Lucas Niewenhuis is the Newsletter Editor at SupChina. Previously, he has researched China-Africa relations at the Social Science Research Council, interned at the Council on Foreign Relations, and studied Chinese language and culture in Shanghai and Beijing.
A Bloomberg report suggested that Chinese leader Xi Jinping might have asked his Russian counterpart not to spoil the Olympics with a military offensive in Ukraine. China called the report “a hoax and provocation.”
The U.S. Justice Department dropped its case against Chen Gang, the MIT nanotechnology professor whom it accused a year ago of failing to disclose China ties. The U.S. government “badly…misunderstood the details surrounding scientific and academic collaboration,” said Chen’s lawyer.
The Omicron variant was identified in Beijing, less than three weeks before the city is due to host the Winter Olympics. A city health official said it “cannot be ruled out” that the virus was transmitted via mail from Canada.
Trying to travel to China or Hong Kong in the next month? Expect delays. China has canceled over 140 incoming international flights in the past week due to COVID-19, while Hong Kong has barred all flights from eight countries.
The 2022 Beijing Olympics begins in three and a half weeks. Officials are confident that their “closed-loop” system can keep COVID away from the Games, even as the first local transmissions of the Omicron variant become apparent.
After two weeks of arduous lockdown, during which the residents of Xi’an complained of food shortages and expressed outrage over medical services access, officials now say that the COVID-19 outbreak is under control.
After Lithuania allowed Taiwan to open a “Taiwanese representative office” in its capital, Vilnius, last November, China has escalated its diplomatic and economic pressure on the EU state.
In less than a year, three independent media outlets in Hong Kong — Apple Daily, Stand News, and now Citizen News — have closed due to increased pressure from authorities enforcing the National Security Law.
After over a year of deliberations, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act has passed both the House and Senate in the U.S. Congress. President Biden is expected to sign the bill into law soon. Here’s what it would do.
Charles Lieber, the former head of Harvard University’s chemistry department, is now on trial accused of hiding financial ties to China. His is the latest case under the U.S. Department of Justice’s China Initiative, which has come under growing criticism for creating an atmosphere of fear among Chinese scientists.