Xi Jinping is the king of headlines for Chinese daily, and England cricket star Alastair Cook announces his retirement.
China President defends African investment, pledges more
Pledging an additional investment of $60 billion for Africa’s development, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Monday that China was not investing in “vanity projects” in Africa, the BBC reported.
He was speaking at the Forum of China-Africa Cooperation summit in Beijing, a meeting to discuss further prospects of Chinese investment in Africa that was attended by representatives of all African nations bar one.
“China’s investment in Africa comes with no political strings attached,” Xi said. “Resources for our co-operation are not to be spent on any vanity projects but in places where they count the most.”
Critics say Chinese investment in underdeveloped countries is Beijing’s way of spreading its influence further and leveraging debt to gain control of strategic assets. “China is the single largest bilateral financier of infrastructure in Africa,” the BBC report added.
However, welcoming Chinese investments in the continent, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said he disagreed that a “new colonialism is taking hold in Africa as our detractors would have us believe”.
The additional $60bn pledge is apart from an equivalent sum committed by China at a similar summit in 2015. According to research quoted by the BBC, between 2000 and 2016, China lent around $125 billion to Africa.
The Chinese infrastructural investments are a part of the new Belt and Road Initiative, under which “China is estimated to have underwritten over $900 billion of loans… in 71 countries”, according to a report by The Economist.
A $3.2bn railway project in Africa under China is reported to have run into losses worth $100 million in its first year.
This tiny African nation is not joining China’s investment race
As various African nations competed for Chinese investments at the Forum of China-Africa Cooperation summit Monday, the tiny nation of Swaziland steered clear, The Washington Post reported.
Swaziland, recently renamed eSwatini, is the only African nation not present at the summit.
It is the only African nation that maintains a good relationship with Taiwan, and recognises it as an independent country. China claims Taiwan as a rebel province and has “refused to establish diplomatic ties” with any nation that identifies it as an independent country.
Swaziland foreign minister Mgwagwa Gamedze is recently said to have made a statement reemphasising the kingdom’s commitment to Taiwan. “We have no desire to change camps since Taiwan has been good to us,” he said.
Xi Jinping seems to be the flavour for this newspaper
While media coverage is important for world leaders, it seems to have gone an extra mile for Chinese President Xi Jinping. People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party of China (CPC), carried 12 headlines with Xi’s name on the front page.
China correspondent for India Today, Ananth Krishnan, reflected on the same. He tweeted:
This must be some sort of record: 12 front page headlines carrying Xi Jinping’s name in yesterday’s People’s Daily pic.twitter.com/WfEuOO3gn1
— Ananth Krishnan (@ananthkrishnan) September 3, 2018
Earlier, in 2015, when Xi visited Johannesburg in Africa for a similar summit, the newspaper is reported to have carried 11 front-page headlines with the President’s name.
UNHRC chief Bachelet bats for arrested journalists, asks Myanmar to free them
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has urged Myanmar to free the two Reuters journalists sentenced to seven years in jail for reporting on the Rohingya crisis, said a Reuters report.
A Myanmar court convicted the two journalists Monday for “breaching state secrets”. This case was seen as a test of democracy in Myanmar.
According to Bachelet, they were convicted through a legal system that “clearly breached international standard”.
“It sends a message to all journalists in Myanmar that they cannot operate fearlessly, but must rather make a choice to either self-censor or risk prosecution,” she added.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres also urged Myanmar authorities to review their decision.
England cricket’s highest test-run scorer, Alastair Cook, announces retirement
Celebrated English cricketer Alastair Cook has announced his retirement, reported the BBC. “There’s nothing left in the tank,” he was quoted as saying.
The 33-year-old opener has scored 12,254 runs and made 32 centuries in 160 test matches — all England records. He has captained the team in 59 tests.
With a record 11,627 runs as an opener, Cook is sixth on the all-time list of test run-scorers.
Police use tear gas as hundreds attempt to storm burnt Rio museum
The Rio de Janerio riot police fired tear gas and pepper spray to keep angry citizens from breaking into the premises of its oldest museum, which was recently engulfed by a massive fire. Several hundreds tried to enter the burnt remains of Latin America’s largest museum to check for remains, Al Jazeera reported.
The angry protesters have called on the government to rebuild the museum.
Maintenance of the National Museum was reported to have suffered of late on account of declining federal funding, and it was closed in 2015 due to significant budget cuts.
Brazil culture minister Sergio Leitao told the O Estado de S Paulo newspaper that the fire was caused either due to a short circuit or a homemade paper hot-air balloon.