Current Events

[Randy W]

sixthtone Verified
Revealed: How Floods Turned a Chinese Subway Into a Death Trap

A subway train carrying hundreds of commuters. A violent flash flood. A desperate struggle for survival. Sixth Tone investigates how extreme weather sowed terror in a Chinese megacity.

on Instagram Aug 24, 2021
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CS5yw2CHAsx/?utm_medium=copy_link

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Sixth Tone (@sixthtone)

 

Edited August 31, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

 Heavy rain in China forces thousands to evacuate as deluge causes
 flooding and landslides

from the SCMP on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/1220400558373818/

[Randy W]

China limits kids’ gaming to 3 hours weekly

To tackle gaming addiction, China is cutting video gaming time to just 3 hours a week for players under age 18.

Read more: sc.mp/ga3m

from the SCMP on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/143436524615916/

[Randy W]

Chinese schools to teach Xi Jinping Thought

China’s schoolchildren starting the new school year on September 1, 2021, will be using updated textbooks containing Xi Jinping Thought.

from the SCMP on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/2634826813330158/

Watch on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/2634826813330158/

[Randy W]

Blind Chinese runner and guide form dream team to smash Paralympic record and take gold in Tokyo

Chinese sprinter Liu Cuiqing has broken her own Paralympic record to become champion at the women's 400m TI I Finals of the Tokyo Games.

from the SCMP on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/838179660397747/

[Randy W]

World’s Oldest Known Coin Mint Found in China
The 2,600-year-old site produced highly standardized “spade money,” possibly on government orders

from the Smithsonianmag

Radiocarbon dating suggests the workshop began minting operations between 640 and 550 B.C.E. (H. Zhao et al. / Antiquity, 2021)

Quote

 

During the dig, the researchers discovered finished coins, coin molds and pits dug for the disposal of casting waste. Using radiocarbon dating, they found that the workshop began minting operations between 640 and 550 B.C.E. The team published its findings in the journal Antiquity last week.

“The discovery of the coins is not surprising, but the discovery of a coin mint is truly exciting as it shows the existence of a very old coin workshop,” lead author Hao Zhao, an archaeologist at Zhengzhou University, tells China’s Red Star News, as reported by the Global Times.

Casting molds found at the site demonstrate that artisans took care to standardize the coins’ shape and size.

“[T]he clay cores were carefully made with the aid of a measuring tool to regulate their size and minimize variation,” the authors write.

The coins made at the workshop are “spade money,” an early form of metal currency shaped like the gardening tool of the same name. Per the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, these coins replaced cowrie shells during the Zhou dynasty’s Spring and Autumn Period, which lasted from about 770 to 476 B.C.E.

Maurer tells National Geographic that the mint’s apparent standardization of coin production close to a political center “lends weight to the hypothesis that anthropologists and archaeologists have long held: that money emerges primarily as a political technology, not an economic technology.”

 

 

[Randy W]

A Chinese swimmer who lost his arms as a child has won four gold
 medals, all with record-breaking times, at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

from the SCMP on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/236194828437306/

[Randy W]

China slows approval of new online games

Beijing's crackdown on what it sees as an epidemic of video game addiction reached a new level this week as mainland Chinese officials are said to have temporarily slowed down all approvals of new online games for an unspecified amount of time.
 Read more: https://sc.mp/7ja2

from the SCMP on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/860599441510720/

[Randy W]

San Francisco Chinatown's 9/11 hero

Betty Ong was a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 1 1 when it was hijacked on September 1 1, 2001 . With chaos unfolding around her, she made a call to her colleagues on the ground, providing information that helped investigators identify the hijackers and understand what was happening. Everyone on the flight died. After a long struggle, her friend, pastor Norman Wong, managed to get a community centre in San Francisco renamed in her honour.

from the SCMP on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/3929334787170701/

[Randy W]

The herd of 14 wild Asian elephants roaming around in southwestern China's Yunnan province successfully went through the last natural barrier on its way home and returned to its traditional habitat in Pu'er city on Friday.
At 1 am, the elephants, which had left their habitat in Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve, crossed the Babian River and entered Ning'er county in Pu'er city, one of the three major habitats of Asian elephants in Yunnan.
The northbound trip, lasting about 18 months, finally ended without any harm to either the elephants or local residents, the provincial headquarters in charge of protecting the herd announced on Friday.  #roamingAsianElephants

from China Pictorial on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/ChinaPic/posts/4125914887533869

[Randy W]

Elephant ‘food court’ built in southwestern China to encourage wild herds not to stray

A “food court” for Asian elephants has been built in China to try and encourage the endangered animals not to stray far from home.

from the SCMP on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/1157517511405668/

[Randy W]

China deploys emergency rescuers after deadly earthquake in Sichuan province kills 3 and injures 100

Three people were killed and 100 were injured following an earthquake in China that saw more than 80,000 people evacuated.

from the SCMP on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/2988389498070160/

[Randy W]

Chinese court rules against #MeToo plaintiff
China's first high-profile #MeToo case has been dismissed over "insufficient" evidence. The accused a former CCTV intern, says the court didn't review security footage.

from the SCMP on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/1940711302755618/

[Randy W]

Authorities in Beijing have find an online gaming company $15,500 for allowing underage players to bypass the government-enforced time limit - 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, as well as national holidays. http://ow.ly/ocvx50GaXMV

from the Sixth Tone on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/sixthtone/posts/3043106686008171

Gaming Company Fined for Letting Minors Play Past Their Curfew
The $15,000 fine is the first of its kind since China introduced its strictest gaming limit for underage players.

Quote

Last month, the National Press and Publication Administration said online gaming enterprises could only provide services to minors for one hour from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, as well as national holidays. The guideline was the most stringent rule regulating the playtime for under-18 players in a bid to curb gaming addiction.

In recent years, both authorities and gaming companies have vowed to reduce excessive gaming among minors, which has been blamed for everything from deteriorating eyesight to poor academic performance. Leading gaming company Tencent recently released an adult-only game and introduced facial recognition technology to deter minors from playing at night.

Beijing authorities said the recent fine should serve as a warning to the industry, adding they will strengthen supervision to monitor major gaming platforms against any violations.

 

 

[Randy W]

Many of the country’s largest internet companies often block users from posting links from rivals on their platforms — for example, links from Alibaba’s ecommerce platform Taobao cannot be posted on Tencent’s messaging app WeChat.

from the Sixth Tone on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/sixthtone/posts/3042380306080809

Chinese Tech Companies Vow to Tear Down Their ‘Walled Garden’
The country’s leading internet platforms are being pressured to allow posting of competitors’ links.

Quote

 

Chinese authorities have ordered the country’s top internet and technology companies to list restrictions that bar competitors from posting their links, a practice still prevalent despite several warnings from officials.

During a high-level meeting attended by some of the country’s leading companies, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology emphasized its stand in creating a healthy internet environment, ordering companies to stop blocking cross-linking from competitors.

Many of the country’s largest internet companies often block users from posting links from rivals on their platforms — for example, links from Alibaba’s ecommerce platform Taobao cannot be posted on Tencent’s messaging app WeChat.

“Ensuring the legitimate sharing of URL links is a basic requirement for the development of the internet,” Zhao Zhiguo, spokesperson for the ministry, said during the meeting.

In July, the ministry ordered an inspection of major internet companies but found some companies either hadn’t grasped the issue or they were unsure of what they were supposed to do. Representatives of major tech giants, including Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance, who attended the meeting vowed to open their “walled gardens” and make links accessible on each other’s platforms