Sultan Ibrahim arrived in Beijing to mark 50 years of bilateral relations. Kuala Lumpur is looking to Chinese investments to build connectivity with neighbouring Singapore. Malaysian oil exploration in the South China Sea is a bone of contention between the two countries.
The list of participants in the second session of the Synod, released today by the Vatican, includes Bishop Vincenzo Zhan Silu, one of the bishops whose excommunication was lifted in 2018. He will work alongside Archbishop Joseph Yang Yongqiang, who already participated in the first session last year. His diocese in Fujian saw the painful resignation of "underground" Bishop Guo Xijin.
Mark Clifford and Gordon Crovitz, senior officials at Next Digital, filed a complaint against the global accounting firm. They allege BDO enabled rights violations by providing essential services to Hong Kong authorities. The case casts more than a shadow on the "assistance" the company provided to the government in muzzling critical voices.
A report by the China Labour Bulletin documents 10 years of violations and critical issues in healthcare. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed and aggravated existing systematic issues and unresolved disputes, such as unpaid wages, violence against staff by patients and family members, excessive workloads, and disparities.
Started in 1992 at the height of the ‘one-child policy’, in over 30 years they have seen more than 160,000 children and mostly girls taken in by families around the world. The Foreign Ministry spokeswoman: ‘Adjustment in line with international trends’. Last year there were only 9 million new births across China, despite the fact that today - unlike yesterday - the authorities are calling for more children.
Those arrested include preacher Li Yingqiang and three other church members. The authorities have imposed 14-day administrative detention for the "troublemakers", but the measure is likely to turn into “criminal” charges without release. In Guangzhou, a 30-year-old Christian woman was arrested for developing a religiously themed music application.
The editors of the newspaper (already forced to close like the Apple Daily) Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam face up to two years in prison in a verdict expected by September. The ruling is likely to have further profound implications for press freedom in Hong Kong. For the police chief, it is proof of the ‘necessity and legality’ of the crackdown on activists and critical voices. Reporters sans Frontières: 28 journalists prosecuted since 2020.
According to CCTV, they will be introduced next week, with the start of the year. first to seventh grade, then extended to all nine grades of compulsory education. Extensive coverage of the war with India and Vietnam. Specific sections also for ancient Chinese literature and the years of the communist revolution.
In the latest development of the Agreement between China and the Holy See, authortities recognise the ‘underground’ prelate long under arrest for refusing to join the Patriotic Association as leader of the local Catholic community. Archbishop Celli had met him two years ago and presented him with a pectoral cross in the name of Francis. Today's ceremony was held in a hotel and not in the cathedral to reaffirm aappointment's civil rather than canonical character.
The pandemic and the outbreak of dramatic conflicts have changed many things, in the world as well as in China. The generation of boys and girls born after the turn of the millennium, are among those most affected by these events. Young Chinese, believers or not, resemble more their peers from other nations with whom they share the digital and social media worlds, rather than their compatriots from the generations that preceded them.
An old article that - praising the late leader's openings - called for “more courage” in economic reforms blocked on social media. Strict state control listed among the causes of the current slowdown in growth. While Xi Jinping uses the tribute to Deng to revive his own slogans and warn Taiwan.
67-year-old Ho Iat Seng has announced that for health reasons he will not run again. On October 13, the 400 members of the Election Committee will choose a strictly patriotic successor. Meanwhile, the resumption of casinos has started to boost revenue again in the former Portuguese colony, since 1999 a Special Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, like Hong Kong.
In the diocese where 'underground' bishop Msgr. Shao is under arrest, an 'official' priest challenges the redesigning of parishes decided by the Party-linked priest who de facto rules the local church: 'Only a bishop can do that.' The gesture after police on Aug. 11 prevented him from celebrating Mass in a church left without pastoral care.
Language is once again a major issue in the city-state. English’s progress risks weakening other languages, starting with Chinese, the largest mother tongue group. Policies to promote bilingualism are not working. About 61 per cent of parents under 35 mainly use English at home with their children.
The exhibition tells “a very different story" about the unrest and the "colour" revolutions in Ukraine, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan. Unlike the narratives in the Western media, the protests were not demands for freedom, but attacks on security and order, while Xi Jinping stressed “social stability” as a “prerequisite for building a strong and prosperous China”.
