China

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/33936574

While attention in Central Europe has often centered on Russian propaganda, China has been quietly cultivating its own influence operations through unexpected channels – from Czech radio stations to TikTok influencers and all-expenses-paid trips to China. These efforts reveal a growing sophistication in Beijing’s strategy to shape perceptions abroad, leveraging entertainment, travel, and digital culture to mask deeper political objectives. What appears at first glance to be harmless cultural exchange may, in fact, form part of a broader, state-driven influence campaign with far-reaching implications for public discourse and (social) media integrity in the Czech Republic and beyond.

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Beyond [social media] influencers, China’s covert propaganda has infiltrated traditional Czech media. Between 2019 and 2023, the show “Barevný svět” aired up to six times a week on Radio HEY. While it appeared to be a travel program, analysis by China analyst Ivana Karásková revealed it was produced in partnership with China Radio International (CRI), a state outlet under the Chinese Communist Party’s control. The program portrayed China exclusively in a positive light, referred to Taiwan as “the largest island belonging to China,” and promoted Tibet’s inclusion as a rightful part of the country. The broadcast was discontinued only after Karásková’s findings were published.

Print and television media have not been immune either. After Chinese conglomerate CEFC entered Empresa Media, negative or even neutral reporting on China disappeared from the media group’s major outlets such as Týden and TV Barrandov. In 2019, the Czech daily Právo published an eight-page insert celebrating 70 years of Czech-China relations. Although marked as commercial content in fine print, the pages were authored by Czech journalists – blurring the lines between editorial and advertorial.

TikTok campaigns have also been rolled out in the Czech Republic with increasing subtlety. In late 2022, Czech influencers Dominique Alagia and Lukáš Tůma participated in a sponsored trend featuring a cartoon lion – referencing the Czech national symbol – created by CRI.

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Although not all Czech influencers explicitly disclosed the paid nature of the collaboration, parallel campaigns were launched in Poland and Greece, adapting national symbols to better resonate with local audiences – a young bull (ciołek) in Poland and an owl, a classical symbol of wisdom, in Greece. In both cases, European influencers were contacted to collaborate with TikTok accounts run by Chinese individuals fluent in local languages, who produce content targeted at European audiences. The goal was to boost the engagement of these Chinese influencers operating in Europe.

In Poland, a Chinese woman fluent in Polish, Oliwia Waskocha, coordinated the campaign in November 2022, involving a large number of influencers; collectively, these Polish influencers currently amass nearly 7 million followers on TikTok alone. In Greece, a Chinese woman operating under the handle @mariannalee_ (with 81,400 TikTok followers) spearheaded a comparable campaign, using dance performances featuring an owl to symbolically connect with Greek cultural heritage.

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One of these influencers – Jan Michálek – even travelled to China, a trip fully funded by Chinese entities, which he confirmed in a 2024 podcast. A promotional video published by Pepa Zhang’s official Facebook account shows Michálek enjoying Xinjiang’s landscapes and cultural festivals, portraying a region better known internationally for its human rights controversies as an idyllic travel destination. Both Pepa and Lada are featured singing with their Czech guest, suggesting not just casual exchange but orchestrated cultural diplomacy.

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The term “white monkey,” often used pejoratively in some Asian contexts, refers to Westerners hired to lend prestige to events or promotional content. Though problematic, it may describe the underlying logic of these Chinese-sponsored influencer trips: showcasing foreign admiration to boost China’s image among its own citizens. By omitting political issues, these campaigns present China as modern, friendly, and culturally rich – ideal for soft power projection.

TikTok represents an ideal platform for Chinese state-linked actors to disseminate promotional content. Influencers on the app are not only accustomed to paid collaborations, but they also command the attention of vast, often young, audiences who place a high degree of trust in their recommendations. These creators offer a ready-made channel for subtle messaging that bypasses traditional media scrutiny. Crucially, TikTok remains largely unmonitored by governmental or civil society institutions that might otherwise flag, contextualize, or push back against such content. This vacuum creates fertile ground for influence operations to take root and spread, often unnoticed, in the feeds of millions.

Police in Hong Kong have arrested the father and brother of US-based pro-democracy activist Anna Kwok for allegedly helping with her finances, according to media reports.

It is the first time the relatives of an "absconder" have been charged under the territory's security law, Reuters news agency said.

The authorities accused Ms Kwok, 26, of breaching Hong Kong's national security laws after participating in pro-democracy protests in 2019.

She fled the territory in 2020 and now serves as the Executive Director of the Hong Kong Democracy Council (HKDC), an organisation based in Washington DC.

Police said they had arrested two men aged 35 and 68 on suspicion of handling "funds or other financial assets" belonging to Kwok, Reuters said.

Local media later identified the two men as relatives of Ms Kwok, citing police sources.

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In 2023, Hong Kong placed a bounty on the heads of several pro-democracy activists - including Ms Kwok - who had fled the territory.

