China’s state press gushed over Beijing’s hosting of the Olympic Games yesterday, calling it a watershed event that should make the world look on China with newfound respect.
“Through the Beijing Games’ flawless organization, brilliant sporting performances and friendly atmosphere, an image of an entirely new great country appeared before the world,” the popular Beijing Youth Daily said.
“Even though the Beijing Games have ended, China’s opening up and exchanges with the world will not cease and the Chinese people’s participation in the development and improvement of mankind will not change,” it said.
The English-language China Daily said the Games marked the pinnacle of China’s gradual re-engagement with the world that began 30 years ago under former leader Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平).
“The Games was a historic climax of three decades of China opening to the world. It was also a moment for the world to take a new look at China,” it said.
Meanwhile, the Hong Kong-based Human Rights in China (HRIC) said yesterday China had failed to win any medals in the human rights department during the Beijing Olympics, adding that the Chinese government had “blatantly and successfully” used the Games to realize its political goals.
“Yet the carefully orchestrated facade could not conceal a police state that tramples on human rights,” HRIC executive director Sharon Hom said.
UIGHURS
Uighur activists said yesterday that Chinese security forces had detained 500 members of the ethnic Uighur minority in the Xinjiang region over the past two weeks.
More than 100 people were arrested in the desert town of Kashgar alone, the exiled Uyghur World Congress said.
Families of arrested individuals were not informed about their relatives’ whereabouts, the congress said. “Vanishing” people were nothing unusual in Uighur territories, however, as arbitrary arrests by the Chinese army, police and intelligence services are common.
DEPORTED
A British woman and a German man who took part in a protest during the Olympic Games were deported yesterday, officials said, hours after eight American activists were sent home during the closing ceremony.
Mandie McKeown and Florien Norbu Gyanatshang were put on flights to Frankfurt in the morning, said officials from the British embassy in Beijing and the Foreign Ministry in Berlin.
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Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
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