Category: China


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • My poems were written in anger after Tiananmen Square. But what motivates most prison writing is a fear of forgetting. Today I am free, but the regime has never stopped its war on words

    Most of my manuscripts are locked up in the filing cabinets of the ministry of security, and the agents there study and ponder them repeatedly, more carefully than the creator himself. The guys working this racket have superb memories; a certain chief of the Chengdu public security bureau can still recite the poems I published in an underground magazine in the 1980s. While the literati write nostalgically, hoping to go down in literary history, the real history may be locked in the vaults of the security department.

    The above is excerpted from my book June 4: My Testimony, published in Taiwan in 2011. I wrote that book three times, the later drafts on paper much better than the paper I used for writing in prison, which was so soft and brittle I had to write very lightly. Paper outside prison is solid and flexible enough that you don’t have to worry about puncturing it with the tip of a pen. Thus, I restrained myself and filled in a page of paper, and then how many thousand – ten thousand? More? How many ant-sized words can be packed on to a page? Who knows.

    On 10 October 1995, at two in the afternoon, three police cars carrying about a dozen special agents burst in on me. Everything was carried out in accordance with “legal procedures”, the officers’ IDs and search warrant were presented, the entire search process was meticulously videotaped, and all written matter in the house (including manuscripts, letters, and notes) was confiscated. And this included the very nearly completed draft of this testimony – more than 300,000 characters representing my painstaking efforts of the past year and a half.

    I was breathing normally, signed with a smile, and asked: “Should I bring clothes?” The answer: “No.” I was uneasy leaving my money and valuables at home as I prepared to be the guest of the state for a long time. The agents laughed.

    At 10 o’clock in the evening, I exited the Baiguolin police station in the Xicheng district of Chengdu and was politely told: “Don’t leave the city for the next month.” Thank God, my head was still on my shoulders and I could still write.

    I cursed my carelessness with the foulest language imaginable and set about rewriting with all my might. Without inspiration or passion, the pen slashed the paper to ribbons, and often I could only produce a few hundred words a day. Staring at the paper was useless, and cold sweat couldn’t solve my writer’s block. But I’d made a bet; I couldn’t admit defeat. I wanted to use this to validate my own stupid way of living as an insignificant individual – a bet with the world’s largest dictatorship – with writing materials, so that in future my kids won’t think their dad was just talking big.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.


  • This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Following U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to China in April, where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, various rumors around his visit surfaced in social media posts in both Chinese and English.

    Below is what AFCL found. 

    Did Chinese officials not accompany Blinken to the airport?

    A X user “Indo-Pacific News – Geo-Politics & Defense” claimed that Blinken was “humiliated” by Chinese officials who decided not to greet his arrival and departure.

    “Blinken departed #China and only the US ambassador said farewell at the airport … Even when he arrived to Beijing, he was only greeted by a low-level official and US embassy staff,” reads the claim shared in X post on April 27.

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    Claims that Chinese officials and Xi himself deliberately snubbed Blinken were false. (Screenshot/X)

    This is false. Images taken by Reuters and Associated Press show that several Chinese officials saw Blinken off, taking a group photo with the secretary of state before he boarded the plane. 

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    Blinken  poses for a photo with Chinese officials that accompanied him to the airport before boarding the plane. (Screenshot/Associated Press)

    Former Washington correspondent at China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency Yang Liu and current CCTV reporter Shen Shiwei also noted that the claim was false, posting a photo of the Director General of the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Department of North American and Oceanian Affairs Yang Tao shaking hands with Blinken at the airport as he saw him off. 

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    Chinese news reporters Yang Liu and Shen Shiwei posted a photo of Chinese officials seeing off Blinken at the airport (Screenshot / X)

    Did Xi express impatience with Blinken?

    The X user “Indo-Pacific News – Geo-Politics & Defense” also claimed that Xi expressed impatience with Blinken through his body language before the meeting began, as well as responding “good” when told that Blinken would be leaving on the night of the meeting. 

    The claim was shared alongside a 40-second clip that shows Xi greeting Blinken and posing for the press. 

    But the claim is false. The clip is taken from footage of Blinken and Xi’s prior meeting in June 2023, not in April 2024.

    A review of the 2024 meeting’s clip shows several key differences; including the lighting of the room, the color of Xi’s tie, and a change in the mask and tie of Hong Lei — the Director-General of the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Protocol Department who is shown in both videos. 

    Furthermore, Xi did not respond “good” after being told that Blinken would leave that night, but rather only repeated the phrase “leaving tonight.”

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    Several differences exist in the footage of last year and this year’s meetings. (Screenshot/C-SPAN)

    Was Blinken’s reception a slight in comparison to German Chancellor Scholz?

    Another X user “ShanghaiPanda” claimed in a post on April 25 that China gave Blinken a downgraded diplomatic reception compared to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who visited China in mid-April. 

    “No red carpet, and met by Kong Fu-An, Director General of the Shanghai Foreign Affairs Office. A province-level Foreign Affairs Office counts as a Bureau Chief, or a Level 5, Rank 11–12 Civil Servant. This is one step below the welcome Olaf received when he landed in Chongqing,” reads the claim. 

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    Shanghai Panda claims China offered a downgraded reception for Blinken compared  to Scholz. (Screenshot/X)

    But the claim is misleading. Both the political status and nature of the two politicians’ visits differed significantly, which makes a direct comparison between their respective receptions inaccurate. 

    The choices of reception arrangement for the two men are in line with official protocol guidelines outlined by the Chinese Foreign Ministry and adhere to the spirit of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations

    The German chancellor is the head of the country’s federal government, while the U.S. secretary of state is a cabinet official. Blinken’s two diplomatic trips to China were both labeled as “visits,” while Scholz’s trip was more formally designated an “official visit.”

    China’s guidelines dictate that national leaders be received by a red carpet and the corresponding level of local officials at whatever airport they are landing in. 

    This customary practice was followed when Scholz landed at his first stop at Chongqing airport, where he was greeted by the city’s Vice Mayor Zhang Guozhi and Chinese Ambassador to Germany Wu Ken, as reported by Reuters. 

    The guidelines do not stipulate that cabinet officials be similarly received. 

    AFCL debunked similar rumors about China extending humiliating receptions of Blinken when the secretary first visited China in 2023. 

    Did China deliberately not arrange a “red line” at the airport in order to show displeasure?

    The Somali Institute of Chinese Studies claimed on X on April 26 that China had deliberately omitted a “guiding red line” when the secretary disembarked off his plane at Shanghai in order to signal displeasure. 

    “Blinken was given a directional red line for guidance during his last visit to Beijing last year, in it was a message which he failed to understand. Again, as seen yesterday, he didn’t even receive a directional red line,” reads the claim in part. 

    The message referenced a red line visible in front of the secretary when he disembarked at the Beijing airport during his 2023 trip.

    But the claims are false. 

    The line was merely an equipment restriction area marking at the airport that did not hold any figurative significance, as reported by AFCL.

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    The Somali Institute of Chinese Studies said that China’s deliberate omission of a red line at the airport was meant to signal displeasure to Blinken. (Screenshot/X)

    A video on X posted by Jennifer Hansler — a CNN reporter who accompanied the U.S. officials during Blinken’s recent trip – clearly shows a similar line painted in an unclear color behind Chinese officials standing to receive Biden as he walks down a gangway while disembarking at the Beijing airport. 

    Was Blinken’s trip a US plea to China ?

    Hu Xijin, former editor-in-chief of the Chinese state-run tabloid Global Times, commented in a Weibo post before Blinken’s arrival that the trip was a “pleading tour.”

    “To be precise, his trip to China should be considered a ‘pleading tour,’ despite the fact that the U.S. side made some ‘tough’ publicity before his visit.” 

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    Hu Xijin, former editor-in-chief of the Global Times, deleted a Weibo post in which he mockingly referred to Blinken’s visit to China as a “pleading tour” (left). (Screenshot /Weibo & X)

    This is false. China’s Foreign Ministry announced before Blinken’s arrival that the visit was “at the invitation of Wang Yi.” The ministry also announced before the secretary’s previous visit in June 2023 that all arrangements were agreed upon beforehand by China and the U.S. 

    Translated by Shen Ke. Edited by Shen Ke, Taejun Kang and Malcolm Foster.

    Asia Fact Check Lab (AFCL) was established to counter disinformation in today’s complex media environment. We publish fact-checks, media-watches and in-depth reports that aim to sharpen and deepen our readers’ understanding of current affairs and public issues. If you like our content, you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and X.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Rita Cheng for Asia Fact Check Lab.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Two Malaysian SMEs are presenting their plans for local production of UAVs at DSA 2024. Pen Aviation is launching the PEN35V, a 35kg quadrotor designed primarily for. Celestial Dynamics is preparing to produce under licence, a range of Chinese drones designed by Jin Hong, a subsidiary of AVIC. The PEN35V is on display here at […]

    The post Malaysian Companies Start Local Drone Production appeared first on Asian Military Review.

    This post was originally published on Asian Military Review.

  • China has defended its recent maneuver against an Australian naval helicopter in the Yellow Sea, deemed by Canberra to be “unsafe and unprofessional,” saying it was “legitimate and reasonable.”

    Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday said his government had communicated to China “through all of our channels, at all measures at our disposal” that it was “unacceptable” when a Chinese fighter jet dropped flares close to an Australian helicopter in international waters, endangering the crew.

    Separately, Australia’s defense ministry said in a statement the incident took place on Saturday when the Royal Australian Navy’s Hobart was undertaking “routine activities” during a U.N. mission to monitor sanctions against North Korea in international waters in the Yellow Sea.

    The Yellow Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula.

    A MH-60R Seahawk helicopter launched from the Hobart was intercepted by a Chinese fighter aircraft which released flares across the flight path of the Australian aircraft, the Australian ministry said, adding that the unsafe maneuver “posed a risk to the aircraft and personnel.” 

    While there were no injuries, the Australian government “expressed concern” and said it expected all countries, including China, “to operate their militaries in a professional and safe manner.”

    China’s response

    The Chinese defense ministry responded late on Tuesday that Australia “was confused between right and wrong.”