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At the time, Ms Kwok said the bounty was aimed at intimidating her and her fellow activists.

"That's exactly the kind of thing the Hong Kong government and the Chinese Communist party would do - which is to intimidate people into not doing anything, silencing them," she told BBC's Newshour at the time.

The former British colony became a special administrative region of China in 1997, when Britain's 99-year lease of the New Territories, north of Hong Kong island, expired.

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cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/2631767

Archived version

The European Union has not signaled any reciprocation as China announces lifting of sanction from several members of the EU Parliament, imposed in 2021 as a response to EU’s sanctions on some Chinese officials, citing human rights violations in Xinjiang.

The lifting of sanctions means that the MEPs will now be able to travel to China. The move is being perceived as a potential kick starter for better relations between China and the European countries.

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The diplomatic battle between China and the European Union peaked in 2021 when EU took the first step, sanctioning Chinese officials. China responded in kind and sanctioned some MEPs. This rift dimmed the chances of signing of a trade and investment deal between China and EU which was finalized at the end of 2020.

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Over the years, China and the EU have maintained difficult ties, in which the EU has consistently criticized China for not fulfilling human rights obligations.

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While Beijing is courting Europe portraying itself as a friend as Trump's tariffs policy threatens its economy, the Chinese propaganda at home shows Chinese troops rehearsing in Moscow for the parade with Russia that invaded Ukraine.

Here is an Invidious link of a footage reportedly captured a Chinese student in Russia (original YT link is here).

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Pohan Wu, a Taiwanese exchange student in Paris, stood behind barricades on Boulevard Saint-Germain, his eyes trained on the road where Chinese President Xi Jinping’s motorcade would soon pass. It was March 26, 2019, and Xi was in the French capital to discuss trade with European leaders.

Armed with a teal cloth sign that read, “I am Taiwanese. I stand for Taiwan’s independence,” Wu planned to protest Beijing’s policy that asserts Taiwan is part of China. He waited patiently until he saw the president’s custom Hongqi, a luxury Chinese car, and unfolded his banner. Within seconds, a French military officer grabbed Wu and stripped him of the sign. In a video he posted online, Wu can be heard shouting “Taiwan independence” in Chinese as the officer attempts to subdue him.

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It was not the only time a policing body outside China’s borders suppressed voices critical of the Chinese Communist Party, according to a new global analysis by ICIJ. During at least seven of Xi’s 31 international trips between 2019 and 2024, local law enforcement infringed on dozens of protesters’ rights in order to shield the Chinese president from dissent, detaining or arresting activists, often for spurious reasons. Across the seven visits, these activists were silenced for reasons including requesting permission to protest, practicing a spiritual movement banned in China or, like Wu, peacefully holding a sign on a city street. Experts characterized the incidents described to ICIJ as police overreach.

The arrests and detentions give a window into how China wields its extensive political and economic power to pressure foreign governments and institutions to bend to its will.

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"It is alarming that fundamental rights like freedom to peacefully protest or freedom of speech is being threatened or sacrificed on the altar of economic gain." — Audrye Wong, an assistant professor at the University of Southern California

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/33717406

Archived

The Chair of the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights, MEP Mounir Satouri, and the Chair of the Delegation for Relations with the People’s Republic of China, MEP Engin Eroglu, have jointly addressed a letter to the Chinese Ambassador to the European Union concerning the suspicious death of prominent Tibetan Buddhist leader, Tulku Hungkar Dorje. In parallel, the Chair of the Subcommittee on Human Rights has sent a separate letter to the Vietnamese Ambassador to the EU, reflecting similar concerns.

Both letters express grave concern and alarm over the unexplained circumstances of Tulku Hungkar Dorje’s death and the subsequent cremation of his body in Vietnam without the consent of his family.

The Chairs call on both Chinese and Vietnamese authorities to ensure a transparent, independent, and impartial investigation to determine the circumstances of Tulku Hungkar Dorje’s disappearance and the cause of his passing.

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With a population of 1.4 billion, China has, in theory, a huge domestic market. But there's a problem. They don't appear willing to spend money while the country's economic outlook is uncertain.

This has not been prompted by the trade war – but by the collapse of the housing market. Many Chinese families invested their life savings in their homes, only to watch prices plummet in the last five years.

Housing developers continued to build even as the property market crumbled. It's thought that China's entire population would not fill all the empty apartments across the country.

The former deputy head of China's statistics bureau, He Keng, admitted two years ago that the most "extreme estimate" is that there are now enough vacant homes for 3 billion people.

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And it's not just house prices that worry middle-class Chinese families.

They are concerned about whether the government can offer them a pension – over the next decade, about 300 million people, who are currently aged 50 to 60, are set to leave the Chinese workforce. According to a 2019 estimate by the state-run Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the government pension fund could run out of money by 2035.

There are also fears about whether their sons, daughters and grandchildren can get a job as millions of college graduates are struggling to find work. More than one in five people between the ages of 16 and 24 in urban areas are jobless in China, according to official data published in August 2023. The government has not released youth unemployment figures since then.

