NEW DELHI (AP) — The Indian army said Saturday that it had apprehended a Chinese soldier in the remote Ladakh region, where the two countries are locked in a monthslong military standoff along their disputed mountain border.
An army statement said the Chinese soldier was taken into custody on Friday for transgressing into the Indian side in area South of Pangong Tso lake.
“The PLA (People’s Liberation Army) soldier is being dealt with as per laid down procedures and circumstances under which he had crossed the LAC (Line of Actual Control) are being investigated,’’ the statement said.
China said it informed the Indian side as soon as one of its soldiers went missing “due to darkness and complicated terrain.”
The Indian side later confirmed that it had found the missing soldier and said it would return him to the Chinese side, China’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.
“The Indian side should strictly abide by relevant agreements between the two countries and hand over the lost personnel to the Chinese side as soon as possible, to add positive factors to cool down the situation at China-India border and jointly maintain peace and calm in the border area,” the statement said.
Indian and Chinese soldiers often lose their way in the disputed Himalayan region.
In October, India detained another Chinese soldier in Ladakh’s Demchok area, but he was freed after he was found to have strayed across the de facto border.
In September, China released five Indian nationals who went missing from the eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh amid simmering tensions between the two countries. The five men were Indian hunters.
The high-altitude standoff between the Asian giants began in early May with a fierce brawl, and exploded into hand-to-hand combat with clubs, stones and fists on June 15 that left 20 Indian soldiers dead. China is believed to also have had casualties, but has not given any details.
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Twitter blocks ‘dehumanizing’ Chinese Embassy tweet claiming Uighur women are no longer ‘baby-making machines’
Joshua Zitser 4 hours ago
uighur women london protest
A woman holds a placard during a London protest in support of Uighur people over ongoing human rights violations in China’s Xinjiang autonomous region on October 08, 2020. Hasan Esen/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
On Thursday, the Chinese Embassy in the US posted a tweet claiming that Uighur women were no longer “baby-making machines” because of the eradication of extremism.
Twitter removed it on Saturday morning for violating rules against “the dehumanization of a group of people,” according to Ars Technica.
The tweet was linked to an article, published by the Chinese Communist Party, that celebrated the decline in birth rates in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of northwestern China.
China has been accused of using inhumane birth control practices on Uighur women. Forced abortions, sterilization, and unwanted IUDs are “widespread and systematic” practices, according to the AP.
Sens. Tom Cotton and Rick Scott had condemned the tweet. A number of other politicians criticized it and urged Twitter to take it down.
Community leaders and leading MPs have urged Twitter to take action against Chinese government accounts, spreading “violent propaganda” about the sterilisation of Uyghur Muslim women.
Its Embassy to the United States shared an article from China Daily, state-run media, claiming the “eradication of extremism” in Xinjiang, an area of China with a large Uyghur population, has given women “more autonomy”.
It said: “Study shows that in the process of eradicating extremism, the minds of Uyghur women in Xinjiang were emancipated and gender equality and reproductive health were promoted, making them no longer baby-making machines. They are more confident and independent.”
This comes after Jewish News led a campaign to highlight to MPs the similarities between the Jewish experience of persecution and China’s repression of its Uyghur minority – including sterilisation of the community’s women.
This included images of shaved heads, crammed cells and names replaced by numbers in vast ‘re-education’ camps, which have been met by communal outcry. Up to one million Uyghur Muslims thought to be detained, with concern raised last year after hair, forcibly removed Uyghur Muslim women, was found in the United Sates.
Conservative MP Nus Ghani responded to the article, calling on Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey to take action. She said the article is “blatant fake news & violent propaganda against millions of Uyghur women & children. Block this site – just as you banned Trump. Block it-stop the abuse.”
Last year, she hand-delivered a letter to Downing Street, organised with Jewish News, urging the UK to put pressure on China to end persecution.
MP Tom Tugendhat agreed with Ghani, saying: “Claiming that ethnic cleansing is a form of gender equality is horrific.”
Joining the chorus of condemnation was Board of Deputies Vice President Edwin Shuker, who said: “The attempt by the Chinese Embassy in the US to present an alleged programme of forced sterilisation of Uyghur women as a humanitarian measure is both outrageous and disgusting The persecution of the Uyghurs for their faith must stop immediately and the International community must be given access to verify “
Mia Hasenson-Gross Executive Director of Jewish human rights groups Rene Cassin said: “The forced steralisaltion, forced coupling and physical and sexual abuse that Uyghur women are experiencing is very real and goes against any value of humanity and dignity, as well as international human rights law.
“The genocidal acts committed against the Uyghur people are real and must end now! The Jewish community has been at the forefront on speaking out against what is happening to the Uyghurs and should continue to do so in any instance.
The Chinese government strongly denies claims about persecution, insisting it is a ‘re-education’ programme against extremist views.
A US official voiced disgust Friday after China’s embassy took to social media to laud how women of the mostly Muslim Uighur community were no longer “baby-making machines.”