    Ministry spokesman Zhang Xiaogang said between May 3-4, when the Chinese military was holding training exercises in the Yellow Sea, an Australian military helicopter was sent from the Hobart three times “to conduct close reconnaissance and disrupt China’s normal training activities.”

    Zhang said that China’s warnings and forcing the helicopter to leave were “legitimate, reasonable, professional and safe, and fully complied with international law and international practice.” 

    The Chinese spokesman called on Australia to “respect China’s sovereignty and security concerns, stop spreading false narratives … and stop all dangerous and provocative actions.”

    HMAS Hobart.jpg
    The missile guided destroyer HMAS Hobart. (Royal Australian Navy)

    Australia has been sending vessels and aircraft to the area to enforce U.N. Security Council sanctions against North Korea since 2018. A military analyst said the missions were being carried out “in international airspace over international waters in the Yellow Sea.”

    “The Chinese claim lacks any basis in evidence, and deliberately mischaracterizes the actions of the Australians,” Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, told Radio Free Asia.

    “There was no justification whatsoever for the Chinese to release flares in the manner they did, which was in an aggressive, unsafe and unprofessional manner,” Davis added. 

    Daniel Kritenbrink, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said that Washington was “deeply concerned” to see reports of the incident.

    Similar encounters

    Flares when fired at an aircraft at close proximity could get into the engine and cause the plane to crash.

    In late October 2023, a Chinese warplane also used flares against a Canadian shipborne maritime helicopter over the South China Sea. The Sikorsky Cyclone helicopter was launched from the Royal Canadian Navy frigate Ottawa to search for a previously detected submarine in international waters.

    China accused Canada of conducting a “malicious and provocative act with ulterior motives.”

    In another incident last November, Australia said that a Chinese destroyer operated its sonar device near divers from the Royal Australian Navy’s Toowoomba, causing them minor injuries.

    The divers were working to clear a fishing net tangled in the ship’s propellers in international waters near Japan when a Chinese warship approached them and released sonar pulses, forcing them to surface.

    The Toowoomba was also conducting operations in support of U.N. sanctions enforcement against North Korea at the time.

    Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Pro-Palestinian protests on U.S. college campuses have gotten attention on Chinese social media, but some of these posts show unrelated demonstrations that happened months or even years earlier.

    One aerial video showing a massive gathering of thousands of people packed together – purported to be at Columbia University in New York – is actually a demonstration in January in Hamburg, Germany, against a far-right political group.

    Another photo claimed to show a protester holding up a famous Mao Zedong quote in Chinese, “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” But Asia Fact Check Lab found this to be from a pro-gun rally held in Virginia in 2020. 

    As the Israeli-Hamas conflict drags into its seventh month, student demonstrations supporting the Palestininans and calling for a cease-fire have spread across dozens of U.S. university campuses.

    The aerial video of thousands gathered in public was shared on the popular Chinese social media platform Weibo on April 28, with the breathless caption: “U.S. university demonstration: Pro-Palestinian protest at Columbia University is majestic!” 



    1.png
    Chinese netizens claimed that a video posted on Weibo shows a pro-Palestinian demonstration in April, but in reality it wasn’t. (Screenshot/Weibo and TikTok)

    But a reverse image search found the video, shared on TikTok  Jan. 21, 2024, actually depicted 80,000 people in Hamburg, Germany, protesting against the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, party “since their ‘secret meeting’ with the fascist Identitarian Movement was revealed.

    Keyword searches including “AfD” found the Hamburg demonstrations were one amongst a series of protests to break out against the party after a news report surfaced that the group had considered a plan to expel all people of “non-German backgrounds” from the country, including immigrants who have already obtained residency at a meeting with influential leaders.

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    Video of demonstrations against the AfD released by German media and government agencies match the purported footage of pro-Palestianian demonstrations at Columbia University spread on Weibo. (Screenshots/YouTube)

    In another case, a number of Weibo influencers and X accounts also recently claimed that one protester at an unspecified college campus held up a poster with the Mao quote, “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” 

    But this is false. The photo is from a pro-gun rally held in Virginia in 2020, and has nothing to do with any pro-Palestine demonstration. 

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    The photo of a purported April protest recently spread on Weibo has actually been circulated online since 2020. (Screenshot/Sina Military and Weibo)

    A reserve image search reveals that a version of the same image shown in a larger frame was published in an article published on the Chinese military news blog Sina Military in 2020

    Keyword searches using visual clues from the photo, including a banner that reads Constitutional Conservatives, found that it shows a rally held by pro-gun advocates from all across the U.S. in Richmond in 2020. 

    A closer look at the image also shows a street sign reading “N. 9th St.” at the top of the frame. A search in Google Maps found that this was a street in Richmond and not part of the university campus. 

    5.png
    A person uploaded a photo of the pro-gun rally to Google Maps in January 2020 in real time as it was happening. (Screenshot/Google Maps)

    Translated by Shen Ke. Edited by Shen Ke, Taejun Kang and Malcolm Foster.

    Asia Fact Check Lab (AFCL) was established to counter disinformation in today’s complex media environment. We publish fact-checks, media-watches and in-depth reports that aim to sharpen and deepen our readers’ understanding of current affairs and public issues. If you like our content, you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and X.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Dong Zhe for Asia Fact Check Lab.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • China has sent more than 300 technicians and workers to a deep sea port project in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state amid intense fighting between the military and ethnic rebels, according to residents.

    A ship carrying the crews, along with heavy machinery and food, docked at Maday Island in Rakhine’s Kyaukphyu township on the evening of April 28, the residents told RFA Burmese, after receiving permission from the junta to work on the project in the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone, or SEZ.

    The deployment comes after six months of clashes in Rakhine between junta troops and the Arakan Army, or AA – part of an alliance of three ethnic armies that have pushed the junta back in the western and northern parts of the country. 

    Experts say the ethnic army victories mark a turning point in the war that began soon after the junta took control of the government in a February 2021 coup d’etat.

    The Kyaukphyu SEZ’s deep sea port complex is a key Chinese-led venture for which Beijing had requested heightened security. The project was approved in 2023 by the junta and attempts to recruit locals for work have been met with controversy and distrust.

    A resident of Kyaukphyu who, like others interviewed in this report, spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns, told RFA that some of the Chinese nationals who arrived on the ship are now residing in hotels in the township.

    “Both the workers who were already there and those who recently arrived travel to Maday Island in the morning and return to the city in the evening using hovercrafts,” he said. “The ship that arrived carried Chinese experts, including engineers responsible for the power lines and water systems.”

    ENG_BUR_ChinaDeepSeaport_05012024.2.jpg
    The Myanmar military’s Danyawaddy Naval Base near Thit Poke Taung village in Kyaukphyu township, Rakhine state, seen here in Jan. 26, 2023. (Airbus)

    Residents said the ship departed from Maday Island on the morning of April 30.

    Attempts by RFA to reach Hla Thein, the junta’s attorney general and spokesperson for Rakhine state, for additional information about the deployment and the status of the project went unanswered.

    China and Myanmar signed an agreement to implement the Kyaukphyu Deep Sea Port Project and SEZ in November 2020, under the National League for Democracy government, which was deposed months later in the military coup.

    On Dec. 26, 2023, the two nations signed another agreement specifically for the deep sea port project during a meeting in Naypyidaw. Despite the agreements, residents say the project has yet to be fully implemented.

    The deep sea port project is a joint venture between the neighboring countries, with Myanmar contributing 30% of the investment and China providing the remaining 70%. The port is expected to include 10 wharfs capable of docking container ships.

    Developing a war zone

    Kyaukphyu township has been at the forefront of fighting in recent months between the military and the AA, which in November ended a ceasefire that had been in place since the coup. Since then, the ethnic army has taken control of eight of Rakhine state’s 17 townships, as well as one township in neighboring Chin state.

    Clashes and exchanges of territory occur on a near daily basis in the state.

    On Thursday evening, the AA captured the pro-junta Border Guard Police Command, at which some 600 junta troops were stationed, and two pro-junta Border Guard Force camps in Maungdaw township, residents told RFA.

    The AA first attacked the police command on April 25, and the capture ended a week of fighting, residents said. “Hundreds of border guard troops” retreated from the police command to Shwe Zar ward in the town of Maungdaw following the seizure, they added.

    A day earlier, the AA captured two military outposts in the Mayu mountain range near the Myanmar-Bangladesh border where around 100 junta troops were stationed, according to sources close to the Rakhine rebel group. The seizure ended a nearly three-week bid by the AA for control of the camps, they said.

    Residents said Friday that the Rakhine state capital Sittwe – a city of 100,000 people with typically crowded beaches and markets – has become “a ghost town,” as the AA captured nearby towns in recent months.

    Those who lack the funds to relocate face a shortage of commodities and skyrocketing prices, while some are starving, they said. Junta troops have tightened security in the city since April 10, when AA chief Major Gen. Twan Mrat Naing urged residents of Sittwe and Kyaukphyu to flee to his army’s controlled territories.

    ENG_BUR_ChinaDeepSeaport_05012024.3.jpg
    A jetty for oil tankers is seen on Maday island, Kyaukphyu township, Rakhine state, Myanmar in this October 7, 2015 file photo. (Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)

    Meanwhile, the AA and junta forces are in a fierce fight for control of Rakhine’s Ann township, which is the base of military’s Western Command, as well the townships of Buthidaung and Thandwe townships.

    The latest developments follow the AA’s March capture of Ramree township, which shares Maday Island with Kyaukphyu township. 

    A resident who has closely watched the progress of Chinese projects in the region told RFA at the time that the AA had assumed control of most of the areas within the Kyaukphyu SEZ and said the ethnic army would likely have a say on how Chinese development proceeds.

    Protecting Chinese interests

    Zachary Abuza, a Southeast Asia analyst at the National War College in Washington – who writes commentaries regularly for RFA – said that despite assurances to Beijing by both the military and the AA that they would protect its interests in Myanmar, China’s decision to deploy workers and technicians to the Kyaukphyu SEZ is “putting [them] in harm’s way.”

    “They’re both giving assurances for the protection of Chinese interests, but they’re still very much in competition over the control of Kyaukphyu,” he said, noting that “fighting has increased” around the township seat in recent weeks.

    “Right now, the Arakan Army is in fairly solid control of most of northern Rakhine … [and] is going to have to move on Kyaukphyu at some point,” he added.

