There’s no telling exactly where the Trump administration’s trade war is going as the president authorizes tariffs and then quickly suspends them, only to authorize them again and suspend them again or provide waivers for certain industries. While tariffs on narrowly defined categories of goods to guard against unfair competition may be workable, the administration’s shotgun approach to tariffs risks a cutoff of strategic minerals that could strangle America’s tech industry.
As I’ve written before, the United States is dangerously dependent on other countries for a wide-ranging list of metals and, in some cases, completely dependent.
HONG KONG — The tariff wars between the United States and China could further hit Hong Kong’s status as a major international container port, where fewer ships are docking and many workers are on reduced pay, according to an investigation by RFA’s Cantonese Service.
While the effects of the Trump administration’s latest tariffs may not yet have been fully felt, people working in the industry said business has been plummeting for some time, citing the increasing shift of international container traffic to ports in mainland China.
Recently increased U.S. tariffs now target goods made in China and Hong Kong equally, further reducing the city’s usefulness as a transshipment hub for Chinese manufacturers looking to evade tariffs by using a “made in Hong Kong” label.
Container trucks wait in a temporary parking lot at Hong Kong’s Kwai Chung Container Terminal, March 7, 2025.(Wei Sze/RFA)
The volume of shipped cargo arriving at Hong Kong’s container ports fell by 0.5% year-on-year to 111.1 million tonnes, according to figures released last week by Hong Kong’s Census and Statistics Department.
The city’s container terminals handled 13.69 million twenty-foot equivalent units, or TEUs, a year-on-year decrease of 5% from the year before.
Meanwhile, the number of vessels arriving under the Hong Kong flag has declined from a peak of around 3,000 before the pandemic to just 1,875 in 2024, a fall of more than 30%.
Staff on the ground said they have far less to do than just a couple of years ago, citing the shift of container traffic to ports in mainland China.
‘Very little to do’
A container truck owner-driver at Hong Kong’s Kwai Chung Container Terminal who gave only the surname Chan for fear of reprisals told RFA Cantonese that he has “very little to do” these days.
“I wouldn’t say it has fallen by 30% — to me it seems as if it has fallen by 60 or 70%,” Chan said, interviewed from a parking lot at the container terminal on March 7.
He said part of the issue is that countries including the United States now no longer treat Hong Kong separately when it comes to tariffs, so Chinese manufacturers can no longer evade tariffs by shipping goods to Hong Kong and repackgaging them with a “made in Hong Kong” label.
Another driver who gave only the surname Leung for fear of reprisals said he once owned nearly 20 containers, but now only holds 6 or 7, due to the fall in the volume of traffic.
He said he only works around 20 days a month now, compared with working nearly every day before the pandemic.
“There are fewer ships docking in Hong Kong now,” Leung said. “You can see where the crane arms are sticking up like trees — that means there are no ships in dock. The arms are lowered when there are ships in dock.”
“We used to have transshipment business, where containers were shipped to mainland China after arriving here, but now they go direct to mainland China, so there’s nothing for us to do,” he said.
Hong Kong’s flag is the eighth most-flown by ships worldwide, according to VesselsValue, a subsidiary of maritime data group Veson Nautical.
Shipping containers at the Kwai Tsing Container Terminals in Hong Kong, Nov. 5, 2021.(Kin Cheung/AP)
‘Everything has been cut in half’
But in January, the number of newly registered ships described as ocean-going vessels fell by around 6.5%, compared with 2,173 in January 2022, suggesting a shift in emphasis to coastal and river cargo traffic.
Another driver, who gave only the surname Lui, said freight volumes, wages and the number of days he gets work are around half what they were four years ago.
“Everything has been cut in half, including wages,” Lui said. “At one point we were only shipping one container every couple of days … Before, we used to have to work every day.”
Leung also estimated that business has fallen by 60-70%.
“There are fewer containers arriving in Hong Kong … at least 70% less,” he said. “Back then, there weren’t so many ports in mainland China, so they came through Hong Kong, and we transported them [to China]. Now, they’re unloaded at mainland Chinese ports.”
The drivers’ stories were backed up by Yu Kam-keung, consultant to Hong Kong Shipping Employees’ Union.
“Put simply, if you want to know about container traffic in Hong Kong, it has been decreasing,” Yu told RFA Cantonese. “The shipping ecosystem has changed in a lot of ways, but I can’t comment much more than that right now, sorry.”
Some shipping companies are discreetly moving operations out of Hong Kong and taking vessels off its flag registry, Reuters reported on March 6, adding, “others are making contingency plans to do so.”
Hong Kong’s role in serving Chinese security interests and growing U.S. scrutiny of the importance of China’s commercial fleet in a future military conflict, possibly over Taiwan, are causing unease across the industry, the report said.
US faults China for restricting business
In a separate report, the agency cited a White House document as saying that the United States plans to levy fees on imports arriving on Chinese-made ships and boost its own shipbuilding industry in a bid to reduce China’s grip on the US$150 billion global ocean shipping industry.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, or USTR, last month proposed imposing heavy port fees on China-owned shipping, which it said “burdens or restricts U.S. commerce by undercutting business opportunities for and investments in the U.S. maritime, logistics, and shipbuilding sectors.”
It said China’s share of the global shipbuilding industry has exploded. China accounted for about 5% of the total tonnage of ships manufactured in 1999. By 2023, that had surpassed 50%.
The investigation, conducted under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, found that Beijing has pursued a policy of subsidizing its domestic shipbuilding industry to dominate the global market.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Wei Sze, Ha Syut and Dawn Yu for RFA Cantonese.
Authorities in a single district of the southwestern megacity of Chongqing have installed 27,900 surveillance cameras and 245 sensors as part of a comprehensive “grid” surveillance plan to keep tabs on residents, officials from the district said Monday.
The move offers a rare glimpse into the running of China’s “grid” system — the close-up monitoring of every aspect of its citizens’ lives to mediate disputes, influence public opinion and minimize protests and dissent.
“We in Beibei district have fully pressed the fast-forward button to promote the construction of … a digital Chongqing [and] deepened networked governance … to build a smart grassroots governance system,” Lin Xuyang, delegate to the National People’s Congress and secretary of Chongqing’s Beibei District Committee, told delegates in Beijing on March 10.
The annual gathering of delegates from across the country ends Tuesday.
“There is certainly no single way to govern, but precision is definitely one of them,” Lin said, likening the local grid monitoring and surveillance systems to “fine needlework.”
“The key to governance lies in people,” he said, adding that interconnected grids have now been extended from district to residential compound level, employing a “grid leader,” full- and part-time grid members to coordinate “more than 10,000 party member volunteers” and other volunteers.
Monitors report on residents’ activities
In July 2021, China empowered local officials at township, village and neighborhood level to enforce the law, as well as operating a vastly extended “grid management” system of social control in rural and urban areas alike.
According to directives sent out in 2018, the grid system carves up neighborhoods into a grid pattern with 15-20 households per square. Each grid has a monitor who reports back on residents’ affairs to local committees.
CCTV cameras overlook Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China September 30, 2022.(Thomas Peter/REUTERS)
China’s “red armband” brigade of state-sanctioned busybodies have been dubbed the biggest intelligence network on the planet by social media users, and have supplied information that has also led police to crack major organized crime, according to state media.
