From shock therapy treatment to nausea pills to fake marriages, Chinese gays, lesbian and transgender are targeted by clinics and family trying to turn them straight.
country: China
Stay updated with comprehensive news on China from Worldcrunch. Discover insights on Chinese politics, economic developments, societal issues, and cultural landmarks with translations from top international sources. Highlights include Beijing, Shanghai, and events like the Chinese New Year.
BEIJING — Two events this spring, seemingly unrelated, together offer a snapshot of where China has arrived in finance-related technology, commonly referred to as “fintech.” On April 17, the Bank of Communications, one of the largest Chinese banks, launched a new “mobile credit card” product, making it the first bank to make a credit card’s […]
A decades-old argument might just have been settled: Modern “mixed martial arts’ fighter vs. Tai Chi master — who wins?” In a recently filmed fight, Xu Xiaodong, a Beijing-based mixed martial arts freestyle coach, duked it out with Wei Lei, a famous Tai Chi master from Sichuan. It took less than 20 seconds for Xu […]
BEIJING — At the just concluded Beijing International Film Festival, the hottest feature on the bill was the business battle between Chinese and American film industries. The Fate of the Furious, a Hollywood blockbuster, has grossed 2.35 billion RMB ($340 million) since its release two weeks ago in China, and it is projected to become […]
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Shot Of Trouble: Fake Botox In China
BEIJING — Authorities have carried out a series of raids on beauty salons in the Chinese capital in an effort to crack down on counterfeit Botox, The Beijing News reports. Botox is popular in China, where many young women aspire to have a thin V-shape face. But the high price of injections, which require regular […]
In Beijing parks and throughout the rest of China, “singles’ markets” are held, organized by the parents eager to marry off their children.
-Op-Ed- LAUSANNE — While plenty of attention has been paid to Donald Trump’s “America First” pledge — as troublesome or laughable as it may seem — relatively little is being said about another protectionist economic strategy, one that could have a far greater impact on Europe and the West. Unlike the U.S. president, with his well-known habit of airing every thought and whim on Twitter, authorities in Beijing have been discreet about their “Made in China 2025” initiative. Don’t be fooled though. It may not have a lot of fanfare, but this is no half-measure. Just as China has already […]
GUANGZHOU — After flocking to the megalopolis by the tens of thousands, Africans seem to be going sour on Guangzhou, or “Chocolate City,” as it’s been nicknamed by the Chinese. Home to the largest African community in Asia, Guangzhou, an important global trade platform located opposite Hong Kong, attracted scores of migrants starting in the […]
More and more Japanese, South Korean and other foreign manufacturers of TCM are not even using Chinese raw materials for the ancient cures. What is left then?
China eased its controversial one-child policy in late 2015. But there are still plenty of people, for one reason or another, who can’t have children and could benefit from surrogate woman willing to carry the pregnancy.
The Japanese diet is rich in carbohydrates, but widespread obesity has not occurred even through the country’s economic boom.
BEIJING — In Xi Jinping’s China, it is again a risky proposition to openly criticize Mao Zedong. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) thought it had resolved the discussion in 1981 when it decreed that the reign of Mao, the founder of the People’s Republic of China, had been 70% good and 30% bad. But since […]
Massive use of antibiotics in animal farming and for the treatment of common ailments is helping create incurable infections.
First with Obama and now with Trump, the U.S. is making space for a second imperialist power on the American continent, China.
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Inside The Global Zipper War
Japanese and Chinese rivals battle for dominance in this billion-dollar industry, a tale of a worldwide economy drawing ever closer.
-Analysis- PARIS — For more than 70 years, the United States was the ultimate life insurance policy for Europe against the Soviet and now Russian thirst for power. The U.S. also held sway in Asia, in large part to counter China and to contain North Korea’s dangerous and eccentric drifts. The rise of China’s economic […]
CHONGQING — Every day since 2014, a train leaves from the western German city of Duisburg. It winds its way across Europe and Asia to finally reach Chongqing, a megalopolis of 28 million inhabitants in southwestern China. Huge cranes there extract gigantic matchbox-like containers from the train. BMW cars made in Germany are taken from […]
If Washington cracks down on Chinese imports, Beijing is sure to respond in kind. Companies that would suffer include makers of everything from sneakers to semi-conductors.
BEIJING — It’s been more than a year since China abolished the one-child policy ntroduced in 1979 to control the population. The politburo came up with a new two-child policy and simplified the government-approval process for couples seeking assisted reproductive treatment. The shift prompted older couples to use frozen semen and eggs, and test-tube babies. […]
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Child Thieves For Hire In China
A county in China long known for its poets and philosophers is now in the news for something far more notorious — renting out children as thieves for hire. In Dao county in the southern Chinese province of Hunan, a child can be rented for 200 yuan ($29) a day, or 50,000 yuan ($7200) a […]
-OpEd- KALAMAZOO — People from China who travel abroad are struck by the stark differences between their countries. In the U.S. and Europe, they probably envy how people live in comfort and are rich enough to engage in arts and public service. These countries in general have more honest and transparent governments, as well as […]
BEIJING — If you’ve ever had trouble ordering at Starbucks, just know you probably have plenty of company: millions of Chinese coffee lovers. When one customer recently posted an open letter online to the chief executive of Starbucks in China to complain about the way the American coffee chain calls its different size cups, the […]
Chinese business leaders should learn lessons from Japanese firms’ spending sprees of the 1980s and 1990s.
