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Hong Kong CNN —Cathay Pacific Airways said Tuesday it had fired three cabin crew members after a passenger complained of discrimination on a flight from mainland China, an incident that angered Hong Kong officials and underscored the pressure on the city’s flag carrier to please Beijing. In a statement late Tuesday announcing the dismissals, Cathay Pacific (CPCAY) CEO Ronald Lam said he would personally lead a task force to improve service and avoid similar incidents in the future. A passenger walking to a Cathay Pacific counter at Hong Kong's international airport in 2018. The airline made headlines this week over an incident of alleged discrimination with a passenger from mainland China. In an editorial, it said there was “a question mark on how far Cathay Pacific can fly if their old problems remain unchanged.”— CNN’s Nectar Gan and Chris Lau contributed to this report.

☆ American jailed for spying by China rubbed shoulders with senior Chinese officials, CNN reporting shows, CNN reporting shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Nectar Gan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

“He’s a very famous person, known by many overseas Chinese in the southern US,” Tang said. Reports published by Chinese-language media in Texas and China’s state media show Leung’s long-running access to senior Chinese officials. In 2014, he met with the director of Jiangsu Provincial Overseas Chinese Affairs Office during a visit to Nanjing, the provincial capital. This photo shows John Leung with Wang Hua, the former director of Jiangsu Provincial Overseas Chinese Affairs Office. It also comes as American and Chinese officials are resuming high-level engagements since a dispute over a suspected Chinese spy balloon shattered efforts to mend ties earlier this year.

☆ Chinese stand-up comedian forced to apologize after military joke angers officials
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Chris Lau | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

He went on to say that one day his two energetic canines gave chase to a squirrel, which reminded him of eight words, before he delivered the controversial punchline, according to audio posted to Chinese social media site Weibo. “Fine style of work, capable of winning battles,” he said, flipping a well known Chinese Communist Party slogan referring to the PLA. Shanghai Xiaoguo Culture Media described the joke as “inappropriate” before offering an apology in a statement on Monday. Comedians make a name for themselves by taking part in these shows and often expand their careers to live shows – as Li did. Last May, former investigative journalist Luo Changping was sentenced to seven months in prison and ordered to offer a public apology for calling Chinese soldiers portrayed in a blockbuster movie about the Korean war “stupid.”Li’s sense of humor divided users on Chinese social media.

In Shanghai, over seven million tourists arrived in the city for the weekend, according to Shanghai Travel Data. Also known as the May Day holiday, the Labor Day break is one of three major annual holidays in China. Tourists visit Nanjing Confucius Temple ahead of the May Day holiday on April 27, 2023 in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province of China. Visitors walk past the Casino Lisboa, operated by SJM Holdings, during Labour Day holiday in Macau, China, April 30, 2023. “The unscrupulous practice of these bed-and-breakfasts is ugly,” said an opinion piece posted on the social media platform by state media People’s Daily.

☆ Vladimir Putin Accuses West of Trying to Contain Russia, China Ahead of Xi Jinping Visit
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Georgi Kantchev | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin hours before the meeting with China was confirmed Friday. Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed Moscow’s deepening political and economic relations with China and hit out at the West for trying to contain the two countries’ development on the eve of a visit by Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Moscow. In a Sunday article for the Chinese Communist Party’s flagship newspaper, People’s Daily, Mr. Putin wrote that the two nations are “standing on the brink of a new era.”

☆ Lawyers exit Hong Kong as they face campaign of intimidation
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +18 min

The event that precipitated his hasty departure, Vidler said, was the appearance of articles in the state-backed media in Hong Kong about him. “This was in my view state-sponsored intimidation and harassment,” said Vidler, whose wife and children later left Hong Kong. One Hong Kong solicitor who has relocated to England told Reuters that she knew of at least 80 Hong Kong lawyers who had moved to Britain since the security law was imposed in June 2020. Another lawyer, now living in Australia, estimated that several dozen Hong Kong lawyers had moved there. Mainland officials have long sought influence over these two influential bodies, according to senior Hong Kong lawyers.

China reported 2,157 new symptomatic infections Thursday, but officials have stopped counting asymptomatic cases and halted mandatory testing. James Zimmermann, a lawyer, posted on Twitter earlier this week that 90% of his office was sickened. Meanwhile, Beijing has tried to maintain its policy of imposing harsh limits on people’s daily lives whenever an outbreak flared. Although direct comparisons are difficult, officially China has suffered just more than 5,200 deaths — compared with nearly 1.1 million in the United States. It also recently caused social unrest in the form of widespread demonstrations, which appeared to be the catalyst for the abrupt policy change.

Hong Kong CNN —An unprecedented wave of Covid cases in China has sparked panic buying of fever medicines, pain killers, and even home remedies such as canned peaches, leading to shortages online and in stores. Canned yellow peaches, considered a particularly nutritious delicacy in many parts of China, have been snapped up by people looking for ways to fight Covid. Its sudden surge in popularity prompted Dalian Leasun Food, one of the country’s largest canned food manufacturers, to clarify in a Weibo post that canned yellow peaches don’t have any medicinal effect. “Canned yellow peaches ≠ medicines!” the company said in the post published Friday. The drug shortage has spread from mainland China to Hong Kong, a special administrative region which has a separate system of local government.