Neighborhood committees in China have long been tasked with monitoring the activities of ordinary people in urban areas, while its grid management system turbo-charges the capacity of officials even in rural areas to monitor what local people are doing, saying and thinking.
A former employee of a residential compound in Chongqing who gave only the surname Yang for fear of reprisals said the cameras are mostly used to monitor the activities of local residents.
“This kind of surveillance has existed for a long time — its official name is SkyNet,” Yang said. “In rural areas, it’s known as Project Xueliang.”
“Its purpose is to monitor what’s going on in every corner of a district,” Yang said. “People’s every move takes place under their watchful gaze.”
Aim of reducing costs
A resident of the central province of Henan who gave only the nickname Lao Wan said local governments are struggling to afford the staffing costs of the “grid” surveillance system, so are installing automated, digital equipment to monitor people instead.
“There are two main reasons for [these cameras],” Lao Wan said. “One is they can’t afford to pay their grid workers, and on the other, they want to reduce administrative costs.”
“That’s why they have mobilized civilians and volunteers to do this work, such as older men and women who have nothing else to do,” he said. “They seem to be just being friendly towards their neighbors, but in fact, they’re monitoring your every word and deed.”
The revelations about Beibei district come after the ruling Communist Party’s official newspaper, the People’s Daily, reported that authorities in the southeastern port city of Xiamen have set up “neighborhood supervision” stations in 11 streets and 144 residential communities in Tong’an district, in a bid to improve “grassroots governance.”
Legal affairs commentator Lu Chenyuan said local governments are struggling to pay wages, so are coordinating older people as volunteers to implement the government’s “stability maintenance” system.
“It’s a way to reduce administrative expenditures and maintain stability amid a sharp fall in tax revenues,” Lu said.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Qian Lang for RFA Mandarin.
Taiwan’s defense ministry is proposing a law that could bring a lengthy prison term for anyone deemed disloyal to its military, it said on Monday, adding the Chinese Communist Party tried to lure officers while its spying was becoming “rampant.”
“Any active military personnel who express loyalty to the enemy through words, actions, texts, pictures, electromagnetic records, scientific and technological methods, etc., which is sufficient to cause military disadvantages, will be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 1 year and not more than 7 years,” the ministry said.
In recent years, the Taiwanese military, in cooperation with national security units, has cracked many espionage cases, it said in a statement.
“The Chinese Communist Party’s intelligence gathering and espionage activities are becoming increasingly rampant,” it said.
The Chinese side “uses money, investment, gambling and other methods to lure and recruit active-duty military personnel to sign written documents, shoot videos and other methods to swear allegiance to the enemy, which has seriously damaged national security,” the ministry said.
A small number of officers and soldiers had “committed treason and crimes” and should be strictly punished, it said.
The ministry was working on a draft amendment to Article 24 of the Criminal Law of the Army, Navy and Air Force that would help “strengthen countermeasures against the Chinese Communist Party’s infiltration and sabotage activities against the national military.”
The amendment will be submitted to the island’s government for review after completing the notice and legal procedures.
The National Security Bureau said in a recent report that the number of Taiwanese citizens charged with attempted espionage for China rose “significantly” to 64 last year from 10 in 2022 and 48 in 2022.
Seven retired military officials were prosecuted last year for activities such as giving China the coordinates and details of military bases and the de facto U.S. embassy in Taipei.
Edited by Mike Firn.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Staff.
In February, a bizarre and grotesque claim began circulating among Chinese social media users.
According to the claim, several young Americans who supported the Democratic Party had castrated themselves in protest against U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.
Many social media users appeared to be in shock and to believe the claim, especially since it was accompanied by what looked like a news article.
“It was reported by the U.S. media!” one user insisted, arguing that media coverage lent the claim credibility.
But what many social media users didn’t realize was that the “U.S. media” they had seen was not a news provider – it was a satirical website.
Keyword searches revealed that the website cited by Chinese social media users was “Genesis Times,” a U.S. political satire site that describes itself as “The Most Reliable Source of Fake News on the Planet.”
Some Chinese social media claimed that several Democrats had castrated themselves to protest against Trump.(Weibo and X)
This is not an isolated incident. Chinese social media users frequently find themselves caught up in misinformation originating from U.S. satirical websites.
But what makes them so vulnerable?
Cultural differences
Summer Chen, former editor-in-chief of the Taiwan FactCheck Center, pointed to a “cultural difference” between the U.S. and other countries, including China, where people don’t have a tradition of such political parody.
China lacks a strong political satire culture due to strict government censorship, harsh penalties for dissent and a political system that discourages public criticism of leaders.
The Chinese government controls media and online discourse, making satire risky. Historically, satirists have faced severe consequences, leading to self-censorship and a lack of mainstream satirical traditions.
Chen also cited the fact that U.S. satirical websites tend to mimic the design of established media outlets, contributing to the confusion of readers.
The design of many political satire sites mimics the look of mainstream news.(Genesius Times)
Parody, not fake news
Darren Chan, a doctoral student researching political satire at Temple University, told AFCL that the term “satirical news” was often used interchangeably with “fake news” but since the mid-2010s, “fake news” has more often been used to refer specifically to intentionally false or misleading information.
“The biggest difference between ‘satirical news’ and ‘fake news’ lies in the intention of the fabricated news content,” he explained.
“Satire is a form of entertainment social critique that aims to point out injustice or unethical behavior in society. By making its audience laugh and think, satirical news has the potential to foster civic engagement and political participation.
“Fake news refers to content that deliberately spreads false information with the aim of harming the reputation of the people involved in the story.”
Satire can serve as an independent check on the media, and is a highly context-dependent genre that one only truly understands if one is familiar with the context of the events being lampooned, he said.
In a country like China that lacks such a context or tradition of political satire, he said that this type of parody may become another way to confirm rising nationalist and anti-American sentiment, he added.
Wei-Ping Li, a postdoctoral researcher at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, said that many Chinese social media users are unfamiliar with parody and may just repost sensational stories that confirm their beliefs and attract views.
Sorting fact from fiction
Chen said a website’s information should be checked to determine whether the news was genuine.
For instance, satirical news sites or their X accounts often say they publish fake news to avoid legal liability. Genuine news organizations usually publish information about their offices and staff.
Another reliable indicator of the credibility of news is to search for other mainstream media reports on the same topic, she added.
“Media is a very competitive industry. There won’t be any big event that only one covers and others don’t. You can therefore easily compare different reports on the same event from several credible news organizations.”
Chan also pointed out the importance of asking the same question about news on social media as one would of traditional mainstream outlets: “How did the platform obtain this information, where is the evidence and has the poster made mistakes in the past?”
“Think before you interact. In this age of eye-grabbing headlines, pause and think about the content and potential reaction of your post, rather than just impulsively sharing,” he said.
Translated by Shen Ke. Edited by Taejun Kang.
Asia Fact Check Lab (AFCL) was established to counter disinformation in today’s complex media environment. We publish fact-checks, media-watches and in-depth reports that aim to sharpen and deepen our readers’ understanding of current affairs and public issues. If you like our content, you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and X.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Alan Lu for Asia Fact Check Lab.
A popular French TV show recently aired an undercover investigation by two young French journalists, Justine Jankowski and Marine Zambrano, who snuck into multiple clothing factories in China with one aim: to find evidence of forced labor.
And if you watched their program, part of France 2’s “Cash Investigation” series, you might be convinced that they found astonishing and scandalous evidence.
