Category: China

  • Authorities in the western Chinese province of Gansu have started offering cash payouts of up to 100,000 yuan (US$13,800) to families who have another baby in a bid to boost flagging birth rates.

    “Subei county will be offering birth and maternity leave, medical assistance and other rewards to families with two or three children who are permanently resident in the county,” ruling Chinese Communist Party county health official Shi Wanjun told the state-run China News Service on Nov. 18.

    Shi said the government would cover medical expenses for childbirth, including a hospital stay.

    Eligible families could receive cash support up to a maximum of 100,000 yuan, the report said.

    The move is part of local government plans to “steadily implement the three-child policy, boost birth rates … and deal with the aging population,” it quoted Shi as saying.

    Faced with plummeting birth rates, nationwide kindergarten closures and young people who are increasingly choosing to stay single, authorities in China last month started rolling out incentives to encourage more people to have kids, calling for “a new marriage and childbearing culture.”

    People pose near a statue to which two children were added, in Hankou Park next to the Yangtze River in Wuhan, China, Jan.  5, 2024.
    People pose near a statue to which two children were added, in Hankou Park next to the Yangtze River in Wuhan, China, Jan. 5, 2024.

    Communist Party leader Xi Jinping has called on women to focus on raising families, and the National People’s Congress has been looking at ways to kick-start the shrinking population, including flexible working policies, coverage for fertility treatment and extended maternity leave.

    In Subei county, the authorities are planning to hand out cash subsidies of up to 2,000 yuan (US$275) a month in the first year of a new baby’s life, and up to 3,000 yuan (US$413) a month in its second year, the China News Service said.

    One-off bonus payouts of up to 10,000 yuan (US$1,380) per baby will be offered to families who have left the county, but who return to register a newborn child there, rather than seeking registration in a city with better education, public services and economic opportunities, according to the report.

    Remote and rural areas

    Remote Subei county is facing particular challenges, with a registered population of just 12,657 at the end of 2023, and less than five new births a month.

    A Gansu-based scholar who gave only the surname Yue for fear of reprisals said many local people have left the area to seek economic opportunities in cities, leaving behind a rapidly aging population.

    “Subei is a pastoral area that is home to the Yugur people, typical of an ethnic minority border region,” Yue said. “Birth rates are at much more normal levels in central, eastern, northern and southern China.”

    A man pushes a child riding on a suitcase at Beijing West Railway Station in Beijing, Jan. 18, 2023.
    A man pushes a child riding on a suitcase at Beijing West Railway Station in Beijing, Jan. 18, 2023.

    Yue said the turnaround from the strictly enforced “one-child” policy that ended in 2016 to the current drive to encourage births has been startling.

    “The birth rate stabilized for a few years in the wake of the [1966-1976] Cultural Revolution, but then the family planning controls started, which meant we couldn’t have lots of children,” he said.

    “They started out saying the policy would likely continue for 100 years, and we all had to fill out application forms before we could have kid,” he said. “They promised us then that the state would take care of us in retirement.”

    “Now, they’re talking about birth subsidies. Can you believe it?” Yue said.

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    A resident of a rural region in the eastern province of Shandong who gave only the surname Lu for fear of reprisals said birth rates are also falling where she lives.

    But she doesn’t think the subsidies will do much to improve the birth rate.

    “If people can’t even get by when it’s just them, how is a child going to help them?” Lu said. “A lot of the land has gone, now that young people are moving to cities.”

    “Their way of life is different from the older generation, and they can’t get by just on what they make from farming,” she said.

    ‘Just gimmicks’

    Authorities in the Hunan provincial capital Changsha announced in July that they would be offering childcare subsidies worth up to 10,000 yuan per child for families who have three or more children.

    China’s population grew by just 480,000 in 2021, while the number of couples getting married fell rapidly in the first nine months of 2024 by nearly 1 million registrations compared to last year, amid an economic slump and changing attitudes.

    China registered 4.747 million marriages in the three quarters ending Sept. 30, a drop of 943,000 year-on-year.

    A newlywed couple pose for pictures on Valentine's Day at a marriage registration office in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China, Feb. 14, 2023.
    A newlywed couple pose for pictures on Valentine’s Day at a marriage registration office in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China, Feb. 14, 2023.

    First marriages have plummeted by nearly 56% over the past nine years, according to the 2023 China Statistical Yearbook. The trend is contributing to a sharp decline in birth-rates amid a shrinking, aging population.

    Young people are increasingly avoiding marriage, having children and buying a home amid a tanking economy and rampant youth unemployment, they told RFA Mandarin in recent interviews.

    Lu said there is also a lack of public trust in the government’s ability to pay out on its promises that could mean few take up the offer of subsidies and other benefits.

    “The subsidies they talk about are just gimmicks,” Lu said. “Nobody takes them seriously.”

    Translated by Luisetta Mudie.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Qian Lang for RFA Mandarin.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Detained Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai testified on Wednesday for the first time in his trial on charges of “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces”, telling a court he and his now-defunct newspaper had always stood for freedom.

    Lai, 76, is facing charges under the 2020 National Security Law that Beijing imposed on the former British colony a year after it was rocked by anti-government protests. He faces life imprisonment.

    “We were always in support of movements for freedom,” Lai, wearing a gray blazer and glasses, told the West Kowloon Magistrates Court, the Reuters news agency reported.

    Scores of Lai’s supporters lined up outside the court in the rain early on Wednesday, hoping to get in to show their support, media reported.

    The founder of the now-closed Apple Daily, a Chinese-language tabloid renowned for its pro-democracy views and criticism of Beijing, pleaded not guilty on Jan. 2 to “sedition” and “collusion” under the security law.

    The United States, Britain and other Western countries have denounced Lai’s prosecution and called for his release.

    Human rights groups say Lai’s trial is a “sham” and part of a broad crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong that has all but destroyed its reputation as the only place in Greater China where the rule of law and freedoms of speech and assembly were preserved.

    The hearing comes a day after a Hong Kong court jailed 45 democracy supporters for up to 10 years for subversion at the end of the city’s biggest national security trial.

    Those sentences drew international condemnation and calls for further sanctions on Hong Kong and the expansion of lifeboat visa schemes for those fleeing the political crackdown in the city.

    Trump vow

    Lai is a British citizen who, despite being born in the southern province of Guangdong, has never held Chinese citizenship. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer raised concerns about Lai’s health when he met Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday at a G20 meeting in Brazil.

    Beijing said the 2020 security law was necessary to safeguard the Asian financial hub’s economic success.

    But critics say crackdowns on dissent and press freedom that followed its introduction sounded the death knell for the “one country, two systems” formula under which Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997, that was meant to safeguard freedoms not enjoyed elsewhere in China for 50 years.

    Lai has been in prison for nearly four years. He was jailed for nearly six years in 2022 on a fraud conviction linked to his media business.

    Lai has long advocated for the U.S. government, especially during the first term of President Donald Trump, to take a strong stance in supporting Hong Kong’s civil liberties, which he viewed as essential to the city’s role as a gateway between China and global markets.

    Prosecutors, however, allege that Lai’s activities and his newspaper’s articles constituted lobbying for sanctions against Beijing and Hong Kong, a violation of the national security law. Lai’s lawyers argue that he ceased such actions after the law took effect on June 30, 2020.

    Trump has vowed to secure Lai’s release, media reported.

    During Trump’s first term, the U.S. revoked Hong Kong’s special trade status and enacted legislation allowing sanctions on the city’s officials in response to China’s crackdown on the city.

    During the peak of the 2019 protests, Lai visited Washington and met then-Vice President Mike Pence and other U.S. politicians to discuss Hong Kong’s political crisis.

    “Mr President, you’re the only one who can save us,” Lai said in an interview with CNN in 2020 weeks before his arrest.

    “If you save us, you can stop China’s aggressions. You can also save the world.”

    Edited by Taejun Kang and Mike Firn.

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    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Staff.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Five years after riot police besieged Hong Kong’s Polytechnic University and trapped protesters fought back with catapults and Molotov cocktails, four people who were there say they were trying to stand up for their promised rights and freedoms in the face of ongoing political encroachment from Beijing.

    The 10-day siege of PolyU began on Nov. 18, 2019, after around 1,000 protesters occupied the university as part of an ongoing series of actions to achieve the movement’s key demands: fully democratic elections; the withdrawal of plans to allow extradition to mainland China; greater official and police accountability; and an amnesty for detained protesters.

    The protesters were then trapped on campus as riot police encircled the area, prompting nearly 100,000 people to turn out to battle riot police across Tsim Sha Tsui, Jordan, Yau Ma Tei, Mong Kok and other parts of the Kowloon peninsula.

    Four young people who were among the besieged protesters spoke to RFA Cantonese on the fifth anniversary of the siege, which ended Nov. 19, 2019, and proved to be one of the last major standoffs between black-clad protesters and riot police after months of clashes sparked by plans to allow extradition to mainland China.

    A protester throws a molotov cocktail during clashes with police outside Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Hong Kong, Nov. 17, 2019.
    A protester throws a molotov cocktail during clashes with police outside Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Hong Kong, Nov. 17, 2019.

    A former protester now living in democratic Taiwan, who gave only the nickname Kai for fear of reprisals said he had been in the siege of the Chinese University of Hong Kong from Nov. 13-15, 2019 before responding to a call for help defending PolyU against riot police just a few days later.

    He never expected the police to prevent the protesters from leaving, or that the siege would last 10 days.

    “I never thought the police would adopt a siege approach,” Kai said. “They cut off our supply lines, and even cut off the water, which was inhumane.”

    “Any supplies we had were brought in by older helpers from outside,” he said.

    When the protesters did try to leave, they were outflanked by police on both sides, he said.

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    “Soon after we ran out, we were intercepted by police in front of us, who forced us to run in another direction before we could move forward, but then after we’d run for a bit, we realized we were outflanked on both sides,” he said.

    “All the police in front of us had their guns ready, and were waiting for us, so we had to go back to PolyU and plan our next move,” Kai said.

    Kai managed to avoid arrest at the time, but left Hong Kong soon after learning he was on a police blacklist.

    He said the political crackdown that followed the 2019 protest movement has shown that the protesters were right to fear Beijing’s encroachment on their city’s promised autonomy.

    Protesters are sprayed with blue liquid from a water cannon during clashes with police outside Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Hong Kong, Nov. 17, 2019.
    Protesters are sprayed with blue liquid from a water cannon during clashes with police outside Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Hong Kong, Nov. 17, 2019.

    He said many young protesters were motivated by a desire to burn their home city to the ground rather than acquiesce in its transformation into another Chinese city under Communist Party rule.

    “Nowadays, the Chinese Communist Party is no longer hiding its authoritarian tendencies, and has been sanctioned by the international community, while the Hong Kong economy declines by the day,” Kai said.

    “This shows that our idea that we would all burn together was right on the money,” he said.

    Around 1,300 people were arrested, with around 300 sent to hospital for injuries related to water cannon blast, tear gas, and rubber bullets, as protesters wielding Molotov cocktails, catapults and other makeshift weapons from behind barricades beat back repeated attempts by riot police to advance into the university campus.

    Small groups of protesters continued to make desperate bids for freedom throughout the siege, many of them only to end up being arrested and beaten bloody by police.

    Police also deployed tear gas, water cannon, and rubber bullets against a crowd of thousands trying to push through towards Poly U from Jordan district, with hundreds forming human chains to pass bricks, umbrellas, and other supplies to front-line fighters.

    “I took part in a lot of protest-related activities from June [of that year] onwards, although I never considered myself a front-line fighter,” a former protester living in the United Kingdom who gave only the pseudonym Kit for fear of reprisals, told RFA Cantonese in a recent interview. “But I felt that if I wasn’t prepared to take it further, then we really would lose the rule of law in Hong Kong.”

    A fire burns at Hong Kong Polytechnic University during an anti-government protest in Hong Kong, Nov. 18, 2019.
    A fire burns at Hong Kong Polytechnic University during an anti-government protest in Hong Kong, Nov. 18, 2019.

    The 2019 protests started out as a wave of mass public resistance to a legal amendment that would have allowed the extradition of criminal suspects to face trial in mainland Chinese courts, a move that was generally seen as undermining the city’s status as a separate legal jurisdiction with an independent judiciary.

    The movement later broadened to include the “five demands,” that included fully democratic elections, an amnesty for arrested protesters and greater official accountability.

    The young protesters, hundreds of whom were minors, soon found themselves running out of food, and faced with a growing hygiene problem, and many tried to leave, only to be tear gassed, fired on with water cannon, or beaten up and taken away by police.

    “We made three attempts to break out, but they all failed, so we went back to PolyU,” Kit said. “Everyone was scared, but we couldn’t come to any conclusion.”

    “I later tried to get out by myself … but I was arrested by the police,” he said, adding that the movement had soon fizzled under the impact of coronavirus measures introduced by the government in early 2020.

    “The government used people’s fear of the virus to make the protests disappear,” Kit Jai said. “The outlook is pretty grim right now, but I still hope that the people of Hong Kong … will keep its culture alive.”

