China

In Beijing and Kyiv, the divide between China and Europe over the war in Ukraine was on display this week.

As a Chinese envoy crisscrossed Europe for talks on ending the war, his boss, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, trumpeted a sharp rise in China-Russia trade — which the West sees as providing an economic lifeline to Moscow that undermines the sanctions it has imposed to try to pressure Russia to withdraw from Ukraine.

“Russian natural gas has entered thousands of households in China, and Chinese cars are driving in the streets of Russia, which fully demonstrates the strong resilience and broad prospects of mutually beneficial cooperation,” Wang said at an annual news conference on Thursday.

Cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/9777654

The footage, shared by Russian military correspondent Pavel Kukushkin on his Telegram channel, shows two men sitting opposite each other at a table, communicating in Russian and Chinese via a voice electronic translator.

"The Chinese unit in the Pyatnashka brigade is growing. More and more [Chinese] are constantly arriving. Our Chinese brothers have also come to us," a Russian serviceman said in the video published by Kukushkin.

The video comes shortly after India said it was working to bring home some 20 of its citizens who say they were tricked into fighting for Russia on the front lines in Ukraine.

Some Indian citizens recruited by Russia told AFP that they were promised roles that wouldn't involved fighting on the front lines, but when they arrived in Russia, they were trained to use weapons including Kalashnikov assault rifles and deployed to Ukraine.

Critics say the new law effectively curtails protest and undermines Hong Kong's freedoms.

The territory was handed back to China from British control in 1997, but under a unique agreement supposed to protect certain freedoms that people in mainland China do not enjoy - including freedom of speech.

Hong Kong's leader, Carrie Lam, defended the law, saying it filled a "gaping hole" in national security.

Details have been closely guarded and the Beijing-backed politician admitted she had not seen the draft before commenting.

Rights groups say that of all authoritarian governments, China is one of the most aggressive in pursuing dissidents abroad, often by threatening and harassing their relatives back home, and sometimes using sophisticated technology to track critics online.

Two prominent Chinese bloggers in exile said this week that Chinese police were interrogating their hundreds of thousands of followers on X and other international social media platforms, urging fans to unsubscribe from their accounts.

In some cases, however, China’s tactics have emboldened, not cowed, overseas critics of its ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/9755125

The Chinese government, under the pretense of counter-terrorism, has orchestrated a systematic campaign to suppress the Uyghur Muslims in China's Xinjiang, stripping away not just their rights but the very essence of their cultural and familial bonds.

At the epicenter of China’s brutal repression in East Turkistan lies a particularly insidious tactic: the systematic separation of Uyghur children from their families. This abhorrent practice serves as a cornerstone of China’s campaign to erase Uyghur cultural identity and enforce a homogeneous Han Chinese ideology.

In this calculated strategy of cultural genocide, the Chinese state has weaponized education. The Chinese government’s assimilation process starts with detaining parents under above-mentioned arbitrary claims, placing them in detainment camps and leaving children defenseless and vulnerable. Children whose parents are detained, in prison, or undergoing re-education or “training” are classified into a special needs category, making them eligible for state care, which typically means placement in these orphanages or boarding schools.

The Chinese government ramped up the establishment of state-run boarding schools throughout East Turkistan, where Uyghur children are forcibly enrolled whether or not their parents have been taken away. Here they undergo a relentless process of Sinicization. Instruction is almost exclusively in Mandarin, with the Uyghur language and cultural practices being aggressively and outright banned​​​​. The aim is clear and chilling: to mold these young minds into loyal subjects of the state, devoid of their ethnic and cultural roots.

Xinjiang's top Communist Party official said on Thursday that the "Sinicisation" of Islam in the Muslim-majority region in northwestern China, where Beijing is accused of human rights abuses, is "inevitable". "Everyone knows that Islam in Xinjiang needs to be Sinicised, this is an inevitable trend," regional party chief Ma Xingrui told reporters at a largely scripted briefing on the sidelines of China's annual parliamentary sessions in Beijing.