The fact of the matter, though, is that the show’s creators used blatant lies to come to that conclusion, and I have all the evidence on today’s show.
What is even more delicious is that the show also featured seasoned anti-China “academic” Adrian Zenz, who has ended up being exposed by this show at the same time. Two birds with one stone!
Grab a cuppa and come with me as I explain all of the tricks the two female reporters used, and highlight clearly why they are lies.
This is Reports on China, I’m Andy Boreham in Shanghai. Let’s get reporting!
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is a self-declared “crusader” who believes the United States is in a “holy war” against the left, China, and Islam.
In his 2020 book American Crusade: Our Fight to Stay Free, Hegseth vowed that, if Trump could return to the White House and Republicans could take power, “Communist China will fall—and lick its wounds for another two hundred years”.
Hegseth declared that the Chinese “are literally the villains of our generation”, and warned, “If we don’t stand up to communist China now, we will be standing for the Chinese anthem someday”.
In Hegseth’s conspiratorial worldview, Chinese communists and the international left are conspiring with Islamists against the United States and Israel, which are sacred countries blessed by God.
The year 2024 saw profound changes in the international landscape as well as remarkable progress in China’s reform and development. Under the stewardship of General Secretary Xi Jinping, China made important progress in its diplomacy. We fostered a good external environment for China’s high-quality development, brought much-needed stability to a changing and turbulent world, and made new and solid strides in building a community with a shared future for mankind. This year, the international situation is still full of challenges. But the mission of China’s diplomacy remains unchanged.
BANGKOK — Air force aerobatic and demonstration teams from China, India and the United States streaked through Bangkok’s overcast skies Friday in a rare joint-showcase marking the 88th anniversary of the Royal Thai Air Force.
China’s August 1st Aerobatic Team of People’s Liberation Army Air Force, the U.S. Air Force’s F-35A Lightning II Demonstration Team and India’s Air Force Surya Kiran Aerobatic Team each performed separately, entertaining crowds at Bangkok’s Don Mueang air base.
Also present was Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn, a former F-5 fighter jet pilot.
“We did not have special conditions to have both the U.S. and Chinese aircraft to join. Politics is set aside and mutual respect is there,” Thailand’s air force chief Air Marshal Punpakdee Pattanakul told reporters.
Vortices are visible on its wings as a U.S. Air Force F-35A demonstration team fifth generation jet performs over Don Mueang air base in Bangkok, March 7, 2025.(Pimuk Rakkanam/RFA)India’s Air Force Surya Kiran Aerobatic Team fly Hawk Mk-132 jets as they perform over Don Mueang air base in Bangkok, March 7, 2025.(Pimuk Rakkanam/RFA)Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force Chengdu J-10 jets perform over Don Mueang air base in Bangkok, March 7, 2025.(Pimuk Rakkanam/RFA)A U.S. Air Force F-35A demonstration team fifth generation jet opens its weapons bay as it performs over Don Mueang air base in Bangkok, March 7, 2025.(Pimuk Rakkanam/RFA)Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force Chengdu J-10 jets perform over Don Mueang air base in Bangkok, March 7, 2025.(Pimuk Rakkanam/RFA)India’s Air Force Surya Kiran Aerobatic Team fly Hawk Mk-132 jets as they perform over Don Mueang air base in Bangkok, March 7, 2025.(Pimuk Rakkanam/RFA)Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force pilots greet spectators as they taxi at Don Mueang air base in Bangkok, March 7, 2025.(Pimuk Rakkanam/RFA)A Royal Thai Air Force JAS 39 Gripen fighter jet takes off from Bangkok’s Don Mueang air base, Mar. 7, 2025.
(Pimuk Rakkanam/RFA)A U.S. Air Force demonstration team pilot waves to spectators before taking off Don Mueang air base in Bangkok, March 7, 2025.(Pimuk Rakkanam/RFA)Spectators arrive at Don Mueang air base for the international air show commemorating the 88th anniversary of the Royal Thai Air Force, Mar. 7, 2025, in Bangkok.
(Pimuk Rakkanam/RFA)
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Pimuk Rakkanam for RFA.
As far as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is concerned, each person in the Global North is worth nine people in the Global South. We get that calculation from IMF data on voting power in the organisation relative to the population of the Global North and Global South states. Each country, based on its ‘relative economic position’, as the IMF suggests, is given voting rights to elect delegates to the IMF’s executive board, which makes all of the organisation’s important decisions. A brief glance at the board shows that the Global North is vastly overrepresented in this crucial multilateral institution for indebted countries.
Chinese authorities raided a Protestant “house church” in the eastern province of Anhui amid a nationwide security clampdown during the annual National People’s Congress in Beijing, according to a U.S.-based rights group and local Christians.
Police and local officials raided the Xinyi Village Church in Anhui’s Huainan city, detaining nine members including pastor Zhao Hongliang, the Christian rights group China Aid reported on March 5.
Four men including Zhao are now being held under “criminal detention,” while the remaining five were released on bail, the group said.
Local officials from the neighborhood committee and the bureau of religious affairs have taken control of the church premises, which police continue to harass its congregation, the report said.
The church is a member of the ruling Communist Party’s Three-Self Patriotic Association of approved organizations, but had refused to comply with official demands, according to China Aid (in Chinese).
Nationwide crackdown
Under President Xi Jinping, officials have engaged in a nationwide crackdown on Muslim, Christian and Tibetan Buddhist religious activities and venues since 2017.
Protestant churches are allowed to function if they are part of the government-backed Three-Self Patriotic Association. The three “selfs” refer to self-governance, self-support and self-propagation –- essentially rejecting any foreign influence –- and the “patriotic” refers to loyalty to the Chinese government.
China has many unauthorized “house churches” across the country, which are frequently raided by authorities, and some “Three-Self” churches have also been targeted at times, too.
A Protestant pastor surnamed Chen who is familiar with the Anhui case said the move was part of heightened security measures during the National People’s Congress in Beijing.
“The parliamentary sessions started on March 5, so controls are much tighter,” Chen said. “Things are pretty strict with churches … with the state security police frequently harassing them and issuing warnings.”
The notice from the Chinese Panji district government detailing action taken against Xinyi Village Church, Feb. 26, 2025.(China Aid Coordination)
According to a Feb. 26 directive from Huainan’s Panji district religious affairs bureau, the government have assigned officials to a task force to manage Xinyi Village Church, as part of a move to “strengthen the standardized management of religious sites.”
“They will enter the church to carry out relevant work until the church’s internal management is on track,” the notice said.
It threatened severe punishment for Christians who violated laws and regulations, saying, “Christian believers must participate in normal religious activities within the scope permitted by the constitution, laws, and regulations, in accordance with Christian doctrines and canons.”
“Violations of laws and regulations will be severely punished in accordance with the law and regulations,” the notice warned.
Repeated calls to the Panji district government, its Tianji sub-district office and the district ethnic and religious affairs bureau rang unanswered during office hours on Friday.
A church in every village
A Protestant pastor at a “house church” in Huainan who gave only the surname Zhou for fear of reprisals said the area has a high proportion of Christians, with a church in every village.
“The local government may be looking to win approval [from higher up],” Zhou said. “Whenever a new leader takes office, he will crack down on churches.”
The Xinyi Village Church raid came after police in the southwestern region of Guangxi raided a house church in Baise city, taking away nine members including children, ChinaAid reported.
