World News

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/39921932

Archived

At a time when authoritarian governments are assaulting international human rights law as never before, Argentina’s highest criminal court has taken an extraordinarily positive step. On June 18, the Federal Court of Criminal Cassation held that a case brought by Uyghurs against Chinese government officials for alleged crimes against humanity and genocide should proceed. While there are many challenges ahead, the court’s decision offers a critical source of hope to the victims and survivors who are seeking justice for Beijing’s ongoing atrocities in Xinjiang.

It also refocuses the world’s attention on the Uyghur genocide, an issue often overshadowed by media coverage of atrocities and war crimes in other parts of the world, and enhances the prospect of legal accountability for responsible Chinese officials.

The Uyghurs — 12 million people of Turkic descent who have been reduced to a minority population in their own homeland, now in northwestern China — have long been a target of the Chinese government’s systematic discrimination and repression. [...] detaining hundreds of thousands of people across the region, subjecting them to political indoctrination, torture, cultural persecution, and other forms of gender-related violence against women and girls. Contact with family members in the region and outside the country ceased as Uyghurs were disappeared into the shadows of what Beijing called “vocational training and education centers,” but which were widely recognized as concentration camps.

Beijing also stepped up its transnational repression against Uyghur activists outside China. In recent years, Beijing’s tactics have shifted, partly to create a veneer of legality to rebut international criticism, but remain no less abusive: it now instills region-wide fear through sham prosecutions in a legal system that serves as an instrument of Party power. To date, there have been few reports of releases from arbitrary detention facilities, leaving many victims forcibly disappeared. Such rights violations and State violence echo those committed by Argentina’s military dictatorship.

[...]

The [Argentina] Cassation Court’s latest judgment, which remanded the case to the original court, now allows a criminal investigation to go forward. Victims will finally have their voices heard in the Argentine courts. While these proceedings may take years to complete, they revive the Uyghur case, allowing victims to gather further evidence, especially concerning responsible Chinese officials who are traveling abroad. At the prosecutor’s request, the Federal Criminal Court of Buenos Aires could also issue an international arrest warrant for responsible Chinese officials, including senior leaders, similar to those issued in February for 25 Myanmar officials, including the former pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in a case brought by a Rohingya advocacy group.

Additionally, the Argentine courts could issue an Interpol Red Notice — a mechanism Beijing has frequently exploited to persecute dissidents. Unlike China’s misuse, Argentina’s Red Notice would legitimately serve its intended purpose by facilitating international cooperation to apprehend individuals genuinely implicated in serious crimes such as genocide and crimes against humanity. Lastly, the Rohingya case has demonstrated that accountability has a ripple effect — Argentina’s bold judicial action could prompt parallel developments at the International Criminal Court (ICC), potentially prompting the ICC to address fresh evidence of genocide that emerges as the Argentina case proceeds.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/39872428

A Chinese national accused of covertly collecting information about a Canberra Buddhist association on behalf of a foreign principal has been charged by the AFP under the Counter Foreign Interference Taskforce (CFITF).

The woman appeared in ACT Magistrates Court today (4 August, 2025), to face one count of reckless foreign interference, contrary to section 92.3 of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth), which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years’ imprisonment.

The AFP arrested and charged the woman on Saturday (2 August, 2025), after executing search warrants at homes in Canberra.

During the searches, a number of items, including electronic devices, were seized and will undergo forensic examination.

[...]

It is the third time a foreign interference offence has been laid in Australia since new laws were introduced by the Commonwealth in 2018, and the first time relating to alleged community interference. A Victorian man was charged in November 2020, while a NSW man was charged in April 2023.

[...]

“Foreign interference is a serious crime that undermines democracy and social cohesion,” [AFP Counter Terrorism and Special Investigations Assistant Commissioner Stephen] Nutt said.

“As with other like-minded countries, Australia is not immune to foreign interference, and we should not expect that this arrest will prevent further attempts to target our diaspora communities.

“At a time of permanent regional contest, offenders will attempt to spy on individuals, groups and institutions in Australia.

[...]

ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess said he was proud of the significant contribution ASIO has made to this matter.

“Foreign interference of the kind alleged is an appalling assault on Australian values, freedoms and sovereignty,” Director-General Burgess said.

“In this year’s Annual Threat Assessment, I called out these types of activities and put perpetrators on notice by stating, ‘we are watching, and we have zero tolerance’.

“Anyone who thinks it is acceptable to monitor, intimidate and potentially repatriate members of our diaspora communities should never underestimate our capabilities and resolve.”

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/39860999

Indian Oil Corp has bought 7 million barrels of crude from the United States, Canada and the Middle East, four trade sources said on Monday, as U.S. President Donald Trump ramped up his criticism of the country over its purchases of Russian oil.