    ENG_BUR_ChinaDeepSeaport_05012024.4.jpg
    A boy runs barefoot as he plays in front of a clinic which was donated by China’s oil pipeline project on Maday island, Kyaukphyu township, Rakhine state, Myanmar October 7, 2015. (Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)

    China has said it wants to play a “constructive role” in stabilizing the situation in Rakhine as soon as possible, but observers say Beijing is likely motivated by concerns for Chinese development projects in the state, which also include gas and oil pipelines that cross from Rakhine to China’s Yunnan province.

    While the junta is believed to have asked Beijing to mediate as it continues to lose ground in the state, it’s unclear whether China has enough influence over the AA to end the conflict.

    Translated by Kalyar Lwin. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • This week we would like to recommend to you a Chinese song from 1967 called Bravely March On, Arab People! (奋勇前进,阿拉伯人民) in support of the pan-Arab movement.

    If you don’t have a lot of time, this is what you should know:

    • For China, Iran’s attack on Israel was “an act of self-defense”
    • The West’s new narrative against China: overcapacity
    • China exceeds its 5% GDP growth target in first quarter
    • Historic “peace trip” by former Taiwanese leader Ma Ying-jeou

    For China, Iran’s attack was “an act of self-defense”

    In the context of the genocide that Israel is perpetrating on the Palestinian population, and in retaliation of Israel’s attack on its embassy compound in Damascus (Syria), Iran carried out a missile and drone attack on Israeli territory for the first time in history, repeatedly puncturing the famous “iron dome”.

    After the military response, Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, called his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian. During their discussion, Wang Yi again condemned Israel’s “unacceptable” attack on the Iranian embassy in Syria, saying it was a serious violation of international law. He also stated that “Iran can handle the situation well and prevent the region from further turmoil while safeguarding its sovereignty and dignity.” The Iranian foreign minister assured Foreign Minister Wang that his country was willing to be moderate and had no intention of escalating the situation further. He further stressed that “the Islamic Republic of Iran advocates an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and supports China’s positive efforts to promote a ceasefire.”

    In contrast, Yuval Waks, deputy head of the Israeli mission to China, said Israel was not satisfied with China’s current response to Iran’s attack as, in his words, they had expected “a stronger condemnation and a clear recognition of Israel’s right to defend itself.”

    A few days later, the US House Speaker labeled Iran, China, and Russia the new “axis of evil” while supporting the latest bill to send $60 billion to Ukraine.

    For years, China has advocated a two-state solution, the creation of an independent Palestinian state, and full Palestinian membership in the UN. In fact, last week, it again supported a UN Security Council motion to that effect, but it was vetoed, once again, by the United States.While everyone is talking about Iran’s actions in recent weeks, a major shift in Iran’s energy trade has been taking place in recent years. Despite Western sanctions, Iran’s oil exports reached a 6-year high, boosting its economy by $35 billion per year.

    Iran sold an average of 1.56 million barrels per day, of which the vast majority were sold to China. Approximately one-tenth of China’s oil imports come from Iran.

    This makes it more difficult for the new sanctions that the United States and Europe may impose because of the conflict with Israel to really affect the Iranian economy. We could be witnessing a phenomenon similar to that of the Western sanctions against Russia since February 2022: by increasing trade with the economies of the Global South, driven by China, which does not engage with Western sanctions, the economy, which in theory should suffer, ends up strengthening and reducing its dependence on the West. It is too early to say but the indications provided by Iranian oil exports seem to point to this.

    The West’s new narrative against China: overcapacity

    During her visit to China at the beginning of April, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen expressed her concern about an alleged overcapacity in the Asian giant’s new energy sector. In the last few weeks, this idea has been circulating in the Western media, accusing the Chinese government’s subsidies to energy sector companies as “unfair”. However, the decision to subsidize or not an industrial sector is a national sovereignty decision of the country and a common practice in international trade. The fact is that Europe heavily subsidizes its agricultural sector (and has even been accused of dumping practices) and, historically, the United States has had a protectionist policy to boost its domestic industry. The bottom line is that both the US and Europe are concerned about China’s sweeping advance in the production of electric cars, solar panels, technology, and robotics, products at the core of China’s current industrial development.

    A good example is China’s largest automation company Innovance, which has a market capitalization of US$ 25 billion. Known as “little Huawei”, it was founded by former Huawei engineers and today is the main supplier of AC servo systems parts (those that produce motion in industrial machines) and the second largest national producer of industrial robots. Its 2023, revenues increased by 30% to US$ 4 billion; its R&D investment is significant, and it has two factories in Hungary and one in India.

    According to figures from the International Federation of Robotics, in 2022 more than half of all industrial robot installations in the world were in China.

    This boost in China’s new energy industries is an opportunity for countries in the Global South, Dongsheng member Marco Fernandes told CGTN in an interview. He emphasized that “…it is the first time that we have a major economy, such a strong economy in the Global South, so it is absolutely strategic” and that for developing countries it is “…a matter of trying to have balanced partnerships”.

    In this way, China’s alleged overcapacity seems more of a threat to the traditional powers than to the world’s developing countries. Both Europe and the United States insist on decoupling or “de-risking” from China, but the data show that such a thing is far from being achieved. According to a Brookings paper last year, US manufacturers are far more dependent on China than standard calculations that examine the origin of intermediate goods, i.e., imports used to make US products, suggest.

    The paper reveals that, in 2018, China was the supplier for more than 90% of US manufacturing sectors, particularly apparel, motor vehicles, and electrical equipment. In 1995, Japan was the main foreign source for about 40% of US manufacturing sectors, followed by Canada with about 30%. This high dependence on Chinese intermediate goods implies, for the authors, that “decoupling from China will be much, much more difficult and much slower than many people think, and may be impossible.”

    In the same vein, it was Siemens CFO Ralf Thomas who said a few days ago that it will take “decades” for German manufacturers to reduce their dependence on China. “Global value chains have been built up over the last 50 years – how naive do you have to be to believe that this can change in six or 12 months?” he remarked. This is a small sample of the dependence that European countries also have in their trade with China. Following Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s visit, China announced that it will reduce controls on German agricultural products, including pork, apples, and some beef products. Similar measures were taken earlier this year on products from Spain, Belgium, and Austria, in a clear sign of Beijing’s intentions to improve its ties with Europe.

    First quarter economy: China exceeds its 5% GDP growth target

    China’s economy exceeded expectations and grew by 5.3% year-on-year in the first quarter, consistent with the annual growth target of “around 5%” set at the Two Sessions earlier this year.

    Amid China’s productive reorganization, based on manufacturing, not real estate, as the cornerstone of growth, the investment in fixed assets reached 10 trillion yuan (1.4 trillion USD), up by 4.5%. Amid the restructuring of industry, investment in real estate continues to fall (-9.5%), while manufacturing and infrastructure made up the overall growth in investment, increasing by 9.9 and 6.5%, respectively.

    China’s industrial value-added grew 6% in the first quarter, especially in the  high-tech sector whose manufacturing growth accelerated. China’s central bank will set up a 500 billion yuan ($70 billion) re-lending program to support the country’s science and technology sectors for small and midsize companies.

    On the international front, the use of the RMB in international transactions continued to grow. According to SWIFT, the share of the yuan in global payments rose to a record high in March (4.69%), remaining the world’s fourth most active currency. The US dollar continued to have the largest share in global payments, at around 47% and the euro fell below 22%.

    When SWIFT began tracking the use of the yuan in 2010, the currency accounted for less than 0.1 percent of global settlements.

    Moreover, the use of the yuan in China’s cross-border transactions for trade in goods was nearly 30% in the first quarter, up from 25% in 2023 and 18% in 2022.

    Historic “peace trip” by former Taiwanese leader Ma Ying-jeou

    Ma Ying-jeou, the former leader of the island of Taiwan from 2008 to 2016, made a peace trip to mainland China where he met with Xi Jinping. At the meeting, Xi affirmed that “there are no problems that cannot be discussed and no forces that can separate us” and that “external interference cannot contain the historical trend of national reunification”.  For his part, Ma said that upholding the 1992 Consensus and opposing “Taiwan independence” are the common political basis for the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations.

    Ma belongs to Taiwan’s main opposition Kuomintang party, which is more inclined to maintain a friendly relationship with the mainland. The Democratic Progressive Party, which has ruled since 2016, won the last regional elections. In a few days, the new leader William Lai Ching-te, who will succeed Tsai Ing-wen, will take office. Since Tsai came to power in 2016, talks with the central government have been frozen since the Taiwanese government stopped recognizing the 1992 Consensus that respects the One China principle.

    It remains to be seen how these relations will develop with the new government. Ma, after his visit to the mainland, urged the elected leader to respond “pragmatically” to Xi Jinping’s call for peace, and to respect the One China principle.

    China launches third round of anti-corruption inspections of the financial sector

    China launched another series of disciplinary inspections of key government departments and state-owned financial institutions.

    The third round of routine inspections, following the last one in 2021, will target 34 agencies, including central government ministries, the central bank, the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges, the largest state-owned banks and insurers, as well as policy lenders.

    The anti-corruption campaign launched by Xi Jinping in 2013 has covered all sectors of governance. From ministries, finance, and state-owned enterprises, to health and sports. More than four million CPC regional cadres and 533 at the vice-ministerial level and above have been investigated since the start of the anti-corruption campaign.

    Pork prices plummet in China

    Chinese pork prices are in a prolonged slump due to oversupply. After peaking at 26 yuan (US$ 3.6) in October 2022, they have now hit a low of 14 yuan (US$ 1.93). This product accounts for 60% of the country’s meat consumption, so fluctuations in its prices have multiple implications.

    • For a start, it puts deflationary pressure on the Consumer Price Index, which in March rose by 0.1% year-on-year, below the government’s 3% target.
    • If China decides to reduce the number of pigs raised, it will most likely have an impact on the global grain market, as a decrease in feed demand will put downward pressure on international prices.
    • In addition, the downward price trend puts producers at risk of bankruptcy and may put many small producers out of production, as has happened on other similar occasions.

    That is why the Chinese government started to take action, announcing plans to reduce its target number of breeding sows by about 5% starting in March, from 41 million to 39 million. In addition, it will consider 92% of that target (about 35.9 million sows) as an acceptable level.

