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☆ China assures Russia, India of deepening 'cooperation'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/3] India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang pose for a photograph during the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers' meeting in Goa, India, May 4, 2023. Currently the bloc includes Russia, India, China, Pakistan and four Central Asian countries - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Iran and Belarus are expected to be inducted into the SCO at a summit in New Delhi in July, an Indian foreign ministry official said. In a separate meeting with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Qin said China is willing to deepen "coordination and cooperation" on international and regional issues with India and bring ties back to a "healthy" track of development. China's ties with India have deteriorated since 2020, when their troops clashed on a disputed Himalayan border and 24 people were killed.

☆ Dalai Lama 'unfairly labelled' over tongue video - Tibet govt-in-exile
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Rupam Jain | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, Patron of Children in Crossfire, speaks during a press conference in Londonderry, Northern Ireland September 11, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne/File PhotoNEW DELHI, April 13 (Reuters) - The head of Tibet's government-in-exile on Thursday defended the Dalai Lama over footage of him asking a boy to suck his tongue, saying the incident had demonstrated the country's spiritual leader's innocent and affectionate side. Penpa Tsering, the Sikyong (political leader) of the exiled Central Tibetan Administration, said the Dalai Lama had been "unfairly labelled with all kinds of names that really hurt the sentiment of all his followers". The video clip, filmed in February and circulated this month, has been viewed over one million times on Twitter. The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet.

☆ Dalai Lama apologises after video asking boy to 'suck my tongue'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NEW DELHI, April 10 (Reuters) - The Dalai Lama, the Tibetans' 87-year-old spiritual leader, apologised on Monday after footage showed him asking a young boy to "suck my tongue" at a public event. "A video clip has been circulating that shows a recent meeting when a young boy asked his Holiness the Dalai Lama if he could give him a hug," said a statement on the exiled leader's Twitter account, which has 19 million followers. The statement said the Dalai Lama leader "often teases people he meets in an innocent and playful way, even in public and before cameras. The Dalai Lama, who fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet, is regarded by Beijing as a dangerous separatist. Reporting by Shivam Patel in New Delhi, Editing by Angus MacSwanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ India launches villages programme in Arunachal, ignores angry China
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Yp Rajesh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] India's Home Minister Amit Shah greets the media upon his arrival at the home ministry in New Delhi, India, June 1, 2019. In December last year, troops from the two sides engaged in scuffles in the state's Tawang sector, and last week India rejected the renaming by China of 11 places, including five mountains, in Arunachal Pradesh. A map released last week showed the 11 places renamed by China as being within "Zangnan", or southern Tibet in Chinese, with Arunachal Pradesh included in southern Tibet. "Today we proudly say, gone are the days when anyone could encroach on our territory," Shah said, speaking in Hindi and without naming China. "Zangnan is China's territory," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said earlier on Monday in response to a question on Shah's visit.

☆ Indian rescuers scour site of deadly avalanche for any more victims
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] Rescue team members search for survivors after an avalanche in the northeastern state of Sikkim, India, April 4, 2023. Indian Ministry of Defence/Handout via REUTERSApril 5 (Reuters) - Rescue teams made final checks on Wednesday for anyone still trapped in an avalanche that swept down on a road in the Indian Himalayan state of Sikkim the day before, killing seven people. We will scour the area properly before we call them off," Tenzing Loden Lepcha, a police official in the northeastern state, told Reuters by telephone. Avalanches have killed at least 120 people in the Indian Himalayas over the past two years. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences concluded in 2018 that climate change had increased avalanche risks in the Himalayas.

☆ India rejects China's renaming of places along disputed border
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW DELHI/BEIJING, April 4 (Reuters) - India rejected on Tuesday the renaming by China of places in what India regards as its eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims as part of its territory. The statement included a map that showed the 11 places renamed by China as being within "Zangnan", or southern Tibet in Chinese, with Arunachal Pradesh included in southern Tibet and China's border with India demarcated as just north of the Brahmaputra river. "Arunachal Pradesh is, has been and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India," Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Twitter. But a spokesperson at the Chinese foreign ministry said the name changes were "completely within the scope of China's sovereignty". "The southern Tibet region is Chinese territory," the spokesperson, Mao Ning, told a regular media briefing in Beijing on Tuesday.