The problem is that China cannot simply flip a switch and move from selling goods to the US to selling them to local buyers.

"Given the downward pressure on the economy, it is unlikely domestic spending can be significantly expanded in the short term," says Prof Nie Huihua at Renmin University.

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Xi is also aware that China has a disheartened younger generation worried about their future. That could spell bigger trouble for the Communist Party: protests or unrest.

A report by Freedom House's China Dissent Monitor claims that protests driven by financial grievances saw a steep increase in the last few months.

All protests are quickly subdued and censored on social media, so it is unlikely to pose a real threat to Xi for now.

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China will have to tread carefully. Some countries will be nervous that products being manufactured for the US could end up flooding into their markets.

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There are barriers to Xi presenting himself as the arbiter of free trade in the world.

China has subjected other nations to trade restrictions in recent years.

In 2020, after the Australian government called for a global inquiry into the origins and early handling of the Covid pandemic, which Beijing argued was a political manoeuvre against them, China placed tariffs on Australian wine and barley and imposed biosecurity measures on some beef and timber and bans on coal, cotton and lobster. Some Australian exports of certain goods to China fell to nearly zero.

Australia's Defence Minister Richard Marles said earlier this month that his nation will not be "holding China's hand" as Washington escalated its trade war with Beijing.

China's past actions may impede Xi's current global outreach and many countries may be unwilling to choose between Beijing and Washington.

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This trade war has China looking in the mirror to see its own flaws – and whether it can fix them will be up to policies made in Beijing, not Washington.

Podcast episode associated with this op-ed available on Ezra Klein Show feed or here.

Archived

On a chilly afternoon in the spring of 2021, while awaiting an extradition hearing in Bordeaux, France, Businessman H. received an unexpected call from an old friend and business partner.

Jack Ma was on the line.

H. was surprised to hear from Ma, the tech titan and one of China’s richest men, according to a transcript of the call.

Ma said he was calling at the behest of Chinese authorities, who were seeking H.’s immediate return to China.

“Did they approach you?” H. asked.

“Mmh,” Ma acknowledged. “They said I’m the only one who can persuade you to return.”

A few weeks earlier, H. had been arrested by French authorities on the basis of a red notice, an alert circulated among police forces worldwide by Interpol, the international police organization that critics say is often misused by authoritarian regimes.

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Despite attempts at reforming Interpol, the organization’s secretive processes and reluctance to hold system abusers publicly accountable remain a boon for authoritarian regimes. China does not appear to be among countries currently subject to Interpol corrective measures for alleged misuse of the organization’s system, ICIJ [International Consortium of Investigative Journalists] and its Slovenian media partner Oštro found.

The findings are part of ICIJ’s China Targets investigation, a collaboration of 43 media partners in 30 countries that exposes the mechanics of the Chinese government’s global repression campaign against its perceived enemies and the governments and international organizations that allow it. The investigation found that China’s misuse of Interpol is part of a well-organized effort to silence and coerce anyone that the Chinese Communist Party deems as a threat to its rule, including those no longer on Chinese soil. Chinese authorities also use surveillance, hacking, financial asset seizure and intimidation of targets’ relatives in China and other measures to neutralize regime critics beyond its borders.

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Ted Bromund, a strategic studies specialist and expert witness in legal cases involving Interpol procedures, says Interpol has become central to China’s campaign of transnational repression, a vital “tool” to put pressure on targets abroad. In particular, China uses red notices “like a pin through a butterfly,” he said. “It holds someone down, locks them in place so they can’t get away.”

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/33585218

Archived

Nuria Zyden came to Ireland in 2009, became a naturalised Irish citizen and has three children who were born in the Republic.

A Uyghur, she grew up in Xinjiang, a majority Muslim province where locals are regarded with extreme suspicion by the Chinese Government.

“As a Uyghur person, growing up we were seen as politically disloyal and culturally disadvantaged,” Ms Zyden told Newstalk Breakfast.

“The State media frequently portrayed Uyghurs as extremists and discrimination in jobs and education left us with limited opportunities.

“After 9/11, the Chinese Government rebranded its repressions as a war on terror, using it as a pretext to expand mass surveillance.”

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Determined to keep her culture alive and speak out against Beijing’s oppression of her people, she helped found the Irish Uyghur Culture Association in 2014.

Like many Uyghurs living outside of China, she soon found that her advocacy had not gone unnoticed by Chinese officials.

“My activism has become a target [with] phone calls from the Chinese Government and all different types of harassment,” she said.

Most disturbingly, she feels they are blackmailing her elderly mother.

“My gentle, 74-year-old mother told me to not come home,” Ms Zyden said.

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“I don’t know what is really happening to her but I guess she has been questioned and probably she was in detention.

“I’m not really sure; she begged me, do not forget about the Chinese Communist Party raising us and wherever we go, we should appreciate [them].”

