Le Mate 70 est le premier mobile du géant chinois des technologies de l’information équipé d’un système d’exploitation maison, capable de faire tourner des applications spécialement conçues pour lui. Signe qu’entre la Chine et les États-Unis le fossé technologique se creuse encore un peu plus.

Avec HarmonyOS Next, Huawei ambitionne de conquérir l’univers des systèmes d’exploitation (OS) pour mobile, au côté de l’iOS d’Apple et d’Android de Google. Le géant chinois des technologies de l’information et de la communication “est sur le point de lancer son premier téléphone fondé sur un système d’exploitation entièrement conçu par ses soins, capable de faire tourner ses propres applications”, explique le Financial Times.

Pour le quotidien économique britannique, la sortie sur le marché chinois, mardi 26 novembre, du Mate 70 est le “dernier signe de la rupture technologique entre les écosystèmes concurrents américains et chinois”. Elle constitue un pied de nez “aux sanctions américaines conçues pour affaiblir l’entreprise”, mais qui “ont au contraire renforcé son statut de géant de la tech”. Le groupe chinois a ainsi annoncé des ventes en hausse de 30 % sur les neuf premiers mois de 2024 par rapport à la même période l’an passé.

Huawei renforcé par les sanctions

Depuis 2019, l’embargo décidé par les États-Unis prive Huawei des technologies américaines. En réponse, le constructeur a sorti le Mate 60 l’an dernier, un téléphone muni d’un processeur maison “capable d’approcher la 5G”, qui avait bluffé les observateurs à Washington mais qui s’appuyait encore sur le code source ouvert de Google pour Android.

Avec le Mate 70, la dernière version d’HarmonyOS, baptisée Next, est aussi la première développée hors support Android. Elle nécessite que les applications soient réécrites spécifiquement. “Il est indispensable pour le succès de Next que les développeurs créent une masse critique d’applications natives”, explique le quotidien économique.

Le système d’exploitation maison, “surnommé la version pur-sang d’Harmony”, explique le China Daily, est “le premier développé de manière indépendante en Chine, en concurrence avec les systèmes Android de Google et iOS d’Apple”. Huawei revendique “plus de 15 000 applications et services natifs” lancés, détaille le portail d’information chinois en anglais, y compris les plus grandes plateformes chinoises Tencent, ByteDance et JD.

World Opinions – Courrier international

L’article Technologie. Huawei lance son premier smartphone 100 % chinois est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.

Leading presidents and prime ministers from around the world are meeting for the annual G20 leaders’ summit in India’s capital, Delhi, from 9-10 September.

Narendra Modi is an authoritarian figure who, as India’s prime minister since 2014, has pushed his country into increasingly becoming a “de facto ethnic democracy”, in which Hindus define the national identity and non-Hindus are seen as second-class citizens. Yet as the host of the upcoming talks of the world’s 20 largest economies, Mr Modi will be feted by major global leaders – except his absent fellow strongmen Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin.

Mr Modi’s dangerous majoritarianism is too easily overlooked by the west, as the G20 glad-handing will show. India had been considered an exemplary liberal parliamentary democracy among developing countries. This is being slowly dismantled by Mr Modi’s brand of Hindu nationalism. State intimidation has seen civil society harassed and critics jailed. A report by a group of prominent lawyers last year warned that “the administration of law has become the means by which … the Muslim community can be kept in a state of perpetual fear”. Since May, the north-eastern Indian state of Manipur has been burning, with its valley Hindus and highland Christians sinking into bloody fighting. Mr Modi’s party blames non-Hindus for the violence.

The Indian prime minister shares the ideological viewpoint of Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen in France and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán. Mr Modi claims India suffered 1,000 years of servitude: 750 years of Muslim rule, plus 250 years of British rule. Pulling down, or discarding, symbols of that history – mosques, mausoleums, Lutyens’ Delhi buildings – is excused, in this thinking, because this represents a national, Hindu resurgence. Mr Modi tellingly speaks of 1,000 years of rule to come.

The west thinks that it must keep stumm because it needs India to contain China. But at what cost to democracy and human rights? Mukul Kesavan, an Indian historian, wrote earlier this year that when the White House rolled out the red carpet for Mr Modi, “One of the more entertaining things about [his] visit has been the sight of [Joe] Biden welcoming a foreign leader who had openly campaigned for his predecessor and liberal bête noire, Donald Trump.”

