Nadya Yeh is a Senior Editor at The China Project. Nadya got her Master’s degree at the Global Thought program at Columbia University and her Bachelor’s at Williams College. She has previously done research at the China Institute.
Germany will allow Chinese shipping firm Cosco to buy a large stake — though smaller than previously discussed — in the nation’s largest port, at a time when many EU members have criticized Berlin for being too conciliatory toward China.
Washington disclosed charges against more than a dozen Chinese nationals in three separate espionage cases, including two people who allegedly offered bribes for insider information on the lawsuit against Huawei.
China’s ruling Communist Party has named the top leaders that will govern the country for the next five years. Unsurprisingly, Xi Jinping is in charge.
In his first policy address, Hong Kong leader John Lee unveiled a list of strategies to try to rebuild the city’s reputation as Asia’s finance hub. But he did not mention an ease to COVID restrictions.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin slammed demonstrators for ‘illegally entering’ the Chinese consulate in Manchester, while Consul General Zheng Xiyuan has been accused of being involved in the violence as British police investigate the incident.
Xi addressed some hot-button issues in his opening speech: COVID zero isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, tough talk on Taiwan, and Hong Kong’s return from “chaos.” But don’t ask about the economy — the GDP report has been delayed until an unknown date.
“We don’t want COVID tests. We want to eat,” was one of the sentences scrawled in red on a banner hung off a bridge in Beijing just days before the Party Congress. The act of protest is rare in China, a country that is notorious for its censorship, and this lonely act of defiance will probably not be repeated any time soon.
China is still a bit player in shipping, governance, and resource exploitation in the Arctic Circle, but Beijing has ambitious plans.
The People’s Daily, the Communist Party's house newspaper, has this week published two commentaries pledging support of COVID zero, ending hopes that China will relax its pandemic policy at the Party Congress.