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Archived

Children’s toys sold on major Chinese e-commerce platforms contain toxic substances at levels far exceeding safety standards, South Korea says

The Seoul Metropolitan Government officials said they tested 25 toys purchased from global platforms including Temu, Shein, and AliExpress. Four products failed to meet domestic safety regulations, with one “keyring doll” found to contain phthalate plasticizer (DEHP) at concentrations up to 278 times the permitted limit in its face, hands, and feet.

DEHP, or di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, is classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as a potential human carcinogen. It is also known to disrupt endocrine function and has been linked to reproductive harm.

Other items flagged in the inspection included modeling clay that contained CMIT (chloromethylisothiazolinone) and MIT (methylisothiazolinone), chemical preservatives banned in humidifier disinfectants in South Korea after being implicated in a public health crisis. Exposure to these substances at elevated levels can cause severe irritation to the skin, eyes, and respiratory system.

In addition to chemical hazards, two educational toys failed physical safety assessments.

One toy, designed in the shape of a weighing scale, had dangerously sharp base plates that posed puncture risks. Another toy — a sorting game involving clips and fabric balls — lacked proper safety labeling and was found to develop sharp edges when damaged.

In response, Seoul officials have formally requested that the e-commerce platforms remove the non-compliant products from sale. Authorities also issued a public advisory urging caution when purchasing children's products via international direct-to-consumer websites.

The city government said it would expand the scope of its inspection in May to include children’s textile items, anticipating a surge in seasonal demand ahead of Children's Day on May 5.

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*Key Findings *

• In March 2025, senior members of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) living in exile were targeted with a spearphishing campaign aimed at delivering Windows-based malware capable of conducting remote surveillance against its targets.
• The malware was delivered through a trojanized version of a legitimate open source word processing and spell check tool developed to support the use of the Uyghur language. The tool was originally built by a developer known and trusted by the targeted community.
• Although the malware itself was not particularly advanced, the delivery of the malware was extremely well customized to reach the target population and technical artifacts show that activity related to this campaign began in at least May of 2024.
• The ruse employed by the attackers replicates a typical pattern: threat actors likely aligned with the Chinese government have repeatedly instrumentalized software and websites that aim to support marginalized and repressed cultures to digitally target these same communities.
• This campaign shows the ongoing threats of digital transnational repression facing the Uyghur diaspora. Digital transnational repression arises when governments use digital technologies to surveil, intimidate, and silence exiled and diaspora communities.

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The Uyghur diaspora, alongside Tibetans and, more recently, exiles from Hong Kong, is one of China’s primary targets for transnational repression. In their homeland, the Xinjiang region in northwestern China (which most Uyghurs prefer to call by its historical name East Turkestan), Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities are forced to live under a high-tech police state, built on a sweeping system of mass surveillance, mobility controls, and internment camps, as well as a comprehensive control over their cultural and religious life. Chinese authorities follow individuals even outside China, targeting Uyghurs living in exile or in the diaspora with tactics ranging from physical attacks and extradition requests to digital threats and surveillance. China’s extensive campaign of transnational repression targets Uyghurs both on the basis of their ethnic identity and activities. Diaspora members who engage in human rights advocacy and raise international awareness on China’s suppression of their culture and community draw particular attention from Chinese authorities.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/33521285

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TDs in Ireland [a member of the Dáil Éireann -the Lower House of the Houses of the Oireachtas elected by the people of Ireland- is commonly referred to as a Teachta Dála (TD) or Deputy] increasingly regard China as an “international security issue” amid complaints about the bullying and intimidation of Irish residents, a journalist has said.

The Chinese State has long taken a different attitude to free speech to Ireland’s and individuals who criticise Beijing can face harsh consequences.

On The Pat Kenny Show, Irish Times journalist Colm Keena told the story of Nuria Zyden - a woman from China’s Uyghur minority.

“She came to Ireland in 2009, is a naturalised Irish citizen, has three Irish born children living here,” he said.

“She gets phone calls from the police in Xinjiang because they’re not happy with her Uyghur activities here [in Ireland] on behalf of the Uyghur community.”

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“[They would] ring people and [tell them], ‘I want you to come back to China to face charges,’” he said.

“Then, if you weren’t inclined to do that, then something bad might happen to family members back in China.”

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A report by a human rights group Safeguard Defenders concluded that sometimes such tactics work, with at least one Chinese person returning from Ireland to China to face charges.

“They published a new report last year, the same NGO, and they looked at the history of this activity,” Mr Keena said.

“One of the reports that was in it is a news report from China about a fella in Ireland from Fujian living in Dublin who was wanted by police back in Fujian.

“He got 19 telephone calls from police in Fujian saying, ‘We’ve been visiting your family.’

“He eventually agreed to return to China to face charges and it was all sub-diplomatic, not done through Interpol or anything like that.

“It was reported in Chinese media because, I suppose, the Chinese authorities want people to know this is happening.”