☆ Exiled leader tells US Congress Tibet faces 'slow death' under China
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON, March 28 (Reuters) - Tibet is dying a "slow death" under Chinese rule, the head of the India-based organization known as Tibet's government in-exile said on Tuesday in a first address to the U.S. Congress. The Sikyong role was created in 2012 after the Dalai Lama, Tibetans' 87-year-old spiritual leader, relinquished political authority in favor of an organization that could outlive him. China has ruled the remote western region of Tibet since 1951, after its military marched in and took control in what it calls a "peaceful liberation." Actor and long-time Tibet activist Richard Gere told the hearing that Chinese policies in Tibet increasingly "match the definition of crimes against humanity." Reporting by Michael Martina and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Leslie AdlerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Can the U.S. See the Truth About China?
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( David Marchese | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +14 min

Photo illustration by Bráulio Amado Talk Can the U.S. See the Truth About China? To see China solely as trying to displace the United States is only going to stoke more fears. The Chinese people believe that a substantially weakened Russia might not be in the interest of China, because if there were the sense that the United States needed to seek out an opponent, China would be next. And then also, the United States thinks that China wants to displace it. The industrial espionage stems from a lack of appreciation from the start of intellectual property, and the United States, by pushing China to do more intellectual-property protection, is actually good for China.

☆ Nepal seeks easier trade access to Chinese markets
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Gopal Sharma | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Beijing accounts for 14% of Nepal's international trade while India holds nearly two-thirds of it, trade officials said. Beijing will also help Nepal construct a trans-Himalayan railway network linking Kathmandu with the Tibet region of China. He had requested China to give access to "some 512 tradable Nepali products" to the country's duty-free and quota-free market, he said. "Trade is the engine of growth and our future prosperity lies in our capacity to produce and trade more," Dahal added. China allows duty and quota free entry to 8,030 items from least-developed countries including Nepal, officials said.

☆ China's top diplomat says Russia ties 'rock solid'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Summary China's top diplomat in MoscowPutin ally: we stick together versus the WestXi could visit Moscow soon - WSJMOSCOW, Feb 21 (Reuters) - China's top diplomat told one of President Vladimir Putin's closest allies on Tuesday that Beijing's relationship with Moscow was "rock solid" and would withstand any test in a changing international situation. At a meeting in Moscow, Wang Yi told Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of Russia's powerful Security Council, that he looked forward to discussions about security. "Chinese-Russian relations are mature in character: they are rock solid and will withstand any test in a changing international situation," Wang told "Comrade" Patrushev through a Russian interpreter in remarks aired on state television. Wang said Russia and China should work out new joint steps to ensure the security of both countries, without elaborating. The United States casts China and Russia as the two biggest nation-state threats to its security.

Lockheed (LMT) Martin Corporation and Raytheon (RTN) Missiles & Defense, a subsidiary of Raytheon (RTN) Technologies Corp, will be added to China’s sanctions list, its Ministry of Commerce said in a Thursday statement. That move came after American forces downed what it called a Chinese surveillance balloon that entered its airspace late last month. Thursday’s Chinese commerce ministry statement made no mention of the downed balloon, nor the US sanctions on Chinese entities. Instead, it cited “national sovereignty” as the catalyst for the penalties while highlighting both companies’ sales of arms to Taiwan. China maintains that the balloon found over the United States was a civilian research aircraft accidentally blown off course.

☆ China says U.S. balloons flew over Xinjiang, Tibet, warns of countermeasures
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BEIJING, Feb 15 (Reuters) - China said on Wednesday that U.S. high altitude balloons flew over its Xinjiang and Tibet regions, and it will take measures against U.S. entities that undermine Chinese sovereignty as a diplomatic dispute festered. China said earlier this week that U.S. balloons had flown over its airspace without permission more than 10 times since May 2022, without giving details on their location. "Without the approval of relevant Chinese authorities, it has illegally flown at least 10 times over China's territorial airspace, including over Xinjiang, Tibet and other provinces," Wang told a regular daily briefing on Wednesday. Washington later added six Chinese entities connected to Beijing's suspected surveillance balloon program to an export blacklist. "China is firmly opposed to this and will take countermeasures against relevant U.S. entities that undermine China's sovereignty and security in accordance with the law," Wang said.