Last year, Gothenburg University’s annual report on the state of global democracy warned of a wave of “autocratization” spreading around the world. Since 2020, the report said, India has not been a working democracy but an “electoral autocracy” similar to that in Russia. All is not lost. India’s next general election will provide a chance for the public to have its say – though how much remains to be seen, given that a peer-reviewed paper suggested that in 2019 Mr Modi won around 11 seats by suppressing the Muslim vote. Its author, a respected economist, quit after his university failed to back him. The arrival of the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, otherwise known as INDIA, has also unsettled Mr Modi. Perhaps peeved at being opposed by “INDIA”, Mr Modi wants to respond only to the country’s Sanskrit name “Bharat”.

India’s prime minister says the G20 should let the global south shape the world’s future. As Human Rights Watch pointed out this week, “many proposed summit topics – debt crises, social protection programs, food security, climate change, internet freedom – are at their root about human rights”. Britain has its own share of democratic backsliding. But if Mr Modi desires successful outcomes then he, like all autocratic leaders, should understand why his actions at home undermine the arguments he wants to promote abroad.

Western democracies are wrong to overlook a country’s descent into electoral autocracy because they believe they need it to contain China

What is the G20?

The G20 – or Group of Twenty – is a club of countries which meets to discuss plans for the global economy.

Between them, G20 countries account for 85% of the world’s economic output and 75% of world trade. They contain two-thirds of the global population.

The members are the European Union and 19 nations – Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the UK and the US. Spain is always invited as a guest.

A smaller group of G20 member countries meets as the G7.

Some of the G20 member nations – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – have formed a separate group called Brics.

This is due to expand, having invited six other nations to join at its recent summit: Argentina, Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

What does the group discuss?

The issues discussed by G20 leaders have broadened in recent years from just economics to include issues such as climate change, sustainable energy, international-debt forgiveness and taxing multinational corporations.

Every year, a different G20 member state takes over the presidency and sets the agenda for meetings.

Indonesia held the presidency in 2022, and the leaders’ summit was held in Bali.

As 2023 president, India wants the Delhi event to concentrate on sustainable development, as well as measures to spread economic growth more evenly between developed and developing countries.

The summit also provides an opportunity for one-to-one discussions to take place alongside group sessions.

The White House says that US President Joe Biden will talk to individual leaders about tackling climate change, Russia’s war in Ukraine, and getting global organisations such as the World Bank to do more to fight poverty.

However, the Kremlin says Russia’s President Vladimir Putin will not be attending the summit, and it’s been widely reported that China’s President Xi Jinping will also stay away.

Are there any controversial issues for G20 countries?

Russia’s war in Ukraine is likely to cause discord at the Delhi summit.

In March 2022, the G20 foreign ministers were unable to reach agreements at their meeting because of fierce arguments over the war between the US and Russia delegations.

At the Bali leaders’ summit in November 2022, discussions were dominated by a crisis involving missiles from the war falling on Poland’s side of the border with Ukraine.

In May, China and Saudi Arabia boycotted a G20 meeting on tourism which was held in Indian-administered Kashmir because the Kashmir region contains territory claimed by Pakistan as well as India.

A row has also broken out between India and China over a long-running border dispute, after Beijing released a map which claims the state of Arunachal Pradesh and the Aksai Chin plateau as Chinese territory.

What does the summit mean for India?

India has been positioning itself as a leading voice of developing countries known as the Global South in recent years and G20 is seen as its chance to deliver on these promises on a bigger stage.

The summit also comes ahead of the 2024 general elections in India and could bolster Mr Modi’s image as a leader who commands respect on the global stage.

The government has held hundreds of meeting across some 50 cities in the run-up to the summit in Delhi.

For months, cities and towns have been dotted with shiny billboards featuring the G20 logo and Mr Modi’s photos, framing the event as the prime minister’s earnest attempt to bring the world to India.

Mr Modi also appears to share a personal rapport with many of his G20 counterparts, including President Biden who accorded him a coveted state visit in June.

That said, the summit is not expected to be a breeze for India, given the current complex geopolitical situation.

Many economies are still struggling to recover from the pandemic and have grown increasingly anxious about the war and its economic impact, with global surges in food and energy prices.

Why is there a ‘family photo’?

At the end of key summits, the heads of government often pose for a group photograph, known as the “family photo”.

However, the diplomatic discord revealed by the image sometimes makes headlines in its own right.

In 2018, following the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was largely ignored, and made to stand at the far end of the group.

What has the G20 achieved?

At the 2008 and 2009 leaders’ summits, during the financial crisis, leaders agreed a host of measures to rescue the global economic system.

