Hong Kong’s transport giant has played down the safety failures being unearthed daily at the city’s most expensive rail project ever, as it tried to scotch suggestions that it should rip up newly built platforms and start again. Reporting progress on the investigation by the MTR Corporation on the Sha Tin-Central link at Hung Hom […] Read more
Indonesia this week opened a military base with more than 1,000 personnel on the southern tip of the disputed South China Sea, where the territorial claims of China and several other countries overlap. The base, which opened on Tuesday, is located in Selat Lampa on Natuna Besar Island – part of the Natuna Islands – […] Read more
Canadian consular officials are assisting a third Canadian citizen detained by Chinese authorities, as the row deepens between Beijing and Ottawa over the arrest of a Chinese tech executive. Global Affairs Canada spokeswoman Maegan Graveline on Wednesday confirmed that another Canadian national had been detained in China, without giving details of the person’s identity or […] Read more
A ferry that sank off Thailand’s southern resort island of Phuket this summer killing 47 Chinese tourists did not meet regulatory standards, according to investigators. The sinking of the Phoenix on July 5 was one of Thailand’s worst tourism-related disasters in recent memory. Three of the boat’s operators have been charged with negligence causing death […] Read more
Chinese President Xi Jinping addressed his nation Tuesday morning in Beijing to commemorate the 40th anniversary of China’s “reform and opening up” — and he struck a relatively defiant tone in response to international calls for changes to his country’s economy. His remarks focused on how China’s Communist Party guided the nation to its economic […] Read more
China will try to develop “a powerful home market” to help offset external uncertainties next year, the country’s top leadership agreed on Thursday, roughly two weeks into a 90-day truce in the trade war with the United States. The Politburo, the country’s highest decision-making body, said China still had a “strategic window of opportunity” and […] Read more
China has stopped requiring local governments to work on the “Made in China 2025” strategy, the latest directive issued by the central Chinese government to local authorities showed, in a clear sign that Beijing is toning down a policy that has become a centrepiece of its rivalry with the US. However, China will continue to […] Read more
Worshippers of a prominent Protestant unofficial church in southwest China have vowed to keep meeting for religious services despite an ongoing crackdown and members’ claims of abuse in police custody. More than 100 Protestant Christians from the Early Rain Covenant Church – one of China’s few openly operating unofficial house churches – were snatched from […] Read more
Members of the Chinese Communist Party are receiving “Happy Birthday” cards from their party branch, not on their actual birthday but on each anniversary of them joining the party. The practice has gained popularity in the past two years since Xi Jinping, the president and party chief, vowed to strengthen the party’s control over China. […] Read more
The rise in emergency charges at Hong Kong’s public hospitals has failed to cut queues and waiting times for urgent cases, despite a drop in the total number of patients, according to new figures. But the Hospital Authority said it had no plans to further increase the charge, which grew from HK$100 to HK$180 in […] Read more