☆ EU considers ban on 'forever chemicals', urges search for alternatives
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Ludwig Burger | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

"A ban on PFAS would reduce quantities of PFAS in the environment over the long term. Once the ban is in force, companies will be given between 18 months and 12 years to introduce alternatives to the more than 10,000 PFAS affected, depending on the availability of alternatives, according to the draft proposal. The FPP4EU group of 14 companies that make and use PFAS has said that finding alternatives is a long and difficult process. Within the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), two scientific committees for Risk Assessment and for Socio-Economic Analysis will now review whether the proposal to ban PFAS conforms with wider EU regulation of chemicals known as REACH, followed by a scientific evaluation and consultation with the industry. In August, the United States government said it will propose designating certain forever chemicals as hazardous substances under the U.S. Superfund programme.

☆ India expects more clashes with Chinese troops in Himalayas
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Krishn Kaushik | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

NEW DELHI, Jan 28 (Reuters) - A security assessment by Indian police in the Himalayan region of Ladakh says there could be more clashes between Indian and Chinese troops along their contested frontier there as Beijing ramps up military infrastructure in the region. A fresh clash erupted between the two sides in the eastern Himalayas in December but there were no deaths. The report said the assessment was based on intelligence gathered by local police in the border areas and the pattern of India-China military tensions over the years. China's foreign ministry spokesperson's office on Saturday said China was maintaining close communication and dialogue through diplomatic and military channels with India. India and China share a 3,500 km (2,100 miles) border that has been disputed since the 1950s.

☆ Death toll from Tibet avalanche rises to 28
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BEIJING, Jan 21 (Reuters) - At least 28 people were killed in an avalanche in the city of Nyingchi in the southwestern region of Tibet, the official Xinhua news agency reported late on Friday. Fifty-three survivors were found, five of whom were seriously injured, Global Times reported, citing a local government official in the western Chinese region. read moreWith an altitude of nearly 4,500 metres (14,764 ft), Doxong La mountain has steep slopes and Doxong La section of the road is rugged. The avalanche was triggered by strong winds as the weather gets warm, Xinhua added. Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Himani SarkarOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Lavrov says Russia and China alert to Western 'games'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MOSCOW, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that the United States was attempting to "contain" both Russia and China with the help of other countries, but they were alert to its "games". Lavrov told a news conference that the West saw both countries as a threat - Russia right now, and China in the longer term as a systemic rival. At the same time, he said, the West was trying to drive a wedge between Russia and China. "The West is trying to sow discord in our relations...We and China see all these games," he said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaks during his annual news conference in Moscow, Russia, January 18, 2023.

REUTERS/Tingshu WangBEIJING/WUHAN, Jan 2 (Reuters) - Some people in China's key cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Wuhan braved the cold and a spike in COVID-19 infections to return to regular activity on Monday, confident of a boost to the economy as more recover from infections. But Monday's one new COVID death - flat with the previous day - among China's population of 1.4 billion does not match the experience of other countries after they re-opened. Cumulative deaths in China since Dec. 1 have probably reached 100,000, with infections at 18.6 million, it said. Airfinity expects China's COVID infections to reach their first peak on Jan. 13, with 3.7 million daily infections. China has said it only counts deaths of COVID patients caused by pneumonia and respiratory failure as COVID-related.

☆ What it's like to climb up and ski down Makalu, the world's 5th-highest mountain
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( Britney Nguyen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Almost 28,000 feet, Makalu is just 12 miles away from Mount Everest — a mountain Ballinger has climbed several times, along with K2, the world's second-tallest mountain. But at Makalu, Ballinger wasn't there only to climb — he was making his third attempt to be the first person to ski down from the summit of the world's fifth-tallest mountain. Ballinger spent a year preparing to ski Makalu"Once I decided I wanted to try, I spent a year at home of focus, dedicated training, working towards being ready to try to ski Makalu," Ballinger said. From left, Dorji Sonam Sherpa, Sherpa Sirdar (lead sherpa), Ballinger, Phu Rita Sherpa. At base camp, Ballinger and his fellow climbers are fed by a Nepali chef who prepares fresh meat, vegetables, and fruit.