But some critics argue that subsequent summits have been less successful, often as a result of tensions between rival world powers.

However, bilateral meetings at the summit have often proved constructive.

In 2019, at Osaka, then-US president Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to resume talks to settle a major trade dispute.

Do G20 summits attract protests?

Big demonstrations often take place around the leaders’ summits.

Anti-capitalist protesters demonstrated at the 2010 summit in Toronto and the 2017 summit in Hamburg.

Thousands of demonstrators marched during the 2018 summit in Rio de Janeiro to protest against the G20’s economic policies.

In 2009 Ian Tomlinson, a newspaper seller, died after he was caught up in protests during the G20 summit in London.

World Opinions +The Guarasidian + BBC NEWS + Agencies

L’article View on India’s G20 summit: a backsliding democracy gets to play host est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.

When Janet Yellen left Beijing on Sunday after four days of talks, the US treasury secretary in effect admitted that the delegation achieved its main objective simply by sitting down with top Chinese officials.

After years of dangerous and deepening separation between the people running the world’s two biggest economies, they were finally back in a room together.

At a brief press conference that was the only tangible outcome of the talks, Yellen listed her hopes for the future. They included something that a decade ago would have been taken for granted: regular “senior-level diplomacy” between Washington and Beijing to manage their relationship.

Now the US can be more confident of that, and the relief is tangible. The meetings between Yellen and Chinese financial officials were particularly urgent, given there is a changing of the guard under way in Beijing.

Personal relationships between the US political elite and outgoing Chinese decision makers that dated back to before the pandemic are being rendered obsolete.

Yellen’s visit is part of a broader push to put ties back on what she called a “surer footing”. She was following in the footsteps of the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, who last month led the first senior US delegation to China in more than three years.

After years of deepening economic and military mistrust between the superpowers, they were finally back in a room together

Better communication is vital because it reduces the risk of misunderstandings or disputes between two nuclear-armed superpowers spiralling towards unintended hostilities – whether economic or military.

But if the effort to rebuild these relationships is bearing fruit, it also throws a far greater challenge into relief. Now the two sides are talking, will their diplomacy aim only to stave off crisis, or can they use it to make constructive progress in a difficult relationship?

Yellen highlighted areas where collaboration is desperately needed, and should not threaten the core strategic interests of either side, from financing investments to tackle the global climate crisis, to dealing with the heavy debts of some of the world’s poorest countries.

But the milestones of this trip may be challenging to build on. The Covid-19 pandemic cut off in-person meetings, and accelerated a shift in the relationship between China and the west, perhaps best captured in a term coined by the EU. In 2019 it officially designed Beijing a “systemic rival”, even though China remains one of its top trade partners.

The consensus of the previous decades, that economic engagement with China would bind the country into the post-second world war world order and that economic liberalisation could catalyse political liberalisation, has been firmly put aside.

Replacing it is an uneasy mix of mutual dependency and mistrust. China has accused the west of trying to choke off its economic growth to prevent its rise as a global power. In March, Xi Jinping accused the west, led by the US, of “all-round containment, encirclement and suppression”.

Many policymakers in the west fear China will use western-developed technology to build a military more powerful than the US’s. That prompted the US to bar the sale of the most advanced microchips to China last year.

Looming over disputes about trade, AI, Beijing’s close ties with Russia as it wages war in Ukraine, China’s human rights record and other controversial issues, is the remote but real risk the countries could end up in a war precipitated by a Chinese military campaign to capture Taiwan.

Xi has told China’s armed forces to be ready to do this by 2027, US intelligence believes. Military ships and planes were sent into waters and airspace near Taiwan during Yellen’s visit, keeping up pressure on something Beijing sees as a core issue.

There is a greater and more immediately urgent risk, that sanctions and other tensions could escalate towards an economic war. Beijing has accused the US of seeking to “de-couple”, or try to separate their countries’ closely entwined economies.

That would be catastrophic for both, something Yellen acknowledged on Sunday morning, saying US moves to protect national security would be narrow and carefully targeted. She described decoupling – attempting to separate the two countries’ economies – as “virtually impossible”.

If it were attempted, it would be “disastrous for both countries and destabilising for the world”; US policymakers now prefer to talk about “de-risking” their relationship.

This fear of mutually assured economic destruction is one reason to hope that both countries will try to build on this diplomatic thaw, even as they manage mistrust and security tensions that are here for the long term.

But it was perhaps a sign of how bad things have got between the US and China that one of the most senior visits to Beijing in years had the most modest of aims: better communication. The question now is where the relationship goes next.