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A sizable number of Ireland’s Chinese diaspora come from Fujian province and the local police force has even set up a centre on Dublin’s Capel Street to keep an eye on them.

“It was created in, I suppose you could say, in a sub-diplomatic kind of way,” Mr Keena said.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/33482669

Archived

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Working with the anti-racism group Hope Not Hate, the Guardian found more than 150 posts from 29 accounts on three days in August 2024 that sought to draw the attention of anti-immigrant groups and the far right to [exiled dissident Finn] Lau and other Hong Kong exiles. Cybersecurity experts who have reviewed the posts say they exhibited some similarities to a major online influence operation that a Chinese security agency is suspected of orchestrating.

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Lau and his fellow activists have been called traitors, with bounties on their heads that are three times what the authorities offer for murderers. Relatives back home have been arrested and intimidated. As he read the posts, Lau suspected a chilling new tactic: an attempt to harness far-right violence.

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Posts on X inciting attacks on Lau and others were directed at far-right figures, including Tommy Robinson. “They’re even supporting the Muslim minorities too!” read one post denouncing Hongkongers, sent to the Reform UK MP Richard Tice. It gave the date and location of a planned gathering of Hongkongers a few days later. Posts on Telegram appeared in the channels of the leaders of the white nationalist group Patriotic Alternative.

Online incitement appears to represent a novel weapon in the arsenal that projects Beijing’s power. Lau is one of the opponents of the regime – Hongkongers as well as Tibetans, Uyghurs, Taiwanese and campaigners for democracy – subjected to what the US-based advocacy group Freedom House calls “the most sophisticated, global and comprehensive campaign of transnational repression in the world”. [...]

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While condemning routine operations by regional states, China itself routinely engages in more alarming maritime provocations. On April 19, 2025, Taiwan was on high alert after the Gulangyu, a cruise vessel operated by Chinese entities but registered in Bermuda, came dangerously close—just two nautical miles—to Taiwan’s Hengchun Peninsula. Notably, the vessel, capable of carrying approximately 1,800 passengers—a force equivalent to a military battalion—broadcasted provocative messages on social media platforms reading, “Taiwan is China.”

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China’s strategy of aggressive maritime coercion wrapped in diplomatic accusations against others risks undermining regional stability. The hypocrisy inherent in Beijing’s tactics—highlighted starkly by these simultaneous incidents—exposes the underlying agenda of asserting unilateral control over the contested Indo-Pacific waters, reinforcing the urgency for regional and global action to maintain maritime peace and order.

China has approved the construction of ten new nuclear reactors, making 2025 the fourth consecutive year that it has endorsed the construction of at least that number, as reported by Bloomberg.

China has 30 reactors under construction – almost half of the total worldwide.

By 2030, China is expected to overtake the US as the world’s largest producer of nuclear energy.

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Archived

Nations Office at Geneva were meant to embody the 20th-century ideal of a postwar world — when countries might seek to avert conflict through diplomacy. During the thousands of meetings held at the Palais des Nations each year, delegates press openly and passionately for their convictions. And yet for 15 human rights activists in March 2024, the U.N. complex held risks.

Fearing retribution from the Chinese government against their families in mainland China and Hong Kong, several of the activists were no longer willing to set foot inside the diplomatic site. Instead, they gathered for a secret meeting on the top floor of a nondescript office building nearby. They were there to discuss human rights abuses in China and Hong Kong with the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk.

“We took all of the necessary precautions,” Zumretay Arkin, vice president of the World Uyghur Congress, which advocates for the rights of the Turkic ethnic group native to China’s northwest Xinjiang region, told the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

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One of the women announced that she and the group, who claimed to be from the “Guangdong Human Rights Association,” had arrived for a meeting, though they weren’t invited. She pressed for information as her associates peered through the glass, but the staffer denied a meeting was taking place. “I just disengaged from the conversation, and they left,” the staffer told ICIJ. (ISHR says it submitted a statement to U.N. authorities a week later, and also reported the incident to Swiss authorities.)

Then two Uyghur activists left the office for a smoke. They later reported that a figure in the back of a black Mercedes-Benz van with tinted windows appeared to photograph them. People matching the description of the Guangdong group entered the same vehicle before it pulled away.

“This was an act clearly aimed at intimidating and clearly aimed at sending a message to everyone that was here,” said Raphaël Viana David, a program manager at ISHR. Arkin told ICIJ she believes the Guangdong group was sending a signal from the Chinese government: “We’re watching you. We’re monitoring you. You can’t escape us.”

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ICIJ [International Consortium of Investigatvie Journalists} and its partners spoke to 15 activists and lawyers focused on human rights in China who described being surveilled or harassed by people suspected to be proxies for the Chinese government, including those from Chinese nongovernmental organizations. These incidents occurred both inside the Palais des Nations and in Geneva at large. Some activists say their family members, who they believed were pressured by Chinese authorities, asked them to stop speaking out or warned them of the dangers of their activism. U.N. authorities have also reported activists and lawyers being threatened with physical assault, rape and death.