☆ China eases some of its Covid restrictions, in significant step toward reopening
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Jessie Yeung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

CNS/AFP/Getty ImagesSince early in the pandemic, China has used health codes on mobile phones to track individuals’ health statuses. Residents line up for Covid tests in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China on December 1. Schools with Covid cases can continue “normal teaching and living,” as long as they designate certain “risk areas” with control measures. Since early in the pandemic, China has required a prescription and negative Covid test to buy these. Some experts have warned that a broader reopening inevitably brings health risks, especially to those vulnerable groups.

☆ China Covid restrictions: Protesters win a partial victory as cities start to loosen controls
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Nectar Gan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Following protests nationwide, some local Chinese authorities have started to ease Covid restrictions – in what appears to be a shift toward gradual reopening as the country nears entering the fourth year of the pandemic. “I feel like everyone’s hard work is paying off,” said a protester who took part in a demonstration in Beijing. “Policy flip-flop is common.”In some cities, the partial relaxation has caused confusion and chaos on the ground. In Beijing, public venues such as shopping malls and office buildings still require a 48-hour negative Covid test for entry. I don’t celebrate, I just remember those brave friends with gratitude,” a Beijing resident posted on Weibo, in a reference to the protesters.

☆ Former NBA star Jeremy Lin fined for comments about Covid quarantine while playing in China
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

Police fanned out across Shanghai, Beijing and other cities to try to prevent additional protests. A representative of Vision China Entertainment, which says on its website it represents Lin, didn’t respond to a request for comment. Jinzhou in the northeast lifted curbs on movement and allowed businesses to reopen. On Thursday, the metropolis of Guangzhou in the south, the biggest hotspot in the latest infection spike, allowed supermarkets and restaurants to reopen. Other major cities including Shijiazhuang in the north and Chengdu in the southwest restarted bus and subway service and allowed businesses to reopen.

While the protests were largely tamped down, there continued to be scattered incidents of unrest. Experts say China will have a tough time navigating its way out of the pandemic without getting more people inoculated. The National Health Commission said Tuesday that it was especially focused on increasing vaccinations among people older than 80, though it did not announce a mandate. With new, mostly asymptomatic infections still being reported across China — 38,421 on Tuesday, down from a record 40,052 the day before — some Covid restrictions are still tightening. An opinion article Tuesday in People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, said officials at all levels must “unswervingly implement” the government’s Covid policies.

☆ Unprecedented protests in China are making headlines around the world, except inside China
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

It is one of the top stories — if not the top story — for major news organizations around the world. But for the hundreds of millions in China relying on news coverage from state-run media, there has been almost no coverage of the unprecedented challenge to leader Xi Jinping. Other state-run media outlets are also doing their best to wholly ignore the mass demonstrations, which have broken out in at least 16 cities. Mentions of the protests were absent Monday on the websites belonging to the People’s Daily and China Daily, two other prominent state-controlled media organizations. The concerted effort by the state-run media to silence the protests and carry government messaging put on display the lengths Xi’s mouthpieces will go to crush dissent.

Easing Covid measures means accepting a rise in cases that is likely to get worse as winter approaches. Residents buy medications at a pharmacy in Shijiazhuang, China, last week. “There will always be complaints.”Though many people in China still support “zero-Covid,” the strict measures have also stoked growing resentment. China is thus now facing a dual challenge, said Donald Low, a professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. “You’re going to see the Hong Kong story played out on a much larger scale” in mainland China, Low said.

In 10 years of ruling China, Xi Jinping has expunged political rivals, replacing them with allies. With Comrade Xi Jinping as the core” Unite more closely around the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core. Take practical actions to welcome the victory of the Party's 20th National Congress” With Comrade Xi Jinping as the core” With Comrade Xi Jinping as the core” Unite more closely around the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core. Take practical actions to welcome the victory of the Party's 20th National Congress” With Comrade Xi Jinping as the core” With Comrade Xi Jinping as the core” Unite more closely around the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core. Earlier this year, local officials in the southern region of Guangxi printed and distributed small red booklets about Xi Jinping Thought.

☆ (Видео) Хаос в аэропорту Шанхая: людей массово тестируют на коронавирус
▼ + stars: | 2020-11-23 | by ( ) nokta.md time to read: +2 min

Более 17 тысяч человек были протестированы на коронавирус в аэропорту Шанхая после обнаружения инфекции у одного из сотрудников. О заражении коронавирусом сотрудника грузового отделения аэропорта Шанхая было объявлено в воскресенье вечером. As the seven cases found in Shanghai are all linked to the Cargo terminal of Pudong Airport, all staff at the airport were tested for nucleic acid last night. https://t.co/pxLmzY2Azs — People’s Daily app (@PeoplesDailyapp) November 23, 2020Масштабное тестирование было организовано после двух новых случаев — речь идёт о сотрудниках, которые занимались уборкой помещений. фото: сотрудники аэропорта Шанхая ожидают тестирования на коронавирус 23 ноября 2020/ AP Photonokta

Persons: S haring, ravel, Сун Сяодун Organizations: Pudong Airport Locations: Shanghai, Pudong, Шанхай, США

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