China

washington — U.S. support for Israel's military offensive in Gaza has been heavily exploited by China-connected bots, a joint investigation by VOA Mandarin and Taiwan's social media analytic firm DoubleThink Lab, or DTL, has found. Their postings on social media platform X depict Washington as a peddler of war and a disrupter of global peace. The investigation has tracked and analyzed content amplified in the past 12 months by three distinct spamouflage networks with a total of 140 accounts. Each account has been disguised to look like the work of an authentic user in order to spread pro-Beijing narratives and misinformation. Content within the networks originates with three main "seeder" accounts and then is amplified by the others. The VOA Mandarin-DTL investigation found that more...

LONDON — British Foreign Secretary David Lammy is expected to visit Beijing and Shanghai, the highest-level trip to China since the Labour government came to power. Analysts say they will be watching the trip for signs of a possible reset in U.K.-China relations, which have been fraught in recent years. Reuters reported last week that Lammy is expected to meet with Chinese officials in Beijing and representatives of British companies in Shanghai. According to sources familiar with the matter, the trip will last two days. The U.K. Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesperson told VOA that the secretary's travel plans have not been publicly announced. At the same time, sources told Sky News that U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves is considering a visit t...

Taipei, Taiwan — China’s stock markets had a volatile day on Monday, showing mixed responses to the finance ministry’s latest fiscal policies, released during a closely watched briefing over the weekend. Hong Kong shares dropped 0.75% while its mainland peers rebounded, including the Shanghai Composite’s 2.07% gain, although the rally slowed. While some investors remained hopeful on Beijing’s promise of fiscal support, analysts warned that the fiscal measures, along with the central bank’s monetary easing in late September, are neither aggressive enough nor growth boosting although they are in “the right direction” to address structural issues facing the world’s second-largest economy. Disappointing fiscal stimulus “Markets conversation has already started to come up with the c...

Colombo, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka's police have arrested 198 Chinese men on suspicion of operating a cybercrime ring from the South Asian nation, a police spokesperson said Sunday. Deputy Inspector-General Nihal Thalduwa said the men were taken into custody at four locations during raids carried out since October 6, with 129 arrested in one location Saturday. Thalduwa said that a large number of mobile phones and laptop computers were also seized. "We suspect that they were operating online scams from these locations," Thalduwa told reporters in the capital, Colombo. "Their victims include people in Sri Lanka as well as those overseas." He said investigations were moving slowly due to language issues in questioning the suspects, but the authorities have sought help of officials...

China's former deputy central bank governor, Fan Yifei, has been sentenced to death for taking bribes with a two-year reprieve, state media said on Thursday, amid a sweeping anti-graft drive in the financial sector. Fan was found guilty of illegally accepting property worth more than 386 million yuan, around $54.55 million, for taking advantage of his senior positions at the central bank and other financial institutions, including China Construction Bank, according to the report, citing a Chinese court. Following the two-year reprieve, Fan's death sentence will be commuted to life imprisonment, with no possibility of commutation or parole, state media cited Huanggang Intermediate People's Court in Hubei province as saying. "Fan Yifei accepted bribes of an extremely large amount, t...

Washington — The daughter of imprisoned Chinese real estate tycoon Ren Zhiqiang has issued a public appeal to China’s leader, Xi Jinping, asking him to allow her father to seek medical care he needs after his health reportedly deteriorated during his time in jail. Ren, 73, is a former member of the Chinese Communist Party and chairman of the state-owned Huayuan real estate group. He was jailed after publishing an essay online in March 2020 that criticized the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. In an open letter posted on the social media platform WeChat on October 2, Ren Xinyi appealed to the president’s “humanitarian principles,” requesting that Xi release her father so that he may access treatment for his failing health and spend the last part of his life with his fami...