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Thousands of NGOs at the U.N. hold consultative status, granting them certain privileges with the expectation that they act free from government interference. But an ICIJ analysis of 106 of these NGOs from mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan reveals that 59 are closely connected to the Chinese government or the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Forty-six are led by people with roles in the government or the party. Ten accept more than 50% of their funding from the Chinese state.

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The Chinese government stands alone in the seriousness of the threat it poses to the global human rights system, according to Kenneth Roth, who ran Human Rights Watch for nearly 30 years. “To deter condemnation of its severe repression, foremost its mass detention of Uyghurs, Beijing has proposed to rewrite international human rights law,” he told ICIJ.

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China has used its clout to garner praise from other U.N. member states. It has also restricted independent experts’ access to the country and stopped internal critics from leaving. And when exiled critics come to Geneva, China’s representatives try to block and intimidate them.

“The U.N. is one of the only forums where we can raise our cause,” said Arkin, who at 10 moved with her family to Montreal from Urumqi, the capital of China’s Xinjiang region, to escape anti-Uyghur discrimination. But, she said, “it’s become one of the places where these governments carry out their repression.”

With autocracy on the rise globally, independent organizations at the U.N. carry a heavier burden to speak out about atrocities and persuade those who can to take action. If China’s power continues to go unchecked by U.N. authorities, it threatens the credibility of the institution in its efforts to monitor and document violations and abuses not just in China, but all over the world.

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A ‘deadly reprisal’

More than a decade before the activists’ meeting at the International Service for Human Rights, Cao Shunli, a prominent Chinese human rights activist, was abducted while traveling to the same offices.

Cao had pressed the government to let citizens contribute to a report Beijing was submitting to the Human Rights Council ahead of its 2013 review on China. That summer she staged a two-month-long sit-in outside the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Beijing. She had already been detained several times for her activism.

In September, Cao, 52, tried to board a flight from Beijing Capital International Airport to Geneva, where she planned to attend a training program on U.N. human rights advocacy. Instead, she disappeared. (Several other activists and lawyers from other Chinese cities were reportedly interrogated and warned not to attend the same training program, U.N. authorities said.)

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Creating an army of GONGOs

“GONGO” is a term for government-organized nongovernmental organizations — groups that are expected to be independent but, instead, hold close ties to governments or political parties. Connections can be through funding or staffing, or reflected in public statements.

Chinese diplomats routinely implore U.N. authorities to bar China’s critics. Letters provided to ICIJ by Emma Reilly, a former U.N. human rights officer, show persistent lobbying of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to refuse Tibetans and Uyghurs accreditation to the Human Rights Council, labeling them “secessionists.” As early as 2001, the Chinese ambassador requested the then high commissioner to “avoid meeting with any member of organizations against the Chinese government, such as Falun Gong, Tibetan and the so-called exiled dissidents, just as you did in the last few years.”

Since Xi’s reelection as Communist Party general secretary in 2017 and president the following year, China has sought greater influence within the U.N. human rights system and become more aggressive in silencing dissent.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/33309810

Archived

[Analysis by Nomura, a financial services group.]

• Some USD560 bn of China’s annual exports may need to find new markets, which can be disruptive to economies
• 45 countries that experienced large increases in their shares of imports from China are generally the ones that experienced the sharpest slowdowns in manufacturing growth and where evidence of disinflation was strongest
• This year, with a US-China trade war raging, the results illuminate just how exposed economies are to the flood of China imports turning into a deluge

With the US-China trade war in full force, many emerging economies, particularly those in Asia, are exposed to the flood of inexpensive Chinese imports turning into a deluge.

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Statistics suggest that China’s highly competitive manufacturers, far from retreating, have penetrated new markets around the globe to make up for lost orders in the US. Local manufacturers in countries outside the US – from EVs in Germany and steel in Brazil to toys in Vietnam and electronics in India – have been facing increasing competition from goods imported from China.

Over 2017-24, China’s exports to the US grew by a cumulative 21% to US$524 billion, whereas China’s exports to the rest of the world grew three times as fast, by 67% to US$1.2 trillion. We estimate some US$100 billion of this was then re-exported to the US via Mexico and ASEAN, as a way for companies in China to circumvent US tariffs.

Against this backdrop, and using 2024 data, if we assume that all of China’s indirect exports to the US via Mexico and ASEAN (US$100 billion), half of China’s direct exports to the US (US$262 billion) and a smaller, one-quarter of China’s total exports to the EU, UK, Canada and Japan (US$198 billion) are at risk, then in aggregate some US$560 billion of China’s annual exports would need to find new markets.

A sudden flood of Chinese imports into emerging market economies can be very disruptive. Faced with growing cut-throat import competition, the likely initial response by local firms would be to cut prices to maintain market share, but at the cost of reduced profits. This can be good news for consumers but over time, as local firms accumulate financial losses, they would need to downsize, cut back on jobs and capex, and ultimately many may need to close down.

