Rubric China

China
by Silvia Torriti

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.

| 23/07/2024
| CINA

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.

| 22/07/2024
| CHINA

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.

| 15/07/2024
| HONG KONG
by Silvia Torriti

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.

| 15/07/2024
| CHINA – UNITED STATES
by Silvia Torriti

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.

| 11/07/2024
| RED LANTERNS
by Santosh Digal

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.

| 10/07/2024
| PHILIPPINES – CHINA
by Vladimir Rozanskij

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.

| 08/07/2024
| RUSSIA-CHINA-ASIA

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.

| 05/07/2024
| CHINA - ISLAM

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.

 

| 03/07/2024
| HONG KONG - CHINA

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.

| 01/07/2024
| HONG KONG – GREAT BRITAIN

The debate at the event promoted at the University of St Joseph on the occasion of the centenary of the Council of Shanghai. Leopold Leeb: In many Chinese there is interest in the newness of the Gospel and this is the precondition for any inculturation. The decisive role of the "sensum fidelium" of Chinese Catholic families in keeping the faith alive in the years of persecution.

| 29/06/2024
| CHINA-MACAO

A hundred scholars from “greater China" met at the University of Saint Joseph to share thoughts from an ecclesial perspective. Archbishop Savio Hon praised the encounter with the local culture, which owes a lot to the work of Card Celso Costantini a century ago. Prof Wang Meixiu expressed concerns over today's restrictions on the access of children and minors to places of worship. She wonders whether the “number of Catholics is decreasing”.

| 27/06/2024
| CHINA

Chinese authorities approved Wegovy, by the Danish Novo Nordisk. Other pharmaceutical multinationals are also looking at China’s increasingly profitable market. According to official studies, the country will have 540 million overweight people by 2030, almost three times as many as in 2000.

| 25/06/2024
| CHINA

Joseph Yang Yongqiang, 54, served as bishop in Zhoucun, Shandong. He is one of two Chinese prelates who participated in the Synod last October. He is slated to occupy an historically important see for the Church in China, where the last bishop was chosen following a row in 2000. Zheijang is the same province where the authorities do not recognise and persecute Bishop Shao Zumin.

| 22/06/2024
| CHINA - VATICAN

A singer and an actress said they were approached by a Beijing-based entertainment company offering millions if they join a new political party as an alternative to the Kuomintang and the Democratic Progressive Party. Taiwan’s Ministry of Interior warns that it is illegal to establish political parties under the influence of foreign powers.

| 20/06/2024
| RED LANTERNS

The blogger who spent four years in prison for reporting on the pandemic in Wuhan was threatened with arrest again a few days after her release. Three weeks ago, visibly distressed, she spoke about her faith behind bars in a Zoom meeting organised up by Chinese house churches, which are persecuted by the authorities.

| 19/06/2024
| CHINA

The former apostolic administrator of Kunming and two other dioceses passed away; he was in his nineties. He was seminarian in 1949 when the Communists took over, and had to wait until 1995 to be ordained a priest after spending many years in prison and working in a factory. Highly respected by all, he “led a simple and hard life.”

| 18/06/2024
| CHINA

According to SIPRI’s latest assessment on nuclear weapons, China will have as many as ICBMs as the United States and Russia by the turn of the decade. Meanwhile, India is no longer focusing on deterring Pakistan, but is developing long-range capability to reach targets across China.

| 17/06/2024
| CHINA

After 12 years in the United States, a young Christian returns home, as many of his peers try to flee to the West. “From a spiritual perspective, China is like a dried-up pond,” he writes, one that “urgently needs your help.”

| 13/06/2024
| RED LANTERNS

As the China-EU trade war escalates, Beijing slams EU "protectionism", warning that Europe's interests will be hurt. Meanwhile, for days Chinese media repeated government threats of retaliation against EU food exports to China. The EU move is not going down well in Germany, Hungary, and Sweden. For Chinese firms, duties would mean a US-billion loss.

| 12/06/2024
| CHINA – EUROPEAN UNION

A 55-year-old man has been taken into custody in connection with the attack, but his motives have not been disclosed. Any reference to the case has been blocked on Chinese social media. Xi Jinping is betting heavily on cultural exchanges to ease geopolitical tensions with the United States, but fewer than 900 Americans are currently studying in China against 290,000 Chinese in the United States.

| 11/06/2024
| CHINA – UNITED STATES

The semi-official newspaper Global Times rules out a change of course by Brussels in its (strained) relationship with Beijing. Ursula Von der Leyen's re-election would mean a hard-line with Xi. Decisions over e-vehicle tariffs, with Beijing threatening retaliation, are expected in coming days.

| 10/06/2024
| CHINA – EUROPEAN UNION
by Gianni Criveller

The great German Reformed theologian, who passed away a few days ago at the age of 98, nurtured dialogue with cultural Christians in Hong Kong and Beijing. He recognised the dignity and sincerity of another theological journey in China, however controversial, unusual, and even challenged by traditional circles.