While most were released, three church members — Qin Tao, Cui Tiande, and Chen Shaofeng — have yet to be released, it said.
A pastor from Guangdong’s Jiangmen city who gave only the surname Sun for fear of reprisals said there have been reports of similar raids across China in recent weeks, particularly targeting Christians who bring their children to church events.
“Churches in Henan, Anhui, Shenzhen and other inland areas have been threatened and intimidated,” Sun said. “[The authorities are] saying that they shouldn’t allow minors to attend gathering, or that these are illegal gatherings.”
A house church member from the southwestern province of Yunnan who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals told RFA Mandarin that authorities in Shangri-La have imposed a limit of eight people per gathering on churches in the area.
“No adults can’t gather in groups of more than seven or eight,” the person said. “The have installed surveillance cameras at their front doors.”
“There are also surveillance cameras in the church, but we don’t go there now.”
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Qian Lang for RFA Mandarin.
TAIPEI, Taiwan – No country should expect to suppress China and maintain good relations with it, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Friday, as he warned of a reaction if the United States tried to contain his country.
But in response to questions about U.S. relations as President Donald Trump begins his second term, Wang also held out the prospect of a successful partnership between the world’s two biggest economies.
“No country should fantasize that it can suppress China and maintain a good relationship with China at the same time,” Wang told a news conference on the sidelines of China’s annual parliamentary meeting in Beijing.
“Such two-faced acts are not good for the stability of bilateral relations or for building mutual trust.”
The United States has imposed tariffs of 20% on Chinese goods since Trump took office – 10% last month and a further 10% coming into effect on Tuesday.
Trump imposed the tariffs in retaliation for what he says is China’s refusal to stop the outflow of precursors for the synthetic opioid fentanyl. U.S. officials blame fentanyl for tens of thousands of deaths each year.
China moved swiftly to retaliate with tariffs of its own on American agricultural and food products while accusing the United States of “bullying.”
Wang said the U.S. should reassess its policies, particularly on tariffs. He also dismissed U.S. criticism over fentanyl, describing it as a domestic issue that the U.S. must confront internally.
The U.S. “should not repay kindness with grievances, let alone impose tariffs without reason,” he said, adding that China had provided the United States with “various assistance” to tackle the flow of fentanyl precursor drugs into the U.S.
“If one side blindly exerts pressure, China will resolutely counter that,” Wang said.
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi (podium, 2nd L) speaks at a press conference during the ongoing National People’s Congress in Beijing on March 7, 2025.(Jade Gao/AFP)
Wang warned of the “law of the jungle” in international relations if powerful countries bullied smaller ones.
“Small and weak countries will get burned first, and the international order and rules will be under severe shock,” he said. “Major countries should undertake their international obligations … and not seek to profit from and bully the weak.”
He said China welcomed more countries into a “community of a shared future.”
“History proves that the only way to be a real winner is to care for everyone,” he added.
‘Playing with fire’
On broader U.S.-China relations, Wang denounced “unjustified external suppression” of China’s technology sector and reiterated Beijing’s opposition to Washington’s Indo-Pacific strategy.
Wang called on the U.S. to foster “positive and pragmatic cooperation and dialogue,” while emphasizing that mutual respect remained the foundation of U.S.-China ties, and their economic and trade ties were interdependent.
“The two countries can be partners that contribute to each other’s success,” he said.
Wang held out the prospect of good ties with the European Union as well, noting that annual China-EU trade has grown to US$780 billion.
“We also believe that Europe can be a reliable partner. Both sides have the ability and wisdom to properly handle existing issues through friendly consultations,” he said.
Wang reaffirmed Beijing’s position on self-ruled Taiwan and accused outside powers of fueling instability, adding that anyone supporting Taiwan’s independence would get burned.
“Taiwan has never been a country; it was not in the past, and it will never be in the future,” he said, warning that “allowing Taiwan independence undermines stability in the Taiwan Strait.”
Wang further criticized “external support” for the island’s independence.
“Supporting Taiwan independence is playing with fire,” he said.
On the war in Ukraine, Wang repeated China’s stance of support for political negotiations to end a conflict that he said “could have been avoided.”
“China has been advocating for peace talks since the first day of the crisis,” he said.
“All parties should learn something from the crisis,” he said. “Among many other things, security should be mutual and equal, and no country should build its security on the insecurity of another,” he said.
Edited by Mike Firn
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Taejun Kang and Alan Lu for RFA.
China’s annual Two Sessions summit is underway, and two documents released in the lead-up indicate drummed-up government support for alternative proteins.
As political leaders from across China convene at the annual Two Sessions summit, alternative proteins have received another significant boost in documents released ahead of the meetings.
Over 10 days, the Two Sessions – so named for the annual meetings of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference – will see decision-makers ratify legislation, review government work, and set an economic agenda for the forthcoming year.
Already the global leader in renewable energy, China has been expanding its support for alternative proteins like plant-based or cultivated meat, with experts suggesting that if the country wants to decarbonise, half of its protein consumption must come from alternative sources by 2060.
Leaders in the US have already highlighted fears of being overtaken by China’s biotech prowess. The government’s current five-year agriculture plan encourages research in cultivated meat and recombinant proteins, while the bioeconomy development plan aims to advance novel foods too. And President Xi Jinping has called for a Grand Food Vision that includes plant-based and microbial protein sources.
Building on this, one of the new documents is an official notice from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, which outlines key areas for national agricultural science and tech innovation through to 2028.
The second document came just over a week later. Dubbed the No. 1 Central Document, it is published every February as the year’s first policy statement released by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council.
According to alternative protein think tank the Good Food Institute (GFI) APAC, this is the single most influential document signposting what China considers its top policy goals for agriculture.
We spoke to Mirte Gosker, managing director of GFI APAC, to break down what the new documents mean for the alternative protein sector in China and the wider Asia-Pacific region.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and concision.
Green Queen: What did last year’s Two Sessions conference say about alternative proteins?
Mirte Gosker: Shortly before the kickoff of last year’s Two Sessions conference, China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) convened the first meeting of its new Science and Technology Innovation Strategic Advisory Committee, which has been tasked with supercharging food innovation nationwide.
A few days later, National People’s Congress deputy Xiong Tao, who is also chairman of the publicly traded Angel Yeast Co., submitted a formal proposal to accelerate the development of microbial proteins – an emerging category that harnesses the power of fermentation to create everything from Quorn nuggets to animal-free dairy. His proposal is now under review at MARA.
Courtesy: Eat Just
GQ: What is GFI APAC’s take on the official notice issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs?
MG: This can be interpreted as a blueprint from the highest ranks of China’s agricultural authorities about what they believe are top domestic priorities.
Among the priority areas identified were:
“Agricultural processing and food manufacturing”, including “research on novel food resource development technology”, which the document says can “create a new generation of food to meet new scenarios and special needs”;
“Agricultural product quality and safety”, including studies to assess the safety and nutritional efficacy of alternative proteins and other novel resources.
These explicit mentions of novel foods are expected to drive more R&D funding towards alternative proteins. Reading the full document in context, analysts anticipate a special emphasis on the development of technologies like microbiomics and AI, which can optimise food production processes, identify new protein formulations and raw materials, and reduce costs.
GQ: What does the No. 1 Central Document say about alternative proteins? What’s your take on this?
