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☆ An internet hoax has dragged a popular China stationery company into the protests against the country's harsh COVID-19 restrictions
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Rebecca Cohen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A fake document that circulated on Chinese social media said the country's largest stationery company would halt sales of white paper. The company quickly said the document was fake and that they would still sell A4 paper. But now a top Chinese stationery company has gotten caught up in the fervor thanks to an internet hoax. The document added that the Shanghai-based company "strongly condemns the recent 'white paper movement,'" the name given to the protests against China's restrictive COVID-19 policies. The company quickly announced the statement was fake and that it would keep selling white paper — but not before the company's stock price tumbled 3%.

☆ Canada's Trudeau says people in China should be allowed to protest
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Chris HelgrenOTTAWA, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday that everyone in China should be allowed to protest and express themselves, and that Canadians were closely watching the protests against the country's zero-COVID policy. "Everyone in China should be allowed to express themselves, should be allowed to share their perspectives and indeed protest." Free China! and "Xi Jinping! Hugh Yu, who said he participated in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and now lives in Canada, helped organize the Toronto protest.

But it still refuses to use Western mRNA vaccines to innoculate the population more quickly. China's hesitancy to use Western vaccine technology is contributing to the mass protests against its COVID-19 restrictions. Despite that, China is still refusing to approve and distribute Western vaccines to innoculate its citizens. In lieu of the Western vaccines, which are based on mRNA, China has been relying on its own brand of jabs, which rely on inactivated, or killed, virus. Germany this week suggested China should use Western vaccines to speed up the process and protect the country from the virus, Politico reported.

REUTERS/Thomas PeterBEIJING, Nov 29 (Reuters) - The rare street protests that erupted in cities across China over the weekend were a referendum against President Xi Jinping's zero-COVID policy and the strongest public defiance during his political career, China analysts said. Public dissatisfaction with Xi's zero-COVID policy, expressed on social media or offline in the form of putting up posters in universities or by protesting, is Xi's biggest domestic challenge since the 2019 protests in Hong Kong against an extradition bill. Although this authoritarian arrangement allowed Xi to be more powerful, it also contains vulnerabilities, as exposed by the protests, analysts said. "If he lets go, it would mean that his past zero-COVID policy has completely failed and he would have to take responsibility for it. Xi tried tweaking the zero-COVID policy with the release of "20 measures" last month, in an attempt to standardize prevention measures nationwide and make them friendlier to residents and to the economy.

☆ Analysis: China protests highlight Xi's COVID policy dilemma - to walk it back or not
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File PhotoBEIJING, Nov 29 (Reuters) - The rare street protests that erupted in cities across China over the weekend were a referendum against President Xi Jinping's zero-COVID policy and the strongest public defiance during his political career, China analysts said. Public dissatisfaction with Xi's zero-COVID policy, expressed on social media or offline in the form of putting up posters in universities or by protesting, is Xi's biggest domestic challenge since the 2019 protests in Hong Kong against an extradition bill. Although this authoritarian arrangement allowed Xi to be more powerful, it also contains vulnerabilities, as exposed by the protests, analysts said. "If he lets go, it would mean that his past zero-COVID policy has completely failed and he would have to take responsibility for it. Xi tried tweaking the zero-COVID policy with the release of "20 measures" last month, in an attempt to standardize prevention measures nationwide and make them friendlier to residents and to the economy.

☆ Photos show the true scale of the anti-COVID protests sweeping China
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Protests have erupted across China as anger over strict COVID policies boils over. Photos show massive groups of people carrying symbols of defiance — a rare rebuke of Chinese rule. Loading Something is loading. Locals allege the strict COVID measures kept people from fleeing the burning building, the BBC reported. The protests — while not as intense as the deadly Tiananmen Square rallies — are still the largest since 1989 and photographs show the scale of the demonstrations.

☆ China protests could usher in 'more authoritarian' Xi era, analyst says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Karen Gilchrist | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Police form a cordon during a protest against Chinas strict zero COVID measures on November 27, 2022 in Beijing, China. "It raises the pressure on Xi Jinping, and I think likely puts him towards a more authoritarian approach to governance in China," Green added. As such, Xi's CCP could clamp down further on public protests, Green noted. That was the case during 2019's pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, and 1989's Tiananmen Square protests on the Chinese mainland. "In the short term, the Covid policy will only be fine-tuned without moving the needle," Bruce Pang, chief economist and head of research for Greater China at JLL, said Monday.

