TTCT – Cuộc họp thượng đỉnh trực tuyến hôm 14-9 giữa các lãnh đạo Liên minh châu Âu (EU) và Trung Quốc đã được dư luận châu Âu tóm tắt bằng những câu xoay quanh tính từ “ngờ nghệch”. Tỉ như tựa đề: “Châu Âu vẫn còn quá ngây ngô trong tương quan lực lượng với Trung Quốc” của tờ Huffington Post 14-9. EU đã ngây ngô từ bao giờ, như thế nào, đến đâu, và đã thức tỉnh chưa?
Quan hệ EU – Trung Quốc đang bước vào giai đoạn nhiều thử thách. Ảnh: scmp.com
Bài xã luận cùng ngày của tờ Le Monde tái khẳng định nhận xét chua chát trên: “Châu Âu nay phải trả giá cho sự ngây ngô trước Bắc Kinh”. Tờ báo hàng đầu của Pháp giải thích “không son phấn”: “Nhóm 27 nước [tức EU, sau khi Anh đã Brexit] lâu nay mù quáng thèm khát một thị trường khổng lồ, giờ phải rũ bỏ những thỏa hiệp dễ dãi không đi kèm với những điều kiện đủ khắt khe.
Từ giờ châu Âu muốn chấm dứt tình trạng cạnh tranh bất chính của một đối tác mà châu Âu đã ngộ ra rằng cần phải đề cao cảnh giác, và nay sẵn sàng nói ra điều đó”. Tiếp tục đọc “EU tỉnh giấc”→
Mỹ trừng phạt một công ty Trung Quốc liên quan dự án khu du lịch tại Campuchia với cáo buộc phục vụ mục đích quân sự cũng như tham vọng “Vành đai và Con đường”.
Đường băng đang được doanh nghiệp Trung Quốc xây dựng tại sân bay quốc tế Dara Sakor của Campuchia. (Ảnh: THE NEW YORK TIMES)
Tờ South China Morning Post đưa tin Bộ Tài chính Mỹ hôm 15-9 đã trừng phạt công ty Union Development Group của Trung Quốc liên quan dự án khu du lịch Dara Sakor ở Campuchia, với cáo buộc chuyển đổi phục vụ mục đích quân sự và phục vụ tham vọng “Vành đai và Con đường”.
WASHINGTON (September 22, 2020)— Today in remarks delivered before the United Nations General Assembly, President Xi Jinping made a surprise announcement that China aims to achieve carbon neutrality before 2060 and to peak carbon emissions before 2030. This is the first time Chinese leadership has made a commitment about reaching net zero emissions.
Following is a statement from Helen Mountford, Vice President, Climate and Economics, World Resources Institute:
“President Xi sent an extremely important signal today with his unexpected announcement that China will strive for carbon neutrality by 2060 and strengthen its national climate commitment including peaking emissions before 2030. The devil will be in the details and China should set more specific near-term targets and an earlier peaking date, but China’s direction of travel toward a zero-carbon future is coming into focus. Tiếp tục đọc “China Aims For Carbon Neutrality By 2060”→
An Indian Air Force Rafale jet flies over Leh, the main city in the contested Ladakh region on the border with China. (Photo: AFP/Mohd Arhaan ARCHER)
NEW DELHI: India’s new French Rafale jets have flown “familiarisation” flights above the border region contested with China where a deadly clash between soldiers from the nuclear-armed neighbours took place in June, an official told AFP on Monday (Sep 21).
US federal prosecutors say the hackers worked to steal identities and video game technology, plant ransomware, and spy on Hong Kong activists. (Photo: AFP/Nicolas Asfouri)
WASHINGTON: The US Justice Department on Wednesday (Sep 16) announced charges against five Chinese nationals and two Malaysians who ran global hacking operations for at least six years to steal identities and video game technology, plant ransomware, and spy on Hong Kong activists.
TAIPEI: Two Chinese anti-submarine aircraft flew into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone on Wednesday (Sep 16) and were warned to leave by Taiwan’s air force, the island’s defence ministry said on Thursday, the day a senior US official is due to arrive.
SYDNEY: Australia has named China in a court document as the foreign state under investigation by police in its first foreign interference investigation, though Beijing dismissed the allegation as an anti-China smear.
File photo of a H-6 bomber of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force flying near a Taiwan F-16 in this Feb 10, 2020 handout photo. (Photo: Reuters)
The measure is unlikely to have much of an immediate effect because of the city’s coronavirus restrictions, but it could worsen fraying U.S.-China ties.
Police officers confronting protesters in Hong Kong this month. Dozens of people in the city have been arrested under a new security law.Credit…Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times
The State Department advisory warned that the security law, which came into force in June, could subject Americans who have been publicly critical of China “to a heightened risk of arrest, detention, expulsion, or prosecution.”
