BANGKOK – A Thai lawyer is seeking the release of 42 Uyghurs who have spent more than a decade in detention and who rights groups fear could be deported to China where they would be at risk of torture.
The men from the mostly Muslim minority from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China have been held on immigration charges at a Thai detention center since attempting to escape Beijing’s persecution through Thailand.
Lawyer Chuchart Kanpai said in a petition submitted to a court on Thursday that the men had spent enough time locked up and should be freed.
“They have been jailed from 2013 to 2025, more than 10 years. It is obvious that they have completed the sentence,” Chuchart said in the petition, according to a copy obtained by Radio Free Asia.
“Detention is therefore unlawful.”
The rights group Justice for All said early this month that reports from 48 detained Uyghur asylum seekers indicated that Thai authorities were coercing them to fill out forms in preparation for their deportation to China.
It was not immediately clear why the rights group referred to 48 detained Uyghurs but Chuchart identified 42 in his petition.
A government spokesman told RFA on Jan. 23 that Thailand had “no policy” to deport the Uyghurs and he dismissed speculation that they would be forced back to China.
Uyghurs in China’s vast Xinjiang region have been subjected to widespread human rights abuses, including detention in massive concentration camps.
China denies that but U.N. experts on Jan. 21 also urged Thailand not to deport the Uyghurs saying they would likely face torture.
Chuchart, after lodging the petition, said the court would hold a hearing on Feb. 17.
“We will have witnesses including the ones from the World Uyghur Congress,” Chuchart told reporters, referring to an advocacy group that this month appealed to Thailand not to send the men to China.
The refugees are part of an originally larger cohort of more than 350 Uyghur men, women and children, 172 of whom were resettled in Turkey, 109 deported back to China, and five who died because of inadequate medical conditions.
In 2015, Thailand, Washington’s longest-standing treaty ally in Asia, faced stiff international criticism for those it did deport back to China. Thailand is not a signatory to the 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention, and therefore does not recognize refugees.
Angkhana Neelapaijit, a senator who chairs the Senate’s human rights committee, said the court proceedings initiated by Chuchart could backfire.
“The court may invite anyone to testify in the hearings, including the Chinese ambassador,” she told RFA. “If the court believes that China will treat them civilly, that’s risky.”
New U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at his confirmation hearing on Jan. 15 that treatment of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang was ‘horrifying’ and he would reach out to Thailand to prevent the return of the men.
The treatment of Uyghurs in China was not “some obscure issue” that should be on the sidelines of U.S.-China ties, Rubio, a China hawk, told the hearing.
“These are people who are basically being rounded up because of their ethnicity and religion, and they are being put into camps. They’re being put into what they call re-education centers. They’re being stripped of their identity. Their children’s names are being changed,” he said.
“They’re being put into forced labor – literally slave labor.”
China denies accusations of slave labor in Xinjiang.
Edited by RFA Staff
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Pimuk Rakkanam for RFA.
China is making enormous progress in the development of artificial intelligence technology, and it has set off a political and economic earthquake in the West.
The stocks of US Big Tech corporations crashed on January 27, losing hundreds of billions of dollars in market capitalization over the span of just a few hours, on the news that a small Chinese company called DeepSeek had created a new cutting-edge AI model, which was released for free to the public.
The UK’s leading newspaper The Guardian described DeepSeek as “the biggest threat to Silicon Valley’s hegemony”.
A photo emerged in Chinese-language social media posts that users claim shows officials from Taiwan’s shipping company Evergreen apologizing to China in December for shipping tanks from the United States to the democratic island.
But the claim is false. The photo was taken from a press conference by EVA Air regarding an incident when an overweight passenger asked a flight attendant to help him use the toilet in January 2019.
“On Dec. 27, Evergreen Group came out to apologize!” the claim reads. “We do not accept their apology because Evergreen Group has provoked mainland China numerous times, and the nature of this provocation is extremely bad … Its transportation of tanks sold by the United States to Taiwan has already trampled on the red line set by mainland China.”
Evergreen Group is a Taiwanese conglomerate known for its diverse business operations, including shipping, aviation and logistics.
Some Chinese social media users claimed that the Taiwanese shipping company Evergreen publicly apologized for shipping U.S. tanks to Taiwan.(Weibo)
The claim began to circulate online after Taiwan confirmed in December that it had received 38 M1A2T tanks from the United States, the American U.S. tanks for the island in 23 years, and the first batch of an expected 122 due to arrive over the next two years.
The EVER MILD, Evergreen’s Singapore-flagged cargo ship, reportedly shipped the tanks to Taiwan in mid-December 2024.
At that time, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reaffirmed its opposition to U.S.-Taiwan military ties, saying the Taiwan authorities’ attempts to achieve independence through military reliance on external forces are doomed to fail.
Beijing regards Taiwan as its territory and has never ruled out the use of force to take it, although the democratic island has been self-governing since it split from mainland China in 1949 amid civil war.
However, the claim about the photo is false.
A reverse image search found the same photo published in media reports by differentTaiwanese news outlets in 2019.
The image was taken from a press conference by EVA Air – a subsidiary of the Evergreen Group conglomerate – in response to an incident when an overweight passenger requested a flight attendant to help him use the toilet in January 2019, including undressing him and cleaning him up.
After the flight attendant spoke out about it, generating a public outcry, company officials apologized to the flight attendant at the conference, rising to give a symbolic bow of apology to the humiliated employee and public at one point in the proceedings.
The EVER MILD
Separately, some Chinese social media users claimed that the EVER MILD was denied port entry at China’s Tianjin port in December, with media reports suggesting that it was because of “improper documentation” required by Chinese authorities and the ship refusing to fly China’s national flag.
However, the claim lacks evidence.
Searches for the ship’s course from late December 2024 using the online ship tracking services Marine Traffic and Vessel Finder show that the ship did not dock at Tianjin.
Results from the ship tracking service Marine Traffic (left) and Vessel Finder (right) showed that the EVER MILD did not enter port at Tianjin.(Marine Traffic and Vessel Finder)
After brief stays at the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung and the Chinese city of Shenzhen near the end of December 2024, the freighter began sailing to the U.S. west coast on Jan. 2.
The route log of the ship provided by Evergreen also doesn’t show any stop at Tianjin.
Keyword searches found no credible reports or announcements that the entry of the EVER MILD was denied at Tianjin.
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 and Dong Zhe for Asia Fact Check Lab.
The Doomsday Clock was set at 89 seconds to midnight, the closest the Clock has ever been to midnight in its 78-year history. The 2025 Clock time signals that the world is on a course of unprecedented risk, and that continuing on the current path is a form of madness. The United States, China, and Russia have the prime responsibility to pull the world back from the brink. The world depends on immediate action.
The Doomsday Clock’s time is set by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Science and Security Board (SASB) in consultation with its Board of Sponsors, which includes nine Nobel Laureates.
For a fraction of the cost, Chinese startup DeepSeek’s free, open-source artificial intelligence is outcompeting the world’s previous leading AI model, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, upending the financial predictions of Silicon Valley and causing major turmoil in the U.S. stock market. This comes just after President Trump announced a $500 billion private sector investment plan to boost AI infrastructure in…
A screening of the feature documentary “Dissidents” will take place on Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025, at 2:00 p.m. EST. The event location is Firehouse Cinema, 87 Lafayette Street, New York. “Dissidents” tells the story of three Chinese dissidents who continue to fight for democracy against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) through art, protest, and grassroots organizing despite being exiled from their own home and despite the CCP’s transnational attempts to threaten them with violence, criminal charges, and arson. The film features Juntao Wang, a primary organizer of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests; Weiming Chen, a human rights artist whose sculpture criticizing Xi Jinping was burnt down; and asylum seeker Chunyan Wang, who was arrested for attempting to deliver a petition letter to Chinese vice premiers during the US-China trade talks.
