Xu is protesting against what he describes as inhumane treatment in prison, including lack of contact with his family
Concerns are growing about the health of Xu Zhiyong, China’s most prominent imprisoned human rights lawyer, who is thought to have been on hunger strike for nearly a month.
Xu, a scholar and leading figure in China’s embattled civil rights movement, started his hunger strike on 4 October, according to Chinese Human Rights Defenders, an NGO. He is protesting against what he describes as inhumane treatment in prison, including lack of contact with his family and intensive surveillance by other prisoners, according to reports released through his relatives.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy is facing blowback for failing to condemn the Uyghur genocide at a meeting with his Chinese counterpart in Beijing during a recent two-day trip to China.
In April 2021, British MPs passed a motion declaring that China was committing genocide against the Uyghur people in Xinjiang, a vast region in northwestern China that is home to about 12 million mostly Muslim Uyghurs.
Following Lammy‘s Oct. 18 meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing, Britain’s Foreign Office released a readout which said he raised the issue of rights abuses as a stumbling block in bilateral relations.
“Human Rights were discussed, including in Xinjiang, and the Foreign Secretary referenced this as an area which the UK and China must engage, even where viewpoints diverge,” the statement said.
But opposition members of the UK Parliament and an official from the World Uyghur Congress advocacy group blasted Lammy for not specifically addressing the Uyghur genocide.
Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy (R) and British Ambassador to China Caroline Wilson arrive at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Oct. 18, 2024.
“This is a genocide taking place, with slave labor,” he said. “Why is there not more robust condemnation from the government to China?”
The United States and parliaments of other Western countries have also declared that China has committed genocide or crimes against humanity in Xinjiang based on credible evidence of mass detentions in camps, forced sterilizations of Uyghur woman, and other severe rights abuses.
Sanctions
Duncan Smith, who is also co-chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, went on to say that he heard there was a move in the Foreign Office to lift British sanctions on Chinese officials responsible for the genocide in Xinjiang as part of a deal to remove sanctions on British lawmakers.
“And I just simply say to the foreign secretary, I must tell him, that I, for one, would never accept such a shameful deal at any price, and I hope he will stamp on that straightaway,” he said.
In March 2021, China imposed sanctions on British organizations and politicians, including Duncan Smith and fellow Conservative MP Neil O’Brien, accusing them of spreading “lies and disinformation” about human rights abuses in Xinjiang. The sanctions came in response to Britain’s decision to implement measures against four Chinese officials.
O’Brien noted at Monday’s parliamentary session that when the Labour party was in opposition, it said there was “clear and compelling evidence” of a genocide in Xinjiang. He asked Lammy if he still believed this to be the case now that Labour is the governing party.
Responding to O’Brien and Duncan Smith during the session, Lammy said he did “raise Xinjiang in the context of human rights” and the issue of sanctioned parliamentarians with both Wang Yi and the foreign affairs spokesperson for the Chinese Communist Party.
“I raised that as a matter of huge concern,” Lammy said about the lifting of sanctions on British lawmakers, adding that he also discussed threats and aggression in the South China sea, jailed British national Jimmy Lai and curtailed freedoms in Hong Kong.
“It would be totally unacceptable for any UK Foreign Minister to go to China and not raise those issues of tremendous concern,” he said.
Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy (2nd from L) attends a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing, Oct. 18, 2024.
Lammy said he remains “hugely concerned about the human rights abuses in Xinjiang,” but added that it is a matter for the International Criminal Court and others to make a determination of genocide, “not for national government.”
Lammy ‘vocal’ on issues
When asked by Radio Free Asia about reports of a deal to remove sanctions and a clarification of how it classifies rights abuses in Xinjiang, a British government spokesperson said Lammy has been vocal on both issues.
“The Foreign Secretary has called on China to lift its sanctions on UK parliamentarians at every meeting with his counterpart, along with raising the UK’s serious human rights concerns, including in Xinjiang,” the spokesperson said.
“China’s sanctions including against parliamentarians are completely unwarranted and unacceptable and are totally incomparable to the sanctions announced by the UK in 2021, which were based on compelling and widespread evidence of serious and systematic human rights violations in Xinjiang,” the spokesperson added.
Rahima Mahmut, the UK director of the World Uyghur Congress, said she was pleased that O’Brien and Duncan Smith questioned the foreign minister about his failure to raise the Uyghur genocide with Wang Yi.
She added that it is unlikely the British Government would lift sanctions imposed on the Chinese officials.
“This is because the punishment imposed on Chinese officials is based on strong evidence that these officials have committed human rights abuses under international law,” she told RFA.
Edited by Joshua Lipes.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Adile Ablet for RFA Uyghur and Roseanne Gerin for RFA English.
Faced with plummeting birth rates, nationwide kindergarten closures and young people who are increasingly choosing to stay single, authorities in China have announced incentives to encourage people to have kids, calling for “a new marriage and childbearing culture.”
China’s cabinet, the State Council, published a slew of measures on Monday, including childbirth subsidies, better healthcare for mothers and children, and comprehensive childcare services.
Officials at all levels of government should “actively build a new marriage and childbearing culture and carry forward the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation, advocating … marriage and childbearing at the right age,” the announcement said.
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 boost flagging birth rates and kick-start the shrinking population, including flexible working policies, coverage for fertility treatment and extended maternity leave.
A child plays with sand near a couple taking part in a pre-wedding photo shoot on a beach in Qingdao, China, April 21, 2024.
But young women in today’s China are increasingly choosing not to marry or have kids, citing huge inequalities and patriarchal attitudes that still run through family life, not to mention the sheer economic cost of raising a family.
Officials should “vigorously promote positive views of marriage, relationships, childbearing, and family” and build online matchmaking and dating services to help young people to find partners, while getting rid of “lavish weddings and high bride prices,” the State Council directive said.
The measures come after the Ministry of Education reported a 5% fall in the number of kindergartens last year, with more than 14,800 closures, marking the second year of decline.
Kindergarten enrollments fell by 5.35 million in 2023, a decrease of 11.55% from 2022, the ministry said in figures widely reported by Chinese media.
Live births fell from 17.86 million in 2016 to just 9.02 million in 2023, with birth rates plummeting from 1.77 per woman in 2016 to around 1.0 in 2023, placing the country second from bottom among the world’s major economies.
Global trend
Peng Xiujian, a senior researcher at Australia’s Victoria University, said low fertility rates are part of a global trend, especially in Asia, where young people are generally unwilling to have children.
The new measures “will be slow to take effect, and it is impossible to change people’s willingness to have children all at once,” Peng said.
The State Council said it would extend maternity leave from 98 days to 158 days, which would attract a maternity allowance in more than half of China’s provinces, and allow childcare tax allowances of up to 2,000 yuan (US$280) a month, while calling on local governments to expand and subsidize local childcare services.
Nurses take care of a newborn baby at a hospital in Xinghua in China’s eastern Jiangsu province, May 10, 2024.
But Peng said there are still huge barriers for women in the workplace who want to have families, and that issues like discrimination, flexible working and a working culture that is heavily focused on long hours would need to be addressed first.
Jessica Nisén, a demographer at the University of Turku in Finland, said the latest measures would be “very good” for couples who already have children or who have already decided they want them.
But she added, “building a new marriage and childbearing culture will surely be difficult though,” calling for more radical policies offering the same amount of leave to each parent to encourage shared responsibility.
She said the measures could have a “non-marginal” effect in the long term, but said the government needs to demonstrate it is committed to gender equality rather than just setting top-down targets for how many children should be born.
A millennial who declined to be named for fear of reprisals said that women’s rights in the workplace, affordable medical care and the cost of educating a child all need to be taken into account before more women will even consider having kids.
“The subsidies China is offering right now wouldn’t even make up one-tenth of the total cost of educating a child,” she said. “Perhaps if they covered all of the costs of prenatal checkups and childbirth, it would look as if they were a bit more serious about this.”
Recovery unlikely
Tomáš Sobotka, deputy director of the Vienna Institute of Demography, said the long-term recovery of birth rates looked unlikely in the current economic climate, citing high youth unemployment and “competitive or uncertain labor market prospects for many.”
He said ideological slogans like “a new marriage and childbearing culture” would have little practical effect and could even have the opposite effect.
Beds that once were used by children to take naps at a kindergarten-turned-elderly center in lay empty in Taiyuan, China, July 2, 2024, as educators turn their sights away from children in the face of a rapidly aging population and a baby bust.