    China’s coastal cities will be below sea level within a century

    A quarter of China’s coastal land will sink below sea level within a century, according to a new study by Chinese and US researchers published in the journal Science. They found that about one-third of the population of the 82 cities analyzed live in regions that drop more than 3 mm per year, while 7% live in areas that drop more than 10 mm per year. The paper also found that 270 million Chinese currently live on subsiding land.

    Changes in groundwater and the weight of construction would be among the reasons, and a possible solution could lie in long-term control of groundwater extraction.

    Subsidence causes cracks in the ground, damages buildings, and increases the risk of flooding. In addition, land subsidence-related disasters in China have injured or killed hundreds of people and cost an annual direct economic loss of more than 7.5 billion yuan (US$1 billion) in recent decades.

    The team mapped the subsidence of cities between 2015 and 2022 using a technique powered by the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1 satellites to measure vertical land movement.

    New university graduates choose smaller cities for work

    Chinese university graduates are increasingly opting to leave the country’s major cities and seek employment in smaller cities and counties. According to a Mycos survey, in 2018, only 20% of respondents were working in counties and cities six months after graduation, but this figure increased to 25% by 2022.

    It’s because graduates want to move closer to family and avoid the pressure that comes with working in big cities. Counties and cities also offer more opportunities to get public sector jobs.

    Nearly 60% of respondents working in counties and cities had been in the same place for at least five years and their average monthly income had increased from 4,640 yuan ($641) in 2018 to 5,377 yuan in 2022. Their average job satisfaction rate increased from 67% to 76% during the same period.

    Some regions push policies aimed at promoting the return of graduates to their hometowns. For example, Suichang County in Zhejiang Province offers those with master’s degrees a housing allowance of 300,000 yuan and an annual living allowance of 30,000 yuan for five years.

    The post Overcapacity: The West’s New Narrative against China first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Pacific Media Watch

    New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day — May 3.

    This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its usual place in the top 10.

    However, New Zealand is still the Asia-Pacific region’s leader in a part of the world that is ranked as the second “most difficult” with half of the world’s 10 “most dangerous” countries included — Myanmar (171st), North Korea (172nd), China (173rd), Vietnam (175th) and Afghanistan (178th).

    New Zealand is 20 places above Australia, which is ranked 39th.

    However, NZ is closely followed in the Index by one of the world’s newer nations, Timor-Leste (20th) — among the top 10 last year — and Samoa (22nd).

    Fiji was 44th, one place above Tonga, and Papua New Guinea had dropped to 91st. Other Pacific countries were not listed in the survey which is based on performance through 2023.

    Scandinavian countries again fill four of the world’s top countries for press freedom.

    No Asia-Pacific nation in top 15
    No country in the Asia-Pacific region is among the Index’s top 15 this year. In 2023, two journalists were murdered in the Philippines (134th), which continues to be one of the region’s most dangerous countries for media professionals.

    In the survey’s overview, the RSF researchers said press freedom around the world was being “threatened by the very people who should be its guarantors — political authorities”.

    This finding was based on the fact that, of the five indicators used to compile the ranking, it is the ‘political indicator’ that has fallen the most , registering a global average fall of 7.6 points.


    Covering the war from Gaza.    Video: RSF

    “As more than half the world’s population goes to the polls in 2024, RSF is warning of a
    worrying trend revealed by the Index — a decline in the political indicator, one of five indicators detailed,” said editorial director Anne Bocandé.

    “States and other political forces are playing a decreasing role in protecting press freedom. This disempowerment sometimes goes hand in hand with more hostile actions that undermine the role of journalists, or even instrumentalise the media through campaigns of harassment or disinformation.

    “Journalism worthy of that name is, on the contrary, a necessary condition for any democratic system and the exercise of political freedoms.”

    Record violations in Gaza
    At the international level, says the Index report, this year is notable for a “clear lack of political will on the part of the international community” to enforce the principles of protection of journalists, especially UN Security Council Resolution 2222 in 2015.

    “The war in Gaza has been marked by a record number of violations against journalists and media since October 2023. More than 100 Palestinian reporters have been killed by the Israeli Defence Forces, including at least 22 in the course of their work.”

    UNESCO yesterday awarded its Guillermo Cano world press freedom prize to all Palestinian journalists covering the war in Gaza.

    “In these times of darkness and hopelessness, we wish to share a strong message of solidarity and recognition to those Palestinian journalists who are covering this crisis in such dramatic circumstances,” said Mauricio Weibel, chair of the international jury of media professionals.

    “As humanity, we have a huge debt to their courage and commitment to freedom of expression.”

    Occupied and under constant Israeli bombardment, Palestine is ranked 157th out of 180
    countries and territories surveyed in the overall Index, but it is ranked among the last 10 with regard to security for journalists.

    Israel is also ranked low at 101st.

    Criticism of NZ
    Although the Index overview gives no detailed explanation on the decline in New Zealand’s Index ranking, it nevertheless says that the country had “retained its role as a press freedom model”.

    However, last December RSF condemned Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters in the rightwing coalition government for his “repeated verbal attacks on the media” and called on Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to reaffirm his government’s support for press freedom.

    “Just after taking office . . . Peters declared in an interview that he was ‘at war’ with the media. A statement that he accompanied on several occasions with accusations of corruption among media professional,” said RSF in its public statement.

    “He also portrayed a journalism support fund set up by the previous [Labour] administration as a ’55 million dollar bribe’. The politician also questioned the independence of the public broadcasters Television New Zealand (TVNZ) and Radio New Zealand (RNZ).

    “These verbal attacks would be a cause of concern for the sector if used to support a policy of restricting the right to information.”

    Cédric Alviani, RSF’s Asia-Pacific bureau director, also noted at the time: “By making irresponsible comments about journalists in a context of growing mistrust of the New Zealand public towards the media, Deputy Prime Minister Peters is sending out a worrying signal about the newly-appointed government’s attitude towards the press.

    “We call on Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to reaffirm his government’s support for press freedom and to ensure that all members of his cabinet follow the same line.”

    Pacific Media Watch compiled this summary from the RSF World Press Freedom Index.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • The ruling Chinese Communist Party has announced it will hold a top-level plenary session on the economy several months later than usual, suggesting it is struggling to come up with a workable plan to stimulate growth and boost investor confidence in its handling of the economy, analysts said in recent interviews with Radio Free Asia.

    The ruling party’s Central Committee announced this week it will hold its delayed third plenary session of the 20th party congress in July, an unusual time of year for such a meeting. Third plenums — full sessions of the 205-member, 171-alternate member committee — have traditionally focused on economic matters.

    But while state media have reported that the plenum will decide on reforms amid “challenges at home and complexities abroad,” analysts said the long delay suggests that the party leadership has struggled to reach consensus on what that might mean on the ground.

    “If they had held it last year, or at the start of this year, they wouldn’t have known what economic direction to take,” U.S.-based commentator Cai Shenkun told RFA Mandarin, adding that nobody really understood the latest economic slogan to come down from the top, “new productive forces.”

    “They started pushing the idea of new productive forces, but everyone thought it was a joke,” Cai said. “Now they may have found some practical ways to boost the economy.”

    The new focus will be breathing new life into the Yangtze River Delta region, using another buzzword — “new development philosophy” — state news agency Xinhua reported on May 2.

    “Economic recovery is beset by multiple challenges, including insufficient demand, high operation pressures in enterprises, various hidden risks in key sectors, unsmooth domestic economic flow, as well as an external environment that is grimmer, more complicated and less certain,” Xinhua quoted an April 30 Politburo meeting as saying.

    One practical measure under the “new development philosophy” appears to be a recent attempt to boost flagging domestic demand through grassroots political campaigns to get people to buy more consumer goods, and to trade in their old domestic appliances for newer models, according to the article.

    Another will be “new mechanisms for cooperation between the government and private capital,” according to Xinhua.

    ENG_CHN_ANALYSISThirdPlenum_05022024.2.jpg
    Residential buildings under construction by Chinese real estate developer Vanke in Hangzhou, in eastern China’s Zhejiang province, March 31, 2024. (AFP)

    That could be where another new economic buzzword — “patient capital” — comes in.

    According to financial commentator Zheng Xuguang, that means encouraging investors to seek long-term returns rather than a quick buck, while serving the national interest.

    But he said the government doesn’t offer a stable regulatory environment in return, further damaging confidence.

    “If they need long-term investment, then they can’t have short-term policies that can just change overnight,” Zheng said. “The two things go together.”

    He said the deep-seated problems with confidence in China, which have manifested in the “run” movement of people moving overseas in the wake of the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions in late 2022, are likely behind the delay in the Third Plenum.

    That hasn’t been helped by further shifts away from the economic reform era begun by late supreme leader Deng Xiaoping in 1979, according to Cai.

    “They were a little confused by the plummeting exports,” Cai said. “And on top of that, they moved politically towards the pre-reform era [of a state-controlled economy] last year.”

    Added to which, the looming possibility of an armed invasion of democratic Taiwan would also wipe out any prospect of foreign investors offering long-term, “patient” investments, he said.

    China’s leaders also remain concerned about “hidden risks,” an oblique reference to the possibility of financial crisis, and called on cash-strapped local governments to “shoulder their share of responsibility,” according to Xinhua’s May 2 article.

    The “integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta” is a key strategy attributed to Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping, and seeks to position the region as a “pioneer, leader and driver of regional development,” including the building of high-tech industrial clusters and integrated supply chains, the agency reported.

    “Shanghai should play a leading role, and Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces should leverage their respective strengths so as to form synergy for continuously writing new chapters in the integrated development of the Delta,” the agency paraphrased the Politburo meeting as saying.

    ENG_CHN_ANALYSISThirdPlenum_05022024.3.JPG
    An employee counts Chinese yuan banknotes at a bank in Hefei, Anhui province November 11, 2010. (Stringer/Reuters)

    Cai Shenkun said the region is likely to benefit at the expense of the Pearl River Delta, which includes Hong Kong.

    “The Yangtze River Delta economy is a major leader of Chinese economic growth,” he said. “The Pearl River Delta used to have that leading role, but Hong Kong has become totally paralyzed by [the political intervention of the] Chinese Communist Party.”