    A former protester living in Japan who gave only the nickname Tin for fear of reprisals said he also remembers the three failed attempts at breaking out, and the desperate mood that descended on those inside PolyU after those inside realized they were trapped.

    Protesters leave the Hong Kong Polytechnic University campus to surrender to police, in Hong Kong, Nov. 19, 2019.
    Protesters leave the Hong Kong Polytechnic University campus to surrender to police, in Hong Kong, Nov. 19, 2019.

    “What impressed me most was that some of the protesters used a homemade catapult to launch Molotov cocktails, which set fire to the police armored vehicle, forcing it to retreat,” he said. “Everyone cheered when that happened.”

    “Actually, the situation inside PolyU was total chaos, with a lot of misinformation coming in, and nobody really knew what to do,” he said.

    Tin said he had fled Hong Kong and wound up in Japan after traveling to several other countries first.

    “I’ve had good and bad experiences over the last five years, but I’ve survived,” he said.

    A former protester now living in Germany who gave only the nickname Hei for fear of reprisals said he went to PolyU on Nov. 17 to try to persuade his fellow protesters to leave while they still could.

    Before he knew it, he was trapped inside.

    “I wanted to persuade them to leave, because the situation was critical, with helicopters flying overhead,” Hei said. “But they refused to leave.”

    Hei never thought he’d be stuck there for as long as he was.

    “When it became clear at around 9.30 that evening that those of us left inside weren’t going to be able to leave, things got pretty dark,” he said. “One guy told us to make a written statement pledging not to commit suicide.”

    So he stayed behind to resist the advance of the riot police.

    “The police offensive was really intense,” he said. “I was on the platform of A Core for the entire night.”

    Pro-democracy lawmakers stand amid items left behind by protestors in Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Hong Kong, Nov. 26, 2019.
    Pro-democracy lawmakers stand amid items left behind by protestors in Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Hong Kong, Nov. 26, 2019.

    “Just below us were the frontline fighters, and the police water cannon truck, which sprayed us on the platform with blue water from time to time,” Hei said. “Then at about 6.00 p.m. on the 18th, the police suddenly launched an offensive and fired large numbers of tear gas rounds and rubber bullets from a high altitude at the Core A platform.”

    “I opened my umbrella and squatted down next to a tree, and the bullets kept cracking on the umbrella,” he said. “We lost the position pretty quickly, but I was able to make it back to PolyU luckily.”

    Inside, rumors were swirling that the police would burst in to arrest everyone, so Hei managed to escape by following a lawyer who had come in to try to help the young people inside.

    He had a lucky escape. Anyone arrested during the siege was eventually charged with “rioting,” with some receiving jail terms of up to 10 years.

    “They only took my ID details,” said Hei, who wasn’t arrested, and who later left Hong Kong for Germany.

    He said the siege taught him how hard it is to stand up to an authoritarian regime.

    “But I have no regrets, because anyone with a conscience or any sense of justice would have chosen to stand up,” he said.

    Translated by Luisetta Mudie.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Yitong Wu and Kit Sung for RFA Cantonese.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.


  • This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Read coverage of this story in Chinese

    Rights activists, relatives and Hong Kong’s former colonial governor on Tuesday slammed the sentencing of 45 democracy activists and former lawmakers for up to 10 years for “subversion,” amid growing calls for further sanctions on Hong Kong and the expansion of lifeboat visa schemes for those fleeing the ongoing political crackdown in the city.

    Britain’s last colonial governor of Hong Kong, Lord Patten of Barnes, said the sentences, handed down to pro-democracy activists for organising a primary in July 2020, were “an affront to the people of Hong Kong.”

    “I absolutely condemn these sham sentences, which resulted from a non-jury trial and point to the destruction of freedoms of assembly, expression, and the press in Hong Kong,” Patten said in a statement.

    “The U.K. government must not allow the results of this case to go unnoticed or uncondemned,” he said.

    British politician and former governor of Hong Kong Chris Patten speaks during an awards ceremony, in Tokyo on November 19, 2024.
    British politician and former governor of Hong Kong Chris Patten speaks during an awards ceremony, in Tokyo on November 19, 2024.

    British Foreign Office minister Catherine West said the sentencing was a clear demonstration of Hong Kong authorities‘ use of the 2020 National Security Law to criminalize political dissent.

    “Those sentenced today were exercising their right to freedom of speech, of assembly and of political participation,” West said in a statement.

    Canadian Senator Leo Housakos, Member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, described the sentences as a “grave injustice.”

    “The National Security Law and the prosecution of these freedom fighters undermine the principles of freedom, human rights, and rule of law,” Housakos said in a statement posted by the London-based rights group Hong Kong Watch.

    Call for sanctions

    Former politics lecturer Chan Kin-man, who founded the 2014 Occupy Central pro-democracy movement along with key defendant Benny Tai, said none of those jailed, many of whom have been behind bars for more than three years, should have spent a single day in prison.

    “Benny worked hard as a constitutional scholar to expand the scope of the pro-democracy movement through peaceful means,” Chan said of Tai, who was handed a 10-year jail term by the Hong Kong High Court on Tuesday.

    He said all of those who took part in the 2020 democratic primary – which the prosecution argued was an attempt to subvert the government – had been exercising their rights under the city’s constitution, the Basic Law.

    “This makes me both sad and angry,” Chan said in a written reaction to RFA Cantonese.

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    U.S.-based activist Anna Kwok, who heads the Hong Kong Democracy Council, condemned the Hong Kong government for “launching an all-out assault” against the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.

    “The international community must respond to the intensifying political repression with proportionate actions,” Kwok said via her X account. “We continue to call on the U.S. government to impose targeted sanctions on Hong Kong and [Chinese] officials responsible for the crackdown on these pro-democracy leaders.”

    She also called for the status of Hong Kong’s Economic and Trade Offices to be revoked by Congress, saying there are now around 1,900 political prisoners in the city.

    ‘Distortion of the facts’

    Journalist-turned-activist Gwyneth Ho, who was handed a seven-year jail term on Tuesday, said the prosecution’s claim that the democratic primary was an attempt to undermine the government was a “distortion of the facts.”

    “They forced the accused to deny their own lived experience, to see genuine solidarity as just a delusion,” Ho wrote in a post to her Facebook page. “That the bonds, the togetherness, the honest conversations among people so different yet so connected … were just a utopian dream.”

    Ho warned that what happened in Hong Kong could happen in any democracy.

    “Today, no democracy is immune to the crisis of legitimacy that results from a deficit of public trust,” she said. “Defend and repair your own democracy. Push back against the corruption of power, restore faith in democratic values through action.”

    But she said she had no regrets about her involvement in the pro-democracy movement, and the 2019 protests that many saw as a last-ditch attempt to defend the city’s vanishing freedoms.

    “Even if what happened today was always inevitable for Hong Kong, then at least back in 2019 we chose to face up to it, rather than … dumping the problem onto the next generation,” Ho wrote.

    Office workers and protesters gather during a pro-democracy demonstration in the Central district in Hong Kong on Dec. 20, 2019.
    Office workers and protesters gather during a pro-democracy demonstration in the Central district in Hong Kong on Dec. 20, 2019.

    League of Social Democrats leader Chan Po-ying, said the sentencing of her husband and fellow activist Leung Kwok-hung to six years and nine months’ imprisonment for taking part in the primary was “unjust.”

    “My only thought is that this is an unjust sentence; he shouldn’t have to spend a day in prison,” Chan told RFA Cantonese. She said she would be focusing on how best to support Leung during his weekly prison visits.

    Maya Wang, senior China researcher for the New York-based Human Rights Watch, said: “Running in an election and trying to win it is now a crime that can lead to a decade in prison in Hong Kong.”

    A promise broken

    In Taiwan, presidential spokesperson Karen Kuo said democracy isn’t a crime.

    “This was a serious violation of the Hong Kong people’s pursuit of freedom and democracy,” Kuo said. “It shows us that the promise that Hong Kong would remain unchanged for 50 years has been broken.”

    She said China’s promise to allow the city to run under different principles from the rest of China – the “one country, two systems” formula that Beijing also wants to use in Taiwan – wasn’t viable.

    “Taiwan will continue to work with the international community to jointly resist the expansion of authoritarian power,” Kuo said.

    Hong Kong Watch called on the British government to expand the British National Overseas visa scheme to include those born before the 1997 handover to Chinese rule, if they had one parent who was eligible for the scheme.

    This picture taken on July 19, 2021, shows a family taking a photo at the departure gates of Hong Kong's International Airport before they emigrate to Britain.
    This picture taken on July 19, 2021, shows a family taking a photo at the departure gates of Hong Kong’s International Airport before they emigrate to Britain.

    It also called on Washington to renew Deferred Enforced Departure, or DED, status for Hong Kongers in the United States, “to prevent them from being forced to return to Hong Kong where the human rights environment continues to worsen.”

    Hong Kong Watch said Ottawa, meanwhile, should “clear the backlog of Hong Kong Pathway applications to prevent the expiration of temporary status for Hong Kongers in Canada.”

    Group Patron Ambassador Derek Mitchell said the sentences were “another dark milestone” for Hong Kong.

    “The international community must strongly condemn this crime and stand with these brave former legislators, activists, journalists, and trade unionists who fought resolutely for democracy, rights and freedom against the tyranny of the Chinese Communist Party,” Mitchell said.

    Translated with additional reporting by Luisetta Mudie.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Cantonese.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.


  • This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • TAIPEI, Taiwan – Taiwan plans to spend NT$70.6 billion (US$2.2 billion) on U.S. weapons next year, confirming recent speculation that it would make big new purchases to signal its commitment to President-elect Donald Trump’s suggestion that it pay more for U.S. “protection”.

    Democratically governed Taiwan, which China claims to have sovereignty over, heavily relies on U.S. support to counter Beijing’s growing military pressure, although it lacks formal diplomatic ties with the United States, which adheres to a “one China” policy.

    “Taipei has signed contracts with the U.S. for 21 procurement projects, totalling NT$716.6 billion, with final payments scheduled to be made in 2031,” said the island’s defense ministry on Monday.

    “Of this total, approximately NT$373.1 billion has already been paid, while NT$343.5 billion remains unpaid and will be disbursed according to the payment schedule,” the ministry added.

    Next year’s NT$70.6 billion budget will be spent on weapons including portable short-range air defense missiles and radar system upgrades, according to the ministry.

    Soldiers stand next to M1167 TOW carrier vehicle at the Fangshan training grounds in Pingtung, Taiwan, Aug. 26, 2024.
    Soldiers stand next to M1167 TOW carrier vehicle at the Fangshan training grounds in Pingtung, Taiwan, Aug. 26, 2024.

    A partnership between Washington and Taipei grew significantly during Trump’s first term and further deepened under President Joe Biden amid intensifying U.S.-China rivalry.

    Former Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen made history with a landmark phone call to Trump following his 2016 election victory, sparking a strong backlash from Beijing.

    Trump also bolstered ties by ramping up arms sales and increasing diplomatic engagement, with Taiwan purchasing US$18 billion in U.S. weapons during his first term – US$4 billion more than the two terms of the Obama administration.

    However, during this year’s campaign, Trump adopted what media called “bluntly transactional diplomacy” and criticized Taiwan’s insufficient military spending and its semiconductor dominance, arguing it was “stupid” for the U.S. to provide free protection.

    The president-elect also signaled doubt as to how quickly and effectively the U.S. could help defend the island against a Chinese invasion.

    This sparked speculation in Taiwan that it may make significant new arms deals early under the next U.S. administration to demonstrate its commitment to addressing Trump’s concerns, with media reporting that Taiwan had approached Trump’s team regarding a possible US$15 billion weapons package.

    The island’s defense minister, Wellington Koo, dismissed the report last week but said: “Communication and proposals for necessary weaponry would continue under the existing military exchange mechanisms with the future Trump administration.”

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    His ministry said on Monday that Taiwan’s arms purchases from the U.S. were based on assessments of enemy threats and informed by experience from recent global conflicts, such as the war in Ukraine.

    “Budget allocations are determined based on annual defense funding availability, the progress of individual projects, and delivery schedules,” the ministry added.

    In response to criticism from lawmakers about delayed deliveries of U.S. arms, the ministry said there had been disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but noted manufacturing had gradually resumed post-pandemic, with delivery timelines accelerating.

    A report by the Cato Institute, a Washington-based think tank, shows that as of August 2024, the cumulative value of U.S. arms sales to Taiwan that have yet to be delivered had reached $20.53 billion.

    Shu Hsiao-Huang, an associate research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said some items requested by U.S. allies might not align with the current needs of the American army, which led to delays in production.

    “Some new equipment faced integration issues, which requires system adjustments to meet customer demands,” said Shu, adding that certain weapons, such as Stinger missiles, had also become difficult to obtain due to high demand globally.

    A recent proposal submitted to Taiwan’s legislature for review shows Taiwan’s weapon purchases from the U.S. included 108 M1A2T Abrams tanks, 66 F-16V fighter jets, 29 HIMARS rocket systems, and 100 Harpoon land-based missile systems.