“Government efforts in trying to exhort younger generations to form a family may meet with resistance from the young people who are alienated by their poor future prospects,” Sobotka told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview.
He said universal benefits like cheap childcare weren’t outlined in the policy, yet tax breaks would only be an incentive for more affluent couples.
“The new policies do not manage to address the broader perception of uncertainty, pressures, and lack of confidence about the future among the young generations today, which are driven by a mix of past experiences (such as COVID lockdowns and uncertainties), … unaffordable housing in large cities, miserable labor market prospects, and the economic squeeze that is hitting young adults the most,” he said.
“Until these issues are at least partly addressed, birth rates will not recover much.”
Martin Whyte, professor emeritus of sociology at Harvard University, said the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s claim to legitimacy as a government has been undermined by the falling birth rates.
“There was a general assumption that the party and state in China were managing society quite well and successfully, and that the Chinese people were benefiting from that,” Whyte told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview. “And now, I think it’s likely that, if there’s some new campaigns or whatever, people are much more likely to be skeptical or even critical.”
He said the campaigns to create a “new childbearing culture” could also backfire.
“Some of these things Xi Jinping claimed, such as to find ways for women to have more babies, are clearly creating derision in China,” he said. “Young people and women, in particular, think this is absurd, and that Xi Jinping is completely out of touch with reality.”
“The society Chinese are living under does not produce a situation in which it would make sense to have three babies,” Whyte said, adding that the coercive nature of Xi’s three-year zero-COVID policy had undermined his legitimacy in the eyes of many in China.
A woman walks past posters of the late Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong at a stall in an antique market in Beijing, Dec. 26, 2023.
“[There are] also other things like the housing sector crisis,” he said. “China produced incentives for local governments and developers to build a lot more housing than was actually needed. And then with population shrinking… where is the competence of the party-state in allowing that to happen?”
‘A very different place’
Alicja Bachulska, a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, agreed.
“I would say … in 2023 we have felt a lot of frustration, a lot of disillusionment,” she said in a YouTube debate with Bonnie Glaser of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. “[The] Chinese authorities [are] making quite arbitrary decisions that are not perceived any more in some circles as very rational.”
“I think that the end of the zero-COVD policy, the street protests that took place in China at the end of 2022 made many people realize that the level of frustration related to the way Chinese political elites operate at the moment had started to be really, really big,” she said.
This also has an effect on Beijing’s attempts to boost the birth rate, Bachulska said.
“For China, the solution is to convince most young women in China, well-educated middle class urban women, to have more children, and they are really trying hard to build this positive energy idea of how the demographic crisis in China will be turned into an opportunity,” she said. “But then on the other hand you have a huge crackdown on the feminist movement.”
She said women in China are in “a very different place” despite being unable to organize, and were unlikely to go along with the authorities’ campaign for more children.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Roseanne Gerin.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Lucie Lo for RFA Mandarin.
The recently concluded 2024 BRICS (an acronym for the combined economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit, hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin in Kazan and attended by scores of Global South leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian…
Asia-Pacific nations should observe their obligation not to use, or threaten to use, force amid increased tensions in the South China Sea, an international panel of experts has warned.
Participants at a two-day conference ending on Thursday, hosted by Vietnam, examined how the principle of non-use of force in resolving disputes should be understood and upheld by the claimants of the South China Sea and the international community.
The conference “Navigating Narratives, Nurturing Norms” looked at “the complex evolution of international relations, the proliferation of proxy actors, and the politicization and weaponization of interdependencies.”
Euan Graham, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, or ASPI, said that compared with other regions such as the Middle East and Europe, “there have been remarkably few armed conflicts between states” in the Asia-Pacific.
However, there have been sporadic armed clashes, he noted. The last serious one was in 1988 between China and Vietnam over the Johnson South Reef in the Spratlys that resulted in the deaths of 64 Vietnamese soldiers.
“In the last 15 years or so, the South China Sea has become more associated with China’s use of coercive tactics including physical confrontation but below the threshold of military force, commonly called gray-zone activities … presenting a clear threat of force,” Graham said, warning that this “gray-zone” has now adopted a noticeable “darker shade.”
“The number and intensity of incidents involving physical force and threat of armed violence has increased,” he added.
Caption: Chinese Coast Guard vessels fire water cannons towards a Philippine resupply vessel Unaizah May 4 on its way to a resupply mission at Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea, March 5, 2024. (REUTERS/Adrian Portugal)
First-hand experience
Tensions between China and the Philippines have risen sharply this year in a part of the South China Sea that is under Manila’s jurisdiction but also falls within the so-called nine-dash line that Beijing prints on its maps to back its claim to most of the sea.
Philippine Coast Guard Spokesperson Jay Tarriela told the conference that his country has first-hand experience of China’s aggression but other countries in the region also suffered from its “illegal and unacceptable behavior.”
Tarriela said that from Manila’s perspective, in order to achieve a peaceful solution of disputes in the South China Sea, regional countries should forge a common understanding and mutual respect based on international law, and ensure transparency in their policies. He also called for collective actions amongst all claimants in the sea.
“The Philippines’ struggle extends beyond our sovereignty, it is a fight for everyone,” said Tarriela. “We should not allow any state actor to circumvent international law and to veto the U.N. Charter.”
“Remaining silent about such bullying tactics is tantamount to condoning such actions,” the coast guard commodore said, pointing to “the lessons from the two World Wars.”
Responding to the criticism of her country’s policies in the South China Sea, a Chinese expert said that Beijing had already exercised much restraint and patience.
Lei Xiaolu, a professor at the China Institute of Boundary and Ocean Studies at Wuhan University, said that other countries should be aware that “China will never abandon our claims over four archipelagos and the waters in the South China Sea.”
Maritime disputes take time, patience and political will to achieve final solutions, Lei said, urging parties to “sit down to discuss in good faith.”
Most Southeast Asian countries already have a bilateral consultation mechanism with China, according to the Chinese scholar, who noted that in the second half of this year “there’s already been an intensified diplomatic communication between China and the Philippines to de-escalate tensions at sea.”
“In many cases, it’s very difficult to determine whether it was the use of force in hostility or the use of force in a law enforcement activity,” Lei argued, adding that only increased communication, not only through diplomatic channels but also by other government agencies from relevant countries, could help prevent conflict.
Yet, the risk of escalation remains, ASPI’s Graham said.
“The maritime enforcement has very limited utility without an accompanying hard power,” or the military presence at the scene, he said.
Edited by Mike Firn
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Staff.
The World Uyghur Congress will elect a new president and 34 other officials during its general assembly starting Thursday in Sarajevo, despite unprecedented harassment and threats from the Chinese government to disrupt the meeting.
The harassment has scared off potential candidates for the leadership of the Uyghur advocacy organization, with only one person — Turghunjan Alawudun — running for president, said Dolkun Isa, who has been in the role since November 2017.
Alawudun, 58, a German citizen who lives in Munich, has been involved in the WUC since its inception in 2004. He is currently one of the organization’s four vice chairman of the executive committee
“He has been faithfully serving the WUC since its foundation,” Isa said of Alawudun. “He is highly reputable and respected by the Uyghurs in the diaspora.”
The Oct. 24-27 gathering in Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, will bring together about 176 Uyghur delegates from 27 countries, including the United States.
They will select a new president, three vice presidents, an executive committee chairman, four vice chairmen and 16 commission chairs.
Uyghur genocide
Based in Munich, the WUC is the largest and most prominent organization seeking to promote democracy, human rights and freedom for Uyghurs, 12 million of whom live in Xinjiang, a vast region in northwestern China.
It aims to use peaceful means to chart the political future of East Turkistan — Uyghurs preferred name for where they live.
For years, China has systematically oppressed the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, herding 1.8 million of them into concentration camps and subjecting many to forced labor. Many of the mostly Muslim Uyghurs have been arrested and imprisoned for contacting relatives outside of China or observing Muslim practices.
The U.S. government and other Western parliaments have labeled China’s treatment of the Uyghurs a “genocide,” and the United Nations concluded in an exhaustive report that China may be guilty of crimes against humanity in Xinjiang.
Turghunjan Alawudun, who is running for World Uyghur Congress president, is seen in an undated photo. (RFA)
But China designates the WUC a terrorist organization, accusing it of conspiring with separatists and religious extremists to plan terror attacks and seek Uyghur independence. It also deems Isa, a human right defender, a terrorist.