[1/2] Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei poses for a picture after an interview with Reuters in Montemor-O-Novo, Portugal, November, 28, 2022. REUTERS/Catarina DemonySummary Ai Weiwei says protests not likely to carry onPolice will use force to silence protestersMovement lacks organisation and leadershipMONTEMOR-O-NOVO, Portugal, Nov 28 (Reuters) - From his Portuguese home, Ai Weiwei, the high-profile Chinese dissident whose art has often criticized Beijing's policies, said the recent wave of protests would not shake Xi Jinping's government because the police would simply crush them into silence. "Even if something happens (on) the Hong Kong scale or 1989 scale it (still) won't shake the government," he added. The protests in China were triggered by a fire in the Xinjiang region last week that killed 10 people who were trapped in their apartments. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson told a regular briefing on Monday that China was not aware of any protests abroad calling for an end to its COVID policy.

☆ Anti-government protests spread to Shanghai and Beijing as anger grows over China's strict zero-COVID policy
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-27 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Shanghai is gripped by anti-COVID-19 protests, which are also happening in Xinjiang, Beijing, and Nanjing. Earlier this week, China reported a record number of COVID-19 cases. On Saturday, Shanghai, China's most populous city and its financial hub, became the latest flashpoint for the anger of of Chinese people. Per the BBC, protests are also happening in Urumqi city, Beijing, and Nanjing, in eastern China, all cities with rising COVID-19 cases and increasing levels of restrictions. Earlier this week, China reported a record number of COVID-19 cases across the country, with 31,444 new COVID cases in the country on Thursday.

In Beijing, hundreds of mostly young people demonstrated in the commercial heart of the city well into the small hours of Monday. Freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom of arts, freedom of movement, personal freedoms. A security guard tries to cover a protest slogan against zero-Covid on the campus of Peking University in Beijing. “Open your eyes and look at the world, dynamic zero-Covid is a lie,” the protest slogan at Peking University read. At Tsinghua University, another elite university in Beijing, hundreds of students gathered on a square to protest against zero-Covid and censorship.

☆ Bao Tong, Former Reformist Official and Critic of China’s Leader Xi, Dies at 90
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( Chun Han Wong | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Bao Tong had remained a prominent figure within liberal party circles in the decades since his political fall from grace. A photo of the former Communist Party official from 2014. Bao Tong , a senior Communist Party official who became one of China’s most outspoken dissidents after his purge during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and later emerged as a vocal critic of Chinese leader Xi Jinping ’s autocratic rule, died Wednesday. Mr. Bao, who had been living in Beijing, died peacefully at around 7 a.m., according to a post published on his son Bao Pu’s Twitter account. The younger Mr. Bao couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

☆ Chinese ambassador warns Swiss: Sanction us and ties will suffer
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

ZURICH, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Switzerland should avoid following the European Union by imposing sanctions on China if it cares about Swiss-Sino relations, the Chinese ambassador to Bern told the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper. "If Switzerland adopts the sanctions and the situation develops in an uncontrolled direction, Sino-Swiss relations will suffer," he added. In unveiling a new strategy on China last year, Bern announced few concrete policy changes and stressed the importance of bilateral ties. But it spoke more openly about its disapproval of China's human rights record than it has tended to do in the past. Since 2010, China has been its biggest trading partner in Asia and its third-largest globally after the EU and the United States.

☆ China posts 6-month high Covid count as it sticks with strategy
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-06 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

China recorded 4,420 new locally transmitted Covid-19 infections on Saturday, the National Health Commission said, the most since May 6 and compared up from 3,659 new local cases a day earlier. At a news conference on Saturday, health officials reiterated their commitment to the "dynamic-clearing" approach to Covid cases as soon as they emerge. China's anti-Covid measures are "completely correct, as well as the most economical and effective", said disease control official Hu Xiang. China's capital Beijing reported 43 symptomatic and six asymptomatic cases, compared with 37 symptomatic and five asymptomatic cases the previous day. Still, the annual Beijing marathon took place on Sunday morning under strict Covid protocols, after being cancelled the previous two years.