“Appalled and disgusted at lies” of the Chinese embassy, tweeted Sam Brownback, the US envoy on international religious freedom.
“Coercive population control is not reproductive health care. (Uighur) women deserve to enjoy their religious freedom and unalienable rights with dignity to make their own choices.”
China’s embassy on Thursday promoted a study in state-run media that said that the birth rate declined in 2018 among Uighur women as they increasingly accepted contraceptive measures due to the “eradication of religious extremism.”
“The minds of (Uighur) women in Xinjiang were emancipated and gender equality and reproductive health were promoted, making them no longer baby-making machines,” the embassy tweeted from the study.
Rights groups say more than one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim people in China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang have been incarcerated in camps in a bid to root out Islamic customs and forcibly integrate minorities.
China insists it is offering vocational training to reduce the allure of extremism in the wake of deadly attacks.
A study by German researcher Adrian Zenz last year found that China had forcibly sterilized large numbers of Uighur women and pressured them to abort pregnancies that exceeded birth quotas, an assertion denied by Beijing.
US lawmakers have pointed to population control as they push for a declaration that China’s policies meet the definition of genocide.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, an advocacy group, urged Twitter to remove the tweet by the embassy, which it said used the platform “to celebrate crimes against humanity.”
When I learned the #CCP was enforcing population controls on Uyghurs and other Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang, I was the first leader to condemn it. Forced abortion, forced sterilization, jail & torture if you resist – this is what I mean by #StainOfTheCentury. pic.twitter.com/YG5D3DkOBB
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) January 8, 2021
When I learned the #CCP was enforcing population controls on Uyghurs and other Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang, I was the first leader to condemn it. Forced abortion, forced sterilization, jail & torture if you resist – this is what I mean by #StainOfTheCentury.
Mahira Yakub has been sent back to Yining Detention Centre in China’s Xinjiang region in late November 2020 and is still without access to her family and a lawyer of her choice. A Uyghur who worked in an insurance company, she first went missing in April 2019 and was indicted in January 2020 for “giving material support to terrorist activity” after transferring money to her parents in Australia. She was temporarily released from custody on 4 September 2020 and subsequently hospitalized for unknown reasons. There are grave concerns for Mahira Yakub’s condition and wellbeing.
MSCI said it would drop three of China’s biggest telecommunications companies from several of its global equity benchmark indices on Friday in response to a US executive order restricting ownership of companies with purported ties to the Chinese military.
The index compiler said it would drop the Hong Kong-traded shares of China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom from its family of MSCI ACWI indices and MSCI China All Shares indices at the close of business on Friday, following further guidance from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), an arm of the US Treasury Department.
S&P Dow Jones Indices said on January 6 it would remove the telecoms trio before the start of trading on Monday. FTSE Russell will also do the same to some of its stock, bond and other associated indexes on Monday.
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The announcement came after the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) said it would delist the American depositary shares (ADS) of the three Chinese telecoms beginning Monday. The NYSE originally announced on January 1 it would delist their shares, but reversed course several times this week until it received updated guidance from OFAC.
The US claims China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom are among companies controlled by the Chinese military. Photo: Bloomberg alt=The US claims China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom are among companies controlled by the Chinese military. Photo: Bloomberg
Last November, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that barred American investors, including pension funds and university endowments, from owning or trading securities of 35 companies and dozens of subsidiaries that the Trump administration claims are controlled by Chinese military.
The ban on US persons kicks in from Monday and they have until November 11 to divest their holdings of similarly designated companies but cannot buy new shares starting Monday.
The order is one among a flurry of moves taken in the waning days of the Trump administration against Chinese companies, including moves to limit their access to US capital markets.
On Wednesday, the administration added it would ban transactions with Ant Group’s Alipay, Tencent Holdings’ WeChat Pay and six other Chinese apps, citing national security concerns.
The Chinese telecoms stocks represented 0.07 per cent of the MSCI ACWI indices, 0.50 per cent of the MSCI Emerging Markets indices and 0.81 per cent of the MSCI China All Shares indices as of January 6, MSCI said.
MSCI previously said it would drop 10 Chinese companies from its indices after they were blacklisted by the US government, including surveillance camera maker Hangzhou Hikvision and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) and supercomputer manufacturer Dawning Information, which is also known as Sugon.
Other major stock and bond index providers, including FTSE Russell and S&P Dow Jones Indices, have taken similar steps beginning in December to drop designated Chinese stocks from their global benchmarks.
In this week’s announcements, S&P Dow Jones Indices said it would remove the telecoms trio from 113 headline equity indices, and five bonds from four indices, the start of trading on Monday. FTSE Russell will also do the same to some of its stock and other associated indexes.
“The companies facing immediate removal from the NYSE likely aren’t a major part of most US-based investors’ portfolios but may present issues on the margin,” said Katie Rushkewicz Reichart, Morningstar’s director of US equity strategies.
