November 29, Tuesday, 2022 (1:30 p.m.) Newsline read by Mr. Yamaguchi Hiroaki

1.Protests against China’s tough COVID restrictions have spread to Hong Kong. Many people gathered near a station in central Hong Kong Island on Monday night with flowers in a response to an online call to hold a vigil for the victims of an apartment fire in China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Dozens of them held up blank sheets of paper in a silent show of protest for the victims in the city of Urumqi.
2.US government officials have backed the right of people to “peacefully protest” in China as protesters in multiple Chinese cities have demonstrated against the government’s “zero-COVID” policy.
3.British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said “the golden era” with China is over in his response to Beijing’s crack-down on massive protests against its zero-COVID policy. Sunak said on Monday that Britain needs to evolve its approach to China, saying “the so-called golden era is over, along with the naïve idea that trade would lead to social and political reform.”