The nominee for chair of the WUC’s executive committee — another important position — is Rushan Abbas, 57, executive director of an activist group, Campaign for Uyghurs, based in Washington, Isa said.
Intimidation
The WUC’s general assembly comes amid heightened threats on possible candidates for leadership positions.
Both Alawudun and Abbas faced slander, intimidation and threats since they nominated themselves for the positions, the WUC and Abbas told RFA.
China threatened Alawudun’s relatives who live in the city of Aksu in Xinjiang, saying they would face reprisals if he ran for the WUC presidency, the organization said.
In a statement issued on Oct. 18, the WUC outlined the threats and harassment by China intended to disrupt the organization’s general assembly. They included pressure by the Chinese Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina to cancel the meeting and threats to arrest Isa, a German citizen, while he is in Sarajevo.
Rushan Abbas, executive director of the Campaign for Uyghurs, holds a photo of her sister, who is imprisoned in a Chinese camp, during a rally in New York on March 22, 2021. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP)
Ongoing threats against candidates and their families is one reason why there is only one person running for president, Isa said.
“Some withdrew from their candidacy after China threatened their loved ones in our homeland,” he said.
“Some younger activists who are qualified to run stated they are not ready for it,” Isa said. “But I believe the Chinese threat played a key role. It is difficult for them to bear the persecution coming from China.”
The Chinese Embassy didn’t answer phone calls or reply to written requests by Radio Free Asia to comment on the threats and harassment outlined by the WUC.
Candidate requirements
Those running for president must have served the WUC for at least seven years, be fluent in at least two foreign languages, and possess significant global credibility in the world and among Uyghurs.
They also must have paid WUC membership fees consistently and have not traveled to China or territories under Chinese control since 2009. Their direct relatives cannot have any connection to Chinese entities or companies.
The WUC also said China used proxy organizations — foreign groups that oppose the WUC or ones that are “Uyghur” in name but believed to be doing China’s bidding — to spread fear and uncertainty about the safety of the participants and to threaten to disrupt the conference’s proceedings.
“Some of our delegates were warned by the security agency in their country not to attend the assembly,” Isa said. “Some were not able to come due to visa issues. But they will all attend and vote online during the election this Saturday.”
Translated by RFA Uyghur. Edited by Malcolm Foster and Roseanne Gerin.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Alim Seytoff for RFA Uyghur.
Fifteen Western countries have signed a public statement calling for China to release all “arbitrarily detained” Tibetans and Uyghurs and allow human rights observers to visit the regions in which they live.
The statement was delivered in a speech on Tuesday to the U.N. Humans Rights Committee by Australia’s ambassador there, James Larsen, who drew a strong rebuke from his Chinese counterpart.
“Transparency and openness are key to allaying concerns, and we call on China to allow unfettered and meaningful access to Xinjiang and Tibet for independent observers, including from the United Nations, to evaluate the human rights situation,” Larsen said in the speech.
The statement was co-signed by Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Japan, Lithuania, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom and the United States.
Beijing must live up to the human rights obligations it has “voluntarily assumed,” the statement adds, and accept the recommendations of the global community to improve its human rights.
“This includes releasing all individuals arbitrarily detained in both Xinjiang and Tibet, and urgently clarifying the fate and whereabouts of missing family members,” the Australian ambassador said.
U.N. bodies have repeatedly detailed the detention of Tibetans and Uyghurs for the peaceful expression of political and religious views, Larsen noted, as well as the separation of families, forced abortions and sterilization, forced labor, forced disappearances and torture.
The United States, meanwhile, has said that China’s treatment of the Uyghurs, in particular, constitutes an ongoing “genocide”.
‘Living hell’
In response to Larsen’s speech, China’s U.N. ambassador, Fu Cong, told the human rights committee that the governments who signed the document were ignoring the “living hell” of the situation in Gaza.
“The human rights situation that should gather the most attention at the committee this year is undoubtedly that of Gaza,” Fu said. “Australia and the United States … played down this living hell, while unleashing attacks and smears against the peaceful and tranquil Xinjiang.”
However, Tibetan and Uyghur advocates welcomed the statement.
“This is a positive development and sends a strong message to China,” said Namgyal Choedup, the Dalia Lama’s representative in North America. “Like-minded countries in the world have been monitoring China’s behavior, and they must press China on rights issues.”
Maya Wang, the interim China director at Human Rights Watch, welcomed the statement, which she noted came two years after a U.N. report that found China may be responsible for “crimes against humanity” for its treatment of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region.
“The Chinese government continues to deny these grave abuses,” Wang said. “Therefore, it is all the more important for governments like Australia to continue to persist in pressing the Chinese government.”
Ilshat Hassan Kokbore, the vice chairman of the World Uyghur Congress, said he was “glad” to see the statement released, but said it was time for more concrete actions to pressure change in China.
“The genocide hasn’t stopped until today. Therefore, it’s not just a matter of transparency, itis a matter of urgency in light of ongoing genocide happening today,” he said. “The world should take more meaningful action to stop the Chinese government’s atrocities.”
Edited by Alex Willemyns and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Tashi Wangchuk and Choegyi for RFA Tibetan and Alim Seytoff for RFA Uyghur.
The BRICS Summit taking place in Kazan, Russia, from October 22 to 24 is a pivotal gathering in global geopolitics. The summit brings together the original BRICS members – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – along with five new members: Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Then, dozens of other countries are attending as well:
Russia is hosting the BRICS+ summit with many world leaders attending, including India’s Narendra Modi & Xi Jinping of China, the two largest populations on Earth…
Along with representatives from even more countries, yet CNN claims Putin is isolated. You can’t make this… pic.twitter.com/3r0OgtXxP9
This includes the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, as well as leaders from Algeria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Indonesia, and Mexico. There is even a possibility that UN chief António Guterres may appear at this BRICS Summit.
This expansion marks a significant step in the group’s evolution as a counterbalance to Western influence.
Dedollarization. Whoops.
The first day of the summit, October 22, was marked by formal opening ceremonies and a dinner hosted by Russian president Vladimir Putin. This day set the tone for discussions on a broad array of topics, including economic cooperation, multilateralism, and security.
Russian officials emphasized BRICS’ role in reshaping global governance, promoting multipolarity, and addressing economic disparities.
One of the most significant discussions will centre on dedollarization – the effort to reduce global reliance on the U.S. dollar in international trade and finance.
This topic is particularly important for Russia and China, both of which have been vocal about creating alternatives to the dollar-dominated financial system. In line with this, BRICS introduced BRICS Pay, a payment system designed to facilitate transactions among member countries, bypassing Western-dominated systems like SWIFT.
Additionally, the summit will address the integration of new members, which represent significant geopolitical and economic forces. For instance, Saudi Arabia’s inclusion as a full member is seen as a notable development, given its substantial influence in global energy markets.
The creation of a “partner country” model will probably also be discussed, which could further expand BRICS reach by offering other nations limited membership in the future.
Why the BRICS Summit matters
This year’s summit carries a deeper significance than past meetings. It marks Russia’s largest diplomatic event since the Ukraine conflict began, positioning BRICS as a platform for Russia to demonstrate that it is far from isolated on the global stage.
Hosting the summit allows Russia to underscore its continued influence despite efforts by Western countries, particularly NATO members, to marginalize it.
Moreover, the summit serves as a crucial platform for member states to advocate for a more equitable global order. Since its inception, BRICS has sought to challenge Western hegemony, particularly the dominance of the US and its allies in global governance institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
Over the years, BRICS has worked to establish alternative institutions, such as the New Development Bank (NDB) and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement, though these efforts have met with mixed success.
In 2024, the summit has renewed focus on reducing reliance on Western financial structures, particularly in light of sanctions imposed on Russia and Iran. Many of these nations are eager to develop their own systems to protect their economies from potential punitive measures by the West.
The addition of powerful economies like Saudi Arabia and the UAE only strengthens BRICS ability to challenge Western financial dominance.
The West and NATO will NOT be happy
For Western and NATO countries, the growing influence of the group presents a challenge. BRICS Summit’s push for dedollarization and the creation of alternative financial and political structures could erode the West’s economic leverage.
The US dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency is central to American financial and geopolitical power. So, efforts at BRICS Summit to reduce its role could have long-term implications for global financial markets.