MG: Among this year’s goals outlined in the No. 1 Central Document is “building a diversified food supply system” including efforts “to cultivate and develop biological agriculture and explore novel food resources.”
(“Biological agriculture” in this context can be interpreted as agriculture enhanced by biotechnology, rather than conventional farming methods.)
The document’s authors specifically mention a need for “expanding food sources through multiple channels”, including fungal and algae-based protein extraction techniques used in the development of many plant-based and fermentation-derived products.
Additionally, the No. 1 Central Document calls for strengthening “supervision” of food safety and agricultural product quality – a step seen as important to establishing broad consumer trust and market adoption of new protein sources.
The fact that food safety was specifically referenced in both documents sends a clear message to national regulators: Now is the time to develop comprehensive approval frameworks that can enable emerging food categories to thrive.
Courtesy: Viee
GQ: How do you view China’s alternative protein ecosystem and the government’s support?
MG: As the world’s single largest meat market, China has huge incentives to transition towards smarter ways of satisfying soaring protein demand. Conventional methods are highly inefficient: feeding up to 100 calories of crops to a cow produces just one calorie of beef.
This squandering of resources also creates an uneasy dependence on the West, as millions of tonnes of soybeans and corn are imported to satisfy the demand for animal feed.
In other words, by mastering the art of making delicious and affordable protein from plants, microbes, and other novel sources, China can produce a whole lot more of it, while bolstering its self-sufficiency.
GQ: Do you expect any novel food approvals in the country this year?
MG: While there is currently no regulatory process through which Chinese companies can apply for the market approval of novel proteins like cultivated meat, representatives from the corresponding regulatory body, the China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment, have mentioned at recent conferences that they are paying close attention to international developments and working to create a robust framework for cultivated meat safety assessment.
In the meantime, the development of cultivated meat has continued to accelerate across the country. Last August, GFI APAC worked with Chinese partners to co-organise the first-ever China-Singapore scientific symposium, which brought together dozens of experts from academia, industry, and government.
At the closed-door event, Chinese and Singaporean scientists exchanged insights on techniques to scale up alternative meat industrialisation, including layering flavour pockets from cultivated animal cells into plant-based protein sheets to make hybrid products, and designing innovative bioreactors that reduce cultivated meat production costs by leveraging computer simulations to test for optimal growth conditions.
GQ: What makes you hopeful about the APAC future food system in 2025?
Courtesy: Fengtai District Media Integration Center
MG: Across Asia, countries are investing in R&D and manufacturing infrastructure that could thrust the alt protein sector into commercial viability – pulling from the proven playbook used to scale up solar energy and electric vehicles.
South Korea is expected to issue its first cultivated meat approvals this year, and Thailand is hot on its heels. China just opened its first alt-protein innovation centre in Beijing; Malaysia’s prime minister commissioned a cultivated-meat industry feasibility study; and GFI is leading efforts to coordinate regional regulatory frameworks, so that startups can simultaneously roll out products in multiple markets.
Just as renewables are central to satisfying soaring energy demand, there is enormous economic opportunity in producing protein more efficiently. As our planet warms, countries will need innovative ways to make more meat with fewer resources – and Asia is once again laying the groundwork to sell the world what it needs.
Trump’s trade war against the US’s neighbors Mexico and Canada, as well as China, continues with sweeping tariffs on the three countries going into effect just after midnight on Tuesday, March 4. A 25% tariff was added on all imports from Canada and Mexico, and an additional 10% tariff on imports from China.
On March 5, Trump granted a one-month exemption on imports from Mexico and Canada for US automakers, following a conversation with the three largest auto manufacturers in the country: Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis, according to an announcement by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. Other levies remain in place.
The Donald Trump administration has made it clear that the top two priorities of the US government are to weaken China and to strengthen Wall Street.
The small Central American nation of Panama has found itself at the center of Trump’s strategy.
In his inauguration speech on January 20, the US president falsely claimed that “China is operating the [Panama] canal”, and he insisted “we’re taking it back”. In a press conference two weeks before, Trump implied that he was willing to use military force to take over the canal if Panama refused to give the United States effective control.
Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal on Thursday overturned the convictions of jailed human rights lawyer Chow Hang-tung and two fellow organizers of a candlelit vigil for victims of the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, although the three have already served their sentences.
The ruling relates to charges of failing to hand over alliance documents to national security police, a requirement that only applies to “foreign agents.”
Chow, Tang and Tsui were jailed in 2023 for four-and-a-half months each for refusing to comply with the request.
The Court of Final Appeal cited the use of documents by the prosecution that were “heavily redacted” as a key plank in its decision.
Tang Ngok-kwan, center, a core member of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, and Medina Chow Lau Wah-chun, left, mother of Chow Hang-tung, a core member, leave the Court of Final Appeal in Hong Kong, March 6, 2025.(AP)
“The Court held that in such circumstances the redactions were not only self-defeating by removing from evidence the only material relied upon for establishing that the [Alliance] were foreign agents, but also made it impossible for the Appellants to have a fair trial as they were deprived of all knowledge as to the nature of the prosecution’s case on an essential element of the offense,” the judgment said.
“Accordingly, the Court unanimously allowed the appeals, and quashed the convictions and sentences.”
‘Convincing reasons’
Chow made a V sign for “victory” in court after hearing the decision.
Former Alliance member Tang Ngok-kwan told reporters outside the court on Thursday that the ruling had proved that the Alliance was never a “foreign agent” as accused by police.
“Chow Hang-tung … played a leading role in the process and put forward very convincing reasons to explain why the police’s request was an abuse of power, which made us more confident,” Tang said. “She was hugely important in bringing this about.”
“If we hadn’t persisted, we would have been forced to give in, and in the end, the Court of Final Appeal also checked and prevented this abuse of power,” he said.
Overseas-based lawyer Kevin Yam said the police had acted “outrageously” in demanding the Alliance’s documents.
“The Hong Kong police went too far,” he said. “They were deliberately testing how far the National Security Law would allow them to go.”
He said the police actions hadn’t even met the standards of courts in mainland China, which are tasked with doing the bidding of the ruling Chinese Communist Party.
‘Crime’ of organizing a vigil
Chow remains behind bars pending a separate trial for “incitement to subversion” under the 2020 National Security Law, alongside two other former Alliance leaders, rights lawyer Albert Ho and labor unionist Lee Cheuk-yan.
“Their ‘crime’ is being the organisers of the large public annual vigil which was held in Hong Kong every year on 4 June from 1990 to 2020, to commemorate the victims of the Beijing Massacre on 4 June 1989,” former Hong Kong Bar Association Chairman Paul Harris wrote in a March 6 op-ed piece for the British legal paper The Counsel.
Harris criticized British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for not stopping to listen when he tried to raise Chow’s case with him in 2024.
“This was a bad omen for the attitude of a new Labour government towards Hong Kong,” Harris wrote. “Since then my fears have been realised as I watched Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ trade promotion visit to Beijing in which Hong Kong seems to have been studiously ignored.”
Chow has been behind bars since 2021, when she was a recently engaged 36-year-old, with most of that time served in pretrial detention, he said.
“Like her co-defendants, she is detained simply for exercising the rights of free speech and freedom of assembly which were guaranteed to them by Britain and China in 1984, and which are exercised by everyone in the U.K. all the time,” he said.
