Thatcher reveals Deng's threat to seize Hong Kong in a day
DENG Xiaoping threatened China could seize Hong Kong in a day, former British prime minister Lady Thatcher has revealed.
The threat by the Chinese patriarch was contained in his famous warning that Beijing might take back the territory before 1997 at their September 1982 meeting in the Great Hall of the People, Lady Thatcher says in her memoirs, The Downing Street Years, to be published tomorrow.
The threat is being used to try to block Governor Chris Patten's moves towards greater democracy in Hong Kong.
Yellen says ‘no alternative’ to dollar, urges US-China cooperation for sake of the world
Former US Treasury secretary, in Hong Kong, discusses China’s ‘serious conflicts’ with other economies in trade, while warning of decoupling risks
A decoupling between China and the United States is something “that you don’t want to see”, says former US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen, adding that both countries have developed deep trade and investment relationships that should be preserved and encouraged to thrive.
These are the issues that Washington must address through negotiations, she said.
This rugby player is fighting Asian beauty standards by showing women it’s OK to be strong
German-Chinese national athlete Sofie Fella urges girls and women to transcend traditional Asian femininity norms and build strength
To understand why German-Chinese athlete Sofie Fella felt compelled to design a T-shirt featuring the Chinese character da – Mandarin for “big” – one must understand the rigid expectations of Asian femininity.
In cities like Shanghai, Fella’s hometown, the “ideal” body is more than an aesthetic – it is a signifier of virtue. This mindset is encouraged from a young age.
Even as a Harvard University rugby player and now international competitor – she plays for the German national team – Fella has not been spared the scrutiny that follows Asian women throughout their lives.
Though now celebrated for her strength on the field, Fella started her athletic journey in a ballet studio, one that provided a brutal introduction to body scrutiny.
“We had a scale in our classroom, and you had to weigh yourself in front of other people,” she says. “The messaging was clear: small is beautiful. Don’t be too muscular; that’s manly. I was always bigger than the petite Chinese dancers, and I was taught to shrink.”
“Asian women don’t just need to be a small voice,” Fella says. “You’re allowed to take up space and be successful in your own way and be proud.”
She now seeks to cultivate that sense of possibility through her school outreach, where she holds discussions about women in sports with students across Asia.
This spring, she will return to her old school, Shanghai American School (SAS), to meet with a new generation of female students – a full-circle moment.
The year after she graduated and headed to Harvard, the girls’ rugby programme at her high school doubled in size.
“All the parents must have been like, ‘Oh, women’s rugby. That’s the way to Harvard,’” she says with a laugh.
The irony is not lost on her: a sport once dismissed by many Asian parents as too rough, too masculine and a distraction from academics had suddenly become a viable, even strategic, extracurricular activity.
That is another feature of the Asian cultural landscape, she notes: the tendency to value activities only if they serve a measurable, résumé-worthy outcome.
“A lot of parents choose for their kids what their passion should be, instead of letting them develop that passion,” she says.
The result is a predictable life trajectory that is exhausting in its own way: a childhood engineered for academic success, followed by a relentless nine-to-six professional life that leaves little room for fitness.
That is why she gives talks at schools, started her da clothing line – to which she is introducing a Cheongsam-inspired scrunchie collection – and is redefining what active beauty looks like.
She also leads Girls Lift Girls, a community she co-founded with CrossFit athlete Gemma Ashworth in Dubai that has since expanded to Hong Kong and Australia.
It began as a series of casual dinners for like-minded women who enjoyed being active and has evolved into a movement to rewrite the script around female fitness in Asia.
“We wanted to create a space where women could be vulnerable about how they feel in the gym, or [express] why they’re scared to lift heavier,” Fella says.
From paddleboarding sessions and run clubs to yoga flows and functional fitness workshops, each event is calibrated to suit women at their level – not the level where a fitness influencer says they should be.
In Hong Kong especially, Fella has noticed a unique sensitivity.
“You have to hold their hands a little more … The goal is to push them just enough to realise how strong they already are, without scaring them off.”
Today, Natarajan leads Girls Lift Girls events in Hong Kong herself, a full-circle transformation.
“That’s the power of environment,” Fella says. “She was suddenly surrounded by women’s sport, by strong women, and it changed what she thought was possible for herself.”
Fella’s aim is to erase the fear that being fit will make a woman less feminine or desirable, replacing that with the simple joy of discovering what your body can do – whether 25 or 75, as it is just as important for an older woman to get active as it is for a younger one.
Fella’s mother, a Shanghai native, would comment on her daughter’s broadening shoulders and legs, which did not fit the traditional Asian definition of femininity.
When Fella first handed her mother the da T-shirt – its design meant to reclaim the word “big” as a badge of strength – the response was a quiet, almost reflexive, rejection.
“Why?” her mother asked, her tone hovering between confusion and disapproval. “Small is better,” she said.
Fella felt no resentment.
“I want to be sensitive to Chinese culture,” she explains. “It’s not her fault … It’s the environment she was brought up in, passed down through generations. That is what she learned femininity looked like.”
Fella is concerned about her mother’s ability to build and preserve muscle mass later in life. Her lack of it is a consequence, she believes, of a lifetime spent in an environment that discouraged physical strength in women.
“While you’re young, you might care about looking lean or skinny. But when you can’t pick up your grandkids – or you can’t even get off the toilet by yourself – you won’t be thinking about how ‘bulky’ your arms are,” Fella says bluntly.
Research shows that women can lose up to 30 per cent of their muscle mass between the ages of 30 and 80, with the decline accelerating sharply after menopause.
As Fella discovered, strength training, even initiated later in life, can slow the decline and restore functional capacity – though it is easier to build and preserve muscle in your twenties and thirties than to claw it back in your sixties.
“The muscle I’m building now is my retirement fund. I look at my mom, who doesn’t have that base, and I worry about her posture, her mobility. Exercise is the one pill you can take every day to live longer.”
Today, that T-shirt her mother first disliked has become her favourite. She wears it around the house, sends photos of it to her friends, and wears it when her daughter brings her to the gym.
“Oh, this is Sofie’s project,” she tells admirers, her voice now laced with pride. “You should get one too.”
Fella says: “If I can change even my mom’s perspective on women in sport and strong women, I think I can change a lot of people’s minds.”