HONG KONG — Just when China’s economy seemed to be stabilizing, Donald Trump’s election as U.S. president poses significant new risks. Not just for Chinese growth, but the entire Asia region. That’s because the president-elect campaigned on a policy platform with protectionism at its center. Trump wants to slap punitive tariffs on Chinese goods and label the world’s No. 2 economy a currency manipulator. Such a move would hurt Chinese exports. But it could also trigger a trade war if Beijing retaliates, catching other Asian economies in the crossfire. Other worries: A planned major regional trade pact, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, […]
-Analysis- BEIJING — The numbers are decidely mixed. Year-on-year, China’s exports fell in September by 10%, which was a 0.5% further drop over August. Meanwhile, the National Bureau of Statistics showed that third-quarter Chinese GDP growth steadied to a solid 6.7%. But putting aside the short-term trend lines, the longer-term outlook shows alarming signs of […]
Mirroring some of the battles Uber has faced in cities around the world, local car-hailing apps in China like Didi Chuxing are getting heat from municipal administrations trying to protect the status quo.
Global warming, population booms, rising urbanization, industrialization — an explosive mixture that may make water supplies the world’s new spark for armed conflict.
BEIJING — China’s Ministry of Public Security has weighed into a national debate about citizens filming police actions with an attention-grabbing video of its own. The video, released last month, confirms the public’s right to film or photograph police with the caveat that citizens must “not affect the execution of normal law enforcement.” It also […]
LANZHOU NEW AREA This city is supposed to be the diamond’s on China’s Silk Road Economic Belt a new metropolis carved out of the mountains in the country’s arid northwest. But it is shaping up to be fool’s gold, a ghost city in the making. Lanzhou New Area, in Gansu province, embodies China’s twin dreams of catapulting its poorer western regions into the economic mainstream through an orgy of infrastructure spending and cementing its place at the heart of Asia through a revival of the ancient Silk Road. Hundreds of hills on the dry, sandy Loess Plateau were flattened by […]
-Analysis- BEIJING — As the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro come to an end, the Chinese delegation’s “failure” seems to be a foregone conclusion. Even in gymnastics, where it had excelled in the past, China won only two bronze medals, making it the worst performance of the past decade. The first reaction of the […]
No, it’s mostly not about censorship …
BEIJING — “Our little monkey has decided to join the fun,” said Lucy, a 33-year-old woman expecting her first child this October. She’s one of many happy Chinese women due to give birth in the year of the monkey, an animal that is associated with cleverness in the Chinese zodiac calendar. A Founder Securities report […]
In 2002, the major southern city gave developers a decade to revitalize 138 old villages as part of China’s rapid urbanization. Almost 15 years later, only four have been revamped, and the last holdout residents still refuse to leave.
BEIJING — Chinese people watching American television series are exposed to an enviable image of an average middle class American family. Bound for a leafy neighborhood in the suburbs, a Chevrolet leaves the bustling city and rolls into the driveway of a wooden home on a quiet street. Two or three kids are playing on […]
BEIJING — China established a policy for increasing university enrollment in 1999 in order to boost the economy and spur employment. By 2002, some 1.45 million students were graduating each year in China. This June, 7.65 million got their college diploma, yet another record high. The growing number of college-educated people is good news for […]
BEIJING — Beijing recently announced that it would start to recognize a selection of French wines in China, a country where counterfeiting of prominent French wine brands is common. The announcement, made at the G20 agricultural ministers meeting in China, is a victory for France. China will now recognize 45 Bordeaux wines that have the […]
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China’s Grand Soccer Ambitions
The last time China made a World Cup appearance in 2002, the team lost all three group matches and went out without a single goal. While Chinese fans are mad about soccer, their own national team rarely gives them reason to rejoice. But there are grand pl
To understand why design is important, take a look at Silicon Valley. Forty-two design firms in the U.S. technology hub have been bought up since 2004. About half these acquisitions were made this past year alone. The 25 startups that got the most venture capital financing were founded by designers. Google snapped up the two-person […]
Trump University isn’t the only questionable American higher education institution. Other self-proclaimed universities are virtual scams, and China is a prime customer.
-OpEd- BEIJING — On June 9, U.S. company XpressWest suddenly announced that it would end the joint venture agreement that it had signed with China Railway International to build a high-speed rail linking Las Vegas and Los Angeles. The U.S. firm said its decision to terminate the relationship with China Railway International was based “primarily […]