WASHINGTON — Radio Free Asia photojournalist Gemunu Amarasinghe has had a distinguished career capturing images across Asia. His ability to access intimate moments sheds new light on the stories behind the struggle for freedom and human rights.
In the special report, “In Washington, Myanmar democracy advocates push for a Breakthrough,” Amarasinghe captures the efforts of Myanmar’s National Unity Government in Washington, D.C., as Deputy Foreign Minister Moe Zaw Oo and press aide Aye Chan Mon navigate the complexities of international diplomacy.
In “Nyah Mway: The boy who will forever be 13,” he delves into the tragedy of a young refugee from Myanmar who was fatally shot by police in Utica, New York. His photographs reveal the effect the incident has had on Nyah’s family and community, offering insight into broader issues of systemic violence and the experiences of displaced people in the United States.
Through his lens, Amarasinghe provides a comprehensive perspective on resilience and transition. Here are some of his photos:
Zin Mar Aung, Moe Zaw Oo and Aye Chan Mon, members of Myanmar’s National Unity Government, walk outside the U.S. Capitol after meeting with lawmakers in January 2024.(Gemunu Amarasinghe/RFA)Aye Chan Mon, a press aide with Myanmar’s National Unity Government, works from home as her cat tries to intervene.(Gemunu Amarasinghe/RFA)Moe Zaw Oo, deputy foreign minister of Myanmar’s National Unity Government, is seen at the NUG’s office at a coworking space in downtown Washington.(Gemunu Amarasinghe/RFA)Buddhist monks chant at the burial of Nyah Mway, 13, in Utica, New York, July 6, 2024.(Gemunu Amarasinghe/RFA)Nyah Mway’s mother Chee War, father Ka Lee Wan, and little sister Paw War at their home in Utica, New York, Aug. 18, 2024.(Gemunu Amarasinghe/RFA)Hong Kong democracy activist Frances Hui stands outside the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Washington, D.C., during a protest to mark World Press Freedom Day, May 2, 2024.(Gemunu Amarasinghe/RFA)Huen Lam visits the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, D.C., March 30, 2024.(Gemunu Amarasinghe/RFA)
Edited by Jim Snyder.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Paul Nelson and H. Léo Kim for RFA.
The World Health Organization has called on China to fully release crucial data surrounding the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan in 2020, although the call was dismissed by Beijing.
Five years ago, on Dec. 31, 2019, WHO’s Country Office in China picked up a media statement by the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission on cases of “viral pneumonia” in Wuhan, China, the World Health Organization, or WHO, said in a statement commemorating the start of the pandemic.
“In the weeks, months and years that unfolded after that, COVID-19 came to shape our lives and our world,” the United Nations health body said. “We continue to call on China to share data and access so we can understand the origins of COVID-19. This is a moral and scientific imperative.”
The statement came after the World Health Organization (WHO) urged China to release key COVID-19 origin data from Wuhan.
It added: “Let’s take a moment to honor the lives changed and lost, recognize those who are suffering from COVID-19 and long COVID, express gratitude to the health workers who sacrificed so much to care for us.”
China on Tuesday dismissed calls on its government to release more data from the emergence of the pandemic, which has killed at least 7 million people worldwide, and defended its record on international collaboration.
Peter Daszak, a member of the World Health Organization team investigating the origins of COVID-19, takes a swab sample on the balcony of a hotel in Wuhan, China, Feb. 6, 2021.(Hector Retamal/AFP)
“After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic five years ago, China immediately shared epidemic information and virus gene sequences with the World Health Organization and the international community,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a regular news briefing in Beijing on Tuesday.
“On the issue of COVID-19 origin tracing, China has always adhered to the spirit of science, openness and transparency, actively supported and participated in global scientific tracing, and resolutely opposed any form of political manipulation,” Mao said, quoting WHO experts as saying that they were satisfied with the access granted during their February 2021 visit.
Early days of COVID-19 pandemic
When reports first began to emerge of a “mystery virus” causing pneumonia in patients in Wuhan, China said it definitely wasn’t SARS, but later said it was a SARS-like virus.
Ho Pak-leung, head of the University of Hong Kong’s Centre for Infection, warned in early January 2020 that that it was highly possible that the disease was spreading from human to human, given the sheer number of cases that appeared in a short period of time.
Human-to-human transmission was confirmed by the WHO on Jan. 19, 2020.
The WHO also continued to advise that the disease was spread through “respiratory droplets and contact” rather than traveling through the air like smoke. This led governments and health services around the world to emphasize hand-washing and social distancing over other preventive measures.
But a WHO team sent to Wuhan to investigate the origins of the coronavirus pandemic in February 2021 sent out mixed signals regarding the transparency of the probe. Investigators said China refused to hand over raw patient data on early COVID-19 cases, making it harder to figure out how the outbreak began.
Whistleblowing doctors like Li Wenliang died of COVID-19 in the early phase of the pandemic, while those who survived were later silenced by intense political pressure.
Citizen journalists who went to Wuhan to document the early weeks of the outbreak and the citywide lockdown that followed were eventually caught, detained and sentenced to lengthy jail terms. Even after their release, some continue to face restriction and harassment.
Medical workers attend to COVID-19 patients in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Wuhan, China, Feb. 6, 2020.(China Daily via Reuters)
Rights groups said many Chinese people who spoke out against the government’s handling of the initial outbreak that eventually spread around the world had been prevented from getting anywhere near the team.
Competing theories of origin
Experts hired by the global health body to carry out a politically sensitive investigation of the origins of the pandemic had initially said that a leak from the lab was “extremely unlikely.” But WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus later said the lab leak theory warranted further investigation, as experts from 13 countries criticized a lack of transparency from China.
The U.S. intelligence community remains divided over whether COVID-19 originated from a lab in Wuhan or from natural exposure to an infected animal, and is only sure it wasn’t a deliberate bioweapon, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told the Senate in March 2023.
China has continued to insist that the virus originated from outside its borders, a claim reiterated by Mao on Tuesday.
“The international scientific community has more and more clues pointing to the global origin of the virus,” she said. “Origin tracing should also be based on a global perspective and carried out in multiple countries and regions.”
Better public health response still needed
Nearly five years since the first SARS-CoV-2 infections were reported, most countries have lifted public health and social measures and have moved to end their national COVID-19 emergencies, the WHO said on its official website.
The bio-containment level 4 laboratory, called P4 (left), is seen on the campus of the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, Dec. 21, 2024.(Hector Retamal/AFP)
“COVID-19 continues to circulate widely, however, presenting significant challenges to health systems worldwide,” it said, adding that “tens of thousands” of people are infected or re-infected with SARS-CoV-2 each week around the world.
It called on governments to “sustain the public health response to COVID-19 amid ongoing illness and death and the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants.”
According to the National Institutes of Health’s LitCovid website, which compiles COVID-19 research from around the world, Long COVID and sequelae — new health problems like neurological and cardiovascular disease that are caused by the virus — are among the most heavily researched and trending topics among scientists.
Papers on the virus’ links to neurodegeneration, chronic fatigue and mitochondrial damage topped the list of trending topics out of more than 440,000 articles from 8,000 scientific journals on the website on Dec. 31, 2024.
Edited by Roseanne Gerin.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Luisetta Mudie.
China reiterated its concerns about the Philippines’ plan to acquire the US Typhon missile defense system. In the foreign ministry press briefing on Thursday, December 26, the spokesperson of the ministry, Mao Ning, claimed it is a “strategic and offensive” weapon which may fuel arms race in the region. China also restated its long-standing demand for the withdrawal of the system already deployed near its borders.
Ning reminded the leadership in the Philippines of their promise of never taking sides among the major powers.
Police in Manchester were called to the Chinese consulate over the weekend after staff started an altercation with a Radio Free Asia journalist who filmed them cleaning up Hong Kong protest graffiti on the street outside.
Four members of staff surrounded RFA Cantonese Service reporter Matthew Leung on Saturday afternoon after he started taking photos of them scrubbing away slogans in white paint daubed on the sidewalk outside the Chinese consulate on Manchester’s Denison Road.
The slogans read “F— PRC!” [People’s Republic of China] “Independence for Hong Kong!” and “Long Live the Republic of China!” the official name for democratic Taiwan, according to photos shared on the messaging app Telegram on the afternoon of Dec. 28. There was also an epithet referring to China by a highly offensive historical slur, which has been used by Hong Kongers in protest slogans before.
A staff member from the Chinese consulate in Manchester, center, tells an RFA reporter they can’t take photos on the street outside the building, Dec. 28, 2024.(Matthew Leung/RFA)
A Telegram user said they had painted the slogans, “because they are communists.”
Staff moved quickly to scrub the graffiti away, but threatened RFA reporters who arrived and started taking photos at the scene.
“We know your name, we know your address,” one warned RFA’s reporter. “I know our rights — if you take photos of us, we have image rights.”
“We don’t want any photos or videos to appear on the Internet. If you publish them, we will notify the police,” one staff member said.
The Chinese Consulate in the northern British city made headlines in 2022 after Consul General Zheng Xiyuan assaulted a Hong Kong protester inside the Chinese consulate in Manchester.
Anti-Communist Party slogans outside the Chinese Consulate in Manchester, Dec. 28, 2024.(Social Media)
There are also growing concerns over Chinese Communist Party infiltration of all aspects of British life, and warnings from Hong Kongers in exile over growing acts of violence by Beijing’s supporters and officials alike.
Another staff member, who spoke accented Cantonese, said: “Stop shooting; we’re calling the police now,” while another staff member repeated the demand in English.
One staff member tried to gain access to the digital touchscreen of the camera, despite a verbal complaint from the RFA journalist, but was eventually pulled away by colleagues.
Staff also demanded that the RFA journalist identify themselves, which the reporter did, showing an official National Union of Journalists press accreditation.
Workers clean the boundary walls of the Chinese consulate in Manchester after they were daubed with Hong Kong protest graffiti, Dec. 28, 2024.(Matthew Leung/RFA)
“This is the Consulate General,” said one of the men, to which the reporter replied that he was standing on a public footpath.
“If you want to shoot, you have to get our permission,” the man retorted, citing “diplomatic privileges under the Vienna Convention.”
When the police arrived after being called both by the RFA reporter and consulate staff, they took away a bag of evidence, and reminded consular staff that journalists have a right to film in public places.
They questioned everyone at the scene, including asking the RFA reporter if they saw who painted the slogans, then left.
They initially told RFA Cantonese they would investigate the graffiti as a “hate crime,” but later said that they wouldn’t be pursuing an investigation because consular staff at “refused to cooperate.”
Greater Manchester Police officers at the Chinese consulate, Dec. 28, 2024.(Matthew Leung/RFA)
Simon Cheng, founder and chairperson of the advocacy group Hongkongers in Britain, said the move appeared to be a bid to control media activities on British soil.
“At the very least, it can be said that the consular staff have no sense of their own legal rights or boundaries,” Cheng said. “More importantly, if they start applying China’s method of restricting media freedom and blocking filming in the UK, that’s definitely a form of transnational repression.”