India is the biggest buyer of seaborne crude from Russia, which is under Western-led sanctions over its war in Ukraine.

[...]

India imported about 1.75 million barrels per day of Russian oil from January to June this year, up 1% from a year ago, according to data provided to Reuters by trade sources.

IOC, India's largest refiner, bought crude via a tender from the United States, Canada and the Middle East for September arrival, the trade sources said on Monday. They declined to be named because they were not authorised to speak to the media.

The refiner bought 4.5 million barrels of U.S. crude, 500,000 barrels of Western Canadian Select (WCS) and two million barrels of Das oil produced in Abu Dhabi, the sources said.

The higher-than-normal purchases are partly to replace Russian barrels, two of the sources said.

[...]

[Edit typo.]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/39574589

Archived

Russian state-run media outlet RIA Novosti on July 30 published a column titled "There is no other option: no one should be left alive in Ukraine."

In the piece, columnist Kirill Strelnikov describes Ukrainians as "happy with their fate" and claims they are "ready to die" for what he derisively calls "the best army in the world."

The article refers to Ukrainian soldiers as "laboratory rats," denies their humanity, and includes a grotesque comment about "no need for lacy underwear for the dead."

Strelnikov repeats Kremlin propaganda lines, including the claim that Ukraine is a "military training ground" for the West and that Ukrainians are mere pawns of the U.S. and Europe.

The article dismisses Western military analyses recognizing Ukraine's battlefield gains, naming institutions like the Atlantic Council and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and derides U.S. and U.K. generals for praising Ukraine's military.

The piece marks an escalation in Russia's dehumanizing war propaganda.

Claims that Ukrainians are "ready to die" contradict the lived reality of a population resisting an unprovoked invasion, which Moscow started back in 2014, to defend their homes and sovereignty.

This rhetoric reflects a long-standing Kremlin narrative designed to strip Ukraine of agency and portray its people as expendable.

Russia's war effort has increasingly relied on genocidal framing, echoing prior statements by state officials and propagandists that deny Ukraine's right to exist as a nation.

RIA Novosti is one of Russia's central state media arms and has consistently served as a platform for war propaganda, disinformation, and anti-Western messaging.

Strelnikov, the article's author, is a co-founder of the nationalist media project Politrussia and a frequent contributor to other Kremlin-aligned outlets. His previous articles have spread falsehoods about the war, many of which have been debunked by independent media.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/39573959

Archived

Joint China-Russia military drills in the Sea of Japan a “forced step for the Kremlin," expert says

In August, the Chinese and Russian navies will hold their annual Maritime Interaction 2025 exercises in the Sea of Japan near Vladivostok, as well as a joint maritime patrol in the Pacific Ocean.

"For Russia, such exercises are a forced step, because they understand that China is a natural antagonist of the Russian Federation and will maintain a certain degree of cooperation with Russia only as long as it does not conflict with its own interests," says Valerii Riabyk, a military expert and development director at the information and consulting company Defense Express.

"This is also confirmed by leaked FSB documents, which describe an operation developed at the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine aimed at strengthening counterintelligence measures in relations with the PRC," he says.

Riabykh added that recently such exercises have been taking place regularly.

"They plan them, and both sides need this in order to check and compare each other’s military capabilities. Some may see this as preparation for joint operations, but on the other hand, one should not exclude that such joint activities are primarily a way of probing the potential enemy's capabilities. Under the guise of partnership, they are keeping their finger on the pulse to be able to respond in time," the expert concluded.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/39585900

Archived

• Local processors are exploring options on some inputs, according to traders and refinery executives, who asked not to be identified discussing private matters.
• Indian refiners are now reaching out more widely for crudes, with supplies being bought from places including Azerbaijan and Nigeria, as well as the United Arab Emirates, according to the traders.

[...]

The global oil market is assessing the fallout from the EU’s latest wave of curbs, which included sanctions against a major Indian refiner [Nayara Energy] that’s part Russian-held, a lower price cap, as well as imports of petroleum products made from Moscow’s crude. At the same time, investors are also contending with moves by OPEC+ to restore shuttered production, and the falllout from the US’s multi-front trade war.

Indian refiners are now reaching out more widely for crudes, with supplies being bought from places including Azerbaijan and Nigeria, as well as the United Arab Emirates, according to the traders. Like all major economies, India typically sources oil from a wide array of countries.

Among recent purchases, India's state-backed Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd. sought crude for late August to September delivery to New Mangalore, the traders said. That’s prompter-than-usual, they said, with the refinery eventually taking about 1.3 million barrels of Azeri oil. That’s also a type not typically bought by Indian processors.

