Police in Beijing are hunting for a 27-year-old man suspected of stealing several items from the Forbidden City in a rare theft at China’s ancient imperial palace, state press said yesterday.
Officials at the Forbidden City told police that seven items belonging to an exhibit on loan from a private Hong Kong museum and valued at up to 10 million yuan (US$1.5 million) were stolen on Sunday, the Beijing News said.
After viewing video surveillance tapes, police are seeking the man as the chief suspect in the theft, the paper said.
Telephone calls to the Forbidden City went unanswered yesterday, but a posting on the Palace Museum’s microblog confirmed that the theft took place.
The missing items, which date from the early 20th century, include jewelry boxes and women’s make-up cases, the report said.
The items were taken from the Zhai Gong exhibition hall in the northeastern part of the sprawling palace, where the display was to continue until June 27, it added. The section was closed to tourists following the incident.
The exhibit was on loan from the Liangyicang museum, which is owned by a Hong Kong collector identified as Feng Yaohui (馮耀輝), the paper said.
In the most recent theft attempt at the heavily guarded Forbidden City, police in 1987 captured a man identified as Xiang Dexiang (向德詳), who was unsuccessful, but was still sentenced to life in prison, the Global Times reported.
According to police records, only four thefts have been recorded at the Forbidden City between 1949 and 1987, the paper said.
Located in central Beijing, the Forbidden City was built in the early decades of the 15th century and served as the imperial palace of China’s Ming and Qing dynasties.
It was transformed into the Palace Museum in 1925 after the fall of the Qing Dynasty.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number