    Edited by Taejun Kang.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Alan Lu for RFA.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • A Hong Kong court jailed 45 democracy supporters for up to 10 years on Tuesday at the end of the city’s biggest national security trial that has damaged its reputation as an outpost of freedom in Greater China and drawn criticism from the United States and other Western countries.

    In all, 47 Hong Kong opposition politicians and pro-democracy activists were charged with “conspiracy to commit subversion” under the city’s 2020 National Security Law for taking part in a democratic primary in the summer of 2020. Two were acquitted

    China imposed the law on the former British colony a year after it was rocked by anti-government riots.

    Beijing said the law was necessary to safeguard the Asian financial hub’s economic success but critics denounced it as meaning the end of a “one country, two systems” formula under which Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997, that was meant to safeguard freedoms not enjoyed elsewhere in China for 50 years.

    Prominent democracy activist Benny Tai, who was accused of being the organizer of the 2020 primary election, was jailed for 10 years, while Joshua Wong, another leading activist, was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison.

    Activist Owen Chow was sentenced to seven years and nine months and former journalist-turned-activist Gwyneth Ho, was jailed for seven years.

    The charge of “conspiracy to commit subversion” carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

    Security was tight outside the West Kowloon Magistrates Court where the sentences were handed down, with a heavy police presence on the streets.

    Police officers stand guard outside the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts in Hong Kong, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024.
    Police officers stand guard outside the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts in Hong Kong, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024.

    The embassies of many countries, including the U.S., Britain, Germany and Australia, sent representatives to the hearing.

    Repeated delays to the 118-day trial have meant that the majority of the defendants have been behind bars for more than three-and-a-half years, something that would have been previously unheard of in the Hong Kong judicial system.

    Thirty-one of the defendants pleaded guilty and 16 denied the charges.

    People wait outside the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts in Hong Kong Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024, ahead of the sentencing in national security case.
    People wait outside the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts in Hong Kong Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024, ahead of the sentencing in national security case.

    The 47 former pro-democracy lawmakers and opposition activists helped to organize a primary election in July 2020, in a bid to find the best candidates for a pan-democratic slate in the city’s September 2020 Legislative Council elections.

    The prosecution argued that their bid to win a majority was “a conspiracy” to undermine the city government and take control of the Legislative Council.

    Article 22 of China’s National Security Law for Hong Kong bans anyone from “seriously interfering in, disrupting or undermining the performance of duties and functions in accordance with the law by the body of central power of the People’s Republic of China or the body of power of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region by force or threat of force or other unlawful means.”

    More than 600,000 voters took part in the primary, which was part of a bid to win enough votes for pro-democracy candidates to veto the government’s budget, which would have offered the opposition camp valuable political leverage when negotiating with the government.

    ‘Devastating blow’

    As Beijing-backed media claimed the primary was a bid to overthrow the city government, the administration of then-Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced an investigation into it.

    Lam also postponed the September 2020 election, citing the COVID-19 pandemic, while the government rewrote the electoral rulebook to prevent pro-democracy candidates from running, eventually holding an election in December 2021 in which only “patriots” approved by a Beijing-backed committee were allowed to stand.

    On Jan. 6, 2021, newly formed national security police dispatched more than 1,000 officers to 72 locations across Hong Kong, arresting 55 people on suspicion of subversion under the National Security Law in a crackdown that pro-democracy activists said struck a “devastating blow” to the city’s political life.

    They brought formal charges against 47 of them, then denied bail to the majority following a grueling arraignment hearing lasting more than four days, including a first-day session of 15 hours, during which defendants were unable to eat, shower or get a change of clothes.

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    The charges were the first clear indication that the ruling Chinese Communist Party and Hong Kong officials would be using the National Security Law to crack down on peaceful opposition and public dissent, rather than to restore public order in the wake of the 2019 protests, and sparked an international outcry.

    The last British colonial governor of Hong Kong, Lord Patten of Barnes, said the trial was part of a political “purge” by the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

    Washington condemned the detention and charging of democrats, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling for their immediate release.

    Then-British foreign secretary Dominic Raab called the charges “deeply disturbing” and said it showed how the security law was being used to eliminate political dissent rather than restoring order following the 2019 protest movement, as the government had claimed.

    Then-Australian foreign minister Marise Payne said the 47 defendants “were peacefully exercising their rights,” while the German foreign ministry called on the Hong Kong authorities to release the defendants and schedule postponed elections to the Legislative Council “in a fair and democratic manner.”

    Edited by Taejun Kang and Mike Firn.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Staff.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Read coverage of this story in Chinese

    Sentencing is expected on Tuesday following the trial of 47 Hong Kong opposition politicians and pro-democracy activists charged with subversion under the city’s 2020 National Security Law for taking part in a democratic primary in the summer of 2020.

    Police on Monday cordoned off the area outside the city’s High Court with traffic barriers and high fences, with armored vehicles standing by.

    The charge of “conspiracy to commit subversion” carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, but a range of custodial sentences looks likely following three months of mitigation hearings that concluded on Sept. 3.

    Exiled former pro-democracy lawmaker Ted Hui said the security measures were “a symbol of iron curtain suppression.”

    “The use of high fencing to enclose the court … sends the message that the government is in total control, and that people had better not even dream of putting up any resistance,” Hui said. “The aim is to make the people of Hong Kong give up.”

    The Hong Kong High Court found 14 democrats guilty of “conspiracy to commit subversion,” more than three years after their initial arrests in January 2021, including former pro-democracy lawmaker and veteran social activist Leung Kwok-hung and union leader Carol Ng.

    Two defendants were acquitted.

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    Jailed pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong, Occupy Central founder Benny Tai and journalist-turned-lawmaker Claudia Mo were among 31 defendants who pleaded guilty in a political climate where acquittals have become rare, but where a guilty plea could mean a much lighter sentence.

    Former journalist Gwyneth Ho, a 2019 protest movement activist, former nursing student Owen Chow and labor unionist Winnie Yu were among those who pleaded not guilty, and stood trial between Feb. 6 and Dec. 4, 2023 before a panel of three government-picked national security judges and no jury.

    Repeated delays to the 118-day trial have meant that the majority have been behind bars for more than three-and-a-half years already, something that would have been previously unheard of in the Hong Kong judicial system.

    What did the activists do?

    The 47 former pro-democracy lawmakers and opposition activists had helped to organize a primary election in July 2020, in a bid to find the best candidates for a pan-democratic slate in the September 2020 Legislative Council elections.

    The prosecution argued that their bid to win a majority was “a conspiracy” to undermine the city’s government and take control of the Legislative Council.

    Article 22 of China’s National Security Law for Hong Kong bans anyone from “seriously interfering in, disrupting or undermining the performance of duties and functions in accordance with the law by the body of central power of the People’s Republic of China or the body of power of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region by force or threat of force or other unlawful means.”

    More than 600,000 voters took part in the primary, which was part of a bid to win enough votes for pro-democracy candidates to veto the government’s budget, which would have offered the opposition camp valuable political leverage when negotiating with the government.

    How did the authorities react?

    As Beijing-backed media claimed the primary was a bid to overthrow the city government, the administration of then-Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced an investigation into the event.

    Lam also postponed the September 2020 election, while the government rewrote the electoral rulebook to prevent pro-democracy candidates from running, eventually holding a fresh election in December 2021 in which only “patriots” approved by a Beijing-backed committee were allowed to stand.

    On Jan. 6, 2021, the newly formed national security police dispatched more than 1,000 officers to 72 locations across Hong Kong, arresting 55 people on suspicion of subversion under the National Security Law in a move that pro-democracy activists said struck a “devastating blow” to the city’s political life.

    They brought formal charges against 47 of them, then denied bail to the majority following a grueling arraignment hearing lasting more than four days, including a first-day session of 15 hours, during which defendants were unable to eat, shower or get a change of clothes.

    How did the rest of the world react?

    The charges were the first clear indication that the ruling Chinese Communist Party and Hong Kong officials would be using the National Security Law to crack down on peaceful opposition and public dissent, rather than to restore public order in the wake of the 2019 protests, and sparked an international outcry.

    The last British colonial governor of Hong Kong, Lord Patten of Barnes, said the trial was part of a political “purge” by the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

    Washington condemned the detention and charging of democrats, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling for their immediate release.

    Then-British foreign secretary Dominic Raab called the charges “deeply disturbing” and said it showed how the National Security Law was being used to eliminate political dissent rather than restoring order following the 2019 protest movement, as the government had claimed.

    Then-Australian foreign minister Marise Payne said the 47 defendants “were peacefully exercising their rights,” while the German foreign ministry called on the Hong Kong authorities to release the defendants and schedule postponed elections to the Legislative Council “in a fair and democratic manner.”

    What are the implications for Hong Kong?

    Exiled Hong Kong democracy activist Fu Tong, who now lives in democratic Taiwan, said it wasn’t just the 47 defendants who had been criminalized by the process.

    “It wasn’t just them on trial, but all 600,000 of us who voted [in the primary],” Fu told RFA on Nov. 18. “We have become criminals too.”

    The case normalized the use of a three-judge panel and no jury, as well as restrictions on meetings with lawyers for defendants in national security trials, observers said.

    Described by the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee as a “sham trial,” the case was an early indicator that political trials would likely become far more common in Hong Kong following the imposition of the 2020 National Security Law.

    In December 2023, Hong Kong plummeted in Cato Institute’s Human Freedom Index, with the annual rights report describing China’s crackdown in the city as a “descent into tyranny.”

    The city – once ranked in the top 10 freest territories in the world – dropped from 3rd place in 2010 to 46th place in 2021 out of 165 countries, the Cato Institute said in its 2023 report. It fell 17 spots from 2020.

    The report found “notable deterioration” in nearly every kind of freedom, but particularly in its rule of law, freedom of expression, and freedom of association and assembly ratings.

    Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Luisetta Mudie and Joshua Lipes.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Ha Syut for RFA Cantonese, Chen Zifei for RFA Mandarin.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Rubio and Trump during a break in the 2016 presidential debate. AP photo.

    Of all Trump’s choices for his foreign policy team, Marco Rubio is the least controversial to the neoconservative foreign policy establishment in Washington, and the most certain to provide continuity with all that is wrong with U.S. foreign policy, from Cuba to the Middle East to China.

    The only area where there might be some hope for ending a war is Ukraine, where Rubio has come close to Donald Trump’s position, praising Ukraine for standing up to Russia, but recognizing that the U.S. is funding a deadly “stalemate war” that needs to be “brought to a conclusion.”

    But in all the other hot spots around the world, Rubio is likely to make conflicts even hotter, or start new ones.

    1. His obsession with regime change in Cuba will sink any chance of better relations with the island.

    Like other Cuban-American politicians, Marco Rubio has built his career on vilifying the Cuban Revolution and trying to economically strangle and starve into submission the people of his parents’ homeland.

    It is ironic, therefore, that his parents left Cuba before the Revolution, during the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, whose executioners, secret police and death squads killed an estimated 20,000 people, according to the CIA, leading to a wildly popular revolution in 1959.

    When President Obama began to restore relations with Cuba in 2014, Rubio swore to do “everything possible” to obstruct and reverse that policy. In May 2024, Rubio reiterated his zero tolerance for any kind of social or economic contacts between the U.S. and Cuba, claiming that any easing of the U.S. blockade will only “strengthen the oppressive regime and undermine the opposition… Until there is freedom in Cuba, the United States must maintain a firm stance.”

    In 2024 Rubio also introduced legislation to ensure that Cuba would remain on the U.S. “State Sponsor of Terrorism List,” imposing sanctions that cut Cuba off from the U.S.-dominated Western banking system.

    These measures to destroy the Cuban economy have led to a massive wave of migration in the past two years. But when the U.S. Coast Guard tried to coordinate with their Cuban counterparts, Rubio introduced legislation to prohibit such interaction. While Trump has vowed to stem immigration, his Secretary of State wants to crush Cuba’s economy, forcing people to abandon the island and set sail for the United States.

    2. Applying his anti-Cuba template to the rest of Latin America will make enemies of more of our neighbors.

    Rubio’s disdain for his ancestral home in Cuba has served him so well as an American politician that he has extended it to the rest of Latin America. He has sided with extreme right-wing politicians like Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil and Javier Milei in Argentina, and rails against progressive ones, from Brazil’s Ignacio Lula da Silva to Mexico’s popular former President Lopez Obrador, whom he called “an apologist for tyranny” for supporting other leftist governments.

    In Venezuela, he has promoted brutal sanctions and regime change plots to topple the government of Nicolas Maduro. In 2019 he was one of the architects of Trump’s failed policy of recognizing opposition figure Juan Guaido as president. He has also advocated for sanctions and regime change in Nicaragua.

    In March 2023, Rubio urged President Biden to impose sanctions on Bolivia for prosecuting  leaders of a 2019 U.S.-backed coup that led to massacres that killed at least 21 people.