Rights groups accuse Beijing of widespread abuses of Uyghurs, a mainly Muslim ethnic minority that numbers around 10 million in Xinjiang, including denying Uyghurs full religious freedoms. Beijing vigorously denies any abuses.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has repeatedly called for the "Sinicisation" of religions including Islam, Buddhism and Christianity, urging followers to pledge loyalty to the Communist Party above all else. About two-thirds of mosques in Xinjiang have been damaged or destroyed since 2017, according to an Australian think-tank report.

During the news conference, Ma and other regional officials praised Xinjiang's economic development, refuted U.S. allegations of forced labour and cultural genocide, and tried to paint the region as open to foreign tourism and investment.

Ma, a high-flying former governor of prosperous Guangdong province who was transferred to Xinjiang in 2021, stressed the need to "coordinate security and development".

"The three forces are still active now, but we cannot be afraid (to open up) because they exist," said Ma, using a political slogan referring to "ethnic separatism, religious extremism and violent terrorist forces" in Xinjiang.

Beijing in 2017 launched a harsh security crackdown in Xinjiang after a spate of violent ethnic protests, which saw over a million people from several Muslim minorities detained in re-education camps, rights groups allege.

We have carried out a severe crackdown on terrorist activities, promulgated and implemented anti-terrorism laws to ... combat various forms of terrorism," senior Xinjiang parliamentarian Wang Mingshan said.

But the briefing was largely focused on Xinjiang's economic development, tourism potential and what the officials described as cultural preservation.

Last year Xinjiang received 565.7 billion yuan ($78.5 billion) in central government transfers accounting for 72.7% of local government spending, as well as over 19 billion yuan ($2.6 billion) in fiscal aid from other provinces, the region's chairman Erkin Tuniyaz said.

Ma was flanked by two Xinjiang officials sanctioned by the United States over human rights abuses in Xinjiang - Tuniyaz and former regional chairman Shohrat Zakir.

Officials claimed that over 4,390 foreigners visited Xinjiang in 2023, and that last year's newly installed renewable energy capacity totalled 22.61 million kilowatts, bringing the total installed in the region to 64.4 million kilowatts - nearly half of Xinjiang's electricity capacity.

Xinjiang is a major base for solar cell production, which has been tainted by allegations of forced labour.

Taiwan’s recent election result highlights voters’ steadfast determination to resist China’s influence on their politics. Despite all Beijing’s efforts to sway popular support towards its preferred party, the Kuomintang (KMT), the election was won by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate, incumbent vice-president William Lai.

Beijing also reacted angrily to messages of congratulations received by Lai from an array of world leaders including the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the British foreign secretary, David Cameron, who said that the result was “testament to Taiwan’s vibrant democracy”.

"Clearly the Taiwanese people value their democracy and wanted to send their own message to Beijing through the best medium there is: the ballot box," writes Yukteshwar Kumar Course Director at Department of Politics, Languages & International Studies at the University of Bath.

Philippine officials summoned a Chinese Embassy diplomat in Manila to convey a strong protest over the confrontation Tuesday off Second Thomas Shoal. A small Filipino navy contingent has stood guard on a long-marooned warship that has served as an outpost in the shoal since the 1990s.

Philippine navy Commodore Roy Trinidad also said Filipino forces will not allow any structure to be erected in another hotly contested South China Sea area, Scarborough Shoal. China surrounded the vast fishing atoll northwest of the Philippines with coast guard and suspected militia ships in 2012 after a tense standoff between Chinese and Philippine ships.

“These are red lines for the Philippines, to the armed forces,” Trinidad said at a news conference in Manila when asked what Chinese actions would be unacceptable to the Philippines in the disputed waters.

Four US senators have introduced bipartisan legislation that would require the US Department of the Treasury to terminate the US-China Tax Treaty within 30 days after a presidential determination that China has initiated an armed attack against Taiwan.