The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has stated that her detention is arbitrary, and Amnesty International has recognized her as a prisoner of conscience, he added.
Setback for free speech
The Court of Final Appeal also ruled on Thursday in the sedition case of talk-show host and People Power activist Tam Tak-chi, the first Hong Kong person tried on a sedition charge since the city’s handover from British to Chinese rule in 1997.
Tam had appealed on the basis that free speech must be protected, and that incitement to violence must be proven in sedition cases, but the court rejected that argument on Thursday, upholding his conviction.
Tam, also known by his nickname Fast Beat, was found guilty on eight counts of sedition linked to slogans he either spoke or wrote between January and July 2020.
Hong Kong talk show host Tam Tak-chi is escorted, in hand-restraints, to court from Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre, March 2, 2021.(Kin Cheung/AP)
He is also being tried for “inciting an illegal assembly” and “disorderly conduct,” after he gave a number of public speeches calling for the “liberation” of Hong Kong, some of which were peppered with Cantonese swear-words.
Tam also stands accused of using the now-banned slogan of the 2019 protest movement — “Free Hong Kong, revolution now!” — and of saying that the authorities should “delay no more” in disbanding the police force, using a homonym for a Cantonese epithet involving the target’s mother.
Tam allegedly also shouted: “Down with the [ruling] Chinese Communist Party (CCP)!”
1938 law
In the sweeping colonial-era legislation under which Tam’s charges were brought, sedition is defined as any words that generate “hatred, contempt or dissatisfaction” with the government, or “encourage disaffection.”
The law was passed under British rule in 1938, and is widely regarded as illiberal and anti-free speech. However, by the turn of the century, it had lain dormant on the statute books for decades, until being resurrected for use against opposition politicians, activists, and participants in the 2019 protest movement.
The Court rejected Tam’s appeal on Thursday, in a move that the overseas-based Hong Kong Democracy Council said would have “wide-ranging implications” for future sedition cases in Hong Kong.
“It’ll allow the regime to continue to easily convict for sedition,” the Council said via its X account. “Up to now it has a 100% conviction rate … The regime’s used sedition to throttle political speech.”
Kevin Yam said the decision had “set human rights protections in Hong Kong back 70 years, to the 1950s.”
“The chances of being found guilty … are now much greater,” he said, in a reference to “sedition” charges.
Exiled former pro-democracy lawmaker Ted Hui, who is himself wanted by national security police, said the use of “sedition” charges was tantamount to a “literary inquisition” in Hong Kong.
“The door is wide open for the government to use sedition as political retaliation against anyone who says some embarrassing to the government, for example criticizing the budget for cutting bus concessions for the elderly,” Hui told RFA Mandarin.
“The court has made the threshold for sedition convictions very low indeed,” he said.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Chen Zifei for RFA Mandarin.
Lauded by supreme leader Mao Zedong as a role model, 1960s exemplary soldier Lei Feng is getting renewed attention in China under President Xi Jinping’s push for patriotic education.
The ruling Communist Party’s propaganda machine has been churning out stories about Lei washing his comrades’ feet and darning their socks after a long march, propaganda posters of him helping villagers lay sandbags or wielding hand-grenades in a snowstorm, as well as a slew of books and patriotic movies about his life.
Much of the story is fiction, many commentators say, but it’s officially sanctioned and may not be questioned.
March 5 has been designated “Learn from Lei Feng Day,” and young people across the country attended ideological courses on him, “so that the Lei Feng spirit will shine in the new era,” state broadcaster CCTV said.
Meanwhile, volunteers turned out in cities and rural areas to offer their skills and expertise for free, from haircuts and blood pressure checks to lessons in how to use technology, it said.
“Young volunteers are … patiently teaching the elderly to use smartphones, and popularizing anti-fraud knowledge,” CCTV said. “In the fields, volunteers bring professional agricultural technology training to growers [and] deliver practical agricultural knowledge to farmers.”
The party-backed Global Times newspaper described Lei as “a late soldier renowned for his generosity and altruistic deeds” in a post to X on March 5.
“Groups of volunteers, including soldiers, police officers and lawyers, provided various free services for residents and visitors, such as hairdressing, legal consultation and career planning in downtown #Shanghai,” the post said.
In 2017, TV host Liang Hongda sparked a furious backlash in state media for “defaming” Lei after he suggested that much of the propaganda around the soldier was staged.
Chinese ‘model worker and soldier hero’ Lei Feng is shown in an undated photo.(Public Domain)
“Lei Feng is a role model that all Chinese young people learn from,” state news agency Xinhua wrote in a 2023 feature article about people who take Lei’s reported selflessness as a model.
“Times change, but we still need the Lei Feng spirit,” the article said. “The things he did may seem trivial, but behind them was a nobility that we can all achieve.”
It cited the sacrifice of a character in science-fiction author Liu Cixin’s blockbuster novel The Wandering Earth who gave his life to save the planet, saying Lei’s spirit of self-sacrifice still has a place in an age of high technology.
Born to poor peasant family
According to the official account, Lei Feng was born in a poor peasant family in Hunan’s Wangcheng county in 1940, and “lived a life of hunger and cold from childhood.”
After Mao proclaimed the People’s Republic of China in 1949, Lei became a diligent disciple of Mao’s political writings, the story goes, although there is widespread skepticism around the official hagiography of Lei.
Pictures of late People’s Liberation Army soldier Lei Feng, Chinese President Xi Jinping and late Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong overlook a courtyard in Shanghai, China, September 26, 2017.(Aly Song/REUTERS)
“Under the nourishment of Mao Zedong Thought, he grew up to be a great proletarian revolutionary fighter, an outstanding member of the Communist Party of China, and a good son of the motherland and the people,” according to the description of a 1963 book about Lei Feng’s life titled: Lei Feng: Mao Zedong’s Good Soldier.
The official account of his death in 1962 — that a power pole fell on him — was overturned in 1997 when his former comrade Qiao Anshan confessed to having crushed Lei by reversing into the power pole with a truck that the pair of them had been ordered to wash.
The ongoing veneration of “revolutionary heroes” is part of a nationwide enforcement of patriotic feeling under Communist Party leader Xi Jinping.
The Patriotic Education Law, which took effect on Jan. 1, 2024, was passed in a bid to boost patriotic feeling among the country’s youth, and applies to local and central government departments, schools and even families.
Li Meng, a resident of the eastern province of Jiangsu, said there is scant interest in Lei Feng among ordinary Chinese, however.
“They’re promoting learning from Lei Feng, but ordinary people living in the real world don’t buy it,” Li told RFA Mandarin in an interview on Thursday.
“Telling the truth, doing good deeds and helping others don’t always have a good outcome.”
The government has to work extra hard to get people to think about Lei, said a resident of the eastern province of Shandong who gave only the surname Lu for fear of reprisals.
“Everyone knows that local governments are just intervening to get people to [learn from Lei Feng],” she said. “It’s all fake, and not worth bothering with.”
“They tell so many lies, they even believe them themselves,” Lu said.
Scholar Lu Chenyuan said Lei Feng’s image is a product of the party propaganda machine.
“Lei Feng’s actions, including the photos, were staged,” Lu said. “Anyone with a little bit of intelligence knows that.”
“There’s no way that such a fake idol can improve the morality of the Chinese people.”
He said figures like Lei Feng are a feature of totalitarian rule.
