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☆ What a Professor’s Firing Shows About Sexual Harassment in China
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-25 | by ( Tiffany May | Zixu Wang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the video, the Chinese graduate student stared straight into the camera as she spoke. Then she issued an explosive accusation: A prominent professor at a top Chinese university had been sexually harassing her for two years. The next day, Renmin University fired Mr. Wang, saying that officials had investigated the student’s allegations and found that they were true. The swift response by the university reflected the growing pressure that Chinese academic institutions have come under to curb sexual harassment on campus. In recent years, several schools have been accused of not doing enough to protect their students from tutors and professors who preyed on them.

Persons: Wang Guiyuan, Wang Organizations: Communist Party, Renmin University’s School of Liberal Arts, Renmin University Locations: Beijing

Typhoon Gaemi was weakening as it churned toward mainland China on Thursday, hours after the storm’s powerful winds and heavy rains submerged roads and forced the suspension of hundreds of flights in nearby Taiwan. The tropical cyclone made landfall on Taiwan on Wednesday night with wind speeds equivalent to those of a Category 3 hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, a U.S. Navy forecasting organization. As of Thursday the storm had killed at least six people in Taiwan and the Philippines. Gaemi was moving across the Taiwan Strait early Thursday afternoon. It was expected to make landfall in the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian in the late afternoon or evening with the force of a Category 1 hurricane.

Persons: Gaemi Organizations: Typhoon, U.S . Navy Locations: China, Taiwan, U.S, Philippines, Taiwan Strait, Chinese, Fujian

☆ Spicy Noodles and Pickled Fish: Chinese Eateries Move Into Hong Kong
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-20 | by ( Alexandra Stevenson | Zixu Wang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The ravenous came for a taste of home in a dish of spicy fried beef or steamed fish head. It was opening night in Hong Kong at Return Home Hunan, a well-known chain from mainland China trying to wedge into the city’s competitive food scene. Huang Haiying, the restaurant’s founder, greeted customers in a bright red suit while waiters handed out red envelopes stuffed with coupons. Hong Kong is a difficult place to open a restaurant these days. But restaurant owners from mainland China, facing their own challenges at home, see an opening.

Persons: chiles, Huang Haiying, Ms, Huang, “ We’ll, ” Organizations: Return Home Locations: Hong Kong, Return Home Hunan, China

☆ Guilty Verdict for Chinese Activists Who Gave #MeToo Victims a Voice
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-14 | by ( Alexandra Stevenson | Zixu Wang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A court in southern China on Friday found a prominent feminist journalist guilty of endangering national security and sentenced her to five years in prison, Beijing’s latest blow to civil society. A labor activist convicted of the same charge got a sentence of three years and six months. The activities that prompted the arrest and conviction of the two, Huang Xueqin and Wang Jianbing, involved organizing discussions, providing support to other activists and receiving overseas training. The legal action against Ms. Huang and Mr. Wang, which experts said was harsh even by China’s standards, signals the shrinking space for independent discussion of social issues. “We are seeing an almost zero-tolerance approach to even the mildest forms of civil society activism in China,” said Thomas Kellogg, the executive director of the Georgetown Center for Asian Law.

Persons: Huang Xueqin, Wang Jianbing, Huang, Wang, ”, Thomas Kellogg Organizations: Guangzhou, People’s, Borders, Protect Journalists, Georgetown Center, Asian Law Locations: China

Shuen Chun-wa, 81, and her husband hurried toward a green bus with two dozen other Hong Kong residents, dragging empty suitcases. They had purple tour stickers on their jackets and were headed to shop in Shenzhen, a bustling Chinese city that sits on the northern side of the border with Hong Kong. She paid $9,000 in Shenzhen for a procedure that would have cost $25,000 in Hong Kong. So I went to Shenzhen.”Since China opened its borders in January 2023 after several years of pandemic isolation, Hong Kong residents have made Shenzhen a weekend destination to shop, dine and, yes, even visit the dentist. Hong Kong remains one of the most unaffordable cities in the world, and its battered economy and plunging stock market have made everyone more money conscious.

Persons: Shuen Chun, Shuen’s, ”, Hong Kongers Locations: Hong Kong, Shenzhen, ”, China

China’s ruling Communist Party is facing a national emergency. To fix it, the party wants more women to have more babies. Chinese women have been shunning marriage and babies at such a rapid pace that China’s population in 2023 shrank for the second straight year, accelerating the government’s sense of crisis over the country’s rapidly aging population and its economic future. China said on Wednesday that 9.02 million babies were born in 2023, down from 9.56 million in 2022 and the seventh year in a row that the number has fallen. China’s total population was 1,409,670,000 at the end of 2023, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Persons: China’s Organizations: Communist Party, National Bureau of Statistics Locations: China

After two years in detention, a Chinese journalist who spoke up against sexual harassment stood trial on subversion charges on Friday along with a labor rights activist, the latest example of Beijing’s intensified crackdown on civil society. Huang Xueqin, an independent journalist who was once a prominent voice in China’s #MeToo movement, and her friend Wang Jianbing, the activist, were taken away by the police in September 2021 and later charged with inciting subversion of state power. Their trial was held at the Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court in southern China. Little is known about the government’s case, but the vaguely worded offense with which the two were charged has long been seen as a tool for muzzling dissent. A steady stream of activists, lawyers, tycoons and intellectuals have been put on trial and sentenced.

Persons: Beijing’s, Huang Xueqin, Wang Jianbing, Xi Jinping, Huang Organizations: People’s, Communist Party, Human Rights Locations: Chinese, Guangzhou, China

It has been a brutal three years for China’s young adults. Draconian coronavirus restrictions are over, but not the sense of uncertainty about the future they created. For many people, the recent turmoil is another reason to postpone major life decisions — contributing to a record-low marriage rate and complicating the government’s efforts to stave off a demographic crisis. Grace Zhang, a tech worker who had long been ambivalent about marriage, spent two months barricaded in the government lockdown of Shanghai last year. When China reopened in December, Ms. Zhang, 31, left Shanghai to work remotely, traveling from city to city in hopes that a change of scene would restore her positive outlook.

Persons: Grace Zhang, Zhang Locations: Shanghai, China

☆ With Rainbow Flags, 2 Students Test China’s Shrinking L.G.B.T.Q. Space
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-03 | by ( Nicole Hong | Zixu Wang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Karolyn Li still remembers reading the brochure from China’s prestigious Tsinghua University when she was in high school preparing to apply to college. rights group, a suggestion of inclusivity on campus that surprised Ms. Li, who identifies as queer. Ms. Li ended up enrolling at Tsinghua. Now a 21-year-old junior, Ms. Li sees the brochure as cruelly ironic. “All these things add up to make me wonder: How did things get so bad?” said Ms. Huang, who identifies as a lesbian.

Persons: Karolyn Li, Li, Christine Huang, ”, Huang Organizations: Tsinghua University, Tsinghua

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