China’s official Xinhua news agency released the data while the National Health Commission presents a three-year plan to deal with rising mental disorders. The issue has come to prominence following a string of violent incidents, but it is also the legacy of the government’s zero-COVID policy.
The authorities continue to claim that the target of GDP growth of ‘around 5%’ driven by electric car exports will be met in the year to come. But discontent remains widespread and even the anti-corruption crackdown in the Party is fuelling paralysis especially among senior cadres. While worrying analyses by two well-known Chinese economists have been taken off social media.
The Chinese president is on a three-day visit to the former Portuguese colony 25 years after its return to Chinese sovereignty, providing him with an opportunity to send messages to Hong Kong as well, and stress the potential of the Greater Bay Area. The stop on Hengqin Island is significant, since it is slated to help Macau diversify its economy centred on casinos and gambling (source of 80 per cent of local tax revenue).
Increasingly, to crush house churches, Protestant communities independent of government-controlled bodies, the authorities are turning to charges of financial wrongdoings over tithes. Christian pastors, lawyers and faithful issued an appeal on behalf of the Linfen community hit by arrests. In their view, giving one’s “money to serve God, supporting church needs and caring for the poor” does not violate any law.
The series of conferences refocused on the council held in 1924 at the initiative of then Apostolic Delegate Card Celso Costantini, at Fu Jen Catholic University, which was established the following year as one of the fruits of that historic event for the Church in China. Even today in Taiwan the theme of inculturation and interfaith dialogue is freely pursued, moved for ecclesial and missionary purposes.
Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing administration wants to introduce “smart ballot boxes” for next year’s legislative election, already restricted to “patriotic" candidates. Scanners would warn voters of any “error” in their ballot. The proposal was withdrawn after a few hours due to obvious objections to secrecy of the vote.
Scores of plainclothes policemen took the clergyman into custody while he was at a restaurant, sparking a protest by local Muslims in front of the town hall in the past two days. The province where a large Hui community lives has long been a hot spot for the government’s “sinicisation” policies.
Whether it is football, athletics, canoeing or winter sports, officials and coaches have been caught up by the justice system. In the latest case, the 47-year-old former coach of the men's national football team Li Tie began serving a 20-year prison term today. Meanwhile, the former head of the Administration of Sports Gou Zhongwen, was kicked out of the party and is awaiting trial. In March, Yu Hongchen, former Chinese Athletics Federation president, was sentenced to 13 years. Despite suspicions over doping, swimming has not been touched.
The Huangmao Sea Channel Bridge opened to traffic yesterday, an ideal infrastructure that links up with the majestic bridge that connects Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macau. This is a further step to the creation of a metropolitan area of 70 million people that China wants to turn into an economic engine on a par with Tokyo and New York.
Originally from Shanghai, he passed away at the age of 91. He was imprisoned in the 1955 with other Catholics as well as five of his brothers. Their mother visited each in different prisons, bringing them support in the faith. Once he was freed, he resumed his novitiate with the Jesuits, and was ordained in 1994. Speaking to Mondo e Missione that year, he said: "There is joy and peace in my heart” because “I too know that I have done nothing against God or against my country”.
In the Guangdong city where a man ran over and killed dozens of people, all administration and law enforcement officials have been replaced. This was an indication of the Party's concern over the tragedy, which brought up the issue of violence linked to social resentment. Xi Jinping himself had urged all relevant authorities to ‘strengthen risk prevention and control at source’.
Faced with the dozens of people run over out of ‘revenge’ in Zhuhai and the multiplication of similar incidents, the Beijing government is calling for ‘in-depth investigations’ into the disputes involving families, neighbours, and missing wages. Former Red Guard writer Yan Chunguo: ‘Social unrest is the result of a State that has lost the idea of justice, making the people lose their soul’.
One of the 45 people given very harsh sentences yesterday for organising primary elections in Hong Kong was able to smuggle her thoughts out of prison. “We dared to confront the regime with the question,” she writes. “Will democracy ever be possible within such a structure? The answer was a complete crackdown on all fronts of society.” “Defend and repair your own democracy,” she says in an appeal to the world. “Give authoritarian dictators one less example of failed democracy to justify their rule, and give freedom fighters around the world one more inspiration to continue the struggle”.