“They promote illusory moral idols and try to reshape social morality with the help of past propaganda models,” Lu said. “But it won’t have any practical effect.”
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Qian Lang for RFA Mandarin.
China holds hundreds of thousands of its own officials in solitary, incommunicado detention each year, depriving them of legal representation in a practice known as “liuzhi,” according to overseas-based rights groups.
The liuzhi system, which means “retention in custody,” is run by the ruling Communist Party’s disciplinary arm, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, or CCDI.
It allows party investigators to “forcefully disappear, arbitrarily detain and torture individuals for up to six months,” the Spain-based rights group Safeguard Defenders said in a March 3 report.
“All without any judicial oversight or appeal mechanism, the system is specifically designed to force confessions from the victims,” it said.
Who can be detained in this way?
The liuzhi system is part of the Communist Party’s internal investigation system.
That means that anyone working in state or party organizations, from school administrators and hospital managers to executives at state-owned enterprises, can be disappeared in this way.
Even private business owners with close ties to government officials have been netted by the liuzhi system, according to a CNN investigation.
Disappeared former Foreign Minister Qin Gang is a possible victim of the liuzhi system, although the government has made nothing public about his sacking.
And Beijing has yet to shed any light on the fate of disappeared former Defense Minister Li Shangfu, despite a storm of media and social media speculation, since firing him from his post as defense minister on Oct. 24, 2023 with no explanation given.
Qin, 57, has been absent from public view since he met with the foreign ministers of Sri Lanka and Vietnam, and with the Russian deputy foreign minister in Beijing on June 25, 2023.
According to Chinese Human Rights Defenders, or CHRD, the liuzhi system isn’t new, but has expanded in scale and scope under President Xi Jinping.
Some 200,000 people are believed to have been held under the system since 2018, when it replaced the “shuangliu” investigation system, according to compilations of official figures.
The liuzhi system was among reforms brought in since Xi took power, and “rapidly started moving the country even further away from the most basic human rights standards,” Safeguard Defenders said in its report this week.
First authorized under the 2018 National Supervision Law, the liuzhi system allows party investigators to forcefully disappear any person of interest for up to six months, under mandatory solitary confinement, it said.
“The vast majority of victims are kept from any type of communication with the outside world and their family members are not informed of their whereabouts (or even the retention itself),” it said, adding that people can be held anywhere from custom-built facilities to government-run hotels, guesthouses or offices.
And the system operates wholly outside the the criminal justice system, there is no way to appeal or exercise oversight, the report said.
Why are rights groups highlighting this now?
The number of people in liuzhi keeps rising every year, with the number of detainees rising from 26,000 in 2023 to 38,000 in 2024, an increase of 46%, CHRD said, describing it as “the harshest form of investigation.”
“All are victims of the CCDI’s systematic and widespread use of arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances and torture (due to the prolonged use of solitary confinement),” the group said.
CHRD said the sheer scale of arbitrary detention in China could amount to a “crime against humanity.”
“These patterns echo a concern set out since 2017 by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention: that the scope and scale of wrongful detention by Chinese authorities may constitute crimes against humanity,” the Chinese Human Rights Defenders network said in a statement launching the report on Wednesday.
It called for independent, international investigations into the Chinese government’s use of arbitrary detention as possible crimes against humanity.
Translated with additional reporting by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Lucie Lo for RFA Mandarin.
TAIPEI, Taiwan – Chinese authorities have arbitrarily detained thousands of people for peacefully defending or exercising their rights over the past six years and convicted 1,545 prisoners of conscience, a rights group said on Wednesday.
Chinese Human Rights Defenders, or CHRD, a non-government organization of domestic and overseas Chinese rights activists, said the scope and scale of wrongful detention by Chinese authorities may constitute crimes against humanity.
“They were sentenced and imprisoned on charges that stem from laws that are not in conformity with the Chinese government’s domestic and international human rights obligations,” the group said in a report.
“Their cases proceeded through the full criminal justice system, with police, prosecutors, and courts arbitrarily depriving them of their liberty in violation of their human rights.”
Prisoners of conscience have faced severe penalties, with an average sentence of six years, increasing to seven for national security charges.
Three people, identified as Tashpolat Tiyip, Sattar Sawut and Yang Hengjun, were sentenced to death, while two, Rahile Dawut and Abdurazaq Sayim, received life sentences, the group said, adding that 48 were jailed for at least a decade.
Map of sentenced prisoners of conscience across mainland China excluding Hong Kong and Macao.(CHRD)
Among the convicted, women activists and marginalized groups, including ethnic Tibetans and Uyghurs, were disproportionately represented among those wrongfully detained, the group said.
Out of all the prisoners of conscience aged 60 or older, two-thirds were women, it added.
“Human rights experts and international experts have raised that people over the age of 60 should generally not be held in custody due to the effects on their physical and mental health,” Angeli Datt, research consultant with CHRD, told journalists in a press briefing Wednesday.
“That two-thirds of them are women was really shocking to me,” she said.
“Worse still, the impunity Chinese government officials enjoy at home emboldens them to commit abuses abroad,” the group said.
China dismissed a Swiss report last month alleging that it pressures Tibetans and Uyghurs in Switzerland to spy on their communities.
‘Endangering national security’
The CHRD said that under Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the scope and scale of the use of arbitrary detention to silence critics and punish human rights personnel had grown.
The organization documented a total of 58 individuals known to have been convicted of “endangering national security.”
“The overall average prison sentence for a national security crime is 6.72 years, though this figure excludes those sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve or life imprisonment,” it said.
In Hong Kong, more people were convicted of “subversion” and “inciting subversion” — terms that the U.N. describes as “broad and imprecise, making them prone to misapplication and misuse.”
In one 2024 case, authorities convicted 45 people for participating in a primary election, an act fully protected under both domestic and international law. Subversion charges accounted for 37% of all prisoners of conscience sentenced in Hong Kong during this period.
China also punishes individuals for political activities related to Taiwan under broad judicial guidelines that criminalize discussions on Taiwan’s status, advocacy for referendums, and support for its international participation. These rules allow trials in absentia and the death penalty, instilling fear among Taiwanese citizens who uphold democratic freedoms.
In August 2024, for instance, a Zhejiang court sentenced former Taiwanese activist Yang Chih-yuan, 34, to nine years for separatism.
A former Taiwanese politician turned pro-independence advocate, he moved to China in 2022, avoiding politics to teach a strategy game.
Despite this, he was detained in August, placed under “residential surveillance,” and arrested in April 2023 – reportedly the first Taiwanese convicted under China’s new rules targeting Taiwan-related political activities.
“When defenders are imprisoned for this work and silenced, people and governments around the world are left without information about domestic developments, and without allies for reform,” said CHRD.
Edited by Taejun Kang.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Alan Lu for RFA.
Donald Trump’s second term may not be all bad for all nations, especially China. According to many Chinese internet users, Trump’s policies have unwittingly strengthened their country. This is why he has earned the popular nickname “Chuan Jianguo,” which means “Make China Great.”
Trump’s first term made at least three notable contributions to China’s rise:
First, his presidency shattered the image of the US as a paragon of democracy for many Chinese, revealing political chaos and deep societal divisions in the US. For decades, some Chinese idealized the United States as a “beautiful country”: the literal translation of the Chinese name for the US.
China’s health care system has recently come to public consciousness in the US with “TikTok Refugees” on Red Note comparing healthcare in the two countries.
