The blogger who reported on the Wuhan pandemic - sentenced two months ago to another four years in prison - has been taken to a new detention centre for ‘education’ sessions. Meanwhile, the former abbot of Shaolin Temple, who fell from grace in July for being too ‘independent’, has now been sent to prison on charges of corruption.
A meeting in Beijing between senior officials from the two foreign ministries failed to solve the heated dispute. The number of tourist cancellations over the weekend reaches early COVID-19 levels. Beijing is also putting pressure on Chinese students, who, faced with visa difficulties in the United States, increasingly opted for Japanese universities.
In prison for a year along with a local shop owner, the former "official" head of a diocese in Zhejiang province has denied corruption charges, maintaining that he acted as a priest. Pressure has ben put on Catholics who wanted to be in court to support him. Some argue that his real 'fault' lies in a pilgrimage to Rome or the failure to support the nomination of a bishop imposed by the Communist Party.
A new, large-scale mining facility, 75 per cent owned by Chinese companies, began operations this week in the hills of southern Guinea. It is expected to have a major impact on the global mining industry, not least because of the quality of the extracted material, which is more suitable for low-carbon steel production.
From a niche hobby introduced by Japan, the trend of dressing up as comic book characters or historical figures from ancient times continues to grow among young people in China, fuelling a market that is now worth over billion. The local variant of “Hanfu” is spreading Chinese national identity among Generation Z.
On the eve of the climate summit, China unveiled its goals for the environmental transition, including a 7-10 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2035 and a further acceleration in the development of renewable energy, a sector in which it is already the global leader. Experts warn that this is still too little to achieve the goals set out in the Paris Agreement.