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Going forward, these economies might become more vulnerable to cut-throat competition from China. The drum beat of anecdotes of this China shock is growing louder.

Archived

China Mobilizes Museums for Propaganda: Museum directors are told they should focus on documenting that “border regions” such as Tibet and Xinjiang were always Chinese

Now, museums are also mobilized for Chinese propaganda. The [Chinese Communist Party] CCP’s primary interest is telling what Xi Jinping calls the “China story” and emphasizing that “border regions” such as Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, or Tibet were “always part of China.”

Pan Yue, director of the National Ethnic Affairs Commission, presided in Beijing on April 16 at the First National Training Session for Museum Directors. Museums, he said, should counter “incorrect historical interpretations,” including those that “attempt to position the Central Plains against border regions, the Han against non-Han groups, and Han culture against those of ethnic minorities.”

Each cultural artifact and historical account should be framed within “the overall development of the Chinese nation,” according to Pan, who emphasized that the country’s representation should be “diverse yet unified.” Pan also mentioned Xi Jinping’s thought on archeology, highlighting the alleged ancestral unity of Chinese culture within the present borders of the People’s Republic. Xi also believes that the earliest Chinese populations practiced a form of communism.

The training session was especially focused on Tibet and Xinjiang, which museums should (falsely) present as part of China from ancient times.

Pan visited Xinjiang in 2024, lecturing on Western and Uyghur critics’ “ignorance of history” and insisting that “a large amount of archaeological evidence tells us that Xinjiang has been an important part of the Chinese cultural sphere since ancient times.”

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/33304290

• Three European funding groups say no new funding with Chinese agency since 2021
• Funders concerned about risks from China's Data Security Law
• U.S., Britain also concerned about way law could affect collaboration
• Funding suspension could hamper research into global health issues

Several of Europe’s biggest funders of scientific collaboration with China, in fields such as viruses and air quality, have put bilateral research programmes on hold due to concerns over Chinese data protection laws, funding agencies said.

The suspension, which Reuters is reporting for the first time following queries to the agencies on funding, highlights the widening impact of a Chinese data protection law that has already impeded some business projects, as international institutions and companies assess how to navigate the regulations.

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While many countries require various protections and privacy safeguards for research involving their citizens, one of China’s most recent laws – known as the Data Security Law – makes it illegal to share any "important data" with overseas partners without approval.

Three European funding agencies - the German Research Foundation, Swedish Research Council and Swiss National Science Foundation - told Reuters that they had not offered new co-funding for projects with the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) since 2021, the year the law took effect.

They said they would not jointly fund new research projects with the NSFC due to concerns over access to data, potential conflict with local data law, or legal liabilities for themselves or research institutes for breaches of the law's vaguely-defined provisions.

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"It is not clear what the definition of 'important data' is," the Swiss National Science Foundation told Reuters. "It is therefore difficult for the Swiss research community to assess when and under what circumstances a research collaboration could be subject to sanctions or even penalties."

China had defined "important data" as data that poses a threat to national and economic interests or affects the rights of individuals or organisations, and has not provided further details.

A dataset classified as "important data" means "it will be extremely difficult (if not virtually impossible) to export these data from China to another country," the German Research Foundation [said].

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The suspension could potentially delay research in the health sector - one area of joint collaboration funders had previously supported - at the same time as the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump moves to freeze billions of dollars in U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding, cut 1,200 of that agency's staff and withdraw from the World Health Organization.

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"The concerns about how the data laws are being applied exist, and are very real," said Jan Palmowski, secretary-general of the Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities.

"We saw that responding to the COVID pandemic effectively required global sharing of data on a massive scale; but we have also seen national sensitivities around data relating to the origin of COVID," Palmowski added. "If we want to be agile in responding to future pandemics and address other key health challenges, we need to find ways to share data responsibly, safely, and according to common ethical rules."

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/33294557

Archived

In February 2025, a London neighborhood council and the London Metropolitan Police withdrew their opposition to the Chinese government’s plans to construct a huge “super embassy” on the grounds of the old Royal Mint, only days after thousands of people had participated in a protest against the project. Embassies and consulates are meant to provide useful services to citizens from the home country and promote comity and understanding between nations. However, the London authorities’ about-face in favor of construction of the 5.5-acre Chinese facility has sparked fears among United Kingdom residents from China—some of whom are the targets of bounties imposed by Beijing—that it could be used to enable acts of transnational repression. Their worries are not unfounded, especially considering the involvement of Chinese consul-general Zheng Xiyuan in the beating of a protester at the Manchester consulate in 2022. [...]

The Chinese government is just one of many authoritarian regimes that have employed diplomatic staff at embassies and consulates to spy on diaspora communities, threaten and harm exiled dissidents, and selectively deny them access to crucial services.

