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International Relations & Military
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DuYa 渡鴉
FEATURED ARTICLES
Web Worship Is Better Than Nothing on Tomb-Sweeping Day
Sixth Tone
From online commemoration to mourners for hire, we should be open to new ways of spending the festival.
[…]
Today, millions of Chinese people work far from their hometowns, and Tomb-Sweeping Day is one of the rare occasions when they make a trip back. For younger children, the sweeping ceremony might be the first time they learn about their ancestors or talk about death.
In recent years, the Chinese government has presided over a revival of traditional culture while large numbers of migrant workers find jobs in cities. So what happens when modern life gets too hectic and you can’t make it home? If only there was a way to commemorate the dead remotely, you might wonder.
There is, of course. Online tomb sweeping — also called “cloud tomb sweeping” — allows family and friends to upload the deceased’s life stories, photos, audio files, and videos. Platforms like Netor.net, whose website boasts more than 20 million visits, charge you to give virtual “offerings,” burn cyber-incense, or send flower emojis over the web to honor your dead. Some people even attach a scannable QR code to their ancestor’s real-life tombstone so that friends or family who come to pay their respects can take part in the ongoing online memorial.
See also:
Dealing With Death, China’s Biggest Taboo
Sixth Tone
Lost In Beijing: Forgotten Wastelands Of China’s Capital
SupChina
Beijing is a shiny metropolis, but below the gleaming skyscrapers and busy thoroughfares are desolate amusement parks and abandoned neighborhoods, remnants of a different place, reminders of a recently forgotten past.
The Homko Club had everything a wealthy Chinese businessman could want. Inside a gated compound, the Grecian-style members’ club offered residents a chance to unwind in exclusive comfort, with a fully equipped gym, swimming pool with jacuzzi, steam rooms and sauna, bar, billiards, mahjong, massage, and — although home was literally just a stone’s throw away — the convenience of private bedrooms, in which the weary member would find succor with a personal masseuse in secluded comfort.
Despite amenities fit for an ancient emperor — or, perhaps, a mid-level provincial official — membership at the Homko remains at an all-time low of zero. In the 25-meter swimming pool, mounds of concrete rise from the frozen surface. The bar is bereft of bottles; no sighs will ever be heard from its bedrooms, because the Homko has long been abandoned to the elements. It is as if the apocalypse had happened to the Chinese Brady Bunch.
Why Do We Keep Turning A Blind Eye To Chinese Political Interference?
The Conversation
Academics in Australia might reflect on the fact that scholarly books critical of the Chinese Communist Party are now shunned by publishers. Scholars who work on China know that continued access to the country requires them to play by Beijing’s rules, which for most means self-censorship – the dirty secret of China studies in Australia.
Despite refusing to publish my book, Silent Invasion, I am privileged in my access to free speech in a way that most Chinese-Australians are not.
[…]
Once quite vocal, pro-democracy activists, supporters of Tibetan autonomy, and Falun Gong practitioners are barely heard nowadays. In my book, I describe how this marginalisation has been carried out.
Will China supplant US hegemony?
Business Standard
As rising importance of robotics and AI blunts China's manufacturing edge, ability to lead in technology will become more important
[…]
As the rising importance of robotics and AI blunts China’s manufacturing edge, the ability to lead in technology will become more important. Here, the current trend toward higher concentration of power and control in the central government, as opposed to the private sector, could hamstring China as the global economy reaches higher stages of development.
The possibility that China might never supplant the US as the world’s economic hegemon is the flip side of the technology and inequality problem. Everyone in the West is worrying about the future of work, but in many ways it is a bigger problem for the Chinese development model than for the American one. The US needs to struggle with the problem of how to redistribute income internally, especially given highly concentrated ownership of new ideas and technology. But for China, there is the additional problem of how to extend its franchise as export superpower into the machine age.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS & MILITARY
ONE BELT ONE ROAD
How Big Is China’s Belt and Road?
Center for Strategic & International Studies
The big numbers being floated for President Xi Jinping’s signature foreign policy effort, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), do not add up. Popular estimates for Chinese investment under the BRI range from $1 trillion to $8 trillion, hardly a rounding error. Without a clearer sense of the BRI’s scale, it is difficult to assess its economic and strategic implications. A closer look reveals the highest figures are inflated, scoring political points for Beijing in the short term but also creating unrealistic expectations.
