China has notified several foreign missions in Beijing not to display “politicized propaganda” on their buildings, diplomats said, adding that the request appeared aimed at Ukrainian flags they have displayed since Russia’s invasion.
Several foreign missions in China raised the Ukrainian flag, or displayed its image in posters and lights, following Russia’s invasion in February last year, which sparked international condemnation of Moscow, a close ally of Beijing.
“We and others got a letter calling on embassies and representative offices to refrain from using the outer walls of their buildings for ‘politicized propaganda,’” said one diplomat, whose embassy is displaying a Ukraine flag image.
Photo: Reuters
The diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the mission did not intend to comply with the notification.
Three other Beijing-based diplomats confirmed that there had been a notification, adding that while it did not directly mention the Ukraine flag it was clearly aimed at that.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Weeks after Russia launched what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine, a poster of a Ukrainian flag on the exterior wall of the Canadian embassy in Beijing was defaced with anti-NATO graffiti, a Reuters witness said.
The missions of the EU, Britain, Germany and Poland in Beijing have also displayed images of Ukrainian flags.
They did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
China has called for peace in Ukraine, but has refrained from condemning its ally Russia, leading to criticism from Western countries.
Some embassies in Beijing are also displaying rainbow flags in support of the LGBT community, to mark International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia yesterday, and LGBT Pride Month next month.
It was not immediately clear if China, which has faced criticism from rights groups for stifling LGBT activism in the past few years, objected to such displays.
It is usually a serene two-and-a-half-hour ride on Japan’s famously efficient bullet train, but on Saturday, the journey quickly descended into a zombie apocalypse, with passengers screaming in terror. Organizers of the adrenaline-filled trip, less than two weeks before Halloween, touted it as the world’s first haunted house experience on a running Shinkansen. On board one chartered car of the Shinkansen, about 40 thrill-seekers were ready to brave an encounter with the living dead between Tokyo and the western metropolis of Osaka. The eerie experience was inspired by the hit 2016 South Korean action-horror movie Train to Busan, in which a father and
IRANIAN THREATS: Revolutionary Guards chief Hossein Salami said that it would be a ‘mistake’ for Israel to attack Iran and if it did ‘we will strike you again painfully’ Israel yesterday bombed a Syrian coastal city, while the US conducted multiple strikes on targets in Yemen nearly a month into Israel’s war with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Syria, the Houthi rebels in Yemen, Hezbollah and Hamas in Gaza all belong to the so-called “axis of resistance” led by Iran, which on Oct. 1 conducted a missile strike on Israel. Israel has vowed to retaliate for the strike. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards chief Hossein Salami yesterday said in a speech that Tehran would hit Israel “painfully” if it attacks Iranian targets. “If you make a mistake and attack our targets, whether in the region or in
NEW RECRUITS: A video released by Ukrainian officials allegedly shows dozens of North Koreans lining up to collect military fatigues from Russian servicemen Russian aerial strikes wounded more than a dozen and knocked out electricity for tens of thousands of Ukrainians overnight in attacks on residential areas as temperatures dropped toward freezing, Kyiv said yesterday. Ukraine also said it had targeted a crucial Russian explosives factory, about 750km from the border, in an overnight drone attack, while Moscow said it had shot down 110 drones, the largest attempted aerial barrage by Kyiv in more than two weeks. At least 17 people were wounded in an attack on Kryvyi Rig, Ukraine, including a first responder, the Ukrainian State Emergency Service said. “At night, the enemy attacked Kryvyi
The space rock that slammed into Earth 66 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous Period caused a global calamity that doomed the dinosaurs and many other life forms, but that was far from the largest meteorite to strike our planet. One up to 200 times bigger landed 3.26 billion years ago, triggering worldwide destruction at an even greater scale, but as new research shows, that disaster actually might have been beneficial for the early evolution of life by serving as “a giant fertilizer bomb” for the bacteria and other single-celled organisms called archaea that held dominion at the