🌏 Selected international news for the week (2022.10.16~10.22)

This is a trial issue. After the paid subscription system is officially launched, a week of selected international news will be a benefit only for paid members.

This week's news picks:

• Hong Kong people in the UK protested in front of the Chinese embassy in the UK and were beaten by the Chinese side
• Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida Finally Calls for Unification Church Investigation
• Iranian women's rock climber forced to apologize over hijab controversy
• Truss becomes UK's shortest-lived prime minister
• Meloni becomes Italy's first female post-war prime minister
• China's 20th National Congress officially closes

🇬🇧🇭🇰 Hong Kong residents in the UK protested in front of the Chinese embassy in the UK and were beaten by the Chinese side

On Sunday (10/16), Hong Kong people living in the UK went to demonstrate and protest in front of the Chinese Consulate General in Manchester, UK, on the first day of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Clashes broke out at the scene, and some people ( Bob Chan ) were even arrested by Chinese personnel in front of the Chinese Consulate General in the UK (belonging to the British territory) and beaten into the consulate.

Zheng Xiyuan, the Chinese Consul General in Manchester, has admitted frankly that "the people insulted his national leader, so it is his duty to pull the hair of the demonstrators." On the British side, some MPs proposed that the officials involved (Zheng Xiyuan) should be expelled from the country and called on the British authorities to take action. At present, the local police in Manchester admitted that the situation was chaotic at that time, and Manchester police were involved. The whole case is still under investigation.

🇯🇵 Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida Finally Asks to Investigate the Unification Church

After former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot dead, the motive of the suspect Tetsuya Yamashita was related to the "Unification Church" (now renamed "World Peace Family Federation"), which also raised the controversy surrounding the Unification Church.

This Monday (10/17), Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida instructed Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Keiko Nagaoka to conduct a thorough investigation of the old Unification Church in accordance with the Religious Corporation Law. This will be the first time that the Japanese government has exercised the "right of questioning" since the "Right of Questioning" was added to the Law on Religious Legal Persons in 1996. According to the law, if a specific religious group is found to have violated the law, the relevant unit can ask the court to dissolve the religious group.

For the "Religious Legal Person Law" and related details, please see: Shinzo Abe and the Unification Church (2) Is the old Unification Church known for its "inspirational business law" a kind of "evil cult"?

🇮🇷 Iranian female competitive rock climber forced to apologize over hijab controversy

Since the Iranian woman Mahsa Amini (Mahsa Amini) was stopped by the morality police because of the hijab problem when she followed her family from Kurdistan Province to the capital Tehran to visit relatives at the beginning of last month (9/13), she even died in the detention center. After the news came out, demonstrations and protests in Iran were detonated. At present, relevant demonstrations and protests have lasted for more than a month, and have even developed into a "no big platform" protest mode, spreading to the whole of Iran.

At this time, Elnaz Rekabi, the Iranian women's competitive rock climbing champion, went to South Korea to participate in the Asian Championships. She did not wear a headscarf in accordance with Iran's official regulations when she played, which aroused concern. It is generally believed that Rekabi removed the hijab on purpose in order to show solidarity with protesters in Iran. Rekabi once lost contact with his friends after the game, which aroused even more attention.

At present, Rekabi has apologized to the outside world for the series of disturbances. Rekabi is also suspected of being questioned and placed under house arrest by the Iranian authorities. Did Rickabee really drop his hijab accidentally, as stated in the apology, or was he "forced to apologize" under pressure? As well as the current situation of Rekabi, it is worthy of continuous attention.

🇬🇧 Truss becomes Britain's shortest-lived prime minister

Liz Truss, the British Prime Minister who just took office, resigned at 1 pm local time on Thursday (10/20), and became the shortest prime minister in British history in just 45 days.

Truss' resignation is mainly related to the lack of personal leadership. On the third day of Truss' tenure, Queen Elizabeth II died. After the queen's funeral in the UK, the first major policy that Truss promulgated was "tax cuts to save the economy", and it was a reduction of "taxes for the rich". In other words, rich people can pay a little less tax, but the ordinary people living in dire straits can hardly benefit from it.