In today’s China report, we will explore health care under China’s health system and contrast it with that of the US’s privatized system.
Our understanding of China — and U.S.-China relations — has become a defining feature of all global politics. The China Report is a new show produced in collaboration with Pivot to Peace where every week, journalist Amanda Yee and political analyst KJ Noh will be helping you through all the propaganda with an independent view of the country we are taught to hate, but know so little about.
BANGKOK – Thailand had received offers from three countries, including the United States, to accept 48 detained Uyghurs for resettlement but it instead deported most of them to China last week, at Beijing’s request, a Thai opposition member of parliament said on Wednesday.
Thailand repatriated 40 of the Uyghurs to China on Feb. 27, ignoring warnings from the U.S., the U.N. and human rights groups that they risked torture when they were returned to the northeastern region of Xinjiang, which they fled more than 10 years ago. Five other Uyghurs are in a Thai prison and the whereabouts of three have not been disclosed.
Thailand said it agreed to what it said was the voluntary repatriation of the 40 men after a formal request from Beijing, and after getting Chinese assurances they would be safe, and because it had received no offers from other countries to resettle them.
But opposition lawmaker Kannavee Suebsang told RFA affiliate BenarNews that Thailand had received offers from three countries to take the men.
“We’re revealing this because the government has consistently claimed that no country was willing or that they contacted countries but no one would accept the Uyghurs,” Kannavee said.
“However, the information from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is clear on this matter,” he said, referring to a meeting with ministry officials on July 10, 2024, on the plight of the detained Uyghurs during which Kannavee cited the officials as saying “there were three countries … that had expressed their readiness to accept Uyghurs for resettlement.”
He identified the three countries as the U.S., Sweden and Australia.
The Thai foreign ministry spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
BenarNews was not able to contact the U.S. State Department but the Reuters news agency cited a department official as saying the U.S. had offered to resettle the 48 Uyghurs.
BenarNews was also not able to contact Swedish or Australian spokespeople.
Kannavee said Thailand had declined the offers from those countries as China had requested that the men be sent there.
“China also wanted the Thai government to send them back,” he said.
“China asked Thailand not to send Uyghurs to any country and wanted Thailand to consider returning them to China.”
Kannavee added the Thai foreign ministry had repeated during a parliamentary committee meeting in July last year the U.S., Sweden, and Australia had expressed their willingness to accept Uyghurs for resettlement.
Uyghurs in China’s vast Xinjiang region have been subjected to widespread human rights abuses, including detention in massive concentration camps. Beijing denies that.Sunai Phasuk, senior Thailand researcher at Human Rights Watch, told BenarNews that he too knew that other countries had offered to take the Uyghurs. He declined to identify the countries, citing diplomatic sensitivities.
“I can confirm that several countries have expressed their willingness to accept them,” he said.
“But there was no opportunity to make these offers a reality because Thailand did not follow up on the issue.”
Sunai said the Thai government had “tried to play with words to suggest that sending Uyghurs to China was the only option because nobody would accept them for resettlement.”
He added he suspected that the government had maintained the position that “only official expressions of interest through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs channels would be considered official intent.”
China dismissed fears for the safety of the men last week saying they would be re-united with their families and resettled.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who had called on Thailand at his confirmation hearing in January not to send the men to China, said Thailand’s deportation of them violated international agreements and ran counter to the kingdom’s own commitment to protect human rights.
Thailand also faced a barrage of criticism from the U.N. and human rights groups. U.N. experts said on Jan. 21 the Uyghurs in Thailand would likely face torture if forced back to China and they urged Bangkok not to deport them.
Thailand has been a staunch U.S. ally for decades and also has strong ties with Beijing, the region’s dominant economic player. China is among the top trading partners and foreign investors in Thailand, and its leading source of foreign tourist arrivals.
Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.
BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news service.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Nontarat Phaicharoen and Kunnawut Boonreak for BenarNews.
The waiting is almost over, Donald Trump is about to hit America’s workers with the largest tax increase they have ever seen. Trump’s taxes on imports (tariffs) from Canada, Mexico, and China will cost people in the United States somewhere around $400 billion a year, or around $3,000 a household. This is far larger than any tax increase we’ve seen in the last half-century…
Hysteria spreads as China first blockades, and later invades, one of Taiwan’s frontline islands. Some citizens race to evacuate, disinformation abounds, riots occur, and others pledge to fight for their homeland. These are all elements in a Netflix political thriller television series called Zero Day. The ten-part series is due to hit screens this year, […]
One of Israel’s largest aerospace companies, Israel Aerospace Industries, has secured a contract to supply Vietnam’s military with two surveillance satellites worth US$680 million, the newspaper Haaretzreported.
The observation satellites would help Vietnam “address China’s provocations against its neighbors in the South China Sea,” the Israeli paper quoted unidentified defense industry sources as saying.
Radio Free Asia was not able to independently verify the information.
A Vietnamese source, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the subject, said the government-owned firm Israel Aerospace Industries, or IAI, had a long history of cooperation with Vietnam and news of negotiations over a satellite deal had surfaced as early as 2018.
According to Haaretz, besides IAI, France’s Thales and the U.S. company Lockheed Martin were also offering surveillance satellites to Vietnam and “there could still be problems” for the Israeli contractor.
The paper cited Israeli sources as saying Vietnam was “a tough customer” and agreements can fall through because of domestic rivalry or pressure from other foreign contractors.
The Vietnamese client is believed to be the so-called General Department II of the Vietnamese army, or the military intelligence department, the newspaper said.
Satellites ‘too expensive’
Haaretz said that under the secured deal, the Israeli firm would sell two satellites to Vietnam, including “an optical imagery photography satellite and a synthetic-aperture radar satellite that provides a picture of the ground even at night or through complete cloud cover.”
One of them could be the OptSat 3000, an advanced electro optical satellite, equipped with a 70 cm aperture telescope and sensitive sensor and capable of delivering “better than 50 cm high resolution imagery of locations on Earth,” according to IAI.
Each satellite would cost US$300 million without launch facilities, “a price that space experts say is excessive,” the paper said, noting that in Vietnam corruption remained “rampant, even at the top.”
An Israeli Spyder mobile air defense system at the Vietnam’s Defense Expo on Dec. 9, 2022.(RFA)
A businesswoman, Nguyen Thi Thanh Nhan, who was believed to act as an intermediary for arms procurement from Israel to Vietnam, is on a Vietnamese wanted list for bid rigging and bribery but domestic media did not mention any defense deal.
Israel in recent years has become one of the top defense suppliers to Vietnam as it seeks to diversify its arms and military equipment procurement to reduce dependence on traditional partner Russia.
It is estimated that Vietnam has bought about US$2 billion worth of equipment from Israeli companies, including air defense systems, drones and radar systems.
“These technologies, especially radars, are what Israel is really good at,” said Yusuf Unjhawala, a defense analyst in Bangalore, India.
The satellites may be costly but Vietnam “needs its own tools of surveillance,” Unjhawala told RFA.
Vietnam and China are locked in a complex territorial dispute in the South China Sea, where China holds an expansive claim of up to 90% of the waterway.
IAI was present at several defense exhibitions in Hanoi to showcase its products and is reportedly aiming to establish a joint venture to manufacture military hardware in Vietnam.
Edited by Mike Firn
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Staff.