    “This basically sets the tone for the Third Plenum,” Cai said.

    Huang Tianlei , a researcher at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said Chinese officials are playing down the seriousness of the economic situation, amid huge structural changes, as China pivots from being an export-dependent economy to something more dependent on its own citizens’ spending decisions.

    “China’s economic policy has been focused for a very long time on the supply side, and has been very light on the demand side,” he said. “This is the fundamental reason behind the current economic imbalance.”

    He said the plenum needs to address changes to the tax system, which is hugely dependent on corporate tax revenues, and on boosting sources of income for local governments, which have heavy liabilities but few sources of revenue in the wake of the bursting of the real estate bubble.

    Economic commentator Li Hengqing, said the Xinhua report glosses over the extent of China’s current economic crisis, however.

    Perhaps more tellingly, it talks about reform without talking about the use of the market economy to distribute resources and benefits, or about restraints on state power, Li said.

    “It’s trying to boost confidence, but actually nobody has confidence in them,” Li said. “Confidence is the key, but they’re not doing the things that matter [to make it happen].”

    Translated by Luisetta Mudie.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Kitty Wang and Qian Lang for RFA Mandarin, Yitong Wu for RFA Cantonese.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • China has begun sea trials for its third aircraft carrier, Fujian , a big step towards realizing its naval ambitions amid increased regional tensions, defense analysts said.

    Chinese media reported that the 80,000-ton Fujian. a Type 003 class vessel, left Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai on Wednesday morning to begin its first trial in the open sea.

    The sea trial is primarily aimed at testing the reliability and stability of the aircraft carrier’s propulsion and electrical systems, state news agency Xinhua reported.

    “This is a huge step forward for the Chinese navy,” said Andreas Rupprecht, a veteran Chinese military watcher. 

    The sea trial is probably “the most eagerly awaited milestone” for the ship that was launched almost two years ago, Rupprecht told Radio Free Asia.

    However, “there is still a lot that we don’t know: if everything works according to plan or whether there remain technical issues,” the analyst said.

    Xinhua reported that the Fujian has completed its mooring trials, outfitting work and equipment adjustments and “has met the technical requirements for sea trials” without giving further details.

    ‘Pride of Chinese Navy’

    China’s state CCTV released a clip showing the carrier, flanked by several tugboats, moving out of the shipyard and heading to sea.

    This week, the Chinese Maritime Safety Administration issued a navigational warning to ban ships from entering an area in the East China Sea from May  1-19, believed to be the period of the trial.

    Sea trials are an important final step towards commissioning the carrier.  Some experts believe the carrier could become operational in 2025 while some say they are unsure of the time frame.

    Yusuf Unjhawala, a Bangalore-based defense analyst, said that India took a year to carry out sea trials for its indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant. 

    Fujian 2.jpg
    China’s third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, docks in east China’s Shanghai on April 30, 2024. (Pu Haiyang/Xinhua)

    The Fujian is China’s largest and most advanced carrier, also the first to feature a modern catapult system

    for launching fighter jets.  Experts said the Fujian’s Catapult Assisted Take-Off Barrier Arrested Recovery, or CATOBAR, mechanism is similar to that of U.S. carriers.

    China’s first two aircraft carriers – Liaoning and Shandong – use a ski jump-style launch system.

    The Fujian is also China’s first carrier built with an indigenous design, unlike the other two which were remodeled from Soviet-made ships.

    Combat capabilities

    When operational, the Fujian will “significantly enhance the capabilities” of the navy, Chinese experts told the Global Times.  

    They were quoted as saying it can carry a larger number of aircraft and launch aircraft, including heavier ones, faster and more efficiently than its existing carriers.

    Fujian will likely host Shenyang J-15 fighters, as well as the next generation J-35s and the new Xian KJ-600 fixed-wing AEWC (airborne early warning and control) aircraft, according to open intelligence sources. 

    “The ship’s air complement is based on the Russian Su-33 which it calls the J-15,” said Unjhawala, “It’s a very heavy fighter and it takes off from a ski ramp, which limits its ability to carry arms.”

    The aviation component of the new aircraft carrier is beset with technical problems, the analyst said, adding that “it will take time for China to become a formidable carrier force.”

    Still, it represents a big leap forward and a warning for countries in dispute with China in the East and South China seas. 

    Japan has recently decided to upgrade one of its two helicopter carriers to its first aircraft carrier – a decision that was quickly condemned by Beijing. 

    Aircraft carriers represent China’s maritime ambitions and the carrier fleet may be expanded to five ships in the next 10 years, according to a report by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), an independent U.S. think tank specializing in defense policy, planning and budgets.

    China already has the largest navy in the world by number with an overall battle force of more than 370 ships and submarines, compared with the U.S.’s 293, according to the Pentagon. The U.S. Navy, however, has 11 aircraft carriers, most of which are much more advanced and powerful than China’s.

    The Fujian has a dead weight tonnage of 80,000 tons, similar to one of the U.S.’s ten Nimitz-class ships but significantly smaller than the U.S.’s new Gerald R. Ford carrier of 100,000 tons.

    Edited by Mike Firn.


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Freedom to Write index says there are 107 people in prison for published content in China, with many accused of ‘picking quarrels’

    The number of writers jailed in China has surpassed 100, with nearly half imprisoned for online expression.

    The grim milestone is revealed in the 2023 Freedom to Write index, a report compiled by Pen America, published on Wednesday.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • House of Representatives legislation that includes “$60 billion for Kyiv, $26 billion for Israel and humanitarian aid for civilians in conflict zones, including Gaza, and $8 billion for the Indo-Pacific region,” informs the world of the stupidity of it all — from Kyiv to Taiwan, dumbness governs fate. Examine each appropriation, one at a time.

    Kyiv

    Forced into a political decision that makes it appear that America does not desert its allies, the appropriation accomplishes nothing except to assure that more Russians are killed. It does not save Ukrainian lives or enable Ukraine to gain a leading edge in the war.

    In the short run, Ukraine is better protected, which means the war is extended. The kill and destruction rate will be lessened and the time for killing and destruction will be lengthened. The appropriation serves to slightly lessen Ukrainian misery each day and extend the misery for a longer time. The total misery will be the same and feel worse.

    Ukraine cannot win the war; it can barely contain the war.  Russian troops occupy 1/3 of the country and not one Ukraine soldier is on Russian soil. This is a war of attrition, and, by numbers, Russia wins that war. The deaths and sorrows solicit a solution and not a continuation. The U.S. House of Representatives proudly announces its contribution to the continuation of death and sorrow and does not realize the stupidity of it all.

    Some day, at least before all Ukrainian life has been extinguished, the war will end and not satisfactorily for Ukraine. Why wait? Russia has most of what it wants — Crimea and Donbass — both of which were part of the Russian Empire since the late 18th century. If Putin wants Odessa and territory that reaches Transnistria, this may mean extensive negotiations, which is still preferred to extensive slaughter.

    Israel

    Tied to $17 billion in assistance to Israel’s war effort is $2 billion in humanitarian aid to Gaza. This gives Israel ample funds for acquiring supposed defensive weapons, which it would not need if it stopped offending others, and enables the Zionist kingdom to use its funds for offensive weapons and continue the genocide of the Palestinians. After contributing to infliction of more deaths and sorrows upon the Palestinians, appropriations will be available to relieve their suffering from the $17 billion worth of weapons given to Israel. I have an idea — stop Israel’s attacks on others and its genocide of the Palestinians and then no appropriations will be necessary for anyone.

    Not recognizing the use of the October 7 attack as an excuse for the genocide of the Palestinian people is inexcusable. Assisting the genocide by enriching the aggressor is criminal. The United Nations(UN) Office of Expert Scholars,  several nations, Craig Mokhiber, former director of the New York office of the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Francesca Albanese at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, and a large mass of humanity consider Israel’s destruction of the Palestinians as genocide. Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Agnès Callamard says, “Palestinians in Gaza are at risk of genocide, more than 32,000 people have been killed, children have been starved to death amid an imminent Israeli-engineered famine and vast swathes of the Strip have been rendered uninhabitable.” Over a hundred organizations and human rights defenders are calling for arrest warrants for Israeli officials to prevent genocide of the Palestinians.

    Despite the authoritative, credible, and legal knowledge, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and the US State Department said, “We don’t have any evidence of genocide being [committed]” by Israel in Gaza.” They have no evidence because the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and AIPAC, two of their “reliable” sources, have told them there is no evidence and the Biden administration does not want evidence that involves Americans in committing genocide. The public accepts the ugly attachment and willingly donates funds to enhance the slaughter. This is strange. The Holocaust occurred in Europe and the US has tens of Holocaust memorial museums, which have been built to give Americans a “guilt trip“and educate them on the prevention of genocide. These museums have been counterproductive, as are most US policies; instead of preventing genocides, the museums have encouraged genocide. Let’s close these wasteful museums, pay less attention to the word Holocaust, which crowds out GENOCIDE IN GAZA, and hold 24/7 education sessions for all Americans on the Gaza genocide. Include the moribund US government officials who aren’t ashamed to be in the stupidity of it all.

    Indo-Pacific Region

    This donation to increase tension is mostly about Taiwan. If the People’s Republic of China (PRC) attacks, military assistance to Taiwan may lessen casualties to the Taiwanese but it will lengthen the conflict and cause more casualties to the Peoples Liberation Army. No amount of military assistance to Taiwan can prevent the PRC of 1.3 billion people, an army of 2,035,000 active personnel and 510,000 reserve personnel from overcoming Taiwan’s 23.7 million population and its army of 180,000 active personnel and 1,657,000 reserve personnel. No amount of provocation will push the PRC to attack its fellow Chinese. The appropriation is a waste of taxpayer money and another stupidity of it all.

    Immediately after the United States recognized the PRC and terminated diplomatic relations with Taiwan on January 1, 1979, the PRC could have walked into Taiwan and the US would have done nothing. China has had 75 years to invade and reincorporate Taiwan into the PRC and has not set the Taiwan Straits straight. Hasn’t China been patient and sensible? The Hong Kong protests, contradictory to US press assertions of China’s brutality, demonstrated China’s care and restraint — no protester died due to police action in an incident related to the demonstrations. In a protest demonstration in Iraq, which occurred at a similar time, the Associated Press reported, “at least 320 protesters have been killed in the demonstrations.”