Hong Kong exile groups in the United Kingdom have hit out at alleged transnational repression by the Chinese Communist Party on British soil after a church in the southern British town of Guildford canceled a children’s workshop on justice, civil liberties and human rights in 2023.
Cheng said the staff appeared to have toned down their approach following an incident in 2022, which saw six Chinese diplomats including the Consul General withdrawn after an attack on Hong Kong protester Bob Chan.
“There are slight differences in the way they handled it … they appeared to be de-escalating and threatening to call the police, but that doesn’t mean they had any legal grounds or justification for doing so,” Cheng said.
He said the graffiti expressed simmering anger among Hongkongers in the U.K. at China’s ongoing crackdown on public dissent and political opposition in Hong Kong, but called on protesters to “express their demands in a legal manner.”
Translated by Luisetta Mudie.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Matthew Leung and Jasmine Man for RFA Cantonese.
MANILA – The Chinese military’s Southern Theater Command has staged a large-scale combat readiness exercise around the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, the ministry of defense in Beijing said.
Personnel from China’s navy and air force, as well as the coast guard, took part in Sunday’s drills at the group of reefs that China refers to as Huangyan Dao, with a U.S. Navy ocean surveillance ship spotted in the area.
The ministry said that since the beginning of the month, the Southern Theater Command “has organized its naval and air force troops to continuously strengthen maritime and airspace patrols” around the shoal.
Scarborough Shoal is known in the Philippines as Bajo de Masinloc, and is well inside its exclusive economic zone, just 125 nautical miles (232 kilometers) from the main Philippine island of Luzon.
In a video clip released by the Chinese Command, several military aircraft including two Su-30 fighter jets, an H-6K bomber and a Shaanxi Y-8 transport plane, were seen flying over the reefs while at least three naval ships led by the 11,000-ton Type 055 large destroyer Xianyang were also present.
Naval ships from China’s Southern Theater Command taking part in combat readiness drills at Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea on Dec. 29, 2024.(Southern Theater Command)
“This is China flexing its muscle and making a statement about its claim of territorial sovereignty over Scarborough Shoal,” said Ray Powell, a U.S. maritime analyst and director of the SeaLight project at Stanford University.
“Looking at 2024 as a whole, we’ve seen China pass new policy enabling its coast guard to detain border violators for up to 60 days and establish straight baselines around Scarborough Shoal to bolster its case that it is Chinese territory,” Powell told Radio Free Asia, adding that Beijing has also increased its regular coast guard and maritime militia presence to push Philippine coast guard and fisheries patrols further away, and increased its military presence.
“Beijing is putting real teeth behind its ‘indisputable sovereignty’ claim over the shoal,” he said.
No more ‘gray zone’
Powell spotted the USNS Victorious, a U.S. Military Sealift Command ocean surveillance vessel, patrolling nearby, apparently to monitor the Chinese exercise.
“I don’t think we can be sure, but it seems very timely. I can’t think of another reason it would have tarried there at that time unless it was to surveil China’s patrol,” he told RFA.
The United States is the Philippines’ treaty ally and has repeatedly condemned China’s aggression in the waters over which China claims the lion’s share. China’s claims were rejected by an international tribunal in 2016 and are being disputed by other littoral states.
Manila has yet to respond to Beijing’s latest activities but the Philippine army chief said this month that China had “upscaled its presence” in the West Philippine Sea, referring to the area of South China Sea under Philippine jurisdiction.
Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr., chief of the armed forces, told an RFA reporter in Manila that his office had adopted an acronym for Chinese activities in the region – ICAD, or illegal, coercive, aggressive and disruptive, actions – instead of gray zone activities.
Gray zone tactics are aggressive actions that jeopardize a nation’s security but are under the threshold of war and therefore difficult to respond to.
A Su-30 fighter jet from China’s Southern Theater Command is seen flying over Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea on Dec. 29, 2024.(Southern Theater Command)
The Philippine military’s new strategy is to set up an effective presence in the West Philippine Sea with a “whole nation approach,” with all sectors of society taking part in the maritime strategy, according to Brawner.
“The Philippines lacks the maritime capability to directly challenge China’s effective control of Scarborough Shoal,” said Stanford’s Powell.
“It will have to press its case on the international stage that China’s actions have violated international law by denying Philippine fishermen access to the shoal and by permitting environmental destruction of the shoal by its own fishermen through their illegal giant clam harvesting,” the analyst added.
In 2016 Manila brought Beijing to a U.N. arbitral tribunal which ruled that almost all China’s claims in the South China Sea were illegal and therefore invalid. China refused to take part and rejected the ruling.
The Philippine government, however, is considering a new legal case against China for its violations of the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea and is seeking support from other nations, sources told RFA.
Edited by Mike Firn.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Staff.
TAIPEI, Taiwan – Chinese state media has launched a campaign to highlight friendly cooperation with the United States in an attempt to improve turbulent ties as a new administration under Donald Trump prepares to take office, an analyst said.
The state-run People’s Daily and Global Times, which often carry searing criticism of the U.S., called on Dec. 25 for written work, photos and videos from people and organizations around the world with the aim of “bridging cultural differences and fostering friendship and trust” with the U.S.
“What they are doing now is part of the latest efforts by the Chinese government to foster a more collaborative relationship with the Trump administration,” Li Wei-Ping, a researcher with Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, told Radio Free Asia.
President-elect Donald Trump has made no secret of his plans to hit China with massive tariffs and experts say his second presidency looks set to become dominated by a grand rebalancing of trade ties.
Li said that China has been working to steer its relations with the U.S. in a more positive direction since Trump’s election win, with remarks by top officials such as Foreign Minister Wang Yi and the tone of state media editorials.
Wang, in a Dec. 27 commentary in the state-run Study Times, urged the new U.S. administration to “make the right choices” by working with China and “striving for stable, healthy, and sustainable development in Sino-U.S. relations.”
Xinhua News Agency, in a Dec. 28 editorial, also extolled people-to-people exchanges such as tourism in fostering relations.
“The talk, the articles, and the campaign … could be deemed as a whole as an indication that the Chinese government is preparing for the Trump administration 2.0.,” said Li.
Trump had also made friendly gestures to China such as his invitation to Chinese leader Xi Jinping to his inauguration in January, said Li, while noting that many factors could impact what had been a “turbulent” relationship in recent years.
Trump has, for instance, nominated outspoken China critics to top jobs: Marco Rubio for secretary of state; Rep. Mike Waltz of Florida for national security adviser, and Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York as ambassador to the United Nations.
Trump then announced on Dec. 9 he had picked three China trade hawks for top roles at the State Department, including Michael Anton, who has previously argued it is not in U.S. interests to defend Taiwan from an invasion by China.
In early December, the Chinese Foreign Ministry called on the U.S. not to do anything to undermine Beijing’s territorial claim on Taiwan, enshrined in its “one-China” principle.
“I am hesitant to say the narrative has totally shifted and believe we need more time to see if this current amicability will last,” Li said.
Editing by Taejun Kang.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Alan Lu.
In recent months, even across the collective West’s media, growing admissions are being made about both Russia and China’s superior military industrial capacity. With Russia’s first use of the intermediate-range ballistic missile, the Oreshnik, it is admitted that Russia (and likely China) possess formidable military capabilities the collective West currently lacks.
Despite the collective efforts of NATO in arming, training, and backing Ukraine, Ukrainian forces continue to give ground at an accelerated rate across the entire line of contact amid the ongoing Russian Special Military Operation (SMO).
On Friday evening, President-elect Donald Trump filed a brief with the Supreme Court that took no position on whether a ban on TikTok would violate First Amendment rights. Instead, he wrote that he has “consummate deal-making expertise,” and as president would be able to “negotiate a resolution to save the platform while addressing the national security concerns expressed by the government.”…
In a three-part series, Radio Free Asia examines the reach of the Chinese Communist Party far beyond its borders, on U.S. college campuses and through technology.
RFA speaks with victims of intimidation, policy experts, and lawmakers on what’s at stake.
Episode 1: Across US College Campuses
Episode 1 delves into incidents like a Harvard University protester being forcibly removed by a Chinese Communist Party-linked student, a violent attack at a Columbia University vigil and the harassment of Georgetown students for advocating democratic values.
The documentary uncovers how these students and their families face surveillance, intimidation, and retaliation, both abroad and in China, raising urgent calls for stronger protections and accountability to safeguard freedom on American campuses.
Episode 2: TikTok — National Security Threat?
Episode 2 of China Beyond Borders—”TikTok: Silent Invasion”—investigates the national security risks posed by TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance.
Episode 2 investigates the potential national security risks posed by TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, amidst allegations of connections to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Explained are the platform’s data collection practices, its potential to manipulate users through algorithms, and the broader implications for American privacy and democracy.
As the deadline for ByteDance’s divestment of TikTok is approaching, the episode raises critical questions about balancing national security with the principles of an open society.
Episode 3: China-linked hackers spark global concern
Episode 3 of the “China Beyond Borders” series explores a recent cyberattack uncovered by Proofpoint, a leading American cybersecurity firm specializing in email security and threat defense. In May 2024, Proofpoint identified a China-linked hacker group, “UNK_SweetSpecter,” targeting technical personnel connected to a top AI company. Using phishing emails with malware, the group sought to steal intellectual property, coinciding with U.S. export restrictions on AI models. Despite China’s improved intellectual property laws, enforcement remains inconsistent, fueling international concerns about technology theft. Experts urge stricter research oversight to address China’s aggressive strategies in global tech acquisition.
Episode 3 reveals a recent cyberattack uncovered by Proofpoint, a leading American cybersecurity firm specializing in email security and threat defense.
Proofpoint identified a China-linked hacker group, “UNK_SweetSpecter,” targeting technical personnel connected to a top AI company.
Using phishing emails with malware, the group sought to steal intellectual property, coinciding with U.S. export restrictions on AI models. Despite improved international intellectual property laws, enforcement remains inconsistent.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Staff.
China is moving ahead with plans to build the world’s largest hydropower dam on Tibet’s longest river despite environmental, water security and displacement concerns raised by India, Bangladesh and Tibetan rights groups.
The Chinese government granted approval to build the Medog Hydropower Station on the lower reaches of the Yarlung Tsangpo river, where it is expected to generate 300 billion kilowatt-hours of power annually, three times the power of China’s massive Three Gorges Dam, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.
The river originates in the glaciers of western Tibet and flows into India and Bangladesh, where it is known as the Brahmaputra and the Jamuna rivers, respectively.
China did not disclose details about when construction was likely to start and end, or the likely impact of the new dam project, including the number of people displaced or the ecological, environmental and cultural consequences of what Tibetans consider as one of their most sacred and biodiverse regions.
(Paul Nelson/RFA)
But experts and activists say the impact will be significant Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon in Nyingchi city and that China could use the dam to promote its interests. It will almost certainly affect water flow patterns and native flora and fauna, and it also raises concerns about water security as China may use the dam to control the flow of water downstream.
