Politics of China

BELGRADE - A program dedicated to cultural cooperation between Shanghai and Belgrade will be held at the Studentski Grad Cultural Center in Belgrade on November 13, the organizers announced Monday.

Guests of the program will be a delegation of the city of Shanghai, led by Deputy Mayor Yin Chen, and the Ambassador of China in Belgrade Li Manchang.

China has set up a 10 billion euro ($11.15 billion) investment fund to finance projects in Central and Eastern Europe, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China said in a statement issued on Nov. 6.

The China-Central Eastern Europe fund will be run by Sino-CEE Financial Holdings Ltd, a company established by the bank earlier this year.

A Chinese court has sentenced defense lawyer Xia Lin to 12 years in prison, his attorney said Sept. 22, the latest blow in a broad crackdown on human rights defenders and activists.

Xia is best known for his work defending artist Ai Weiwei and fellow rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang, who was detained after a private seminar discussing the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.

Dissident Chinese artist Ai WeiWei visited the refugee and immigrant camp in Idomeni on Wednesday declaring his support to those who have arrived in Greece and are now trapped in the country.

The artist walked in the muddy camp condemning the poor conditions and saying the situation is a ‘big violation of human rights’.

Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei announced on Wednesday he is closing down his exhibition ”Ruptures” at Faurschou Foundation in Copenhagen, Denmark, as a protest against the new law that allows Danish authorities to seize asylum seekers’ personal valuables to pay for the cost of their staying.

A gargantuan gold-painted statue of Communist China's founding father Mao Zedong has been erected in open countryside by a group of capitalists at a cost of 3 million yuan ($460,000), reports said.

China has legalised overseas counter-terror operations by its military, details of a controversial new law showed, as it tries to tie violence linked to mainly Muslim Xinjiang into global concerns about extremism.

A court convicted one of China's most prominent rights lawyers on Dec. 22 of "inciting ethnic hatred" and trouble-making with posts criticising the government, handing down a suspended sentence that means he avoids jail but will not practise law again.

China's Silk Road initiative is a real game-changer, irrespective of whether it will succeed or not as planned, in realizing its ambitious one belt and one road project. 

It is the brainchild of ambitious President Xi Jinping, who wants to leave behind a lasting legacy while at the same time connecting China to the world's high value markets and sources of energy and raw materials.

Twelve Nobel Peace Prize winners have called on British Prime Minister David Cameron to call publicly for the release of their fellow laureate, Liu Xiaobo, and his wife Liu Xia during  Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to London this week.