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Added on the 22/01/2020 09:13:21 - Copyright : France 24 EN
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi meets with Chief Advisor to the Brazilian President, Celso Amorim, for a bilateral meeting at the Itamaraty Palace in Brasilia. IMAGES
In an unusually harsh punishment, China has condemned one of the country's top bankers to death over bribery and bigamy charges. Business Insider reports the condemned man is Lai Xiaomin, ex-chairman of the banking giant China Huarong Asset Management. He was found guilty of accepting $277 million in bribes between 2008 and 2018, and has been called China's most corrupt financial official. Execution by lethal injection is not a typical punishment for corruption, which usually results in a lifetime prison sentence. The death sentence comes as part of an anti-corruption crusade led by Chinese President Xi Jinping. Since its start, the commission has punished about 1.5 million officials.
The IMF says while the US economy is expected to grow slightly faster this year, it will be overshadowed by material risks including damage from the China trade conflict. SOUNDBITE
Chinese smartphone maker Vivo presented the official FIFA 2018 World Cup smartphone in Moscow on Thursday. The new Vivo V7 and V7+ phones will be available for purchase starting December 16th. Both phones will offer a 24 MP front camera and a 16 MP rear camera, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 processor and 4 GB of RAM, but the V7+ will have 64 GB of internal memory while the V7 will only have 32. The V7+ will cost about $420 while the V7 will retail for about $370.
Protesters gather in Hong Kong calling for universal suffrage and an end to arrests of activists in China as a top Beijing official visits the city. IMAGES
China says it "poses no threat" to any country, after Australia's first National Defence Strategy signalled a new focus on deterring Beijing's "coercive tactics". "China poses no threat to any country," foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian says in a briefing, urging Canberra to "refrain from making accusations against China at every turn". SOUNDBITE