Chinese Government
Ekiti governor urges Nigerians to rise up, defend democracy
The Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, and Governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, has called on Nigerians to rise to the defence of democracy in Nigeria with a view to advancing the development of the country. Mr Fayemi made the call Tuesday in Abuja when he visited the Canadian Ambassador to Nigeria, Nicolas Simard, at his residence. The visit by the NGF Chairman was part of the Chairman’s shuttle diplomacy to representatives of the diplomatic corps in Nigeria, which is one of the initiatives of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum’s secretariat towards engendering inter-governmental synergy between global governments at the subnational level. Mr Fayemi’s visits on Monday took him to the residence of the Canadian ambassador to Nigeria, and the embassy of the People’s Republic of China and...
Taiwan says China seeking political gain with Honduras vaccine move
Taiwan condemned China on Wednesday for seeking to use vaccines for political gain after Taipei’s diplomatic ally Honduras said it was considering opening an office in China in a bid to acquire much needed COVID-19 shots. Honduras does not have formal relations with China and is one of a group of Latin American nations that have formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, which Beijing considers part of its territory. Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez said that to buy Chinese vaccines, he would do as the Chinese had suggested and look for a “diplomatic bridge”. read more Several Latin American nations are receiving Chinese vaccines, but countries that have built ties with Taipei rather than Beijing, such as Honduras and Guatemala, are not. Taiwan Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou said...
China possibly committed ‘genocide’ against Xinjiang Muslims
The Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) said on Thursday that new evidence had emerged in the past year that “crimes against humanity – and possibly genocide – are occurring”. The CECC also accused China of harassing Uighurs in the US. China has been widely condemned for setting up complexes in Xinjiang that it describes as “vocational training centres” to stamp out “extremism” and give people new skills, but others have called them concentration camps. The United Nations says at least one million Uighurs and other Muslims have been detained in Xinjiang. Faith leaders, activist groups and others have said crimes against humanity, including genocide, are taking place there. Beijing denies abuse accusations. The CECC report called for a formal US “determination on whether atro...
Alibaba founder Jack Ma ‘missing’ after criticism of Chinese government
Chinese business magnate Jack Ma has reportedly gone missing for two months, Yahoo Finance reported early Monday. The seemingly awkward disappearance of the 56-year-old billionaire businessman from the public eye comes nearly three months after he made critical remarks about the ‘stifling of innovation’ by Chinese authorities through stringent regulations, which he said had outlived their relevance. “Today’s financial system is the legacy of the Industrial Age,” Yahoo Finance reported Mr. Ma to have said on October 24. “We must set up a new one for the next generation and young people. We must reform the current system.” The Alibaba and Ant Group founder, who has spent years advancing the course of an open and market-driven economy in the communist East Asian country, has not been seen in ...
China to hold talks on EU investment pact at its own pace
China will conduct talks on an investment pact with the European Union at its own pace, raising doubts about whether a deal can be sealed by year-end. China’s Foreign Ministry said, on Friday, that negotiations for the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment, which would grant European companies greater access to the Chinese market, have gone on for six years. An EU official said earlier that a deal was close, following a push from Germany, which holds the EU presidency until the end of the year and is the biggest European exporter to China. But the latest comments by the Chinese government suggest otherwise. China will “conduct talks at its own pace on the premise of safeguarding its security and developmental interests’’, foreign ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin, told a news briefi...
China admits to destroying early coronavirus samples, says action was taken due to safety concerns
China has acknowledged it destroyed early samples of COVID-19, confirming a claim put forward by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo late last month. On Friday, Liu Dengfeng, a supervisor with China’s National Health Commission, admitted that ‘the Chinese government issued an order on January 3 to dispose of coronavirus samples’ at unauthorized laboratories, according to Newsweek. But Liu denied that the samples were destroyed as part of a cover-up, insisting that they were disposed of so as to ‘prevent risk to laboratory biological safety and prevent secondary disasters caused by unidentified pathogens.’ He stated that the labs were ‘unauthorized’ to handle such samples, and they had to be terminated in order to comply with Chinese public health laws. Liu did not specify how many labs des...