After the film, there will be a panel discussion featuring: Yaqiu Wang, research director for China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan at Freedom House Joey Siu, Hong Kong activist and executive council member at the World Liberty Congress Weiming Chen, human rights artist known for the Liberty Sculpture Park in CaliforniaYi Chen, director of “Dissidents” at C35 FilmsPema Doma, Executive Director, Students For a Free Tibet The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Please be sure to RSVP on Eventbrite as soon as possible, as reservations are granted on a first come, first serve basis.
Special force small team attack craft either surface or subsurface have gained importance in light of their potential for littoral raids. Special Forces (SF) operations at sea have been clouded in a shroud of secrecy compared to land-based SF deployments. But a renewed focus on maritime SF capabilities has been brought into sharp focus with […]
It didn’t come as a surprise to see President Donald Trump sign executive orders to again pull out of the Paris Agreement, or from the World Health Organisation, but the immediate suspension of US international aid has compounded the impact beyond what was imagined possible.
The slew of executive orders signed within hours of Trump re-entering the White House and others since have caused consternation for Pacific leaders and communities and alarm for those operating in the region.
Since Trump was last in power, US engagement in the Pacific has increased dramatically. We have seen new embassies opened, the return of Peace Corps volunteers, high-level summits in Washington and more.
All the officials who have been in the region and met with Pacific leaders and thinkers will know that climate change impacts are the name of the game when it comes to security.
It is encapsulated in the Boe Declaration signed by leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum in 2018 as their number one existential threat and has been restated many times since.
Now it is hard to see how US diplomats and administration representatives can expect to have meaningful conversations with their Pacific counterparts, if they have nothing to offer when it comes to the region’s primary security threat.
The “on again, off again” approach to cutting carbon emissions and providing climate finance does not lend itself to convincing sceptical Pacific leaders that the US is a trusted friend here for the long haul.
Pacific response muted
Trump’s climate scepticism is well-known and the withdrawal from Paris had been flagged during the campaign. The response from leaders within the Pacific islands region has been somewhat muted, with a couple of exceptions.
Vanuatu Attorney-General Kiel Loughman called it out as “bad behaviour”. Meanwhile, Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape has sharply criticised Trump, “urging” him to reconsider his decision to withdraw from the Paris agreement, and plans to rally Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) leaders to stand with him.
It is hard to see how this will have much effect.
The withdrawal from the World Health Organisation – to which the US provides US$500 million or about 15 percent of its annual budget – creates a deep funding gap.
In 2022, the Lowy Pacific aid map recorded that the WHO disbursed US$9.1 million in the Pacific islands across 320 projects. It contributes to important programmes that support health systems in the region.
In addition, the 90-day pause on disbursement of aid funding while investments are reviewed to ensure that they align with the president’s foreign policy is causing confusion and distress in the region.
Perhaps now the time has come to adopt a more transactional approach. While this may not come easily to Pacific diplomats, the reality is that this is how everyone else is acting and it appears to be the geopolitical language of the moment.
Meaningful commitment opportunities
So where the US seeks a security agreement or guarantee, there may be an opportunity to tie it to climate change or other meaningful commitments.
When it comes to the PIF, the intergovernmental body representing 18 states and territories, Trump’s stance may pose a particular problem.
The PIF secretariat is currently undertaking a Review of Regional Architecture. As part of that, dialogue partners including the US are making cases for whether they should be ranked as “Strategic Partners” [Tier 1] or “Sector Development Partners [Tier 2].
It is hard to see how the US can qualify for “strategic partner” status given Trump’s rhetoric and actions in the last week. But if the US does not join that club, it is likely to cede space to China which is also no doubt lobbying to be at the “best friends” table.
With the change in president comes the new Secretary of State Marco Rubio. He was previously known for having called for the US to cut all its aid to Solomon Islands when then Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare announced this country’s switch in diplomatic ties from Taiwan to the People’s Republic of China.
It is to be hoped that since then Rubio has learned that this type of megaphone diplomacy is not welcome in this part of the world.
Since taking office, he has made little mention of the Pacific islands region. In a call with New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters they “discussed efforts to enhance security cooperation, address regional challenges, and support for the Pacific Islands.”
It is still early days, a week is a long time in politics and there remain many “unknown unknowns”. What we do know is that what happens in Washington during the next four years will have global impacts, including in the Pacific. The need now for strong Pacific leadership and assertive diplomacy has never been greater.
Dr Tess Newton Cain is a principal consultant at Sustineo P/L and adjunct associate professor at the Griffith Asia Institute. She is a former lecturer at the University of the South Pacific and has more than 25 years of experience working in the Pacific islands region. This article was first published by BenarNews and is republished by Asia Pacific Report with permission.
What will happen to Australia — and New Zealand — once the superpower that has been followed into endless battles, the United States, finally unravels?
With President Donald Trump now into his second week in the White House, horrific fires have continued to rage across Los Angeles and the details of Elon Musk’s allegedly dodgy Twitter takeover began to emerge, the world sits anxiously by.
The consequences of a second Trump term will reverberate globally, not only among Western nations. But given the deeply entrenched Americanisation of much of the Western world, this is about how it will navigate the after-shocks once the United States finally unravels — for unravel it surely will.
Leading with chaos Now that the world’s biggest superpower and war machine has a deranged criminal at the helm — for a second time — none of us know the lengths to which Trump (and his puppet masters) will go as his fingers brush dangerously close to the nuclear codes. Will he be more emboldened?
The signs are certainly there.
President Donald Trump 2.0 . . . will his cruelty towards migrants and refugees escalate, matched only by his fuelling of racial division? Image: ABC News screenshot IA
So far, Trump — who had already led the insurrection of a democratically elected government — has threatened to exit the nuclear arms pact with Russia, talked up a trade war with China and declared “all hell will break out” in the Middle East if Hamas hadn’t returned the Israeli hostages.
Will his cruelty towards migrants and refugees escalate, matched only by his fuelling of racial division?
This, too, appears to be already happening.
Trump’s rants leading up to his inauguration last week had been a steady stream of crazed declarations, each one more unhinged than the last.
Denial of catastrophic climate consequences
And will Trump be in even further denial over the catastrophic consequences of climate change than during his last term? Even as Los Angeles grapples with a still climbing death toll of 25 lives lost, 12,000 homes, businesses and other structures destroyed and 16,425 hectares (about the size of Washington DC) wiped out so far in the latest climactic disaster?
The fires are, of course, symptomatic of the many years of criminal negligence on global warming. But since Trump instead accused California officials of “prioritising environmental policies over public safety” while his buddy and head of government “efficiency”, Musk blamed black firefighters for the fires, it would appear so.
Will the madman, for surely he is one, also gift even greater protections to oligarchs like Musk?
“…pave the way for my Administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure Federal agencies”.
So, this too is already happening.
All of these actions will combine to create a scenario of destruction that will see the implosion of the US as we know it, though the details are yet to emerge.
The flawed AUKUS pact sinking quickly . . . Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with outgoing President Joe Biden, will Australia have the mettle to be bigger than Trump. Image: Independent Australia
What happens Down Under?
US allies — like Australia — have already been thoroughly indoctrinated by American pop culture in order to complement the many army bases they house and the defence agreements they have signed.
Though Trump hasn’t shown any interest in making it a 52nd state, Australia has been tucked up in bed with the United States since the Cold War. Our foreign policy has hinged on this alliance, which also significantly affects Australia’s trade and economy, not to mention our entire cultural identity, mired as it is in US-style fast food dependence and reality TV. Would you like Vegemite McShaker Fries with that?
So what will happen to Australia once the superpower we have followed into endless battles finally breaks down?
‘Trump has promised chaos and chaos is what he’ll deliver.’
His rise to power will embolden the rabid Far-Right in the US but will this be mirrored here? And will Australia follow the US example and this year elect our very own (admittedly scaled down) version of Trump, personified by none other than the Trump-loving Peter Dutton?
If any of his wild announcements are to be believed, between building walls and evicting even US nationals he doesn’t like, while simultaneously making Canadians US citizens, Trump will be extremely busy.
