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Hi there Inkstoners, It’s Juliana here. I hope you had a nice weekend. I spent Saturday preparing for Typhoon Mangkhut and then Sunday riding it out. The category 10 typhoon is now, officially, the most intense typhoon to have hit Hong Kong since records began. And what a scary storm it was! This is my third category 10 storm so far, and while my family wasn’t unduly affected (we had stocked up on food and games), this one seemed to knock out more windows (even in the urban areas) than any I’d seen before. A former colleague of mine was cut by flying glass and had to evacuate. And let’s not even talk about people living near the water or in low-lying areas. Hong Kong had no fatalities. But the powerful storm has contributed to the deaths of dozens of people in the Philippines and at least four people in China so far. 
A lot of news outlets have been reporting on this typhoon or about Hurricane Florence without mentioning climate change, which has been contributing to warmer ocean temperatures and a greater incidence of tropical storms.
For a full list of stories in our two-week series on climate change, check out this page. |
| Typhoon Mangkhut has ravaged southern China and Hong Kong, leaving flooding, shattered windows, and at least four people feared dead in Guangdong province. Today, many residents are picking up downed trees, packing onto crowded trains for work, and even saving turtles. Here’s our roundup of what happened. |
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| So, back to the windows. Many people on my Facebook timeline posted about how the typhoon had busted their windows. Most had taped their windows in anticipation and weren’t hurt. Read our story to find out why windows might be more dangerous than skyscrapers swaying in wind. |
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| Donald Trump is going to announce, yes, more tariffs on Chinese imports this week. As we enter the third month of the US-China trade war, we’re all getting a little turned around by all the numbers, products, taxes and percentages. Our story today walks you through every blow from Washington since the war began on July 6: what Trump has taxed, is going to tax, and may tax in the future. |
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| Three Chinese tourists stranded in Sweden without a hotel room after a booking mistake, allege they were then manhandled by police during their visit in early September. But the version reported by Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet is very different: the tourists refused to leave and verbally threatened staff. It may seem like a “he said, she said” story – but this incident has escalated into a diplomatic incident after China’s foreign ministry stepped in. |
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| Over the weekend, Chinese state television aired a two-part program with details of how alleged spies in Taiwan have been entrapping visiting Chinese students with “bribery, friendship and sexual seduction.” The program said it was part of a campaign launched by China’s state security department to crack hundreds of espionage cases involving Taiwan’s burgeoning spy network in the mainland. But China and Taiwan have frequently accused each other of espionage, and experts say this may be just China trying to “get even.” |
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| Forrest Gump’s saying about life being like a box of chocolates – “you never know what you’re gonna get” – can just as well describe China’s public toilets. You’ll know what I mean if you had been to China a decade ago: you never knew what lay behind a bathroom door. At best, a squat toilet. At worst, a filthy squat toilet. Things have gotten a lot better in the ten years since. And an official effort to clean up China’s toilets accelerated after President Xi Jinping called for a “toilet revolution” in 2015. To date, it has led to toilet upgrades at thousands of tourist sites across the country. |
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| If you've got time |
| The curious case of the burgled professor The New Zealand Herald reports on the investigation into a burglary in which a professor lost an old laptop – but not hundreds of dollars in cash. Was it the result of a Chinese intelligence operation? |
| Women deserve a place at the center of China’s revolutionary history Quartz publishes an excerpt of a book on the history of China’s revolutions, considered from the point of view of the women involved. |
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 |  | | | Get more Inkstone | | | Inkstone is a daily digest of 6 China-focused stories providing unvarnished insight into a rising potential superpower. | | | |
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