Just after Tesla's finance minister, Kwasi Kwarteng announced the policy, the pound plummeted immediately, showing how dissatisfied investors were with the policy. As a result, Quarton was removed and replaced by Jeremy Hunt who came to power to save the economy. But the turmoil in the Truss cabinet was not over, and the Home Secretary (Suella Braverman) also announced her resignation for violating the ministerial code (using a private email address to send confidential messages). All signs show that Truss' cabinet is in a mess again, and Truss has no way to win the trust of the Conservative Party. It is only a matter of time before Truss resigns.

At present, the British Conservative Party announced that it will elect a new party leader as quickly as possible, and the new cabinet is expected to be in place next week.

🇮🇹 Meloni becomes Italy's first post-war female prime minister

This Friday (10/21), the Italian President officially announced that Giorgia Meloni, leader of the "Fratelli d'Italia" (Fratelli d'Italia) party who won the general election in Italy last month, will Today (10/16) morning was officially sworn in. Not only will Meloni become the first female prime minister in Italian history, but the cabinet formed by Meloni will also become the first government in Italy after World War II to be ruled by the far right.

Giorgia Meloni, who joined the Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI), founded the Fratelli d'Italia (FdI) in December 2012. It is generally believed that both the "Italian Social Movement" and the "Italian Brothers Party" belong to neo-fascist parties, which means that although the two parties are not the fascism created by Mussolini before the end of World War II, their context, root and ideology are all compatible. Fascism before the war has the same effect, so the two are considered to be the extreme right parties in Italy. Italy, like Germany, faced transitional justice issues after World War II, and so far no political party in postwar Italy has won power dating back to the fascist era. Therefore, the "Italian Brothers Party" led by Meloni won a big victory in the Italian general election last month, which also means that Italy has officially turned to the right.

It is worth noting that the "Italian Brothers Party" only won 4% of the votes in the last (2018) general election. In this general election, it can win 26% and become the largest party. It is really a big leap forward. However, the "Italian Brothers" won't be able to form a cabinet alone. It must join forces with the right-wing parties "Forza Italia" and " Lega " to form a cabinet. At present, the "Italian Brothers Party" and the other two parties have different opinions on the issue of the Russo-Ukrainian War (the leaders of the "Italian Forza Party" and the "League Party" support Putin, but Meloni supports Ukraine to resist Russia ), how Meloni will balance the ideology of the three parties will become the focus of attention in the future.

🇨🇳 The 20th National Congress of China officially closed

The Twentieth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, referred to as the "Twentieth National Congress", officially closed earlier (10/22) since it opened on Sunday (10/16). During the week-long meeting, Xi Jinping's historical positioning was decided and approved. At present, the new Central Committee members of the Communist Party of China, the alternate members of the Central Committee and the members of the Central Commission for Disciplinary Inspection have all been elected. If there is no accident, Xi Jinping will hold the 1st General Meeting of the 20th Central Committee tomorrow (10/23). will) be re-elected as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China for the third time, officially starting his third term.

In the past 10 years, Xi Jinping has simultaneously served as the President of the State (state leader), General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee (Party position) and Chairman of the CCP Military Commission (Military position). The latter two originally had no term limit. As for the national president, when the constitution was amended in 2018, the restriction that the national president could be re-elected once (a person can only serve a maximum of 2 terms for a total of 10 years) was removed. Therefore, when the constitution was amended in 2018, the outside world believed that Xi Jinping was paving the way for his third term.

In the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the 67-year-old incumbent Premier Li Keqiang, the 72-year-old Chairman of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress Li Zhanshu, and the 67-year-old Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Wang Yang were not elected as members of the 20th Central Committee. Meaning they are about to retire. In the past, there was an unspoken rule of "ups and downs", that is, under the age of 67, one can continue to serve, and over 68, one has to retire. Li Keqiang was not elected as a new member of the Central Committee. In addition, the Premier of the State Council has a limit of two terms. Li Keqiang's term of office as Premier will only end in March next year. Therefore, he will completely withdraw from the top leadership of the CCP in March next year. We will enter the generation of "Xi Jinping alone".

Another small episode in the closing ceremony was that former Chinese President Hu Jintao, who was originally sitting next to Xi Jinping, was inexplicably invited out at the closing ceremony. When invited out by the staff, Hu Jintao acted as if he did not want to leave the meeting. When he left the meeting, he did not forget to pat Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang beside him, but their attitude towards Hu Jintao was quite cold.

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