The Paris Games ended yesterday, with China coming second behind the United States (129 to 91, but 40 golds each) in the medal table. For the government, it was a question of image and the usual competition with the United States. But many Chinese snubbed the official celebrations, with online posts criticising the large delegation and public money spent.
A first group of 175 teachers has completed their training and will start teaching in the Saudi kingdom by the end of August. The goal is to send at least 800 teachers to the Arab country. This is another sign of Beijing's growing economic and educational involvement in the Middle East.
In Shanxi, a court president illegally keeps three Protestant leaders in prison without trial. But the law can also be used to show that religious freedom conforms with the law, this according to Feng Xuewei, a legal expert who worked on China’s entry in the WTO.
In large language models, the censorship axe examines chatbot responses to ‘adapt’ them to ‘fundamental socialist values’. Also blocked is the use of Hugging Face, a popular open source platform used by AI developers around the world to share models and datasets. And despite the large number of indigenous algorithms developed, doubts about the effectiveness of the so-called ‘war of a hundred models’ are emerging in China's own high-tech circles.
At the Guangzhou headquarters of the e-commerce giant for made-in-China products, hundreds of shopkeepers staged a protest that led the company to request police intervention. At the root of the discontent are trade policies that impose heavy penalties for products criticised by consumers and the policy of refunds without returns that passes the entire cost on to suppliers.
In the first months of 2024, a drop of almost 10% compared to last year. The difficulties and new lifestyles of the one-child generation. Authorities worried about the consequences that the boom in singles could have on social stability. But alongside cities building new romantic parks, there are also ‘technological’ responses.
The recent third party plenum, among other decisions, gave a green light to local governments to exercise greater “autonomous fiscal capacity" to cope with a growing gap between revenues and expenditures. When China’s real estate bubble burst, prefecture-level and county-level governments found their huge debts even more unsustainable. Meanwhile, the central bank has cut rates again to stimulate growth that has failed so far to meet expectations.
The PIME missionary from Italy today began a hunger strike in front of the government headquarter, Admiralty district. He is moved by the injustice inflicted upon an African immigrant’s daughter and hundreds of prisoners jailed for crimes of opinion. “It is as if the problem does not exist,” he laments, noting that freeing them would create a climate of trust.
News and pictures of the attempted assassination of the former US president went viral on Chinese social media. T-shirts with the picture of the iconic shot and bloody face are already on sale online. Some make fun of the clenched fist, dusting off the moniker "Comrade Janguo", used to mock Trump during his presidency.
After the first forced repatriation by plane, the issue also entered the TV debate between Trump and Biden. The post-Covid economic crisis the main reason. Routes also to Italy via Serbia, with worrying contours of modern slavery.
Bishop David, president of the Bishops' Conference, issued an appeal for dialogue between Manila and Beijing at the end of the recent bishops’ assembly. "Nobody wants war,” he said, stressing the need for dialogue. A prayer will be broadcast and recited across the country. A close encounter between two rival coast guards ships risks degenerating into a geopolitical conflict.
At the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit dozens of cooperation agreements were signed in the fields of energy, trade and defence at the external borders. But - beyond the proclamations on the rejection of the dollar - China, India, Pakistan and the Central Asian countries remain well integrated in the world economy, taking care not to be dragged into the abyss of sanctions against Russia.
The WUC has organised various events to honour the victims of China’s most violent crackdown against the Muslim minority. Activist denounces policies that result in “crimes against humanity and genocide.” No Muslims from Xinjiang has been allowed to join the Hajj. Sinicisation and re-education camps have been set up for the Eid holiday.
The region’s legislature passed a new law that changes the role of the regulator, who can now deregister social workers who supported the pro-democracy movement. Hong Kong’s welfare secretary called for the depoliticisation of the sector after so many social workers backed the 2019 demonstrations. The most vulnerable will pay for this in a society where the exodus of young families is creating an emergency for seniors.
James Shin Ka-leung will be ordained on Saturday in Westminster. He was already training for this ministry when he left Hong Kong and his profession as a lawyer in 2021, like thousands of his fellow citizens fleeing Beijing’s repression. He will coordinate the pastoral care of Catholic migrants from Hong Kong for the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales.