☆ China posts 6-month high COVID count as it sticks with strategy
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

At a news conference on Saturday, health officials reiterated their commitment to the "dynamic-clearing" approach to COVID cases as soon as they emerge. China's anti-COVID measures are "completely correct, as well as the most economical and effective", said disease control official Hu Xiang. China's capital Beijing reported 43 symptomatic and six asymptomatic cases, compared with 37 symptomatic and five asymptomatic cases the previous day. Still, the annual Beijing marathon took place on Sunday morning under strict COVID protocols, after being cancelled the previous two years. Reporting by Ella Cao and Tony Munroe; Editing by Michael Perry and William MallardOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

HONG KONG — After mass unrest in 2019, a pandemic that left it isolated from the world and the imposition of a national security law that has crushed dissent, Hong Kong is ready to turn the page. According to government statistics, about 319,000 people arrived in Hong Kong last month, down 97% from 10.8 million in October 2019. According to one report last month, Hong Kong has lost its status as Asia’s top financial center to Singapore. While it may not be realistic to expect businesses to turn away from China’s huge market, global business leaders “need to recognize that there’s a new situation in Hong Kong, there’s a new reality,” said Brian Kern, the lead researcher for a report on doing business in Hong Kong that was published last month by the Hong Kong Democracy Council, a nonprofit group based in Washington. Lee also pointed to a report in September in which Hong Kong topped Singapore as the world’s freest economy.

☆ Supporters of Hong Kong Activist Given Jail Time for Clapping in Court
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Selina Cheng | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

HONG KONG—Two supporters of a prominent Hong Kong pro-democracy activist were given jail sentences on Thursday for clapping and uttering comments in the public gallery during one of her courtroom appearances, reflecting the widening ambit of authorities’ efforts to eliminate dissent in the city. A pastor and a retiree were convicted of sedition for their behavior at the January sentencing of one of the city’s leading China critics, lawyer Chow Hang-tung. Ms. Chow, an organizer of vigils commemorating 1989’s Tiananmen Square massacre who has been in jail since last year, has faced multiple charges and court appearances that have drawn supporters to cheer her on.

HONG KONG — A Hong Kong court found media tycoon Jimmy Lai guilty of fraud on Tuesday, the latest in a myriad of cases against Lai and other pro-democracy activists that critics say officials are using to stamp out dissent in the Chinese territory. Lai, 74, the founder of defunct pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily, is among the most prominent activists to be prosecuted in the wake of anti-government protests that swept Hong Kong for months in 2019. Lai and co-defendant Wong Wai-keung, a former senior executive at Next Digital who was also convicted, both pleaded not guilty. Critics of the national security law say it has greatly eroded civil liberties in Hong Kong, the preservation of which had been promised for 50 years when the former British colony was returned to Chinese rule in 1997. An annual survey by the Committee to Protect Journalists found that the number of Hong Kong journalists it considers unjustly imprisoned for their work rose from zero to eight in 2021.

☆ Anti-Xi protest spreads in China and worldwide as Chinese leader begins third term
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-22 | by ( Cnn Staff | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +17 min

Obtained by CNNCNN spoke with two Chinese citizens who scribbled protest slogans in bathroom stalls and half a dozen overseas Chinese students who put up anti-Xi posters on their campuses. Chen had tried to share the Sitong Bridge protest on WeChat, China’s super app, but it kept getting censored. But as the widespread anti-Xi posters have shown, the rising nationalistic sentiment is by no means representative of all Chinese students overseas. In the day following the protest in Beijing, Jolie saw on Instagram an outpouring of photos showing protest posters from all over the world. But the extensive censorship around the Sitong Bridge protest also betrays its paranoia.

☆ Factbox: FACTBOX How China's Communist Party Congress works
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Yew Lun Tian | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

A day after the congress, the newly elected Central Committee will convene behind closed doors at its first plenum. The 200 Central Committee members with voting rights will then vote "yes" or "no" on each of the proposed candidates for the two committees. The Central Committee will then elect one person from the Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) to be the general secretary. The general secretary will then introduce his new team and speak about the work ahead. The Central Committee also approves the make-up of a new secretariat and the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

☆ German spy chief: 'Russia is the storm, China is climate change'
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( Sarah Marsh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

German and Chinese national flags fly in Tiananmen Square ahead of the visit of German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Beijing, China, May 23, 2018. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterChina has urged Germany not to politicize the countries' economic relations or engage in protectionism "in the name of national security". "In the case of a political disagreement between China and Germany, these instruments will be used," he said. The head of Germany's domestic intelligence service, Thomas Haldenwang, said stakes in critical infrastructure could also open the door to sabotage and influence on public opinion. "When I speak with foreign partners about China, they always say: Russia is the storm, China is climate change," he said.