Pakistan’s Gwadar Port: A New Naval Base in China’s String of Pearls in the Indo-Pacific
Center for Strategic & International Studies
Gwadar, gateway to the $62 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), was until recently a cluster of small, little-known fishing villages on the Makran coast of Pakistan. Gwadar is only 107 miles (172 km) from Chabahar across the border with Iran and, now, both ports are being developed into maritime hubs by China and India, respectively, triggering what is being called the New Great Game in South Asia. The CPEC is projected to link Kashgar in Xinjiang with Gwadar on the Makran coast of Balochistan, the largest province of Pakistan. It is expected to bring economic prosperity to the region and is part of President Xi Jinping’s “dream of national rejuvenation.”
Kyaukpyu: Connecting China to the Indian Ocean
Center for Strategic & International Studies
Kyaukpyu is a coastal town along the Bay of Bengal in Myanmar’s western-most state of Rakhine. In 2016, subsidiaries of China’s CITIC Group Corporation, including China Harbor Engineering Company, won contracts for two major projects in the town—the dredging of a deep-sea port and the creation of an industrial area in an accompanying special economic zone (SEZ). The port project is valued at $7.3 billion and the SEZ at $2.7 billion. Under the terms of the deal, CITIC will build and then run the project for 50 years with a potential extension of another 25 years.
Negotiations on Kyaukpyu predate the Belt and Road Initiative—CITIC signed initial memorandums of understanding (MOUs) for the harbor project and a railway connecting the SEZ to southern China in 2009.
U.S. TRADE WAR
The U.S. wrote the rules for global trade. Now China is using them against Trump.
The Washington Post
Trade tensions escalated between the U.S. and China with Beijing slapping tariffs on 128 U.S. goods, from scrap aluminum and pork to nuts, wine and fruits.
The Chinese government designed its first concrete response to President Trump’s recent wave of protectionist policies to inflict noticeable political and economic pain upon the United States while remaining within the bounds of global trade rules.
China imposed tariffs on a relatively modest $3 billion in American imports. But by hitting numerous products, including fruit, wine, ginseng and pork, that affect congressional districts across the country, China demonstrated that it can exert pressure within the American system.
See also:
Donald Trump’s trade endgame said to be the opening of China’s economy
South China Morning Post
Looming China Trade Action Divides Industry and Roils Markets
The New York Times
How Will China Retaliate beyond Tariffs?
Center for Strategic & International Studies
China's Soybean Retaliation: No Good Options
Dim Sums
China Finds California Wine Pairs Well With a Trade War
The New York Times
Retaliatory tariffs are a blow to exporters increasingly catering to young, newly wealthy Chinese looking for bottles with cachet.
Cabernet isn’t the most obvious pawn in a trade war between the United States and China. Airplanes and their parts are the leading American export to China. Soybeans and wheat grow in Trump country.
But China’s selection of wine as a target of retaliatory tariffs did not surprise Michael Honig, a winemaker in the Napa Valley, where the tariff would hit hardest.
“The reason the government realizes they should penalize us is, we are branded,” said Mr. Honig, the president of Honig Vineyard and Winery. “It’s hard to go after a wheat grower, because who is a wheat grower? It’s a commodity. We are not a commodity.”
The news was an unwelcome turn of events for Mr. Honig and many California winemakers, who have spent years trying to carve out a place in the hearts of wealthy Chinese consumers. That hard work has earned them a prized sliver of what is becoming one of the fastest-growing markets for wine imports.
See also:
U.S. wine industry fears long-term damage of China's tariff on imported U.S. wines
XinhuaNet
Donald Trump’s US$50b tariffs target Beijing’s ‘Made in China 2025’ tech strategy
South China Morning Post
The list of items includes high-definition colour video monitors, electromagnets used in MRIs and aerospace parts as well as machinery used to make or process textiles
Washington released a list of Chinese products representing about US$50 billion worth of annual imports to the US, which will be subject to punitive tariffs, a move that results from a US Trade Representative investigation into China’s trade practices.
The trade representative’s office said officials identified items that “benefit from Chinese industrial policies, including Made in China 2025,” referring to Beijing’s plan to dominate certain strategic technologies.
[…]
The tariffs constitute the US administration’s sharpest response to China’s launch of its Made in China 2025 strategy.