| 09/06/2024
| ECCLESIA IN ASIA

According to recent data, free-visa entry for travellers from some European and Southeast Asian countries is beginning to bear fruit with 13.1 million entries in the first quarter of 2024. In order to surpass pre-pandemic levels in 2025, the authorities are working to remove bans on foreigners in budget hotels.

| 06/06/2024
| RED LANTERNS

A businessman has been held for four months only for demonstrating in Zhengzhou to get his savings back, Reuters reports. About 600,000 people have been caught up in the scandal. Such extended detention in China is unprecedented for this type of action, but the past two years have seen a sharp increase in economic protests.

| 05/06/2024
| CHINA

The paper pays tribute to the victims on the 35th anniversary of the massacre. In an editorial, it cites an increasingly "restrictive" reality in which even praying may “arouse concern”. In Beijing, access to Tiananmen Square is restricted while the web is censored. Taiwan pledges to respond to "authoritarianism" with "freedom” while a rally is scheduled in the capital. Canada and the United States are set to host memorial ceremonies.

| 04/06/2024
| HONG KONG - CHINA

While China is systematically erasing the memory of the brutal repression of student protests on 4 June 1989, 14 prominent participants of that movement are still behind bars, rearrested for their struggle for democracy. Chinese Human Rights Defenders issued an appeal for their release. In Hong Kong there is concern for Jimmy Lai's health.

| 03/06/2024
| CHINA - HONG KONG

For the first time since post-COVID reopening, emissions fell in March by 3 per cent. Stabilised thanks to increased solar and wind power generation, they fell by 8 per cent in the steel industry and 22 per cent in construction. Still, several coal powered plants are in the planning stage.

| 29/05/2024
| CHINA
by Steve Suwannarat

A new report notes that returns from cyber scams generate an estimated at US$ 12.5 billion in a country whose GDP is below US$ 30 billion. This is keeping foreign investors away, weakening economic development. While the authorities have started to crack down, they can only go so far since many of those involved are Chinese nationals, protected by their country’s economic involvement in Cambodia.

| 23/05/2024
| CAMBODIA

In a video message to a conference being held in Rome at the Urbaniana University with participants from the People's Republic of China the history and present of the Church in China on the centenary of the Shanghai Council. ‘Those who follow Jesus love peace, and stand together with all those who work for peace’.

| 21/05/2024
| VATICAN - CHINA
Editor's choices
 
by Giorgio Bernardelli
The report drafted for the late pope by a group of economists led by Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz has been released. The study calls for a new global initiative for the most indebted poor countries but also lays out the rules for fairer finance ...
| 20/06/2025
| VATICAN
 
Maryam Marof Arwin, founder of the Purple Saturdays Movement, spoke to AsiaNews about often inhumane conditions of Afghan refugees in Iran, which got worse following Israel’s recent strikes. At least one Afghan has died so far from an airstrike. ...
| 20/06/2025
| IRAN - AFGHANISTAN
 
by Alessandra De Poli
On 19 June, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Burmese democratic leader will turn 80 in prison, where she has been held since the military coup in February 2021. Despite her enforced silence, her son Kim Aris tells AsiaNews how his mother ...
| 17/06/2025
| MYANMAR
 
by Dario Salvi
The Archbishop of Tehran-Isfahan of the Latins tells AsiaNews of his concern over the escalation in recent hours. The cardinal, who participated in the conclave that elected Pope Francis, was appointed by the Pope precisely to keep alive the Christian ...
| 13/06/2025
| IRAN - VATICAN
 
In Hong Kong, the NGO that reported on spontaneous worker protests and workplace accidents in mainland China has been forced to cease operations. It was founded in 1994 by activist Han Dongfang, who tried to set up an independent trade union in Tiananmen ...
| 13/06/2025
| HONG KONG - CHINA
 
The ceremony took place today in Fujian province. Leo XIV, in his first choice regarding the Church in China, formally appointed Lin Yuntuan alongside Ordinary Bishop Cai Bingrui (the last Chinese bishop appointed by Francis in January). The Holy See ...
| 11/06/2025
| CHINA – VATICAN
 
by Alessandra De Poli
New data from the International Labour Organisation and UNICEF indicate a drop of 22 million child workers in four years. However, 138 million children remain trapped in this scourge, particularly in agriculture and the informal economy. Expert Insaf ...
| 11/06/2025
| ASIA
 
by Gregory
The Trump administration’s immigration restrictions have had a devastating impact on people from Myanmar’s, disproportionately affecting refugees and students. Many of them, who have waited years in refugee camps, are now seeing their dreams ...
| 07/06/2025
| MYANMAR
“L’Asia: ecco il nostro comune compito per il terzo millennio!” - Giovanni Paolo II, da “Alzatevi, andiamo”