There will be little time even to consider Australia, let alone come to our rescue should we ever need the might of the US war machine — no matter whether it is an Albanese or sycophantic Dutton leadership.
It is a given, however, that we would be required to honour all defence agreements should our ally demand it.
It would be great if, as psychologists urge us to do when children act up, our leaders could simply ignore and refuse to engage with him, but it remains to be seen whether Australia will have the mettle to be bigger than Trump.
Republished from the Independent Australia with permission.
Rising AI star DeepSeek has close ties to the Chinese government that could explain its rapid progress from a 1 million yuan (US$138,000) startup in 2023 to a major global challenger in the industry, according to a recent investigation by RFA Cantonese.
The open-source artificial intelligence model founded by 40-year-old Liang Wenfeng knocked a US$1 trillion-sized hole in an AI-fueled rally on global stock markets on Monday when it topped app charts ahead of ChatGPT, in what many saw as a challenge to American dominance in the sector.
DeepSeek’s popularity roiled tech shares around the world, knocking US$1 trillion off their value, while near-monopoly holder Nvidia lost nearly US$600bn in market capitalization after its shares plummeted 17% on Monday.
U.S. President Donald Trump said DeepSeek should serve as a “wake-up call” to the U.S. industry, which needed to be “laser-focused on competing to win.”
Trump last week announced the launch of a US$500 billion AI initiative led by OpenAI, which is behind the generative AI service ChatGPT, Texas-based Oracle and Japan’s SoftBank.
DeepSeek’s meteoric emergence hasn’t been without its problems, however.
The company was hit by “degraded performance” due to a cyberattack that has “temporarily limited” who can register to use the app, according to its status page on Tuesday.
“Due to large-scale malicious attacks on DeepSeek’s services, we are temporarily limiting registrations to ensure continued service,” the update said. “Existing users can log in as usual. Thanks for your understanding and support.”
Party links
The app’s sudden success comes after OpenAI suspended services to China, Hong Kong and Macau last July, and despite ongoing export bans on high-end computer chips by the United States.
A recent investigation by RFA Cantonese found that the company has strong connections with the ruling Chinese Communist Party, which has thrown its full political weight behind developing AI.
The trademarks DeepSeek and OpenAI, Jan. 27, 2025.(Reuters)
DeepSeek’s founder and backer Ningbo High-Flyer Quantitative Investment Management Partnership was listed as a National High-tech Enterprise by authorities in its home province of Zhejiang in December 2023.
Such companies enjoy preferential tax policies, as well as state subsidies to carry out research and development, suggesting that DeepSeek’s rise to prominence has the support of the Chinese government at the highest level.
Liang was recently invited to Beijing to give his “opinions and suggestions” to Chinese Premier Li Qiang on his draft government work report, which will be delivered to the National People’s Congress in March, the Communist Party newspaper the People’s Daily reported in a Jan. 21 report on its front page.
The move puts Liang’s company at the heart of the government’s vision for an economic recovery driven by high-tech innovation.
On Jan. 20, Li chaired a symposium of experts, entrepreneurs and representatives from the fields of education, science, culture, health and sports to hear their comments, the article said.
Afterwards, Li told the meeting: “It is necessary to use technological innovation to promote the conversion of old and new driving forces [and] concentrate on breakthroughs in key core technologies and cutting-edge technologies.”
US restrictions
Beijing’s sense of urgency stems at least in part from U.S. restrictions on the export of high-end components to China.
Last month, Washington announced a new semiconductor export control package against China, curbing exports to 140 companies, the latest in a slew of measures aimed at blocking China’s access to and production of chips capable of advancing artificial intelligence for military purposes.
According to a Jan. 22 report by state-backed Chinese media outlet The Paper, DeepSeek’s Firefly-2 computer was equipped with 10,000 A100 GPU chips that were similar in performance to Nvidia’s DGX-A100 chips, but cost only half, and used 40% less energy.
“All of that requires extremely strong financial backing,” the paper said, but quoted Liang as saying that the company has “no financing plan for the short term,” and that its main problem is a shortage of high-end chips, not cash.
It cited reports that Liang had stockpiled more than 10,000 Nvidia A100 chips before the U.S. banned their export to China, and quoted AI consultant Dylan Patel as saying that the true number was closer to 50,000.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Alice Yam and Ha Syut for RFA Cantonese.
The hype around Artificial Intelligence, the now failed U.S. attempt to monopolize it, and the recent counter from China are a lesson in how to innovate. They also show that the U.S. is losing the capability to do so.
In mid 2023, when the Artificial Intelligence hype gained headlines, I wrote:
‘Artificial Intelligence’ Is (Mostly) Glorified Pattern Recognition
Currently there is some hype about a family of large language models like ChatGPT. The program reads natural language input and processes it into some related natural language content output. That is not new. The first Artificial Linguistic Internet Computer Entity (Alice) was developed by Joseph Weizenbaum at MIT in the early 1960s. I had funny chats with ELIZA in the 1980s on a mainframe terminal. ChatGPT is a bit niftier and its iterative results, i.e. the ‘conversations’ it creates, may well astonish some people. But the hype around it is unwarranted.
China’s homegrown open-source artificial intelligence model DeepSeek topped app charts in the United States and Europe on Monday, beating out U.S.-based rival ChatGPT for the most popular free app on Apple’s App Store, in what some commentators saw as a potential challenge to American dominance in the sector.
The app’s emergence has roiled financial markets, hitting tech shares and causing the Nasdaq to fall more than 2% in Monday trading.
It comes after OpenAI, which is behind the generative AI service ChatGPT, suspended services to China, Hong Kong and Macau last July amid ongoing technology wars between the United States and China.
According to the state-backed China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, there are now 1,328 AI large language models in the world, 36% of which were developed in China, placing the country second only to the United States.
DeepSeek offers a user interface much like its rivals, but, like other Chinese-developed AI, remains subject to government censorship.
It likely won’t be engaging in any kind of discussion about the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen massacre, for example, or engaging in debate about whether democratic Taiwan has a right to run its own affairs.
And there were some emerging technical glitches on Monday too, as repeated attempts to log into the app using Google were unsuccessful. The company said it was “investigating” why only users with a mainland Chinese mobile phone number could currently access the service.
Building artificial general intelligence
Developed by Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence, the app uses an R1 reasoning model, which makes it slightly slower than its competitors, but means it delivers a step-by-step breakdown showing how it arrived at its answers, according to media reports.
Founded in July 2023 by Liang Wenfeng, an alumnus of Zhejiang University with a background in information and electronic engineering, the venture was backed by the High-Flyer hedge fund also founded by Liang a decade earlier, according to a Jan. 24 report in MIT’s Technology Review journal.
It said Liang’s ultimate goal is to build artificial general intelligence, or AGI, a form of AI that can match or even beat humans on a range of tasks.
According to the article, there was a direct link between High-Flyer’s decision to venture into AI and current U.S. bans on the export of high-end semiconductor chips to China, and that Liang has a “substantial stockpile” of Nvidia A100 chips that are no longer available to China, which he used to develop DeepSeek.
While the DeepSeek app experienced a partial outage after shooting to the top of the charts on Monday, its rapid rise had already “wobbled” investors’ faith in the profitability of AI and the sector’s voracious demand for high-tech chips,” Reuters reported on Monday, adding that European Nasdaq futures and Japanese tech shares had fallen on the back of the news.
“It’s a case of a crowded trade, and now DeepSeek is giving a reason for investors and traders to unwind,” the agency quoted Wong Kok Hoong, head of equity sales trading at Maybank, as saying.
‘AI’s Sputnik moment’
While little is known about the details of DeepSeek’s development and the hardware it uses, the model has spooked investors in what venture capitalist Marc Andreessen described on X on Sunday as “AI’s Sputnik moment,” in a reference to the former Soviet Union’s surprise 1957 launch of its Sputnik satellite that triggered a space race with the United States.