The policy, announced in 2015, highlighted 10 sectors for support on the way to China becoming an advanced manufacturing power: information technology, high-end machinery and robotics, aerospace, marine equipment and ships, advanced rail transport, new-energy vehicles, electric power, agricultural machinery, new materials and bio-medical.
See also:
China Hits Soybeans, Aircraft in Counter-Punch to Trump Tariffs
Bloomberg
TAIWAN
Will China turn Taiwan into the next Crimea?
The Guardian
US support for Taiwan may prove red rag to bullish China given trade war and military rivalry
China could do to Taiwan what Russia did to Crimea if Beijing’s relations with Washington, strained by an expanding trade war and military rivalry in the East and South China seas, deteriorate further.
The warning from maritime security experts follows a series of recent Chinese moves to put pressure on Taiwan’s pro-independence government. These include a vow last month by China’s president that Taiwan would face the “punishment of history” if it pursued a separatist course. “Any actions and tricks to split China are doomed to failure and will meet with the people’s condemnation,” Xi Jinping said.
Taiwan, China clash over Taiwan premier's independence remarks
The Sydney Morning Herald
Taiwan's government said on Tuesday that China was stirring up its media to threaten the self-ruled island after a major state-run newspaper said China should issue an international arrest warrant for Taiwan's premier for his comments on independence.
After Taiwan Premier William Lai told parliament on Friday that he was a "Taiwan independence worker" and that his position was that Taiwan was a sovereign, independent country, the widely-read Chinese tabloid the Global Times said he should be prosecuted under China's 2005 Anti-Secession Law.
See also:
Chinese media calls for arrest of Premier Lai for 'Independent Taiwan' comments
Taiwan News
ISLANDS & SEAS
Advances in military technology give China edge in Asia-Pacific
Global Times
China has made significant achievements in radar and strategic bomber technology, according to scientists working in the fields, adding that its military radars can now detect all kinds of stealth fighter jets and bombers deployed in the Asia-Pacific region.
Hu Mingchun, director of the No.14 research institute under the China Electronic Technology Group Corporation (CETC), and also a deputy of the National People's Congress, told the media, "China's radar technology is comprehensively approaching world-class level or is as advanced as foreign technology in general. Now we are at the stage of moving up to the leading role."
"In some areas, China already uses the most advanced radar technology in the world, such as ship-based multi-function phased array radar and airborne early-warning radar," Chinese news portal thepaper.cn quoted Hu as saying on March 29.
See also:
In response to Chinese incursions, Japan plans new radar system in western Pacific
Taiwan News
Vietnam, China urge restraint in disputes in South China Sea
The Times of India
China’s first home-grown aircraft carrier set to carry out maiden sea trial
South China Morning Post
China’s bomber H-6K designed to fly beyond island chains
e-China News Service
Duterte's elusive Chinese investment bonanza
Nikkei Asian Review
Beijing has lured Manila with promises that are so far unfulfilled
[…]
In a late-March visit to Beijing, Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano hailed "golden period" in bilateral ties. During his trip, the two countries even skirted around the single biggest problem in bilateral relations -- the dispute over a part of the South China Sea, where Beijing has asserted its rights in the face of protests from Manila.
[…]
By and large, a once-fraught bilateral relationship is seemingly morphing into a blossoming partnership laced with Chinese investment promises. Yet, the Philippines runs the risk of getting little money in return for the decisions it is taking to cooperate with China on Beijing's terms.
See also:
China, Philippines seek to share South China Sea
Asia Times
OTHER STORIES
What Xi Jinping’s power grab means for Canada
The Conversation
Since the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank tweeted last week that Canada is now officially a full member, it hasn’t exactly made headlines.
Yet this is ostensibly a prelude for trade talks with China in an increasingly protectionist global landscape. And admission wasn’t cheap: Chinese sources say Ottawa committed more than a billion dollars to the Beijing-based bank.
China Moves Centre Stage in Korean Peninsula Peace Efforts
World Affairs
After weeks in which other actors have taken notable steps towards defusing fears of war over North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile program, a China-North Korea summit held 26-27 March in Beijing has reasserted China’s pivotal role in efforts to find a solution to the nuclear crisis.