    Rubio also condemned the government of Honduras for withdrawing from an extradition treaty with the United States this past August, in response to decades of U.S. interference that had turned Honduras into a narco-state riven by poverty, gang violence and mass emigration, until the election of democratic socialist President Xiomara Castro in 2022.

    Rubio’s major concern about Latin America now seems to be the influence of China, which has become the leading trade partner of most Latin American countries. Unlike the U.S., China focuses on economic benefits and not internal politics, while American politicians like Marco Rubio still see Latin America as the U.S. “backyard.”

    While Rubio’s virulent anti-leftist stands have served him well in climbing to senior positions in the U.S. government, and now into Trump’s inner circle, his disdain for Latin American sovereignty bodes ill for U.S. relations with the region.

    3. He believes the US and Israel can do no wrong, and that God has given Palestine to Israel.

    Despite the massive death toll in Gaza and global condemnation of Israel’s genocide, Rubio still perpetuates the myth that “Israel takes extraordinary steps to avoid civilian losses” and that innocent people die in Gaza because Hamas has deliberated placed them in the way and used them as human shields. The problem, he says, is “an enemy that doesn’t value human life.”

    When asked by CODEPINK in November 2024 if he would support a ceasefire, Rubio replied, “On the contrary. I want them to destroy every element of Hamas they can get their hands on. These people are vicious animals.”

    There are few times in this past year that the Biden administration has tried to restrain Israel, but when Biden begged Israel not to send troops into the southern city of Rafah, Rubio said that was like telling the Allied forces in World War II not to attack Berlin to get Hitler.

    In a letter to Secretary of State Blinken in August 2024, Rubio criticized the Biden administration’s decision to sanction Israeli settlers linked to anti-Palestinian violence in the occupied West Bank.

    “Israel has consistently sought peace with the Palestinians. It is unfortunate that the Palestinians, whether it be the Palestinian Authority or FTOs [Foreign Terrorist Organisations] such as Hamas, have rejected such overtures,” Rubio wrote. “Israelis rightfully living in their historic homeland are not the impediment to peace; the Palestinians are,” he added.

    No country besides Israel subscribes to the idea that its borders should be based on 2,000-year-old religious scriptures, and that it has a God-given right to displace or exterminate people who have lived there since then to reconquer its ancient homeland. The United States will find itself  extraordinarily isolated from the rest of the world if Rubio tries to assert that as a matter of U.S. policy.

    4. His deep-seated enmity toward Iran will fuel Israel’s war on its neighbors, and may lead to a U.S. war with Iran.

    Rubio is obsessed with Iran. He claims that the central cause of violence and suffering in the Middle East is not Israeli policy but “Iran’s ambition to be a regional hegemonic power.” He says that Iran’s goal in the Middle East is to “seek to drive America out of the region and then destroy Israel.”

    He has been a proponent of maximum pressure on Iran, including a call for more and more sanctions. He believes the U.S. should not re-enter the Iran nuclear deal, saying: “We must not trade away U.S. and Israeli security for vague commitments from a terrorist-sponsoring regime that has killed Americans and threatens to annihilate Israel.”

    Rubio calls Lebanon’s Hezbollah a “full blown agent of Iran right on Israel’s border” and that wiping out Hezbollah’s leadership, along with entire neighborhoods full of civilians, is a “service to humanity.” He alleges that Iran has control over Iraq, Syria, the Houthis in Yemen and is a threat to Jordan. He claims that “Iran has put a noose around Israel,” and says that the goal of U.S. policy should be regime change in Iran, which would set the stage for war.

    While there will hopefully be leaders in the Pentagon who will caution Donald Trump about the perils of a war with Iran, Rubio will not be a voice of reason.

    5.  He is beholden to big money, from the weapons industry to the Israel lobby.

    Open Secrets reports that Rubio has received over a million dollars in campaign contributions from pro-Israel groups during his career. The Pro-Israel America PAC was his single largest campaign contributor over the last 5 years. When he last ran for reelection in 2022, he was the third largest recipient of funding by pro-Israel groups in the Senate, taking in $367,000 from them for that campaign.

    Rubio was also the fourth largest recipient of funding from the “defense” industry in the Senate for the 2022 cycle, receiving $196,000. Altogether, the weapons industry has invested $663,000 in his Congressional career.

    Rubio is clearly beholden to the US arms industry, and even more so to the Israel lobby, which has been one of his largest sources of campaign funding. This has placed him in the vanguard of Congress’s blind, unconditional support for Israel and subservience to Israeli narratives and propaganda, making it unlikely that he will ever challenge the ongoing extermination of the Palestinian people or their expulsion from their homeland.

    6. He’s so antagonistic towards China that China has sanctioned him–twice!

    Speaking at the Heritage Foundation in 2022, Rubio said: “The gravest threat facing America today, the challenge that will define this century and every generation represented here, is not climate change, the pandemic, or the left’s version of social justice. The threat that will define this century is China.”

    It will be hard for our nation’s “top diplomat” to ease tensions with a country he has so maligned. He antagonized China by co-sponsoring the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which allows the U.S. to bar  Chinese imports over alleged Uyghur rights abuses, abuses that China denies and independent researchers question. In fact, Rubio has gone so far as to accuse China of a “grotesque campaign of genocide” against the Uyghurs.

    On Taiwan, he has not only introduced legislation to increase military aid to the island, but actually supports Taiwanese independence — a dangerous deviation from the US government’s long-standing One China approach.

    The Chinese responded to Rubio by sanctioning him, not once but twice–once regarding the Uyghurs and once for his support of Hong Kong protests. Unless China lifts the sanctions, he would be the first U.S. secretary of state to be banned from even visiting China.

    Analysts expect China to try to sidestep Rubio and engage directly with Trump and other senior officials. Steve Tsang, the director of the China Institute at the U.K.’s School of Oriental and African Studies, told Reuters, “If that doesn’t work, then I think we’re going to get into a much more regular escalation of a bad relationship.”

    7. Rubio knows sanctions are a trap, but he doesn’t know how to escape.

    Rubio is a leading advocate of unilateral economic sanctions, which are illegal under international law, and which the UN and other countries refer to as “unilateral economic coercive measures.”

    The United States has used these measures so widely and wildly that they now impact a third of the world’s population. U.S. officials, from Treasury Secretary Yellen to Rubio himself, have warned that using the U.S. financial system and the dollar’s reserve currency status as weapons against other countries is driving the rest of the world to conduct trade in other currencies and develop alternative financial systems.

    In March 2023, Rubio complained on Fox News, “We won’t have to talk sanctions in five years, because there will be so many countries transacting in currencies other than the dollar, that we won’t have the ability to sanction them.”

    And yet Rubio has continued to be a leading sponsor of sanctions bills in the Senate, including new sanctions on Iran in January 2024 and a bill in July to sanction foreign banks that participate in alternative financial systems.

    So, while other countries develop new financial and trading systems to escape abusive, illegal U.S. sanctions, the nominee for Secretary of State remains caught in the same sanctions trap that he complained about on Fox.

    8. He wants to crack down on U.S. free speech.

    Rubio wants to curtail the right to free speech enshrined in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. In May, he described campus protests against Israel as a “complete breakdown of law and order.”

    Rubio claimed to be speaking up for other students at American universities. “[They] paid a lot of money to go to these schools, [but are being disrupted by] a few thousand antisemitic zombies who have been brainwashed by two decades of indoctrination in the belief that the world is divided between victimizers and victims, and that the victimizers in this particular case, the ones that are oppressing people, are Jews in Israel,” said Rubio.

    The Florida senator has said he supports Trump’s plan to deport foreign students who engage in pro-Palestinian campus protests. In April, he called for punishing supporters of the Israel boycott movement as part of efforts to counter antisemitism, falsely equating any attempt to respond to Israel’s international crimes with antisemitism.

    And what about those crimes, which the students are protesting? After visiting Israel in May, Rubio wrote an article for National Review, in which he never mentioned the thousands of civilians Israel has killed, and instead blamed Iran, Biden and “morally corrupt international institutions” for the crisis.

    Marco Rubio expects Americans to believe that it is not genocide itself, but protests against genocide, that are a complete breakdown of law and order. He couldn’t be more wrong if he tried.

    Students are not Rubio’s only target. In August 2023, he alleged that certain “far-left and antisemitic entities” may have violated the Foreign Assistance Registration Act by their ties to China. He called for a Justice Department investigation into 18 groups, starting with CODEPINK. These unfounded claims of China connections are only meant to intimidate legitimate groups that are exercising their free speech rights.

    Conclusion

    On each of these issues, Rubio has shown no sign of understanding the difference between domestic politics and diplomacy. Whether he’s talking about Cuba, Palestine, Iran or China, or even about CODEPINK, all his supposedly tough positions are based on cynically mischaracterizing the actions and motivations of his enemies and then attacking the “straw man” he has falsely set up.

    Unscrupulous politicians often get away with that, and Rubio has made it his signature tactic because it works so well for him in American politics. But that will not work if and when he sits down to negotiate with other world leaders as U.S. secretary of state.

    His underlying attitude to foreign relations is, like Trump’s, that the United States must get its way or else, and that other countries who won’t submit must be coerced, threatened, couped, bombed or invaded. This makes Rubio just as ill-equipped as Antony Blinken to conduct diplomacy, improve U.S. relations with other countries or resolve disputes and conflicts peacefully, as the UN Charter requires.

    The post Eight Reasons Why Marco Rubio Would Be a Disastrous Secretary of State first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • India is poised to further expand its defense budget over the next decade to sustain readiness for a potential two-front conflict with regional adversaries China and Pakistan, while enhancing its regional and global stature. Total defense spending, inclusive of pensions, is projected to reach $415.9 billion from 2025 to 2029, marking a compound annual growth […]

    The post India to spend $415.9 billion on defense between 2025 and 2029, forecasts GlobalData appeared first on Asian Military Review.

    This post was originally published on Asian Military Review.

  • Read RFA coverage of this topic in Chinese.

    Rampant youth unemployment in China has left millions of young people floundering, living at home, relying on delivery jobs or, in a growing trend, “pretending to go to work.”

    In posts on the video-sharing platform Douyin, young people are creating a routine where none exists out of sessions spent studying or applying for jobs in libraries and internet cafes.

    Some are even paying for “study rooms” to get them out of the house and give structure to their days, sometimes while they study for highly competitive civil service entrance exams, according to state media reports.

    The situation has spawned a hashtag on social media, #IPretendedToGoToWorkToday, with young people posting short videos to Douyin about what they do all day.

    In one video under the hashtag, one young woman offers a tour of her local county town, including the railway station, local shopping streets and scenic spots, but conceals her identity with a computer-generated animation where her head should be.

    In another, a young woman hangs out on the stairwell and roof of her apartment building, apparently hiding from relatives and neighbors who think she’s at work.

    Living at home

    A Nov. 5 feature in Banyuetan magazine, under the aegis of state news agency Xinhua, found that it’s extremely common for people aged up to 40 in rural areas to still be living back home with their parents, who sometimes hand over money from their pensions to support them.

    The situation is at odds with the Communist Party’s pledge to “comprehensively revitalize rural areas,” the report said.

    A man plays an online game at an internet cafe in Beijing, Aug. 31, 2021.
    A man plays an online game at an internet cafe in Beijing, Aug. 31, 2021.

    “This phenomenon of relying on one’s parents is ultimately an employment or job security issue,” YouTube commentator Lying Uncle Ping said in a response to the article. “The key is to provide employment, and better quality jobs.”

    He said at least rural families who still have land have a way to feed themselves, should they fall on hard times.

    A former rural resident of the northern province of Hebei who gave only the surname Wang for fear of reprisals said not everyone in rural areas still has access to land, however.

    “In developed areas in the south, people can go back home to work in local factories,” Wang said. “In the north, where I live, there are basically no factories in rural areas, so farming is the only option.”

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    Yet some areas have seen most of their agricultural land repurposed for development in recent decades, he said.

    “Especially in the central regions, where people have less than one mu of land [per household],” Wang said. “They have no way to support even a basic level of existence from the land.”

    A young man from a rural village in the southern province of Guangdong who used the pseudonym Marginal Person told Radio Free Asia in writing that many young people are living off their parents where he lives, because the economy is so bad.

    Asked what they’re doing, he replied: “Working as food delivery riders, growing vegetables and playing the lottery.”

    “There are several ways to play, and the odds range from 1:9500 to 1:950 to 1:95,” he said. “Some people here have won hundreds of thousands of yuan, bought apartments and gotten married, but there are also people who have lost everything.”

    He said many feel embarrassment and shame about their situation, however.

    “Takeout deliveries in my town are all being done by young people from other towns, because they’re afraid of running into people they know and being laughed at,” he said.

    Renting study space

    In a separate article, Banyuetan also interviewed young people in urban areas who are renting out desks in shared study spaces rather than stay home all day doing nothing.

    Rented study space is particularly popular among young people preparing for civil service or postgraduate entrance exams, the article said, adding that the market will expand to more than 10 million spaces by next year.

    But unemployed young people are also picking up on the trend, and renting spaces just to look busy, and to give themselves a place outside of the family home, away from parental criticism or constant inquiries about how the job hunt is going, it said.