“The idea that the most cutting-edge technologies in America, like Nvida and ChatGPT, are the most superior globally, there’s concern that this perspective might start to change,” Masahiro Ichikawa, chief market strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management, told Reuters on Monday, adding: “I think it might be a bit premature.”
But Yann LeCun, Chief AI Scientist at Meta, said the real story wasn’t about rivalry between two superpowers.
“To people who see the performance of DeepSeek and think: ‘China is surpassing the US in AI,’ you are reading this wrong,” Yann wrote in a Jan. 25 LinkedIn post.
Instead, the emergence of DeepSeek means that “open source models are surpassing proprietary ones,” he said.
He said DeepSeek profited from open research and open source tools like PyTorch and Llama from Meta, then “came up with new ideas and built them on top of other people’s work.”
“Because their work is published and open source, everyone can profit from it,” he said. “That is the power of open research and open source.”
Privacy concerns
Like TikTok, which is currently waiting to hear its fate under the Trump administration, DeepSeek is likely to raise privacy concerns, given its location under the jurisdiction of the ruling Chinese Communist Party.
Its privacy policy warns users that it collects user information like date of birth, username, email address or phone number and password. Like other models, it also remembers what you ask it to do.
“When you use our Services, we may collect your text or audio input, prompt, uploaded files, feedback, chat history, or other content that you provide,” according to the policy, which was last updated on Dec. 5, 2024.
It also remembers your IP address, your device model and operating system and system language.
And while it doesn’t store that data alongside your name, like TikTok, the app records each user’s highly individual “keystroke patterns or rhythms.”
That information is used to protect accounts from “fraud” and other illegal activity. Similar phrasing has sparked concerns over the use of user data by TikTok, although the company has dismissed such concerns as unfounded.
The company may also use user data to allow it to “comply with our legal obligations, or as necessary to perform tasks in the public interest,” the policy states, without specifying what “the public interest” might mean.
“We store the information we collect in secure servers located in the People’s Republic of China,” the Policy states, meaning that such data could be used by the Chinese government if it saw fit.
Edited by Joshua Lipes.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Luisetta Mudie.
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s aid for Kiribati is being reviewed after its President and Foreign Minister cancelled a meeting with him last week.
Terms of Reference for the review are still being finalised, and it remains unclear whether or not funding will be cut or projects already under way would be affected, with Peters’ office saying no decisions would be made until the review was complete.
His office said Kiribati remained part of the RSE scheme and its eligibility for the Pacific Access Category was unaffected — for now.
Peters had been due to meet with President Taneti Maamau last Tuesday and Wednesday, in what was to be the first trip by a New Zealand foreign minister to Kiribati in five years, and part of his effort to visit every Pacific country early in the government’s term.
Kiribati has been receiving increased aid from China in recent years.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Peters said he was informed about a week before the trip President Maamau would no longer be available.
“Around a week prior to our arrival in Tarawa, we were advised that the President and Foreign Minister of Kiribati, Taneti Maamau, was no longer available to receive Mr Peters and his delegation,” the statement said.
‘Especially disappointing’
“This was especially disappointing because the visit was to be the first in over five years by a New Zealand Minister to Kiribati — and was the result of a months-long effort to travel there.”
The spokesperson said the development programme was being reviewed as a result.
“New Zealand has been a long-standing partner to Kiribati. The lack of political-level contact makes it very difficult for us to agree joint priorities for our development programme, and to ensure that it is well targeted and delivers good value for money.
“That’s important for both the people of Kiribati and for the New Zealand taxpayer. For this reason, we are reviewing our development programme in Kiribati. The outcomes of that review will be announced in due course.
“Other aspects of the bilateral relationship may also be impacted.”
New Zealand spent $102 million on the development cooperation programme with Kiribati between 2021 and 2024, including on health, education, fisheries, economic development, and climate resilience.
Peters’ office said New Zealand deeply valued the contribution Recognised Seasonal Employer workers made to the country, and was committed to working alongside Pacific partners to ensure the scheme led to positive outcomes for all parties.
Committed to positive outcomes “However, without open dialogue it is difficult to meet this commitment.”
They also said New Zealand was committed to working alongside our Pacific partners to ensure that the Pacific Access Category leads to positive outcomes for all parties, but again this would be difficult without open dialogue.
The spokesperson said the Kiribati people’s wellbeing was of paramount importance and the terms of reference would reflect this.
New Zealand stood ready “as we always have, to engage with Kiribati at a high level”.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
MANILA – Philippine authorities suspended a scientific survey in the disputed South China Sea after its fisheries vessels faced “harassment” from China’s coast guard and navy.
Vessels from the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) were going to Sandy Cay for a marine scientific survey and sand sampling on Friday, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said in a statement on Saturday.
“During the mission, the BFAR vessels encountered aggressive maneuvers from three Chinese Coast Guard vessels 4106, 5103 and 4202,” PCG said, calling the incident a “blatant disregard” of the 1972 Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGs).
Sandy Cay is a group of cays – or low reefs – two nautical miles (3.7 km) from Philippines-occupied Thitu island, known as Pag-asa island in the Philippines.
Four smaller boats deployed by the China Coast Guard (CCG) also harassed the Philippine bureau’s two inflatable boats, the Philippine Coast Guard said.
“Compounding the situation, a People’s Liberation Army-Navy (PLAN) helicopter, identified by tail number 24, hovered at an unsafe altitude above the BFAR RHIBs, creating hazardous conditions due to the propeller wash,” the Philippine Coast Guard said.
In a statement, the China Coast Guard said it expelled the Philippine vessels for unlawfully intruding into its waters.
China has “indisputable sovereignty” over the disputed waters and that it will continue to protect its maritime rights and interests, China Coast Guard spokesperson Liu Dejun said on Saturday.
Philippine authorities suspended the operation following the incident, the Philippine Coast Guard said.
The Philippine foreign affairs department is expected to file another diplomatic protest against China over the encounter, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Eduardo De Vega said.
Edited by BenarNews Staff.
BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news organization.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by BenarNews staff.
In response to a US State Department statement claiming new US Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussing Beijing’s “dangerous and destabilizing actions in the South China Sea” with his Philippines counterpart Enrique Manalo over phone and underscoring the “ironclad” US defense commitment to Manila, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Thursday that the US is not a party to the South China Sea issue and has no right to interfere in the maritime issues between China and the Philippines.
Mao said “the military cooperation between the US and the Philippines should not undermine China’s sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea, still less should such cooperation support or advance the Philippines’ illegal claims.”
For decades now, there has been a clear understanding that the models of development proposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Washington Consensus – debt, austerity, structural adjustment – simply have not worked. The long history of adversity experienced by the former colonial countries remains intact. A glance at the numbers from the Maddison Project Database 2023 shows that global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) terms has risen by 689.9% between 1980 and 2022 (from $18.8 trillion to $148.5 trillion).
Five years ago, authorities in the central Chinese city of Wuhan and surrounding areas in Hubei province imposed a travel ban on some 18 million people, just days after admitting that the newly emerging coronavirus was transmissible between people.
Five years on from COVID-19—from Wuhan’s lockdown to global pandemic, from zero-COVID to coexistence—the world has changed. As survivors, what have we learned?
The lockdown prompted a mass rush to leave the city that likely helped spread COVID-19 around the country and beyond.
It also plunged China into three grueling years of citywide lockdowns, mass quarantine camps and compulsory daily COVID tests, with residents locked in, walled off and even welded into their own apartments, unable to earn a living or seek urgent medical care.
China is still struggling to recover today, despite the ending of restrictions in 2022 following nationwide protests, political commentators and a city resident told RFA Mandarin in recent interviews.
The most worrying thing about the Wuhan lockdown was that the authorities took that model and imposed it on cities across the country over the three years that followed, according to independent political commentator Qin Peng.
“The first thing [the authorities learned] was how to control public speech, how to arrest citizen journalists, how to block the internet, how to leak information and create public opinion through paid-for international experts and media,” Qin said. “The second thing was how to tame the public and bring everyone into line with the use of official narratives.”