When North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on 26 March secretly rolled into Beijing on a private armoured train for unofficial meetings with President Xi Jinping, China moved decisively centre stage in the Korean peninsula drama. China also likely gave its truculent neighbour invaluable assurances and leverage for upcoming talks on its nuclear and ballistic missile program.
For a few weeks in March, it appeared as though China, preoccupied with its own internal political wrangling and reforms, might have been sidelined by the whirlwind Korean Olympic diplomacy.
[…]
But any illusion of China being bypassed vanished with Kim Jong-un’s visit.
See also:
China tells N. Korea official Beijing supports its US summit
The Washington Post
Chinese, DPRK FMs meet in Beijing
e-China News Service
When Investment Hurts: Chinese Influence in Venezuela
Center for Strategic & International Studies
As the United States continues to shape its policy toward Latin America, China is rising as an economic and geopolitical force in the region. China’s influence in Latin America is neither transparent nor market oriented, and no country has felt the consequences more than Venezuela. Through loans and outbound direct investments, China has poured funding into Venezuela at the cost of Venezuela’s citizens and long-term success.
[…]
There are four main issues that should concern the United States regarding China’s role in the Maduro-ruled Venezuela: (1) China is propping up Maduro’s undemocratic and repressive narco-regime; (2) China’s investments fail to bring long-term benefits to Venezuela; (3) Chinese loans and agreements are not transparent and in some cases are illegitimate; and (4) China’s agreements create energy and security concerns.
China warns against "Cold War mentality" in Skripal case
XinhuaNet
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Tuesday called on relevant countries to find out the truth in the Skripal case, discard their Cold War mentality and refrain from confrontation.
China-Zimbabwe ties withstand transition of political power: analysts
Global Times
Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Zimbabwean counterpart Emmerson Mnangagwa on Tuesday agreed to establish a comprehensive strategic partnership of cooperation between the two countries.
[…]
Mnangagwa is on a state visit to China from Monday to Friday at the invitation of Xi, and this is Mnangagwa's first state visit outside Africa as Zimbabwean president since taking office last November.
See also:
Zimbabwe’s leader thanks China’s Xi, pledges to boost ties
Associated Press
China, Zimbabwe agree to establish comprehensive strategic partnership of cooperation
China Global Television Network
India bracing for a 'hot' summer on China front after Doklam crisis
The Times of India
Indian security forces are bracing for a “hot” summer in the Himalayas along the Line of Actual Control with China this year. But unlike the Line of Control with Pakistan, where cross-border firing duels is the norm, it will be a battle of nerves in the shape of troop face-offs and transgressions without actual shots being fired on the China front.
[…]
The two countries continue to maintain high operational alertness on their borders, with additional units deployed in forward areas, despite troop disengagement from the 73-day face-off at Doklam near the Sikkim-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction last year.
DOMESTIC ISSUES
HONG KONG
The Case of Hong Kong’s Missing Booksellers
The News York Times Magazine
As China’s Xi Jinping consolidates power, owners of Hong Kong bookstores trafficking in banned books find themselves playing a very dangerous game.
Lam Wing-kee knew he was in trouble. In his two decades as owner and manager of Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay Books, Lam had honed a carefully nonchalant routine when caught smuggling books into mainland China: apologize, claim ignorance, offer a cigarette to the officers, crack a joke. For most of his career, the routine was foolproof.
Thin and wiry, with an unruly pouf of side-swept gray hair and a wisp of mustache, Lam was carrying a wide mix of books that day: breathless political thrillers, bodice-rippers and a handful of dry historical tomes. The works had only two things in common: Readers hungered for them, and each had been designated contraband by the Communist Party’s Central Leading Group for Propaganda and Ideology. For decades, Lam’s bookstore had thrived despite the ban — or maybe because of it. Operating just 20 miles from the mainland city of Shenzhen, in a tiny storefront sandwiched between a pharmacy and an upscale lingerie store, Causeway was a destination for Chinese tourists, seasoned local politicians and even, surreptitiously, Communist Party members themselves, anyone hoping for a peek inside the purges, intraparty feuding and silent coups that are scrubbed from official histories.
Why Laundromats Are the Hot New Place to Hang Out in Hong Kong
The New York Times
[…]
Washing their own clothes at a laundromat is a new experience for Hong Kong residents. The first self-service laundromat is believed to have opened only in 2014. Since then, the number has taken off; more than 180 laundromats had appeared by the beginning of this year, according to one estimate.