    Desks can be rented by the hour, day, month or year, costing around 500 yuan (US$70) a month, and come equipped with chair, lamp, charging sockets and a locker for belongings.

    Food delivery riders wait in a restaurant at a shopping mall in Beijing on March 20, 2024.
    Food delivery riders wait in a restaurant at a shopping mall in Beijing on March 20, 2024.

    They’re so popular that vacant desks are getting very hard to find, especially in more popular areas, the report said.

    The jobless rate for 16-to-24-year-olds in China, excluding students, fell to 17.6% in September, compared with 18.8% in the previous month.

    Ruling Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping published an article in the ideological magazine Qiushi on Oct. 31 calling for “full, high-quality employment” to “promote the sense of gain, happiness and security of the majority of workers,” but without offering detailed measures.

    But it did highlight youth unemployment as a priority.

    “We should insist on the employment of young people like college graduates as a top priority, take multiple measures to promote the employment of migrant workers … and help groups in difficulty such as the long-term unemployed,” Xi wrote, calling for an end to employment discrimination and unpaid wages.

    Worried about unrest

    Political commentator Ji Feng said the government is clearly worried that high employment could lead to social unrest.

    “Ordinary people were left with a sense of grievance after the economy collapsed,” Ji said. “The Communist Party is worried about that sense of grievance, and about social unrest.”

    “But if they don’t make radical changes, they’re going to scare off private and foreign companies,” he said. “If they don’t make a U-turn, they’ll be sunk.”

    Financial commentator He Jiangbing also blamed the economic direction taken by China under Xi.

    “Private companies are the main employers, and they’re overwhelmed, because state-owned enterprises can’t solve the employment problem,” He said, calling for a return to better trade relations and a return to the export-driven economic growth of the pre-pandemic era.

    “If it can’t export, then a company won’t create new job opportunities; it’ll be laying off staff,” he said. “In such a situation, all this talk of employment is just that — talk.”

    Germany-based social media influencer Great Firewall Frog said Xi’s policies have drained vitality from the Chinese economy.

    “It’s Xi Jinping himself who’s the problem, the reason the Chinese economy is ruined and the labor market is depressed,” he said. “There’s no freedom or vitality these days … when a single official document can destroy an entire industry, a wrong word on WeChat can get a person fired or imprisoned.”

    “How can he say stuff like ‘promoting high quality, full employment’? It’s hilarious,” he said. “Dude, the guy should do stand-up.”

    Translated with additional reporting by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by .

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Residents in northern Myanmar are facing shortages of food and other supplies as China imposes restrictions on small-scale, informal trade, Radio Free Asia has learned.

    The restrictions are centered on three border crossings, two of which have been recently shut down, in the northeastern town of Muse, which lies across the border from China’s Ruili,

    Video posted on social media showed fresh fruit sellers in China giving their product away because they could not get it across the border before it spoils.

    More than 2 million residents in northern Shan state rely on Chinese foodstuffs and goods. The closures have resulted in price hikes.

    At the Muse border, the price of one liter (.26 gallons) of gasoline has risen to more than 10 thousand kyats ($4.76), while a bag of low-quality rice has almost doubled, a resident there told RFA.

    “Every item has been expensive due to the closure of border gates. Business is not good,” he said. “People are facing various challenges in their daily lives.”

    The restrictions have increased in the wake of junta leader Min Aung Hlaing’s recent visit to China, but it isn’t immediately clear if the two are linked.

    Myanmar junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing shakes hands with China’s Premier Li Qiang at the Greater Mekong Subregion Summit in Kunming in China's Yunnan province, Nov. 6, 2024.
    Myanmar junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing shakes hands with China’s Premier Li Qiang at the Greater Mekong Subregion Summit in Kunming in China’s Yunnan province, Nov. 6, 2024.

    During his visit, he met with Premier Li Qiang and discussed control of border trade between the two countries, according to junta reports.

    Junta spokesperson Major Gen. Zaw Min Tun stated during a press conference following the military chief’s return from China that both sides discussed border stability and agreed not to allow opponents of the junta regime to operate on Chinese territory, and vice versa.

    Vehicles stuck

    The government announced closure of one of Muse’s three border gates last week, but now there are two gates closed.

    The closures have blocked the crossing of more than 300 vehicles, including grocery trucks headed for Myanmar, and these vehicles are now stranded, a border trade merchant said.

    Additionally, private vehicles hoping to cross the border with goods have become stranded, a Chinese driver told RFA.

    The entry to the border town of Namtit is seen on Sept. 30, 2016.
    The entry to the border town of Namtit is seen on Sept. 30, 2016.

    “The traffic-police from the Chinese side have recorded the number plates of vehicles stranded at Mang Wein gate,” he said.

    “We do not see any significant development until now. Frozen seafood has been unloaded from the cars into garages. About 60 percent of trucks are loaded with potatoes. While Chinese officials allowed the use of Mang Wein gate, the junta officials do not allow the use of this gate on their side”

    RFA attempted to contact the junta’s spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce but he was not available.

    RFA emailed the Chinese Embassy in Myanmar on Thursday seeking comments on the further restrictions on small-scale informal cross-border trade. However, no response was recieved.

    Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Burmese.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Vietnam’s top leader To Lam has made a widely publicized visit to an island north of the South China Sea, seen by an analyst as underscoring its strategic importance in the waters shared with China.

    Lam became the first general secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party to visit Bach Long Vi island in the Gulf of Tonkin since 2000, when Hanoi and Beijing finally signed an agreement to clearly demarcate their boundary there after nine years of negotiations

    Last March, China unilaterally announced a new baseline that defines its territory in the northern part of the gulf called Beibu in Chinese, drawing concern from the Vietnamese government. Some analysts said that Beijing may use it as a pretext to push Hanoi to renegotiate the boundary agreement.

    During the visit on Thursday, To Lam called on local government officials to develop Bach Long Vi island, “ensuring that it becomes a fortress for defending Vietnam’s maritime sovereignty,” according to media reports.

    “The Party chief praised the island’s strategic importance, pointing out that Bach Long Vi serves as a key maritime gateway, controlling vital shipping lanes in the Gulf of Tonkin and providing logistics services for military activities at sea,” the Vietnam News Agency reported.

    “General Secretary To Lam’s visit to Bach Long Vi was billed as a trip to learn about the living and working conditions of local residents,” said Carlyle Thayer, emeritus professor at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra.

    “However, the sub-text of his visit was to underscore the importance of the island’s infrastructure to national security and defense of Vietnam’s sovereignty over islands and sea.”

    Bach Long Vi qualifies as an island under the 1982 United Nations Law of the Sea Convention
    Bach Long Vi qualifies as an island under the 1982 United Nations Law of the Sea Convention

    ‘Normal practice’

    “Media coverage highlighted that Bach Long Vi was located 15 nautical miles from the boundary line delimiting the Gulf of Tonkin,” noted Thayer. The distance means the island sits entirely inside Vietnam’s waters.

    Bach Long Vi is Vietnam’s furthest island from its mainland and the largest habitable island in the South China Sea, with an area of more than 3 square kilometers (1.2 square miles). It is about 110 km (68 miles) from Haiphong in Vietnam and 120 km (75 miles) from China’s Hainan Island.

    Bach Long Vi was transferred to Vietnam in March 1957 by a friendly China, which occupied it at the time, allowing Hanoi to establish a radar station there for early warning against U.S. air attacks.

    Vietnamese historians said Beijing “returned” the island to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, but some Chinese sources criticized the government of then-premier Zhou Enlai for “ceding” it.

    In December 1992, it became an island district under the municipal government of Haiphong City.

    “The Vietnam-China Maritime Boundary Delimitation Agreement for the Gulf of Tonkin signed in 2000 recognized that Bach Long Vi was a Vietnam’s island,” said Vu Thanh Ca, former director of the Vietnam Institute for Sea and Island Research, “There’s absolutely no dispute over its sovereignty.”

    “Given the importance of Bach Long Vi as one of Vietnam’s frontier islands, Party chief To Lam’s visit is a normal practice,” he added.

    Before the general secretary, Vietnam’s presidents Nguyen Minh Triet and Truong Tan Sang visited the island in 2010 and 2014 respectively, where they made strongly worded statements about “defending every inch of our country’s sea and islands.”

    The year 2014 saw heightened tensions between Vietnam and China after the latter moved a deep-water oil drilling platform to near the Paracel archipelago that both countries claim. Beijing, however, did not officially react to the visits.

    “China’s government does not and cannot dispute Vietnam’s sovereignty over it,” said Huy Duong, a Vietnamese South China Sea researcher. “But this does not stop some overly nationalistic Chinese regretting that China ‘gave away’ Bach Long Vi to Vietnam.”

    RELATED STORIES

    China announces ‘excessive’ baseline in Gulf of Tonkin

    Vietnam mulls own territorial line in Tonkin Gulf

    Hanoi asks Beijing to abide by law while drawing baseline in Gulf of Tonkin

    Edited by Mike Firn.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Staff.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia said it is protesting two new Philippine maritime laws that it contends encroach on its South China Sea boundaries, in a move that comes amid heightened regional tension over Beijing’s increasing assertiveness about its expansive claims.

    In October, Malaysia lodged a complaint against Vietnam, Reuters news agency reported last week.

    One security analyst said that despite regional tension, there is little risk of confrontation between Malaysia and the Philippines, or Vietnam, while a regional observer said Manila and Hanoi were the transgressors in both cases.

    Malaysian Deputy Foreign Minister Mohamad Alamin told his country’s parliament on Thursday that the new Philippine laws encroach on Malaysia’s oil-rich state of Sabah, which borders the South China Sea.

    “We’ve finalized and reviewed key issues in our protest note, which we’ll send today [Thursday] to affirm our commitment to protecting Sabah’s sovereignty and rights,” Alamin said, referring to the state that is claimed by both Malaysia and the Philippines.

    Manila on Nov. 8 enacted the Philippine Maritime Zones Act and Archipelagic Sea Lanes Act, which Alamin said extend into Malaysia’s boundaries mapped out in 1979, which Kuala Lumpur regards as internationally recognized.

    The Philippines had said the laws were intended to declare Manila’s maritime claims in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and restrict foreign ships and aircraft to designated lanes.

    Philippine officials did not immediately respond to Alamin’s comments.

    Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim (left) speaks with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as they attend the 27th ASEAN-China Summit at the National Convention Centre in Vientiane, Oct. 10, 2024.
    Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim (left) speaks with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as they attend the 27th ASEAN-China Summit at the National Convention Centre in Vientiane, Oct. 10, 2024.

    Located off the southwestern region of the Philippines, Sabah has long been a thorny issue between the neighboring countries.

    In September 2020, the two countries took their dispute over who owns Sabah to the United Nations. The dispute remains unresolved.

    Separately, in June 2023, a Paris court upheld Malaysia’s challenge to a U.S. $15 billion arbitration award to purported heirs of an erstwhile ruler of the Sultanate of Sulu. Part of the former sultanate is in Sabah.

    An arbitration court in Paris had in February 2022 ordered Malaysia to pay that amount to settle a colonial-era land deal.

    The former Sultanate of Sulu was situated in a small archipelago in the far southern Philippines.

    RELATED STORIES

    Vietnam expands strategic capabilities in South China Sea

    Vietnam builds airstrip on reclaimed island in South China Sea

    East Asia fails to adopt South China Sea statement amid finger pointing

    Philippines enacts laws asserting maritime claims; annoyed Beijing summons Manila’s envoy

    An analyst at the non-profit Yokosuka Council on Asia-Pacific Studies said Malaysia has had to deal with the Philippines’ expansion efforts in the South China Sea.

    “From the point of view of Malaysia, the Philippines is the troublemaker-in-chief,” Benjamin Blandin, a network coordinator at the council, told BenarNews.

    He said the Philippines destroyed Malaysian sovereignty markers in the Spratlys, a South China Sea island chain, in the 1970s and 1980s and later occupied Commodore Reef within the Malaysian exclusive economic zone.

    A country’s EEZs extends up to 200 nautical miles from its coastline.

    “So based on this bilateral ‘history,’ Malaysia can only interpret negatively any further move of the Philippines, at least as long as the Sabah case is not solved,” Blandin said.

    He added that Vietnam had also destroyed markers at two maritime features in Malaysia’s EEZ before occupying them.

    Broken ships are visible during the ASEAN Solidarity Exercise Natuna 2023 involving  Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Laos on Natuna waters in Indonesia’s Riau Islands province, Sept. 21, 2023.
    Broken ships are visible during the ASEAN Solidarity Exercise Natuna 2023 involving Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Laos on Natuna waters in Indonesia’s Riau Islands province, Sept. 21, 2023.

    Another analyst, Shahriman Lockman at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies Malaysia, told BenarNews he blamed Vietnam’s actions.

    “Recent reports of Malaysia’s protest note to Vietnam, if accurate, reflect a growing impatience with Vietnam’s recalcitrance in the South China Sea and reluctance to engage in constructive discussions – behavior that deserves as much attention as China’s,” Lockman, a senior analyst at the institute told RFA affiliate BenarNews.