“The third was how to turn an incident for which they were clearly responsible into a problem caused by somebody else … by blaming the United States, or nature,” Qin said.
Rows of beds lie waiting to be filled at a makeshift hospital set up in the Wuhan Sports Center stadium, Wuhan, China, Feb. 12, 2020.(AP)
The World Health Organization last month 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.
Massive controls ‘still possible’
U.S.-based former Peking University professor Xia Yeliang said the government learned that it was still possible to impose massive and far-reaching controls on the population.
“They weren’t sure it would work after so many years of economic reform and opening up, although such strict controls had been possible during the time of [late supreme leader] Mao Zedong,” Xia said. “They thought people wouldn’t accept it.”
“But after the Wuhan lockdown, the authorities discovered that it was still possible.”
Wuhan was Ground Zero in the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the first city in the world to undergo a total lockdown in early 2020.
Authorities claimed that only 2,531 people died in the initial wave of infections, but estimates at the time based on the number of cremations carried out by the city’s seven crematoria suggested that tens of thousands died.
Apart from the spread of the virus, the most immediate impact for many was the clampdown on freedom of speech.
Whistleblowing doctors like Li Wenliang and Ai Fen were threatened and silenced after they tried to warn people about the new viral “pneumonia” that bore all of the hallmarks of a SARS-like virus.
During the 76 days of the Wuhan lockdown, the authorities deleted 229 articles and posts by citizen journalists who rushed to the city to document the pandemic from the front line, according to the documentary film “Wuhan Lockdown,” which remains banned in China.
Police also pursued and detained several prominent live bloggers in the city, including Li Zehua, Chen Qiushi, Fang Bin and Zhang Zhan, all of whom were to serve lengthy terms behind bars for their attempts to report on the emerging pandemic.
Outside the city, censors were busy deleting articles and comments on the pandemic and the authorities’ response.
Wuhan residents also lost the right to freedom of movement, to earn a living and to seek medical care, and were effectively prisoners in their own homes, according to reports at the time.
Paying the price
There was a heavy price to pay, both psychologically and economically, however.
“Since the Wuhan lockdown, I’ve lost interest in so many things that I used to love,” Wuhan resident Guo Siyu told RFA Mandarin. “My health, my parents and my kids are my top priority now.”
“I barely have any thoughts of material success … and even my spiritual life has faded into the background: I just want to stay alive and be safe,” she said.
Xia said the initial attempt to control the citywide spread of COVID-19 was understandable.
“When you have the large-scale spread of an infectious disease, with an unknown source and outcome, it is not entirely wrong to choose to control the movements of the population,” Xia said. “But what really needs reflecting on is what they did afterwards.”
For example, Chinese President Xi Jinping never visited Wuhan in person, Xia said.
“He claimed to be overseeing operations in person, but he wasn’t there in person,” Xia said, adding that the emergency relief services had also failed to deliver reliable supplies of food, transportation and medical attention to everyone to needed them.
“Maybe they were taken by surprise initially, but what about a few months later?” he said. “It was a dereliction of government duty that they were still unable to achieve this several months down the line.”
Medical staff transport COVID-19 patients at the Huoshenshan makeshift hospital in Wuhan, China, Feb. 4, 2020.(Xiao Yijiu/Xinhua News Agency/AP)
Xia said the Chinese government seems incapable of reflecting on its errors and learning from them, and controls on public speech mean that nobody is allowed to do that for them.
“I think this is a government that doesn’t reflect, and a society that cannot reflect,” he said. “And a government that can’t reflect can’t run the country effectively.”
CCP’s damaged standing
Qin said the government’s insistence on the zero-COVID policy, using lockdowns and tracking people’s movements and infection status via the Health Code app, had ultimately damaged the economy and the Chinese Communist Party’s standing in the eyes of its own people.
“People used to have this irrational belief in the Chinese Communist Party’s ability to govern,” Qin said. “But from the extreme prevention and control measures right through to the way they relaxed restrictions with no preparation, we can see how inflexible their policies are.”
“And they failed to deliver the economic recovery that everyone predicted after the restrictions were dropped,” he said. “This has had a profound impact on all aspects of China’s political and economic development, and damaged the authority of the national government and Xi Jinping personally.”
“That’s why they dare not talk anymore about their victory over the pandemic,” Qin said.
Guo, who once made a living coaching Chinese students to apply to study overseas, said neither she nor her city has ever really recovered.
“Relations between China and other countries have broken down, and I have no income,” she said.
“It’s been five years, and yet the pandemic has never ended,” Guo said. “The impact of that lockdown on us, the native people of Wuhan, has never gone away.”
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Roseanne Gerin.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Zhu Liye for RFA Mandarin.
Detainees fear their return could be imminent despite UN experts urging Bangkok to halt possible transfer
Relatives of Uyghurs detained in Thailand for more than a decade have begged the Thai authorities not to deport the 48 men back to China, after the detainees suggested their return appeared imminent.
A UN panel of experts this week urged Thailand to “immediately halt the possible transfer”, saying the men were at “real risk of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment if they are returned”.
TAIPEI, Taiwan – Taiwan said 85% of its national security cases were found to involve retired military and police officers, saying China “systematically and organically cultivated” these forces in the island.
Taiwan’s national security law is a set of legal provisions aimed at safeguarding its sovereignty and democratic system from internal and external threats. It includes measures against espionage, subversion, and activities threatening national security, with a particular focus on countering external interference, including from China.
China regards Taiwan as a renegade province that should 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.
“85% of current incidents related to national security are involved with retired military and police. We are very concerned about this situation,” said Liang Wen-chieh, spokesperson of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, which oversees relations across the Taiwan Strait.
“China has been systematically and methodically cultivating these forces on the ground in Taiwan … it has become very difficult to secure evidence in espionage and national security-related cases,” Liang added without elaborating.
The number of individuals in Taiwan prosecuted for Chinese espionage increased from 16 in 2021 to 64 in 2024, Taiwan’s main intelligence agency, the National Security Bureau, or NSB, said in a report this month.
In 2024, 15 military veterans and 28 active service members were prosecuted, accounting for 23% and 43%, respectively, of all Chinese espionage cases.
“Chinese operatives frequently try to use retired military personnel to recruit active service members, establish networks via the internet, or try to lure targets with cash or by exploiting their debts,” said the NSB.
“For example, military personnel with financial difficulties may be offered loans via online platforms or underground banks, in return for passing along secret intelligence, signing loyalty pledges or recruiting others,” the agency added.
The Taiwan government’s announcement on national security cases came days after Taiwanese prosecutors sought a 10-year prison sentence for a retired military officer for leaking classified information to China.
The Taiwan High Prosecutors Office on Monday indicted retired Lt Gen. Kao An-kuo and five others for violating the National Security Act and organizing a pro-China group.
Prosecutors claim that Kao, leader of the pro-unification group “Republic of China Taiwan Military Government,” along with his girlfriend, identified by her surname Liu, and four others, were recruited by China’s People’s Liberation Army, or PLA.
The group allegedly worked to establish an organization that would serve as armed internal support and operational bases for the Chinese Communist Party, or CCP, in the event of a PLA invasion of Taiwan. This effort reportedly included recruiting active-duty military personnel to obtain classified information and monitor strategic deployments.
Additionally, they are accused of using drones to simulate surveillance on mobile military radar vehicles and other combat exercises, subsequently relaying the results to the CCP.
China has not commented on Taiwan’s announcement on national security cases.
Edited by Mike Firn.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Taejun Kang for RFA.
One of the most legendary scenes of revolutionary joy in the history of the world socialist movement is said to have occurred when Vladimir Lenin reportedly went out to dance in the snow in order to celebrate the fact that the recently minted Soviet Republic had outlasted the Paris Commune. The workers who had taken over the French capital in 1871 and launched a collective project of self-governance were able to hold out for seventy-two days before the ruling class trounced this experiment in a more egalitarian world.
Donald Trump began his second term as president by vowing to grow the US empire.
