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The map of  China  on the website of the United States Department of State shows Taiwan as being part of Chinese territory.  Taiwan (officially Republic of China , ROC) has never been de facto or de jure controlled by the People's Republic of China (PRC). Nevertheless, Beijing insists that Taiwan is part of its territory and it has vowed to use force to achieve "reunification" if all peaceful options were exhausted.  China has oftentimes urged the Taiwanese government to adhere to the so-called " 1992 consensus ", according to which there is only one China in the world and Taiwan is part of it. But Taiwanese President Ts'ai Ing-wen has refused to endorse Beijing's position and is seeking to maintain the status quo of de facto independence.  During the Sino-American negotiations that took place in the 1970s, Beijing requested that the United States broke off diplomatic relations with the ROC. In August 1977 Cyrus Vance, Jimmy Carte

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China (ROC, Taiwan) (by Voice of America via Wikimedia Commons ) The Taiwanese Foreign Ministry has deleted from its official account a tweet that mocked China for blocking the release of Christopher Robin , a live-action drama about Winnie the Pooh . According to the Hollywood Reporter,  the Chinese government  has not allowed the Disney film to be screened in the country. The report cited Beijing's crackdown on images of the Winnie the Pooh character as the reason for the ban. On August 8 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China (ROC, Taiwan) posted on its official  Twitter  account a tweet mocking China's ban on Winnie the Pooh.  " Taiwan 's #OhBear is dismayed at the ban slapped on his cousin Winnie's latest film by censors in #China. Make no mistake: All bears are created equal in #Taiwan & @DisneyCRobin is screening nationwide," the tweet read.  OhBear  is a masco

A survey shows that the majority of white Europeans associate faces of black people with negative ideas.  According to a study by Harvard's Project Implicit , based on scores for 288,076 white Europeans, collected between 2002 and 2015, most white people in European countries have an implicit racial bias towards black individuals.  The above map illustrates the average Implicit Association Test (IAT) score for each country. The redder the colour, the more widespread is racial bias.  The test shows that white Europeans are faster to associate Blackness with negative concepts such as "Bad" and "Evil", and slower to associate it with positive ideas such as "Good" and "Nice", revealing implicit attitudes and automatic associations in people's minds.  Although the levels of racial bias vary across the continent, no European country received a score below zero, which indicates a positive attitude towards black people. 

My Name My Right crowdfunding page, via Facebook  A group of Taiwanese exchange students in Norway have sued the Norwegian government, demanding that the nationality on their visas be changed from "China" to "Taiwan".  After Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2010, Beijing-Oslo relations froze. In 2016 the two sides normalized ties, but Norway had to pledge to adhere to the Communist regime's " one-China policy ".  China views Taiwan as part of its territory and has vowed to bring about "reunification" by force if all peaceful options are exhausted.    Taiwanese exchange students in Norway are protesting the fact that on Norwegian visas their nationality is listed as "China" and not as " Taiwan ".  Beijing often uses its diplomatic and economic influence to promote its "one-China" principle. For instance, it recently forced airlines to list Taiwan as part of China

Chinese actress and model Fan Bingbing has allegedly been banned from the film industry for 3 years following allegations of tax evasion.  Last May TV anchor Cui Yongyuan accused Fan Bingbing of signing "yin-yang contracts", a term referring to the illegal practice among Chinese film stars of hiding part of their income by signing two contracts for the same work and declaring to the authorities only one contract.  After Cui's revelation, China's tax authority launched a probe into the film industry. Late last month rumours spread on Chinese social media that Fan Bingbing and her younger brother Fan Chengcheng had been arrested . The actress also disappeared from social media . Embed from Getty Images According to Taiwan-based Apple Daily , Chinese authorities have banned Fan Bingbing from the film industry for 3 years. During this period she will not be allowed to shoot movies or TV series.  The Liberty Times further reports that China 's t