“Any dam on a river has huge ecological consequences downstream,” India-based water conservation expert Vishwanath Srikantaiah told Radio Free Asia. “China may use it as a tool by withholding and not being transparent with data on dam operations.”
“Lessons that India can take are from the dams on the Mekong River that China has built [in Laos] and which have impacted downstream nations particularly in years of drought, and how China has operated them broadly on principles of self-interest,” Srikantaiah said.
Research has shown that China’s 11 mega-dams on the upper reaches of the Mekong River have resulted in an increase in the frequency and severity of downstream drought over the past two decades. The dams have restricted or blocked water from reaching downstream countries like Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia, as well as disrupted biodiversity and eroded river banks.
Tibetan protests
China’s dam projects have generated protests in the past.
The Yarlung Tsangpo River flows past Medog town in Tibet, Dec. 24, 2024.(Planet Labs)
Beijing’s investment to build the dam is expected to exceed 1 trillion yuan (US$137 billion) Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon in Nyingchi city more than four times the total investment of 250 billion yuan (US$34.5 billion) for the Three Gorges Dam project.
The hydropower station will be built in Medog county (Motuo in Chinese) in Nyingtri (Nyingchi) prefecture in the Tibet Autonomous Region, bordering the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.
“As far as hydropower projects in the Himalaya are concerned, there is already substantial evidence of their negative impacts,” Manshi Asher, a climate activist and researcher based in North India, told Radio Free Asia.
“This project will undoubtedly alter the environmental flows of the river,” Asher said. “The larger the dam, the greater the impact on the river flows.”
It isn’t clear how many people will have to move to make way for the dam and reservoir it will create.
The Yarlung Zangbo River is shown on the Tibetan Plateau in a Feb. 25, 2004, satellite image.(NASA)
The Three Gorges dam resulted in the displacement of around 1.4 million people, but the area around the Yarlung Tsangpo River where the Medog Hydropower Station is expected to be built is less populated than the area around the Yangtze River, where the Three Gorges dam was built.
Earthquake concerns
Another major concern is the Medog hydropower dam’s location in a geologically unstable area prone to earthquakes and landslides, that could be exacerbated by the huge volume of water it would hold, said Srikantaiah.
According to a study by the advocacy group International Campaign for Tibet, China has built or plans to build at least 193 hydropower dams in Tibet since 2000, of which, almost 80% are large or mega-sized.
Of the 193 dams, over 60% are reportedly still in the proposal or preparation stages. But if completed, they could displace over 1.2 million people and destroy religious sites, the rights group said.
Dechen Palmo, climate researcher at the Dharamsala, India-based Tibet Policy Institute, noted that while the specific details of the dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo river have not been disclosed, the project would likely result in the displacement of Tibetans and the destruction of ancient monasteries.
The new mega-dam also would pose environmental risks with significant impact on neighboring countries, including India, as has been the case with multiple dams that China has built on Tibet’s rivers, he said.
Additional reporting by Tenzin Norzom and Dickey Kundol. Edited by Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan, and by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Tibetan.
A movie that has been dubbed “China’s Barbie” has turned out to be a huge box-office hit, grossing more than 680 million yuan (US$93 million) since it opened on Nov. 22 and sparking heated social media debate about gender roles and feminism.
The romantic comedy “Herstory” follows the life and loves of Shanghai single mother Wang Tiemei as she starts a new life after losing her job.
Directed by Shao Yihui, the fast-paced drama focuses on Wang’s friendship with a troubled new neighbor, taking in challenges that include dating setbacks, stalking and an abusive ex.
Described by China’s New Weekly outlet as “a healing work dedicated to urban drifters,” the movie includes a scene where two men compete for a woman’s affection by listing all of the books they’ve read by Japanese feminist writer Chizuko Ueno.
A scene from the Chinese movie ‘Herstory’(Maxtimes Pictures)
The movie comes at a time of plummeting marriage rates in China, flagging births and a rapidly aging population.
President Xi Jinping wants the country’s women to step up and embody “the traditional virtues” of marriage and raising children in a bid to “rejuvenate” the nation.
When Xi took power in 2012, China ranked 69th in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report, which measures policies and suggests measures to address gender inequality. By 2023, the country had fallen to 107th place.
Chinese women face major barriers to finding work in the college graduate labor market and fear getting pregnant if they do land a job out of concern their employer will fire them, a common concern despite protection on paper offered by China’s labor laws.
While “Herstory” has been largely welcomed by Chinese women on social media as a refreshing take on women’s lives, and hailed as the Chinese equivalent of Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” about the iconic Mattel doll, there has been some political backlash against the film’s rather moderate message of female empowerment.
When some social media comments complained that one of the publicity posters for the movie only showed the male characters, others jumped in to warn against “gender confrontation,” a buzzword often used by pro-government “little pink” commentators to suggest that support for women’s rights has crossed lines laid down by the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s “public opinion management” operations.
“Congratulations on 600 million,” wrote Weibo user “A_Guide_To_Not_Growing_Up commented from the eastern province of Jiangsu on Dec. 14. “I want to see the female characters on the poster next time.”
“Don’t do this again,” @Look_up_at_the_sky_and_don’t_think added from Guangxi, while @RachelCe added: “I seem to remember that the main characters in your movie were three women,” adding a “shocked” emoji.
A scene from the Chinese movie ‘Herstory’(Maxtimes Pictures)
But @Cabbage from Jiangsu wrote: “Some people in the comment area started to create gender antagonism. Anyone in this movie can be on the poster, even the building security guard.”
@iamloooopy wrote: “Most of the laughs in this movie were provided by the male actors,” while @Elaineeeee countered: “The jokes were provided by the screenwriter, thanks.”
But others were too busy celebrating the film’s success.
“It’s important for women to be subjects, not just objects,” read one social media comment, while another said: “I laughed and cried at the same time.”
Another wrote: “May we all have the courage to pursue true freedom.”
Translated with additional reporting by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Kitty Wang for RFA Mandarin.
TAIPEI, Taiwan – Ko Wen-je, a former Taipei mayor and one-time presidential candidate, has been charged with bribery, profiteering, embezzlement and breach of trust and could face more than 28 years months in prison if convicted
Ko, who won support among younger voters in a presidential election this year with promises to upend Taiwan’s political establishment, was indicted on Thursday and released on NT$30 million (US$1 million) bail on Friday after spending 113 days in detention.
Ko, chairman of the Taiwan People’s Party, or TPP, has denied the charges.
“I still believe in myself. I’m not the type of person who would seek personal gain, engage in corruption, or break the law,” he told reporters outside his home on Friday.
“That said, facing challenges like this makes me realize there are areas in my life I need to reflect on.”
His party called the indictment a “politically motivated crackdown and judicial injustice.”
Prosecutors allege Ko orchestrated financial benefits worth billions of New Taiwan dollars for private developers during his mayoral tenure, embezzled political donations, and accepted bribes totaling tens of millions.
“After committing these crimes, investigators found shredded notes in his office containing instructions for accomplices to leave the country and inquiries about internal financial records,” the prosecutor’s office said in a news release.
“This behavior demonstrates his attempts to evade responsibility and his poor attitude following the offenses, leading to the specific charges requested,” it added.
Rise and fall
Ko, a physician, rose to fame in Taiwanese politics by winning two elections for the mayor of Taipei in 2014 and again in 2022.
In 2019, he founded the TPP, positioning it as an alternative to Taiwan’s dominant political parties, the Democratic Progressive Party, or DPP, and the Kuomintang, or KMT.
In the 2024 presidential election, Ko and the TPP gained significant support among younger voters, presenting a fresh alternative to the establishment and posing a challenge to the dominance of the major parties.
Ko has, however, stirred controversy with what critics see as an ambiguous stance on cross-straight relations. The TPP had maintained a nuanced approach, emphasizing the importance of peace and stability while advocating for Taiwan’s sovereignty.
Ko criticized the DPP and KMT over their China-related policies, calling the approach of the former overly confrontational and of the latter too conciliatory.
In 2015, Ko promoted a concept he called “one family on both sides of the Strait”, speaking in favour of exchanges between Taiwan and China and fostering goodwill.
The ruling DPP, which takes a pro-sovereignty stance, accused Ko of “echoing” the Chinese Communist Party’s unification rhetoric and “undermining” Taiwan’s sovereignty.
China regards Taiwan as a renegade province that must be reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary. The democratic island has been self-governing since it effectively separated from mainland China in 1949 after the Chinese Civil War.
Edited by Taejun Kang.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Alan Lu for RFA.
TAIPEI, Taiwan – Ko Wen-je, a former Taipei mayor and one-time presidential candidate, has been charged with bribery, profiteering, embezzlement and breach of trust and could face more than 28 years months in prison if convicted
Ko, who won support among younger voters in a presidential election this year with promises to upend Taiwan’s political establishment, was indicted on Thursday and released on NT$30 million (US$1 million) bail on Friday after spending 113 days in detention.
Ko, chairman of the Taiwan People’s Party, or TPP, has denied the charges.
“I still believe in myself. I’m not the type of person who would seek personal gain, engage in corruption, or break the law,” he told reporters outside his home on Friday.
“That said, facing challenges like this makes me realize there are areas in my life I need to reflect on.”
His party called the indictment a “politically motivated crackdown and judicial injustice.”
Prosecutors allege Ko orchestrated financial benefits worth billions of New Taiwan dollars for private developers during his mayoral tenure, embezzled political donations, and accepted bribes totaling tens of millions.
“After committing these crimes, investigators found shredded notes in his office containing instructions for accomplices to leave the country and inquiries about internal financial records,” the prosecutor’s office said in a news release.
“This behavior demonstrates his attempts to evade responsibility and his poor attitude following the offenses, leading to the specific charges requested,” it added.
Rise and fall
Ko, a physician, rose to fame in Taiwanese politics by winning two elections for the mayor of Taipei in 2014 and again in 2022.
In 2019, he founded the TPP, positioning it as an alternative to Taiwan’s dominant political parties, the Democratic Progressive Party, or DPP, and the Kuomintang, or KMT.
In the 2024 presidential election, Ko and the TPP gained significant support among younger voters, presenting a fresh alternative to the establishment and posing a challenge to the dominance of the major parties.
Ko has, however, stirred controversy with what critics see as an ambiguous stance on cross-straight relations. The TPP had maintained a nuanced approach, emphasizing the importance of peace and stability while advocating for Taiwan’s sovereignty.
Ko criticized the DPP and KMT over their China-related policies, calling the approach of the former overly confrontational and of the latter too conciliatory.
In 2015, Ko promoted a concept he called “one family on both sides of the Strait”, speaking in favour of exchanges between Taiwan and China and fostering goodwill.
The ruling DPP, which takes a pro-sovereignty stance, accused Ko of “echoing” the Chinese Communist Party’s unification rhetoric and “undermining” Taiwan’s sovereignty.