While the West may downplay the significance of BRICS as a geopolitical competitor, it is closely watching developments, especially the group’s increasing appeal to countries in the Global South.
Nations like Turkey, a NATO member, have expressed interest in closer ties with BRICS, indicating that even countries traditionally aligned with the West are looking to diversify their diplomatic and economic relations.
Moreover, the summit occurs against the backdrop of heightened geopolitical tension, particularly concerning the war in Ukraine and the broader rivalry between the U.S. and China.
For countries like India and Brazil, both of which have sought to maintain a careful balance between the West and BRICS, this summit underscores their desire to pursue a multi-aligned foreign policy that maximizes their strategic autonomy without alienating either bloc.
BRICS Summit: a pivotal moment whether the West likes it or not
The 2024 BRICS Summit is a landmark event in the evolving global power dynamics – whether the West likes it or not.
By expanding its membership and advancing its goals of financial independence from the West, BRICS is positioning itself as a formidable force in international relations.
For the West, this signals the emergence of a more multipolar world, where Western dominance is no longer taken for granted, and alternative powers are increasingly asserting their influence on the global stage.
Rahima Mahmut, in exile in the UK, ‘disappointed’ at failure to describe Beijing’s crackdown on minority as genocide
A leading Uyghur activist has accused the Labour government of “falling behind” its allies in failing to stand up to China, after ministers backtracked on plans to push for formal recognition of the country’s treatment of the minority group as genocide.
Speaking after David Lammy’s first visit to China as UK foreign secretary, the human rights activist Rahima Mahmut, who has lived in exile in the UK since 2000, said she had hoped there would be a shift in UK policy once the party came into power, including following the US in declaring a continuing genocide in Xinjiang.
China’s defence exports have been growing, but quality and political goals conflict potential customers. China’s defence industry has seen significant growth and development over the past few decades. It has rapidly transformed from being heavily reliant on foreign technology and imports to becoming a major player in the global arms market and a central pillar […]
China on Monday urged Myanmar’s junta to find and punish the perpetrators of a bomb attack on its consulate in Mandalay over the weekend, but observers warned that more attacks are likely amid public anger over Beijing’s support for the military regime.
China has remained one of the junta’s few allies since the military orchestrated a coup d’etat and seized control of Myanmar in February 2021.
Chinese investment in Myanmar is substantial, and the armed opposition has attacked several projects in a bid to cut off badly-needed revenue for the junta, which is straining under the weight of global sanctions in response to its putsch.
On Friday evening, unknown assailants detonated a bomb at the Chinese consulate in Mandalay region’s Chanmyathazi township, damaging part of the building’s roof, the junta and Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Saturday. No one was hurt in the blast.
No group or individual has claimed responsibility.
On Monday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Li Jian condemned the attack and called on the junta to “make an all-out effort to hunt down and bring the perpetrators to justice.”
The Chinese consulate in Mandalay also urged all Chinese citizens, businesses and institutions in Myanmar to monitor the local security situation, strengthen security measures and take every precaution to keep themselves safe.
Myanmar’s junta has said it is investigating the incident and is working to arrest those responsible.
Opposition condemns attack
An official with the Mandalay People’s Defense Force, which runs anti-junta operations in the region, denied responsibility for the bombing.
“The Mandalay People’s Defense Force has not carried out any urban missions, including the attack on the Chinese consulate general’s office recently,” said the official who spoke to RFA Burmese on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.
The foreign ministry Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government, or NUG, also condemned the bombing in a statement that said it opposes all terrorist acts that tarnish relations with neighboring nations. It said differences of views should be solved through diplomatic means rather than violence.
“Such kinds of attacks have absolutely nothing to do with our NUG government or our People’s Defense Force,” said NUG Deputy Foreign Minister Moe Zaw Oo. “We never commit terrorist acts and we condemn such attacks.”
Moe Zaw Oo suggested that the junta had orchestrated the attack to “[create] problems between our forces and China.”
“The junta is trying to exacerbate the conflict … and sowing discord,” he said, without providing evidence of his claim.
Tay Zar San, a leader of the armed opposition, echoed the NUG’s suspicion that the junta was behind the attack.
“The military regime and its affiliated organizations are intentionally provoking ethnic and religious conflict under the context of anti-Chinese sentiment,” he said, adding that the junta has “organized” anti-Chinese protests in downtown Yangon and Mandalay.
He also provided no evidence to back up his claims.
Attempts by RFA to contact junta spokesperson Major General Zaw Min Tun for a response to the allegations went unanswered Monday.
Enemy of the people
Tay Zar San said that the people of Myanmar have been angered by Beijing’s support for the junta and its attempts to pressure ethnic armed groups along its border to end their offensive against the military.
Since launching the offensive nearly a year ago, heavy fighting for control of towns in northern Shan state has sparked concern from China, which borders the state to the east, and forced it to shut previously busy border crossings.
China has tried to protect its interests by brokering ceasefires between the junta and ethnic armies, but these haven’t lasted long.
Myanmar’s Army Commander Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, left, speaks with Chinese President Xi Jinping at a hotel in Naypyidaw, Jan. 18, 2020. (Office of the Commander in Chief of Defense Services via AP)
Junta supporters have expressed concern that territory lost to the armed opposition will not be retaken and are posting messages opposing China’s engagement on social media. Earlier, the junta supporters staged anti-China protests in Yangon, Mandalay, and the capital Naypyidaw.
Than Soe Naing, a political commentator, said that the people of Myanmar will increasingly target China if Beijing continues supporting the junta.
“As this struggle intensifies, anti-Chinese sentiment in Myanmar is likely to grow,” he said. “However, it is important to recognize that this is not a conflict with the Chinese people, but rather a response to the Chinese Communist Party’s stance and the misguided policies of its leadership on the Myanmar issue.”
Additional tension
The consulate bombing came amid reports that China’s military had fired at the junta’s Russian-made MiG-29 fighter jets as they carried out airstrikes on ethnic rebels on the border.
A video of the purported attack – in which anti-aircraft guns fire into the air while Chinese-language commands are given – went viral on Saturday evening, although RFA has been unable to independently verify its authenticity or the date it took place.
Additionally, an official with the People’s Defense Force in Sagaing region’s Yinmarbin township told RFA that his unit had ambushed a junta security detail guarding a convoy of trucks carrying copper from the Chinese-run Letpadaung Copper Mine Project in nearby Salingyi township.
At least one junta soldier was killed, but the convoy was able to proceed, said the official, who also declined to be named.
A traffic police officer directs traffic near a welcoming billboard to Chinese President Xi Jinping, in Naypyidaw, Jan. 17, 2020. (Aung Shine Oo/AP)
RFA was unable to independently verify the official’s claims and efforts to reach the junta’s spokesperson for Sagaing region went unanswered Monday, as did attempts to contact the Chinese Embassy in Yangon.
In late August, junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing vowed to protect Chinese assets and personnel in Myanmar during a meeting with the Chinese ambassador.
Last week, reports emerged that Min Aung Hlaing will visit China for the first time since the coup. When asked by Bloomberg about the military leader’s visit to China, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian declined to comment.
Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.
When Xi Jinping took his place as leader of the ruling Chinese Communist Party in 2012, some commentators expected he would be a weak president beset by factional strife in the wake of the jailing of former Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai and cryptic official references to rumors of a coup in Beijing.
“I left China for Ecuador and Colombia, then walked north through the rain forest,” one migrant — an author whose writings were banned under Xi — told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview. “I left on Aug. 8 and entered the United States on Oct. 21.”
“I was limping from my second day in the rainforest, and I was robbed by bandits,” the person said. “I could have died.”
A migrant from China, exhausted from the heat, rests on the shoulder of a fellow migrant from Nicaragua after walking into the U.S. at Jacumba Hot Springs, California, on June 5, 2024. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP)
Another recent migrant — a writer — said they left because everything they wrote had been banned.
“My articles were banned from newspapers and magazines, my name was not allowed to be mentioned, and I couldn’t take part in public events,” they said. “I realized if I stayed in China, my life would just be a huge disaster, so I fled in a hurry.”
Xu Maoan, a former financial manager in a private company, said he used to make a good professional salary of 10,000 yuan (US$1,400) a month, but lost his job due to the COVID-19 restrictions.
He never succeeded in finding another, despite sending out hundreds of resumes, and recently joined many others making the trek through the rainforest to the U.S. border.