In his inauguration speech, Trump used explicitly imperialist rhetoric, promising to “expand our territory”.
He even invoked “Manifest Destiny”, a concept employed by 19th-century US colonialists to justify ethnically cleansing Indigenous nations and stealing their land.
“The United States will once again consider itself a growing nation, one that increases our wealth, expands our territory, builds our cities, raises our expectations, and carries our flag into new and beautiful horizons”, Trump said, adding, “And we will pursue our Manifest Destiny into the stars”.
In Beijing’s Fengtai District, the New Protein Food Science and Technology Innovation Base is aiming to fill the gap in China’s cultivated meat and microbial protein ecosystem.
China has just opened its first alternative protein centre for cultivated meat and fermentation-derived products, with support from both the public and private sectors.
Located in the China Meat Food Comprehensive Research Center in Beijing, the first-of-a-kind hub has been set up with an ¥80M ($10.9M) investment, in a joint effort by the local Fengtai District government and meat processor Shounong Food Group.
The two entities have worked together on a blueprint to integrate their resources, promote the development of academia, research and industry, and create a future food cluster.
“The New Protein Food Science and Technology Innovation Base will help complete the transformation of laboratory results into engineering and industrialisation, and lay a good development prospect for the commercialisation of cell-cultured meat,” Cui Xulong, Fengati District’s deputy mayor, said at the opening ceremony.
New hub extends Fengtai District’s biotech leadership
Courtesy: Fengtai District Media Integration Center
The alternative protein centre has built an innovative R&D platform and lab for novel foods like cultivated meat. It currently has a 200-litre cell line for cultivated meat, and a 2,000-litre production line for microbial protein, but plans to develop two 2,000-litre cell culture lines, and three microbial protein pilot lines of 2,000 and 5,000 litres.
As the first national-level tech innovation platform for cultivated meat in China, it will bring “unlimited possibilities” to the industry’s development, and will mainly focus on the fields of cell engineering and synthetic biology through breakthrough tech research, engineering application, and an industrial innovation ecosystem.
At the opening ceremony, attendees were shown a glimpse of the kind of products that can be born out of the research centre – think microbial protein bars, microbe-fermented tofu meat, and a cultivated marbled steak.
Fengtai District has emerged as a biomanufacturing leader in the future food industry. In May, it issued a policy measure to integrate resources, increase productivity, and speed up the development of the food industry. This resulted in the establishment of the district’s first future food industrial park, which attracted scientific research institutions, upstream and downstream enterprises, and industry associations.
The newly established Shounong Development and Innovation Science and Technology Industrial Park is now aiming to cultivate a new productivity force in Beijing’s agrifood industry, and become a “model zone” for the future food industry.
The district also intends to use artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technologies to establish a platform for real-time monitoring and traceability of the entire chain of future food production, processing, circulation, and sales, and enhance food safety.
China’s biotech dominance takes effect
Courtesy: CellX
Xulong noted that the new centre supports the development of the national bioeconomy and biomanufacturing industries, and can help boost national food security.
While China is the world’s largest meat consumer – making up 28% of the global consumption growth in the decade to 2023, with intakes set to increase further until 2030 – but experts suggest that half of all protein consumption in the country must come from alternative sources by 2060, if it is to decarbonise.
This can already be seen in current eating patterns – China is already consuming more protein per capita than the US, and more than 60% of this comes from vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts and seeds. Its share of global meat consumption is also set to fall to 11% in the next decade.
A 2024 survey suggests that when Chinese consumers are informed of the benefits of a vegan diet, 98% say they’ll eat more of these foods. This is driven by the country’s large flexitarian population, making up a third of the total.
The government’s current five-year agriculture plan encourages research in cultivated meat and recombinant proteins, while the five-year plan for bioeconomy development highlights an advancement of man-made protein and novel foods. President Xi Jinping, meanwhile, has called for a Grand Food Vision that includes plant-based and microbial protein sources.
“Beijing is actively advancing the development and innovation of the biomanufacturing industry, accelerating the coordination of municipal innovation resources, and increasing support in areas such as the industrial demonstration of cultured meat and the manufacturing of core ingredients for functional foods, fostering the growth of strategic emerging industries,” said Chen Lianwu, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
Companies like CellX, Joes Future Food and Jimi Biotech are already leading the cultivated meat charge in China, something that political leaders in America have also noticed. A group of Congress members have called on the US to step up its alternative protein game in the face of East Asian rival’s biotech dominance.
In Beijing’s Fengtai District, the New Protein Food Science and Technology Innovation Base is aiming to fill the gap in China’s cultivated meat and microbial protein ecosystem.
China has just opened its first alternative protein centre for cultivated meat and fermentation-derived products, with support from both the public and private sectors.
Located in the China Meat Food Comprehensive Research Center in Beijing, the first-of-a-kind hub has been set up with an ¥80M ($10.9M) investment, in a joint effort by the local Fengtai District government and meat processor Shounong Food Group.
The two entities have worked together on a blueprint to integrate their resources, promote the development of academia, research and industry, and create a future food cluster.
“The New Protein Food Science and Technology Innovation Base will help complete the transformation of laboratory results into engineering and industrialisation, and lay a good development prospect for the commercialisation of cell-cultured meat,” Cui Xulong, Fengati District’s deputy mayor, said at the opening ceremony.
New hub extends Fengtai District’s biotech leadership
Courtesy: Fengtai District Media Integration Center
The alternative protein centre has built an innovative R&D platform and lab for novel foods like cultivated meat. It currently has a 200-litre cell line for cultivated meat, and a 2,000-litre production line for microbial protein, but plans to develop two 2,000-litre cell culture lines, and three microbial protein pilot lines of 2,000 and 5,000 litres.
As the first national-level tech innovation platform for cultivated meat in China, it will bring “unlimited possibilities” to the industry’s development, and will mainly focus on the fields of cell engineering and synthetic biology through breakthrough tech research, engineering application, and an industrial innovation ecosystem.
At the opening ceremony, attendees were shown a glimpse of the kind of products that can be born out of the research centre – think microbial protein bars, microbe-fermented tofu meat, and a cultivated marbled steak.
Fengtai District has emerged as a biomanufacturing leader in the future food industry. In May, it issued a policy measure to integrate resources, increase productivity, and speed up the development of the food industry. This resulted in the establishment of the district’s first future food industrial park, which attracted scientific research institutions, upstream and downstream enterprises, and industry associations.
The newly established Shounong Development and Innovation Science and Technology Industrial Park is now aiming to cultivate a new productivity force in Beijing’s agrifood industry, and become a “model zone” for the future food industry.
The district also intends to use artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technologies to establish a platform for real-time monitoring and traceability of the entire chain of future food production, processing, circulation, and sales, and enhance food safety.
China’s biotech dominance takes effect
Courtesy: CellX
Xulong noted that the new centre supports the development of the national bioeconomy and biomanufacturing industries, and can help boost national food security.
While China is the world’s largest meat consumer – making up 28% of the global consumption growth in the decade to 2023, with intakes set to increase further until 2030 – but experts suggest that half of all protein consumption in the country must come from alternative sources by 2060, if it is to decarbonise.
This can already be seen in current eating patterns – China is already consuming more protein per capita than the US, and more than 60% of this comes from vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts and seeds. Its share of global meat consumption is also set to fall to 11% in the next decade.
A 2024 survey suggests that when Chinese consumers are informed of the benefits of a vegan diet, 98% say they’ll eat more of these foods. This is driven by the country’s large flexitarian population, making up a third of the total.
The government’s current five-year agriculture plan encourages research in cultivated meat and recombinant proteins, while the five-year plan for bioeconomy development highlights an advancement of man-made protein and novel foods. President Xi Jinping, meanwhile, has called for a Grand Food Vision that includes plant-based and microbial protein sources.