China regards Taiwan as a renegade province that must be reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary. The democratic island has been self-governing since it effectively separated from mainland China in 1949 after the Chinese Civil War.
Edited by Taejun Kang.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Alan Lu for RFA.
China launched on Friday the first Type 076 new-generation amphibious assault ship that can carry and launch drones and multiple aircraft including fighter jets, Xinhua News Agency reported.
The ship, named after the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan, is equipped with electromagnetic catapult and arresting technology similar to that of an aircraft carrier.
The Sichuan, hull number 51, is believed to be the largest amphibious assault ship in the world and has a full-load displacement of more than 40,000 tons.
It features a full-length 260-meter flight deck, from which helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles, and light fixed-wing aircraft will be launched using the catapult in the same manner as an aircraft carrier.
The vessel can carry more weapons and equipment, has longer range and stronger capabilities compared to the previous model Type 075, Zhang Junshe, a Chinese military expert, told the Global Times newspaper.
Xinhua quoted unidentified Chinese navy officials as saying that the Type 076 would play “a key role in advancing the navy’s transformation and enhancing its combat capabilities in the far seas.”
The manufacturer has yet to do mooring and navigation tests, as well as equipment commissioning.
The Type 076, also known by the NATO reporting name Yulan-class landing helicopter assault ship, “represents a substantial step forward in the ability of the People’s Liberation Army to project power farther from China’s shores,” said authors of a report carried out in the summer by the U.S. Center for Strategic and International Studies, or CSIS.
With a flight deck of 13,500 square meters – nearly the area of three U.S. football fields – the vessel is considerably larger than U.S. America-class amphibious assault vessels and Japan’s Izumo-class helicopter carriers.
The CSIS researchers also noted that the electromagnetic catapult, similar to that of the U.S. Ford-class aircraft carriers, makes it “unique among all other amphibious assault ships.” That means it is capable of carrying more aircraft, both manned and unmanned, and of launching larger aircraft with heavier payloads.
Besides combat and reconnaissance drones, the Type 076 could carry helicopters and fighter aircraft like the multirole fighter Shenyang J-15.
According to the researchers, once operational, the Type 076 will serve as a multifunctional combat platform, capable of conducting air operations, launching amphibious landings, and providing joint command and control for broader amphibious forces.
“While it will not fundamentally tip the military balance in the Indo-Pacific, the introduction of the Type 076 will give the PLA even greater options in bringing combat power to bear, whether in the Western Pacific, the South China Sea, or beyond,” they said.
China has the world’s largest navy by number, with 234 vessels to the U.S. Navy’s 219, according to the CSIS. Chinese ships are also newer and its shipyards are more productive.
However, the U.S. “continues to hold an advantage in guided missile cruisers and destroyers,” and remains dominant in submarine capabilities, it said.
Edited by RFA Staff.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Staff.
Christmas trees and other decorations have made a cautious comeback in shopping malls in Shanghai and other major Chinese cities this week, but authorities continued to put Christians under political pressure and discourage anyone under 18 from marking a festival seen as “Western” and potentially disruptive.
Santa Claus decorations, Christmas trees and other decorations were clearly on display in Shanghai malls on Dec. 24, with some shoppers soaking up the festive atmosphere, local residents said.
“This year’s atmosphere is one of the best in recent years,” a Shanghai resident who gave only the surname Sun for fear of reprisals told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview. “Xintiandi and other places have a lot of Christmas decorations, so we went to see them.”
“Some social media accounts are also publicizing which places have better Christmas trees or decorations, or where there are Christmas markets,” he said, speculating that the government has relaxed regulations in commercial centers for fear of alienating foreign investors.
The apparent relaxation comes after several years of a nationwide crackdown by ruling Communist Party on Christian worship, as well as public Christmas decorations and events.
A woman wearing Manchu-style clothing poses in front of a Christmas tree at a church in Beijing, Dec. 20, 2024.(Josh Arslan, Tingshu Wang, Tingshu Wang/Reuters)
However, monasteries, temples, mosques, churches and other religious activity venues in China are still required to support the leadership of the Communist Party and leader Xi Jinping’s “sinicization” program for all kinds of religious activity.
That’s included the hanging of portraits of Xi Jinping in churches, a ban on Christmas celebrations and enforced demolition work at major mosques and churches to remove domes and crosses.
A brief online search found a holiday shopping promotional event titled “Celebrating Christmas and New Year’s Day Together,” on Sina.com, while the WeChat social media platform saw advertisements for Christmas-themed events.
State-run English-language newspaper the China Daily even ran a cartoon featuring Santa Claus on Dec. 23.
“We used to see a lot of posts about boycotting foreign festivals around this time of year, … but suddenly nobody cares about this any more,” a resident of Guangzhou who gave only the surname Wu for fear of reprisals told RFA Mandarin.
“The government probably hasn’t given them any direction on the matter, so the pro-government 50-cent army and little pinks may not be interested any more,” he said.
Pledge to ‘resist Western holidays’
The authorities are still cracking down on Christmas among children and young people, however.
Authorities at a secondary school in the central province of Hubei sent out a pledge to students warning them off the practice.
“Please don’t send me greetings on Western holidays,” the pledge said. “I’m not Christian; I’m Chinese. I’m not a citizen of the West, so why should I celebrate Western holidays?”
A woman poses for pictures with a Santa Claus decoration at Xishiku Church on Christmas Eve in Beijing, China ,Dec. 24, 2024.(Josh Arslan/Reuters)
The statement called on students to “consciously resist Western holidays,” and banned them from exchanging Christmas gifts.
In the eastern province of Anhui, the Lingbi County No. 4 High School also issued a statement to students and teachers, banning Christmas decorations in public.
“It is strictly forbidden to display any Christmas-related content in public places such as classrooms,” the notice said. “Do not imitate or flatter foreigners, do not organize or participate in Christmas-related gatherings, and do not forward foreign holiday content.”
It said teachers and students should “understand and identify with the spiritual connotation of Chinese traditional virtues and culture, and practice the core values of socialism.”
And Hanzhong City No. 4 High School in the northern province of Shaanxi said students are banned from any Christmas-related activities, including bringing wrapping paper, snow spray or other Christmas-related items into school, on pain of “severe punishment.”
“This is to guide students to cherish their own culture, and to enhance national confidence and cultural identity,” the directive said.
Limited services
Meanwhile, a Christian who gave only the surname Zhao for fear of reprisals said he was permitted to go to a Christmas service on Wednesday, but only for an hour.
“I’m in Jiangsu [province] right now, and you have to give your name to get into the church, and the services are limited to not much more than one hour,” he said.
“This year is a little more relaxed, but in Anhui, you also have to give your name to get into the church,” Zhao said.
People attend mass at Beijing’s Xishiku Catholic Church, Dec. 24, 2024. (Josh Arslan(Tingshu Wang, Josh Arslan/Reuters)
Under President Xi Jinping’s “sinicization” policy, the government is particularly strict about banning religious activities for young people under the age of 18, he said.
“Education starts from an early age,” he said. “They think it’s harder to change people’s minds if they have been Christians since they were young.”
In the southwestern province of Yunnan, the National Primary School in Luquan county called on students to “take a rational look at Western festivals and culture, and don’t worship foreign things blindly or follow trends.”
Student are banned from “celebrating Christmas, buying gifts and forwarding related content” on social media, it said.
Similar warnings were issued in some companies, who banned employees from forwarding Christmas-related content on social media.
“Employee behavior should be consistent with company culture, and support their Chinese cultural heritage through their actions,” a decoration company in Dongying city told employees.
A Protestant pastor of a church in the port city of Qingdao who gave only the surname Qin for fear of reprisals confirmed that some shopping malls where he lives are displaying Christmas decorations.
“But you couldn’t hear any Christmas carols in the mall,” Qin said. “The malls used to play Christmas carols, including songs in English praising Jesus and the coming of Christ, but I didn’t hear any this year.”
Meanwhile, security guards and local religious affairs bureau officials are sitting in at the local church over the holiday period, Qin said.
U.S.-based current affairs commentator Tang Jingyuan said the ruling Chinese Communist Party uses “cultural confidence” as a way to reject what it sees as “Western” values, particularly when connected to human rights.
“The real meaning of this so-called self-confidence is the defense of the Chinese Communist Party’s own totalitarian and distorted red ideology,” he said.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Qian Lang and Kitty Wang for RFA Mandarin.
Taiwan’s ministry of national defense is warning a potential cut in the island’s defense budget for 2025 would have grave consequences.
Recently passed amendments to a fiscal planning law could reduce the defense budget by 28%, or NT$80 billion (US$2.44 billion), which would “have a serious impact on the national military’s buildup and preparedness,” the ministry said in a statement issued late Wednesday.
Last week, Taiwan’s opposition parties, which hold a majority in parliament, passed the amended Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures that if implemented would see a NT$375.3 billion (US$11.47 billion) reduction in the central government’s overall budget.
The current defense budget is approximately 2.4% of Taiwan’s gross domestic product, or GDP, but it would shrink to less than 2% after the cut, “at a time when every country in the region is increasing its defense spending,” said the ministry.
Previously, the Taiwanese government proposed a record high military budget that accounted for approximately 2.5% of the GDP for 2025 but that increase now seems unlikely.
“It may create a negative image in the international community that we … lack the determination to defend ourselves,” the ministry said.
The national defense budget should be decided in accordance with “the threats posed by the enemy and the need to build up the military and prepare for war,” it said.
China has been ramping up military activities around Taiwan, which it considers a Chinese province that should be “reunified” with the mainland, by force if necessary.
An analyst said that in the face of constant cross-Strait threats, Taiwan needs to increase its defense budget, as well as social and economic resilience.
“We need to demonstrate that we’re willing to fight,” said Kuan-chen Lee, associate research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a government think tank.
“Taiwan must improve military capabilities and make war more costly for China,” Lee told Radio Free Asia.
The budget cut would “make it impossible to continuously upgrade major weapons and equipment, and it would be difficult to make payments for contracted purchases,” warned the defense ministry.
C-130 fleet upgrade
On Wednesday, the Taiwanese Defense Mission to the United States issued a public notice to invite tenders to upgrade its existing C-130 military transport aircraft for an estimated NT$126 million (US$3.85 million).
The money will be allocated to purchase new propellers, according to the procurement notice.
A Taiwan C-130 military transport aircraft at Songshan airport, Taipei, Sept. 28, 2023.(RFA)
The acquisition is part of a six-year overhaul project, called Taiwu Mountain III, to be carried out between 2025-2030 and expected to cost NT$10 billion (US$ 305.86 million).
Taiwan’s air force has a fleet of 20 U.S.-made C-130s bought in the 1980s that serve as the main transport aircraft for the armed forces.
The upgrade would ensure that the aircraft have integrated cockpits and improved sea rescue capabilities.
Edited by Mike Firn.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Staff.
The Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department is counting on a new ally in the fight to persuade Taiwan’s 23 million people to give up their democratic way of life to be ruled by Beijing — Cheng Huang, the god of cities.
Officials in the southeastern province of Fujian, just across the Taiwan Strait from self-ruled Taiwan, invited hundreds of Taoists, temple representatives, scholars and experts to a lavish cultural exchange event last month, according to the provincial government’s official website.
The event included seminars on Cheng Huang temples across Fujian as well as beliefs around the god in Taiwan, particularly in smaller towns on the island, the Nov. 14 report said.
Cheng Huang isn’t the first supernatural being to be enlisted by the Chinese Communist Party in pursuit of its political goals, in this case, to control Taiwan, whether by soft power and propaganda or by military force if necessary.
China has already tried to co-opt the sea goddess Matsu, widely revered in Taiwan, as part of a United Front operation targeting millions of voters.
And it has also encouraged the worship of the controversial Tibetan dharma protector Shugden, a move at loggerheads with the Tibetan Buddhist Gelugpa sect of the exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.
A man places incense sticks at the Taishan Up Temple, a Taoist temple built in 1754, New Taipei City, Taiwan, March 2, 2023.(Sam Yeh/AFP)
The United Front is a shadowy government agency in charge of seeking Chinese influence outside the country through individuals and often innocuous-sounding organizations.
The Chinese Communist Party embraces atheism and exercises tight controls over any form of religious practice among its citizens, requiring them to join government-backed governing bodies and to display the Chinese flag, along with other demonstrations of loyalty to Beijing.
But apparently it isn’t opposed to using religion to further its political objectives.
Religious cross-straits links
Cheng Huang emerged in Chinese folk belief as a spirit protector of city walls and moats, and later diversified into a more complex deity with his own following and underworld bureaucracy mirroring structures found in the land of the living.
“Cheng Huang culture is one of the important links connecting compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait,” the report quoted Cheng Ming-hui of Taiwan’s Wuji Sanching Temple as saying.
“I hope we can to hold more such activities in the future to further enhance the understanding and friendship between believers on both sides of the Taiwan Strait,” Cheng said.
Worshippers carry the Matsu statue, center, during the annual pilgrimage in honor of sea goddess Matsu in Dajia, Taiwan, April 17, 2010.(Pichi Chuang/Reuters)
Taiwan has never been ruled by Beijing and is formally governed by the Republic of China government, formed after the 1911 fall of the Qing Dynasty under Sun Yat-sen, that later fled to Taipei after losing the civil war in 1949 to Mao Zedong’s communists on the mainland.
While China insists on eventual “unification” with Taiwan, by armed invasion if necessary, the majority of Taiwan’s 23 million people have no wish to give up their democratic way of life to submit to Chinese rule.
Ho Cheng-Hui, who heads Taiwanese civil defense organization the Kuma Academy, said China likes to cash in politically on religious devotion of any kind, citing its involvement in the cult of Matsu as an example.
“They are catering to the customs of the Taiwanese people, but with other motives behind it,” Ho said. “They call it religious exchange, but actually it’s a United Front operation — scholars have defined it as the warfare of influence in recent years.”
“Some Taiwanese take part in these so-called exchanges because of their religious feeling, or sense of the historical origins [of their beliefs],” he said. “But that’s not what’s happening here.”
He called on religious believers in Taiwan to become more aware of China’s motives, “so as not to be used” by Beijing.
‘Living chess pieces’
Wu Se-Chih, a researcher at Taiwan’s Cross-Straits Policy Association, agreed.
“There is also a certain degree of United Front motivation,” he said. “China will always try to leverage any United Front gains from the people of Taiwan.”
Wu said the “deep connection between folk beliefs and local politics” in Taiwan also offers a channel for funds to flow into — and influence — the island’s messily democratic political life.
The Chinese government has acquired a number of local temples in Taiwan in recent years, which he described as “living chess pieces” in Beijing’s hands, to boost its influence in Taiwanese politics at a local level.
“These interest groups haven’t been subjected to enough supervision,” Wu said. “That’s the main reason the Chinese Communist Party targets local temples.”
And there are also personal risks involved for any religious believers traveling to China, according to Wu, who cited the recent detention of three elderly Taiwanese members of the I-Kuan Tao religion in Zhongshan city.
“Sometimes the red lines aren’t very clear … so people need to think twice and be vigilant, which is the best way to protect themselves,” Wu said.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Huang Chun-mei for RFA Mandarin.
Increasingly, understanding the inter-imperialist competition between the United States and China is becoming essential to understanding the dynamics of the modern capitalist system. With the goal of broadening our understanding of the dynamics at play, Ashley Smith, along with co-authors Eli Friedman, Kevin Lin, and Rosa Liu, have published China in Global Capitalism: Building International…
Authorities in China are going after the country’s richest celebrity live-streamers, punishing two high-profile influencers for failing to pay up, at a time when government coffers are looking bare and many are struggling.
The Taxation Bureau named and shamed Shanghai-based Wang Zibai, who has 2.92 million followers, for “concealing his income” from tax officials, evading taxes to the tune of 7.49 million yuan (US$1.26 million), state media reported.
He was slapped with a tax bill, fines and late payment fees totaling 13.3 million yuan (US$1.82 million), state broadcaster CCTV reported on Dec. 19.
Cash-strapped local authorities across China are struggling to pay public employees, as a burst property bubble and dwindling exports depict an increasingly grim outlook for the world’s second-largest economy, meaning they need to cast a wider net when it comes to tax revenues, analysts told Radio Free Asia in recent interviews.
Authorities in the southeastern port city of Xiamen also accused celebrity live-streamer Cheng Hu, who has 5 million followers, of concealing the income from livestream sales commission to the tune of 1.21 million yuan (US$165,800) in unpaid taxes, the report said.
Cheng was forced to pay up the taxes owed, fines and late payment charges totaling 1.99 million yuan (US$272,700), it said.
Investigations
Shanghai tax inspectors started an investigation after checking out Wang’s channel, and figuring out that the volume of goods he was selling there was inconsistent with his reported income, the People’s Daily online finance channel reported on Dec. 19.
“The inspectors ran a comprehensive analysis of … pricing, categories and clicked links to third-party merchants, and concluded that he was earning a considerable amount of commission and under-reporting his income,” the paper said.
The team requested his family’s bank details, and found large amounts of money being deposited in Wang’s mother’s account, it said.
In Xiamen, inspectors thought it strange that Cheng claimed not to have earned over the personal annual tax threshold between 2020 and 2022, despite being a live-streamer with 5 million followers, the paper said.
“Cheng Hu did not set up account books as required by the law, and only used a notebook to briefly record the details of income and expenditure, and the handwriting was smudged and blurry, making it almost impossible to confirm his true financial situation,” the People’s Daily said.
“As public figures, live streaming practitioners should establish correct values, legal and professional values, fulfill their tax obligations in accordance with the law, and set a good example for society,” the paper said.
New source of tax revenue
According to financial commentator Cai Shenkun, online platforms are replacing the property market as an important source of tax revenue for local governments.
“Digital platforms have developed rapidly in recent years … and some anchors have made a lot of money,” Cai said. “Now that fiscal sources are increasingly tight, taxation may be further increased and these online platforms will be fully supervised.”
He said local governments across China are still struggling to pay civil servants and teachers, even in first-tier cities like Guangzhou.
“Teachers and civil servants are actually seeing significant salary cuts, to an unprecedented level,” Cai said.
An e-commerce insider who gave only the surname Liu for fear of reprisals said the story will likely fuel public anger at a time of rampant inequality in a flagging economy.
“The government is going to be finding ways to claw back as much revenue as possible, whether currently or retrospectively,” Liu said.
But companies may not have the cash to pay up, he added.
“A lot of Chinese companies and institutions can’t even pay their wages,” Liu said.
Digital platforms
Financial commentator Zheng Xuguang said the authorities are also targeting digital platforms.
“They’re targeting digital platform operators and staff,” Zheng said. “When platforms get to a certain size and their income is quite substantial, they now mandate tax audits on platform operators, including tax-related information reporting, such as who you work with, how many people, and so on.”
He said the government will likely hold off from cracking down on tax avoidance at the lowest income levels for the time being.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Roseanne Gerin.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Qian Lang for RFA Mandarin.
MANILA – The Philippines’ acquisition and deployment of a U.S. mid-range missile system is “completely legitimate, legal, and beyond reproach,” its defense chief said on Tuesday.
China protested against the plan by the Philippines to acquire a Typhon mid-range missile system from the United States to boost its maritime capabilities amid rising tensions in the disputed South China Sea.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning called the plan “provocative and dangerous,” and said on Monday it was an “extremely irresponsible choice” not only for the Philippine people and people of all Southeast Asian countries, but also “to history and to regional security.”
Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro said any deployment for the security of the Philippines was its affair.
“The Philippines is a sovereign state, not any country’s ‘doorstep’,” Teodoro said in a statement.
He did not refer to the Chinese comment on the missile system but reiterated that the enhancement of Philippine defense capabilities was intended to serve its national interest and “not targeted against specific countries.”
“Any deployment and procurement of assets related to the Philippines’ security and defense fall within its own sovereign prerogative and are not subject to any foreign veto,” Teodoro said.
China and the Philippines have been trading accusations of provocation and intimidation over escalating tensions in parts of the South China Sea that they both claim, especially near reefs that lie inside Manila’s exclusive economic zone, or EEZ, but are also claimed by Beijing.
“If the Chinese Communist Party is truly intent on reducing tensions and instability in the region, they should … stop their provocative actions … withdraw their illegal presence from the Philippines’ EEZ, and adhere to International Law,” said Teodoro, who also accused Beijing of building up a nuclear arsenal and ballistic missile capability.
Typhon system
On Monday, Philippine army chief Lt. Gen. Roy Galido – while delivering his year-end report to an audience of domestic and foreign journalists in Manila – confirmed that the army has endorsed a plan to acquire a mid-range missile system “to boost the country’s capability in protecting its territory.”
The mobile system, called Typhon, was deployed to the Philippines early this year as part of a joint military exercise with the U.S. military.
Chinese defense minister Dong Jun said in June the deployment was “severely damaging regional security and stability.”
The missile system, developed by U.S. firm Lockheed Martin, has a range of 480 kilometers (300 miles), and is capable of reaching the disputed Scarborough Shoal as well as targets around Taiwan.
Philippine Army chief Lt. Gen. Roy Galido delivering his year-end report on Dec. 23, 2024, in Manila.(Jason Gutierrez/BenarNews)
Galido said that the Typhon would “protect our floating assets,” referring to Philippine navy and coastguard vessels.
The acquisition is taking place as the army is “tasked to come up with plans to contribute to the comprehensive archipelagic defense,” according to Galido, who added that “one of our inputs is to be able to defend this land through this type of platform.”
Chinese spokeswoman Mao Ning criticized the plan, saying that the Philippines, “by bringing in this strategic offensive weapon, is enabling a country outside the region to fuel tensions and antagonism in this region, and incite geopolitical confrontation and arms race.”
BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.
Edited by Mike Firn.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA and BenarNews Staff.
The Hong Kong government announced on Tuesday rewards of HK$1 million (US$130,000) for help in arresting six more pro-democracy campaigners, accusing them of violating a national security law and working to undermine the territory with calls for sanctions against lawmakers and independence from China.
Carmen Lau, Tony Chung, Chung Kim-wah, Joseph Tay and Chloe Cheung were accused of incitement to secession in a notice posted on the Hong Kong Police Force website.
The police also accused journalist Victor Ho, 69, of subversion for calling a referendum over the proposed formation of a parliament-in-exile to push for Hong Kong’s independence from China.
All of the six live abroad.
“Today was the last working day before our year-end holiday at HKDC and I just learned that I am now a wanted Hong Konger with a HK$1 million bounty for national security offences,” former Hong Kong district councillor and current Hong Kong Democracy Council member Carmen Lau, 29, posted on social media platform X.
“I have always considered serving Hong Kongers and fighting for our freedom and democracy my lifelong obligation since the day I was elected as a district councillor,” she added. “I swear to put our fight for Hong Kong before anything else, even before myself.”
Lau called on governments including the U.K., where she lives, the U.S. and the E.U. to impose sanctions on Hong Kong “human rights perpetrators” without naming anyone.
Hong Kong Security Secretary Chris Tang said the six had endangered national security through their speeches and social media posts and by lobbying foreign governments to sanction Hong Kong officials. He told a news conference the six “had little conscience.”
“Illegal acts will be prosecuted and punished no matter how far away they are,” Tang said.
Nineteen people now have HK$1 million bounties on their heads following two previous announcements in July and December 2023. Authorities plan to cancel the passports of seven of the activists on the wanted list, including ex-lawmakers Ted Hui and Dennis Kwok, Hong Kong media reported.
Hong Kong was a British colony from 1841 to 1997, when it was returned to Chinese rule under a “one country, two systems” agreement. The Sino-British Joint Declaration said the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region would maintain a degree of autonomy from China for 50 years, maintaining the rights and freedoms set out in the Basic Law.
In 2019, thousands of Hong Kong people took to the streets to protest against what they saw as the erosion of democracy, prompting a crackdown by the government. The following year Beijing imposed a national security legislation that included new crimes like “collusion with foreign forces” and subversion.
In April, the city passed its own version of China’s national security law, known as Article 23, adding several new offenses, including treason, sabotage, and espionage and allowing police to hold suspects for up to 16 days without charge. Sedition was also added and its scope expanded to include “inciting hatred” against the Chinese Communist Party.
The United States and Britain have condemned what they see as the erosion of the freedoms and rights that Hong Kong was promised when it returned to Chinese rule.
The city government and Beijing reject the accusations saying stability is needed to safeguard the Asian financial hub’s economic success.
Edited by Mike Firn.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Staff.
Chinese internet censors have targeted dozens of writers of online erotic fiction across the country since June, in a bid to crack down on “pornographic” content, according to multiple mainstream and social media reports.
A “special task force” arrested the writers after they published on the Taiwan-based adult fiction website Haitang Literature, Hong Kong’s Sing Tao Daily News and Taiwan’s Pacific Daily newspapers reported.
The task force started with distributors of online erotic fiction, then moved on to target writers who had earned at least 300,000 yuan (US$41,000) from their work, according to posts to the gaming bulletin board NGA cited by the AO3 fan-fiction site on Reddit.
Online fiction, including fan fiction and erotic fiction, has mushroomed in China in recent years, according to a survey by government-backed news outlet The Paper in March.
By the end of 2023, readers in China could choose from among nearly 35 million works of online fiction, with some work already adapted into movies and TV shows, the report said.
Last year, the Chinese online fiction market was worth around 40 billion yuan (US$5.48 billion), according to Statistica.com, with daily life, science fiction, fantasy and history topping the list of most popular genres.
“One of my friends is an author, who was released on bail, called me from a new phone and told us to be prepared,” the NGA user wrote in a post dating back to June, before the story appeared in the newspapers.
“Later, others also reported that their friends had been affected,” the post said. “We compared details and confirmed that this is a nationwide crackdown. Moreover, the website’s [Chinese] distributor is indeed in trouble and can’t be reached.”
Haitang writers
In the months that followed this post, social media reports have been emerging of authors arrested for publishing erotic fiction.
Top Haitang Literature author Yuan Shang Bai Yun Jian, a pen-name, was sentenced to four years and six months’ imprisonment, according to a Dec. 17 post on the WeChat account Age of Aquarius, Singapore’s Lianhua Zaobao reported.
Another Haitang author with the pen name Yi Xie was handed a one-year, five-month suspended sentence, while a writer with the pen name Ci Xi was jailed for five years and six months.
The reports said some writers had been given harsher sentences because they had been unable to return the money they had earned from their writings.
A Chinese man reads a book as another walks between shelves at the ‘Utopia’ bookshop in central Beijing in this March 25, 2009 file picture.(David Gray/Reuters)
While details of the charges haven’t been made public in every case, many of the writers were contributors to Haitang Literature, and were widely assumed to be targeted for “disseminating obscene electronic messages,” which carries harsher penalties, the more a person is judged to have earned from their online activities.
China’s state-controlled media haven’t reported on the arrests, and details have mostly emerged in social media posts, sometimes from family members of those detained, or from the authors themselves who have taken to Weibo to try to crowd-fund the money to pay their fines to avoid a harsher penalty.
Chinese online fiction platform Jinjiang Literature City recently also reported that it had been summoned by consumer protection officials in the eastern province of Zhejiang, but said it had refused to turn up, accusing the authorities of “fishing,” the Lianhua Zaobao reported.
‘Profiting from obscene material’
Celebrity lawyers have been warning their followers via livestream that “profiting from the distribution of obscene material” is a crime that can extend even to writers who share their work for no fee.
The crackdown has prompted online writers to rush to delete or hide their work from other online fiction platforms, including Feiwen and PO18, according to the Reddit post.
“Online literature has become hugely popular because the barrier to entry is low,” Si Yueshu, who has been writing fan fiction in Chinese since high school, told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview. “Anyone could do it. All they needed was to want to.”
Si has had her own battle with censorship over the years, including having her work suddenly deleted without warning.
One of the biggest difficulties is that the lines keep shifting.
“You can’t actually know what you’re allowed to write and what you’re not allowed to write,” she said, adding that she only publishes on overseas platforms now, to try to evade censorship. “And something that was allowed before could stop being permissible at any time.”
A long-time online fiction fan who gave only the pseudonym Li Hua for fear of reprisals told RFA that many authors write erotic content because that’s what drives traffic, and gets them into a highly competitive industry.
“Authors who make a living from online writing are very hard-working,” Li said. “Very successful authors usually upload three chapters a day, or more than 10,000 words, and the most they can make is around 20,000 yuan (US$2,740) a month.”
And for many writers, it’s more of a labor of love.
“A huge number of authors don’t actually make much at all — I’ve seen some authors who make 0.10 yuan (US$0.13) a day,” she said.
Nothing ‘below the neck’
Nowadays, it’s even harder to get traffic, as explicitly erotic content is banned.
“You used to be able to get away with [euphemisms like] ‘they went 100 rounds,’ or ‘they found perfect harmony’, but even that’s not allowed these day,” Li said. “You can’t write about anything below the neck.”
That’s why the authorities are arresting writers who post on Haiting Literature, which is based in democratic Taiwan.
The Chinese equivalent, Jinjiang Literature, has been reduced to censoring anything considered remotely erotic or even politically sensitive with AI-generated blank boxes in lieu of Chinese characters, with often hilarious results, according to Li.
For example, a sentence containing the words “down” or “lower” and “body” will generate blanks even if the overall meaning is very far from erotic.
Likewise, phrases referencing love and nature will be censored because the two words mean “sex” when combined a certain way.
The censorship is also spilling over into other forms of fiction.
Chinese novelist Mo Yan (given name Guan Moye), 2012 Nobel Prize Laureate for Literature, who is also a delegate of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), is seen surrounded by journalists after a group discussion of CPPCC in Beijing, March 4, 2014.(China Stringer Network/Reuters)
As online commentator Xiao Wu points out, plenty of Chinese contemporary and classic literary fiction gets sexy at times.
“Romance novels will inevitably involve some kind of erotic content,” he said, citing explicit content in Nobel literature laureate Mo Yan’s Big Breasts, Wide Hips, Chen Zhongshi’s White Deer Plain and the novels of Jia Pingwa.
Meanwhile, demand for even erotic-adjacent (known as “borderline” content) continues to rise, said Xiao Wu, who has been approached by editors luring him with the prospect of writing something that pays much better than op-ed pieces.
“There’s a pretty low barrier to entry for reading this stuff for ordinary Chinese people who just want to relax,” he said. “Anyone with a cellphone and internet connection can enjoy it for a few yuan (around a dollar), while going out to sing karaoke with their friends could cost them hundreds of yuan (tens of U.S. dollars).”
“There aren’t many ways to let off steam in this highly repressive society, so this is a fairly low-cost route to happiness,” Xiao Wu said.
Li Hua agreed.
“Sometimes all I want is pure, sensory stimulation, and it’s only around 100 yuan (US$13) a year,” she said. “I think it’s just human nature.”
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Joshua Lipes.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Zhu Liye for RFA Mandarin.
TAIPEI, Taiwan – China has announced “countermeasures” against Canadian groups and individuals two weeks after Canada imposed sanctions on senior Chinese officials in early December over human rights concerns.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a press release on Saturday that it was freezing the assets in China of Canada’s Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project and the Canada Tibet Committee.
The ministry, citing China’s Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law, said organizations and individuals in China were prohibited from conducting transactions or cooperating with those groups. They would also be barred from travel to China, including Hong Kong and Macau.
The ministry in its announcement did not refer directly to Canada’s Dec. 10 sanctions on eight former and current senior Chinese officials over what Canada said was their involvement in grave human rights violations in Tibet and Xinjiang and against followers of the Falun Gong spiritual sect.
At the time, the Chinese ministry said Canada “smeared and slandered” China and interfered in its internal affairs with its “illegal” sanctions and “clumsy political theatrics.”
Canada is not alone. Western governments have sanctioned China over human rights abuses in Xinjiang and Tibet, citing reports of mass detentions, forced labor, cultural suppression of Uyghurs and Tibetans, and crackdowns on religious and political freedoms. These measures aim to pressure China to uphold international human rights standards.
The United States, for instance, had earlier imposed sanctions on all eight of the Chinese officials that Canada sanctioned, for their connections to serious human rights violations.
Among the most prominent individuals sanctioned by the North Americans was Chen Quanguo, who served as the Chinese Communist Party Committee Secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region from 2011 to 2016 and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region from 2016 to 2021.
Another sanctioned official is Wu Yingjie, who was the Communist Party Secretary of Tibet from 2016 to 2021.
