China

BEIJING (AFP) - Former Chinese premier Li Peng - known as the "Butcher of Beijing" for his role in the Tiananmen Square crackdown - has died aged 90, state broadcaster Xinhua said on Tuesday (July 23). The former chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee died of "illness" in Beijing on Monday, Xinhua said. … [Read more...] about Former Chinese premier Li Peng dies at 90

BEIJING (XINHUA) - A 4.9-magnitude earthquake jolted Yongsheng County, in south-west China's Yunnan Province, at 8.23pm on Sunday, according to the China Earthquake Networks Centre (CENC). The epicentre was monitored at 26.16 degrees north latitude and 100.62 degrees east longitude. The quake struck at a depth of 10 km, the CENC said. … [Read more...] about 4.9-magnitude quake hits Yunnan Province in China

HEFEI (XINHUA) - Over this year's summer vacation, many Chinese pupils are ditching app-based homework and picking up pens and paper to preserve their eyesight. Ms Zhu Ting, a resident of Hefei, capital of eastern China's Anhui Province, supervised her nine-year-old son while he completed his homework including writing and maths by hand. Her son's teachers were banned from assigning summer homework to be completed on mobile apps. "But it was not always like this," Ms Zhu said. When her son was in first grade, she installed various apps on her phone, such as English dubbing, maths operation and essay writing. "However, my kid was addicted to the screen, which affected his eyesight," she said. Educational apps have caught on among Chinese schools and families in recent years. In April 2018, the number of monthly active users of educational apps in China exceeded 220 million. Among them, users aged between six and 18 reached 146 million, up 41 per cent year on year, according to a report … [Read more...] about Myopia fears lead schools in China to curb app-based homework

BEIJING (AFP) - Beijing on Friday (July 19) criticised US Vice-President Mike Pence and top diplomat Mike Pompeo as "hideous" and "hypocritical" after they called for religious freedom in China at a major meeting in Washington. Secretary of State Pompeo said on Thursday that Washington will create a new international body to campaign for religious freedom, speaking after a conference where he called China's mass incarceration of mostly Muslim Uighurs "the stain of the century". At a press briefing in Beijing on Friday, foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang rebuffed the criticism. "The so-called conference on promoting religious freedom has slandered China's religious policies and the situation of religious belief in China and interfered with China's internal affairs," he said. "The Chinese side is strongly dissatisfied with this and resolutely opposes it." China has rounded up an estimated one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim Turkic-speaking minorities into re-education camps … [Read more...] about China hits back at ‘hypocritical’ US over religious freedom

Taiwan's 2020 presidential election will be hotly contested and difficult to predict. But one thing is almost certain: Whoever wins will have to deal with the island's giant neighbour China and try to fend off intensified reunification overtures.The self-ruled island, which Beijing claims as its own, is scheduled to hold its presidential election on Jan 11 next year, with incumbent Tsai Ing-wen of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) running for re-election against Mr Han Kuo-yu of the island's main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) and possibly Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je, who may run as an independent. Please subscribe or log in to continue reading the full article. Learn more about ST PREMIUM. Enjoy unlimited access to ST's best work Exclusive stories and features on multiple devicesIn-depth analyses and opinion piecesePaper and award-winning multimedia content Subscribe Now … [Read more...] about China set to intensify reunification push after Taiwan polls