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BEIJING, Oct 16, 2023 (AFP) – China prepared on Monday to host representatives of 130 countries for a forum that will be overshadowed by the Israel-Gaza war, as an increasingly assertive Beijing is asked to help de-escalate the violence. At the top of the invite list to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) forum is Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, on his first trip to a major global power since the Ukraine invasion threw his regime […]
BEIJING, Oct 16, 2023 (AFP) – The former chairman of the Bank of China has been formally arrested for suspected corruption, state media reported Monday, citing the country’s top prosecutor. The state-owned bank said in February that Liu Lian’ge, 62, had stepped down as chairman and been removed from his position as Communist Party chief. China’s top anti-corruption watchdog announced the following month that Liu was under investigation for alleged “severe violations of discipline and […]
By James Edgar and Oliver Hotham BEIJING, Oct 14, 2023 (AFP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin heads to China next week to meet his “dear friend” Xi Jinping, forging even closer ties in a key strategic relationship in which experts say Moscow is increasingly the junior partner. Beijing is hosting representatives of 130 countries on October 17-18 to mark a decade of its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) — a key geopolitical project of President […]
TAIPEI, Taiwan, Oct 13, 2023 (AFP) – The United States has extended a waiver to Taiwanese semiconductor giant TSMC to supply US chip-making equipment to its factories in China, the island’s economic affairs minister said Friday. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s largest contract producer of computer chips, was among the firms that received waivers last year when Washington imposed sweeping export restrictions to prevent China from getting advanced semiconductor technology. The United States says […]
TAIPEI, Oct 12, 2023 (AFP) – Taiwan’s defence minister said Thursday China has stepped up “military intimidation” this year by flying an increased number of warplanes around the island as well as accelerating the deployment of ballistic missiles. China claims self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory to be seized one day — by force if necessary — and has ramped up pressure on the island in recent years, staging at least two rounds of […]
HONG KONG, Oct 6, 2023 (AFP) – A Hong Kong man was sentenced to jail on Friday after importing “seditious” children’s books that portrayed the city’s democracy supporters as sheep defending their village from wolves. Following massive democracy protests in the Chinese city in 2019, authorities have revived a colonial-era sedition offence to jail dozens of residents, which critics have decried as political suppression. Finance company worker Kurt Leung, 38, was sentenced to four months […]
PARIS, Oct 5, 2023 (AFP) – Russian mercenary group Wagner in 2022 signed a contract with a Chinese firm to acquire two satellites and use their images, aiding its intelligence work as the organisation sought to push Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to a document seen by AFP. The contract was signed in November 2022, over half a year into Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in which the Wagner group under its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin was […]
By Tomohiro OSAKI TOKYO, Oct 5, 2023 (AFP) – Japan began releasing the second batch of treated wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear plant on Thursday, an incremental step in a decades-long process that has drawn strong condemnation from China. The discharge, a small portion of the 1.34 million tonnes of wastewater built up since a tsunami struck the facility in 2011, began at 10:18 am (0118 GMT), a spokesman for operator TEPCO told AFP. While […]
TAIPEI, Oct 5, 2023 (AFP) – Taipei has said it will investigate if Taiwanese firms that helped Huawei build semiconductor factories violated US sanctions against the Chinese tech giant. Huawei, a leader in 5G telecom equipment, has been at the centre of the intensifying US-China rivalry over advanced tech in recent years. The United States and its allies have curtailed its access to major markets and advanced tech — including chip making — over fears […]
WASHINGTON, Oct 3, 2023 (AFP) – The United States announced sanctions Tuesday on a China-based network for producing and distributing chemicals used to make drugs including those fueling a deadly national fentanyl crisis. President Joe Biden’s administration has made the fight against fentanyl a priority, with the synthetic opioid blamed for tens of thousands of deaths in recent years. The sanctions targets include 25 individuals and entities based in China, alongside three other parties in […]
MANILA, Oct 2, 2023 (AFP) – The United States and the Philippines launched annual joint naval war games on Monday, days after the latest diplomatic row between Manila and Beijing over the disputed South China Sea. More than a thousand sailors from the two allies are taking part in the annual “Samasama” (Tagalog for Together) anti-submarine, surface and electronic warfare drills off Manila and the south of Luzon, the main island of the Philippines. China’s […]
By Andrew MCKIRDY HANGZHOU, China, Sept 30, 2023 (AFP) Philippines pole vaulter EJ Obiena cruised to gold in an Asian Games record on Saturday — and then said he missed not having record-breaker Armand Duplantis to compete against. Obiena has been one of Swedish world record-holder Duplantis’s closest rivals this year, finishing second behind him at last month’s world championships in Budapest. And no one could come close to Obiena in Hangzhou as he took […]