Elsewhere, Hindustan Petroleum Corp. purchased West African crudes including Nigeria’s Bonny Light, Egina and Qua Iboe. In addition, private refiner Reliance Industries Ltd. bought Abu Dhabi’s flagship Murban grade — a premium crude that’s typically costlier compared with its staple diet of heavy Russian and Middle Eastern crudes.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/39561277

Archived

Russian occupation authorities force parents in occupied Kherson Oblast to obtain Russian passports or risk losing parental rights, the Center of National Resistance reported on July 30.

"These are not documents. They are instruments of terror," Kherson Oblast Governor Ivan Dudary told the center.

Russia conducts forced passportization in the occupied territories as it aims to establish its control and erase the identity of Ukrainians living under occupation.

In the village of Askaniya-Nova in occupied Kherson Oblast, parents have been threatened with the removal of their children or loss of parental rights if they do not obtain Russian passports.

Askaniya-Nova is located deep within occupied territory and about 52 kilometers (32 miles) from Ukrainian-held territory in Kherson Oblast.

Without obtaining a Russian passport, Ukrainian civilians living under occupation cannot receive medical assistance, pass military checkpoints, and risk mobilization, the Center of National Resistance reported.

"Parents are manipulated because of their children, and children are manipulated because of their education. As of today, it is just impossible to survive in occupied territories without Russian documents," Kateryna Rashevska, legal advisor at the Regional Center for Human Rights in Kyiv, previously told the Kyiv Independent.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/39560441

Archived

On July 30, 2025, the Changsha Intermediate Court in [China's] Hunan Province tried human rights lawyer Xie Yang behind closed doors on charges of “inciting subversion of state power.” Those charges stem from Xie Yang’s remarks online and to foreign journalists about political and legal affairs, and human rights violations, in China. Authorities convened the trial after Xie Yang had been held in pre-trial detention for over three and a half years, during which he alleged he was repeatedly tortured.

“Xie Yang did nothing other than exercise his rights to free speech as guaranteed by China’s Constitution and international law,” said Sophie Richardson, Co-Executive Director of the Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders. “Chinese authorities compounded his wrongful detention by holding him in excessive pretrial detention, ignoring his allegations of torture, and denying him the right to a fair trial.”

The July 30 hearing was marred by numerous legal violations, including authorities failing to notify one of Xie Yang’s lawyers of the hearing, and opening the trial despite denying Xie and his other lawyer access to copy case files during the pre-trial meeting on July 28 that would be used as evidence. Authorities classified all 18 case files as confidential despite eight not bearing a “secret” classification marking. To protest these violations of his fair trial rights, Xie dismissed his lawyer, Li Guobei at the July 30 hearing. The trial has not yet concluded.

Xie Yang is a human rights lawyer who represented many human rights defenders before facing government retaliation for his work. He was detained and tortured during the government’s “709” Crackdown on human rights lawyers in 2015, an unprecedented assault on human rights lawyers and rule of law activists, and then stripped of his law license in 2020.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/39451341

Archived

A visiting US-based Chinese human rights advocate on Sunday urged Taiwanese to better understand authoritarianism in China, after observing the outcome of Saturday’s recall elections against 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers.

Sophie Luo Shengchun (羅勝春), the wife of jailed Chinese human rights lawyer Ding Jiaxi (丁家喜), said that witnessing the elections firsthand reminded her of how precious and resilient Taiwanese democracy is.

“If people do not understand China’s authoritarianism, they cannot truly appreciate Taiwan’s freedom,” she said, recounting her experience of being forced to flee China due to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution of her husband.

[...]

The CCP’s “suppression of free speech, arbitrary detention, torture and acts of genocide are serious threats that the democratic world should remain highly vigilant against,” she said, urging Taiwanese to gain a deeper understanding of the situation in China.

[...]

Wester Yang (楊若暉), public affairs director of the overseas Chinese student group Assembly of Citizens, said Taiwan’s open environment shows how valuable freedom is.

“Even the air here feels fresh,” he said, adding that China’s influence operations in Taiwan is not fictional, but a “bloodless yet profound silent war.”

Yang called on Taiwanese to remain vigilant and to support global efforts for human rights and democratic transformation in China.

crosspostato da: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/39332565

[...]

Myanmar is not listed among the countries with the largest rare earth reserves, despite intensive mining activities, especially in Shan and Kachin states.

This clearly indicates that while Myanmar may “produce” rare earth minerals, it does not “own” the resources. It serves primarily as a transit point for initial extraction, with the minerals being sent to other countries, particularly China, for further processing.

[...]

The true source of China’s rare earth dominance lies in Myanmar’s border regions, where Shan and Kachin states are emerging as key centres for the mining of rare earth elements like terbium and dysprosium. These areas are experiencing rapid and uncontrolled growth in mining activities.