The security law targets what it deems acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign elements, but critics say the broad wording also gives the authorities wide-ranging powers to target voices of dissent. Dozens of people in Hong Kong have already been arrested under the law, including Jimmy Lai, a prominent pro-democracy media tycoon.
The State Department has previously warned about the risk of arbitrary detention in mainland China and about the use of exit bans that cannot be readily challenged in court to keep Americans in the country.
Hong Kong, a semiautonomous territory of China, has its own legal system that is more independent and transparent than the Communist Party-controlled courts in the mainland. But the U.S. travel advisory suggests the risk of arbitrary enforcement is increasing in Hong Kong as well.
Americans traveling in mainland China or Hong Kong “may be detained without access to U.S. consular services or information about their alleged crime,” the advisory said. “U.S. citizens may be subjected to prolonged interrogations and extended detention without due process of law.”
Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, criticized the new travel warning on Tuesday, saying China was one of the safest places on earth and the mainland had recorded no local transmission of the coronavirus for a month.
Last year, the State Department warned of the risk of “confrontational” demonstrations in Hong Kong, as mass pro-democracy rallies evolved into an increasingly violent push against Chinese rule. Several other countries issued similar warnings.
The United States has penalized Hong Kong and Chinese officials, and Beijing has responded with similar measures against American lawmakers and heads of nongovernmental organizations.
The warning on Hong Kong came as the United States improved its assessment of the coronavirus risk in China, where the spread of the virus is largely controlled, by changing its advisory level to “reconsider travel” from “do not travel.”
Austin Ramzy is a Hong Kong reporter, focusing on coverage of the city and also of regional and breaking news. He previously covered major events around Asia from Taipei and Beijing. @austinramzy
Hong Kong (CNN Business)Disney has publicly thanked a Chinese government agency accused of human rights abuses in Xinjiang for its help in making “Mulan” — a revelation that has provoked a storm of criticism online.Disney (DIS) acknowledges several Chinese government bodies in the credits for the live-action remake of the 1998 animated picture of the same name, but a few in particular have raised red flags: The Xinjiang government’s publicity department and the Public Security and Tourism bureaus for Turpan, a city of about 633,400 people just outside Xinjiang’s capital Urumqi.Disney did not respond to a request for comment from CNN Business to its media inquiry line, and to US press officers about the film and the credits. It’s not clear how much of “Mulan” may have been shot in Xinjiang, though people who worked on the movie have said on social media and in interviews that they scouted and filmed locations there.The US State Department estimates that since 2015 as many as two million of the Muslim-majority Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities have been imprisoned in enormous re-education camps in Xinjiang.The Turpan Public Security Bureau has been listed by the US government as an organization involved in “human rights violations and abuses” in the region.Beijing has long defended the crackdown in Xinjiang as necessary to tackle extremism and terrorism, and said it is in line with Chinese law and international practice, calling accusations of mass detentions a “groundless lie” and “sensational rumor.” A spokesperson for the country’s foreign ministry on Tuesday reiterated its defense of what it calls its Xinjiang “vocational skills education and training centers.” CNN Business has reached out to the Xinjiang government and Turpan’s tourism bureau, but Turpan’s Public Security bureau could not be reached for comment.
Chinese firms have since 2013 signed deals with Asean nations to build projects such as railways, bridges, dams and special economic zonesBut many have been slow to start, with negotiations over loan amounts, environmental concerns and corruption causing years-long delays
Workers from the China Communications Constructions Company at the construction site of the East Coast Rail Link project in Malaysia. Photo: AFPBarrels of ink have been spent on hyping up the Belt and Road Initiative, which Beijing launched with great fanfare in 2013. But in the intervening years, the programme has faced a raft of challenges as it sought to move across China’s southern border into Southeast Asia.The RWR Advisory Group in Washington, which monitors belt-and-road projects around the world, estimates that China has started work on or completed projects totalling US$200 billion in Southeast Asia in the five years beginning in 2013. But that number seems inflated to someone who has visited most of the countries in recent years.
Biểu tình phản đối công nghệ Trung Quốc hôm 1/7 tại Ấn Độ. Ảnh: AP
Hôm 2/9, Ấn Độ tiếp tục cấm 118 ứng dụng Trung Quốc, trong đó có các tựa game lớn của Tencent và NetEase và dịch vụ của Baidu, Alibaba. Bộ Điện tử và Công nghệ thông tin nước này cho rằng các ứng dụng tham gia vào hoạt động gây phương hại đến chủ quyền và tính toàn vẹn của đất nước. Nhà chức trách cũng cáo buộc các dịch vụ gửi dữ liệu công dân sang máy chủ đặt ngoài Ấn Độ.
This month, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews wrote a most courageous letter to the Chinese ambassador in London.
Van der Zyl is just one of many faith leaders to speak out against the atrocities being committed in Xinjiang. But one voice has been strangely absent—that of Pope Francis, ordinarily a powerful advocate for the oppressed. His silence speaks to the dangers of the deal made with China by the Vatican—and demands that others in the church speak out.
CVD 
