by Tom Hussain in SCMP, Aug 1, 2023The writer is an Islamabad-based journalist who has spent his 35-year career covering South Asia and the Middle East.An upsurge in terrorist attacks in western Pakistan highlights the risks involved in expanding China’s Belt and Road Initiative in the country even as Chinese firms are “learning the ropes” on how to cope with the rise in violence, analysts say. Amid ongoing celebrations to commemorate the 10th anniversary of…
Posts tagged as “China”
By Banafsha Binesh in ToloNews online, July 28, 2023US House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, at a hearing examining the Biden administration’s planning for the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan, said the idea of lowering the number of troops to 650 was “insane,” that “12,000 prisoners” including “suicide bombers” and “ISIS-K” were released from Bagram, and that “$7 billion of equipment” was left behind and is being sold to “our adversaries and to terrorist…
report in The Island, July 30, 2023Leaders of India and Sri Lanka were on the same page over regional security following President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s latest visit to New Delhi, an official source said amid fears of China’s growing influence in the Indian Ocean region, Wickremesinghe addressed India’s security concerns over China’s increasing footprint in Sri Lanka and vowed to fast track connectivity between the two Indian Ocean neighbours, the source said. “The president reiterated his…
by Anil Giri in The Kathmandu Post, July 25, 2023The visiting Chinese delegation led by Yuan Jiajun, a politburo member of the Communist Party of China, has pledged Rs145 million (eight million yuan) to carry out various agriculture-related projects in all seven provinces of Nepal. The projects will be funded through the China-South Asian Countries Poverty Alleviation and Cooperative Development Centre, headquartered in Chongqing, China. Yuan, who is tipped as a future leader of China,…
by Ramesh Kumar Paudel in The Kathmandu Post, July 16, 2023At 10 am on Saturday, 10 trucks were queued at a road near Hakim Chowk in Bharatpur. Senior government officials, including Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha, Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Development Beduram Bhusal, and Secretary of Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supply Madhu Marasini had reached the Chitwan district to bid farewell to the trucks. Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Chen…
By Fidel Rahmati in Khaama Press online,July 10, 2023A freight train departed from Lanzhou, the capital of northwest China’s Gansu Province, on July 5 and headed for Hairatan in Afghanistan, marking the launch of a new cargo route. The train travelled to Kashgar, a city in the far western part of China’s westernmost province, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, carrying 39 containers, including furniture, office supplies, mechanical equipment, and automobile parts. The train followed many…
by Andrew Mullen & Mia Nulimaimaiti in SCMP, July 10, 2023Deflation risks in China heightened in June amid weak demand, as consumer prices remained flat and a factory-gate price fall deepened, data released on Monday showed. The consumer price index (CPI) was unchanged from a year earlier, down from 0.2 per cent growth in May, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). This was below the expected rise of 0.1 per cent, according to…
By Damith Wickremasekara in The Sunday Times, July 9, 2023President Ranil Wickremesinghe is set to make an official visit to China in October, his first to that country since becoming the Head of State last year. According to Government sources his main role will be to look for new investments, reach trade agreements and resume funding for stalled projects. Expediting investments for the Colombo Port Financial City and discussions with the Exim Bank on resuming…
By Bibi Amina Hakimi in TOLOnews, June 27, 2023 at 10:52 PMThe Ministry of Industry and Commerce (MoIC) said that the Islamic Emirate and China are interested in connecting via the Wakhan corridor. The spokesman for the MoIC, Akhundzada Abdul Salam Jawad, said connecting Afghanistan across the Wakhan will increase trade with world countries and increase national revenue. “One of our dreams from the past is to connect via the Wakhan corridor with China… both…
AFP report, June 27, 2023COLOMBO: Bankrupt Sri Lanka’s government on Monday said it was scrapping plans to export around 100,000 endangered monkeys to China following an outcry and a court case by animal lovers. The toque macaque is endemic to Sri Lanka and common on the island of 22 million people but is classed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list. Agriculture minister Mahinda Amaraweera said in June that…
By Anil Giri & Sangam Prasain in The Kathmandu Post, June 22, 2023On December 31 last year, on the eve of Pokhara International Airport inauguration by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the Chinese Embassy wrote on its Twitter account that “This [Pokhara airport] is the flagship project of the China-Nepal BRI cooperation.” Six months after the airport’s opening, a Sichuan Airlines charter flight landed in Pokhara on Wednesday with 84 passengers on board the Airbus…