The European Parliament wants to subject Czech MEP and former chairman of the informal club of China-friendly EU parliamentarians, Jan Zahradil, to a formal investigation, according to a media report. The background to the investigation is a lack of clarity over the sponsorship of a meeting of the China Club by the Chinese EU mission […]
Taiwan has accused the Chinese government of pressuring Paraguay and other allied countries as part of “vaccine diplomacy”, according to media reports. Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said, according to a report by the AFP news agency that Beijing has promised Paraguay millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses in return for the South American country giving […]
The US National Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) has spoken out against a boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Athletes should not be used as “political pawns”, USOPC president Susanne Lyons said yesterday on the sidelines of a press event for the US team, according to a report by the AFP news agency. […]
At the end of February, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán became one of the first EU heads of government to be vaccinated against COVID-19. However, the syringe did not contain Moderna or Biontech/Pfizer, but the vaccine from the Chinese manufacturer Sinopharm. At least that’s what Orbán said publicly on Facebook. Hungary is the only EU […]
Yestarday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced, that it has raised its growth forecast for China for 2021 to 8.4 percent. The new forecast is 0.3 percentage points higher than expected in January. According to the IMF, the People’s Republic would thus record the strongest growth rate since 2011.“Effective containment measures, a vigorous response with […]
Nowhere in the world are there more coffee shops than in Shanghai. According to a report by that’s-Mag, there are over 7,000 of them in China’s metropolis of 26 million. This means Shanghai beats London (3,233), Tokyo (3,826), and New York with 1,591 coffee shops. London remains the leader in coffee shops per capita, with […]
It sounded like a small admission of defeat, but one wrapped up in the best EU style: “We have very little resources to study disinformation from China,” EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell told an EU parliamentary committee in early March. In concrete terms, this means that three members of the European External Action Service’s Strategic Communications Unit are currently working […]
The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCCC) has expressed concern about intensifying threats against foreign journalists in light of the departure of BBC correspondent John Sudworth. The Chinese state and state-controlled entities are increasingly making “false claims that foreign correspondents and their organizations are motivated by anti-China political forces,” FCCC said on Twitter. According to […]
China’s State Council has approved a merger of Sinochem Group and China National Chemical Corp (ChemChina). The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) confirmed the move in a brief statement yesterday. Sinochem and ChemChina would carry out a “joint reorganization”, Sasac’s statement said. The merger of the two state-owned companies would create the world’s […]
Following the publication of the WHO report on the origin of the coronavirus, several EU states have voiced criticism of the paper and indirectly accused China of a lack of transparency. Lithuania, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Estonia, and Slovenia joined a joint statement by the US, Canada, and other states criticizing a “considerable” delay […]