    “Even so, I don’t anticipate any major escalation as long as Vietnam tries to restrain its fishermen who have a tendency to intrude into foreign EEZs, not only in Southeast Asia but across the Asia Pacific.”

    Similarly, “unless Manila actively pursues its legal claims, I don’t see a high risk of confrontation with Malaysia,” Lockman said.

    “This [complaint] is just a routine aspect of diplomatic relations – a typical day at the office for our diplomats. …As countries build the legal foundations for their territorial and jurisdictional claims, it’s inevitable that overlaps are going to be reiterated.”

    Overlapping claims

    Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, China, Brunei and Indonesia, as well as Taiwan, hold overlapping claims in the South China Sea and its islands and reefs.

    Beijing claims nearly all of the sea as its own based on so-called historic rights, which were invalidated in a 2016 arbitration ruling by the international court in The Hague,

    Since the Philippines enacted its two new laws, Beijing and Manila have launched protests against each other over contested South China Sea claims.

    Following Beijing’s protest, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Thursday said his government would maintain its stance on its South China Sea territories, the state-run Philippine News Agency reported.

    “[T]hey will continue to protect what they define as their sovereign territory,” he told journalists.

    “Of course, we do not agree with their definition of sovereign territory.”

    BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Iman Muttaqin Yusof for BenarNews.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • tastilux
    4 Mins Read

    Canberra-based Nourish Ingredients has partnered with Chinese fermentation specialist Cabio Biotech to produce and distribute its precision-fermented fat alternative.

    Highlighting American fears of falling behind China in the biotech revolution, a new partnership looks to leverage the latter’s manufacturing might to produce future-friendly food ingredients.

    Australia’s Nourish Ingredients, which makes alternatives to animal fats from precision fermentation, has joined forces with Wuhan-based fermentation and synbio firm Cabio Biotech to make and distribute its flagship Tastilux product for the Asia-Pacific market.

    According to industry bodies the Precision Fermentation Alliance and Food Fermentation Europe, precision fermentation combines the process of traditional fermentation with the latest advances in biotechnology to efficiently produce a compound of interest, such as a protein, flavour molecule, vitamin, pigment, or fat.

    Nourish Ingredients’s Tastilux is a precision-fermented fat designed to improve the taste, aroma and cooking experience of meat analogues to more closely resemble their conventional counterparts.

    Partnership will extend beyond Tastilux

    nourish ingredients
    Courtesy: Nourish Ingredients

    A result of three years of work, Tastilux was first exhibited at the South by Southwest conference in Sydney last year, as part of vegan chicken wings with calcium-based edible bones. The “designer fat” relies on naturally occurring lipids scaled through precision fermentation to provide the distinct flavour and cooking properties of meat fats when used in plant-based chicken, beef, pork and other alternatives.

    Through the partnership, Cabio Biotech will leverage its state-of-the-art facilities and expertise to manufacture Tastlux in an efficient manner with minimal waste. This will enable global-scale production, helping Nourish Ingredients make its market entry with high product consistency.

    Cabio Biotech has been supplying functional ingredients for over two decades, and owns one of the world’s largest factories for long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, with capabilities ranging from bio-fermentation and non-solvent extraction to refining, winterisation and microencapsulation.

    While the initial focus is on Tastilux, the two companies hinted at an expansion into categories beyond plant-based meat, including ready meals and prepared dishes, leisure snacks, and spices and condiments.

    “This collaboration aligns perfectly with our commitment to advancing biotechnology and delivering cutting-edge products. Together, we’ll set new standards in the alternative protein industry,” said Cabio Biotech VP Jimmy Wang.

    James Petrie, CEO of Nourish Ingredients, added: “By leveraging Cabio’s established expertise, we’re not only derisking our supply chain for expansion but also enhancing our ability to deliver high-quality, innovative food solutions at scale.”

    China market a key focus for Nourish Ingredients

    nourish ingredients china
    Courtesy: Nourish Ingredients

    Teaming up with Cabio Biotch will open the China door for Nourish Ingredients. The startup points out how China’s annual meat consumption is approaching 100 million tonnes to show that even a 1% replacement with plant-based alternatives by 2026 would create a market of one million tonnes.

    China’s government has been encouraging its citizens to eat fewer animal products and more plant proteins, as part of a broader drive to connect public health with socioeconomic development, which began with the Healthy China 2030 policy. Chinese consumers are already eating more protein per capita than Americans now, and most of this comes from animal-free sources.

    Cabio Biotech will utilise its local knowledge and networks to spearhead Nourish Ingredients’s distribution and sales within the country’s market, while the latter will lead commercial engagement and sales globally, armed with the Wuhan-based company’s manufacturing support.

    Crucially, Cabio Biotech’s extensive experience will help Nourish Ingredients navigate China’s regulatory landscape – since Tastilux is a novel food produced via precision fermentation, it needs to obtain approval from the country’s food safety regulators. The aim is to facilitate rapid market access for Tastilux and additional products both locally and in other Asian countries. Nourish Ingredients is already awaiting regulatory clearance in Singapore.

    “This collaboration combines our cutting-edge product development with Cabio’s manufacturing excellence and market insights, positioning us to meet the surging global demand for superior food ingredients,” said Petrie. “Together, we’re set to efficiently produce top-tier products, opening doors to both the dynamic Chinese market and broader international opportunities.”

    Nourish Ingredients has so far secured nearly $40M from investors, and has also developed Creamilux, a sister fat alternative for non-dairy applications. The startup has partnered with New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra to create both dairy and plant-based products with the ingredients.

    The alt-fat space is seeing a flurry of activity. California’s Yali Bio, New York’s C16 Biosciences and Sweden’s Melt&Marble are others using precision fermentation to produce fats and lipids.

    The post Aussie Startup Inks Deal to Make & Distribute Animal-Free Fat in China appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Recent mass night bike-rides across central and northern China weren’t an overt form of political protest, but rather a way to let off steam for the country’s struggling young people, who saw it as a brief taste of freedom from their restricted lives, observers and commentators said.

    In a video widely circulated on social media, one young man who said he took part said many riders were looking for a way to make some memories with a temporary escape from the pressure and stresses of their lives.

    He said the rides were originally conceived as a cheap way to have fun by college kids looking for a summer jaunt on a tight budget, using ubiquitous hired bikes from urban schemes.

    “If we could afford to buy motorcycles or cars, there’s no way we would be riding hired bikes,” the man said in a social media video posted as the authorities began a nationwide clampdown on mass riding activities, apparently fearing a possible re-run of the 2022 “white paper” movement that triggered the end of COVID-19 restrictions.

    “We’re too poor to go on vacations, to socialize or to go abroad, or to take part in sports activities at a high level,” he said. “We’re so poor that the best we dare to hope for is a bowl of dumpling soup after a midnight bike ride.”

    He said young people are expected to show absolute obedience to those in authority, yet have no job opportunities to show for it.

    “We’ve done as we were told for more than 20 years now, and we’ll likely have to go on doing as we’re told for the rest of our lives,” the man said. “And yet most of us will likely only make about 3,000 yuan (US$415) a month even after we graduate, and somehow get by on that for a lifetime.”

    “I don’t want to grow old without a single thing worth remembering,” he said. “We’re not getting any younger, so that’s why we do stuff like this.”

    Thousands of college students ride bicycles on the Zhengkai Road in Zhengzhou, in China’s Henan province, Nov.  9, 2024.
    Thousands of college students ride bicycles on the Zhengkai Road in Zhengzhou, in China’s Henan province, Nov. 9, 2024.

    The night-cycling craze went viral after the first group of young women made the night trip on hired bikes to Kaifeng in June, was widely reported by official media as a boost to the “night-time economy.”

    “These youthful adventures embody a vibrant spirit — full of curiosity, determination, and a zest for discovery — that adds new dimensions to the tourism industry,” the People’s Daily online edition gushed in a Nov. 7 article on the craze.

    “Far from being just a passing fad, this movement reflects a generation that craves flexible and diverse lifestyles despite their busy schedules,” the article said. “It also highlights the resilience and adaptability of China’s economy, flourishing as it evolves alongside the aspirations of its young people.”

    ‘They find a way to vent

    But shortly after hundreds of thousands of people turned out on a ride on Nov. 8, including politically sensitive groups like People’s Liberation Army veterans, the authorities clamped down on the gatherings, placing students across northern China under lockdown in their university campuses.

    According to a post on the blogging platform Botanwang, students were hauled back to campuses and kept in their classrooms for several hours after the clampdown on the mass bike rides began, and given a movie to watch before being finally allowed to return to their dorms.

    Luis Liang, a young graduate who recently graduated from a university in China and has since migrated to Germany, said he could relate to the students’ accounts of their bike rides.

    “What he said is true,” Liang told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview, in a reference to the young man’s video. “Unless you come from a powerful family … all you have if you don’t go to college is the prospect of doing work that isn’t fit for human beings to try to earn a living. Even if you do, what can you learn from the suffocating education that you get in a Chinese university?”

    “They’re desperate, and they can’t see any way to better themselves, so they find a way to vent,” he said.

    He said the majority of young Chinese people aren’t generally thinking about challenging the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

    “Freedom is a luxury that they daren’t even think about, so they try to do as they’re told and work hard,” Liang said. “If they could just improve their lives and those of their families just a little bit, they’d be happy, and wouldn’t dream of challenging the government.”

    “But in today’s China, they can’t even fulfill those humble goals, so they’ve had enough,” he said.

    “This kind of protest can fuel hope and encourage other young people, yet the authorities will suppress it and spend a lot of money on maintaining stability, even if they know that it doesn’t actually pose any kind of threat,” he said.

    Wu Renhua, who was present at the student-led pro-democracy protests on Tiananmen Square in the spring and early summer of 1989, said the night rides to Kaifeng didn’t appear to have the same kind of focused agenda that was seen among young people around the country in the late 1980s.

    “These cycle rides may not have amounted to a movement this time around, but there’s no guarantee that that won’t happen next time,” Wu said. “The college students of today aren’t like those of 1989, but you can still get demonstrations.”

    He said the government is very nervous about any large gathering of people.

    “If anything changes China, it’ll be a mass movement caused by something other than politics, or at least it won’t be political at the beginning,” Wu said.

    “Everyone’s dissatisfaction with the system has been suppressed for so long that people will start out just connecting with each other via non-political gatherings,” he said.

    “But once people start gathering, someone could suddenly start raising political demands.”

    Translated by Luisetta Mudie.

    RELATED STORIES

    China bans students from mass cycle rides at night

    Mute Protest: Chinese crowds hold up blank sheets to hit out at lockdowns, censorship

    Shanghai Halloween party-goers take aim at leaders through cosplay


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Yitong Wu and Kit Sung for RFA Cantonese.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Recent mass night bike-rides across central and northern China weren’t an overt form of political protest, but rather a way to let off steam for the country’s struggling young people, who saw it as a brief taste of freedom from their restricted lives, observers and commentators said.

    In a video widely circulated on social media, one young man who said he took part said many riders were looking for a way to make some memories with a temporary escape from the pressure and stresses of their lives.

    He said the rides were originally conceived as a cheap way to have fun by college kids looking for a summer jaunt on a tight budget, using ubiquitous hired bikes from urban schemes.

    “If we could afford to buy motorcycles or cars, there’s no way we would be riding hired bikes,” the man said in a social media video posted as the authorities began a nationwide clampdown on mass riding activities, apparently fearing a possible re-run of the 2022 “white paper” movement that triggered the end of COVID-19 restrictions.

    “We’re too poor to go on vacations, to socialize or to go abroad, or to take part in sports activities at a high level,” he said. “We’re so poor that the best we dare to hope for is a bowl of dumpling soup after a midnight bike ride.”

    He said young people are expected to show absolute obedience to those in authority, yet have no job opportunities to show for it.

    “We’ve done as we were told for more than 20 years now, and we’ll likely have to go on doing as we’re told for the rest of our lives,” the man said. “And yet most of us will likely only make about 3,000 yuan (US$415) a month even after we graduate, and somehow get by on that for a lifetime.”

    “I don’t want to grow old without a single thing worth remembering,” he said. “We’re not getting any younger, so that’s why we do stuff like this.”

    Thousands of college students ride bicycles on the Zhengkai Road in Zhengzhou, in China’s Henan province, Nov.  9, 2024.
    Thousands of college students ride bicycles on the Zhengkai Road in Zhengzhou, in China’s Henan province, Nov. 9, 2024.

    The night-cycling craze went viral after the first group of young women made the night trip on hired bikes to Kaifeng in June, was widely reported by official media as a boost to the “night-time economy.”

    “These youthful adventures embody a vibrant spirit — full of curiosity, determination, and a zest for discovery — that adds new dimensions to the tourism industry,” the People’s Daily online edition gushed in a Nov. 7 article on the craze.

    “Far from being just a passing fad, this movement reflects a generation that craves flexible and diverse lifestyles despite their busy schedules,” the article said. “It also highlights the resilience and adaptability of China’s economy, flourishing as it evolves alongside the aspirations of its young people.”