Why this proliferation of laundromats? The reason is Hong Kong’s increasingly acute shortage of affordable housing. As prices keep soaring in what is already the world’s most expensive property market, residents have been forced to squeeze into ever smaller apartments, leaving little room for washers and dryers.
As China tightens squeeze, soul searching for Hong Kong's democracy movement
Reuters
Hong Kong’s once thriving pro-democracy movement, weighed down by growing pessimism among its supporters over China’s ever-increasing control in the city, is facing a crisis of confidence about its future.
As China tightens its grip on Hong Kong, pro-democracy parties have been hit by the sidelining of key leaders and have been losing ground to a well-organized pro-Beijing camp.
See also:
Attacks against me may be intended to pave way for a tougher nat. security law, says embattled law prof. Benny Tai
Hong Kong Free Press
HK-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge components found drifting from artificial island, as authority claims it may be an ‘illusion’
Hong Kong Free Press
Components of the breakwater structure for the HK$120 billion Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge’s eastern artificial island have been found to have shifted in position.
A photo of the island just west of Hong Kong’s border, originally posted in a Facebook group of drone users, was widely-shared on Tuesday. It showed an uneven shore line as components were seen disconnected from the main structure.
The artificial island sits on top of a tunnel connecting to the western artificial island in the direction of Zhuhai and Macau.
MTR Corp. to investigate after new Express Rail Link train disconnects from tracks at depot
Hong Kong Free Press
The MTR Corporation has said it will investigate the derailment of a new Express Rail Link train at its depot, months before the new system is set to begin operations.
On Thursday morning, the company confirmed that staff had discovered that part of a rear cabin’s wheels had become disconnected from the tracks at the Shek Kong depot in New Territories at 9:15pm on Tuesday.
See also:
Bill committee meeting for controversial joint checkpoint bill cut short as lawmakers refuse to take part
Hong Kong Free Press
INFRASTRUCTURE
Across China: New infrastructure links rural China to prosperity
XinhuaNet
[…]
Poor transportation infrastructure has hampered development of many parts of rural China. As the country announced it will eradicate poverty by 2020, central and local governments have spent heavily on rural roads and bridges.
See also:
China's urban rail growth speeds up
XinhuaNet
Jiangsu to expand high-speed rail network
Gov.Cn
Highway network changes people's life in south China's Guangxi
XinhuaNet
Six officials suspended in $250m highway scandal
People’s Daily Online
Six officials were suspended from their posts for investigation after a quality issue was reported in a tunnel on the Zheqiao-Dachuan Highway in Northwest China’s Gansu province, according to the provincial transportation authority on Sunday.
[…]
As reported by CCTV, the Kaole Tunnel on the highway was originally designed to be constructed with two-layer reinforced steel bars, but it was built with only one layer, leaving a severe safety loophole. It had to be reinforced after the problem was discovered and the revamping was planned to be finished by Nov 28.
But the latest investigation reveals that the tunnel was only painted over by coating instead of being reinforced with steel bars.
HEALTH
China gives preferential tax rate for generic drugmakers
Reuters
China will offer preferential tax rates to generic drugmakers, setting corporate income tax for qualified high-tech firms at 15 percent, China’s cabinet said in a policy document on Tuesday.
The State Council also said it would draw up new incentives aimed at encouraging the development and production of generic drugs, a move it said would help safeguard public health, reduce medical bills and spur innovation.
The document said China would aim to create a system that encourages producers to copy “clinically necessary” drugs, including those in short supply and used to treat children, prevent major communicable diseases, or handle public health emergencies.
Newborns Sick With Sepsis at Center for New Moms
Sixth Tone
Latest incident points to lax hygiene at facilities where women ‘sit the month’ after childbirth.
Three babies at a private postnatal care center in northwestern China have been diagnosed with neonatal sepsis, a toxic condition resulting from the spread of bacteria, local media reported Monday. Another has shown symptoms of pneumonia, meaning that half of the seven families staying at the center now have sick children.
The Niannujiao Aiqin center in Yulin, Shaanxi province, is a private facility for new mothers. According to Chinese tradition, women are expected to spend one to two months recuperating and being cared for in bed after childbirth — a period called yuezi, or “sitting the month.” But because of high demand and a low entry barrier into the industry, the standard of care mothers and their newborns receive can be inconsistent.
