Xi wants 'new level' of China-Britain ties as May visits
Hounded by Brexit rows at home, May is seeking to deepen trade relations with the world's second largest economy as Britain prepares to leave the European Union next year.
The embattled prime minister and senior Chinese leaders championed a "golden era" of relations between their two countries throughout her visit.
But criticism in London over her domestic agenda and her handling of Britain's vexed divorce with the European Union loomed large, prompting her to declare she was "not a quitter" before her arrival on Wednesday.
"As the United Kingdom is leaving the European Union we're going to be more outward looking and looking to enhance our relationships around the world, and this relationship with China is an important part of that," May told state broadcaster CCTV.
May held talks with Xi at the Diaoyutai State Guest House tea after visiting an agricultural sciences academy, later taking part in a traditional tea ceremony with the Chinese leader and his wife Peng Liyuan.
The BBC reported that May, who was expected to raise environmental concerns, would present Xi with a box set of the network's Blue Planet II series, with a personal message from presenter David Attenborough.
"We must strengthen the pragmatism of Sino-British relations in the golden era, and push economic and trade cooperation between the two countries to a new level," Xi said during their meeting, according CCTV.
Xi said the two countries can "develop mutually beneficial cooperation on a wider scale, at a higher level and on a deeper level" though his cherished One Belt One Road initiative.
The massive infrastructure programme is aimed at reviving ancient Silk Road trade routes by building rail and maritime networks across the world.
But the project has spurred both interest and anxiety in many countries, with some saying it mainly benefits Chinese state-run firm and has whiffs of expansionism.
May had said on Wednesday that London welcomes the initiative but she cautioned that the two countries would continue to work together to ensure that the endeavour "meets international standards".
Despite the concerns, Standard Chartered announced Thursday a memorandum of understanding in which the British bank would receive 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) from the state-owned China Development Bank to back Silk Road projects.
'Double-lose result'
May said the two countries would sign nine billion pounds ($12.7 billion) in business deals during her visit.
The two countries agreed new measures to improve access to the huge Chinese market and set up a special panel to explore trade opportunities, she said Wednesday.
Britain runs a 25.4-billion-pound trade deficit with the Asian giant and only 3.1 percent of British exports go to the country, according to Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific chief economist at IHS Markit.
Brexit crept into her talks with Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday, though her Chinese counterpart reassured her that their "golden era" of relations would not be affected by London's EU departure.
"As a trade and strategic partner of both Britain and the EU, China certainly hopes that the result (of Brexit) will be good for both sides," said Cui Hongjian, director of the European studies department at the China Institute of International Studies.
"If it comes to a double-lose result, that will be also unfavourable to China," Cui told AFP.
China worries that Britain's EU exit will remove a pro-free trade force from the bloc and give rise to protectionism, he said.
Hong Kong concerns
The British prime minister was also under pressure to address the political situation in Hong Kong and human rights abuses in mainland China.
Chinese authorities have carried out a relentless crackdown on civil society since Xi took office in 2012.
But she had yet to make public statements about either matter during her visit, which ends in the business hub of Shanghai on Friday.
Before her trip the former British governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, sent a letter to Downing Street saying the semi-autonomous city, which London handed back to Beijing in 1997, was facing "increasing threats to the basic freedoms, human rights and autonomy".
China demolishes Christian megachurch in a “Taliban-style persecution
Authorities in northern China have demolished a Christian megachurch in a move denounced by a religious rights group as “Taliban-style persecution”.
China’s officially atheist Communist authorities are wary of any organised movements outside their control, including religious ones.
The huge evangelical Jindengtai (“Golden Lampstand”) Church, painted grey and surmounted by turrets and a large red cross, was located in Linfen, Shanxi province.
Its demolition began on Tuesday under “a city-wide campaign to remove illegal buildings”, the Global Times newspaper reported, quoting a local government official who wished to remain anonymous.
“A Christian offered his farmland to a local Christian association and they secretly built a church using the cover of building a warehouse,” the official said.
The local housing department had stopped construction of the church in 2009 when it was almost complete, he added.
Several members of the Christian group were then jailed, according to the official.
A “multitude of military police were mobilised and engaged (in) the destruction by burying a large amount of explosives under the church,” Bob Fu, president of the US-based religious rights group ChinaAid Association, told AFP Saturday.
