinese capital is the most competitive metropolis thanks to online academic exchanges; based on pre-COVID measurement, it would be only 21st.

The Democracy activist was sentenced to 10 months in prison for her role in last year's anti-government demonstrations. Eight Democrats were arrested yesterday for participating in a march on July 1st. They are added to the eight arrested for protests at the Chinese university.

Military sales reached US$ 361 billion in 2019. Four Chinese companies are in the top 25, three in the top 10. The US accounts for 61 per cent of the market; China for 16 per cent. The modernisation of the People’s Liberation Army is driving China’s military industry. Russian production is decreasing whilst those from the Middle East is increasing.

Those arrested, including two district councillors, shouted slogans and displayed independence banners. Acts in support of secession are punished by Beijing's security law. The bank accounts of Ted Hui, a former Democrat MP who is seeking refuge in Great Britain, are frozen.