Shanghai to upgrade and improve public toilets
Global Times
Shanghai Greenery and Public Sanitation Bureau will improve public toilets, addressing issues such as long queues, bad smells and lack of toilet paper, thepaper.cn reported Thursday.
ENVIRONMENT
China’s Bold Energy Vision
Project Syndicate
China’s proposed Global Energy Interconnection – based on renewables, ultra-high-voltage transmission, and an AI-powered smart grid – represents the boldest global initiative by any government to achieve the goals of the Paris climate agreement. It is a strategy fit for the scale of the most important challenge the world faces today.
The boldest plan to achieve the targets set by the 2015 Paris climate agreement comes from China. The Paris accord commits the world’s governments to keeping global warming to well below 2º Celsius (3.6º Fahrenheit) relative to the pre-industrial level. This can be accomplished mainly by shifting the world’s primary energy sources from carbon-based fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas) to zero-carbon, renewable (wind, solar, hydro, geothermal, ocean, biomass), and nuclear energy by the year 2050. China’s Global Energy Interconnection (GEI) offers a breathtaking vision of how to achieve this energy transformation.
See also:
China reports better air quality in February
Gov.Cn
China customs seizes 110,000 T of smuggled waste in 2018: paper
Reuters
China’s customs authority has already seized 110,000 tonnes (122,356.5 tons) of smuggled solid waste this year and smashed 25 smuggling rings, state media said on Tuesday, as the country works to enforce a ban on overseas trash imposed last year.
China told the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2017 that it would stop accepting imports on 24 types of foreign waste, including paper and textiles, by the end of the year, and that it would eventually ban shipments of all waste products readily available from domestic sources.
See also:
Dumping garbage overseas is not the right way to go
e-China News Online
OTHER STORIES
China’s Communist Party Is Abandoning Workers
The New York Times
China is a sea of labor unrest. During the first 10 weeks of this year there were more than 400 publicly reported strikes, more than double the number during the comparable period last year. President Xi Jinping’s government has responded with a firm hand: Labor activists are being arrested and assaulted simply for demanding their wages.
As China’s rate of economic growth has slowed over the past few years, China Labour Bulletin, a Hong Kong-based organization, tracked a surge in reported strikes — most likely a small measure of all the actual strikes — from fewer than 200 in 2011 to 1,256 in 2017. Government data indicates a 38 percent increase in the number of labor dispute cases heard by Chinese courts, from 589,244 in 2011 to 813,589 in 2015.
See also:
100 Shanghai cleaners stage four-day rally over pay cuts as labour protests grow across China
South China Morning Post
Exodus of population from 5 major cities benefits 2nd-tier ones: experts
Global Times
Experts said the drop in permanent resident populations in five major Chinese cities in 2017 will help balance the allocation of labor resources in the country's second-tier cities.
[…]
However, […] the negative growth in the population in the cities won't necessary slow down or affect economic development. The population distribution, on the contrary, will balance the allocation of labor resources and make development more efficient.
Second-tier cities like Hangzhou, Chengdu and Wuhan are ramping up their efforts to lure more talent by offering attractive policies. These include lowering the threshold on household registration and providing house rental subsidiaries and entrepreneurship allowances.
Challenges remain for China's poverty relief fight: CPC Politburo
XinhuaNet
China still faces arduous tasks and challenges in its poverty alleviation campaign, and more hard endeavors should be made to fight this battle, according to a Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Political Bureau statement.
[…]
China aims to eradicate absolute poverty by 2020. As of the end of 2017, the country had 30.46 million poor residents, compared with 98.99 million in 2012, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
Hundreds arrested after police bust WeChat vice ring run in China and Malaysia
South China Morning Post
Gang used popular social media service to pimp out women, earning 100 million yuan last year
Chinese authorities have broken up an international prostitution ring that used the popular social media service WeChat to run its business.
A total of 349 people were arrested and more than 32 million yuan (US$5 million) seized from the gang in the southern megacity of Shenzhen, news website Oeeee.com reported on Tuesday.
The gang operated in mainland China and Malaysia and its business was largely conducted through WeChat, China’s most popular social media platform, according to a statement by Shenzhen police on Saturday that first disclosed the arrests.
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