At least 23 people were trapped under a building that collapsed in central China, officials said, as rescuers pulled apart the rubble brick by brick in an effort to reach survivors. The building, comprising a hotel, apartments and a cinema, caved in on Friday afternoon in Changsha city, Hunan province, leaving a gaping hole in a...
Shanghai reported a record number of symptomatic Covid-19 cases on Saturday and other areas across China tightened controls as the country kept up its “dynamic clearance” approach that aims to stamp out the highly transmissible Omicron variant. The Zhengzhou airport economic zone, a central Chinese manufacturing area that includes Apple supplier Foxconn, announced a 14-day lockdown on...
A bus has fallen into a river in northern China, leaving at least three people dead and 11 others missing after flooding from heavy rains destroyed homes and covered farmland in two provinces. Video posted online showed people on top of an almost submerged bus in a rushing river flowing over a nearby bridge outside the city of...
Beijing has recalled its ambassador from Lithuania and asked Vilnius to do the same, over plans by the European country and Taiwan to establish reciprocal diplomatic offices. In a statement on Tuesday, the Chinese ministry of foreign affairs accused Lithuania of disregarding “China’s repeated representations and articulation of potential consequences” in agreeing to such a move with Taiwan....
Four Tibetan monks were sentenced to up to 20 years jail in secret trials with no apparent evidence of criminal wrongdoing after a violent raid on a monastery in 2019, according to a report from Human Rights Watch, which calls for their release. The raid, details of which the rights organisation says have come to light...
As China marks the centenary of its ruling party, we examine key episodes in its tempestuous history, including the Long March, Mao’s purges and Xi Jinping’s rise to the top of an emerging superpower 1921: The first meeting Anyone visiting First Meeting Hall in Shanghai, the museum recreating the site of the first conclave of the Chinese Communist...
China has ramped up its use of secret detention without trial, creating one of the most far-ranging systems of forced disappearance in the world, human rights activists warn in a report. Tens of thousands of people have been subjected to “residential surveillance at a designated location” (RSDL), an anodyne, bureaucratic name for an Orwellian system,...
Australia and Japan will “pay a corresponding price” if their new defence pact threatens China’s security, Chinese state media has warned, as Scott Morrison insisted the deal should not cause any concerns to Beijing. The state-run Global Times newspaper declared the new agreement “accelerates the confrontational atmosphere in the Asia-Pacific region” and was aimed against China. Australian ministers...
Michele Flournoy, formerly an under-secretary of defence in the Obama administration, has been floated as a potential pick for Defence Secretary under the President-elect. But Ms Flournoy has previously suggested American forces should be placed in the South China Sea to increase deterrence. The contested waters have been central to the US’s involvement in the Indo-Pacific, with President Donald Trump’s senior staffers and Chinese officials sparring...