Chinese authorities are continuing to ease COVID-19 restrictions, with several cities including Shenzhen and Beijing no longer requiring negative tests to take public transport. The moves come even as daily COVID-19 infections in China hover near all-time highs and follow recent protests by people across the country who are frustrated by the Chinese government’s rigid … Read more
SHANGHAI (AP) — The mourners in Shanghai lit candles and placed flowers. Someone scrawled “Urumqi, 11.24, Rest in Peace” in red on cardboard — referring to the deadly apartment fire in China’s western city of Urumqi that sparked anger over perceptions the country’s strict COVID-19 measures played a role in the disaster. What started as … Read more
HONG KONG (AP) — Videos of hundreds protesting in Shanghai began to appear on WeChat on Saturday night. Showing chants about removing COVID-19 restrictions and demanding freedomthey would stay up only a few minutes before being censored. Elliot Wang, a 26-year-old in Beijing, was amazed. “I started refreshing constantly, and saving videos, and taking screenshots … Read more
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – When Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary Paul Chan addressed a recent legal forum, he highlighted the ability of the city’s courts to make rulings without interference as the “cornerstone” of international businesses’ confidence in the financial hub. Now the independence of Hong Kong’s British-inherited judiciary, ostensibly guaranteed under a system known as … Read more
BEIJING (AP) — More Chinese cities eased anti-virus restrictions and police patrolled their streets Thursday as the government tried to defuse public anger over some of the world’s most stringent COVID measures and head off more protests.. Following weekend demonstrations at which some crowds made the politically explosive demand that leader Xi Jinping resign, the … Read more
General Asim Munir, Pakistan’s new military chief, took command this week amid security and economic crises and a deepening political rift between opposition leader Imran Khan and the government. Can the new man on the job stem the chaos, and would that entail the old way of doing military business in Pakistan? As the troops … Read more
BEIJING (AP) — Jiang Zemin, who led China out of isolation after the army crushed the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests in 1989 and supported economic reforms that led to a decade of explosive growth, died Wednesday. He was 96. Jiang, who was president for a decade until 2003 and led the ruling Communist Party for … Read more
Bill was standing with a group of people mostly in their 20s when a young woman started to lead the chanting. “Give me liberty, or give me death,” she shouted, her voice cracking at one point. Others followed her lead, repeating the chant, and raising sheets of blank paper, a defining symbol of the latest … Read more
BEIJING (AP) — China’s ruling Communist Party has vowed to “resolutely crack down on infiltration and sabotage activities by hostile forces,” following the largest street demonstrations in decades staged by citizens fed up with strict anti-virus restrictions. The statement from the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission released late Tuesday comes amid a massive show … Read more
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese universities sent students home and police fanned out in Beijing and Shanghai to prevent more protests Tuesday after crowds angered by severe anti-virus restrictions called for leader Xi Jinping to resign. in the biggest show of public dissent in decades. Authorities have eased some controls after demonstrations in at least eight … Read more