By Emma Graham-Harrison in Taipei – The Guardian

L’article Analysis. The US and China are talking again, but what happens next? est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.

Chinese interference fears have gripped Ottawa. But appearing before House committees recently, I realised Canada should be scared most of its own MPs.

Canada has lost its mind.

To be precise, much of official Ottawa has abandoned the remnants of its already questionable faculties. A faux scandal, manufactured by the nexus of scoop-thirsty reporters and hyperbole-addicted politicians – is there any other kind? – has gripped the capital like a drug-resistant psychosis.

These fulminating reporters and politicians have been reduced – figuratively speaking – to parading around newsrooms and parliament in a critical-thinking-sapping state, carrying signs that read: The end of democracy is nigh.

Bit by devious bit, Chinese agents and their proxies have eaten covertly away, they say, at the vulnerable foundations that gird Canada’s democratic institutions.

All that stands between apocalypse and possible salvation are the patriots working inside Canada’s always law-abiding spy services who apparently belt out “O Canada” at breakfast and at bedtime with hands on maple-leaf-forever-tattooed hearts.

That, discerning international readers, is only a slightly exaggerated portrait of the hysteria that has paralysed a once-sedate city for months. I wouldn’t be surprised if more than a few of its jittery occupants who hold public office have checked under their desks to see if a Beijing-compromised, fifth columnist is lurking there.

I live in Toronto. So, happily, I have been able to avoid succumbing to the “yellow peril”-induced madness. Still, I had more than a disconcerting taste of it over the past few weeks while appearing three times as a witness before two House of Commons committees probing Chinese influence campaigns.

Given my long history of reporting on Canada’s cavalier security services and Chinese influence efforts, I reluctantly agreed to attend via Zoom in the faint hope that my testimony might act as a brake on the prevailing panic and the rampant, McCarthyite guilt-by-association accusations poisoning Ottawa.

How wrong I was.

I came away convinced that China poses less of a threat to Canada’s democratic institutions than the sad, pedestrian members of parliament – with one exception – I encountered, who purport to defend those ever-so-fragile institutions now allegedly under siege.

My overarching message did not register. While I agree that Chinese interference is troublesome, a witch-hunt-like fever has infected lawmakers and reporters intent on “unmasking” so-called “seditious” Canadians reminiscent of the shameful purge of public servants only a few generations ago as a result of their left-wing politics and homosexuality.

It is dangerous and corrosive. People’s lives, livelihoods and reputations are being damaged by inept spies and their grateful conduits in the media and on Parliament Hill.

Indeed, I watched, sometimes with bewilderment, often in disgust, as a string of parliamentarians debased themselves and the country they supposedly represent, in search of a “gotcha” moment that might attract a reporter’s ephemeral attention or the approval of their party leaders who are more interested in stoking fear and conjecture rather than encouraging sobriety and the truth.

In this deplorable regard, members of the opposition Conservative Party, the separatist Bloc Quebecois (BQ) and the pretend socialist party of Canada, the New Democrats (NDP), distinguished themselves.

Without fail, Tory MPs channeled every disagreeable aspect of Pierre Poilievre, their stunt-prone, smug demagogue of a leader who believes that anger and ignorance are essential prerequisites to becoming prime minister.

Each of these rabid partisans tried to out-smear the other to curry favour with a jejune politician who makes the Borg-like former Conservative Party leader, Stephen Harper, seem almost genteel in comparison.

The nadir of this ugliness occurred when a Conservative MP asked a witness and publisher of Sinophobic tracts whether former Governor General of Canada David Johnston was an “elite capture” of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) “based on his ties to China”.

Predictably, the conspiracy-consumed pair forgot that Johnston was appointed Canada’s titular head of state in 2010 by none other than Harper.

Oh, never mind.

In any event, the witness said that of course Johnston was an “elite capture” since “over his 40-year career [Johnston] has had a positive predisposition to China and the PRC.”

It was a disgraceful question and reply and I said so. Incidentally, the sorry exchange went some way towards suggesting that the Conservative Party’s email address these days should be: conservatives@inthegutter.ca.

Johnston is in the Conservatives’ ferocious crosshairs because he was appointed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as a “special rapporteur” to examine a slew of selective leaks concerning Chinese interference in Canadian politics and two recent elections.

In an interim report, Johnston found that China’s influence campaigns had no impact on those elections, that media reports surrounding the scope and nature of that interference were overblown or “false,” and that, as a sinister by-product, loyal Canadians were being tarred as disloyal.

