On the first day of 2017, Taiwan’s president Tsai Ing-wen attended a flag-raising ceremony, a tradition observed by Taiwan’s president for many years. A few hours later, Wei Ming-jen, a Taiwanese man, held a similar ceremony at his hometown county of Changhua—using the five-star red flag that represents the People’s Republic of China.
Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo has received a generous paycheck from a Chinese soccer team, his agent Jorge Mendes told Sky Sport recently. The unidentified Chinese buyer had offered the newly crowned four-time golden ball winner an annual salary of over €100 million ($105 million), Mendes claimed—double Ronaldo’s current yearly earnings in salary and bonuses.
Actress Debbie Reynolds, best known for her starring role in Singin’ in the Rain, died today (Dec. 28) at age 84, a day after her daughter Carrie Fisher’s death.
Actress Carrie Fisher, who starred as Princess Leia in the original Star Wars trilogy, died on Dec. 27 following a heart attack. The 60-year-old’s French bulldog Gary was at her side in her last days. He also accompanied Fisher at a protest against China’s dog meat festival.
Most Chinese smartphone addicts have never had the chance to play Pokémon Go, thanks to a government ban on Google services that prevents the game from working in China. But they’re now getting a chance to play a domestic substitute, with prizes far more lucrative than Pikachu.
Three decades ago, as China was recovering from the trauma of Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution, it gradually started opening up to Western culture. The first performers to get through the door were Wham!.
In 2016, Chinese president Xi Jinping’s crackdown on corrupt officials, dissidents, activists, and civil society grew ever more brutal. He consolidated his power to an unprecedented level not seen for decades on the eve of a major leadership reshuffle next year. Riding a wave of growing nationalism at home, his government is taking on a more assertive global role, emboldened by events abroad like Brexit and Donald Trump’s victory.
2016 showed a more ruthless and aggressive—but also more fragile—China.
Up until today (Dec. 21), 22 countries recognized the Republic of China’s government in Taipei over the People’s Republic of China’s in Beijing. Now, that figure has shrank to 21.
Days after taking an American unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) in the contested waters of the South China Sea, China finally returned the drone to the US, according to officials from the two sides.
US president-elect Donald J. Trump said that he doesn’t want to be “bound by a ‘one China’ policy,” the US’s decades-long stance of treating Taiwan and China as the same country. Instead, he plans to use the issue as a bargaining chip, he said Dec. 11, to “make a deal” with China on trade and other issues.
After seizing an American unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) operating in international waters in the South China Sea last week, China’s defense ministry has agreed to return the drone to the US—even if president-elect Donald Trump wants Beijing to keep it.
President-elect Donald J. Trump plans to use the US’s decades-long stance of treating Taiwan and China as part of the same country as a bargaining chip, he said in an interview over the past weekend, a position that is likely to enrage Beijing and has already sparked a reaction in China.
Shanghai
China’s top court has ruled that Michael Jordan owns the rights to his last name in Chinese, overturning earlier decisions against the 53-year-old basketball legend in a long-running trademark dispute.
Since taking the helm in 2012, Chinese president Xi Jinping has netted hundreds of high-ranking Communist Party officials and thousands more from lower levels in his sweeping, seemingly neverending anti-corruption drive. The campaign is built upon an illegal detention system known as shuanggui.
On Sunday (Dec. 4) night, president-elect Donald J. Trump took to Twitter to accuse China of devaluing its currency—even though it has been doing exactly the opposite of what he claims. In less than 24 hours, the Chinese yuan plummeted about 10% against the dollar—at least according to Google Finance and popular currency portal XE.com.
Donald J. Trump’s phone call this past weekend with Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen has caused so much consternation among political analysts and advisors to both governments that the reaction has been dubbed #TaiwanFreakout.
After infuriating Beijing with a phone call with Taiwan that upended decades of US diplomatic protocol, president-elect Donald J. Trump went a few steps further, rallying against China’s currency and military policies on Sunday (Dec. 4) in a series of tweets:
Beijing has made an official complaint to the US following the controversial phone call between president-elect Donald Trump and Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen that upended decades of diplomatic protocol, according to China’s foreign ministry.
After Donald J. Trump upended decades of diplomatic protocol yesterday (Dec. 2) by holding a phone call with Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen, Beijing was quick to blame Taiwan for the incident, and imply that Trump was duped into talking to Tsai.
Some Chinese Communist Party officials are threatening to quit rather than pay membership fees, others cling to forbidden beliefs in religion or superstition, and some are even seeking to seize state power and split the party, Wang Qishan, China’s anti-corruption czar told party members in a recently publicized speech.
A man in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen has raised nearly $400,000 for his daughter, who is suffering from leukemia, via WeChat, China’s most popular messaging app. He is now under investigation by local authorities, because the amount far exceeds the cost of her treatment in China.
Chinese fans really went the extra mile for a teenage pop star’s birthday.