“Beijing is actively advancing the development and innovation of the biomanufacturing industry, accelerating the coordination of municipal innovation resources, and increasing support in areas such as the industrial demonstration of cultured meat and the manufacturing of core ingredients for functional foods, fostering the growth of strategic emerging industries,” said Chen Lianwu, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
Companies like CellX, Joes Future Food and Jimi Biotech are already leading the cultivated meat charge in China, something that political leaders in America have also noticed. A group of Congress members have called on the US to step up its alternative protein game in the face of East Asian rival’s biotech dominance.
China has seen nearly 3 million restaurants, cafes and other catering outlets shut down in the past year, according to industry website Hongcan, with many going bankrupt and even hugely popular chains slashing costs by shutting down hundreds of stores.
In early December, top Taiwanese chicken house Zhenghao Da Da went viral on Weibo after it announced it would shutter all its stores in China, starting with the flagship outlet in Shanghai’s New World City Plaza mall.
But the announcement was just “the tip of the iceberg,” according to a Jan. 21 analysis published on Hongcan’s website.
“‘Contraction’ and ‘stores closing’ were the new buzzwords for the catering industry in 2024,” the article said. “The negative news just kept on coming, and the sense of chill was overwhelming.”
The closures have been seen across all sectors of the industry, from fine dining to cafes, bakeries and hot pot chains to snacks and fast food.
Even high-end Western fine-dining outlets have been hit by bankruptcy, absconding owners and unpaid wages, “in an extremely embarrassing manner,” the article said, citing the closure of Beijing-based Michelin-starred Italian restaurant Opera BOMBANA, which shut down in April 2024 while still owing its staff wages and suppliers money.
People dine outside a restaurant in Beijing, China, Jan. 18, 2025.(Jade Gao/AFP)
L’Atelier 18, a French restaurant on the Bund in Shanghai with a three-Michelin-star chef shut down after only six months in operation, while Paul Pairet at Roodoodoo also shut its doors less than a year after its opening, according to a list of high-profile closures compiled by Redcan.
Tea shops hit hard
Snacks, baked goods and beverages have been equally hard hit, though, with milk tea store Taigai, Jixu Fresh Fruit Coffee and Thank You Tea all shuttering multiple stores through the year, the list showed.
Tea chain Cuonei Village slashed its stores from nearly 500 across more than 80 Chinese cities to less than 50 stores by early December, while Fu Xiaotao and Yuan Zhenzhen Milk Tea have dropped from more than 300 stores apiece to just a handful.
Diners who once piled the shrimp high at Xiamen’s fancy seafood buffet chain Haidinghui have been left out in the cold, while Japan’s Mos Burger exited the Chinese market, closing six outlets in June.
Hotpot chains Just Thai, Xianhezhuang and Panda Lao Zao have all slashed the number of their outlets.
The report cited “more rational” behavior from consumers, increasing global uncertainty and the “shrinking assets of the middle classes” as the driving force behind the mass closures.
Flagging economy to blame
A current affairs commentator from the eastern province of Zhejiang who gave only the surname Lu for fear of reprisals said the industry has been hit from all directions.
“On the demand side, there has been weak domestic economic recovery since the ending of pandemic restrictions,” Lu said. “The assets of the middle classes are shrinking, civil servants are owed wages, and a lot of ordinary people are unemployed.”
“This means consumption has become more rational and focused on value for money and demand more rigid, while high-end catering and internet celebrity restaurants have been hit hard,” he said. Internet celebrity restaurants are eateries that are popular online and attract customers through mass exposure.
A man rests at a restaurant inside a shopping mall in Beijing, China, Aug. 14, 2024.(Pedro Pardo/AFP)
A resident of the eastern city of Taizhou who gave only the surname Wang for fear of reprisals said the impact on the street is highly visible where he lives.
“A lot of restaurants in Taizhou have shut their doors, including a lot of long-established ones,” he said.
“Some that were open for only four or five years have also closed.”
The outlets that are still booming are those frequented by government officials and departments, according to Wang.
Online commentator Lao Zhou said the sector has also been hit by rising rents and prices for raw materials.
“The closure of restaurants shows us that ordinary people have no money in their pockets,” Lao Zhou said. “Who’s going to go eat in a restaurant if they have no money?”
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.
Chinese officials remain tight-lipped about how they plan to carry out diplomacy with the United States while America’s top diplomat, Marco Rubio, remains officially sanctioned for critical comments he made about Beijing’s treatment of Uyghurs and Hong Kong in 2020.
Rubio, formerly a Republican senator from Florida, was hit with retaliatory sanctions for “interfering” in China’s domestic affairs by criticizing its 2019 crackdown in Hong Kong and what the U.S. government calls a “genocide” against ethnic Uyghurs in the far northwestern Xinjiang region.
Under China’s Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law, that puts Rubio on a travel ban list, potentially complicating U.S.-Chinese diplomacy.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning was ambiguous at a briefing on Thursday when asked whether Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi would speak with Rubio by telephone given the sanctions.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning speaks with reporters in Beijing, July 26, 2023.(Ng Han Guan/AP)
“I have no information to share on your question,” Mao said, before adding that Beijing still thought engagement was important.
“Let me say more broadly that it’s necessary for high-level Chinese and U.S. officials to engage each other in appropriate ways,” she said. “In the meantime, China will firmly defend its national interests.”
On Monday, Rubio was confirmed as U.S. President Donald Trump’s secretary of state after stating at his Senate confirmation hearing that he believes China is the “biggest threat” to America’s security.
He also nodded to his fraught ties with China during the hearing.
“Indeed, I’ve been strongly worded in my views of China,” Rubio said. “Let me just point out they’ve said mean things about me too.”
What’s in a name?
In the aftermath of his confirmation, Chinese official state documents referring to Rubio appeared to change the Chinese characters used to transcribe his name, leading to suggestions Beijing might be attempting to skirt the sanctions and travel ban by renaming Rubio in Chinese.
However, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson seemingly put the kibosh on that account at an earlier press briefing Wednesday, telling a reporter she was “not yet aware” of his name being written differently.
“If you ask me, instead of how his name is translated in Chinese, it’s his actual name in English that is more important,” Mao said. “What I can tell you is that China’s sanctions are aimed at the words and actions that harm China’s legitimate rights and interests.”
The Chinese Embassy in Washington was also opaque when asked by Radio Free Asia about the sanctions, travel ban and name change.
“China will firmly defend national interests,” spokesperson Liu Pengyu said. “In the meantime, it’s necessary for high-level Chinese and American officials to maintain contact in an appropriate way.”
The U.S. State Department told RFA only that Rubio did “not have any travel to announce at this time.” It otherwise declined to comment on the sanctions and the new secretary’s apparent Chinese name change.
Then Sen. Marco Rubio participates in a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 10, 2020.(AL DRAGO/AFP)
“Secretary Rubio looks forward to promoting American safety, security and prosperity through his engagements with China and other countries throughout the region,” a spokesperson said.
Sanctions diplomacy
It’s not the first time sanctions have complicated U.S.-China ties.
From March to October 2023, Li Shangfu served as China’s defense minister while subject to U.S. sanctions issued in 2018 for purchasing banned Russian missile systems when he was a lieutenant general.
Li’s tenure came at a nadir for U.S.-China ties and saw the Chinese defense minister and the rest of China’s military refuse any direct contact with their American counterparts, leading to public complaints from then-U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in June 2023.
But Li was sacked by President Xi Jinping in October 2023 –- and later expelled from the Chinese Communist Party altogether –- a month before Xi and then-U.S. President Joe Biden’s summit in San Francisco, where military-to-military contact was re-established.
Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Alex Willemyns.
Hong Kong national security police have taken away three family members of U.K.-based pollster and outspoken political commentator Chung Kim-wah, who has a bounty on his head amid a crackdown on dissent under two security laws.
Chung, 64, is a former deputy head of the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute and co-host of the weekly talk show “Voices Like Bells” for RFA Cantonese.
He left for the United Kingdom in April 2022 after being questioned amid a city-wide crackdown on public dissent and political opposition to the ruling Chinese Communist Party.
Officers took two of Chung’s brothers and a sister from their homes on Wednesday morning.
