Monday marks one year since Gui Minhai, a naturalized Swedish citizen and owner of a publishing house in Hong Kong that sold gossipy titles about China’s elite, was abducted by Chinese authorities. The intervening 12 months have been marked by increased concern among Hong Kong people that their freedoms are being eroded by Beijing.
China launched its longest manned space mission on Monday, sending two astronauts into orbit to spend a month aboard the country’s space laboratory, which is part of a broader plan to have a permanent manned space station in 2022.
After the US$13 billion takeover of Indian private oil firm Essar Oil by Russia’s state-controlled oil giant Rosneft, the focus is now on how much the minority shareholders, who control a 2 percent stake, stand to gain after the delisting of the company. On the face of things, it won’t be much.
China’s economy is bottoming out – at least according to half of the 76 economists surveyed by The Economic Observer. As we report in our daily round-up of Chinese-language media, around two-fifths of those questioned estimated Q3 GDP growth of 6.6 percent, with another estimating 6.7 percent growth.
Lights, camera, politics! Two first-time Chinese directors — Wang Xuebo and Zang Qiwu — won the main awards at Korea’s Busan International Film festival, which has had to contend with its own behind-the-scenes drama over the last couple of years.