“It is like Taliban/ISIS style of persecution against a peaceful church,” he said, adding that it had around 50,000 members.
The house of worship was “primarily destroyed because it refused to register” with the Communist authorities, Fu said.
Linfen police and city officials did not answer telephone calls by AFP.
Demolition of the church comes as authorities prepare to implement new, stricter regulations on religion which come into force on February 1 as part of a broader effort to put religious practice under the direct supervision of the state.
Beijing has stepped up its crackdown on civil society since President Xi Jinping took power in 2012, tightening restrictions on freedom of speech and jailing hundreds of activists and lawyers.
Chinese citizens officially have freedom of belief under the constitution but the authorities tightly control religious groups and churches, which have to swear allegiance to state-controlled “patriotic” associations to avoid any foreign influence through religion.
In an annual report last year, the US State Department said that in 2016, China “physically abused, detained, arrested, tortured, sentenced to prison, or harassed adherents of both registered and unregistered religious groups”.
China has 5.7 million Catholics and 23 million Protestants, according to official statistics from 2014.
But the figures exclude a similar number of Catholics who adhere to the unofficial “underground” church loyal to the Vatican and tens of millions of members of unrecognised churches, mainly Protestant.
Unofficial Christian organisations are generally tolerated if their members remain discreet.
Authorities however routinely crack down on construction of unauthorised places of worship and dozens of churches have been demolished in recent years.
China struggles to end tanker fire as Iranian criticism grows
This handout from the Transport Ministry of China taken on January 7, 2018 and released on January 8, 2018 shows the Chinese firefighting vessel "DONGHAIJIU 117" spraying water on the burning oil tanker Sanchi at sea off the coast of eastern China. The Iranian oil tanker ablaze off the Chinese coast is at risk of exploding or sinking, authorities said on January 8, as they reported there was no sign of survivors 36 hours after the vessel erupted in flames. Handout / TRANSPORT MINISTRY OF CHINA / AFP
Chinese firefighters spent Thursday struggling to extinguish a blaze on a stricken oil tanker as criticism mounted in Iran over whether enough was being done to locate dozens of its missing crew members.
The Sanchi, carrying 136,000 tonnes of light crude oil from Iran, has been in flames since colliding with the CF Crystal, a Hong Kong-registered bulk freighter, 160 nautical miles east of Shanghai on Saturday.
One body has been found but 31 sailors mainly Iranians remain missing with officials in Iran hoping they have found sanctuary on an unaffected part of the vessel.
Cleanup and rescue ships have faced toxic fumes, rain and windy conditions as they scrambled to find survivors and avoid a massive oil slick since Saturday's incident.
China's transport ministry said Thursday evening the Panamanian-flagged 274-metre (899-foot) tanker remained on fire, adding two ships had spent the day spraying the vessel with retardant foam.
But rescue efforts were still being hampered by "terrible" weather conditions and toxic gases from the burning oil which "pose a great danger to rescuers," the ministry said in a statement.
Of the 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis on the Sanchi's crew, only one body has so far been found and there has been no word from them since the collision.
Operated by Iran's National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC), the vessel was taking light crude oil condensate to South Korea.
On Thursday the Iranian Merchant Mariners Syndicate, an industry NGO, said it had written to Chinese authorities expressing frustration at the lack of progress in putting out the fire.
"It was clear that the Chinese are not cooperating enough," IMMS vice president Saman Rezaie, told AFP.
Iranian news website Khabar Online published video interviews with some of the relatives of those missing.
"I don't know what else to say but just beg them to rescue them as I am sure that they are alive inside," said one woman, who identified herself as the wife of the Sanchi's chief engineer.
Other relatives said they thought the fire should have been extinguished by now.
An NITC spokesperson had previously suggested China might be more concerned with stopping a major oil leak in waters important to their fishing industry than rushing to save crew members.The 21 Chinese crew member of the Crystal, which did not burst into flames, were all rescued.
Trump named after dog in China
The giant pooch towers above shoppers in Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi province, sporting a slick golden pompadour, angled brows and a red scarf with one index finger raised in a distinctly Trumpian manner.
As he was born in 1946, Trump, who has been accused of having more bark than bite, is a dog under the Chinese zodiac — a trait which he shares with his predecessors George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
Those born in the Year of the Dog, according to Chinese astrology, are forthright and extremely loyal, in addition to having a strong sense of justice. But they can also be stubborn, irritable and easily angered.
