The UK and the EU condemned the erosion of press freedom in Hong Kong on Wednesday after a pro-democracy newspaper announced its closure. Apple Daily, regarded as among the few independent media outlets in Hong Kong, will halt its operations by midnight on Wednesday after police arrested its executives and froze assets linked to the…

President Vladimir Putin’s summit with US President Joe Biden in Geneva on June 16 has unleashed another hot topic—the Moscow stance toward Beijing. While China was not part of official discussions between the two leaders, it was not ignored by both pro-Kremlin and liberal Russian media who analyzed the meeting. “Biden drives a wedge between…

European leaders have backed Australia against Beijing’s ongoing economic coercion campaign and its increased belligerence in the Indo-Pacific region. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison was in Paris on Tuesday where he met with French President Emmanuel Macron at Elysees Palace. They discussed issues ranging from tensions in the Indo-Pacific, counter-terrorism efforts, and the Future Submarine…

The Czech Senate has passed a motion saying that the Chinese regime’s treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities amounts to crimes against humanity and genocide. On Tuesday, the Belgian parliament passed a similar motion. The Czech motion was passed unanimously by a vote of 38 to zero on June 10, according to a June…

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said at the G7 summit that Italy is reassessing China’s investments in the country “carefully,” shifting away from the pro-Beijing policies of the previous government. Draghi expressed concern about the Chinese Communist regime. “It’s an autocracy that does not adhere to multilateral rules and does not share the same vision of…

NATO will for the first time confront the Chinese regime’s growing military ambition, the 30-nation Western alliance said on June 14, describing Beijing as presenting “systemic challenges” to the global order. The language, which appears in the final communiqué issued after the conclusion of a one-day summit in Brussels, signals a burgeoning convergence in the…

A French nuclear firm said it is working to resolve a “performance issue” at a plant it part-owns in China’s Guangdong province, following reports that U.S. authorities were assessing a report of a possible leak at the facility amid warnings of an “imminent radiological threat,” according to reports. Framatome, a division of French power group…

CARBIS BAY, England–The Group of Seven richest democracies on June 12 sought to counter China’s growing influence by offering developing nations an infrastructure plan that would rival Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s multi-trillion-dollar Belt and Road initiative. The G7, whose leaders are meeting in southwestern England, has been searching for a coherent response to the growing…

BUDAPEST—The liberal opposition mayor of Budapest announced on Wednesday he would rename streets in the Hungarian capital near a planned campus of a Chinese university to commemorate alleged human rights abuses by Beijing. One street will be named after the Dalai Lama, exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, labelled a dangerous separatist by Beijing. Another will…