None of it mattered, such was the disfiguring intensity of the animus in the hearings towards an honourable man who has served Canada in a variety of important capacities.

Meanwhile, the separatist BQ was too busy bowing before the “expertise” of a couple of spooks-turned-boy-scouts to remember that not too long ago the very same security services set ablaze a barn where separatists planned to meet. Or that the security services were responsible for at least 400 illegal break-ins in Quebec (including the offices of a separatist press agency), and that they stole the membership list of the separatist Parti Quebecois.

The BQ’s amnesia is as halting as its naivete.

A starry-eyed member of Canada’s pretend socialist NDP allowed the two spies to claim – without a word of pushback – that the secrecy-drenched and accountability-allergic agencies they work for are committed to openness, transparency and the rule of law.

I had to stifle the urge to laugh.

The criminally ill-prepared NDP MP was not aware, it appears, that a succession of federal court judges has, in the recent past, slammed the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) for withholding information from the court, lying and routinely breaking the law.

If the derelict legislator had done an ounce of research, she would have discovered that in July 2020 Justice Patrick Gleeson excoriated CSIS for having an “institutional disregard for — or, at the very least, a cavalier institutional approach to — the duty of candour and regrettably the rule of law”.

Examples of CSIS’s subterfuge abound. In an effort to deport a Canadian it suspected of being a “terrorist” in 2009, the spy service not only lied to, but kept exculpatory information from, a judge deciding the man’s fate. In 2016, another incensed federal court judge blasted CSIS for failing to disclose that it had, for more than a decade, illegally gathered and stored metadata unrelated to national security investigations involving scores of unsuspecting Canadians.

The solicitous NDP MP did not recall any of it. Like her flippant, sound-bite-happy leader, Jagmeet Singh, she capitulated to the hysteria, rather than make an informed effort to cauterise it.

Only Matthew Green, an Ontario NDP MP, struck me as having the gravitas to approach this delicate file with the calmness and intelligence it requires.

I should have listened to my instincts and stayed far away from Ottawa and the largely vapid politicians who populate it.

In the remote chance that I receive another emailed invitation to appear before a committee after this column is published, I will press delete.

By Andrew Mitrovica – Al Jazeera columnist

L’article Canadian democracy is on edge — and China isn’t to blame est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.

Indians took the tea the British were marketing to them, added spices, milk and sugar, and transformed it forever.

I remember jumping up to sit on the kitchen counter one afternoon. My five-year-old self wants to watch my mother making chai. She pushes me away from the gas stove but I am indignant and refuse to hop down, although I do move away a bit.

The water bubbles. She adds sugar, then takes a flat steel grater, balances it on the edge of the pot and grates in adrak (ginger).

“Why do we add this?” I ask, watching the shreds fall into the bubbling water.

“Child, I have to hurry I don’t have time for your questions,” she says. I sulk but I know that, being a doctor, she has to get to the hospital on time. I will ask grandma, I tell myself.

The ginger threads dance in the water. Then she adds the tea leaves, turning the contents of the pot brown. Stirring, she adds milk and lets it simmer over a low flame, still stirring. After a few minutes, she removes it from the heat and covers it. I hop down to watch the next step. She strains it in cups, puts them on a tray, and carries it to the dining table.

I run out. I have no interest in tasting it but am proud, boasting to my friends: “I know how to make chai.” By the end of the day, I have memorised the process forever.

I don’t want to ask to taste it because I know if I do, she will dilute it with more milk. “Children should not drink tea,” she would say. I hated that pale milky liquid.

The first time I tasted real chai, I was in grade three. I had scored good marks on a maths test and ran home that August afternoon to share the news with my mother and grandparents as they were having their chai. Basking in the appreciation and pats on my back, I asked if I could have chai. Mother refused, but grandfather smiled and poured some into a cup. I took it and breathed the aroma in deeply. I took one sip, then the second. The creamy, rich beverage warmed my heart and spirit and at that precise moment, I became a chai lover.

I yearned to make chai but wasn’t allowed. “What if you spill the boiling water and get burned,” my grandmother would fret. Finally, when I was in grade five, she reluctantly allowed me to make it under her supervision and soon I was making it alone.

I felt so accomplished, measuring water, grating ginger, and scooping sugar and tea leaves to add to the boiling water. Watching the tea leaves spinning with the ginger. Then adding the milk and watching it lighten the chai and simmer, steeping the flavours. “A good cup of chai needs a slow fire,” I was told, something I follow to this day.