Watchful eyes

It is unsurprising that governments known for repressing citizens at home would use their diplomatic outposts to engage in similar efforts to silence dissent abroad, in contravention of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. One common transnational repression tactic made possible by these missions is the close monitoring of opposition movements. Throughout 2011, for example, Syrian and Libyan embassy officials tracked the participation of Syrian and Libyan nationals at Arab Spring rallies in the United States and Britain. They later shared this intelligence with officials back home, who put pressure on family members of the diaspora residents to rein in their activism overseas.

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Physical attacks and abductions

Diplomats and their associates may go beyond surveillance and interference, engaging in plots to physically harm or forcibly repatriate dissidents living abroad. The grisly murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018 is arguably the most infamous example of this practice.

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Access denied

In addition to carrying out espionage and physical intimidation, embassy and consulate staff representing authoritarian regimes often withhold access to key services and documents. As Freedom House has previously reported, the governments of at least 12 countries have denied consular services to their nationals abroad for political reasons. The diplomatic missions in question arbitrarily refuse to extend passports, certify birth or marriage certificates, or provide identity documents, leaving people trapped in limbo.

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While acknowledging the legitimate role played by embassies and consulates in assisting their nationals and strengthening relationships between governments, the authorities in host countries must make it clear that transnational repression is not a diplomatic privilege.

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Canada and the Netherlands have expelled Eritrean diplomats for imposing the diaspora tax on local Eritreans. Similarly, in 2024, the Canadian government banished six Indian diplomats for collecting information on alleged Sikh separatists in Canada.

As the British government nears a decision on the Chinese “super embassy” this summer, it should uphold its obligation to prioritize the safety and human rights of diaspora members and send a clear signal that no embassy in the United Kingdom will be allowed to serve as a hub for transnational repression.

In a case that has drawn international attention, renowned Chinese human rights lawyer Lu Siwei was sentenced to 11 months in prison following a closed tribunal in Chengdu, Sichuan province. Lu, charged with 'illegally crossing the border,' was initially detained in Laos while attempting to join his family in the United States, despite having legal travel documents.

Lu, a prominent figure known for defending clients in politically sensitive cases, has faced relentless state scrutiny. Despite securing temporary release in 2023 after being extradited back to China, he was re-arrested in 2024 as authorities pursued border-crossing allegations. His ongoing legal battles have spotlighted Beijing's expanded reach in transnational repression, igniting calls for international human rights advocacy.

During his recent trial, which barred public access, Lu's defense argued for a reduced sentence based on time served, including his Lao detention. The appeal was dismissed, and he was fined 10,000 yuan. Lu's imprisonment, estimated to extend until mid-2024, signals increasing crackdowns on dissenters against the backdrop of closed legal proceedings and intimidation of supporters.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/33238850

BASF said in a statement it had completed the sale of its shares in Markor Chemical Manufacturing and Markor Meiou Chemical to the Singaporean group Verde Chemical.

The German group gave no financial details of the transaction, which was completed on Monday "following approval by the relevant authorities".

BASF had said in February 2024 it would accelerate its divestment from the joint ventures which manufacture the industrial chemical butanediol.

Plans to sell the shares had already been announced by BASF in 2023 in response to commercial and environmental concerns.

German public broadcaster ZDF and news magazine Der Spiegel had reported that staff of BASF's partner firm Markor were involved in rights abuses against members of the mostly Muslim Uyghur minority.

Employees were alleged to have spied on Uyghur families and filed reports with Chinese authorities.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/33196889

Archived

Kyiv has presented Beijing with evidence that Chinese citizens and companies have participated in Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, the Foreign Ministry reported on April 22.

The report comes less than a week after President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that China is supplying weapons to the Russian military.

"I think we will be able to say in detail next week that we believe that Chinese representatives are engaged in the production of some weapons on the territory of Russia," Zelensky said on April 17.

During a meeting with Chinese Ambassador to Ukraine Ma Shengkun, Deputy Foreign Minister Yevgen Perebyinis shared evidence that Chinese citizens and companies are involved in the war in Ukraine.

The ministry cited the participation of Chinese nationals in combat in Ukraine alongside Russian troops and Chinese businesses' role in producing military equipment for Russia.

These matters "are of serious concern and contradict the spirit of partnership between Ukraine and the People's Republic of China," the ministry said.

Ukrainian special services shared evidence of allegations with the Chinese, the Foreign Ministry reported.

Perebyinis also called for China to "take measures to stop supporting Russia" in its aggression against Ukraine, and assured that Ukraine "values ​​its strategic partnership with China and expects that China will refrain from taking steps that could hinder bilateral relations."

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Although China has officially claimed neutrality with regard to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Beijing has deepened economic ties with Moscow, supported Russia against Western sanctions, and emerged as a top supplier of dual-use goods that feed the Russian defense sector.

Earlier this month, Ukraine captured two Chinese citizens fighting for Russia in Donetsk Oblast. President Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed that "several hundred" Chinese nationals are fighting on Russia's side in the war.

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