Actively managed funds in the US with Morningstar ratings held about US$1.3 billion worth of securities facing blacklisting as of their most recently disclosed portfolios, Rushkewicz Reichart said in a research note on Friday.
The biggest effect may be on 15 actively managed funds rated by Morningstar who held nearly US$700 million of China Mobile’s H shares or ADSs per their most recent disclosures, she said.
Shares of China Mobile fell as much as 9.9 per cent in intraday trading in Hong Kong on Friday, while shares of China Telecom dropped as much as 10.3 per cent and China Unicom (Hong Kong)’s shares were off as much as 11.2 per cent.
The ADSs of the telecoms companies traded in New York are fungible with their H-shares in Hong Kong, which means they can be exchanged for their counterparts ahead of the NYSE delisting. Each China Telecom ADS is equal to 100 shares in Hong Kong, while Unicom’s ratio is 1 for 10, and China Mobile’s ratio is 1 for 5.
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2021 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – The number of people who have been infected with COVID-19 in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the virus was first identified, could be around three times the official figure, according to a study by Chinese researchers based in the city.
The paper, published by the PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases journal on Thursday, analysed blood samples from more than 60,000 healthy individuals taken from locations across China from March to May 2020.
It found that 1.68% of those from Wuhan contained antibodies for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, compared to 0.59% in surrounding Hubei province and 0.38% in the rest of China.
With the city’s total population at more than 10 million, the researchers estimated that as many as 168,000 Wuhan residents were infected with the virus, compared to the official number of 50,340 hospitalised cases.
The study suggested at least two thirds of the total number were asymptomatic, and thousands could have been infected after the “elimination” of clinical cases, raising the possibility the virus could exist in a community for a long period without causing hospitalisations.
A separate study published by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) late last month put the “seroprevalence” rate in Wuhan, the percentage of the population with antibodies, even higher at 4.43%, implying that around half a million people in the city could have been infected.
COVID-19 was identified in Wuhan at the end of 2019, with the first outbreak associated with a seafood market in the city. China finally locked down Wuhan and other cities in Hubei province on Jan. 23, 2020, but critics say it should have acted sooner.
China has dismissed criticism of its early handling of the virus, and officials now point to overseas studies suggesting it was circulating in Europe several months before the Wuhan outbreak.
A 10-strong team from the World Health Organization was due to arrive in China this week to investigate the origins of COVID-19, but they have yet to be been given authorisation to enter the country.
Total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases to date in mainland China now stands at 87,331, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.
(Reporting by David Stanway; Editing by Michael Perry)
By Alexandra Alper, Humeyra Pamuk and Mike Stone
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Trump administration officials are expected to discuss a proposed expansion of an executive order banning U.S. investment in alleged Chinese military companies at a Thursday afternoon meeting, according to two people familiar with the matter.
At the meeting, officials from the Defense, State and Treasury Departments will consider, among other things, proposed changes to the November directive, which has spurred confusion among investors and firms seeking to comply, five sources said.
One change that is likely to be discussed is a draft amendment that would direct U.S. investors to completely divest their positions in the blacklisted companies by Nov. 11, 2021, according to two of the sources.
If approved, the proposed change would dramatically broaden the scope of the directive, which now states only that U.S. investors must stop buying securities of the blacklisted companies by that date.
It was not clear if any final decisions would be made at the meeting. The State and Treasury Departments did not immediately respond to requests for comment and the Defense Department declined to comment.
The executive order, signed by President Donald Trump in November, is part of his bid to cement his tough-on-China legacy in the waning days of his administration. It also sought to give teeth to a 1999 law that tasked the Defense Department with drafting a list of Chinese companies it believes are owned or controlled by the Chinese military.
The Defense Department has not yet provided a rationale for designating the companies.
The Pentagon has so far blacklisted 35 firms, including China’s top chipmaker SMIC and oil giant CNOOC. Reuters reported that the administration was considering adding tech giants Alibaba and Tencent.
A Beijing foreign ministry spokeswoman previously said China opposed U.S. efforts to suppress its companies, adding that Washington’s moves run counter to principles of market competition.
The November directive spurred some index providers like MSCI to announce plans to shed some of the blacklisted companies from their indexes.
But confusion over what the order requires prompted the New York Stock Exchange last Thursday to announce plans to delist three Chinese telecom companies that the Pentagon added to the blacklist. On Monday, the NYSE scrapped the move and then in a surprise twist the exchange reversed course a second time on Wednesday and vowed to continue with its bid to delist the firms.
The confusion comes against a backdrop of tension among U.S. agencies about how aggressively to implement the order. Reuters and other news outlets reported that the State and Defense Departments had pushed back against the Treasury Department after it planned to issue draft guidance that was seen as watering down the order.
Both U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin later wrote in tweets that there was no disagreement over the executive order.
(Additional reporting by Karen Freifeld and Andrea Shalal; Writing by Alexandra Alper; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall and Aurora Ellis)