The senators are Republicans John Cornyn and Bill Cassidy, and Democrats Chris Coons and Catherine Cortez Masto.

“The United States must make it crystal clear the Chinese Communist Party will face dire consequences if it moves to invade Taiwan,” Cornyn said.

Cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/9741490

Linwei Ding, a Chinese national, was arrested in Newark, Calif., on four counts of federal trade secret theft, each punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The case against Ding was being announced at an American Bar Association Conference in San Francisco by Attorney General Merrick Garland, who along with other law enforcement leaders has repeatedly warned about the threat of Chinese economic espionage and about the national security concerns posed by advancements in artificial intelligence.

Cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/9720974

On Saturday, Dutch public broadcaster NOS broadcast a story on the chip industry in Taiwan, reporting that "the country sees it as life insurance against an invasion by rival China" and interviewing former Taiwanese deputy minister of foreign affairs Roy Chun Lee.

China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under control. Taiwan objects to China’s sovereignty claims and says only the island’s people can decide their future.

At least two Beijing-based insurers that farm out annuity investments late last week told their external portfolio managers to closely monitor China Vanke Co's credit risks, the people said.

Vanke, China’s second-biggest developer by sales, has begun a new round of negotiations with several state insurers in the past few days to extend maturities of some private borrowings, the people said.

No deal has been reached.

The Philippines has accused China of obstructing government vessels that were trying to deliver supplies to its fisherman.

Footage supplied by the Philippine coast guard shows two large ships spraying water on a number of smaller vessels.

The incident took place near Scarborough Shoal, a Chinese-controlled reef in the South China Sea.

Chinese state TV said its coast guard had used "control measures in accordance with the law", but Manila described the actions as "illegal and aggressive".

While there is always high probability of harassment from Beijing during Manila’s missions in the West Philippine Sea, this is the first time — under the Marcos’ administration, at least — that Filipinos were hurt.

Embassies from different countries expressed dismay over the incident and called on parties to show respect for international law, with some emphasizing the 2016 Arbitratral Award that invalidated China’s so-called 9-dash-line that included parts of Manila’s waters. The European Union was among the first to issue a statement on China’s “dangerous maneuvers and blocking” on Tuesday morning.

“The EU reiterates the call for all parties to abide by [the] legally binding 2016 Arbitration Award and international law to peacefully resolve disputes, guaranteeing safety in maritime waters,” EU Ambassador to the Philippines Luc Véron said.

Cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/9680168

"It is one thing to see funny deepfakes in Instagram Reels, and it is another to receive a message saying that your face has been reused for propaganda purposes in China," says Olga Loiek.

Another (moderated) video is here (21 min)

U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk on Monday called on China to implement recommendations to amend laws that violate fundamental rights, including in the Xinjiang and Tibet regions.

Rights groups accuse Beijing of widespread abuses of Uyghurs, a mainly Muslim ethnic minority that numbers around 10 million in the western region of Xinjiang, including the mass use of forced labour in camps. Beijing vigorously denies any abuses.

"I also call on the government to implement the recommendations made by my Office and other human rights bodies in relation to laws, policies and practises that violate fundamental rights, including in the Xinjiang and Tibet regions," Turk told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Chinese hacker groups attempted to infiltrate via e-mail specific targets in the government, academia and political circles, who were lured by documents discussing Taiwan-China geopolitical issues that were infected files containing malware, an investigative report by cybersecurity firm Trend Micro said.

The report revealed a series of attacks on Taiwanese targets by the Chinese group Earth Lusca, known to engage in cyberespionage activities, by using a “social engineering” tactic which works by manipulating or deceiving a victim into making security mistakes to gain control of a computer, or to steal personal and financial information.

Jay Tarriela, Philippine coastguard (PCG) spokesperson, said on social media that its vessels had “faced dangerous manoeuvres and blocking” from Chinese coastguard and Chinese maritime militia as they supported a resupply mission to military troops. This led to a collision that caused “minor structural damage to the PCG vessel”, he said in a statement.