In Shan State, rare earth mining has proliferated, particularly in the town of Poke, which falls under the influence of the United Wa State Army (UWSA). The number of mines has increased from just 3 in 2005 to 26 in 2025, an eightfold growth in just one decade. The mining technique used, “ore leaching,” has led to chemical runoff contaminating major water sources, including the Kok and Sai rivers, which flow into northern Thailand.

In the northern part of Myanmar, Kachin State, areas like Pang Wa, Manse, Momok, and Loy Ja have become intensive mining zones. In 2023, over 300 mines were operating, with more than 3,000 extraction pits. After the 2021 coup, production surged by 40%, and China purchased 41,700 tons of rare earth minerals from Myanmar within the same year.

[...]

Pianporn Deetes, Director of Southeast Asia Campaigns at International Rivers, stated in an interview with Bangkok Business that the cross-border pollution crisis is severely impacting millions of people in Chiang Rai, who are facing risks to their lives and health due to heavy metal contamination, particularly arsenic, in the Kok River, which flows into the Mekong and Sai rivers.

“Local residents can no longer engage in traditional activities like fishing or operating tour boats, and farmers are worried that rice grown using water from the Kok River may be contaminated with arsenic, as rice tends to absorb arsenic well. Additionally, there have been reports of fish with unusual parasites, which correlate with mining activities disturbing the soil.”

She further called for the Thai government to urgently negotiate with Myanmar and China, using various measures, including economic, diplomatic, and even food-related pressures, to halt mining activities. “If the soil continues to be disturbed and mining continues, the people of Chiang Rai will be ‘slowly dying.’ The restoration of rivers contaminated with heavy metals is extremely difficult and time-consuming, as seen with the unresolved issue of the Klity Creek contamination, which has persisted for over 30 years.”

crosspostato da: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/39313413

Archived

• Ukraine has arrested Chinese nationals on espionage charges and sanctioned Chinese companies, signaling a hardened stance toward Beijing due to its perceived support for Russia's war.
• Despite China's claims of neutrality, evidence suggests it is providing significant support to Russia, including dual-use technology and military systems, leading Ukraine to abandon hopes of Beijing brokering peace.
• The growing distance between Kyiv and Beijing is underscored by Ukraine's actions and the US-Ukraine agreement on critical minerals, though Ukraine continues to tread carefully due to China being its largest trading partner.

[...]

From the outset of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Beijing has claimed neutrality while buying up Russian oil and gas –- Moscow’s financial lifeline –- and supplying dual-use technology to its military. Kyiv, like many in the West, had hoped China would use its leverage over Russian President Vladimir Putin to press for peace.

That hope appears to be fading.

China, once content to provide components like microchips, is now believed to be delivering entire systems. In May, pro-Russian Telegram channels claimed Moscow was using a new Chinese laser weapon to shoot down Ukrainian drones.

[...]

Meanwhile, Beijing has been welcoming officials from Ukraine’s occupied territories at trade shows while Chinese companies have been selling heavy equipment to Russian companies operating in those territories.

The shift in Beijing’s behavior comes amid reports that China is no longer even pretending to be neutral.

[...]

“I think there has been a certain evolution,” said Oleksandr Merezhko, chair of the Ukrainian parliament’s foreign affairs committee.

“At the very beginning, there was some hope China could be involved in the [peace] process. But now we’ve become more realistic and speak more openly: China supports Russia.”

Beijing declined an invitation to attend the Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland last year, which drew representatives from more than 100 nations and organizations.

[...]

For now, Ukraine isn’t severing ties, but the illusion of China’s neutrality has evaporated in Kyiv.

crosspostato da: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/39310997

Archived

An information warfare expert on Tuesday warned that China could use TikTok to undermine morale before a possible invasion.

The Institute of Sociology at Academia Sinica hosted a lecture Monday titled “CCP Propaganda in Taiwan” that included Lee Chih-te (李志德), former head of the Asia Fact Check Lab [...] Lee, who led an investigative project on Chinese propaganda, said Taiwan lacks sufficient legal tools to regulate political messaging online. He called on the government to act before a national security crisis caused by China erupts.

[...]

Lee referenced its interference in the US in March 2024 as a warning for Taiwan. Before a House vote on legislation targeting ByteDance, TikTok urged its 170 million users to pressure lawmakers to oppose the bill.

Every user reportedly saw the same in-app message urging them to contact their representative. “In essence, TikTok put on a display of its power in this incident,” Lee said.

The expert said the app poses enormous national security risks during the gray zone conflict phase, a period of coercive measures short of open war. "I have no doubt that, when needed, Taiwanese users could be shown messages saying the military has already surrendered and they should refuse conscription because everyone has already surrendered," warned Lee.

[...]