Shane Yi, a researcher with the non-governmental organization Chinese Human Rights Defenders said China’s sanctions against the Canadian groups suggested they were having some impact.
“This not only underscores China’s intent to escalate its suppression efforts but also demonstrates the growing impact of these organizations’ work,” Yi said.
China and Canada have had particularly fraught relations in recent years, largely stemming from the 2018 arrest in Canada of a senior executive of China’s technology giant Huawei.
The executive, Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, was detained in Canada for nearly three years pending U.S. extradition hearings related to suspicion of illegal business dealings with Iran. She flew home to China in 2021 after reaching an agreement with U.S. prosecutors.
Edited by Taejun Kang.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Alan Lu for RFA.
TAIPEI, Taiwan – China has announced “countermeasures” against Canadian groups and individuals two weeks after Canada imposed sanctions on senior Chinese officials in early December over human rights concerns.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a press release on Saturday that it was freezing the assets in China of Canada’s Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project and the Canada Tibet Committee.
The ministry, citing China’s Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law, said organizations and individuals in China were prohibited from conducting transactions or cooperating with those groups. They would also be barred from travel to China, including Hong Kong and Macau.
The ministry in its announcement did not refer directly to Canada’s Dec. 10 sanctions on eight former and current senior Chinese officials over what Canada said was their involvement in grave human rights violations in Tibet and Xinjiang and against followers of the Falun Gong spiritual sect.
At the time, the Chinese ministry said Canada “smeared and slandered” China and interfered in its internal affairs with its “illegal” sanctions and “clumsy political theatrics.”
Canada is not alone. Western governments have sanctioned China over human rights abuses in Xinjiang and Tibet, citing reports of mass detentions, forced labor, cultural suppression of Uyghurs and Tibetans, and crackdowns on religious and political freedoms. These measures aim to pressure China to uphold international human rights standards.
The United States, for instance, had earlier imposed sanctions on all eight of the Chinese officials that Canada sanctioned, for their connections to serious human rights violations.
Among the most prominent individuals sanctioned by the North Americans was Chen Quanguo, who served as the Chinese Communist Party Committee Secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region from 2011 to 2016 and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region from 2016 to 2021.
Another sanctioned official is Wu Yingjie, who was the Communist Party Secretary of Tibet from 2016 to 2021.
Shane Yi, a researcher with the non-governmental organization Chinese Human Rights Defenders said China’s sanctions against the Canadian groups suggested they were having some impact.
“This not only underscores China’s intent to escalate its suppression efforts but also demonstrates the growing impact of these organizations’ work,” Yi said.
China and Canada have had particularly fraught relations in recent years, largely stemming from the 2018 arrest in Canada of a senior executive of China’s technology giant Huawei.
The executive, Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, was detained in Canada for nearly three years pending U.S. extradition hearings related to suspicion of illegal business dealings with Iran. She flew home to China in 2021 after reaching an agreement with U.S. prosecutors.
Edited by Taejun Kang.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Alan Lu for RFA.
A photo of what appears to be a group of patients waiting in a hospital lobby emerged in Chinese-language social media posts that claim it shows “recent” COVID-19 patients at a Chinese hospital “overcrowded” with cases.
But the claim is false. The photo was actually published in January 2023. As of December 2024, COVID-19 cases in China remain “at lower epidemic level,” according to Chinese health authorities. Keyword searches found no credible reports to show there was a surge in COVID-19 cases in China in recent months.
“Hospitals are overcrowded as the Chinese Communist Party’s COVID-19 virus breaks out again. It seems that the Chinese have spent three years in prison for nothing,” the post reads.
The photo shows a large number of patients wearing masks in a hospital lobby.
Some social media users appear to have been misled by the photo and the claim.
One user even commented that the photo depicted an event happening “now.”
COVID-19 emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019, with the first cases linked to a seafood market where various live animals were also on sale. By January 2020, China imposed strict lockdowns in Wuhan and later expanded measures nationwide, including mass testing, travel restrictions, and quarantine protocols.
The government implemented a “zero-COVID” policy, which focused on eradicating outbreaks through aggressive containment. The measures were initially effective in reducing cases but sparked debates over economic impacts and civil liberties. In late 2022, China began easing restrictions due to protests and economic pressure, transitioning to a strategy of coexisting with the virus.
But the claim about the photo is false.
Old photo
A reverse image search found that the photo was published by the Associated Press in January 2023.
The caption of the photo, credited to AP journalist Andy Wong, reads: “Patients receive intravenous drips at the emergency ward of a hospital in Beijing, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023.”
“Patients, most of them elderly, are lying on stretchers in hallways and taking oxygen while sitting in wheelchairs as COVID-19 surges in China’s capital Beijing,” the caption reads further.
Some Chinese social media users claimed that there has been a new wave of COVID in China (left), while the photo they use as evidence of hospital overcrowding was taken from an Associated Press news report released in January 2023 (right).(Screenshots/X and AP)
Official data
As of December 2024, COVID-19 cases in China remain “at lower epidemic level,”according to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, or China CDC, data released on Dec. 19, 2024.
In the week of December 9–15, 2024, sentinel hospitals reported that 1.9% of outpatient influenza-like illness cases and 2.1% of hospitalized severe acute respiratory infection cases tested positive for COVID-19, China CDC said.
These percentages have remained stable, indicating no significant resurgence of COVID-19 nationwide, it added.
Health authorities monitor the situation closely and recommend maintaining preventive measures, including vaccination and good respiratory hygiene, to mitigate the spread of respiratory illnesses, China CDC noted.
Keyword searches found no credible reports to show there was a surge in COVID-19 cases in China in recent months.
AFCL has not been able to independently confirm whether China had seen a surge in COVID-19 cases in recent months.
However, there have been media reports of overcrowding at Chinese hospitals in early December 2024 due to mass infections of norovirus – a highly contagious but typically non-lethal cause of diarrhea – with at least one doctor interviewed by overseas Chinese media suspecting that the actual cause might be COVID-19.
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 Zhuang Jing for Asia Fact Check Lab.
The communist apparatchiks who run Laos must appease China if they are to stop their national debt crisis from worsening and avoid an outright default.
The IMF’s latest report on Laos, released last month, was particularly damning about the country’s future. Real GDP growth likely peaked this year, at around 4.1 percent, and will slide from 3.5 percent next year down to 2.5 percent by 2029.
In other words, Laos isn’t going to be able to grow itself out of debt anytime soon.
Moreover, debt servicing costs, spending that is not actually paying off the principal on its monumental debt, will rise from around $1.1 billion this year to $1.5 billion next year and peak at $1.8 billion in 2026, the equivalent of a fifth of exports.
Laos cannot even start to comprehend paying off its debt, which because of the country’s inflation crisis fluctuates as a percentage of GDP ratio. It was 131 percent of GDP in 2022, down to 108 percent this year but potentially up to 118 percent in 2025.
The IMF politely suggested that “alternative options to bring debt toward a sustainable level could also be considered,” yet noted that “the authorities’ financing plan…critically relies on the continued extension of debt relief from China.”
Debt deferrals
All that matters for Vientiane, at least for the short term, is that Beijing continues offering debt deferrals.
In 2023, these amounted to $770 million, about 5 percent of Laos’s GDP, according to the IMF. They were worth $222 million in 2020, $454 million in 2021, and $608 million in 2022.
What other options has Laos got?
It won’t turn to the IMF for a bailout, since that will come with political conditions – and half of national debt is owed to China, which doesn’t do debt write-offs.
The money Vientiane owes Beijing is vast for Laos, but peanuts for Beijing.
The International Monetary Fund headquarters in Washington, D.C, Dec. 19, 2016.(Cliff Owen/AP)
Laos’s debts could be completely forgiven tomorrow and nobody in Beijing would notice. But Chinese lenders don’t like having their pockets pinched and no superpower wants to be seen as a dog being wagged by its tail.
Some people think Vientiane could offer more debt-for-equity swaps, whereby China reduces the debt in exchange for land or mineral rights or a stake in a state company.
However, for all the cries of “debt traps,” it is noticeable that there hasn’t been any major debt-for-equity swap since a Chinese state-owned firm was given majority control of a joint venture (EDL-T) with Electricite du Laos, which effectively handed Beijing Laos’ power grid, including its electricity exports. But that was in 2021!
Few desirable assets
Beijing has presumably browsed and doesn’t fancy anything it sees. As one source told me, “there aren’t enough saleable assets” in Laos for equity swaps to touch the sides of the country’s debt.
Even for natural resources or land, usually a Chinese company will get a multi-decade concession for very low rent. So it makes little sense for Chinese state firms to buy, in the form of a debt swap, what they essentially get for free, since the revenue the Lao government collects will eventually be paid back to the Chinese state.
Nor are swaps all too appealing when it comes to state-run companies.
There’s one reason why Laos’s nationalized companies are so indebted and it isn’t because they’re so well run. Électricité du Laos, the state utility, accounts for perhaps a third of all the state’s debts, for instance.
Laos’ Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone attends the 27th ASEAN-Japan Summit in Vientiane, Laos, Oct. 10, 2024.(Nhac Nguyen/AFP)
That leaves only debt deferrals, which allow Vientiane to pay back other private creditors and facilitate future loans, all the while avoiding what it must eventually do: massively increase state revenue.
According to the IMF, Laos needs a primary surplus of around 17 percent each year to bring its debt-to-GDP ratio down to a sustainable threshold (35 percent) by 2029.
Next year, Laos will likely run a primary surplus of around 3 percent, per the IMF report. In other words, Vientiane needs to boost revenue or cut expenditure (or both) by more than five-fold.
Austerity is unpopular
But the ruling Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP) clearly doesn’t think now is the time to dig deeper into the pockets of ordinary people and businesses, especially as economic growth is set to slow in the coming years and the inflation crisis won’t be curbed anytime soon.
It would be politically suicidal for Vientiane to considerably raise taxes while the ordinary Loatian has seen his wealth decimated in recent years. In fact, the party has recently committed to higher state spending.
At first blush, Vientiane’s immobility might appear problematic for the current rulers of the communist party whose jobs are in the line ahead of a reshuffle at the National Congress in early 2026.
That’s especially the case for Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone, who naturally gets the most flak. Party grandees will retreat into conclaves most of next year to make these decisions, and appeasing China will be a key consideration.
Yet, while the Lao public is incensed by just how appallingly their rulers have managed the economy, the powers that be understand no-one has any real idea of how to get out of this mess other than austerity during a devastating economic crisis.
This isn’t something to be admitted publicly in a one-party state. Neither is admitting that the task of austerity is essentially being kicked to the next generation of party apparatchiks, who will have to suffer the consequences.
George Orwell once remarked that “it is a feeling of relief, almost of pleasure, at knowing yourself at last genuinely down and out…It takes off a lot of anxiety.”
Likewise, the current LPRP leadership must feel a certain freedom from knowing that there’s only one way out of its predicament: Keep appeasing Beijing and keep up the debt deferrals.