Last year the mall erected a large Trump-like rooster, which inspired numerous replicas, including a giant inflatable one placed not far from the White House this summer.
AFP
BREAKING: China rejects Trump accusation on oil transfer to North Korea
World's largest amphibious aircraft takes off in China
The plane, codenamed "Kunlong" according to state news agency Xinhua, took off from the southern city of Zhuhai and landed after roughly an hour-long flight.
With a wingspan of 38.8 metres (127 feet) and powered by four turboprop engines, the aircraft is capable of carrying 50 people and can stay airborne for 12 hours.
"Its successful maiden flight makes China among the world's few countries capable of developing a large amphibious aircraft," chief designer Huang Lingcai told Xinhua.
The amphibious aircraft has military applications but will be used for firefighting and marine rescue, with at least 17 orders placed so far with state-owned manufacturer Aviation Industry Corp of China, state media reported.
While it is around the size of a Boeing 737, the AG600 is considerably smaller than billionaire Howard Hughes' flying boat, better known as the Spruce Goose, which had a wingspan of 97 metres and a length of 67 metres but only made one brief flight, in 1947.
The AG600's flight capabilities put all of China's island-building projects in the South China Sea well within range.
"Its 4,500-km operational range and ability to land and take off from water makes it well-suited for deployment over China's artificial islands," said James Char, a military analyst at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University.
The aircraft can fly to the southernmost edge of China's territorial claims -- the James Shoal -- in just four hours from the southern city of Sanya, state-owned Global Times reported.
The shoal is also claimed by Taiwan and Malaysia, and is currently administered by Malaysia. The collection of submerged rocks lies roughly 80 kilometres from Malaysia's coastline and about 1,800 kilometres from the Chinese mainland.
"The plane's capacity and maneuverability makes it ideal for transporting materiel to those maritime features that are too structurally fragile to support runways," Char said.
Beijing's buildup in the South China Sea, through which some $5 trillion in annual trade passes, is hotly contested by other nations.
The Philippines for many years was one of the region's strongest opponents of Chinese expansionism, and brought a complaint to a United Nations-backed tribunal.
The panel ruled last year that China's territorial claims in the sea were without legal basis, but the Philippines has backed away from the dispute under its new president Rodrigo Duterte.
The launch of the new amphibious aircraft further strengthens China's rapidly modernising military.
Earlier this year, it launched its first domestically built aircraft carrier, the Type 001A. This complemented the Liaoning, a second-hand Soviet carrier commissioned in 2012 after extensive refits.
China's military expenditure in 2016 was an estimated $215 billion, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, putting it in first place in Asia, well ahead of India ($56 billion), Japan ($46 billion) and South Korea ($37 billion).
Chinese calligraphy paintings sell for record US$144 mln
Who is to blame for Chinese rooftopper's dramatic death?
By Ben Westcott and Serenitie Wang, CNN
Updated 3 hours ago Dec 14, 2017
(CNN) - A video circulating on Chinese social media shows a young man preforming chin ups while hanging from the side of a 62-story building in the city of Changsha -- no safety harness, no ropes, nothing.
As the film continues, he struggles to pull himself back up onto the roof, as he's done many times before in dozens of videos. He pauses for a moment, looks down and then falls.
Wu Yongjing, whose nickname on Chinese social media was "the Extreme," is a casualty of the international daredevil trend known as "rooftopping," which has taken off across China where a ready prevalence of newly built skyscrapers has combined with a boom in social media apps.
In response to Wu's death on November 8, an editorial in state media China Daily called for greater supervision of livestreaming apps in China.
"Had Wu not been so popular on livestreaming apps, he might not have died ... Some of them try to hype things up with obscene and dangerous things, and their purpose is to attract more eyeballs and make a profit. It is time we ended this," the article published on Tuesday said.
Not everyone does extreme stunts on the very edge of buildings. Some rooftoppers just like to take photos from stunningly tall, often newly constructed buildings, which they often enter without permission, but others like 26-year-old Wu take things a step further.
His previous videos show him hanging off the edge of glistening skyscrapers supported by just his hands. Sometimes he does pull ups.
But Chinese rooftopper Claire, who asked us to not to reveal her last name, told CNN she doesn't just blame Wu's risk-taking for his death -- instead, she says the companies who sponsor rooftoppers are also to blame.