[Lee] warned that if Taiwan continues to allow unchecked online behavior in the name of freedom, it may be too late to intervene when a true national security crisis emerges.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/39182601

Archived

Russia is forcing children abducted from Ukraine to fight against their own country when they turn 18, Ukrainian officials have told The Times.

An estimated 35,000 children have been taken from Ukraine’s eastern occupied territories so far since 2014, including at gunpoint.

New evidence is now emerging that when the children turn 18, they are being conscripted into Russian battalions and sent to the front line, to potentially face their friends, fathers or brothers on the battlefield.

It is not known how many have been conscripted, but by some estimates there are thousands.

In interviews with The Times, Ukrainian government officials allege that forcing the teenagers to fight serves two purposes for the Kremlin: the first is they present a solution to Russia’s military manpower crisis, with the country having suffered one million casualties already in the war so far.

The second is as a brutal new form of psychological warfare against the Ukrainian people, allegedly the result of the Russian president’s personal orders.

[...]

Andriy Yermak, President Zelensky’s chief of staff, told The Times’s [...] podcast that the Ukrainian government has obtained hard evidence of the practice, such as conscription documents.

The teenagers’ bodies are also now being found on the battlefield. “We have found facts about this, yes,” Yermak told this week’s episode of the podcast.

[...]

Yale university’s Humanitarian Research Lab, the leading global authority on Russia’s child abduction program, is also investigating a mass of specific allegations concerning former children forced into combat.

[...]

Nathaniel Raymond, the executive director [Yale university’s Humanitarian Research Lab], told The Times that while his team must “deal in facts that we’re able to testify about in court”, they were “working on being able to present documentary evidence on this right now”. He said he suspected the allegations were true.

Raymond said: “Anecdotally, the conscription-to-combat pipeline is everywhere. We have heard it an awful lot.

“We know older kids are being put into cadet schools, given combat weapons training and combat vehicle training.

“Why would they be put into this training pipeline? There can be only one good reason for it, and it’s not for parades.”

Ukrainian children began to be abducted in 2014 when Russian troops invaded the Donbas and Crimea regions, initially from orphanages but then directly from their parents. Advertisement

[...]

The program [that sends Ukrainian children to the battlefield] is overseen by the FSB, Russia’s state security service, in a sign of the importance Ukrainian officials say that Putin attaches to it.

[...]

The podcast also spoke to [Ukrainian teenager] Vlad Rudenko [who] was eventually rescued from it by his mother last year and smuggled back over the front line:

“We were made to sing the Russian anthem every morning, then physical training — jumps, squats, running, crawling — and we also learnt how to shoot,” Rudenko said.

“The 16 and 17 year-olds were given dummy rifles and the older ones used live ammunition.

“The more it went on, the more worried I got that we were going to be sent to fight.

“The Russians didn’t manage to take anything from me though, they just deprived me of my childhood.

“I am lucky, because there are Ukrainians now who are fighting against their own people.”

[...]

Raymond, a lecturer in global affairs, added: “I’m not sure Europeans and Americans understand the true nature of what’s going on here. This is a systematic, industrialised network of child trafficking, a revival of Stalin’s pioneer programme.

“It is likely to be the largest child abduction in war since World War Two, comparable to the Germanification of Polish children by the Nazis.”

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/39123116

Archived

Leaders of the European Union and Japan launched an alliance Wednesday aimed at boosting economic cooperation, defending free trade and countering unfair trade practices as the two sides face growing challenges from the United States and China.

The agreement followed a meeting among European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President António Costa and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. It comes just as Tokyo and Washington reached a new trade deal, which places 15% tariffs on Japanese cars and other goods imported into the U.S., down from an initial 25%.

[...]

The EU and Japan also agreed to strengthen defense industry cooperation and to start talks on an information security agreement.

[...]

In a joint statement released following the EU-Japan summit, EU and Japan reiterated their opposition to “any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion” in the East and South China seas — a nod to Beijing’s growing assertiveness in contested waters — and condemned "the militarisation of the disputed features, coercion and intimidation in the South China Sea."

The two sides also expressed their support for Taiwan, reiterating "opposition to any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion," and their ongoing support for Ukraine and Moldova.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/39065475

Archived

[...]

Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate has published a detailed breakdown of the drone’s construction. Although its main function is to act as a false target alongside long-range drones, it can also carry a warhead weighing up to 15 kg.

The complete list of components has been published on the War&Sanctions portal. The Website identify the drone as TsBST.611000.

