‘The toilet issue is no small thing’: Chinese President Xi comments on plan to upgrade 68,000 public toilets in two years

Newsweek reports that “China is stepping up an initiative to clean up unsanitary and foul-smelling toilets to boost tourism and living standards for residents.” Authorities have already renovated 68,000 public toilets in the past three years, and aim to improve the same amount again by 2020. On November 27, Chinese President Xi Jinping again publicized the “toilet revolution” that he launched in 2015, emphasizing that it’s “no small thing” for “building civilized cities and countryside.”

• Germany, Tibet, and sports
  China under-20 football tour suspended after pro-Tibet protests / The Guardian
  “Protesters unfurled Tibetan flags at a game in Mainz, Germany, causing the Chinese team to walk off the pitch.”
• Industrial accidents
  Fatal blast in Chinese port city of Ningbo happened at septic tank outside village / SCMP
• U.S.-China relations
  U.S. charges 3 Chinese nationals with hacking, stealing intellectual property from companies / CNN
• North Korea
  China upholding UN sanctions against North Korea, trade figures show / Bloomberg
• Rohingya crisis
  Aung San Suu Kyi to visit China as international criticism over response to Rohingya crisis grows / SCMP
• Eastern Europe
  Brussels rattled as China reaches out to Eastern Europe / FT (paywall)
• Australia
  China displeased with South China Sea talk in Australia’s foreign policy White Paper / Australian ABC