Heat in Beijing: As in many parts of Germany, the thermometer in the Chinese capital is rising to 36 degrees just in time for the first official day of summer. Those who can seek cooling – like these children in the midst of a fountain’s water jets.
Just over seven years ago, the communist state leadership unveiled its blueprint for a far-reaching Social Credit System. The citizen and company rating is based on the scoring system for checking creditworthiness known from the financial industry. According to Beijing, they intended to increase reliability in economic exchanges. Critics, however, see the system as “Schufa […]
The Apple Daily newspaper in Hong Kong may be on the verge of shutdown. There is even talk of production being halted on Friday, the AFP news agency reports. With the newspaper’s funds frozen, salaries can no longer be paid, a publishing official said. The newspaper has asked authorities to unfreeze the accounts. So far, […]
Armin Laschet, the CDU’s Chancellor candidate, advocates continued dialogue with China. He told Britain’s Financial Times newspaper, “The question is: When we talk about limiting China, doesn’t that lead to new conflicts?” Many Europeans are suspicious of US President Joe Biden’s tough stance on dealing with China. This could lead to a new cold war. […]
The United Nations human rights commissioner Michelle Bachelet wants to travel to China and also to Xinjiang province soon. On Monday, Bachelet said at the UN Human Rights Council meeting that she was holding talks with the relevant authorities and hoped a visit could be possible before the end of the year. Accordingly, the modalities […]
Media reports are fuelling the rumor that a senior Chinese spy chief has given the US evidence on the much-discussed Wuhan lab theory. Chinese intelligence agency Guoanbu employee Dong Jingwei allegedly gave Washington evidence that a laboratory accident at the Wuhan Institute of Virology was the origin of the coronavirus after fleeing the People’s Republic […]
The EU’s instrument against coercive economic measures such as sanctions, boycotts, or targeted negative campaigns continues to take shape. The think tank European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) will present its concrete proposals for the European Union’s defense mechanism this week. These are designed to protect the bloc from economic pressure. China is a particular […]
On the way to the celestial palace: Today in the early morning hours, the People’s Republic launched its first manned mission to the new space station “Tiangong”. The rocket of the type Long March 2-F brings the three Taikonauts, Tang Hongbo, Nie Haisheng, and Liu Boming (from left to right), in the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft to […]
The fear of Beijing’s shopping spree was great. Given the Covid pandemic, people from Lisbon to Brussels and Berlin to Nicosia feared that China could now go on a bargain hunt for ailing companies from the key industries of the European Union. An electricity supplier here, a producer of important industrial metals there, and perhaps […]
Chinese virologist Shi Zhengli has dismissed the “laboratory theory”, which has recently picked up steam, that COVID-19 may have escaped from her lab. “I don’t know how the world has come to this, constantly pouring filth on an innocent scientist,” she wrote in a text message to the American newspaper New York Times. Shi has […]