“I didn’t find out about the white paper movement until I got to the United States,” Xu told RFA Mandarin. “All news of it was blocked in China.”
Reversing course?
But it wasn’t just the pandemic; Xu and many like him were growing increasingly concerned that Xi was reversing the investor-friendly policies of late supreme leader Deng Xiaoping, with his confrontational attitude to Western trading partners and hair-trigger sensitivity to “national security,” an elastic term used to describe any activity that could threaten or undermine the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s official narrative.
“I have personally experienced how the government drove away foreign investors and cracked down on the private sector, in the name of national security,” Xu said. “The government is in financial difficulty, so if they don’t like you, they raid you.”
Chinese police conduct work during a raid of the Shanghai office of international consultancy Capvison in an undated photo. (Screenshot from CCTV via AP)
“[Xi] quarreled with Europe and the United States, frightening foreign investors, who withdrew to Vietnam and India,” he said. “His values are the opposite [of Deng Xiaoping’s].”
“The domestic economy has collapsed, but they just won’t admit it,” he said. “I was afraid we would be going back to the days of famine and forced labor of the Mao era, so I left in a hurry.”
Xi’s abolition of presidential term limits in 2018 and the creation of what some fear is a Mao-style cult of personality around him is also driving concerns.
“Xi has deified himself as the ‘core’ leader with his own personality cult, but he lacks Mao’s charisma,” Ma Chun-wei, assistant politics professor at Taiwan’s Tamkang University, told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview. “He requires everyone to study Xi Jinping Thought throughout the party and the whole education system.”
Yet Xi is one of the most ridiculed leaders in recent Chinese history, according to exiled author Murong Xuecun.
“He has had the most nicknames of any general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in the past 70 years,” Murong told RFA in a recent interview. “Some people calculate that he has more than 200 nicknames.”
Pro-democracy activists tear a placard of Winnie the Pooh that represents President Xi Jinping during a protest in Hong Kong on May 24, 2020. (Isaac Lawrence/AFP)
“The key to all of this is the political system,” Murong said. “Xi rose to lead the Communist Party and have power over appointments, the military, the party, the police and national security agencies through a series of opaque and intergenerational processes.”
“He commands everything, yet his power isn’t subject to any kind of supervision or restriction,” he said. “He can purge or replace anyone he doesn’t like.”
Lying flat
Murong likened China under Xi’s rule to “a runaway train rushing towards a cliff with him as the driver.”
“China has now entered the garbage times, when everything it does is doomed to failure,” he said. “The shadow of Xi will always haunt China.”
A souvenir featuring portraits of former Chinese leaders Mao Zedong, top left, Deng Xiaoping, top right, Jiang Zemin, bottom left, Hu Jintao, bottom right, and current President Xi Jinping is seen for sale on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, Oct. 25, 2016. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)
“Those who can leave will leave, and those who can’t will lie flat,” Murong said.
Internationally, Xi has encouraged a far more expansionist and aggressive foreign policy than his predecessors, with island-building and military operations in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait, and a barrage of nationalist rhetoric around Beijing’s claim on democratic Taiwan, which has never been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party.
A Hong Kong-born researcher at the London-based think tank China Strategic Risk Institute who gave only the nickname Athena for fear of reprisals said Xi has strongly rejected international values like freedom, democracy and the rule of law, and cares little about international criticism of China’s human rights record.
Instead, China has taken the fight to international organizations, and was recently accused of “gaming” its human rights review at the United Nations.
People attend a job fair in Huai’an, in China’s Jiangsu province, June 2, 2024. (AFP)
Xi’s administration was also instrumental in turning Hong Kong from a thriving financial hub and politically engaged city with freedoms of speech, association and publication intact to a city where the majority of people are being forced to toe the government line or risk imprisonment.
In recent years, international concerns are growing that Xi may be preparing for a military invasion of Taiwan, which he has vowed to “unify” with the rest of China.
Yet he may have more of an internal battle on his hands than he bargained for, according to former Lt. Col. Yao Cheng of the Naval Aviation Force.
“He has been messing with the military for more than 10 years, ever since he came to power,” Yao told RFA Mandarin. “Between 2012 and 2015, he arrested hundreds of generals, yet his attempts to reform the military between 2015 and 2017 were a failure.”
A Chinese Coast Guard vessel fires a water cannon at the Philippine resupply vessel Unaizah May 4 on its way to a resupply mission at Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea, March 5, 2024. (Adrian Portugal/Reuters)
Part of the problem is that Xi has never been a soldier, despite wearing the uniform of a Commander in Chief, he said.
“Now Xi is commander-in-chief of the Joint Operations Command at the Central Military Commission, managing an army of several million people,” Yao said. “Yet he procured military equipment in a haphazard manner, spending money recklessly and winding up with a pile of scrap copper and iron.”
Meanwhile Xi has backed up Beijing’s claims of sovereignty in the South China Sea with newly built islands and military bases, as Chinese Coast Guard vessels regularly harass China’s neighbors, as well as ordering repeated rounds of military drills around Taiwan.
The People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force recently launched an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads into the Pacific Ocean.
Yet Yao believes that Xi ultimately lacks the support of most of China’s generals.
“He took down the leaders of the Rocket Force, and wants to attack Taiwan now, but the military won’t do this; they will wait and see,” he said. “They may be engaging in busywork for now, but they won’t do what Xi Jinping wants.”
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Luisetta Mudie and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Hsia Hsiao-hwa for RFA Mandarin.
Foreign secretary discussed China’s treatment of Uyghurs and support of Russia as well as ‘areas of cooperation’
David Lammy pressed his Chinese counterpart on human rights concerns and China’s support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine during talks in Beijing, the Foreign Office has said.
The foreign secretary had been under pressure to take a tough line on a range of human rights issues with the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, when the pair met on Friday during Lammy’s first visit to China since taking office.
Villagers and rare earth miners are trapped on the Myanmar-China border following a battle between allied rebel forces and junta troops, residents told Radio Free Asia on Friday.
The Kachin Independence Army, or KIA, is one of dozens of ethnic armed groups fighting the junta for territory and autonomy. Since the 2021 coup, it has seized 220 bases and 11 towns across Kachin and Shan states.
Fighting has centered on the region’s lucrative rare earth and gem mining sites, as well as major trade routes leading to Kachin state’s capital, Myitkyina, and further north to China.
The KIA seized control of nearly all of Shan state’s Chipwi township in early October but continue to try to take control of the remaining junta camps and border posts in the area.
While Chinese officials have previously allowed those displaced by fighting to enter the country and later be repatriated, 1,000 residents and workers trapped by fighting on Thursday were met with closed borders near Chipwi’s Pang War town, said one resident, asking to remain anonymous for security reasons.
“The Chinese haven’t opened the gate from yesterday until early today. Along the border, everyone is sleeping in tents and it’s very crowded,” he said, adding that KIA forces had captured Chanyinku village, nine kilometers (five miles) from Pang War. “Now, they’ve nearly arrived in Pang War. The junta is also shooting with heavy weapons.”
Residents began fleeing when fighting broke out near a stream in Chanyinku, he said. They can’t escape along the Chipwi-Myitkyina Highway or other vehicle routes due to heavy fighting, leaving them stuck at the Chinese border.
Ethnic armed groups and Myanmar’s junta have asked for China’s help, but the neighboring giant has declined to take sides, instead brokering short-lived ceasefires and peace talks. Conflict on the border and throughout the country has encroached on Chinese investment, trade, territory and infrastructure, causing Chinese border officials in Ruili to warn armed groups in northern Myanmar to stop fighting or it would “teach them a lesson.”
In a video posted on social media on Thursday a woman said Chinese authorities allowed their own nationals to enter the country, but Myanmar nationals were not allowed near the border gate. Another video showed Chinese authorities had blocked the border crossing with barriers tied together with rope to prevent Myanmar citizens from entering.
Myanmar refugees and Chinese rare earth workers try to enter China at the China-Myanmar border gate in Pang War on Oct. 18, 2024. (Kachin New Group)
The Chinese embassy in Yangon did not respond to emails from RFA requesting more information about the border closure.
Some Pang War residents are sheltering in nearby forests and a church, residents said as fighting continued Friday about a kilometer from the town.
KIA forces have been trying to capture junta border guard posts in the area, said Information Officer Naw Bu.
“I’ve heard that from Pang War to Chanyinku village, KIA forces are doing a ground clearance operation,” he said. “But we don’t know some of the battle details.”
