Category: Feature
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China constructs a gargantuan fuel reservoir for an enormous future launch
The innovation represents a step forward in the construction of the Long March 9 missile. China has created a fuel cylinder that is 33 feet broad (10 meters) in an effort to create an extremely heavy-lift launch vehicle. On March 2, the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) revealed that it had produced the…
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Startups are China’s future, according to Xi, but VCs are still wary of them.
The technology sector in China has recently had a lot to be happy about. The majority of the Covid Zero limitations are now behind us, new video game releases are once again getting authorized (important for Tencent Holdings Ltd. and NetEase Inc.), and Didi Global Inc.’s ride-hailing service has returned to Chinese app stores. President…
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Philippines expresses concern over reclamation activities by China in Spratlys
The South China Sea (SCS) is crucial to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – the dream project of Chinese President Xi Jinping – but ongoing disputes in the SCS have only complicated the matter. China, in pursuit of its hegemonic policy in South East Asia, wants to take control of the SCS because it…
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Behind the label: how the US stitched up the Honduras garment industry
‘It’s like a little Puerto Rico – we’re basically run by the US,” said Allan, as we drove around San Pedro Sula, the second largest city in Honduras and the country’s largest manufacturing centre one day. “Here there is more ‘freedom’,” he added, doing air quotes. Allan had spent most of his adult life working…
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As China’s economy slows, policymakers seek to revive growth
C HINA HAS not enjoyed much success at the sport of curling, which will feature in the Beijing winter Olympics beginning on February 4th. But the country’s economic policymakers could draw inspiration from the obscure event. Like curlers, they have a difficult target to hit. They are thought to be aiming for growth of 5%…
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Information Controls at the Beijing Olympics: What to Watch For
As Beijing prepares to open the 2022 Winter Olympics on February 4, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership will be dialing up the world’s most sophisticated apparatus of information control, using censorship, surveillance, and legal reprisals to curb political, religious, and other speech that deviates from the party line. This apparatus has grown dramatically in…
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US sanctioned China’s top facial recognition firm over Uyghur concerns. It still raised millions
Show caption SenseTime, China’s largest facial recognition startup, claims to have the ability to ‘classify Uyghurs’. Photograph: Aly Song/Reuters China US sanctioned China’s top facial recognition firm over Uyghur concerns. It still raised millions SenseTime raised $512m from non-US investors and recently debuted on the Hong Kong stock exchange Johana Bhuiyan Fri 7 Jan 2022…
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What Lies Behind Beijing’s Assigning of Chinese Names to Indian Places?
Beijing’s assigning of Chinese names to 15 places in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh is aimed at strengthening its territorial claims there. On December 30, China’s state-run Global Times announced that the country’s Ministry of Civil Affairs had “standardized in Chinese characters, Tibetan and Roman alphabet the names of 15 places in Zangnan.” The…
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Intoxicating, insidery and infuriating: everything I learned about Dominic Cummings from his £10-a-month blog
Who is the most interesting writer about politics in Britain today? No question, it’s Dominic Cummings. The Substack blog he started in June last year is not cheap – £10 a month for an erratic and irregular output via email – but it’s worth it. Whenever and whatever he does post, you can be sure…
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The Last Soviet Generation
Those who came into adulthood as the USSR collapsed around them 30 years ago recall a time of transition. Every evening, Soviet army vehicles ploughed the white sand beaches at the shoreline of Soviet Lithuania, on the western border of the USSR. Locals knew not to go to the beach at night for leaving footprints…