    By law, de jure, Taiwan is a province in China. Beijing designates the island as “Taiwan province.” The PRC does not recognize the Taiwanese passport and issues temporary IDs for Taiwanese who travel to China. The holders of the temporary IDs are treated as Chinese citizens in China. International agencies also give China de jure recognition of Taiwan. The World Bank sometimes calls it “Taiwan District.” The International Monetary Fund prefers the declarative “Taiwan Province of China.” The International Olympic Committee calls it “Chinese Taipei.”

    China also wins Taiwan by default. The island is not recognized as a country. To be a country requires diplomatic recognition by the member states of the United Nations. Because Taiwan was removed as a member of the UN, it is classified as a territory. Only 11 countries and the Vatican, all small, recognize Taiwan — Belize, Eswatini, Guatemala, Haiti, Marshall Islands, Palau, Paraguay, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Tuvalu, and Vatican City. If Taiwan is not a country then to whom does it belong?

    Everyone has a fantasy — Taiwan may say it is not part of China but it is a separate part of China, slightly in rebellion. China may say it is a province but it is an uncontrolled province, and the US may constantly accuse China of provocations and prepared to invade Taiwan but it is the US who is provocative and behaving most aggressively. The US actions, which have no purpose and do not change Taiwan’s status are the most fantastic and another stupidity of it all.

    Jewish people

    Dumbest are the Jewish people for maintaining faith in the Zionist mission and the Israeli government who are preparing their demise. Let us recite the facts, and there is no possible refutation to them – a state that calls itself Jewish and a preponderance of world Jewry are committing genocide of the Palestinian people and don’t expect retribution.

    To offset attention to the genocide, Israel’s supporters use media control and continue to flood the ether with Holocaust stories. A latest exposé, on the CBS program Sixty Minutes, charges the British government with covering up the killing of Jewish concentration camp inmates (??? may have only been laborers who died) and others on German captured and controlled Guernsey Island during World War II. Seems the Jewish victims, who have not been well identified by cause of death and name, are added to the total of Holocaust victims. Nothing more pleasing to these Holocaust worshippers than to have more Jews killed; nothing makes them happier.

    An advertisement that charges anti-Semitism and asks all to reject hate, mentions that 385 synagogues have received false alarm calls of bombs within the buildings. No bombs, no casualties, and the calls may all be from one person. Different in Gazan mosques; no calls, real bombs, thousands of casualties, and from an entire army of hate.

    Do the guardians of hate in America, who don’t run ads on the magnitude more serious attacks on Muslims, Orientals, Hispanics, Blacks, and LGBT citizens, expect the world not to despise those guilty of committing genocide? Do they believe they can turn truth into anti-Semitism? Due to the carelessness of university presidents, they may be succeeding. The huge campus protests against the killing fields of genocide are given sinister motives and featured are protests by a few persons who voice complaints about bad words and slaps at a half dozen persons on the campuses who happen to be Jews. The complaints don’t merit much attention.

    Only a few Jewish students have been touched and none severely injured in the campus protests. If a student does not want to be bothered, then why not stay away from the demonstrations? And beware of Zionist provocateurs, infiltrators who cause trouble and then yell trouble. In every catastrophic situation, emotions, anger, tension, and tempers are volatile and exaggerated. Taking a few instances of anger in this highly volatile situation, when people want to scream out against the most serious injustice to millions, and deceitfully making it into a contrived torrent of anti-Semitism that gains attention is… you got it… another stupidity of it all. Why isn’t this hyperbole exposed? Why is it allowed?

    The post The Stupidity of It All first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Over the past few decades, China’s investment in Brazil’s Amazon region has significantly grown and broadened, particularly in sectors like agriculture, mining, infrastructure, and energy. However, this influx has sparked concerns about its environmental and social consequences. As debates intensify, the delicate balance between economic development and ecological preservation remains uncertain.

    This year marked the 50th anniversary of Sino-Brazilian diplomatic relations, yet their initial connection traces back to 1881 with the establishment of the first diplomatic mission.

    Brazil’s relationship with China intensified with the formation of BRICS in 2009, an intergovernmental organization consisting of Brazil, China, Russia, India, and South Africa. Additionally, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates have also become part of the group.

    China-Brazil: a profitable partnership

    China stands as Brazil’s largest trading partner. In 2023, bilateral trade between the two nations totalled US$ 157 billion, with Brazil’s exports to China reaching US$104 billion.

    A study published by the Brazil-China Business Council (CEBC) in 2023 highlighted the considerable export potential of Brazil’s northern region to China, with projections exceeding US$11 billion.

    Just like many other collaborations Brazil has established with other nations, its partnership with China seems to stand out as one of the most profitable. This is primarily due to China’s extensive population and its crucial push for expansion and industrial progress to satisfy the significant needs of its people.

    While Chinese projects and investments in Brazil appear beneficial for both parties, concerns arise regarding their alignment with sustainable development standards, particularly in the Amazon region.

    There’s apprehension that these initiatives could contribute to widespread deforestation, degradation, and climate change, undermining the region’s role as a carbon sink. Such degradation heightens the risk of zoonotic diseases emerging and spreading, posing a substantial public health threat to both Brazil and the global community.

    João Cumarú, researcher at Plataforma CIPÓ (an independent non-profit research institute) and master’s student in Chinese politics and diplomacy at SIRPA (复旦大学, Fudan University, China), explained to the Canary:

    There are notable examples and commendable practices within Chinese territory. However, it’s essential to conduct a thorough analysis to determine whether these practices will be replicated in territories beyond China’s borders.

    Livestock

    In 2023, China imported 2.2 million tons of meat from Brazil, totalling over US$ 8.2 billion.

    According to the Brazilian Institute of Geographics and Statistics (IBGE), the number of cattle slaughtered in the country reached 29.8 million in 2022, marking a 7.5% rise from the previous year. In 2023, beef production surged to 8.91 tons in 2023, reflecting an 11.2% increase compared to 2022.

    China is the primary destination for Brazilian exports of beef, pork, and chicken. There are a total of 144 authorized slaughterhouses in Brazil for export to China, with the majority owned by Brazilian JBS, the world’s largest meat producer. However, JBS has been associated with issues such as deforestation, conflicts, and environmental degradation in the Amazon rainforest and the Cerrado regions.

    João Gonçalves, senior director for Brazil at Mighty Earth, told the Canary:

    Through our satellite monitoring we are still finding rampant destruction driven by the meat and soy industries in Brazil. Brazilian beef giant JBS is sourcing from suppliers who are destroying nature with impunity. Our latest research identified a total of 105 deforestation cases linked to JBS, covering over 185,000 hectares of deforestation in the Amazon and the Cerrado.

    JBS’ plans to ramp up beef exports to China will mean more cattle and more land grabs, with all the negative impact that brings for forests and the Indigenous communities and wildlife that depend on them. JBS has big expansion plans, including listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Access to more funds will lead to more nature destruction. We’re urging the US Securities and Exchange Commission to block JBS’ proposed listing on the NYSE over its continued, outsized impact on climate change and Brazil’s precious biomes.

    In March, Carlos Fávaro, the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, and Food Supply (MAPA), announced that an extra 38 Brazilian meat processing facilities had been approved to export meat and meat products to China:

    This is a significant moment for both sides. China will receive high-quality meats at competitive prices, ensuring agricultural products for its population, while Brazil gains the certainty of job creation, opportunities, and the growth of the Brazilian economy. It’s a historic day in the Brazil-China trade relationship, a historic day for our agriculture.

    In 2023, JBS was part of a delegation sent by Brazil’s President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, to China, aiming to negotiate a new export agreement between the two nations.

    Lula doesn’t appear hesitant to conceal his unwavering support for JBS and the growth of cattle farming in the country, irrespective of the environmental consequences, such as deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions, and the violation of traditional and indigenous communities’ rights.

    Cattle farming contributes to around 80% of deforestation in the Amazon region. The primary states for cattle production in the Brazilian Amazon are Mato Grosso, Pará, and Rondônia.

    The process of forests being converted into pasturelands results in elevated temperatures, altered precipitation patterns, and the escalation of extreme weather events. These conditions disrupt climate regulation and the water cycle essential for crop production in Brazil, resulting in considerable losses.

    Dr Peter Alexander, senior lecturer in global food systems and security at The University of Edinburgh, told the Canary:

    We must consume less meat, reduce food waste, establish a more efficient and equitable system, and address pressing human health concerns such as malnutrition and obesity. How can we tackle these challenges within a system that currently fails to promote such outcomes? Moreover, how do we transform this system to prioritise these objectives? These questions linger, as these issues are often considered politically risky and potentially detrimental to electoral success.

    Soya

    China’s voracious appetite for agricultural commodities extends to soya, as it remains the world’s leading importer, with Brazil standing as the largest producer globally.

    In the 2022/2023 crop season, Brazil achieved yet another milestone, setting a record by harvesting around 154.6 million tonnes of soya, reflecting a remarkable 23% increase compared to the previous year’s production of 125.5 million tonnes. In 2023, China soya imports from Brazil reached 69.95 million tonnes, a 29% increase from the previous year.

    Brazil has implemented a soya moratorium agreement, where participating companies pledge not to buy soya from farms where soya cultivation has led to deforestation of land in the Amazon biome after July 22, 2008. This initiative aims to eradicate deforestation from the soy production process.

    Despite numerous pledges from China National Cereals, Oil and Foodstuffs Co (Cofco) to combat deforestation and improve its supply chains, an inquiry by Repórter Brasil revealed that in 2021, the company sourced soya from deforested regions in Mato Grosso state, situated within both the Cerrado and Amazon regions, through indirect suppliers.

    Chinese companies have substantially expanded their footprint in Brazil via mergers and acquisitions. For instance, Hunan Dakang of the Shanghai Pengxin group holds a 57% stake in Fiagril, a Brazilian company specializing in supplying agricultural inputs such as soy, corn, fertilisers, and offering technical support to farmers.