Fast forward a few years, and I am on my way home on a bitterly cold January evening in Indore. The sun is on leave and the wind drills into my bones. I enter a silent, cold apartment – my mother isn’t back from the hospital yet and my grandmother has moved to live with my uncle since my grandfather passed away.

I need chai. Soon, I’m sitting with a hot, steaming cup, sipping it slowly. I close my eyes, savouring the sweet milk, sharp ginger and cinnamon. By then, I was experimenting with spices and adding what felt right at the moment – cinnamon, fennel, green cardamom and more. I would add lemongrass, holy basil and peppercorns if I had a cold or sore throat.

Chai is tea, tea is chai

Chai in India is a drink for no reason and for every reason, morning, afternoon, evening and night. It lifts your spirits while studying for the maths paper or learning chemistry formulas. It spices college gossip and fans rumours. A welcoming or parting drink, to convince friends and family to stay longer to share more stories.

It brings everyone together. It is served in homes, board meetings, college canteens, cafes and at weddings. “Chalo chai ho jaye,” (Let’s have tea) is heard every day.

Tea is chai in India. When, where, and how the first cup of chai was brewed is still up for debate, but the stories from our elders give us an idea about the evolution of this delicious, addictive beverage.

Prerna Kumar, founder of ChaiVeda and purveyor of medicinal blends, says: “The early reference to tea is found in the Buddhist texts where the monks drank some kind of tea while fasting and meditating.

“They made tea from foraged tea leaves and perhaps added certain flowers to the decoction to help them feel calmer.”…

By Nupur Roopa – Aljazeera

L’article Chai is tea, tea is chai: India’s favourite hot drink est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.

China brokering a deal between longtime Gulf rivals is ‘a broader sign of a changing global order’, analysts say.

China’s efforts in brokering a deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia have been seen by analysts as broader signs of a “changing global order”.

Joint Trilateral Statement by the Kingdom of #Saudi Arabia, the Islamic Republic of #Iran, and the People’s Republic of #China. pic.twitter.com/MyMkcGK2s0

— Foreign Ministry 🇸🇦 (@KSAmofaEN) March 10, 2023

During talks in Beijing on Friday, Saudi Arabia and Iran agreed to re-establish diplomatic relations and reopen their embassies within two months. The agreement also stipulated affirming “the respect for the sovereignty of states and the non-interference in internal affairs of states”.

Saudi Arabia cut ties in January 2016 after demonstrators stormed its embassy in Tehran following Riyadh’s execution of a prominent Shia Muslim cleric.

Tensions between the Sunni and Shia-led neighbours have since often been high.

Iranian state media posted images and video of Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, shaking hands with Saudi national security adviser Musaad bin Mohammed al-Aiban, with Wang Yi, China’s most senior diplomat, standing in between.

China’s role as a mediator in resolving longstanding issues between the regional foes had not been made public prior to the announcement.

Wang reportedly said China will continue to play a constructive role in handling hotspot issues and demonstrate responsibility as a major nation. He added that as a “good-faith” and “reliable” mediator, China has fulfilled its duties as a host for dialogue.

‘Low risk, high reward for China’

The two Gulf countries severed ties in 2016 when Saudi Arabia executed a prominent Shia Muslim scholar, triggering protests in Iran with protesters attacking its embassy in Tehran.

Previous attempts at reconciliation have been unsuccessful, but on Friday the two countries said they would reopen embassies within two months. They will also re-establish trade and security relations.

The US cautiously welcomed the announcement. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the administration supported “any effort to de-escalate tensions in the region”. But he added: “It really does remain to be seen if Iran is going to meet their obligations.”

UN chief Antonio Guterres thanked China for brokering the deal.

The secretary-general is ready to help efforts “to ensure durable peace and security in the Gulf region”, his spokesman said.

Israel, which has called for maximum pressure on Iran over its nuclear programme, has not commented.

World Opinions -Agencies

L’article Analysis. Iran and Saudi Arabia to renew ties after seven-year rift est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.

Dans les campagnes chinoises, les droits économiques sont reconnus aux familles, représentées le plus fréquemment par des hommes. Les droits des femmes sont souvent contournés par les assemblées rurales, promptes à les déposséder dès qu’elles ne sont plus la fille ou la femme d’un homme du village.

Un projet de révision de la loi portant sur les droits collectifs ruraux qui améliorerait les droits des femmes sur la terre est débattu en Chine, selon le South China Morning Post. Le quotidien observe que dans la première directive gouvernementale de l’année 2023, publiée peu avant l’ouverture de la session parlementaire annuelle, et traditionnellement consacrée à la question rurale, la “protection des droits et des intérêts des femmes” a été mise en bonne place.

