Tag: Beijing

NHL players will not compete at Beijing Olympics: reports

National Hockey League players will not compete in February’s Beijing Winter Olympics in the wake of 50 NHL games being postponed over Covid-19 issues, according to multiple reports Tuesday. ESPN, the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today and other newspapers cited unnamed sources in saying the league and the NHL Players Association had reached agreement not to send talent to China. Without the NHL’s elite millionaire stars, national teams at the Olympics will likely resemble […]

Human cost of China’s green energy rush ahead of Winter Olympics

by Poornima WEERASEKARA Agence France-Presse BAODING, China (AFP) – Beaten, forced off their land, cheated out of money, and even falsely imprisoned — farmers in China say they are paying a heavy price as authorities rush to deliver on ambitious pledges to ramp up national green energy output. China has vowed the upcoming Winter Olympics 2022 will be the first Games to be run entirely on wind and solar energy, and have built scores of […]

Three killed in Solomon Islands unrest

The bodies of three people have been discovered in a burnt-out building in the Solomon Islands capital Honiara, police said Saturday, the first reported deaths after days of rioting. The charred bodies were discovered in a store in the Chinatown district of Honiara, with a security guard telling AFP he found the bodies in two rooms late Friday. Police said forensic teams had launched an investigation and were still on the scene but that the […]

Three athletes positive for Covid inside Beijing Olympic bubble

  BEIJING, China (AFP) — Three athletes attending training events for the Beijing Winter Olympics have tested positive for Covid-19, Chinese officials said Thursday, with the country on high alert against the coronavirus ahead of the Games. Beijing 2022 organisers have left nothing to chance with the games set to start in February, restricting entry to the capital and insisting on daily virus tests for thousands of athletes who will be kept within a “closed-loop” […]

Netflix pulls episodes in Philippines over South China Sea map

  MANILA, Philippines (AFP) — Netflix has removed two episodes of an Australian spy show from its streaming service in the Philippines after Manila objected to scenes showing a map with Beijing’s claims to the disputed South China Sea. China has long used its so-called nine-dash line to justify its claims over most of the resource-rich South China Sea, where the Philippines has rival claims. The Department of Foreign Affairs said Monday it had lodged […]

China passes law to reduce pressure on children from homework

  BEIJING. China (AFP) — China passed a law Saturday to limit the pressure on children from homework and after-school tutoring, state media said, as the country reforms its ultra-competitive education system. The government has imposed several rules in recent months aimed at combating activities it considers harmful to the development of China’s youth. Beijing has already banned minors from playing online games for more than three hours a week in an effort to tackle […]

Beijing launches new mass testing wave after four Covid cases found

BEIJING, China (AFP) — Beijing plans to test tens of thousands of people after four new Covid-19 cases were found in a suburban district on Friday, as a new outbreak prompts school closures and flight cancellations across the country. China has maintained a staunch zero-Covid strategy with strict border closures, lengthy quarantines and targeted lockdowns. But the world’s most populous nation is now scrambling to tamp down dozens of infections across several provinces. The latest […]

China growth slides to 4.9% in third quarter

by Beiyi SEOW Agence France Presse BEIJING, China (AFP) — China’s economic growth tumbled more than expected in the third quarter, official data showed Monday, as the property sector struggled with tighter policy measures and an energy crisis loomed. After a swift coronavirus bounceback, recovery in the world’s second-biggest economy is losing steam, with gross domestic product growth coming in at 4.9 percent on-year, said the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), citing an “unstable and […]

Taiwan leader says island will not bow to China

  by Sean CHANG Agence France Presse TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — Taiwan will not bow to pressure by Beijing and will defend its democratic way of life, President Tsai Ing-wen said Sunday, following a spike in incursions by Chinese warplanes into its air defence zone. Self-governed Taiwan’s 23 million people live under the constant threat of invasion by authoritarian China, which views the island as its territory and has vowed to one day seize it, […]

China’s Xi says reunification with Taiwan ‘will be realized’

  BEIJING, China (AFP) — China’s President Xi Jinping said Saturday “peaceful reunification” with Taiwan “will be and can be realized”, days after Chinese warplanes made record incursions into the air defence zone of the democratically ruled island. Self-governed Taiwan, which has never formally declared independence, lives under the constant threat of invasion by China, which views the island as its territory and has vowed to one day seize it, by force if necessary. “Realising […]

Taiwan rebukes China over record fighter jet incursion

by Amber WANG Agence France Presse TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — Taiwan accused Beijing of bullying and damaging regional peace Saturday after Chinese fighter jets and bombers made their largest-ever incursion into the island’s air defence zone. Beijing marked its National Day on Friday with its biggest aerial show of force against Taiwan, buzzing the self-ruled democratic island with 38 warplanes, including nuclear-capable H-6 bombers. That was followed by a new record incursion on Saturday by […]

China’s tutoring ban hits overseas teachers and cultural links

by Laurie Chen and Poornima Weerasekara Agence France Presse BEIJING, China (AFP) — Every morning, Sam Josti logged on from her US home to teach children halfway around the world, just one of thousands of foreign language tutors giving Chinese students a rare window into Western culture. But tutors like Massachusetts-based Josti have taken a sharp financial hit after Beijing’s harsh crackdown on extracurricular classes pulled down the blinds over the world outside for Chinese […]