Obama-Putin meeting in Mexico, 2012 (official White House photo by Pete Souza) On August 5 conservative Fox News host Laura Ingraham criticized people who are obsessed with Russia. "As we obsess about Russia," she wrote in a Tweet, "China rising: Our greatest rival and a growing threat." As we obsess abt Russia—> China Rising: Our greatest rival and a growing threat https://t.co/ZLeoDlbuS9 — Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) August 5, 2018 Though Ingraham is right about the growing China threat , both economically and militarily, her criticism of those who want to protect the United States and the West from Russian election interference sounds hypocritical. Only a few years ago, Laura Ingraham and Fox and Friends hosts criticized Obama's foreign policy for being too weak on Russia. And they slammed former Secretary of State John Kerry, who in a televised interview  had stated: "I think that candidate Romney has been breathtak

The number of Hong Kong people sleeping at McDonald's restaurants has increased almost sixfold since 2013.  People sleeping in McDonald's outlets, commonly known in Hong Kong as ' McSleepers ' or ' McRefugees ',  are a common sight in Hong Kong, where the presence of McSleepers is usually tolerated by employees.   According to a recent survey by the non-profit organization Junior Chamber International Tai Ping Shan, the number of McSleepers in Hong Kong has risen from 57 to 334 individuals over the period from 2013 to August 2018.  Embed from Getty Images In densely populated Hong Kong there are a a total of 116 McDonald's outlets open 24-hours: 30 in Hong Kong Island, 42 in Kowloon, 40 in the New Territories and 4 on the Outlying Islands. The American food chain provides not only cheap meals, but also free internet and air-conditioning, thus attracting customers from the city's poorest social groups.  Hong Kong-based Wenweipo re

On July 28 Taiwanese media reported that Vietnam had allowed the display of the Taiwanese flag in one of its industrial zones.  Kaiser 1 Furniture Industry, a Taiwanese-owned company based in My Phuoc industrial park , in southern Vietnam's Binh Duong province, had allegedly received permission from local authorities to fly the flag of the Republic of China (ROC, Taiwan) to distinguish itself from Chinese businesses.  After violent anti-China protests broke out in Vietnam in 2014, Taiwanese businesses were attacked by demonstrators, who mistook them for Chinese. In order to protect themselves in case of riots, Taiwanese firms requested to be allowed to fly their own flag. Last month Luo Tzu-wen, chairman of Kaiser Furniture, told Taiwanese media that he had been permitted to fly the Taiwanese flag.  Embed from Getty Images At a press conference held on July 30 Geng Shuang, a spokesperson for China 's Foreign Ministry, objected to Vietnam's move. "Ther

(Image by DrRandomFactor via Wikimedia Commons ) On August 3rd the State Council of the People's Republic of China (PRC) announced the Communist government's decision to abolish the "Work Permit For Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau Employees On The Mainland" (台港澳人員在內地就業許可). Residents of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau will no longer be required to apply for permits to work in mainland China and will be able to seek employment without having to go through complex bureaucratic procedures. The move is part of China's carrot and stick approach towards Taiwan, which Beijing considers an integral part of its territory despite the fact that the PRC never exercised de jure or de facto control over the island. China claims that it will use force to bring about unification if all peaceful options are exhausted. At the same time, it tries to co-opt Taiwanese citizens using its status as an economic powerhouse. Taiwanese people working in China face pressur

Taiwanese actress Sung Yün-hua (宋芸樺) has apologized for calling Taiwan a "country" and said that China is her "motherland".  25-year-old Sung gained notoriety in mainland China with her role in the 2018 film Hello Mr. Billionaire (西虹市首富), but in recent days she has become the target of fierce criticism on the part of Chinese netizens for comments they deem unpatriotic.  In 2015 during an interviewed with Taiwan-based Ming Weekly  Sun was asked what her favourite country was. "My favourite country is Taiwan ," she replied. The video of that interview went viral days ago, causing an uproar among Chinese netizens.  宋芸樺為「最愛國家是台灣」道歉，滅火稱中國是我的祖國 #taiwan #宋芸樺 #Entertainment #china #中國 #台灣 →→ https://t.co/OuOQJUXQWk pic.twitter.com/P1Qm7WtyzY — 台灣蘋果日報 Taiwan News (@TW_nextmedia) August 2, 2018 China views Taiwan as part of its territory, and Beijing has not renounced the use of force to bring about " reunification ". Chinese c