BEIJING (Reuters) – Russia held firm as China’s top crude oil supplier in December for the 10th month and racked up its second year as the No.1 supplier to China in 2017, customs data showed on Thursday, leaving rival exporter Saudi Arabia in second place once more. Shipments from Russia hit 5.03 million tonnes in December, down 0.2 percent from… Read more »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s Defence Ministry on Thursday denied that it was planning to build a military base in Afghanistan, branding such reports “groundless”. Russian news agency Ferghana News, which focuses on Central Asia, has reported that China will build the base in northern Afghanistan. The report was picked up last week by U.S. magazine The Diplomat and then in… Read more »
Out of all the countries involved and affected by the North Korean crisis, by far the most impacted is South Korea. Their proximity to the DPRK is surely causing distress in South Korea due to the current missile testing coming from Pyongyang. I think that it is a very smart move on South Korea’s part to be restoring ties with… Read more »
France 24 South Korean President Moon Jae-In will meet with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing Thursday amid mixed US signals about potential talks to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis. Relations between Beijing and Seoul have encountered their own rough patch over the US military’s deployment of a powerful anti-missile defence system in the South to counter the… Read more »
BBC A police investigation into child abuse in a Chinese kindergarten has dismissed all but one of the main accusations, causing widespread social media outrage, with parents turning to lawyers. It is also leading some to question China’s entire system of governance and accountability. When we arrived at the gates of the kindergarten on the eastern outskirts of Beijing, parents… Read more »
It seems that China and South Korea seem to be pursuing the same type of solution for the North Korea crisis. This solution is the more diplomatic approach. China wishes to avoid conflict by re-implementing the six-party talks in order to convince North Korea to denuclearize. Meanwhile, South Korea is refusing to fight fire with fire and, against the opinion… Read more »
France 24 A day after the UN imposed strict new sanctions on North Korea, China’s foreign minister called Sunday for the resumption of six-party talks to halt Pyongyang’s nuclear programme and warned that the crisis was entering a “critical” new phase. In a 15-0 vote on Saturday, the UN Security Council imposed tough new sanctions on North Korea that could… Read more »
FRANCE 24 | Septmeber 23, 2017 China will limit exports of refined petroleum products to North Korea starting October 1, its commerce ministry said, confirming Beijing’s participation in new UN sanctions intended to rein in its rogue neighbour. The United Nations Security Council, including permanent member Beijing, approved tough sanctions against Pyongyang last week in response to its sixth and… Read more »
BBC | September 13, 2017 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-41222940 A Taiwanese pro-democracy activist has gone on trial in China accused of “subverting state power”. Chinese authorities say Lee Ming-che promoted multi-party rule in group messaging chats. The 42-year-old activist went missing in China in March and was later revealed to have been detained. Little information has been given by Chinese authorities, but the… Read more »
Macau is the lesser known of the People’s Republic of China’s two special administrative regions (SARs) on the Pearl River delta (the other being Hong Kong). It was founded by Portuguese traders in 1557 and since then was a lucrative trade port between Europe and East Asia. In 1999, the Portuguese government returned the colony to Chinese sovereign control, and… Read more »