Footage of the incident, shared by the Philippines, showed its crew rushing to place a buffer between the two Coast Guard vessels as they collided. Their Chinese counterparts stand filming the incident.

Cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/9648356

The combination of government-led forced labor and broader state repression and surveillance in Xinjiang severely limits access to the region and makes it impossible to safely interview workers, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says.

The NGO's investigators spent months pouring over thousands of webpages to find evidence of companies’ participation in labor transfers, uncovering poducts and materials linked to state-sponsored forced labor. But Chinese internet censorship is making even this research increasingly difficult.

Human Rights Watch also urges European lawmakers to include remediation for victims of forced labor into new regulations.

Philippine foreign minister Enrique Manalo said his country wants to solve maritime disputes with China peacefully — but delivered a simple message to Beijing: “stop harassing us”.

Speaking on the sidelines of an ASEAN-Australia summit in Melbourne, Manalo defended his government’s policy of publicising Chinese manoeuvres in contested maritime territory — including the recent passage of warships near Scarborough Shoal.

“It’s merely trying to inform the people of what’s going on,” Manalo said. “And some countries or one country at least has some difficulty with that.”

“But our simple explanation is if you would stop harassing us and, and perhaps performing other actions, there wouldn’t be any news to report.”

China claims almost the entire South China Sea as its territory, brushing aside claims from a host of Southeast Asian nations.

Scarborough Shoal — a triangular chain of reefs and rocks in the disputed South China Sea — has been a flashpoint between the countries since China seized it from the Philippines in 2012.

Ten years into the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects, the expansion of corporate investments in the global agri-food system has reached new heights. As evidenced by China’s plans in agriculture, fisheries and e-commerce in Africa and Asia, it is hard to find anything “green” or small-scale about the BRI.

China seems to be caught in a vicious cycle: the more its BRI expands with its large-scale agricultural techno-fixes for the profit of a few large Chinese conglomerates, the more dependent it becomes on food imports, increasingly undermining its own food sovereignty.

[Edit typo.]

Cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/9593342

The release earlier this week of hundreds of documents related to the dismissal of two scientists — Dr. Xiangguo Qiu and her husband Keding Cheng — has pulled back the curtain on an explosive national security probe at the Winnipeg, Canada-based National Microbiology Lab, part of the Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Health (CSCHAH).

The investigation — and the fight to make information about the investigation public — took years.

According to Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) documents, the agency's National Security Management Division was advised in September 2018 that Qiu had been listed as the inventor on a Chinese patent that might have contained scientific information produced at the CSCHAH in Winnipeg — and that she shared that data without authority.

Bao Fan, a Chinese tech banker who disappeared a year ago amid Beijing’s anti-corruption crackdown, has formally resigned from the firm he founded, the company said.

China Renaissance announced in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Friday that Bao was stepping down as its chairman and CEO, effectively immediately, for “health reasons and to spend more time on his family affairs.”

“There is no other matter relating to his resignation that needs to be brought to the attention of the shareholders of the Company,” the Hong Kong-listed firm added.

China’s economy is struggling through a sustained slowdown, with real estate developers mired in debt, families fearful of spending and entrepreneurs hesitating to take risks. Joblessness levels among young people have hit record highs.

This is a story of five young Chinese about what it took to find their jobs amid such uncertainty. They described moving home with their parents, exhausting their savings, taking on unpaid internships or working two jobs.

A Chinese music student was convicted on Thursday of U.S. charges that he harassed an activist who posted fliers at the Berklee College of Music in Boston supporting democracy in China and threatened to report her activities to Chinese law enforcement.

A federal jury in Boston found Xiaolei Wu, 25, who sent the activist online messages saying he would chop off her hands and demanding she tear down her "reactionary posters," guilty at the end of a four-day trial.