KIA and allied forces turned their attention on Pang War after capturing a border guard post 16 kilometers (10 miles) away on Tuesday, residents said.
They are also trying to seize a border guard post in Waingmaw township’s Kan Paik Ti town, 160 kilometers (100 miles) southwest of Pang War, they added.
RFA attempted to contact Kachin state’s junta spokesperson Moe Min Thein for more information on the offensive, but he did not respond.
Translated by Kiana Duncan. Edited by Mike Firn.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.
China is developing one of the contested Paracel Islands into a major intelligence base in the northern part of the South China Sea, new satellite images analyzed by a British think tank revealed.
A new report by Chatham House found that Beijing has been building a massive new radar system on Triton – the westernmost and southernmost island in the Paracel archipelago, less than 250 kilometers (155 miles) from Vietnam’s coast.
Vietnam and Taiwan also claim sovereignty over the Paracels but China controls the entire island chain after seizing it from the South Vietnam government in 1974. Beijing’s deployment of a drilling platform near Triton island in May 2014 led to a serious standoff with Hanoi and triggered an unprecedented wave of anti-China protests in Vietnam.
Triton Island, called Zhongjian Dao in Chinese, also serves as a base point that China uses to draw a straight baseline to claim its territorial waters around the Paracel Islands. A U.N. arbitration tribunal in 2016 rejected this claim and the United States challenges it with its freedom-of-navigation operations in the area.
(Google Maps)
The enhanced radar facility on Triton, according to Chatham House’s report, would “offer a challenge to China’s competitors in the region and internationally.”
Satellite images provided by U.S. firm Maxar Technologies and analyzed by the report authors show the “striking development” of an advanced radar system known as SIAR, or synthetic impulse and aperture radar, “which purportedly detects stealth aircraft.”
The SIAR is characterized by its distinctive octagonal shape, similar to the one that the Chinese military built in 2017 on Subi Reef in the Spratly islands.
Several other structures on Triton have been identified as a radar tower, currently under construction, and facilities to store and launch anti-ship missiles or portable radars.
Implications for Vietnam
The radar system on Triton is the latest in a network of at least three counter-stealth radars, including those on Subi and Hainan islands, and “would significantly increase China’s signals intercept and electronic warfare capabilities across the disputed Paracel Islands archipelago and add to a wider surveillance network spanning much of the South China Sea,” said the report.
Michael Dahm, a senior resident fellow at the U.S. Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, was quoted as saying that as SIAR radars cannot see over the curve of the Earth, the one on Triton – monitoring the area between those covered by the other two radars – will help close the surveillance gap between Subi Reef and Hainan Island and “give China contiguous counter-stealth radar coverage of the South China Sea.”
Vietnam would be the first at the receiving end with the report predicting that intelligence structures on Triton “would significantly diminish” the country’s capacity to operate undetected in the area.
“Alongside existing radar on Triton which can detect sea-going vessels, Beijing now has the potential to track Vietnamese air movements and gain forewarning of Hanoi’s maneuvers in the area, including efforts to access oil and gas deposits,” it said.
Construction of a radar tower on Triton Island, October, 2024. (Maxar Technologies/Chatham House)
Chatham House analyst Bill Hayton suggested that new developments on Triton “might be a warning that China is planning to mount another drilling expedition.”
Radio Free Asia tried to contact Vietnamese authorities for comment but has not yet received a reply.
Last August, international media reported on the construction of a 600-meter (656 yard) runway on Triton that, albeit too short for patrol aircraft, could host drones.
The assumed “runway” turned out to be a road but Hanoi at the time voiced concern, saying that, “all activities in the Paracel Islands conducted without Vietnamese permission are violations of Vietnam’s sovereignty.”
Vietnam has also accused China of attacking one of its fishing boats near the Paracels last month, injuring 10 fishermen. China denied the accusation, and said the Vietnamese men were fishing illegally in Chinese waters.
Edited by Taejun Kang and Mike Firn.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Staff.
Private Chinese technology group United Aircraft has revealed a prototype large tiltrotor vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) capable uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) called the R6000 Lanying. Its name is directly translated into “Lanthanum Shadow” and apparently inspired after the rare-earth element. United Aircraft released imagery of the full-scale R6000 prototype in an 11 October social […]
Labour has backtracked on plans to push for formal recognition of China’s treatment of the Uyghurs as genocide in the run-up to David Lammy’s trip to the country this weekend.
The foreign secretary is expected to arrive in Beijing on Friday for high-level meetings before travelling to Shanghai on Saturday.
Joint exercise Sama Sama, led by the Philippines and the United States, entered a crucial phase that simulated realistic scenarios in the South China Sea on the same day that China held military drills around Taiwan.
On Monday, China’s Eastern Theater Command held a large-scale exercise – Joint Sword-2024B – in the air and waters of the Taiwan Strait and around Taiwan island to send “a stern warning to the separatist acts of Taiwan independence forces,” a term China normally uses to refer to the Taiwan government.
Just hours later, participating naval forces from the Philippines and the U.S. “successfully conducted a series of advanced maritime drills,” the Armed Forces of the Philippines, or AFP, said in a statement on social media.
They focused on “anti-submarine warfare and joint patrol operations,” it added.
Sama Sama, or Togetherness in the Tagalog language, began last week and continues for two weeks in the waters off northern Philippines facing Taiwan. Its 2024 exercise also involves personnel from Australia, Canada, France and Japan, and observers from the United Kingdom.
The exercise’s area and those of the Chinese drills seemed quite distant from each other but analysts noted that China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier group had sailed into seas around Bashi channel between the Philippines and Taiwan a day earlier and was present to the east of Taiwan during Joint Sword-2024B.
According to the AFP’s statement, the drills on Monday included a Combined Anti-Submarine Exercise, or CASEX, where troops engaged in torpedo drills using the expandable mobile anti-submarine warfare training target, which simulates the characteristics of a submarine. in order to “hone their anti-submarine warfare techniques in a realistic and controlled environment.”
In addition to CASEX, they also conducted a joint and combined night-time patrol that simulated “real-world scenarios of patrolling contested waters.”
The U.S. Navy said in an earlier statement that specialized teams, including diving and explosive ordnance disposal units, “will conduct high-intensity drills focusing on anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, anti-air warfare, and maritime domain awareness,” – which it said set Sama Sama apart as a more sophisticated exercise in both complexity and scope.
The participating personnel also conducted search-and-rescue, and shipboard casualty care drills, showing that they were “not only focused on combat readiness but also on humanitarian assistance and disaster response, integral aspects of modern naval operations.”
Personnel of the BRP Jose Rizal (FF150) during Exercise Sama Sama on Oct. 14, 2024. (Armed Forces of the Philippines)
The Royal Canadian Navy, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force , and other allied navies will take part in later exercises, the AFP said.
Six parties including Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam hold claims to parts of the South China Sea but China’s claim is by far the most expansive. Tensions have risen recently between Beijing and Manila over some reefs, around which both sides have increased patrols.
Sama Sama, now in its eighth iteration, “reflects the spirit of the decades-long partnership between allies in the region” and is not targeted at any country, the U.S. Navy said.
Edited by Taejun Kang and Mike Firn.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Staff.
Authorities in China are moving to seize more than 3 billion yuan (US$435 million) in assets belonging to a former high-ranking official from the northeastern province of Heilongjiang who has fled to the United States, claiming to be a persecuted critic of the government.
According to the Mudanjiang Intermediate People’s Court, former Jixi vice mayor Li Chuanliang stands accused of holding illegal assets including real estate, companies and engineering equipment worth 3.1 billion yuan, according to details it published in the Oct. 11 edition of the People’s Court Daily, a specialist legal newspaper.
Li, 61, who has served as vice mayor of both Jixi and Hegang cities, stands accused of embezzling public assets, accepting bribes and appropriating public funds by awarding contracts to companies he secretly owned, the state-run China Daily newspaper reported.
Li fled China in 2018, two years before China issued an international “red notice” arrest warrant for him via Interpol.
But unlike many former officials targeted by ruling Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign, Li has fought back, lawyered up, had the red notice canceled, and claims he is being persecuted because he witnessed widespread official corruption during his time in office.
Now, the authorities are moving to confiscate what they say are his “illegal gains,” something that usually takes place only after a person has been convicted of corruption by a court.