Chung’s second brother was taken to Tsuen Wan Police Station for questioning, his third sister to Central Police Station, and his fourth brother to Castle Peak Police station.
Chung is accused — alongside Carmen Lau, Tony Chung, Joseph Tay and Chloe Cheung — of “incitement to secession” after he “advocated independence” on social media and repeatedly called on foreign governments to impose sanctions on Beijing over the crackdown, according to a police announcement.
He told Radio Free Asia that the questioning of his family members came as “no surprise,” but said they had nothing to do with his professional activities.
“My brothers and sisters are all adults, so why should they be held responsible for what I do?” Chung told RFA Cantonese in an interview on Jan. 22. “They live in Hong Kong, and I’m in the U.K., so I never tell them anything.”
U.K.-based Hong Kong pollster Chung Kim-wah, who has a bounty on his head, in an undated file photo.(RFA)
Chung said the move was likely an attempt to intimidate people carrying out independent public opinion research, which often involves negative views of the government.
“It seems that they don’t want to face up to public opinion, so they’re doing this to scare us, and ‘deal with’ the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute,” he said. “It’s kind of tedious.”
‘Long-arm’ law enforcement
Exiled Hong Kong democracy activists have called for an international effort to combat the threat of Beijing’s “long-arm” law enforcement beyond its borders, saying recent bounties on the heads of 19 people are deliberately intended to create a “chilling effect” on activists everywhere.
The move came after police questioned Chung’s wife and son and former colleague Robert Chung earlier this month, as part of a “national security police investigation.”
Chung announced he had left the city on April 24, 2022, to “live for a while in the U.K.”
In a Facebook post announcing his departure, Chung said he didn’t want to “desert” his home city, but “had no other option.”
He ran afoul of the authorities early in December 2021, ahead of the first-ever elections for the Legislative Council to exclude pro-democracy candidates in a system that ensures only “patriots” loyal to Beijing can stand.
Chung was hauled in for questioning after pro-Beijing figures criticized him for including a question in a survey about whether voters intended to cast blank ballots in the election, which critics said could amount to “incitement” to subvert the voting system under the national security law.
Nineteen people now have HK$1 million (US$130,000) bounties on their heads following two previous announcements in July and December 2023.
‘Seditious intention’
Meanwhile, national security police said they had also arrested a 36-year-old man in Eastern District on Jan. 21 on suspicion of “knowingly publishing publications that had a seditious intent,” a charge under the Safeguarding National Security Law, known as Article 23.
The content of the publications had “provoked hatred towards the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Hong Kong Police Force and the Judiciary, as well as called for sanctions against government officials and inciting violence,” police said in a statement dated Jan. 22.
“Police remind members of the public that “knowingly publishing publications that had a seditious intention” is a serious crime,” the statement said, warning that offenders could face jail terms of seven years on their first conviction.
“Members of the public are urged not to defy the law,” it said.
More than 10,000 people have been arrested and at least 2,800 prosecuted in a citywide crackdown in the wake of the 2019 protest movement, mostly under public order charges.
Nearly 300 have been arrested under 2020 National Security Law, according to the online magazine ChinaFile.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Roseanne Gerin.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Lee Heung Yeung and Matthew Leung for RFA Cantonese.
Cyber scam compounds made international headlines this month after a Chinese actor was rescued from Myanmar’s notorious KK Park. In late December, Wang Xing flew to Mae Sot, Thailand on the promise of an acting gig. Instead, he was kidnapped and hustled across the border into a compound where victims like him are forced to trick others out of their savings. If they fail to do so, they are often violently punished.
What is extraordinary about Wang’s case is not the fake job ad, the kidnapping or the cross-border smuggling into a compound filled with thousands of victims from around the world. Rather, it is his rescue that is unusual.
Chinese actor Wang Xing, left, shakes the hand of a Thai police officer after being released from a Myanmar scam center, in Thailand’s Mae Sot district, Jan. 7, 2025.(Royal Thai Police via Reuters)
Across the region, hundreds of thousands of people are locked away in similar circumstances. Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar have all seen a massive proliferation of scam compounds in recent years. Run by a range of organized crime groups, the compounds are often linked to powerful local individuals and operate with impunity.
Where did scam compounds come from?
More than a decade ago, cheap internet made Cambodia an early hotspot for Chinese and Taiwanese phone scammers. Pretending to be officials from the government, insurance companies or other businesses, scammers used Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, to call victims in their home countries — most frequently China — and trick them or threaten them into transferring money out of their bank accounts. Early scam operations run out of Cambodia, Kenya, Malaysia and elsewhere bankrupted countless individuals and netted billions of yuan.
(Amanda Weisbrod/RFA)
While thousands of people have been arrested and deported over the years, those early operations were never fully stamped out and instead proliferated and grew more sophisticated and broad-reaching.
In Cambodia, a 2019 ban on online gambling followed by a mass exodus of Chinese expats and tourists during the pandemic saw casinos increasingly repurposed as scam centers. Special Economic Zones created in Laos and other countries to foster new businesses became hubs of criminality due to lax regulations. In Myanmar, meanwhile, the coup and resulting civil war expanded business opportunities for would-be criminals while lessening the likelihood of enforcement.
Couple the endemic corruption with a global pool of relatively educated but desperately poor job seekers and you get the makings of an unprecedented criminal opportunity. Estimates of money stolen by criminal groups operating out of lower Mekong nations now range from $18 billion a year to upwards of $40 billion.
Tricking victims into believing their accounts have been compromised remains a common scam in much of the world. But compounds in Southeast Asia have heavily focused on pig butchering in recent years. A loose translation of sha zhu pan (杀猪盘), pig butchering refers to the process of fattening up a victim before sending them to the slaughter.
If these scams take more time and energy, they also appear to net higher gains. After messaging millions of people — often with innocuous messages that are written off as simply a wrong number — scammers then focus their energies on the few who reply, slowly building up a friendship or romantic relationship.
Over time, victims are convinced to invest in crypto or other business opportunities, with small returns often shared back to them. Having seen this “proof” of their loved one’s business prowess, the victim is then convinced to make a much more significant “investment.” In this way, victims routinely lose thousands, hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.
A Vietnamese man who was held at this KK Park scam compound in Myanmar’s Kayin state supplied this undated photo of the call center.(Nguyen)
Who are the scammers?
But the victims often include the scammers themselves.
While it is clear that some scammers are willingly employed, drawn by the promise of large salaries in countries where poverty is rife, many compounds continue to rely on large pools of trafficked labor. As in Wang’s case, victims are often lured with the promise of a well-paid job that draws on the language and computer skills many of the region’s underemployed youth hold.
Reports from former scammers suggest some who are successful in defrauding victims stand to make good money and not all are employed forcibly. But farmorereportshave emerged of scammers being tied to their phones through stark violence. Beatings, electroshock, withholding of meals and other forms of abuse and torture appear common at such compounds, with escapees often sharing devastating stories.
A person at a KK Park scam compound in Myanmar’s Kayin state is chained to a bed in this undated photo.(Nguyen)
Those operating the scam compounds also earn money in more straightforward ways, such as ransoming kidnapped victims back to their friends and family. A Taiwanese fire dancer who was kidnapped in Thailand and brought to a scam park last month was forcibly trained as a scammer and told he would be freed only if his family paid $30,000. While he was released after a joint operation between Taiwanese and Thai police, many of those who make it out of compounds do so only after their families have paid up.
It is exceedingly difficult to know how many people are being held against their will in such centers, but estimates are in the hundreds of thousands, with the U.N. suggesting upwards of 100,000 people have been trafficked into Cambodia and another 120,000 in Myanmar. While operators are generally understood to be tied to Chinese crime groups, trafficked workers come from across the globe. In recent years, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Nepal, Kenya, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Uganda, Kenya and more have rescued citizens or seen them escape from compounds in Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.
Edited by Jim Snyder.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Abby Seiff for RFA.
(Amanda Weisbrod/RFA)