All onboard systems and electronic blocks are of Chinese origin. Nearly half of them — including the flight controller with autopilot, navigation modules and antennas, airspeed sensor, and Pitot tube — come from a single Chinese company, CUAV Technology. The company specializes in developing and producing UAV system modules and applications.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/37947475

Archived

THE Centre for Natural Resource Governance (CNRG), a civil society and human rights organization, is pleading with the government of Zimbabwe to urgently rein in the operations of a Magunje-based Chinese miner over a web of human rights violations.

alleged that China-based West International Holdings, in partnership with local Labenmon Investments, following documented human rights abuses, forced displacements, and environmental destruction linked to the Magunje cement and mining projects, has presided over gross human rights abuses.

CNRG said the two companies are jointly investing US$1 billion to construct a cement plant in Magunje, Mashonaland West, with a production capacity of 900,000 tons of cement per year, and 1.8 million tons of clinker, supported by a 100MW captive power plant. The investment is also expected to generate 5,000 jobs.

"However, the promise of economic opportunity is being undermined by allegations of land grabs, community exclusion, and rights violations in the host area.

"Following growing distress calls from the community, CNRG visited the area and documented overwhelming evidence of land dispossession, intimidation, pollution, and labour exploitation in the name of clean energy and development," said CNRG.

Part of the findings was that families were uprooted from their ancestral land without compensation after the companies took advantage of fraudulent consultation exercises.

The organisation reported that eight villagers from Kapere, including the Headman, were arrested for protecting their land and have been repeatedly appearing in Karoi Magistrate Court, despite the absence of the complainants.

CNRG staff were also threatened by armed Zimbabwe National Army personnel at a mining site in Kemapondo village.

Magunje Dam, a vital source of water for thousands of residents, is allegedly being polluted by effluent discharge from the cement plant, leading to the destruction of farmlands and gardens following fires ignited by the company during a land-clearing exercise.

The mining rights-based organisation said workers employed by the companies are operating under unsafe conditions, political discrimination, lack of contracts and low wages that are pegged below the National Employment Council (NEC) agreed rates.

[...]

Mining operations have long been fraught with environmental disasters and human rights issues. For China, the growing coverage of these issues increasingly challenges its framing of its operations as mutually beneficial and aligned with global green energy goals.

In 2024, President Xi Jinping said China's relations with Africa were enjoying their "best period in history". This view is echoed in China's media coverage, with focus on the successes and emphasis on the "win-win" narratives about its operations.

The "win-win" slogan was found to resonate in North African social media discussions, where users expressed greater trust in China than other Western or regional partners.

A timeline of rights abuses by Chinese mining companies in Africa by British broadcaster BBC presents a different perspective - one that is more prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa than it is in the north. It offers a glimpse into the steady negative coverage threatening China's image in its longstanding relationship with Africa.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/37059928

Archived

[...]

Human rights advocates [say] that in recent years China had flooded Geneva [the Swiss city where the U.N. is located] with dozens of “fake” NGOs — so-called “GONGOs,” short for “government-organized nongovernmental organizations.” While NGOs are expected to be independent, GONGOs instead hold close ties to governments or political parties. Many of the GONGOs identified by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) parroted the Chinese state’s positions during U.N. sessions.

GONGOs often seek to occupy as many speaking slots as possible, blocking the opportunities for representatives of other NGOs to speak. GONGOs also surveilled and intimidated human rights activists, many of whom have given up attending U.N. sessions, ICIJ and its partners learned. Our investigation sought to quantify the scale of the issue and the growing number of Chinese GONGOs at the U.N.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/36408502

Warning: This story contains video and images of violence and disturbing audio. Viewer discretion is advised.

crosspostato da: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/36338295

Archived

[...]

Cotton has long been the focus of international responses to human rights abuses in Xinjiang. About a fifth of the world’s cotton originates from the region. In 2021, US customs banned the import of Xinjiang cotton and anything made with the raw material, such as clothes or shoes.

But Chinese advances in biotechnology mean Xinjiang cotton is being transformed into animal feed, which food multinationals and some of China’s biggest farmers are using to raise billions of chickens, pigs, cattle, fish and other animals. The breakthrough also helps China reduce its heavy dependence on US imports of protein, strengthening its hand in the rivalry between the two superpowers.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) has traced supply chains from Xinjiang all the way to the UK, and to factories that supply major international brands, including KFC and McDonald’s in China.

Some supply chains even involve forced labour and human rights abuses at multiple points. In at least one case, a company sources tainted cotton, makes poultry feed with a sanctioned paramilitary arm of the Xinjiang government, and then slaughters and processes its chickens in a factory using transferred ethnic minority workers.

[...]

The UN and rights watchdogs say Xinjiang labour transfers are coercive, state-imposed forced labour. A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in the US said “allegations of ‘forced labour’ in Xinjiang are nothing but vicious lies concocted by anti-China forces”.

Members of all ethnic groups there “enjoy happy and fulfilling lives”, they said, adding that “Xinjiang-related issues are not human rights issues at all, but in essence about countering violent terrorism and separatism”. They said the UFLPA “seriously violates international law and basic norms governing international relations and grossly interferes in China’s internal affairs”.

