China will not host the Asian Football Championships next year. Citing the Covid pandemic, the country has canceled the staging of the Asia Cup, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) announced Saturday. “Following extensive discussions with the Chinese Football Association (CFA), the AFC has been officially informed by the CFA that it would not be able […]
Covid-stricken Shanghai shows first signs of opening. On Monday, following a six-week lockdown, the first stores were allowed to reopen. Among them are shopping malls, hair salons, and stores for daily necessities. This was announced by Vice Mayor Chen Tong on Sunday at the regular press conference of the disease control committee. He said the […]
On Friday, US President Joe Biden signed a bill to help Taiwan regain its lost observer status at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The House of Representatives had passed the bill in late April without dissenting votes. The Republican and Democratic lawmakers who introduced it praised the president for his “support for Taiwan’s engagement”. Taiwan […]
While China has built up diplomatic capital through its vaccine exports over the past year, all of its shipments have come to a standstill in 2022. The country was initially able to distinguish itself as a responsible, progressive superpower thanks to its export efforts. But it still lacked the technical finesse of technology leaders from […]
For years, officials in China’s capital have focused on improving conditions for car traffic. After two decades of traffic jams and bad air, a change in thinking slowly takes hold in Beijing. For the first time, the focus is not just on switching to electromobility, but on reducing the number of all cars on the […]
The U.S. State Department has changed the description of Taiwan on its homepage in a crucial point – prompting angry threats from China. The department deleted several lines in which the U.S. emphasizes that it recognizes the People’s Republic as the only legitimate Chinese government and sees Taiwan as part of China. It also dropped […]
China’s export growth has declined as expected. In April, the increase was only 3.9 percent, as the General Administration of Customs announced on Monday. It was the lowest figure since the first Covid year in 2020, up from 14.7 percent in March. However, economists had firmly expected weaker figures following the lockdowns in Shanghai and […]
Are there alternatives to the hard lockdown? German virologist Hendrik Streeck not just answers this question in the affirmative. Speaking with Frank Sieren, he is even skeptical about whether the Omicron variant can be contained at all in the long term through testing and lockdowns. The virus proves too contagious for this.Instead, Streeck shares a […]
After a slump in profits at the beginning of the year, the world’s second-largest sporting goods group Adidas has scaled back its forecasts for 2022. The reason for the dwindling optimism is the flagging business in the former growth market China, which suffers from boycott calls against Western brands and the recent Covid lockdowns in […]
The Chinese government plans to get rid of foreign computer brands. Administrations on all levels are to replace PCs of non-Chinese brands with Chinese equivalents within two years. This regulation also applies to state-owned enterprises, Bloomberg reports. China’s government agencies will have to discard some 50 million computers.The background to this is the pursuit of […]