East Asia

The territory’s High Court convicted 45 activists for organising primary elections for the opposition in 2020. They include well-known people, like legal scholar Benny Tai and umbrella movement leader Joshua Wong. Many pleaded guilty to obtain a reduction in sentence, but none were sentenced to less than 4 years. Card Zen was in the courtroom for the verdict. Jimmy Lai’s trial resumes tomorrow.

Msgr Celso Ba Shwe - Bishop of Loikaw - took part in the celebration that every year on the third Sunday of November recalls the bond of solidarity between Japanese Catholics and the Church in former Burma, now wounded by war. Support for schools in the forest through the Seeds of Hope initiative. Archbishop Kikuchi: ‘Hope is born from the heart of those who walk together’.

Xi Jinping's announcement at the Lima summit. The Asia Pacific Economic Forum is one of the few international bodies where both Beijing and Taipei are present. Xi Jinping aims to establish himself as the pivot of Pacific trade against the threat of protectionism with Trump's return.

Yesterday Rome's Gregorian University hosted a conference on the great Jesuit missionary's legacy of ‘friendship, dialogue and peace’. Cardinal Parolin stressed the ‘continuity and specificity’ of the last three popes in the relationship between Beijing and Ricci. For Fr Lombardi, he embodied the model of inculturation. The mission is a grain sown in an endless field.

Local authorities alarmed by labour force shortages amid an aging population. This is the other side of the brutal repression against pro-democracy groups in 2019 that drove thousands of people out of the city.

Despite a proposal by legal experts, the Japanese government has ruled out setting up a commission to review capital punishment. The Cabinet Secretary cited public support for this penalty, but legal experts believe most Japanese are not adequately informed.

The 27 years the Spanish religious spent on the mission between Tokyo and Hiroshima were remembered during the closing ceremony of the diocesan phase of his beatification process. Head of the Society of Jesus from 1965 to 1983, he loved the Japanese people and culture and provided heroic service among the thousands of injured in the atomic bomb blast of 6 August 1945.

Xi’s tour of the region began yesterday. One stop included the virtual inauguration of Chancay Port, a key trade hub between China and the region. His aim is to boost cooperation and multilateralism. Donald Trump's return to the White House is a challenge for the future.

With the tycoon’s return, hundreds of thousands of Asians risk deportation from the United States, along with Latin Americans. The Philippine government is getting ready to assist 370,000 Philippine migrants. Indians are one of the largest groups of asylum seekers, along with the Chinese. Due to a legislative void, many South Koreans adopted as infants until the 1980s are at risk.

Yesterday, a 62-year-old man tried to kill himself after driving his car into a group of people who were exercising. Police report that a family-related issue trigger the incident. Party officials stress the need to help “people in hardship”. An airshow opened today in Zhuhai (Guangdong) and next month President Xi Jinping is expected to travel to Macau, near Zhuhai, for the installation of the new local government.

In his speech at Peking University and in his visit to the graves of Intorcetta and Martini in Hangzhou, the Italian leader noted the contribution made by missionaries to dialogue, before and after Marco Polo. Following in their footsteps, the Italian president also spoke in China about human rights.

At the start of the month, groups of students begun cycling at night along the road that links Henan’s capital to Kaifeng, a place known for its steamed dumplings. For young people, affected by the crisis, this is a way to travel cheap. However, thousands of people quickly joined the rides with the authorities reacting with a ban starting with the universities.