[...]

Government programmes in the 2000s saw school children as young as eight sent to the fields each year. Xinjiang millennials on Douyin mourn childhoods spent picking cotton. “Look at this white cotton sea, this used to be my childhood nightmare,” says a Uyghur man walking in a cotton field in one video clip. “Oh, that’s really an unbearable past to look back on.”

Clips uploaded more recently show children are still working Xinjiang’s fields.

One video shows a single mother picking cotton with two young children. The trio harvested 151 kilograms for $21 the previous day, she tells the interviewer. “This video will be a disaster if it spreads abroad,” comments a netizen from the other side of China.

[...]

For more than 30 years, Beijing has worked to unlock the nutritional benefits of cottonseed. The state has poured billions into agricultural biotechnologies, according to a US government report last year.

For centuries, farmers have used cottonseed meal, a byproduct of cotton harvesting, as feed for adult cattle. But gossypol, a toxin, makes it a risky business for most other animals, including humans; it can cause infertility, stomach bleeding, heart failure and death.

Recent Chinese advances in biotechnology have changed this. Microbes are now used to detoxify cottonseed in fermentation tanks, and “turn waste into treasure”, as the website of Xinjiang Shipu Biotechnology puts it.

Last year, another feed source came to market when – after 14 years of research – a group in Xinjiang figured out how to ferment cotton straw into feed using “special bacteria” and other ingredients, including tomato skin residue.

These are important developments in the nation’s drive for food security. China consumes more meat than anywhere else in the world, and securing protein-rich ingredients for animal feed, like cottonseed, is seen as vital by Beijing.

[...]

During the Covid-19 pandemic, state media wrote that the government transferred “more than 240 young people from southern Xinjiang” to companies in the north including the Urumqi mill, as part of a “timely rain” of government assistance.

Evidence from social media and official reports also shows the Chinese government sending Xinjiang workers to at least one CP factory outside of Xinjiang. Hubei CP, which supplies chicken to McDonald’s and KFC in China, has taken transfer workers since at least 2019. TBIJ found that almost two dozen Uyghurs posted videos from the plant between 2022 and 2024.

[...]

McDonald’s website proudly claims that, in 2023, 100% of the soy used in poultry feed for its chickens was deforestation free. KFC aims to achieve the same across Europe by 2030. The moves are responses to EU legislation that comes into effect later this year.

Neither chain responded to questions about whether Xinjiang cotton was fed to chickens or other animals served in their restaurants.

[...]

crosspostato da: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/36277659

Original NYT article (paywalled)

In public, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia says his country’s growing friendship with China is unshakable — a strategic military and economic collaboration that has entered a golden era.

But in the corridors of Lubyanka, the headquarters of Russia’s domestic security agency, known as the F.S.B., a secretive intelligence unit refers to the Chinese as “the enemy.”

This unit, which has not previously been disclosed, has warned that China is a serious threat to Russian security. Its officers say that Beijing is increasingly trying to recruit Russian spies and get its hands on sensitive military technology, at times by luring disaffected Russian scientists.

The intelligence officers say that China is spying on the Russian military’s operations in Ukraine to learn about Western weapons and warfare. They fear that Chinese academics are laying the groundwork to make claims on Russian territory. And they have warned that Chinese intelligence agents are carrying out espionage in the Arctic using mining firms and university research centers as cover.

[...]

In response, Russian counterintelligence launched a programme titled “Entente-4” just days before the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022. The programme—ironically named after the historical Franco-Russian alliance, was designed to prevent Chinese infiltration at a time when Moscow’s military and intelligence focus had shifted heavily westward.

Since then, according to the report, the FSB has tracked an increasing number of attempts by Chinese intelligence to penetrate Russian political and business circles. The document details orders for surveillance of Russian people closely tied to China and heightened monitoring of the Chinese messaging app WeChat. This includes hacking phones and gathering personal data using a specialised FSB tool.

[...]

As the Freedom Flotilla’s “Madleen” approaches the shores of Gaza, a Tunisian-led convoy sets out to confront Israel’s humanitarian blockade by land.

Rabat– Tunisian football ultras are taking part in a grassroots effort to confront and break the genocidal siege Israel continues to impose on Gaza. Several major supporter groups have declared their participation in the “Resilience Convoy,” which is set to depart Tunisia on Monday, June 9, with plans to reach Gaza through Libya and Egypt.

The convoy is being organized by the Coordination for Joint Action for Palestine, and has already received over 7,000 applications. Volunteers are being screened based on age, health, and logistical feasibility.

