China

  A child reacts to an Unitree Go2 intelligent side-follow robot during a performance at a popular shopping district in Beijing, Nov. 17, 2024. BERLIN — China has overtaken Germany in the use of robots in industry, an annual report published by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) showed on Wednesday, underscoring the challenges facing Europe\'s biggest economy from Beijing. In terms of robot density, an important indicator for international comparisons of the automation of the manufacturing industry, South Korea is the world leader with 1,012 robots per 10,000 employees, up 5% since 2018, said the IFR, which is based in Germany. Singapore comes next, followed by China with 470 robots per 10,000 workers - more than double the density it had in 2019. That compar...

  FILE - Media mogul Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, founder of Apple Daily, walks to a prison van to head to court, after being charged under the national security law, in Hong Kong, China, December 12, 2020. HONG KONG — Jailed Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai insisted his newspaper had championed democracy and "freedom" as he took the witness stand for the first time in his collusion trial on Wednesday. Lai\'s case is one of the most prominent prosecuted under the national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020, with Western countries and rights groups demanding his release. The 76-year-old founder of tabloid Apple Daily is accused of colluding with foreign forces, a charge that could carry a sentence of up to life in prison. The case ...

  Pakistani policemen stand guard outside a factory where two Chinese nationals were allegedly shot, in Karachi, Nov. 5, 2024. China said on Nov. 19, 2024, it will send troops to Pakistan for the first joint counterterrorism exercise in five years to enhance security cooperation. Islamabad — China said Tuesday it will send troops to Pakistan later this month for the countries first joint counterterrorism military exercise in five years to enhance security cooperation with its South Asian neighbor and close ally. The announcement follows reports that Beijing is pushing Islamabad to permit its security personnel to safeguard thousands of Chinese nationals working in Pakistan from deadly terrorist attacks. It also comes amid a spike in terro...

  A man breaks a car's window following a vehicle collision outside a primary school in Changde, Hunan province, China in this screengrab obtained from social media video released November 19, 2024. Local authorities have not released details. Social Media/via REUTERS Taipei, Taiwan — Numerous children were injured by a vehicle at the gate of an elementary school in central China\'s Hunan province on Tuesday morning, reports said. Students were arriving for classes around 8 a.m. at Yong\'an Elementary School in the city of Changde when the incident occurred. Few details were immediately available, and it wasn\'t clear whether the vehicle had lost control or whether it was a deliberate attack. The official Xinhua News Agency said seve...

  FILE - Occupy Central leader Benny Tai, center, is accompanied by a supporter who raises an umbrella as he leaves high court in Hong Kong, Aug. 15, 2019. hong kong — Dozens of prominent Hong Kong pro-democracy activists are scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday in the largest case brought under a national security law that critics say crushed political activism in the semiautonomous Chinese city. The convictions of the 45 activists under the Beijing-imposed law are widely seen as part of a crackdown by China that destroyed hopes for a more democratic Hong Kong. The potential sentences range from a few years to life in prison. The activists were among 47 people charged with conspiracy to commit subversion in 2021 for their involvement in an...

  FILE - Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp attends a joint press conference with Ukraine's Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin (not seen), in Odesa, Ukraine, July 7, 2024. AMSTERDAM — The Netherlands\' foreign minister, whose ministry oversees export restrictions on top computer chip equipment maker ASML, said on Monday that China-Russia trade was "directly affecting" European security. NATO views China as a "decisive enabler" of Russia in its war against Ukraine, given that Chinese firms are selling goods that end up as components in Russian weapons, including drones, Caspar Veldkamp said before a meeting with European Union foreign ministers in Brussels. "I raised this twice with the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and I think as Europeans we should all do this, becau...

  China's President Xi Jinping attends the second session of the G20 Leaders' Meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Nov. 18, 2024. Washington — Chinese President Xi Jinping announced a range of measures to boost global development in his remarks Monday at G20 Summit meetings in Rio de Janeiro — highlighting Beijing’s support for its global infrastructure project, the Belt and Road, and a joint technology initiative to support so-called “Global South” nations. Xi said the “Open Science International Cooperation Initiative” would be spearheaded by China, Brazil, South Africa and the African Union to ensure that technological advances benefit less developed, underdeveloped and developing nations. "China supports the G20 in carrying out practical cooperation for the benefit of...

  FILE - A pregnant woman stands for a portrait in Dallas, Texas, May 18, 2023. A Chinese woman's account of how she was lured into China's illegal surrogacy industry before suffering a miscarriage went viral on Chinese social media this week. BEIJING/HONG KONG — A 22-year-old Chinese woman\'s account of how she was lured into the country\'s illegal surrogacy industry before suffering a miscarriage went viral on Chinese social media this week and raised heated debates over women\'s rights and social inequality. Surrogacy is banned in China, and authorities have vowed to severely crack down on illegal practices, including the buying and selling of sperm, egg and surrogacy services. The incident comes as Chinese authorities grap...

Kitty Wang, Jenny Tang and Qian Lang for RFA Mandarin and Yitong Wu and Kit Sung for RFA Cantonese2024.11.16 Read RFA coverage of this topic in Chinese. Rampant youth unemployment in China has left millions of young people floundering, living at home, relying on delivery jobs or, in a growing trend, “pretending to go to work.” In posts on the video-sharing platform Douyin, young people are creating a routine where none exists out of sessions spent studying or applying for jobs in libraries and internet cafes. Some are even paying for “study rooms” to get them out of the house and give structure to their days, sometimes while they study for highly competitive civil service entrance exams, according to state media reports. The situation has spawned a hashtag on social media, #IPretended...

  FILE - The TikTok logo is seen on a mobile phone in front of a computer screen that displays the TikTok home screen, on March 18, 2023. TikTok parent company ByteDance values itself at $300 billion, according to a report on Nov. 16, 2024. TikTok\'s Chinese parent company ByteDance is valuing itself at about $300 billion after a recent buyback offer, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday, even as the tech giant\'s popular TikTok app faces the prospect of a looming ban in the United States. The TikTok parent in recent days told investors it was looking to buy back shares at about $180 a share, the newspaper said. ByteDance investors have viewed President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House as an overall positive for TikTok’s hopes in the U.S., as per the report....