☆ China's Xi defends zero-Covid policy and warns Taiwan at opening of Communist Party Congress
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-16 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

Chinese President Xi Jinping called for accelerating the building of a world-class military as he kicked off a Communist Party Congress by touting the country's “zero-Covid” strategy and reiterating policy priorities. Xi described the five years since the last party congress as “extremely uncommon and abnormal”, during a speech that lasted less than two hours — far shorter than his nearly three-and-a-half-hour address at the 2017 congress. Chinese President Xi Jinping, bottom, centre, is applauded by senior members of the government and delegates after his speech on Sunday. The son of a Communist Party revolutionary, Xi has reinvigorated a party that had grown deeply corrupt and increasingly irrelevant, expanding its presence across all aspects of China, with Xi officially its “core”. The day after the congress ends on Saturday, Xi is expected to introduce his new Politburo Standing Committee, a seven-person leadership team.

☆ China is about to hold the most important meeting in its political calendar. Here’s what you need to know.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-16 | by ( Rhoda Kwan | Rhoda Kwan Is A Taipei-Based Journalist. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

China is about to hold the most important meeting in its political calendar, the five-yearly Communist Party congress, where President Xi Jinping is expected to gain an unprecedented third term as the country’s leader. What is the Communist Party congress? State media report that these representatives were "elected" but all of them were carefully vetted and no open campaigning is allowed. A Central Committee of around 200 voting members will also pick 25 members for the Politburo, the highest policy-making body in the world's second largest economy. “It’s not just about ideas, it’s really about signaling a leader’s power and legacy,” David Bandurski, the co-director at the China Media Project, a research program that analyses the country’s media landscape, said.

☆ China's Xi to open 20th Communist Party Congress
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Visitors walk past a screen showing Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Museum of the Communist Party of China in Beijing, China October 13, 2022. REUTERS/Florence LoBEIJING, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping is to open the 20th Communist Party Congress on Sunday, a week-long event where he is widely expected to win a third leadership term and cement his place as the country's most powerful ruler since Mao Zedong. REVOLUTIONARY'S SONThe son of a Communist Party revolutionary, Xi has reinvigorated a party that had grown deeply corrupt and increasingly irrelevant, expanding its presence across all aspects of China, with Xi officially its "core". The twice-a-decade congress is expected to reconfirm Xi as party general secretary, China's most powerful post, as well as chairman of the Central Military Commission. The day after the congress ends on Saturday, Xi is expected to introduce his new Politburo Standing Committee, a seven-person leadership team.

☆ Xi set to open party congress at challenging time for China
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Tony Munroe | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

China's President Xi Jinping attends a wreath laying ceremony on Tiananmen Square to mark Martyrs' Day on the eve of the National Day in Beijing, China September 30, 2022. Still, diplomats, economists and analysts spoken to by Reuters say Xi is set to consolidate his grip on power. In securing a third term Xi breaks with the two-term precedent of recent decades. Also breaking with norms: no successor to Xi, 69, is expected to be identified, analysts say, which would indicate he plans to remain in power even longer. Still, analysts say, the views of any individual matter less nowadays as Xi has sidelined those seen as "reformers" in favour of his more state-driven and nationalistic economic policies.

☆ Factbox: How China's Communist Party Congress works
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Yew Lun Tian | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

BEIJING, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping is poised to win a third five-year term as General Secretary of the ruling Communist Party, the most powerful job in the country, at the 20th Party Congress that starts on Sunday. During the opening ceremony, which is broadcast with a delay, Xi will read out the 20th party congress report, reviewing the party's achievements of recent years and laying out its vision for the next five years. At the 19th party congress, the opening speech lasted 3 hours and 24 minutes. THE CLOSING CEREMONYAt the closing ceremony, typically a week after the start, delegates vote to endorse the congress report and party constitution amendment. The Standing Committee members enter in order of seniority, highest to lowest.

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