"These companies will pay money to the video-makers," she said, if the rooftoppers will allow that company to advertise on their videos.
"If you sign a contract with them, they'll pay for your tickets and accommodation and everything to fly you to another city to do crazy things. And they state clearly that they are not responsible for any casualties if there ever was one."
Claire doesn't do anything as extreme as Wu, although images on her Instagram account attest to her penchant for danger.
inline
Wu's family were quoted in local Chinese media Beijing News saying he had been offered 100,000 yuan to produce a viral video, which he was going to put towards his wedding.
His parents told Chinese media they didn't know what he was doing. They thought he was trying to become an actor.
Social media and skyscrapers
Rooftopping as a hobby didn't start in China -- it's been around as part of social media for years.
But according to Beijing-based journalist Dominique Wong, it's only recently become a trend inside China, due in part to the long-term ban on many Western social media sites such as YouTube. "A lot of Chinese people weren't really being exposed to the idea of it and images depicting it," said Wong.
Claire said she thought China's rapid economic growth, mixed with the rise of social media, had combined to spark at interest in the risky hobby.
"The rise of skyscrapers really served as the soil and foundation of the environment. The spread of social media made success or recognition more attainable, which is tempting for individuals," she said.
Rooftopper Daniel Lau, who spoke about his hobby to CNN in 2015, has 116,000 followers on his Instagram account. Wu's Weibo account has grown to more than 60,000 followers since his death.
For Claire, she said she got into rooftopping after suffering from depression. Standing on top of Beijing's partially abandoned Guoson Center, the city spread out around her, she said she felt "healed."
"On top of a building you can't think of anything else, which squeezed out my depression somehow ... The thrill is big enough to occupy your mind," she said.
inline
Wong said a lot of the Beijing rooftoppers she has interviewed previously had their interest sparked during a dark time in their lives.
"For a lot of them they also find it just thrilling. It's not always a spiritual thing or a therapeutic thing for all of them. One of the more risky guys, for him it was purely more about the challenge," she said.
Is it worth it?
A 25-year-old Hong Kong rooftopping photographer, who asked not to be named, told CNN in the wake of Wu's death some of China's rooftoppers were likely to reconsider their hobby.
"It was sad among the people who are close to this. And it's kind of a signal to make you think is everything you are doing worth it or not?" he said.
The photographer, who is part of the rooftopping community, said he just climbs buildings for the beautiful photos he can take, rather than the thrill factor.
"It's okay if you know you should be careful and responsible when you take pictures, don't do it as a cool thing to do," he said.
Wong said some of the Beijing rooftoppers she spoke to admitted the possibility of dying was "something that they can't not think about."
"For some of them, the deaths do really affect them in such a way as it would make them reconsider rooftopping," she said.
For Wong herself the appeal is obvious. "(One of the rooftoppers) asked me to sit on the edge of one of the buildings," she said.
"It was exhilarating and it was very special being (up there) with these guys ... It was beautiful."
Popular Posts
-
The Nigerian Navy Direct Short Service Commission (DSSC) 25 Course has released list of its successful candidates who passed the Aptitude... -
Outrage over six dead appointees on Buhari’s board list Niyi Odebode, John Alechenu, Olalekan Adetayo, Adelani Adepegba, Ade Adesomoju,... -
This file photo taken on August 31, 2006 shows a permanent memorial to Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi al-Fayed is seen in Harrods ...
-
Coalition holds #EndSARS rallies nationwide today A coalition of civil society groups will on Monday (today) hold rallies nationw... -
Ex-Ivorian Star Emmanuel Eboue Is Dead The former Ivorian International star, Emmanuel Eboue, is dead. Emmanuel Eboue is reported to ha...
Popular Posts
-
By Nqobanbi Ndlovu Botswana yesterday said it did not deport former vice-president Phelekezela Mphoko as President Emmerson Mnangagwa... -
‘I feel like a footballer again’, says Costa Diego Costa PHOTO:AFP Diego Costa has revealed that he ‘feels like a footballer agai...
-
North Korea defection: Trees planted, trench dug at site By Ray Sanchez, CNN Updated Nov 25, 2017 (CNN) - North Korea has replaced nearly...
-
Questions that expose the hypocrisy of President Buhari’s so called anti-corruption war – Reno In 2012, allegations were made by oppos... -
The National Executive Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party has ratified its plans for the conduct of the party’s National Conve...