As the latest phase of Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption crackdown cuts through high-level banking and the elite nuclear rocket force, some have questioned when it might end. The short answer: it won’t. It has become a central plank of the system of governance for China’s leader. And, because the anti-corruption drive has been used to remove…
“If I had the choice, I definitely wouldn’t go back home,” says Yuwen, a 33-year-old who has been unemployed for more than six months, days ahead of the Chinese New Year. Many of China’s nearly 380 million internal migrants only go home once a year – and the Lunar New Year, the most important festival…
Lionel Messi played in a Japan friendly after missing a match in Hong Kong, leaving Chinese fans seething and sparking conspiracy theories. State media outlet Global Times accused Messi and his club Inter Miami of “political motives” with the aim to “embarrass” Hong Kong. Messi remained on the bench throughout Sunday’s match in the Chinese…
Snowstorms and freezing rain have disrupted transportation in large parts of China as millions of people travel for the Lunar New Year holiday. Hundreds of flights and train services have been cancelled while motorists have been stranded on frozen highways for days. The holiday sets off the “largest annual human migration” as millions in China…
China has executed a couple who fatally threw two children out of the window of an apartment building. Zhang Bo – the father of the children – and Ye Chengchen were previously found guilty of killing the two-year-old girl and one-year-old boy in 2020. Zhang had began an affair with Ye and later divorced his…
Myanmar has handed over three Chinese warlords to Beijing, who were notorious for trafficking thousands of foreign nationals to forcibly run scams. Bai Suocheng, Wei Chaoren and Liu Zhengxiang led three of four families which ruled Laukkaing on Myanmar’s north-eastern border with China. They were were taken to China on a chartered flight, with seven…
It’s a show about the life of foreigners in Hong Kong – but has aired everywhere except in the city itself. Expats – an Amazon Prime series starring Nicole Kidman – centres around the lives of three American women. Set in 2014, it includes scenes from the “Umbrella Movement” – a city-wide protest calling for…
A British national was sentenced to five years in jail for spying in 2022, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Mofa) has now revealed. The defendant – named as Ian J Stones – committed the “crime of illegally obtaining intelligence for overseas actors”, a Mofa spokesman said. The spokesman added that he had appealed against the…
China has waned its citizens against “exotic beauties” seeking to lure them into the hands of foreign spy agencies. The Ministry of State Security said a Chinese man, Li Si, went to a nightclub while on an overseas trip and was later blackmailed by foreign spies. The ministry’s WeChat post’s title read, “Hunting for beauty?…
“I’ve had one, two, three, four… five jobs in the last few months,” says Joy Zhang, a 23-year-old graduate. She counts them on her fingers as she walks through a line of stalls at a local food market in Chengdu, a city in south-west China’s Sichuan province. “The fact is there are lots of jobs,…