‘I wanted to do something more meaningful’: the Chinese nationals fighting for Ukraine

20 octobre 2025 à 16:50

Volunteers defy their government and public opinion in China to risk their lives for an adversary of Beijing’s main geopolitical partner

In a war that has been characterised by merciless attacks on civilians, one of the worst took place on 8 July 2024. Russian missile strikes killed at least 43 people in cities across Ukraine in one of the deadliest days of the war last year. One of the most shocking blows was to the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital in central Kyiv, which reduced the country’s largest paediatric clinic to rubble.

Tim, 43, was delivering aid on the outskirts of Kyiv when he heard a missile fly overhead. A short while later, he saw the news on his phone that the children’s hospital had been hit. Along with a British friend, the Chinese national, who asked to be referred to by just his English name, rushed to the scene to help with the recovery efforts. “Seeing the severed limbs, some of them belonging to children, I started crying,” the father-of-two said, tears in his eyes at the memory. “I thought about the kind of anger that Chinese people have. Once it’s ignited … It’s intense. I decided to join the army.”

‘A high-level operator’: Cai Qi’s rapid rise to become Xi Jinping’s right-hand man

The Guardian

Par :Amy Hawkins Senior China correspondent

17 octobre 2025 à 18:32

CCP official alleged to be leading a Westminster spy ring is the de facto gatekeeper to the Chinese president

In a world of identikit bureaucrats, Cai Qi, the man described as Xi Jinping’s top lieutenant and recently revealed as the suspected ringleader of an alleged Westminster Chinese spy ring, stands out.

As the fifth-ranking member on the standing committee of the Chinese Communist party’s (CCP) ruling politburo, Cai is one of the most powerful people in China. But his importance outstrips even his senior title, because as the Chinese leader’s de facto chief of staff, he is also effectively the gatekeeper and right-hand man to Xi himself.

Xi directs quashing of Chinese feminists even as he praises advances at women’s conference

The Guardian

Par :Amy Hawkins Senior China correspondent

15 octobre 2025 à 04:00

Chinese president is behind patriarchal turn in politics with activists silenced for ‘promoting gender antagonism’

Addressing dignitaries gathered in Beijing on Monday, Xi Jinping praised the “historic achievements” of women’s rights in China. In the past 30 years, the Chinese president said, maternal mortality rates had dropped by nearly 80%, and women were now participating in the project of national governance with “unprecedented confidence and vigour”.

Xi was speaking at the global women’s summit, an event on Monday and Tuesday to mark the 30th anniversary of the historic UN’s world conference on women, which took place in Beijing. It was there in 1995 that Hillary Clinton, the then US first lady, delivered her “women’s rights are human rights” speech, lines now often quoted by people in China advocating for women’s rights.

Vue lecture