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More than a million people in Hong Kong SAR marched on Sunday against a controversial extradition bill that they fear will erode freedom in the semi-autonomous territory.
Hong Kong, a British colony until 1997, was handed over to China under the concept of 'one country, two systems,’ which accorded political and legal autonomy to the city. Critics fear the bill will undermine the independence of Hong Kong SAR's legal system and put its citizens and foreign nationals at risk by allowing suspects to be sent to mainland China for trial. The government has made some revisions to the Fugitive Offenders and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Legislation (Amendment) Bill, as it is officially known, which is due for another debate in the Legislative Council, the territory's parliament, on Wednesday.
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A ground-breaking fusion reactor built by Chinese scientists is underscoring Beijing’s determination to be at the core of clean energy technology, as it eyes a fully-functioning plant by 2050.
Hong Kong's leaders have launched laws to change extradition rules to allow people to be sent to mainland China for trial, standing fast against growing opposition to a move that many fear could further erode the city's legal protections.
According to the laws presented to the Legislative Council on Wednesday, Chief Executive Carrie Lam would have the right to order the extradition of wanted offenders to China, Macau and Taiwan as well as other countries not covered by Hong Kong's existing extradition treaties. Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi pledged to further enhance defense cooperation with China during his meeting with visiting Chinese State Councilor and Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe on March 25.
During the meeting, Sisi recalled the long-standing China-Egypt relation during which the two sides had achieved fruitful results from their cooperation in all fields and highlighted China’s contribution to world peace. Italy has become the first G7 country to sign a memorandum of understanding on China's Belt and Road initiative, which is designed to create a huge economic zone.
The expected inclusion of Chinese bonds in the Bloomberg Barclays Global Aggregate Bond Index next month is an "important milestone" in China's financial integration into the world economy, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) official said Wednesday.
"That step both reflects the importance of those bonds in foreign portfolios and likely will encourage more purchases of those securities going forward," said Changyong Rhee, IMF's director of the Asia and Pacific department, at a book forum held in Washington D.C. China strongly condemns and firmly opposes the U.S. tariff proposals and is ready to take countermeasures on U.S. products. The U.S. side published the list in disregard of the mutually-beneficial and win-win nature of the China-U.S. commercial cooperation in the past 40 years, the appeal of the Chinese and American business communities and the interests of consumers.
The move went against the interests of China, the United States and the world economy, seriously violating the basic principles and spirit of the World Trade Organization (WTO). China's modernization of its armed forces is proceeding faster than many analysts expected. This is especially true in terms of air and naval forces - the focus of China's modernization effort. Events in Europe mean that for the US Army, it is still largely Russian capabilities that provide the benchmark threat.
China's progress and technical abilities are remarkable - from ultra-long-range conventional ballistic missiles to fifth generation fighter jets. Last year the first hull of China's latest warship - the Type 55 cruiser (NATO codename Renhai) - was put into the water. Its capabilities would give any NATO navy pause for thought. China is working on its second aircraft carrier. It is revamping its military command structure to give genuine joint headquarters involving all the key services. In terms of artillery, air defence and land attack it has weapons that out-range anything the US can deploy. The Chinese government plans to launch its Social Credit System in 2020. The aim? To judge the trustworthiness – or otherwise – of its 1.3 billion residents.
Imagine a world where many of your daily activities were constantly monitored and evaluated: what you buy at the shops and online; where you are at any given time; who your friends are and how you interact with them; how many hours you spend watching content or playing video games; and what bills and taxes you pay (or not). It's not hard to picture, because most of that already happens, thanks to all those data-collecting behemoths like Google, Facebook and Instagram or health-tracking apps such as Fitbit. But now imagine a system where all these behaviors are rated as either positive or negative and distilled into a single number, according to rules set by the government. That would create your Citizen Score and it would tell everyone whether or not you were trustworthy. Plus, your rating would be publicly ranked against that of the entire population and used to determine your eligibility for a mortgage or a job, where your children can go to school - or even just your chances of getting a date. Ahead of China’s annual National Cyber Security Publicity (Propaganda) Week, the Cyberspace Administration of China’s Theoretical Studies Center Group published an article in Qiushi, the leading Chinese Communist Party (CCP) journal on theory, highlighting Xi Jinping’s strategic thinking on building China into a “powerful cyber nation” (or ‘cyber superpower,’ 网络强国).
Their commentary highlights core elements of China’s evolving national cyber strategy, which includes a focus on enhancing the country’s overall level of cyber security, particularly the protection of critical information infrastructure, and advancing indigenous innovation. In particular, this article clearly articulates the CCP’s perception of power and control in cyberspace as an imperative with existential stakes. |
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