Asia

China to upgrade Kiribati the strategic Pacific airstrip

Editorial Bureau May 5, 2021

SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA) – In a bid to revive a site that hosted military aircraft during World War Two, China has drawn up plans to upgrade an airstrip and bridge on one of Kiribati’s remote islands about 3,000km southwest of Hawaii. The plans, which have not been made public, involve

World

G7 sends a message to China: the West ain’t over just yet

Editorial Bureau May 4, 2021

LONDON (UK) -The Group of Seven rich democracies will on Tuesday talk ways of tackling challenges from China and Russia without trying to contain Beijing or increasing tension with the Kremlin, two of its top diplomats said. Founded in 1975 as a forum for the West’s richest nations to discuss crises such as the OPEC […]

Asia

China: Olympic simulation event to be held next month

Editorial Bureau April 28, 2021

An Olympic simulation event will be staged by the Chinese Table Tennis Association (CTTA) in May to help its players prepare for this year’s Tokyo Games. Thirty-six men’s and women’s singles players, and 16 mixed doubles pairs will feature at the WTT (World Table Tennis) Grand Smashes Trials and Olympic Simulation, to be held in […]

Asia

China: Surge in demand for raw materials, industrial profits surge

Editorial Bureau April 27, 2021

BEIJING (CHINA): As demand for raw materials surged along with the economic recovery, profits at China’s industrial firms saw a sharp growth in March compared to a low base a year ago. Profits rose to 711.18 billion yuan ($109.66 billion) in March, up 92.3% from a year ago, when the economy was hard hit by […]

Asia

China provides a total of 216.08 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines as of April 23

Editorial Bureau April 24, 2021

BEIJING (CHINA) – China has provided about 4.86 million vaccinations against COVID-19 on April 23. This brings the total number administered to 216.08 million, as per data released by the National Health Commission on Saturday.

Asia

China to build $3 billion supercomputing centre to analyse data from space

Editorial Bureau April 20, 2021

BEIJING (CHINA): The Southern spaceport of Wenchang will build a $3 billion supercomputing centre to analyse data obtained from space, according to state media on Tuesday. With a planned investment of 20 billion yuan ($3.1 billion), the supercomputing centre will provide big data services for industries including the aerospace and marine sectors starting in 2022, […]

Asia

China opposes US, Japan joint statement

Editorial Bureau April 17, 2021

BEIJING (CHINA): China has strongly opposed the joint statement issued by the United States and Japan following talks between the two countries’ leaders, according to a statement released by China’s embassy in the US on Saturday. Taiwan, Hong Kong and Xinjiang are China’s internal affairs and should not be interfered with, it said, adding the […]

Asia

China likely to sanction BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine by July: WSJ

Editorial Bureau April 16, 2021

China is planning to give approval to the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Germany’s BioNTech SE by July, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. If approved, it would become the first foreign COVID-19 vaccine to be authorized in the country. Chinese officials are reviewing clinical-trial data for the vaccine […]

Asia

China’s graft watchdog slams ‘mukbang’ binge-eating, drinking videos

Editorial Bureau April 10, 2021

SHANGHAI (CHINA) – China’s corruption watchdog has urged online video-sharing platforms to take action against “mukbang” shows, in which people livestream themselves eating – or drinking – excessively, saying it encourages food waste. Mukbang videos originated in South Korea and are increasingly popular in China, but they have faced

Business

China imposes fine on Alibaba of record $2.75 billion for anti-monopoly violations

Editorial Bureau April 10, 2021

SHANGHAI/HONG KONG (CHINA) -China imposed a record 18 billion yuan ($2.75 billion) fine on Alibaba Group Holding Ltd on Saturday. This has come in the wake of an anti-monopoly probe, which found the e-commerce giant has had a misuse of its dominant market position for several years. The fine, about 4% of Alibaba’s 2019 China […]