China Claims There Is No Taiwanese Minister Of Defence
Tensions were raised recently at a press conference held by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs when a question was posed by a reporter on Taiwan’s “Minister of Defense.” Speaking on behalf of the Foreign Ministry, spokesperson Mao Ning stated that there is no such thing as a “Minister of Defense” as far as Taiwan was concerned and that Taiwan remained a part of China. China has made such remarks before but this reference to Taiwan’s Minister of Defence is a particularly sore subject as Taiwan’s Defence Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng has been making headlines recently for his warnings against China. Chiu said that the country should prepare itself for a “sudden entry” of the Chinese military into its air and seaspace and has pressed for increased military exchanges with the US.
Source: CCTV & Agencies
China Looks To Create 12 Million Jobs This Year
On March 5, the Chinese state released the Government Work Report which set the year’s target to create 12 million new jobs in urban areas. The report said the domestic job market was stable last year although a slight fluctuation was registered due to the COVID-19 epidemic, with about 12.06 million people landing jobs in urban areas, outnumbering the year’s target of 11 million, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. Premier Li Qiang who released the report stressed that China will continue comprehensively implementing the employment-first policy with more supportive policies on employment services and skills training this year. He added that new forms of employment like flexible employment will receive greater support from the government this year, while it will be managed with stricter regulation and standards in a bid to achieve healthier development. So far, the nation has one-seventh of its population — roughly 200 million people — with flexible jobs, according to the human resources and social security ministry.
Source: ECNS
Satellites Are Put On Sale On E-Commerce Sites Like Taobao
Three years after a livestreaming blogger mentioned rocket sales on Chinese e-commerce sites, which sparked wide discussion on China’s social media, commercial satellites are now being sold on Taobao to the public. This trend reflects the flourishing commercial space launch sector in China, industry observers said. Commsat, a Chinese commercial space startup, has put three commercial satellites on the shelves of its enterprise store on Taobao.com, priced starting from 1 million yuan ($145,140). The cheapest satellite, weighing at less than 5 kilograms, looks like a magic cube made up of stacked circuit boards, and it is equipped with space cameras, magnetic torque devices and solar panels. Targeted at school education of all levels, as well as research institutes and businesses, it could enable teen-aged students to operate satellites like space scientists, Commsat said.
Source: Global Times
Rumours on Chinese Social Media Alarm Thai Govt
A rumour that a famous bar in Bangkok is being used to lure Chinese tourists into abduction and prostitution has spread like wildfire on Chinese social media in recent weeks, forcing the Thai government to repeatedly deny the story. When China scrapped its strict “zero-COVID” policies in late 2022, Thailand hoped that the return of Chinese tourists would help boost its flagging tourist sector. Before the pandemic, Thailand was China’s most popular overseas tourism destination, with 11 million people from China visiting the country in 2019. The story can be traced back to early March when a Chinese blogger began spreading rumours about supposed new threats to Chinese tourists in Thailand via his channel Xin Yi Lin Lin on the video platforms Douyin and Bilibili. In the video, the man claimed that criminal gangs had moved their bases from Myanmar and Cambodia to Thailand and had joined forces with anti-Chinese Western forces to target Chinese people.
Source: Sixth Tone
Mao’s Conversation With Buddhist Monk Goes Viral on Social Media
A conversation between Mao Zedong and Sherao Gyatso, a Tibetan Buddhist master, from 1954 in Beijing is going viral on social media. The conversation which was a discussion on the concept of Reincarnation between the two was hailed as being very interesting by users. According to the account, Mao had asked the master how could people believe that there could be reincarnation; to this, the master is said to have indirectly answered the question by asking Mao if he could see tomorrow’s sun today, to which Mao replied that he could not. The master then went on to ask if he believed there would be a sun tomorrow. Many comments by users claimed the master to be clever for answering the question in a different way, one user commented that the sun exists in reality with everyone witnessing it, yet which form of reincarnation has been witnessed by anyone, while other users hailed the clever manner of answering a complex phenomenon.
Source: Weibo
24/7 Fast Food Restaurants Turn Into Night Stays
24/7 fast food restaurants in China are slowly turning into informal night-stays for youth travellers. In a video that has now gone viral on social media, a college student detailed her experience staying overnight at the 24/7 Haidilao restaurant in Guangzhou after missing a connecting leg of her trip. The post hashtagged ‘Haidilao responds to female college student staying overnight’ received more than 440 million views with many comments, some of whom criticised the user for not opting to go to a youth hostel. However, this college student is not the only one. Other netizens have posted their experiences thanking the 24/7 chain for its kindness. Haidilao is not alone in this. Other fast food chains such as McDonalds and KFC which are located near train stations have also accommodated night travellers without taking money from them.
Source: Radii China
