China says it has won the fight against extreme poverty. President Xi Jinping said yesterday, a week before the start of the important People’s Congress, China had achieved the historic “human miracle” of eradicating extreme poverty. “No other country can lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty in such a short time,” Xi […]
Hungary has become the first EU country to start using the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced the start of the vaccination campaign in a video message on Facebook. In late January, the Hungarian regulator had become the first country in the European Union to grant emergency approval for the Chinese Covid vaccine.Hungarian […]
Chinese transport service company Didi Chuxing is planning its debut in Western Europe, according to a media report. The Beijing-based company is looking for new growth markets and has set its sights on Germany, France and the UK, Bloomberg reported, citing several people familiar with the plans. According to the report, Didi has already built […]
NATO has been trying to find a common stance towards China for more than a year. The meeting of foreign ministers at the beginning of December 2020 provided an interim assessment of this painstakingly started discussion, which brought to light both the unequal interests of the allies and their growing agreement. The People’s Republic is […]
German exporters are optimistic given an expected economic upturn in their trading partners China and the US. The mood among German exporters has “improved noticeably,” the Ifo Institute reported yesterday. According to the report, the Ifo index for export expectations rose from 7.5 points to 10.7 points in February – the highest figure since September […]
The dispute between the EU and Beijing over access for an international observer mission to the Chinese province of Xinjiang continues to escalate. EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell renewed calls on China in a speech to the UN Human Rights Council yesterday to allow independent observers “meaningful” access to the region. “This is key […]
Britain’s foreign secretary has called for a United Nations response to human rights abuses in Xinjiang. These have reached an “industrial scale,” Dominic Raab said yesterday in a speech at the start of the spring session of the UN Human Rights Council. The UN human rights body must live up to its responsibilities in Xinjiang, […]
The situation in Hong Kong is on today’s agenda of the EU-foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels. Diplomats will also “discuss the next steps for the EU,” said an announcement of the virtual meeting, which will be attended by ministers from member states and EU Foreign Affairs Representative Josep Borrell. The EU side already expressed concerns […]
Lithuania has blocked the procurement of baggage scanners from the Chinese state-owned company Nuctech for its airports. The background to the decision was that the deal was not in line with the interests of national security, the Baltic news agency BNS reported, citing the spokeswoman for the Lithuanian head of government Ingrida Simonyte. Nuctech had […]
The EU’s trade policy is to be “open, sustainable and assertive” in the coming years. That China, the EU’s largest partner, plays a prominent role in the reorientation of Brussels’ trade strategy also became clear at yesterday’s presentation – because Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis gave relations with Beijing three additional desired characteristics: trade relations must […]