☆ China sanctions two Americans over Tibet rights controversy
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BEIJING, Dec 23 (Reuters) - China has sanctioned two Americans in retaliation for U.S. sanctions against two Chinese officials over human rights in Tibet earlier this month, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Friday. According to this order, the Chinese measures are in retaliation for the sanctions imposed on two Chinese officials by the United States on Dec. 9 over human rights issues in the Chinese western frontier region of Tibet. China will freeze all Chinese assets of Yu and Stein, and ban any organisation or individual within China from engaging with them. Both men and their family members are also banned from entering China. Reporting by Yew Lun Tian; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Jacqueline WongOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Of seven new dams planned in Laos, at least four are co-financed by Chinese companies, according to Mekong Dam Monitor data. 'WAKE-UP CALL'Farmers in the Vietnamese Mekong River Delta region were not prepared for the speed at which their landscape - and fortunes - have changed. The Mekong River Commission estimated in 2018 that total sediment flow by now would be around 47 million tonnes per year. "Mainstream dams catch everything," said economist Brian Eyler at the Stimson Center, which runs the Mekong Dam Monitor. The Xayaburi and Don Sahong dams in Laos are the most recent to come online, with Xayaburi the largest on the entire Mekong River.

☆ India-China border clash video shows troops fighting with sticks and bricks
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Jessie Yeung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Though they’re separated by barbed wire, the footage appears to show Indian troops beating the Chinese soldiers with makeshift weapons, including what look like wooden sticks and metal pipes. In several instances, Indian soldiers can be seen throwing bricks or stones. Many of the Chinese soldiers, gathered on the other side of the wire, also appear to be holding long sticks or batons. Speaking to lawmakers on Tuesday, India’s defense minister accused Chinese troops of trying to cross the LAC, saying they were trying to “unilaterally” change the status quo. Later that evening in a statement posted online, the Chinese military’s Western Theater Command accused Indian troops of “illegally” crossing into the Chinese side of the border.

☆ China slams U.S. sanctions over alleged rights abuses in Tibet
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

BEIJING, Dec 12 (Reuters) - The Chinese foreign ministry said on Monday that U.S. sanctions on two senior Chinese officials over alleged human rights abuses in Tibet were illegal and seriously harmed Sino-U.S.-relations. The U.S. Treasury Department said on Friday it imposed sanctions on Wu Yingjie, the Chinese Communist Party chief in Tibet between 2016 and 2021, and Zhang Hongbo, a senior public security official in the region. China has been accused of harsh policies to quell ethnic dissent and control religious activities in Tibet -- accusations that China rejects. Reporting by Martin Quin Pollard; writing by Ryan Woo; Editing by Kim CoghillOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

The flurry of deals comes even as warnings emerge that lithium prices, driven to records by rapid growth in electric vehicles, may peak next year because of a looming supply glut. It also bought majority stakes in the Lakkor Tso Lithium Salar mine in China's Tibet region and the Xiangyuan lithium mine in Hunan province. Zijin has a market capitalisation of about $35 billion and net profit of 15.7 billion yuan ($2.2 billion) last year. Some firms are also working to develop alternative battery materials, which could reduce lithium demand in the long term. Zijin told investors recently it made its mine acquisitions based on lithium carbonate prices of 100,000 yuan a tonne.

☆ Factbox: A chronology of dissent in China in recent decades
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( James Pomfret | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

The following is a timeline of some other notable protests, and public dissent against China's ruling Communist Party. 2009 - Xinjiang - In the region's worst ethnic unrest in decades, ethnic Uighurs attacked majority Han Chinese in the capital Urumqi, after an incident involving Uighur workers in a factory in southern China. China later builds massive "facilities" to turn Xinjiang into what a United Nations panel described as a "massive internment camp shrouded in secrecy". China later imposes a powerful national security law, arresting scores of democrats and shutting down civil society groups and liberal media outlets, including the Apple Daily newspaper. 2022 - Henan bank protests - Public protests simmer as thousands lose access to their savings in a banking fraud scandal centred on rural lenders in Henan and Anhui provinces.

☆ Obituary: China's Jiang Zemin confounded doubters, mended U.S. ties
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

[1/5] A security guard stands next to a portrait of China's former President Jiang Zemin at an exhibition to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in Beijing, China, July 7, 2011. Under Jiang, China weathered the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis, joined the World Trade Organisation in 2001 and won the bid to host the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. "Jiang Zemin was more ready to be natural, even though sometimes it could be perceived as vulgar, not very sophisticated." At celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the People's Republic in 1999, floats carried giant portraits of Mao, Deng and Jiang past Tiananmen Square. Jiang, like Mao, wore his trousers well above his waist and brushed his hair straight back.

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