On Wednesday, May 1, 2019, the United States Department of Justice revealed that former Central Intelligence Agency officer Jerry Chun Shing Lee, 54, has admitted to conspiring with China to pass US intelligence secrets that may have contributed to the disastrous crippling of the United States’s CIA operation in China since 2010.

Legislation introduced on April 3, 2019 to alter Hong Kong’s extradition policy has reignited the discontent of many Hongkongers, with thousands taking to the streets in successive weeks to demand a halt to the proposed changes that would make it easier to extradite individuals into the People’s Republic of China’s secretive judicial system.

Kweichow Moutai Co., China’s premier distilled liquor producer, is the most valuable liquor company in the world, producing a soy sauce-like scent of the Chinese grain alcohol baijiu that is popular among the Chinese public. It is slated to become the first company to surpass the 1,000-yuan (148.30 USD) mark in stock value, blazing the trail ahead in China’s booming equity market.

Nine leading members of the “Umbrella Movement,” which organized the 79-day “Occupy Central” pro-democracy protests that riveted the prosperous coastal city of Hong Kong in late 2014, have been convicted by a Hong Kong district court on public nuisance charges. Additionally, the “Occupy trio” — sociology professor Chan Kin-man, 60; law professor Benny Tai, 54; and Baptist minister Rev. Chu Yiu-ming, 75 — were also found guilty of conspiring to cause public nuisance, on top of charges of inciting others to cause public nuisance.

On Monday, Apr. 1, 2019, the Japanese government officially unveiled the new imperial era name (gengo) that will begin on May 1 when Crown Prince Naruhito succeeds his father, the current Emperor Akihito, to the Chrysanthemum Throne. During the reveal, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga held up to a work of calligraphy showing the official new imperial era name Reiwa (令和), comprised of Chinese characters of “rei” (令), denoting “good” or “auspicious,” and “wa” (和), meaning “harmony” or “peace.”

On Saturday, Mar. 23, 2019, the Italian government signed a non-binding agreement to join China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), an initiative to expand its economic ties throughout the Eastern Hemisphere. The BRI aims to link China to the rest of the Eastern Hemisphere — including countries residing in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa — through a system of networks along the lines of the old Silk Road, a nod to the original transcontinental route that enriched traders from the Atlantic to the Pacific through much of early history.