David Hutt is a research fellow at the Central European Institute of Asian Studies (CEIAS) and the Southeast Asia Columnist at the Diplomat. He writes theWatching Europe In Southeast Asianewsletter. The views expressed here are his own and do not reflect the position of RFA.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by David Hutt.
The changes will also prohibit tertiary institutions from adopting positions on issues that do not relate to their core functions.
Associate Education Minister David Seymour said fostering students’ ability to debate ideas is an essential part of universities’ educational mission.
“Despite being required by the Education Act and the Bill of Rights Act to uphold academic freedom and freedom of expression, there is a growing trend of universities deplatforming speakers and cancelling events where they might be perceived as controversial or offensive,” he said.
“That’s why the National/ACT coalition agreement committed to introduce protections for academic freedom and freedom of speech to ensure universities perform their role as the critic and conscience of society.”
Minister for Tertiary Education and Skills Penny Simmonds said freedom of speech was fundamental to the concept of academic freedom.
“Universities should promote diversity of opinion and encourage students to explore new ideas and perspectives. This includes enabling them to hear from invited speakers with a range of viewpoints.”
It is expected the changes will take effect by the end of next year, after which universities will have six months to develop a statement and get it approved.
Aside from the fact that the free speech legislation for universities is a waste of time (and seemingly ideologically inconsistent with the anti-regulation stance of the government), this line from the RNZ article is both hilarious and worrying pic.twitter.com/aOoPa0ZPc5
Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington said the important issue of free speech had been a dominant topic throughout the year.
It believed a policy it had come up with would align with the intent of the criteria laid out by the government today.
However, the Greens are among critics, saying the government’s changes will add fuel to the political fires of disinformation, and put teachers and students in the firing line.
Labour says universities should be left to make decisions on free speech themselves.
‘A heavy-handed approach’ The Tertiary Education Union (TEU) said proposed rules could do more harm than good.
They have been been welcomed by the Free Speech Union, which said academic freedom was “under threat”, but the TEU said there was no problem to solve.
TEU president Sandra Grey said the move seemed to be aimed at ensuring people could spread disinformation on university campuses.
“I think one of the major concerns is that you might get universities opening up the space that is for academic and rigorous debate and saying it’s okay we can have climate deniers, we can have people who believe in creationism coming into our campuses and speaking about it as though it were scientific, as though it was rigorously defendable when in fact we know some of these questions . . . have been settled,” she said.
Grey said academics who expressed views on campus could expect them to be debated, but that was part and parcel of working at a university and not an attack on their freedom of speech.
“There isn’t actually a problem. I do think universities, all the staff who work there, the students, understand that they’re covered by all of their requirements for freedom of speech that other citizens are.
“So it feels like we’ve got a heavy-handed approach from a government that apparently is anti-regulation but is now going to put in place the whole lot of requirements on a community that just doesn’t need it.”
Some topics ‘suppressed’
Free Speech Union chief executive Jonathan Ayling . . . some academics are afraid to express their views and there is also a problem with “compelled speech”. Image: VNP/Phil Smith/RNZ News
Free Speech Union chief executive Jonathan Ayling said freedom of speech was under threat in universities.
“We’ve supported academics . . . where they feel that they have been unfairly disadvantaged simply for holding a different opinion to some of their peers. Of course, that is also an addition to the explicit calls for people to be cancelled, to be unemployed,” he said.
Ayling said some academics were afraid to express their views and there was also a problem with “compelled speech”.
“Forcing certain references on particularly ideological issues. There’s questions around race, gender, international conflicts, covid-19, these are all questions that we’ve found have been suppressed and also there’s the aspect of self-censorship,” he said.
“As we have and alongside partners looked into this more and more, it seems that many people in the academy exist in a culture of fear.”
University committed to differing viewpoints Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington is committed to hearing a range of different viewpoints on its campuses, vice-chancellor Professor Nic Smith says.
Free speech had been an important issue during 2024, and the university had arrived at a policy that covered both freedom of speech and academic freedom.
By consulting widely, there was now a shared understanding of “foundational principles”, and its policy would be in place early in the new year.
“We believe this policy aligns with the intent of the criteria [from the government] as we understand them. It recognises the strength of our diverse university community and affirms that this diversity makes us stronger,” Professor Smith said.
“At the same time, it acknowledges that within any diverse community, individuals will inevitably encounter ideas they disagree with-sometimes strongly.
“Finding value in these disagreements is something universities are very good at: listening to different points of view in the spirit of advancing understanding and learning that can ultimately help us live and work better together.”
The university believed in hearing a range of views from staff, rather than adopting a single institutional position.
“The only exception to this principle is on matters that directly affect our core functions as a university.”
‘Stoking fear and division’
The Green Party’s spokesperson for Tertiary Education, Francisco Hernadez . . . this new policy has nothing to do with free speech. Image: VNP/Phil Smith/RNZ News
Green Party’s spokesperson for Tertiary Education, Francisco Hernadez, said the new policy had nothing to do with free speech.
“This is about polluting our public discourse for political gain.”
Universities played a critical role, providing a platform for informed and reasoned debate.
“Our universities should be able to decide who is given a platform on their campuses, not David Seymour. These changes risk turning our universities into hostile environments unsafe for marginalised communities.
“Misinformation, disinformation, and rhetoric that inflames hatred towards certain groups has no place in our society, let alone our universities. Freedom of speech is fundamental, but it is not a licence to harm.”
Hernandez said universities should be trusted to ensure the balance was struck between academic freedom and a duty of care.
“Today’s announcement has also come with a high dose of unintended irony.
“David Seymour is speaking out of both sides of his mouth by on the one hand claiming to support freedom of speech, but on the other looking to limit the ability universities have to take stances on issues, like the war in Gaza for example.
“This is an Orwellian attempt to limit discourse to the confines of the government’s agenda. This is about stoking fear and division for political gain.”
Labour’s Associate Education (Tertiary) spokesperson Deborah Russell responded: “One of the core legislated functions of universities in this country is to be a critic and conscience of society. That means continuing to speak truth to power, even if those in power don’t like it.”
“Nowhere should be a platform for hate speech. I am certain universities can make these decisions themselves.”
‘Expectations clarified’ – university The University of Auckland said in a statement the announcement of planned legislation changes would help “to clarify government expectations in this area”.
“The university has a longstanding commitment to maintaining freedom of expression and academic freedom on our campuses, and in recent years has worked closely with [the university’s] senate and council to review, revise and consult on an updated Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom Policy.
“This is expected to return to senate and council for further discussion in early 2025 and will take into account the proposed new legislation.”
The university described the nature of the work as “complex”.
“While New Zealand universities have obligations under law to protect freedom of expression, academic freedom and their role as ‘critic and conscience of society’, as the proposed legislation appreciates, this is balanced against other important policies and codes.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Chinese President Xi Jinping left Macau on Friday after a three-day ceremonial visit to mark the 25th anniversary of the former Portuguese enclave’s handover to Chinese rule, after laying out his vision for the role the gambling hub will play in his plans to boost China’s flagging economy.
“Macau is a shining pearl inlaid on the coast of the South China Sea and a treasured part of our great motherland,” Xi said in his keynote speech marking Friday’s anniversary, and inaugurating the next city government.
“The earliest Chinese students to go overseas went out to the world from here, many Chinese classics were translated and spread to the West, and modern Western science, technology and culture were introduced to mainland China via Macau,” he said.
“At different times in history, Macau has played an important role and made unique contributions,” Xi said.
Xi said Macau’s economic growth is now seven times what it was at the 1999 handover.
The city’s key task is now to “actively integrate into overall national development,” he said.
What does that mean in practice?
Xi wants the city to “actively participate” in his signature Belt and Road global infrastructure and supply chain project, as part of the “Greater Bay Area” integrating the city with neighboring Guangdong province and the former British colony of Hong Kong.
In 2021, the ruling Chinese Communist Party launched a semi-conductor research and development base jointly administered by authorities in the southern province of Guangdong and the formerly Portuguese city of Macau on Hengqin Island, paving the way for a blurring of the border between the two jurisdictions.
The “cooperation zone” on Hengqin Island is jointly administered by Guangdong and Macau, with a Communist Party, police, state security police and government presence.
The aim is to fast-track semiconductor chip designs and other high-tech research and development projects including new energy, big data, artificial intelligence and biomedical industries.
A gala to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Macau’s return to China is held at the Macau East Asian Games Stadium, Dec. 19, 2024.(Anthony Kwan/Reuters)
Beijing wants relatively cash-rich Macau to move away from its status as a gambling hub and plow funding into the Hengqin project and boost the mainland Chinese economy through innovation.
Xi also said Macau has “more prominent” advantages when it comes to acting as a platform for “China-foreign cultural exchange and cooperation.”
What does it mean for Hong Kong?
Xi’s description of Macau as “a higher-level platform for opening-up” suggests that Beijing now favors the city as its gateway to the rest of the world, a role held by Hong Kong for more than a century.
But Macau journalist Roy Choi said the city lacks Hong Kong’s advantages.
“Firstly, Macau’s financial system and laws aren’t up to level of Hong Kong’s, which is a common law jurisdiction, and secondly, it doesn’t have a large port, so it won’t be able to replace Hong Kong in terms of infrastructure.”
“But Beijing is anxious right now, so it thinks Macau is the way to go.”
Political commentators say China is rewriting its idea of the “one country, two systems” framework under which Hong Kong and Macau were returned to mean that the two former colonies can keep their separate jurisdictions only insofar as it benefits China as a whole.
“It … means that the mainland is the foundation, and Macau and Hong Kong are branches and are there to serve the mainland,” political analyst Chen Daoyin told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview. “The main point is that Hong Kong and Macau must be integrated into the overall framework of China’s modernization and must not create anything unique to them.”
What about the promises of autonomy?
Xi’s Macau visit coincided the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, which promised Hong Kong a “high degree of autonomy” for at least 50 years after the 1997 handover.
The last British governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, hit out at Beijing’s “flagrant disregard” of its commitments in the U.N.-registered treaty in a newspaper article on Thursday, accusing it of comprehensively crushing the city’s freedoms under two national security laws that followed the 2019 protest movement, and calling for sanctions from London in response.
Chinese five-star flags and the flag of the Macao Special Administrative Region are hung in a square in front of the Senate in Macao.(Tyrone Siu/Reuters)
Xi’s singling out of Macau as a favored location for global exchanges is in keeping with the fact that the city has never mounted any serious political challenge to the will of Beijing, and, unlike Hong Kong, was never promised fully democratic elections in the first place.
The city’s political and financial elite, exemplified by mainland-born incoming Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai, have always been more closely aligned with Chinese political goals than the former British colony of Hong Kong, and have never really wanted democracy, experts say.
In that sense, the city is living up to its reputation as the “well-behaved child,” while Hong Kong remains in a cycle of political repression following waves of mass popular protest since its handover to Chinese rule.
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.
(Paul Nelson/RFA)