Or si l’égalité entre les hommes et les femmes est un principe du droit chinois, dans la réalité, il est fort peu ou mal appliqué, surtout à la campagne. “Des dizaines de millions de femmes de la Chine rurale n’ont pas leur nom sur un contrat ou un certificat d’usage des terres”, note le journal anglophone.

Depuis la réforme de 1984, “les localités ont une certaine autonomie dans la façon d’attribuer les parcelles, qui sont redessinées par des assemblées de villages majoritairement masculines”, écrit le titre. Au moment du partage périodique des terres par les collectivités locales (tous les quinze ou trente ans, selon la taille des foyers), les femmes sont exclues de multiples façons, et les nombreux rappels à la loi n’y font rien.

Plaintes classées sans suite et procès perdus

Bien souvent, les femmes ont été éjectées de ce droit à l’accès aux terres, pourtant réaffirmé par la loi sur la garantie des droits des femmes de 1992. En particulier, lorsqu’elles sont “mariées à l’extérieur” [hors du village], divorcées ou veuves remariées.

Le système fonctionne sur la base des foyers, et ce sont les chefs de famille – les hommes – qui les détiennent pour le ménage. En 2018, moins de 20 % des femmes étaient inscrites sur les certificats d’allocation des terres. Selon une avocate spécialisée de Pékin :

“Cela veut dire que les femmes ne peuvent faire construire de maison à leur nom, et qu’elles sont les premières dépossédées en cas de réquisition des terres par les autorités locales.”

Ayant eu à traiter près de 3 000 cas de plaintes sur ce problème en vingt ans, l’avocate indique : “Près de 90 % de ces cas ont été classés sans suite ou les procès ont été perdus.”

C’est en ce sens qu’une réforme pourrait faire avancer les droits des femmes sur les terres, si elles sont enfin reconnues en tant que “membres de la collectivité économique à la campagne”. Le nouveau texte pourrait, en particulier, accorder le droit de vote à un plus grand nombre de femmes dans les assemblées villageoises.

World Opinions – Courrier international

L’article Inégalités. Les femmes chinoises peinent toujours à faire valoir leurs droits sur la terre est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.

China has announced that its requirement for travellers arriving in the country to go into quarantine will end on 8 January.

The measure is the latest in a series of restrictions to be lifted as China abandons its zero-Covid policy.

China is seeing an explosion in Covid-related infections and medical workers have said they are struggling to cope.

In his first comments on the changes, President Xi Jinping urged officials to do what was “feasible” to save lives.

State media quoted him as saying the country faced new situations demanding a more targeted response.

China has stopped publishing Covid statistics, but it is thought thousands of people may be dying every day.

Since March 2020, all passengers arriving in China have had to undergo mandatory centralised quarantine.

But the length of time has been progressively reduced, from three weeks originally to just five days at present.

Under the new rules, Covid will be downgraded from a Class A infectious disease to Class B, meaning that quarantine will no longer be enforced.

China’s about-turn on how it manages the pandemic has left Mr Xi in an uncomfortable position, analysts say.

He was the driving force behind the zero-Covid policy, which was blamed for restricting people’s lives excessively and harming the economy.

But having abandoned it, he now has to take responsibility for the huge wave of infections and hospital admissions, mainly among older people.

Public anger over the president’s handling of the pandemic is one of the areas in which he is most vulnerable.

By Robert Plummer – BBC News

L’article China to end Covid quarantine for foreign arrivals est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.

Urumqi residents angered after blaze killed 10 in a residential building under lockdown due to China’s zero-COVID policy.

BREAKING:

A large crowd has surrounded the Municipal Government building in Urumqi (Xinjang’s largest city).

It’s a rare case of a joint Uyghur & Han protest against the authorities.

It comes after 10 people died in fire in a high-rise under lockdown.pic.twitter.com/lmXcHQ5Ggp

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) November 25, 2022

A fire that killed 10 people in China’s Xinjiang region has sparked anger at the zero-COVID policy as Beijing faces increasing public disapproval over its hardline approach to stopping the spread of the coronavirus.

On Thursday night, 10 people were killed and nine injured after a fire in a residential building in the northwest region’s capital Urumqi, the state news agency Xinhua reported.

Chinese and overseas social media posts which have emerged since Friday claimed rescue attempts were hampered because of COVID lockdowns, and that residents could not escape in time.