    ‘They find a way to vent

    But shortly after hundreds of thousands of people turned out on a ride on Nov. 8, including politically sensitive groups like People’s Liberation Army veterans, the authorities clamped down on the gatherings, placing students across northern China under lockdown in their university campuses.

    According to a post on the blogging platform Botanwang, students were hauled back to campuses and kept in their classrooms for several hours after the clampdown on the mass bike rides began, and given a movie to watch before being finally allowed to return to their dorms.

    Luis Liang, a young graduate who recently graduated from a university in China and has since migrated to Germany, said he could relate to the students’ accounts of their bike rides.

    “What he said is true,” Liang told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview, in a reference to the young man’s video. “Unless you come from a powerful family … all you have if you don’t go to college is the prospect of doing work that isn’t fit for human beings to try to earn a living. Even if you do, what can you learn from the suffocating education that you get in a Chinese university?”

    “They’re desperate, and they can’t see any way to better themselves, so they find a way to vent,” he said.

    He said the majority of young Chinese people aren’t generally thinking about challenging the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

    “Freedom is a luxury that they daren’t even think about, so they try to do as they’re told and work hard,” Liang said. “If they could just improve their lives and those of their families just a little bit, they’d be happy, and wouldn’t dream of challenging the government.”

    “But in today’s China, they can’t even fulfill those humble goals, so they’ve had enough,” he said.

    “This kind of protest can fuel hope and encourage other young people, yet the authorities will suppress it and spend a lot of money on maintaining stability, even if they know that it doesn’t actually pose any kind of threat,” he said.

    Wu Renhua, who was present at the student-led pro-democracy protests on Tiananmen Square in the spring and early summer of 1989, said the night rides to Kaifeng didn’t appear to have the same kind of focused agenda that was seen among young people around the country in the late 1980s.

    “These cycle rides may not have amounted to a movement this time around, but there’s no guarantee that that won’t happen next time,” Wu said. “The college students of today aren’t like those of 1989, but you can still get demonstrations.”

    He said the government is very nervous about any large gathering of people.

    “If anything changes China, it’ll be a mass movement caused by something other than politics, or at least it won’t be political at the beginning,” Wu said.

    “Everyone’s dissatisfaction with the system has been suppressed for so long that people will start out just connecting with each other via non-political gatherings,” he said.

    “But once people start gathering, someone could suddenly start raising political demands.”

    Translated by Luisetta Mudie.

    RELATED STORIES

    China bans students from mass cycle rides at night

    Mute Protest: Chinese crowds hold up blank sheets to hit out at lockdowns, censorship

    Shanghai Halloween party-goers take aim at leaders through cosplay


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Yitong Wu and Kit Sung for RFA Cantonese.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • After mounting his comeback win against Kamala Harris, Donald Trump has already announced a slew of administration appointments. Compared to other presidents-elect, and to his own first term, Trump is ahead of the typical timeline in announcing these appointments, giving observers an earlier-than-usual view into how the second Trump administration could function, both in the domestic and foreign…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Read RFA coverage of this topic in Burmese.

    An ethnic minority insurgent group in Myanmar has closed crossings it controls on the border with China, cutting off exports of valuable rare earths in response to recent closures of the border by China, residents of the area said on Thursday.

    The Kachin Independence Army, or KIA, which has been fighting on and off for decades for self-determination in Myanmar’s northernmost state, has made significant gains against junta forces over the past year, capturing territory, including some major rare-earth mines, and 10 border checkpoints.

    Rare earths are used in the manufacture of numerous items, from electric cars to wind turbines and cell phones, in Chinese factories, but the mining of the minerals essential for the green transition causes significant pollution.

    China, which the environmental group Global Witness said in a recent report had effectively outsourced its rare earth extraction to Myanmar, has also been trying to press insurgent groups battling the Myanmar junta to make peace by sealing the border to trade.

    The KIA had responded by sealing the part of the border under its control, cutting off cross-border shipments of inputs needed for rare earth mining and the export of the minerals back to China, residents in the border region of Kachin state told Radio Free Asia.

    “China keeps opening and closing the gates. Now, the KIA has closed them,” said a resident of Mai Ja Yang town, which is on the border with China, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) southeast of the state capital, Myitkyina.

    The resident, who declined to be identified for security reasons, said the KIA had closed the border there and at crossings at Lai Zar and Pang War on Tuesday.

    “As for rare earth mining, that’s all been closed because we don’t have the materials we need to extract them,” the resident said, referring to fuel and chemical inputs.

    RFA tried to contact KIA spokesman Naw Bu for information about the situation but he did not respond by the time of publication.

    RFA was not able to contact Chinese authorities or rare earth processors for comment and China’s embassy in Myanmar has not responded to inquiries from RFA.

    Economic pressure

    China has extensive economic interests in resource-rich Myanmar including energy pipelines that traverse the Southeast Asian nation, from the Indian Ocean to southern China’s Yunnan province, and several mining projects.

    While China backs the Myanmar military it also has contacts with anti-junta insurgent groups, especially those in northern and northeastern Myanmar, including the KIA, and has called on the rival sides to negotiate.

    In late October, China shut six border gates, causing shortages and price surges for fuel and household goods along Kachin state border towns, residents there said.

    As well as closing border crossings to put economic pressure on the insurgents, China has also closed its border to civilians fleeing fighting.

    At the Pang War border crossing, about 160 km (100 miles) northeast of Mai Ja Yang, China has sealed the border to traders and civilians but was allowing trucks hauling rare earths from the Kachin state mines to enter China.

    So the KIA, which recently captured the border post, stopped the trucks, a person affiliated with the KIA said.

    “As for the gate, China closed it so the KIA did too,” said the person, who also declined to be identified for security reasons.

    “The KIA blocked the road with wood and barbed wire.”

    Global Witness said in a report this year that there are more than 300 rare earth mines in Kachin state’s Chipwi and Pang War townships exporting to China, which the group said controls nearly 90% of global rare earth capacity.

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    Translated by Kiana Duncan. Edited by RFA staff.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Burmese.

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  • WASHINGTON – Marco Rubio, a strident foreign policy “hawk” when it comes to relations with China, has been nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to serve as the next U.S. secretary of state.

    The Republican senator from Trump’s adopted home state of Florida is almost certain to be confirmed as America’s top diplomat by his soon-to-be former colleagues, with the Republican Party now controlling the Senate with a 53-47 majority over the Democrats.

    Rubio’s nomination Wednesday completes a trifecta of China “hawks” in the three most important foreign policy picks for a president.

    He joins Rep. Mike Waltz of Florida, who will be appointed Trump’s national security adviser, and Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, who has been nominated to be ambassador to the United Nations.

    In a statement released on his Truth Social platform, Trump called Rubio “a Highly Respected Leader” and “a very powerful Voice for Freedom” who would represent America well on the world stage.

    “He will be a strong Advocate for our Nation, a true friend to our Allies, and a fearless Warrior who will never back down to our adversaries,” Trump said, adding that Rubio as a senator had “authored hundreds of new laws, including some that are truly transformational.”

    In his own statement, Rubio called the role of secretary of state “a tremendous responsibility” and said that he was “honored by the trust President Trump has placed in me” in making the nomination.

    “As Secretary of State, I will work every day to carry out his foreign policy agenda,” he added. “Under the leadership of President Trump, we will deliver peace through strength and always put the interests of Americans and America above all else.”

    From foes to friends

    It’s a remarkable turnaround in relations between the two Floridians, who along with Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas were the last three standing candidates for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.

    Trump easily brushed aside Rubio to secure the nomination and then the presidency, referring to the senator derisively and repeatedly as “Little Marco” while accusing him of being in the pocket of lobbyists.

    Rubio equally did not hold back, accusing Trump of using “illegal immigrant labor” to build Trump Tower in New York City and of only having found business success because of an inheritance from his father.

    But the pair seemed to make peace during Trump’s most recent run for office, with Rubio even being vetted as a possible vice president pick.

    Former President Donald Trump greets Sen. Marco Rubio during a campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Nov. 4, 2024.
    Former President Donald Trump greets Sen. Marco Rubio during a campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Nov. 4, 2024.

    Rubio also has some support across the aisle, with Sen. John Fetterman, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, indicating that he plans to vote in favor of his nomination to the post.

    Sanctioned secretary

    If confirmed, Rubio would be the first sitting U.S. secretary of state to have been sanctioned by Beijing, having been blacklisted in retaliation for U.S. sanctions on Chinese officials for the genocide against the Uyghur ethnic minority and for the crackdown in Hong Kong.

    But there is already some skepticism of the influence he will have in the Trump administration, even if it is set to be dominated by China hawks.

    Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who was one of the few Republicans in the House of Representatives to vote to impeach Trump during his last term in office, said he thought Rubio might be kept on a tight leash.

    “Marco has shown his ability to kind of change for whatever Donald Trump demands, so it really comes down to, ‘What does Donald Trump demand?’” Kinzinger said in an interview with CNN on Monday.

    Edited by Malcolm Foster.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Alex Willemyns.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.


  • This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.


  • This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

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  • JAKARTA – Indonesia is seeking to contain the fallout from a maritime cooperation agreement with China that analysts say appears to indicate a softening of Jakarta’s stance on Beijing’s expansive claims in the South China Sea.

    A joint statement released after a meeting between Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Saturday said the two countries had reached an “important common understanding on joint development in areas of overlapping claims.”

    This “understanding” or agreement compromised Indonesia’s territorial and maritime rights, most regional experts said.

    One security analyst. though, noted on X that a clause stating that the cooperation would proceed only under the laws of both countries may mean the agreement will end up dead in the water.

    Jakarta had consistently rejected the Beijing-set boundary, which encompasses most of the South China Sea and encroaches into Jakarta’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) north of the Natuna islands, noted Eddy Pratomo, an ex-member of the Indonesian government’s law of the sea negotiation team.

    “[But] with this Indonesia-China joint statement, it appears Indonesia is now acknowledging overlapping claims,” Eddy, an international law professor at Diponegoro University, told RFA affiliate BenarNews.

    “This could be seen as tacit recognition of China’s dashed-line claim over the South China Sea, particularly around the North Natuna Sea,” he said.

    Indonesian Coast Guard ships force Chinese Coast Guard ship 5402 out of Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone in the North Natuna Sea, Oct. 25, 2024.
    Indonesian Coast Guard ships force Chinese Coast Guard ship 5402 out of Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone in the North Natuna Sea, Oct. 25, 2024.

    Beijing uses the nine-dash line on maps to demarcate its extensive claims in the South China Sea, where it is embroiled in territorial disputes with Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam in regional bloc Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), as well as Taiwan.

    Eddy warned that China could use the agreement with Indonesia to pressure these claimant states to accept the nine-dash line.

    This China-drawn boundary infringes on the claimant states’ EEZs that give these countries exclusive rights to up to 200 nautical miles from their coastlines to regulate fishing and exploit natural resources, he said.

    The Indonesia-China joint statement did not specifically say the two countries would cooperate on projects for oil and gas discovery or extraction, although that is the activity that Jakarta mainly carries out in its South China Sea EEZ, which it has named North Natuna Sea.

    The Indonesian Foreign Ministry attempted damage control and issued a statement Monday, saying the agreement did not amount to a recognition of Beijing’s line.

    “Nothing in the cooperation may be construed in any way as a recognition of the ‘9-Dash Line’ claim. Indonesia maintains its well-known position that the claim lacks an international legal basis and is tantamount to undermining the UNCLOS 1982,” the statement said.

    “Therefore, the cooperation shall, under no circumstances, affect Indonesia’s sovereignty, sovereign rights, or jurisdiction in the North Natuna Sea.” UNCLOS is the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.

    The Indonesian Foreign Ministry said the cooperation would mainly be in the fields of fisheries and fisheries conservation in the region.

    BenarNews reached out to foreign ministry spokesman Roy Soemirat for details on how the agreement came about and whether Jakarta had vetted the text, but did not hear back from the official.

    The agreement comes amidst a backdrop of escalating tensions in the South China Sea, a crucial maritime route for global commerce.

    Just last month, during the first week of Prabowo’s presidency, Indonesian naval and coast guard vessels confronted and expelled a Chinese coast guard ship from Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone in the North Natuna Sea on three occasions

    ‘China’s nine-dash line trap’

    Backlash to news about the agreement was swift, both at home and abroad, despite the foreign ministry’s statement on Monday.

    Aristyo Rizka Darmawan, a lecturer in International law at Universitas Indonesia, slammed as “vague” the Indonesian foreign ministry’s statement that it still did not recognize the nine-dash line.

    The ministry’s statement “contradicts the joint statement and was released unilaterally, while the joint statement was made by Indonesia and China together,” he wrote in an analysis published Tuesday for The Lowy Institute, an Australian think-tank.

    That means it’s possible that China may continue to hold the interpretation presented in the join statement, he further wrote.