“Since the investigation began in 2020, authorities have frozen over 1.4 billion yuan (US$197 million) of his funds and seized 1,021 properties, 27 parcels of land, eight forest plots, 38 vehicles and 10 sets of mechanical equipment,” the China Daily reported.
The confiscation of the assets will go ahead if Li fails to present himself for trial within the next six months.
‘Let the bullets fly’
But Li told Radio Free Asia that he hasn’t received any legal papers regarding the alleged case against him.
“They haven’t actually taken any action against me,” he said in an interview on Tuesday.
“The point of weaving this yarn about these assets and these apartments is firstly revenge, secondly, robbery, thirdly, to intimidate and fourthly, to send out a warning,” Li said. “Let the bullets fly — I’m a free agent now and have the opportunity to clarify and explain.”
“I think the whole system is rotten to the core, and that these officials are lawless,” he said. “I definitely want more democracy, more freedom, more transparency, more openness, and more justice in China.”
While the investigation began in 2020, Li hasn’t even been able to hire a lawyer in China to represent him.
“They would need to formally prosecute me and notify me before I can hire a lawyer,” Li said. “But they never have.”
Since Li fled the country, the authorities have prosecuted dozens of Li’s relatives and former associates instead, according to a lawyer representing one of them, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals.
The lawyer said that the authorities are acting illegally, and that many of the accused had done nothing wrong.
“You say this person has committed a crime, so you need to convict him first,” a lawyer representing the family who asked not to be identified told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview. “Only then can you start the process for confiscating his assets, according to the Criminal Procedure Law.”
“Right now, they’re trying to confiscate his assets before the trial has even been held, which is totally illegal,” the lawyer said, adding that they are worried the authorities could try him in absentia.
Online searches by RFA Mandarin turned up no cases against Li filed by the Heilongjiang provincial state prosecutor’s office, which approved his formal arrest in absentia in September 2020.
Guilty by association
The sheer scale of the allegations has sparked a storm of outrage on Chinese social media platforms, but Li claimed many of the properties listed were legitimately owned and operated by him and his relatives.
“A lot of those funds and assets were run in total compliance with the law and regulations by either myself, my relatives or my friends,” Li told Radio Free Asia. But he said he had never heard of many of the assets listed by the Mudanjiang court.
“I don’t know anything about a lot of them, but they may belong to my partners or their affiliated companies,” he said. “All of the assets I know about are unproblematic.”
The lawyer said some of the properties listed were part of a residential complex developed by Li but still unsold, but that the authorities had listed each apartment separately, giving the impression of a much longer list.
He said the government appears to be considering the assets of anyone connected to Li as fair game, as if they were guilty by association.
“How come everyone else’s money is all included in there?” he said.
Former Jixi Vice Mayor Li Chuanliang at a meeting of the Jixi municipal People’s Congress in 2013. (Courtesy of Li Chuanliang)
“Xi Jinping wants to enhance his personal reputation and build his legitimacy by playing the anti-corruption card, but I don’t think it’s working,” Xia said, adding that public anger is simmering over the current economic downturn.
“This decline has done damage to everyone, and people are disgusted,” he said. “They link the current failure of Xi’s anti-corruption campaign to the incompetence and hypocrisy throughout the Communist Party system.”
Criticizing the Chinese government
In a 2022 statement, Li’s U.S. lawyer Michelle Estlund said he was being targeted for giving media interviews criticizing the Chinese government after he arrived in the United States.
Li fled to the United States in 2020 with the assistance of the U.S.-based Chinese Democratic Party, Estlund’s law firm said in a news release at the time.
“Upon his arrival to the United States, Mr. Li spoke out against the Chinese government and its corruption,” the statement said. “He gave multiple interviews, criticizing both the CCP and the Chinese government’s corruption and its attempts to cover up certain aspects of the COVID-19 outbreak.”
The authorities filed the first charges against Li “a few weeks” after his first media interview, it said.
In 2020, Li gave an interview (in Chinese) to RFA Cantonese, in which he spoke about rampant official corruption during his tenure, with officials snapping up confiscated private-sector assets like coal mines after targeting the owners with allegations of corruption or other wrong-doing.
“The local leaders have the final say in who gets investigated; they are selectively anti-corruption,” he said. “Take a look at some of these departments and check out their families’ assets; take a look at what they’re wearing, what kind of car they drive, where they live and what kind of food they eat.”
Li is now challenging the Chinese authorities to take him to court in the United States, and make all of the evidence against him public.
“I just want everything to be made public, for an open trial, and for the chance to defend myself in public,” he said.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Joshua Lipes.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Chen Zifei and Wang Yun for RFA Mandarin.
China hosted a global media summit in Xinjiang this week, bringing together over 500 participants to discuss artificial intelligence, but also used the event to criticize Western reports about the forced labor of Uyghurs and an ongoing genocide were “fabricated lies.”
Representatives from over 200 media outlets — including executives from Reuters and The Associated Press — government agencies and international organizations attended the 6th World Media Summit, which opened Monday in Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital, to discuss how artificial intelligence, or AI, is transforming the media industry.
The summit was organized by China’s official Xinhua News Agency and the Xinjiang regional government.
In addition to speeches about AI, Chinese officials blasted Western news reports that have shed light on the oppression of the 12 million Uyghurs who live in Xinjiang, or East Turkistan, as Uyghurs prefer to call it.
Journalists work at the opening ceremony of the 6th World Media Summit in Urumqi, capital of northwestern China’s Xinjiang region, Oct. 14, 2024. (Chen Yehua/Xinhua via Getty Images)
The United States and some Western parliaments have said there is credible evidence that China’s treatment of the Uyghurs is a “genocide” and “crimes against humanity.” The U.S. Congress has also passed a law banning the import of goods and materials suspected of being made by Uyghur forced labor.
But Ma Xingrui, Communist Party secretary of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, rejected the accusations, saying all ethnic groups in the region live peacefully.
“At present, Xinjiang has a stable society, a prosperous economy, and people of all ethnic groups live and work in peace and contentment, and the development situation continues to improve,” he continued.
Amplifying a narrative
Ma’s comments are an example of how China is amplifying its own narrative about the Uyghurs living happily and enjoying prosperity despite evidence to the contrary, including many stories by Radio Free Asia.
China does not permit journalists to travel freely in Xinjiang and convincing Uyghurs contacted by phone to talk to reporters outside the country puts them at considerable risk of punishment.
Representatives from Al Jazeera, Russian news agency TASS, the Malaysian National News Agency, the Kyrgyz State News Agency, South Africa’s Independent Media, Hungary’s ATV and media organizations from China-friendly countries also attended the event.
“Their fundamental purpose is to drag the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang into poverty and backwardness, and then realize the plot of ‘using Xinjiang to control China,’” Ma said, according to comments from the speech published in Chinese by the Xinjiang government.
The report went on to make comments that weren’t clearly attributed to any one person, saying, “Everyone appreciates China’s Xinjiang’s remarkable achievements in various fields and fully recognizes Xinjiang’s important contributions to regional social stability, economic development and cultural prosperity.
It said that “China’s Xinjiang has repeatedly been the target of false propaganda and malicious attacks. But it turns out that the narrative about human rights violations in Xinjiang is based on false information and is purely for political purposes.”
Harnessing AI
Also, it comes as no surprise that China is interested in harnessing the power of AI — the theme of the conference — to spread its narratives, said Henryk Szadziewski, research director at the Uyghur Human Rights Project in Washington.
The 6th World Media Summit opens in Urumqi, capital of northwestern China’s Xinjiang region, Oct. 14, 2024. (Li Xiang/Xinhua via Getty Images)
“Urumqi is, of course, a strategic place because the Uyghur region is one of the leading spaces in China where China is spreading disinformation about conditions on the ground,” he told RFA. “It’s a leading part in China’s messaging to the globe.”
China’s efforts to promote its narrative appears to be paying off.
Bassam Zakarneh, a member of Fatah’s Revolutionary Council of Palestine, who led a delegation of Palestinian and other Arab politicians on a visit to Xinjiang in March, told Xinhua in an interview on Monday that the West was “trying to exploit anything to undermine China’s progress and development” through a smear campaign against Beijing’s Xinjiang policy.
“Our visit and observation on the ground were proof that Western propaganda is false,” he said.
Translated by RFA Uyghur. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Shadia Suzuk for RFA Uyghur.
