The South Pacific nation of fewer than 700,000 people remains divided over a 2019 decision to switch diplomatic ties from Taiwan to China. That is likely one of many factors in recent violent protests, but Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare insisted it is “the only issue” and that the violence had been “encouraged by other powers” that don’t like China.
New policies aimed at encouraging childbirth include longer mandated maternity leave, but many women aren’t happy.
The three-nation AUKUS security pact, which includes an American and British commitment to supply Australia with nuclear submarines, is the latest step in the U.S.-led Indo-Pacific strategy to counter China. It has sowed a genuine sense of fear in Beijing of things to come.
Jamie Dimon, head of the bank JP Morgan Chase, with a net worth of $1.9 billion, flew last week into Hong Kong, where the government allowed him to stay for a few days without any quarantine measures because of his economic importance to the region’s economy.
Taiwanese conglomerate Far Eastern Group (FEG) was recently fined in mainland China for problems such as “fire safety,” but the real problem appears to be politics: FEG is linked to officials in Taiwan that Beijing considers to be “‘Taiwan independence’ stubborn elements,” whose “affiliates and financial backers must be punished.”
Despite Beijing's efforts to alleviate a baby bust, Chinese people stubbornly seem to want fewer marriages and fewer babies. The gravity of the situation is starkly illustrated in China’s latest statistical yearbook.
“We don’t want to make you choose” between the U.S. and China, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on a three-nation tour in Africa, playing down the zero-sum messaging of his predecessors. But with mixed signals from elsewhere in the U.S. government, will African countries take up Blinken’s offer of deeper partnership?
The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) issued a statement that said the recent videos “don't alleviate or address the WTA's concern about her wellbeing and ability to communicate without censorship or coercion.”
Today, global furor grew about the apparent disappearance of a Chinese champion tennis player after she made #MeToo allegations against a retired senior official.