Latest Beijing News

3 Hong Kong activists behind Tiananmen vigil lose bid to overturn conviction

Mar. 14, 2024 08:30 AM EDT

HONG KONG (AP) — Three former organizers of Hong Kong’s annual vigil in remembrance of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy protests lost their bid to overturn their conviction Thursday over their refusal to provide authorities with information on the group under a national...

Chinese city officials issue a rare apology after authorities harass journalists on live TV

Mar. 14, 2024 06:45 AM EDT

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — City officials in eastern China apologized to local journalists after authorities were shown pushing them and trying to obstruct reporting from the site of a deadly explosion, in a rare acknowledgment of state aggression against journalists. The city of Sanhe,...

US lawmakers say TikTok won't be banned if it finds a new owner. But that's easier said than done

Mar. 13, 2024 11:24 AM EDT

U.S. lawmakers are threatening to ban TikTok but also say they are giving its Chinese parent company a chance to keep it running. The premise of a bipartisan bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday is that TikTok fans in the U.S. can keep scrolling through...

At least 2 dead and dozens injured in a suspected gas explosion outside Beijing

Mar. 13, 2024 07:06 AM EDT

BEIJING (AP) — An explosion caused by a suspected gas leak ripped through a building in northern China on Wednesday, killing at least two people and injuring 26 others, authorities said. The blast occurred early in the morning at a fried chicken shop in the city of Sanhe,...

Chinese state media say an explosion has killed one person and injured 22 in a building outside Beijing

Mar. 12, 2024 23:00 PM EDT
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese state media say an explosion has killed one person and injured 22 in a building outside Beijing.

As TikTok bill steams forward, online influencers put on their lobbying hats to visit Washington

Mar. 12, 2024 17:08 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers, meet your latest lobbyists: online influencers from TikTok. The platform is once again bringing influencers to Washington, this time to lobby members of Congress to reject a fast-moving bill that would force TikTok's Beijing-based parent company to sell...

Russian skater's doping case leaves WADA uneasy and targeting new rules before next Winter Olympics

Mar. 12, 2024 12:41 PM EDT

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — The doping case of Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva left a “very unpleasant” taste with the World Anti-Doping Agency, which is unhappy that the teenager was the only one punished with a ban while her coaches and entourage have not been sanctioned. ...

Chinese legislature's meetings return, but the limited openness they once had is gone

Mar. 12, 2024 11:04 AM EDT

BEIJING (AP) — This year, China’s national legislature resumed its annual in-person meetings without many of the restrictions that had been imposed since the pandemic. No more bubbles, multiple COVID-19 tests or social distancing. Officials say China is back to business, but in...

Hong Kong's new national security bill includes stiff penalties and more power to suppress dissent

Mar. 08, 2024 22:32 PM EST

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong unveiled a proposed law that threatens life imprisonment for residents who “endanger national security" on Friday, deepening worries about erosion of the city’s freedoms four years after Beijing imposed a similar law that all but wiped out public dissent. ...

10 years on, parents of Chinese passengers on MH370 are still asking: What happened to my child?

Mar. 08, 2024 03:47 AM EST

BEIJING (AP) — Ten years on, the families of Chinese passengers who disappeared on board a lost Malaysia Airlines flight still are searching for answers. On Friday, a few dozen relatives of the passengers met officials at China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing as part of...