China hosted a global media summit in Xinjiang this week, bringing together over 500 participants to discuss artificial intelligence, but also used the event to criticize Western reports about the forced labor of Uyghurs and an ongoing genocide were “fabricated lies.”
Representatives from over 200 media outlets — including executives from Reuters and The Associated Press — government agencies and international organizations attended the 6th World Media Summit, which opened Monday in Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital, to discuss how artificial intelligence, or AI, is transforming the media industry.
The summit was organized by China’s official Xinhua News Agency and the Xinjiang regional government.
In addition to speeches about AI, Chinese officials blasted Western news reports that have shed light on the oppression of the 12 million Uyghurs who live in Xinjiang, or East Turkistan, as Uyghurs prefer to call it.
Journalists work at the opening ceremony of the 6th World Media Summit in Urumqi, capital of northwestern China’s Xinjiang region, Oct. 14, 2024. (Chen Yehua/Xinhua via Getty Images)
The United States and some Western parliaments have said there is credible evidence that China’s treatment of the Uyghurs is a “genocide” and “crimes against humanity.” The U.S. Congress has also passed a law banning the import of goods and materials suspected of being made by Uyghur forced labor.
But Ma Xingrui, Communist Party secretary of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, rejected the accusations, saying all ethnic groups in the region live peacefully.
“At present, Xinjiang has a stable society, a prosperous economy, and people of all ethnic groups live and work in peace and contentment, and the development situation continues to improve,” he continued.
Amplifying a narrative
Ma’s comments are an example of how China is amplifying its own narrative about the Uyghurs living happily and enjoying prosperity despite evidence to the contrary, including many stories by Radio Free Asia.
China does not permit journalists to travel freely in Xinjiang and convincing Uyghurs contacted by phone to talk to reporters outside the country puts them at considerable risk of punishment.
Representatives from Al Jazeera, Russian news agency TASS, the Malaysian National News Agency, the Kyrgyz State News Agency, South Africa’s Independent Media, Hungary’s ATV and media organizations from China-friendly countries also attended the event.
“Their fundamental purpose is to drag the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang into poverty and backwardness, and then realize the plot of ‘using Xinjiang to control China,’” Ma said, according to comments from the speech published in Chinese by the Xinjiang government.
The report went on to make comments that weren’t clearly attributed to any one person, saying, “Everyone appreciates China’s Xinjiang’s remarkable achievements in various fields and fully recognizes Xinjiang’s important contributions to regional social stability, economic development and cultural prosperity.
It said that “China’s Xinjiang has repeatedly been the target of false propaganda and malicious attacks. But it turns out that the narrative about human rights violations in Xinjiang is based on false information and is purely for political purposes.”
Harnessing AI
Also, it comes as no surprise that China is interested in harnessing the power of AI — the theme of the conference — to spread its narratives, said Henryk Szadziewski, research director at the Uyghur Human Rights Project in Washington.
The 6th World Media Summit opens in Urumqi, capital of northwestern China’s Xinjiang region, Oct. 14, 2024. (Li Xiang/Xinhua via Getty Images)
“Urumqi is, of course, a strategic place because the Uyghur region is one of the leading spaces in China where China is spreading disinformation about conditions on the ground,” he told RFA. “It’s a leading part in China’s messaging to the globe.”
China’s efforts to promote its narrative appears to be paying off.
Bassam Zakarneh, a member of Fatah’s Revolutionary Council of Palestine, who led a delegation of Palestinian and other Arab politicians on a visit to Xinjiang in March, told Xinhua in an interview on Monday that the West was “trying to exploit anything to undermine China’s progress and development” through a smear campaign against Beijing’s Xinjiang policy.
“Our visit and observation on the ground were proof that Western propaganda is false,” he said.
Translated by RFA Uyghur. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Shadia Suzuk for RFA Uyghur.
China has sanctioned a lawmaker and rights activist, a civil defense group and a retired chip magnate from democratic Taiwan, adding their names to a list of ‘pro-independence diehards’ who are banned from traveling to the country.
Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office said it will punish and sanction Legislative Yuan member and rights activist Puma Shen, retired chip billionaire Robert Tsao and their civil defense organization the Kuma Academy for “inciting separatism,” a term used by the Chinese Communist Party to describe views that aren’t in keeping with its territorial claims.
“The punishment of Puma Shen, Robert Tsao and the Kuma Academy in accordance with the law is a just act of punishing those who support independence,” Office spokesperson Chen Binhua told reporters in Beijing on Wednesday, as China wrapped up its latest military exercises around the island.
Trainees simulate giving first aid to ‘injured’ patients as part of Kuma Academy’s 2023 civil defense drill ‘Operation Magpie’ in Taiwan. (Hsiao-wei for RFA Mandarin/The Reporter)
“It is a powerful punishment and resolute blow to Taiwanese pro-independence forces and their provocations,” Chen said. “Our determination to smash all Taiwanese pro-independence secessionist plots is unswerving … those who stubbornly continue such provocations will pay a heavy price.”
The Taiwan government’s Mainland Affairs Council said the island is already governed by the 1911 Republic of China as “a sovereign and independent country.”
“The Beijing authorities have no right to impose any punishment on our people,” the Council said in a statement on Wednesday. “The people of Taiwan enjoy living under a free and democratic political system.”
“This will do nothing to aid healthy communication,” it said.
Chen had earlier accused the Kuma Academy, which was founded by Shen and financially supported by Tsao, of “brazenly cultivating violent pro-independence elements in Taiwan and … openly engaging in separatist activities in the guise of lectures, trainings and outdoor drills,” with the support of the island’s government and “interference from external forces.”
The measures come days after Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te vowed to resist China’s claims on the democratic island, which has never been ruled by Beijing nor formed part of the People’s Republic of China.
Retired microchip magnate Robert Tsao speaks at a protest against Hong Kong’s national security law, in Taipei, Taiwan, March 23, 2024. (Chiang Ying-ying/AP)
In an Oct. 10 National Day speech marking the 113th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of China by the nationalist Kuomintang under Sun Yat-sen, Lai said his government, which fled to the island after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong’s communists on the Chinese mainland in 1949, would continue to defend Taiwan’s diverse and democratic way of life.
Civil defense
The US$33 million Kuma Academy program aims to train up 3 million civilians in civil defense, including 300,000 snipers, to fight alongside regular and reserve forces in the event of a Chinese invasion.
Other civil defense organizations have sprung up in recent years across Taiwan, in preparation for war or other disaster scenarios.
Chen warned Lai on Wednesday that China would continue to step up sanctions targeting the island “until the total unification of China is achieved.”
“This is one of China’s many acts of intimidation against Taiwan, including economic coercion and military threats,” a spokesperson for Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party said in a statement to Reuters. “These irrational acts will only further hurt the feelings of the Taiwanese people and damage cross-strait relations.”
Under the sanctions, Tsao and Shen are now barred from traveling to China, Hong Kong and Macau, while any affiliated enterprises and businesses linked to the pair will be barred from “seeking profit” in China.
Puma Shen, who heads Taiwan’s influence-tracking think tank Doublethink Lab, attends a forum on China’s methods of warfare against Taiwan in an undated photo. (Chen Zifei/RFA)
Shen told reporters in Taiwan that the move was an attempt to “intimidate” the island’s 23 million people.
“China is particularly wary of Taiwan’s civil defense campaigns and the development of civil defense awareness, and is also very concerned about any courses or investments in that area,” he said.
By contrast, Beijing appears to have wiped the slate clean for Taiwanese actor Wu Kang-ren, who recently reposted an Oct. 1 article from the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s official newspaper, the People’s Daily, congratulating the People’s Republic of China on its 75th anniversary.
Asked about Wu’s background as a student leader during the 2014 Sunflower Movement against closer ties with China, Chen said Beijing would welcome anyone who considers themselves Chinese, and agrees with China’s claim on Taiwan, “as long as they can draw a clear line between themselves and pro-independence views.”
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Roseanne Gerin.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Lucie Lo for RFA Mandarin and RFA Cantonese.
Regional domestic small arms manufacturers are competing well against their global rivals. With large armies to equip, the Asia-Pacific region offers a major market for both foreign and domestic manufacturers of small arms. The region represents the whole gamut of domestic development and manufacturing, through licensed production to the full importation of weapons such as […]
is hosting the BRICS+ summit with many world leaders attending, including India’s
Narendra Modi & Xi Jinping of China
, the two largest populations on Earth…
