China’s central bank cut a key interest rate while keeping another unchanged, an unexpected policy shift that economists said would likely help the country’s moribund housing market but bring only limited relief to its struggling economy. Wallstreet Journal
Category: China
Why China will not abandon its zero-Covid policy any time soon
A tough decision to lock down Shanghai, China’s largest city, shocked the world. After six weeks, and despite a sharp decline in infections, Shanghai’s lockdown has imposed enormous costs on the city and its residents. South China Morning Post
NBA ‘quietly’ returns to China state TV after almost three years away
The NBA has made a “quiet” return to state-run TV in China for this year’s playoffs after being off-air there for roughly three years. NYPOST
China Insists Party Elites Shed Overseas Assets…
China’s Communist Party will block promotions for senior cadres whose spouses or children hold significant assets abroad, people familiar with the matter said, as Beijing seeks to insulate its top officials from the types of sanctions now being directed at Russia WallStreetJounal
Developing Covid crisis in Beijing, explained
After successfully curbing the novel coronavirus for most of the past two years, China in recent months has faced its biggest Covid-19 surge since the virus was first discovered in Wuhan in December 2019. The Covid wave caused by the highly contagious omicron variant has spread across many major cities, including Shanghai. Vox
‘Lost world’ found in massive sinkhole in southern China
Biden visits Japan, South Korea carrying warning to China
Joe Biden will visit Japan and South Korea on his first Asian trip as U.S. president, carrying a clear message to China, advisers and analysts say – don’t try what Russia did in Ukraine anywhere in Asia, and especially not in Taiwan. Reuters
Biden gets his shot at prioritizing China
Sixteen months after his inauguration, President Joe Biden will finally make his first trip to the region this Thursday with visits to South Korea and Japan. And while the war in Ukraine dominates headlines and the attention of the West, the White House views the week ahead as a critical opportunity to tackle a wildly different but equally complex challenge: China. Politico
Chinese Hackers Tried to Steal Russian Defense Data, Report Says
The campaign detailed by a cybersecurity firm highlights Beijing’s increasingly sophisticated tactics to spy on an array of targets, including countries it considers friends. New York Times
What Is China Learning From Russia’s War in Ukraine?
Beyond Europe, the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is being felt most keenly 5,000 miles away, on the island of Taiwan. Many Taiwanese worry that they might be the next to suffer an invasion by a more powerful neighbor. Those fears are not unreasonable. While Ukraine and Taiwan differ in many ways, as relatively young democracies living alongside larger authoritarian neighbors with long-standing designs on their territory, the two face strikingly similar strategic predicaments. ForeignAffairs.com