Among the first to respond were the Bad Blue Boys Juniors, supporters of Espérance Sportive de Tunis (ES Tunis), and the Leaders Clubistes, affiliated with Club Africain.

Both groups issued calls to action urging fans and citizens alike to take part in the convoy, framing it as a moral and political duty rooted in a long-standing tradition of Tunisian ultras using football spaces to express solidarity with Palestine.

“When the world falls silent, the crowds must scream,” declared Leaders Clubistes, affirming that solidarity with the Palestinian struggle remains a core part of their identity.

Support has also come from Libya. The Teha Boys, ultras of Al-Ahly Tripoli, joined the initiative in a joint statement with their Tunisian counterparts. Major Tunisian unions—representing workers, farmers, doctors, and supporters—have also declared their backing for the convoy, now rallying under the revolutionary slogan: “The Shackle Must Be Broken.”

crosspostato da: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/35707986

crosspostato da: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/35707933

Archived

Question: [In 2025, U.S. President] Donald Trump ... jump started major changes in the global security order, Russia's war against Ukraine continues, and populism is rising across Europe. How would you evaluate these first steps of the new era?

Timothy Garton Ash: The triple shock: the Putin shock, what I call the Xi Jinping shock, and now the Trump shock means that we are in the deepest crisis Europe has been in for a very long time, in some respects, since 1945.

But it also means that we all know that in Europe.

[...]

There's a long-term trend of the United States becoming less committed to and less engaged in Europe, which started already after the end of the Cold War. It was happening under the Democrats and under the Republicans. It's turning either to what (Barack) Obama called nation-building at home, or the pivot to Asia.

[...]

First of all, we never really had a unipolar world. Even the U.S.-led liberal international order was only a large part of the world. It worked because the United States was what the Princeton scholar John Ikenberry calls a "Liberal Leviathan."

[...]

So I believe that if we are to preserve what's left of the liberal international order, which is not a great deal, it's up to us as Europeans, but also other liberal democratic partners.

Canada becomes much more important to us. Australia becomes important to us. Japan becomes important to us. In other words, there's a whole new constellation of liberal international order — if you like, a new West.

[...]

Our role is to defend ourselves and to look after what we've achieved in Europe over the last 80 years. That means defending ourselves against external enemies or challenges. Obviously, Vladimir Putin's Russia in the first place, but also China in a different way, and other powers.

[...]

[We Europeans need to] preserve at least some elements of what we call the liberal international order — for example, a free trading world, an international economic order. The EU is a regulatory superpower. Can we preserve some of those shared regulations around the world?

[...]

I would say the forces of integration and disintegration [Ash mentions right-wing populism in Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Czech Republic] in Europe are quite finely balanced at the moment.

We have to be tough on populism and tough on the causes of populism. We have to fight the nationalist populist and make a convincing case to our public for a different approach.

But we also have to understand why they continue to get large numbers of votes. For example, the sense that large parts of our societies have been both economically and culturally neglected in the name of liberalism.

And we need to show that we care, we're actually doing something for them economically, that culturally we don't just care about specific minorities in the name of multiculturalism, but we actually care about everyone in our societies.

[...]

There's always been an anti-liberal Europe, as well as a liberal Europe throughout European history. And it's always been a great mistake to believe that the liberal Europe has prevailed once and for all. By the way, there are also liberal and anti-liberal forces in Ukraine, let's make no mistake about that.

The two things are intimately connected. It's very difficult to imagine Ukraine making a successful transition to a prosperous, sovereign, democratic European future if Europe is disintegrating next door. It's quite difficult to imagine a successful, liberal, democratic, integrated Europe if Ukraine is disintegrating next door.

[...]

[History is] going to give us both hope and warnings.

The warning is that just when everybody takes things for granted, they start going wrong. [...] The hope is that we already have examples of successful liberal fightback [against anti-democratic tendencies]. The Polish (2023 parliamentary) election is a classic example of a (country) which had nearly gone in the direction of Hungary and an electoral-authoritarian, non-liberal regime, and then it came back.

The larger lesson is that you have these wave movements in history. We had what I would call a liberal democratic revolution across Europe and much of the world from the early 1970s to the 2000s. Now we have an anti-liberal counter-revolution. But with time, people start discovering that that doesn't deliver either.

In fact, it delivers even less. And if you look at the enormous demonstrations in Serbia, large demonstrations in Hungary in support of an opposition candidate, and in Turkey after the imprisonment of Mr. (Ekrem) Imamoglu, you see that the fightback also comes from the countries that have gone authoritarian.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/29544531

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/29544481

So what does the West want to do with Gaza ?

Cross posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/33679319

[...]

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.

[...]

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.

[...]

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.

[...]

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.

[...]

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.

[...]

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.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/33597000

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.

[...]

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.

[...]

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.”

[...]