    “Indonesia appears to be the first ASEAN member-state to implicitly recognize Beijing’s ‘nine-dash line’ … and therefore the first ASEAN country to fall into China’s nine-dash line trap,” Aristyo added.

    He further said that the agreement had betrayed Indonesia’s national interest.

    “It is consequential for Indonesia’s sovereign rights to use resources in its EEZ and continental shelf, and [the agreement] has significantly changed the political constellation and solidarity of ASEAN claimant states in the South China Sea,” he wrote.

    Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr (L) walks with Indonesia�s President-elect Prabowo Subianto during a courtesy call at Malacanang Palace in Manila on September 20, 2024.
    Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr (L) walks with Indonesia�s President-elect Prabowo Subianto during a courtesy call at Malacanang Palace in Manila on September 20, 2024.

    Opposition lawmaker Tubagus Hasanuddin, a member of the defense and foreign affairs committee in Indonesia’s House of Representatives, questioned the government’s approach to handling sensitive regional issues, particularly concerning the South China Sea.

    “The Foreign Ministry needs to exercise greater caution and responsiveness in handling official statements,” he said in a press release.

    “They shouldn’t act as a ‘firefighter’ only when problems arise.”

    He also raised concerns about the potential consequences of such an agreement for Indonesian fishermen, citing past instances of Chinese vessels entering Indonesian waters and engaging in illegal fishing.

    “Will this economic cooperation benefit us? Will Chinese fishing vessels then be free to roam in the Natuna area to catch our fish?”

    One clause in the joint cooperation agreement, however, could mean it would not go through, said Euan Graham, senior analyst at The Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

    “[T]he reference to “prevailing laws” means [the] agreement may be difficult for Prabowo to push through,” he noted on X.

    The part of the joint statement Graham is referring to says that the joint development would be “based on the principles of ‘mutual respect, equality, mutual benefit, flexibility, pragmatism, and consensus-building,’ pursuant to their respective prevailing laws and regulations.”

    Several analysts noted that Prabowo or Foreign Minister Sugiono needed to soon clarify what exactly the joint development was referring to and how the wording got into the joint statement.

    ‘Potential slippery slope’

    The Indonesia-China joint development agreement has consequences not just for Indonesia but could potentially reshape geopolitical dynamics in Southeast Asia and draw responses from the United States and Japan, said international law expert Hikmahanto Juwana.

    “Countries in dispute with China will question Indonesia’s position,” Hikmahanto, a University of Indonesia professor, told BenarNews.

    The Indonesian government’s agreement with China might reflect a pragmatic alignment with a major political power, but it could potentially destabilize the region, said Muhammad Waffaa Kharisma, an international relations researcher at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

    “In the short term, this statement may benefit Indonesia by easing tensions with China, particularly by reducing the likelihood of coast guard confrontations in the South China Sea,” he said.

    “However, in the long term, it could harm Indonesia’s standing with Southeast Asian neighbors. This is a potential slippery slope.”

    Pizaro Gozali Idrus in Jakarta contributed to this report.

    BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Arie Firdaus for BenarNews.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.


  • This content originally appeared on Human Rights Watch and was authored by Human Rights Watch.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.


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  • Michael Waltz, a Republican congressman from Florida, will be President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for national security advisor– a position in which he is likely to play an outsized role in shaping China policy.

    Waltz, 50, has long been hawkish on Beijing.

    A former Green Beret who served in Afghanistan, the Middle East and Africa, he won several Bronze Stars, including two for valor, for his service. Waltz then worked in policy at the Pentagon and served as an advisor to former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney.

    In 2018, he was elected to Congress and became known as one of its most hardline members on China. He serves on the House Foreign Affairs, Armed Services and Intelligence Committees. Waltz has also been on the House China Task Force, which examines how the U.S. can best compete with China.

    He has called for additional support for Taiwan, saying on X in May 2023 that the U.S. should start “arming Taiwan NOW before it’s too late.” In addition, he’s demanded that China put an end to human rights abuses in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and called for the U.S. to boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

    Waltz used to feel frustrated by the deferential manner shown by another Republican president, George W. Bush, in the White House Situation Room.

    In his 2014 book, Warrior Diplomat: A Green Beret’s Battles from Washington to Afghanistan, he wrote of sitting in during a tense videoconference with then-President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and lamenting Bush’s failure to be firmer.

    “Unfortunately, really sticking it to Karzai was not Bush’s style,” Waltz wrote.

    The atmosphere in the second Trump White House will be dramatically different. Waltz will move to the front of the Situation Room. And Trump, known for “sticking it to” any number of people, will have his own style.

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    Yet Waltz‘s uncompromising views could also create tension with Trump, despite the President-elect signalling that he will be tough on China says June Teufel Dreyer of the University of Miami Coral’ and author of China’s Political System: Modernization and Tradition.

    Waltz “is distrustful of the People’s Republic of China and its motives,” she says. “He does not believe in the hype that we can work together in peace and friendship.”

    Trump has threatened to slap tariffs on Chinese goods and sought confrontation with Beijing over intellectual property, technology and other economic issues. Those efforts are likely to continue when he takes office.

    But at the same time, he has expressed admiration for the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping. He has called Xi a “brilliant guy” and praised him for his success at becoming “president for life.”

    Teufel Dreyer says that Trump may decide at some point to take a more deferential approach to Xi, and this could cause a rift between Trump and his advisor. “Waltz is not a shrinking violet. He’s willing to speak his mind,” she says. “He’s not going to back down.”

    The unpredictable nature of the White House has far-reaching implications. So does the track record of the incoming national security advisor and his hawkish views.

    “There will be efforts to crack down on the bad behavior of China – how they are ripping off American goods, as well as the spying—that’s going to be top of mind for Waltz,” predicts Brett Bruen, a former director of global engagement on the National Security Council in the Obama White House.

    “If I’m sitting in the Chinese foreign ministry office, these are worrying signs.”

    Edited by Boer Deng and Abby Seiff


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Tara McKelvey for RFA Investigative.

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  • Read RFA coverage of this story in Chinese

    At least 35 people were killed and 43 injured when a driver rammed his car into a crowd at a stadium in southern China’s Zhuhai city, prompting a rare call from President Xi Jinping on Tuesday for an investigation and for the perpetrator to be punished.

    The attack, believed to be the deadliest in modern Chinese history, occurred on Monday night as the city hosted the People‘s Liberation Army’s annual airshow, where it debuted a new fighter jet.

    Police detained a 62-year-old man surnamed Fan in connection with the attack, who they said was hospitalized with allegedly self-inflicted knife wounds.

    They said Fan had been angered over a divorce settlement.

    Local police reported that a small off-road vehicle drove into a crowd outside a sports center.

    Images of the incident, which appeared to show dozens of people lying on the ground as a car fled the scene, circulated widely on social media but were quickly censored and removed, as were comments expressing frustration over a nearly 24-hour delay in official reporting.

    RFA Mandarin spoke with a resident of Zhuhai surnamed Chen who said that the driver of the car “hit the crowd and then came back to hit them again.”

    “This is definitely revenge against society, not an ordinary traffic accident,” he said.

    Wounded people lie on the ground after a car plowed into a crowd at a sports center in Zhuhai, China, Nov. 11, 2024.
    Wounded people lie on the ground after a car plowed into a crowd at a sports center in Zhuhai, China, Nov. 11, 2024.

    State media cited Xi issuing a statement on Tuesday in which he said the incident was under investigation and called for the perpetrator’s severe punishment. It is unusual for Xi to comment about specific crimes or incidents.

    A team from the central government was sent to the city of 2.5 million to provide guidance to authorities, it said.

    By Tuesday evening, candles and flowers could be seen laid outside the sports center, where people had gathered to exercise when the attack occurred, Reuters reported.

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    Monday’s attack marked the second such to occur during the Zhuhai airshow, after a man drove a truck into a crowded schoolyard in 2008, killing four and injuring 20.

    Violent attacks are rare in China, where gun laws are strict and the population is subject to strict monitoring by authorities.

    But a spate of knife-related incidents have highlighted lapses in security at public spaces.

    In June, a man surnamed Cai stabbed four U.S. college instructors and a Chinese citizen who tried to intervene in the northeastern city of Jilin. The same month, a 10-year-old Japanese boy was stabbed to death as he walked to school in southeastern Shenzhen city.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Josh Lipes.

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  • Gold prices are at historic highs, buoyed by India and China central bank buying in OTC markets. Further, all-time high levels of gold repatriation are underway, to vaults in Asia. Industry insiders and market experts are puzzled at the intensity and the timing of the gold buys, which seem divorced from economic fundamentals.

    But these moves are an essential aspect of the BRICS countries’ de-risking from Western banking systems. Following the sanctions on Russia, whereby billions of dollars of Russian reserves in US and European banks were seized, China and India were strongly motivated to reduce their exposure to Western regulators. China sold off huge portfolios of US Treasury bonds, and both China and India demanded physical deliveries of gold previously held by European custodians.

    The post India and China Push Gold to Record Highs, then Pull from Western Vaults after Russia Sanctions first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • A Hong Kong journalist fired by the Wall Street Journal after she was elected leader of a local journalists’ union lodged a legal challenge with the city’s labor tribunal on Tuesday.

    Selina Cheng, who says she was let go as part of “restructuring” in July after being warned against seeking election as chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, is filing a case with the tribunal after her request for reinstatement was unsuccessful.

    “I was fired by the Wall Street Journal because of my position as chairman of the Journalists Association,” Cheng told reporters, accompanied by her lawyer, on Tuesday. “I have tried to communicate with and seek mediation with the company’s U.S. representatives via my lawyer but this was ineffective.”

    “The other party continues to insist that my dismissal was part of layoffs, and reject my request for reinstatement,” she said.

    Cheng won the election to replace Ronson Chan, who stepped down from the union leadership citing threats and pressure from pro-China sources.

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    Officials in China and Hong Kong have repeatedly claimed that journalists are safe to carry out “legitimate” reporting activities under both the 2020 National Security Law and the Article 23 Safeguarding National Security Law, which was passed on March 23.

    But pro-democracy media magnate Jimmy Lai is currently on trial for “collusion with foreign forces” for printing articles in his now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper.

    Ready to testify

    Cheng said she had already filed some evidence for her claim to the Labor Department, and would be filing a formal complaint on Tuesday, under Section 21b of the city‘s Employment Ordinance, which protects employees’ right to join a labor union.

    “Any employer, or any person acting on behalf of an employer, who prevents or deters … an employee from exercising that right shall be guilty of an offense,” and could be fined up to HK$100,000 (US$12,855), according to the law.

    “I have told the staff at the Labor Department that I am very willing to testify in court, and provide all the necessary information,” she said. “Since there is more than enough evidence to show they are in violation of the law, I think the government should actively prosecute them.”

    Selina Cheng, a former Wall Street Journal reporter and chairperson of the Hong Kong Journalists Association shows reporters her claim form against her former employer for what she called unreasonable dismissal in Hong Kong on Nov.12, 2024.
    Selina Cheng, a former Wall Street Journal reporter and chairperson of the Hong Kong Journalists Association shows reporters her claim form against her former employer for what she called unreasonable dismissal in Hong Kong on Nov.12, 2024.

    Cheng, a Hong Kong correspondent for the Journal who had survived earlier rounds of layoffs, was approached by senior editors in June after they heard she was running in elections for the chair of the union, warned off running for the top job and told to leave the board, despite approving her position at the union when she was hired in 2021.

    Cheng has quoted her editor as saying that Journal employees shouldn’t be seen as advocates for press freedom in a place like Hong Kong, although there was no problem with similar behaviors in Western countries where press freedom is greater. She has said she was fired in person by U.K.-based Foreign Editor Gordon Fairclough, who was on a visit to Hong Kong, with “restructuring” given as the reason for her sacking.

    She said none of her colleagues believed that this was the real reason for her dismissal.

    “I learned from former colleagues at Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal that they were all very disappointed, mainly because of the claim I was laid off,” Cheng said. “Everyone knows that this wasn’t the the truth, but the company continues to insist that this was the reason they fired me.”

    Cheng said the incident had damaged her professional reputation, but that she was still open to discussions about her reinstatement.

    State of press freedom

    Journalists and media watchdog groups say press freedom has gone sharply downhill in Hong Kong in recent years, as Beijing ramps up its mission to protect “national security” with a constant expansion of forbidden topics and “red lines” in recent years.

    Foreign journalists have also been targeted, with the city refusing to renew a work visa for the Financial Times‘ Victor Mallet in 2018 after he hosted pro-independence politician Andy Chan as a speaker at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club where he was an official at the time.

    The Independent Association of Publishers’ Employees, a union run by and for the employees of Dow Jones, has previously said that if Cheng was fired as what she claimed, the behavior was “unconscionable,” the Associated Press reported on Tuesday, adding that the association has called on the publication to restore her job and provide a full explanation of their decision to dismiss her.

    Hong Kong ranked 135th out of 180 countries and territories in Reporters Without Borders’ latest World Press Freedom Index, down from 80 in 2021.

    Translated by Luisetta Mudie.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Wei Sze and Edward Li for RFA Cantonese.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.