China’s COVID policy has led to public frustration and some videos appeared to show crowds of people protesting against the policy in the streets of Urumqi, following demonstrations in other cities.

China has put the vast Xinjiang region, home to 10 million Uighurs, under some of the country’s longest lockdowns, with many of Urumqi’s four million residents barred from leaving their homes for as long as 100 days.

BREAKING:

A large crowd has surrounded the Municipal Government building in Urumqi (Xinjang’s largest city).

It’s a rare case of a joint Uyghur & Han protest against the authorities.

It comes after 10 people died in fire in a high-rise under lockdown.pic.twitter.com/lmXcHQ5Ggp

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) November 25, 2022

While the rest of the world is living with COVID-19, China has stuck with a strict “zero-COVID” strategy that relies on snap lockdowns, mass testing, lengthy quarantines, and border controls to stamp out the virus wherever it pops up.

Videos of the protests have been circulating online. One showed people in a plaza singing China’s national anthem with its lyric: “Rise up, those who refuse to be slaves!”, while others shouted they wanted to be released from lockdowns.

Another video shows dozens of people marching through a neighbourhood in the east of the city, shouting the same slogan before confronting a line of hazmat-clad officials and security personnel.

Posts on the Chinese social media platform Weibo said rescue vehicles were unable to get past electric cars to get to the residential building which was on fire. Rescue workers and residents were unable to move the cars which had not been charged because of the lockdowns.

City fire and rescue chief Li Wensheng said “a lack of parking spaces and a large number of private vehicles parked on both sides” caused rescue efforts to be delayed, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Urumqi police said in a Friday post on Weibo they detained a woman for “spreading online rumours” relating to the number of casualties from the blaze.

Urumqi Mayor Maimaitiming Kade issued a rare formal apology but denied allegations online, including that residents’ doors were sealed shut with iron wiring.

“Some residents’ ability to rescue themselves was too weak … and they failed to escape in time,” Wensheng said.

But social media posts showed many residents were locked in their homes because of COVID-19 controls.

China on Friday reported more than 32,000 infections in the past 24 hours, up from more than 31,000 reported on Thursday. The vast majority of the cases have been asymptomatic.

The numbers on Thursday and Friday surpassed a previous record set in April of just under 30,000 cases. That surge resulted in the commercial hub of Shanghai, home to 25 million people, being placed under lockdown which lasted for two months.

The newest wave has been accompanied by restrictions which have slowly tightened across the country.

World Opinions – Aljazeera

L’article China: Protests erupt over COVID curbs after deadly fire.. Video est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.

China’s Xi Jinping has been filmed accusing Justin Trudeau of leaking meeting details, days after they held talks at the G20 summit in Bali.

President Xi told the Canadian PM, via a translator, this was inappropriate and accused him of lacking “sincerity”.

He was likely referring to reports that Mr Trudeau discussed alleged Chinese espionage and interference in Canadian elections at the sit down.

The talks, which happened behind closed doors, were the pair’s first in years.

In the footage, filmed by journalists at the now finished gathering of world leaders, President Xi and Mr Trudeau can be seen standing close to each other and conversing via a translator.

“Everything we discussed has been leaked to the papers and that is not appropriate,” the Chinese leader told Mr Trudeau in Mandarin.

It captures a rare candid moment of President Xi, whose image is normally carefully curated by Chinese state media.

After smiling and nodding his head, the Canadian PM responded by saying “in Canada we believe in free and open and frank dialogue and that is what we will continue to have”.

“We will continue to look to work constructively together but there will be things we disagree on,” he added.

Before Mr Trudeau could finish, President Xi cut his counterpart off and asked that he first “create the conditions” – eventually shaking Trudeau’s hand and walking away.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson played down the incident, describing it as a normal exchange that should not be interpreted as criticising or blaming anyone.

The spokesperson, Mao Ning, added that Beijing supported having frank exchanges as long as they were held on an equal basis.

The short but revealing exchange highlighted tensions between China and Canada, running high since the detention of Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou in 2018 and Beijing’s subsequent arrest of two Canadians on spying charges. All three were later released.

But tensions recently resurged following the arrest of Yuesheng Wang, a public utility worker at Hydro-Quebec, who was charged with espionage.

Mr Wang “obtained trade secrets to benefit the People’s Republic of China, to the detriment of Canada’s economic interests,” Canadian police said in a statement.

At the time, Mr Trudeau and President Xi were at the G20 summit on the Indonesian island of Bali.

World Opinions – BBC News

L’article Analysis. G20: Xi accuses Trudeau of leaks to media about China-Canada relations est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.