Rural Daily

China's private tutoring firms emerge from the shadows after crackdown

30Oct

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China's private tutoring firms emerge from the shadows after crackdown

FILE - Students attend a class at the Wenchang Middle School in Yuexi during a government-organized media tour in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan province, China, September, 11, 2020. SHANGHAI/BEIJING — China is quietly easing regulatory pressure on private tutoring operators as it looks to revive a flagging economy, spurring a nascent revival of a sector hit hard by a government crackdown three years ago, according to industry figures, analysts and data reviewed by Reuters. There has been no formal acknowledgement of a change in policy. But there is now tacit consent from policymakers to allow the tutoring industry to grow, in a pivot by Beijing to support job creation, eight industry figures and two analysts familiar with...

Police out in force to prevent rowdy Halloween celebrations in Shanghai

30Oct

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China

Police out in force to prevent rowdy Halloween celebrations in Shanghai

Police officers keep watch near barricades set up along Julu Road where people in Halloween costumes gathered the year before, in Shanghai, China, October 26, 2024. SHANGHAI — Shanghai police patrolled the downtown streets over the weekend to crack down on Halloween celebrations in China\'s most international city. Local authorities appeared to be trying to prevent a repeat of last year, when Halloween revelers thronged central Shanghai, with some dressed in costumes that poked fun of the Chinese stock market, youth unemployment and strict COVID-19 policies. This weekend, the police presence, online postings about a crackdown and constant rain kept the revelry to a minimum. At least half a dozen people in costumes that turned up in Sha...

30Oct

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China

Knife attack near school in Beijing injures 5 people, including 3 children

Plainclothes police officers pass by a primary school following a knife attack that occurred on an intersection road near a school in the northwestern Haidian district in Beijing, Oct. 28, 2024. Beijing — A knife attack near a school in China\'s capital on Monday injured five people, including three children, police said. The attack occurred midafternoon in Beijing\'s northwestern Haidian district. None of the injuries was life-threatening, police said in a statement. A 50-year-old suspect surnamed Tang was detained at the scene and is under investigation, police said. The location of the attack given by the statement is near a famous primary school. Video circulating on social media showed two school-aged children on the ground. Anothe...

30Oct

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China

Myanmar opposition: Dialogue impossible, China must rethink junta support

FILE - People inspect destroyed and damaged buildings after bombardments carried out by Myanmar's military in Lashio in Myanmar's northern Shan State on Sept. 24, 2024. Despite efforts by China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to resolve Myanmar\'s political and economic crisis, opposition leader Zaw Wai Soe told VOA that dialogue with the military regime is impossible amid ongoing atrocities. Zaw Wai Soe is a minister in Myanmar’s National Unity Government (NUG), a shadow government of former lawmakers and opponents created after the February 2021 coup. “The military must have no place in politics,” he said. Speaking to VOA in Washington after attending the U.N. General Assembly in New York in Septemb...

30Oct

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China

China's Xi pressed Biden to alter language on Taiwan, sources say

FILE - This combination image shows U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington, Nov. 6, 2021, and China's President Xi Jinping in Brasília, Brazil, Nov. 13, 2019. WASHINGTON/BEIJING/TAIPEI — Chinese President Xi Jinping asked U.S. President Joe Biden last year to change the language the United States uses when discussing its position on Taiwanese independence, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the private conversation. During last November\'s Biden-Xi meeting near San Francisco, Xi and his aides asked Biden and his team to tweak the language in U.S. official statements. China wanted the U.S. to say "we oppose Taiwan independence," rather than the current version, which is that the United States "does not...

18Oct

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China

US sanctions Chinese entities for building, shipping Russian Garpiya drones used in Ukraine

washington — The United States on Thursday announced fresh sanctions targeting Chinese and Russian entities for their role in designing, building and shipping attack drones that have resulted in mass casualties in Ukraine. The sanctions target two Chinese entities, Xiamen Limbach Aircraft Engine Co., Ltd., and Redlepus Vector Industry Shenzhen Co Ltd (Redlepus), Russian entity TSK Vektor and TSK Vektor’s General Director Artem Mikhailovich Yamshchikov. A senior administration official told reporters Thursday that the entities were involved in developing the Russian Garpiya series long-range attack drones, producing them in China and shipping them directly to Russia. “The Garpiya, designed and produced in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in collaboration with Russian defense fi...

18Oct

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China, Top News

China hosts World Media Summit in Xinjiang amid human rights concerns

washington — China hosted its sixth World Media Summit this week in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, in northwestern China. Organizers say more than 500 participants from 208 leading media organizations participated in the event, which was cohosted by state-run Xinhua News Agency and the Xinjiang regional government. The three-day summit, which ended on Thursday, focused on "Artificial Intelligence and Media Transformation." Chinese media highlighted the potential benefits of global AI collaboration, but the choice of Xinjiang as the event's venue was criticized by activists concerned about China's alleged human rights abuses in the region. Adrian Zenz, director of China studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, told VOA he believes organizers chose Urumqi to draw a...

17Oct

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China, Top News

China to seize 3.1 billion yuan in assets linked to exiled former vice mayor

Authorities in China are moving to seize more than 3 billion yuan (US$435 million) in assets belonging to a former high-ranking official from the northeastern province of Heilongjiang who has fled to the United States, claiming to be a persecuted critic of the government. According to the Mudanjiang Intermediate People's Court, former Jixi vice mayor Li Chuanliang stands accused of holding illegal assets including real estate, companies and engineering equipment worth 3.1 billion yuan, according to details it published in the Oct. 11 edition of the People's Court Daily, a specialist legal newspaper. Li, 61, who has served as vice mayor of both Jixi and Hegang cities, stands accused of embezzling public assets, accepting bribes and appropriating public funds by awarding contracts to c...

17Oct

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China, TRENDING NEWS

China says it will not renounce use of force over Taiwan

BEIJING/TAIPEI — China will not promise to renounce the use of force over Taiwan but this is aimed at external interference and a small minority of separatists, China's Taiwan Affairs Office said on Wednesday following the country's latest war games around the island. China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, staged a day of large-scale drills around the island on Monday it said were a warning to "separatist acts" following last week's national day speech by Taiwan President Lai Ching-te. "We are willing to strive for the prospect of peaceful reunification with the utmost sincerity and endeavor," Chen Binhua, spokesperson for China's Taiwan Affairs Office, told a regular press briefing in Beijing. "But we will never commit ourselves to renouncing the ...

16Oct

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China, Top News

China to prosecute rights lawyer arrested in Laos

Chinese authorities are moving ahead with the prosecution of rights lawyer Lu Siwei after detaining him in Laos last year, his wife said on Tuesday. Lu, 51, was en route to be reunited with his family in the United States when he was arrested in Vientiane on July 28, 2023, and forcibly repatriated to China in what rights activists said was yet another example of Bejing’s transnational law enforcement. On arriving back in China, he was charged in the southwestern province of Sichuan with "illegally crossing a border" and released on bail pending trial. But his freedom ended with his formal arrest last week, part of which was documented in a video clip he shot at the time, and shared with his wife, who lived in the United States. "They are outside, knocking on the door," Lu says ...