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.
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.
The China Labour Bulletin posted some videos from Chinese social media showing workers fainting from the gruelling shifts at the Foxconn plant in conjunction with the release of its new smartphone models. Overtime can reach up to four times the limit established by Chinese law.
From Sarajevo, where the World Congress of Uyghur Exiles is taking place, Director Zumretaj Arkin's denounces Beijing's pressure. ‘The positive narrative that the standard of living in Xinjiang continues to improve is just propaganda’.
As public transport ridership declined in recent years, some bus companies have had to interrupt their service. A new regulation by the central government requires local administrations to ensure that bus companies keep operating at a time when local governments’ hidden debt reaches record levels.
China is bucking the trend of the rest of the world where smoking is falling. Sales reached 2.44 trillion in 2023. In 2022, smokers represented 24.1 per cent of the adult population, a figure well above the world average of 17 per cent. For experts, countrywide legislation is needed to control tobacco.
Five years now since the pro-democracy protests out of 10,279 people arrested only 28.8% have been remanded for trial. But for Justice Secretary Chris Tang, ‘the authorities must be given time to gather evidence’. Chow Hang-tung's request to call people living abroad to testify on video at the trial was rejected.
Over the weekend, police were deployed at sensitive sites across the big city, detaining people wearing masks. Despite the absence of any formal ban, anyone caught with a mask or make-up is at risk. Last year the celebration provided an opportunity to criticise and attack the leadership and policies of the Communist Party of China.
Archbishop Li Shan led the ceremony in the Cathedral of the Saviour. Pope Francis approved the appointment on 28 August. The new prelate chose as his motto “All this I do for the sake of the gospel”. No official reason was given for the appointment of a prelate with the right of succession to the current pastor of the diocese of Beijing who is only 59 years old.
According to international observers, this is a pragmatic truce among long-term rivals. Diplomats from the two countries will resume meetings to manage the border dispute in Ladakh. For India’s Modi, talks with everyone is an opportunity to show himself as a credible leader of the global South.
Th, Fr Gianni Criveller, editorial director of AsiaNews, made the comment following the renewal of the Agreement between the Vatican and Beijing on episcopal appointments. Given the lowkey with which the renewal was announced suggests awareness that background problems remain serious. “After the 2023 crisis, China avoided taking things too far,” and today the climate seems to have improved; hence, “giving up on the narrow path of dialogue and scrapping the agreement would not bring any advantage.”
The agreement has been officially extended until October 2028, ten years since the first signing. The duration is extended but the text remains provisional and secret, while a third of China’s dioceses are still vacant. As AsiaNews reported, the ordination of a coadjutor bishop for the diocese of Beijing is set for 25 October.
Set for Friday, 25 October, the ordination in the Chinese capital becomes the first appointment (in agreement with Rome) after the renewal of the Agreement on episcopal appointments, expected in the coming days. The new prelate is 54 years old, just five years younger than Archbishop Li Shan, who has led the Church in Beijing since 2007. As a seminarian, Zhen Xuebin trained at St. John's University in the United States, where he studied Vatican II.
China’s large-scale Joint Sword drill, launched yesterday in response to President Lai's remarks in his 10 October speech about Taiwan not being subordinate, was quickly ended. Pro-unification posts on Weibo were also quickly removed. Meanwhile, Chunghwa Telecom has announced that its communication satellites will cover the entire island 24 hours a day by the end of the month, making it less reliant on submarine cables.
In a letter, Beijing called upon Kuala Lumpur to stop oil and gas activities in Malaysia’s exclusive economic zone, which China challenges. In addition to the Philippines and Vietnam, tensions are bound to rise with Malaysia as well, with Chinese coast guard vessels permanently patrolling the Luconia Shoals.
A copy of the report (never officially released in full) was sent to an NGO confirming the unreliability of an audit conducted last December exonerating Volkswagen from charges of the exploiting Uyghurs. For China Brief , “Volkswagen used an inexperienced and little-known PRC law firm” and “failed to assess the compliance” with real conditions.
