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China plans to buy gold mine in Arctic; Trudeau government to decide deal

A Chinese stat-run company is planning to buy a gold mine in the Canadian Arctic. The plans of a state-run company acquiring the area has sparked concerns for the Canadian government.

Shandong Gold Mining Co.’s plans on buying the gold mines from a Canadian company as experts believe it shows how China is expanding its presence in strategically important region.

The Canadian opposition party has raised concerns and has urged the Trudeau government to take steps as it holds a cabinet meeting over this deal.

The opposition has urged the Prime Minister to block the deal and discourage China from acquiring any more assets in the Arcitc after the US warned that China could be aiming to assert its importance in sensitive and important regions such as Arctic, similar to the South China Sea dispute.

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Philippines’s Duterte Asks China for Access to Successful Coronavirus Vaccine

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said he has asked China for help in getting access to a coronavirus vaccine as governments around the world make arrangements to secure supply for their citizens ahead of what is expected to be a global scramble for the much-awaited shots.

新冠肺炎疫情发生以来，中菲双方同舟共济、守望相助，抗疫合作已成为两国关系的新亮点。菲律宾是中国的友好邻邦，我们愿在疫苗方面优先考虑菲方需求。

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Washington confirms suspension of Fulbright programme for Hong Kong, mainland

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3094686/us-china-relations-washington-confirms-suspension-fullbright

The United States has confirmed the suspension of its Fulbright programme in mainland China and Hong Kong, after President Donald Trump pulled the plug on the fellowship earlier this month in response to Beijing’s introduction of a national security law in the former British colony.
In an email sent to US scholars preparing to take part in the programme, the US state department said the 2020-21 exchange “will not operate”, though participants would be allowed to apply to take part in different countries.
The Fulbright programme was established by the US in 1946 and allows American and foreign academics to teach, research and study in each other’s countries. The first agreement was signed with China, but it now covers more than 160 countries.

There goes the US spies and secret agents.

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Alibaba, Jack Ma summoned by Indian court on former employee’s complaint

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alibaba-india-exclusive/exclusive-alibaba-jack-ma-summoned-by-indian-court-on-former-employees-complaint-idUSKCN24R053
An Indian court has summoned Alibaba and its founder Jack Ma in a case in which a former employee in India says he was wrongfully fired after objecting to what he saw as censorship and fake news on company apps, documents seen by Reuters showed.

In court filings dated July 20 and previously not reported, the former employee of Alibaba’s UC Web, Pushpandra Singh Parmar, alleges the company used to censor content seen as unfavourable to China and its apps UC Browser and UC News showcased false news “to cause social and political turmoil”.

Civil Judge Sonia Sheokand of a district court in Gurugram, a satellite city of India’s capital, New Delhi, has issued summons for Alibaba, Jack Ma and about a dozen individuals or company units, asking them to appear in court or through a lawyer on July 29, court documents showed.

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Australian Government declares Beijing’s South China Sea claims illegal in letter to United Nations

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-25/federal-government-joins-rejects-china-maritime-claims-at-un/12492070

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In a letter to the United Nations, Australia’s permanent mission rejected the Chinese Communist Party’s claim to disputed islands in the crucial trading waters, calling them “inconsistent” with international law.

“The Australian Government rejects any claims by China that are inconsistent with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), in particular, maritime claims that do not adhere to its rules on baselines, maritime zones and classification of features,” the document states.

“There is no legal basis for China to draw straight baselines connecting the outermost points of maritime features or ‘island groups’ in the South China Sea, including around the ‘Four Sha’ or ‘continental’ or ‘outlying’ archipelagos.