    When asked about the trade volume between Brazil and China and Brazil’s dependency resulting from it, Cumarú told the Canary:

    Presently, China might view Brazil as a significant market and a commodities exporter. However, historical trends suggest they won’t rely solely on one supplier to fulfil their requirements. There’s a trend towards diversifying energy sources and advancing technologies for land development and restoration within China. The Brazilian government should closely monitor this trend.

    Furthermore, our focus shouldn’t be solely on investment expectations; we must also enhance and integrate gains from these investments. A crucial aspect where we’ve fallen short is technology transfer, which could potentially increase Brazil’s dependence on China.

    As soya production expands, the development of logistical corridors becomes necessary to facilitate the flow of grains to ports, thereby reducing freight costs. This has prompted numerous investments in infrastructure, including road and railway projects.

    Infrastructure

    Chinese investments in Amazonian infrastructure primarily focus on the construction of dams, roads, ports, and railway systems. These initiatives aim to improve transportation routes and lower the costs associated with exporting commodities to China.

    The China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) holds an 80% stake in the Brazilian construction firm, Concremat, and engages in numerous projects across the Amazon region.

    The logos of both CCCC and Concremat are featured on Brazil’s National Department of Transport Infrastructure (DNIT) website in connection with the paving of the BR-319 highway in the Amazon. This highway stretches 885.9 km, linking the central Amazonian capital, Manaus, to Porto Velho, situated at the forest’s southern edge.

    The paving of BR-319 highway has the potential to trigger widespread deforestation, environmental degradation, biodiversity decline, displacement of indigenous communities, increased spread of infectious diseases, surge in illegal mining and logging, and escalation of organised crime.

    Last year, Pará’s governor, Helder Barbalho, signed an agreement in Beijing, China, in the presence of the deputy president of China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), paving the way for the construction of Ferrovia do Pará. This railway will connect Marabá with the port of Vila do Conde in Barcarena.

    Another significant project is Ferrogrão (EF-170), a 933 km greenfield railway venture designed to connect Sinop, in Mato Grosso state, to Itaituba, in Pará state. This railway passes through environmentally protected areas and indigenous territories within the Amazon region.

    In 2022, greenfield ventures predominantly characterized the entry of Chinese investments into Brazil, accounting for 59% of the total number of projects.

    Ferrogrão has received support from major agribusiness players such as Cargill, Bunge, Louis Dreyfus, and Amaggi, motivated by their primary goal of exporting commodities to China and Europe at reduced expenses. However, this project raises concerns about increased deforestation, degradation, and environmental violations. It’s set to impact numerous indigenous communities, including the Kayapó, Mundukuri, and Panará peoples, who denounce the railway as the “rails of destruction.”

    Precious minerals

    The Brazilian Amazon is a focal point for the extraction of raw materials as part of national and state economic development agendas. Consequently, the region is witnessing various socio-economic and environmental challenges.

    Brazil is a powerhouse in the global mining industry, with significant production and export capabilities in both raw and processed minerals. This includes vital resources such as iron, gold, copper ore, and bauxite—the primary source material for alumina and aluminium.

    Bacarena, located in the Pará state, serves as crucial hub for these activities. The region is home to substantial bauxite deposits, concentrated mainly in three key districts: Trombetas, Almeirim, and Paragominas-Tiracambú. This positions Brazil as one of the world’s largest holders of bauxite potential.

    In a webinar organised by CEBC in February, Ricardo Biscassi, head of external affairs for Brazilian mining company Vale and CEBC director, disclosed:

    The total iron ore exports from Brazil in 2023 to all countries were 380 million tonnes. Of this total, 64%, that is, 242 million tonnes, were sent to China, showing the relevance that China has in the iron ore market, and obviously in the steel market…of these 242 million tons that were exported to China, 76% came from Vale.

    In February, a Chinese delegation consisting of representatives from Zhuhai Sino-Lac Chain Co., Guangdon Nonfengbao, and Hohai University, visited the state of Pará, declaring their intent to invest in various sectors within the region, including collaborating on a biofertilizer project with the Federal Rural University of Amazonia (Ufra).

    One of the key attractions for Chinese investors in the state of Pará is the municipality of Bacarena, which falls within Brazil’s Export Processing Zone (EPZ). This zone provides a variety of incentives, such as tax exemptions, making it highly attractive to foreign investors.

    Approximately 60% of what is produced in Pará, the second largest state in the Amazon region, is exported to China. In 2023, the mineral sector comprised 84% of Pará’s foreign sales. Iron accounts to 80% of these exports, serving as an indispensable material for China’s civil construction market.

    Cumarú told the Canary:

    There’s a lingering question that remains unresolved. While it’s understood that the Chinese government has implemented green credit policies for companies operating internationally, such as guidelines for overseas mining ventures, there’s uncertainty regarding the level of compliance with these policies. It seems that there isn’t a significant commitment from the Chinese side. Considering China’s substantial investment and trade volumes, this undeniably raises concerns.

    In April, Brazil’s Foreign Trade Chamber (Camex) decided to increase the import tax on 11 steel products by up to 25%, aiming to reduce steel imports from China. This action was taken in response to the substantial influx of Chinese steel flooding the Brazilian market at discounted rates.

    Lithium represents yet another incredibly valuable resource. China has set its sights on a potential joint venture or acquisition of the Canadian mining company, Sigma, situated in the state of Minas Gerais. The objective is to enhance the battery production operations of Chinese firm BYD in Manaus, the capital of Amazonas. BYD has begun to build a car factory in in Camaçari, in the state of Bahia, an investment of approximately US$ 3 billion.

    We must remain mindful of water scarcity as an additional global challenge. Projections indicate that by as soon as 2030, global demand for freshwater is anticipated to exceed the available supply by 40 to 50%, affecting both brown and green manufacturing sectors. There’s a possibility that Chinese manufacturing, currently concentrated in Asia, might shift towards countries abundant in water resources, such as Brazil, including the Amazon region.

    Energy

    China has made significant investments in Brazil’s energy sector. The State Grid Brazil Holding S.A., a Chinese state-owned energy company, holds control over 24 national power transmission companies in Brazil, including those operating in the Amazon region.

    State Grid has announced plans to invest $3.6 billion to upgrade energy transmission lines in Brazil, along with an extra $38 billion in the Brazilian energy sector. They secured a bid to construct 1,500 km of lines across Maranhão, Tocantins, and Goiás states, which includes building substations. Additionally, the company is already managing the 2,500 km Belo Monte UHVDC transmission project.

    In December 2023, State Grid secured the largest power transmission auction in Brazil, gaining rights to construct over 4,471 km of new transmission lines across the states of Goiás, Maranhão, Minas Gerais, São Paulo, and Tocantins.

    Another Chinese state-owned enterprise, the Three Gorges Corporation, manages 12 hydroelectric power plants, three of which are situated in the Amazon region. These include Cachoeira Caldeirão in the state of Amapá, Santo Antonio do Jari on the border between the states of Pará and Amapá, and the São Manoel hydroelectric power plant situated on the Teles Pires River, bordering the states of Mato Grosso and Pará.

    Numerous infrastructure development initiatives in the Amazon region have sparked controversy due to their potential to escalate deforestation, degradation, urbanisation, traffic, and conflicts in remote rainforest areas. These projects directly affect traditional and indigenous communities, alongside the environment.

    The Belo Monte hydroelectric dam and reservoir, located along the Xingu River in the Amazon region of Pará, serve as an example of the detrimental impact that large-scale infrastructure projects can have on biodiverse areas, including the displacement of communities, increased deforestation, and degradation of the aquatic ecosystem of the Xingu River.

    Intellectual property

    The Amazon rainforest is emerging as a key market for bioproducts, drawing attention both nationally and internationally for its wealth of opportunities in promoting a bioeconomy.

    By 2022, Brazil’s National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) had identified 43,400 patents for innovations involving Amazonian flora filed globally. China led the count with 18,965 applications, followed by the USA with 3,778.

    The patenting of products derived from Amazonian genetic resources without fair sharing of benefits with local communities and without respecting their rights raises significant concerns. Given the Amazon’s vast wealth of genetic material, this situation could potentially fuel the illicit trafficking of forest products (biopiracy).

    China-Brazil relations: on high alert

    There are numerous uncertainties regarding the socio-environmental consequences of some Chinese investments in the Amazon region and Brazil, as well as how the local population will gain from the extensive exploitation of natural resources and the development of infrastructure in environmentally delicate zones such as the Amazon.

    The increased demand from China for commodities could lead to a rampant exploitation of Brazil’s and the Amazon’s natural resources and deepening the country’s dependence on China.

    Cumarú told the Canary about the dynamics of Chinese foreign policy:

    One of the principles guiding Chinese foreign policy is non-interference in the internal affairs of other nations. They adhere to the rules of engagement in the countries where they invest, effectively absolving themselves from issues they may be directly or indirectly involved in.

    The call for a more proactive approach from the Chinese government can only gain traction if it originates from the Brazilian government, led by the president and the relevant ministries.

    In April, China and Brazil entered into a bilateral agreement that includes collaboration in television between China Media Group’s Xinhua News Agency and Brasil Communications Company (EBC). In 2019, Grupo Bandeirantes in Brazil also signed an agreement with China Media Group, focusing on joint productions and sharing content.

    The ministries of culture from Brazil and China gathered on April 25 to explore opportunities for cultural exchange between the two countries, covering cinema, publications, libraries, museums, heritage, and copyright.

    There are increasing concerns about potential efforts to influence, regulate, and limit information dissemination in Brazil, as there are questions whether China might seek to promote its political, economic, and social ideologies. Such actions could potentially pose risks to both the environment, including the Amazon region, and the sovereign interests of the Brazilian population.

    The future of the Amazon, Brazil, and global environmental sustainability is heavily influenced by the relationship between Brazil and China. With their considerable power, these two key players have the potential to address the ongoing environmental destruction and protect indigenous rights in the region. The world will be watching closely the developments of this partnership.

    The BRICS Policy Center has not responded to a request for an interview.

    Featured image via Reuters

    By Monica Piccinini

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • The Philippines said that Chinese coast guard vessels fired water cannons at two of its ships on Tuesday, causing some damage  in the latest confrontation near the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea.

    The shoal, called Bajo De Masinloc in the Philippines and Huangyan Dao in China, is within the Philippine exclusive economic zone but is under de-facto control by China.

    Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson Jay Tarriela said in a statement that the Philippine coast guard ship BRP Bagacay and fishery patrol ship BRP Bankaw were carrying out “a legitimate maritime patrol” in the waters near the shoal.

    “During the patrol, the Philippine vessels encountered dangerous maneuvers and obstruction from four China Coast Guard vessels and six Chinese maritime militia vessels,” Tarriela said.

    Chinese vessels fired water cannons at the BRP Bankaw first, and afterwards at the BRP Bagacay, causing damage to both ships, he said.

    Philippine media reported that Chinese coast guard ship 3305 also collided with the BRP Bankaw, damaging its railings.

    A video clip released by the Philippine Coast Guard shows the BRP Bagacay being shot at with powerful streams of water by Chinese vessels 3105 and 5303. As a result, the Philippine ship’s suffered damage to its railing and canopy. 

    “This damage serves as evidence of the forceful water pressure used by the China Coast Guard in their harassment of the Philippine vessels,” the Philippine spokesman said, adding that the Philippine ships continued their maritime patrol despite the harassment.

    The Chinese Coast Guard has also installed a 380-meter floating barrier that covers the entire entrance of the shoal, “effectively restricting access to the area,” Tarriela noted.

    Chinese spy ship

    Chinese authorities did not immediately respond to the have yet to the Philippines’ complaints but China’s state media reported on Tuesday morning that Chinese ships expelled two Philippine vessels that “intruded into the waters adjacent to Huangyan Dao.” 

    China’s state-run tabloid Global Times quoted a Chinese analyst as saying that “professional control measures taken by the Chinese side are required to prevent the escalation of a possible maritime confrontation.”

    The Philippines says its ships that routinely sail to the area around the Scarborough Shoal to distribute fuel and food supplies to fishermen have been harassed by Chinese vessels. 

    China claims historical rights over most of the South China Sea even though a landmark international arbitration case brought by Manila in 2016 rejected those claims entirely.

    The Scarborough Shoal was under the Philippines’ control until 2012 when a standoff resulted in China’s taking over.

    The latest confrontation took place as a major U.S.-Philippines annual military exercise is underway, this year with the participation of France and Australia.

    Exercise Balikatan 2024 has just completed a five-day multilateral maritime exercise component that began on Apr. 25. 

    The combined naval force of one U.S. and one French warship, together with two Philippine vessels, was constantly shadowed by Chinese surveillance ships, as well as other surface combatants, according to the Philippine military, quoted in domestic media.

    Surveillance ships, commonly known as “spy ships” for their reconnaissance capabilities, have been frequently spotted at the times the United States and its allies stage major naval drills, including the biennial Rim of the Pacific.

    Radio Free Asia contacted the Chinese foreign ministry for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

    More than 16,000 troops from the Philippines and the U.S are taking part in the Balikatan 2024 which is scheduled to end on May 10.

    Edited by Taejun Kang.

    Jason Gutierrez in Manila contributed to this report.


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • China’s responses to allegations of spying in Germany and the United Kingdom suggest that the ruling Communist Party has plenty to lose from closer public scrutiny of its overseas influence operations, analysts told Radio Free Asia in recent interviews.

    The arrests highlighted concerns over Beijing’s attempts to infiltrate democracies and extend its political influence far beyond its borders.

    Beijing on Friday summoned Germany’s Ambassador Patricia Flor to protest the arrests of four people for allegedly spying for China.

    “I was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs today,” Flor said via her X account on Friday. “A quite telling move – but, after all, a good opportunity to explain a few things.”

    The summons came after German prosecutors on April 22 accused three people of providing information to Chinese intelligence that could have a military purpose, and accused Guo Jian, a parliamentary aide to far-right MEP Maximilian Krah, of spying on the parliament and on overseas dissidents for China.

    Flor, who was last summoned in September 2023 after German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock referred to Communist Party leader Xi Jinping as a “dictator,” added: “We do not tolerate espionage in Germany, regardless of which country it comes from.” 

    She noted that it is for the courts to decide whether the accusations against the four defendants are true or not.

    Six accused of spying

    Flor’s summoning came after German police arrested four people on suspicion of spying for China, and as police in the United Kingdom charged two people with spying for China.

    Christopher Cash, 29, a former researcher for a prominent British lawmaker in the governing Conservative Party, and Christopher Berry, 32, appeared in a London court on April 26 after being charged with providing prejudicial information to China in breach of the Official Secrets Act. 

    Neither defendant entered a plea, and only confirmed their names and addresses at a brief hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.

    ENG_CHN_EuropeSpies_04292024.2.JPG
    German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock attends the Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Berlin, Germany, April 25, 2024.(Liesa Johannssen/Reuters)

    A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in London said the claims of spying for China were “completely fabricated and nothing but malicious slander.” 

    “We … urge the U.K. side to stop anti-China political manipulation and stop putting on such self-staged political farce,” the spokesperson said in comments posted to the embassy website on April 22.

    Chen Yonglin, a former political attache at the Chinese Consulate General in Sydney, said diplomatic summonses are usually only used in response to a major incident, and that Beijing’s response shows a deep level of concern over spying allegations.

    “They will summon the ambassador [only] when they run into a very serious problem,” Chen said. 

    “The Chinese government is going to be very concerned, now that its overseas espionage activities are being cracked down on.”

    Interference

    Chen said the summons actually constituted “interference in the internal affairs” of Germany, an accusation frequently leveled by Chinese officials at any criticism of its rights record.

    “The Western political system must protect and maintain itself and its values, because it is being affected by infiltration by the Chinese Communist Party on a large scale,” he said.

    Germany-based legal scholar Qian Yuejun said the incident revealed Beijing’s lack of understanding of the separation of powers in a democratic system.

    “As an employee of the German Foreign Ministry, the German ambassador to China has no power to influence the progress of the Chinese espionage case through the German judicial system,” Qian said.

    ENG_CHN_EuropeSpies_04292024.3.JPG
    German Ambassador to China Patricia Flor, July 25, 2022. (German Embassy in China)

    He said Flor’s response was also revealing.

    “Stealing information from the European Parliament isn’t a simple act of theft,” he said of the as-yet-unproven allegations. “It undermines Europe’s liberal democratic system.”

    “The ultimate goal is to infiltrate, and even subvert, [that] system.”

    He said the summoning of Flor hadn’t apparently worked in Beijing’s favor, however.

    “It unleashed another wave of media frenzy in Germany, bumping the issue of Chinese Communist Party espionage up to a higher priority in the German press,” Qian said.

    Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Yitong Wu and Kwong Wing for RFA Cantonese.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, April 26, 2024. Photo: Xinhua

    A foreboding article was published on April 24. It was pointed out that China had provided a berth to a Russian ship Angara that is purportedly “tied to North Korea-Russia arms transfers.”

    Reuters cited Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) – that boasts of itself to be “the world’s oldest and the UK’s leading defence and security think tank” – which claims Angara, since August 2023, has transported “thousands of containers believed to contain North Korean munitions,” [italics added] to Russian ports.

    Container ships transport containers, and along the way they dock in certain harbors. Until satellite photos have X-ray capability any speculation about what is inside a container will be just that: speculation. Discerning readers will readily pick up on this.

    Despite China repeatedly coming out in favor of peace, Reuters, nonetheless, plays up US concerns over perceived support by Beijing for “Moscow’s war” (what Moscow calls a “special military operation”) in Ukraine.

    And right on cue, US secretary-of-state Antony Blinken shows up in Beijing echoing a list of US concerns vis-à-vis China.

    Blinken had public words for China: “In my meetings with NATO Allies earlier this month and with our G7 partners just last week, I heard that same message: fueling Russia’s defense industrial base not only threatens Ukrainian security; it threatens European security. Beijing cannot achieve better relations with Europe while supporting the greatest threat to European security since the end of the Cold War. As we’ve told China for some time, ensuring transatlantic security is a core US interest. In our discussions today, I made clear that if China does not address this problem, we will.”

    It would seem clear that the Taiwan Straits is a core China interest, no? Or is it only US core interests that matter?

    Blinken: “I also expressed our concern about the PRC’s unfair trade practices and the potential consequences of industrial overcapacity to global and US markets, especially in a number of key industries that will drive the 21st century economy, like solar panels, electric vehicles, and the batteries that power them. China alone is producing more than 100 percent of global demand for these products, flooding markets, undermining competition, putting at risk livelihoods and businesses around the world.”

    It sounds like sour grapes from the US that China’s R&D and manufacturing is out-competing the US. Take, for example, that the US sanctions Huawei while China allows Apple to sell its products unhindered in China. China has hit back at the rhetoric of “overcapacity.”

    Blinken complained of “PRC’s dangerous actions in the South China Sea, including against routine Philippine maintenance operations and maritime operations near the Second Thomas Shoal. Freedom of navigation and commerce in these waterways is not only critical to the Philippines, but to the US and to every other nation in the Indo-Pacific and indeed around the world.”

    Mentioning freedom of navigation implies that China is preventing such. Why is freedom of navigation in the South China Sea critical to the US? Second Thomas Shoal is a colonial designation otherwise known as Renai Jiao in China. The “routine Philippine maintenance operations and maritime operations” that Blinken speaks of are for a navy landing craft that was intentionally grounded by the Philippines in 1999. Since then, the Philippines has been intermittently resupplying its soldiers stationed there.

    Blinken: “I reaffirmed the US’s ‘one China’ policy and stressed the critical importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”

    How does the US stationing US soldiers on the Chinese territory of Taiwan without approval from Beijing reaffirm the US’s commitment to a one-China policy? The Shanghai Communiqué of 1972 states “the United States acknowledges that Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China. The United States does not challenge that position.”

    Blinken: “I also raised concerns about the erosion of Hong Kong’s autonomy and democratic institutions as well as transnational repression, ongoing human rights abuses in Xinjiang and Tibet, and a number of individual human rights cases.”

    Evidence of human rights abuses in Xinjiang? This is a definitive downplay from the previous allegations of a genocide against Uyghurs. It would be embarrassing to continue to accuse China of a genocide in Xinjiang due to a paucity of bodies which is a sine qua non for such a serious allegation as a genocide; meanwhile the US-armed Israel is blowing up hospitals and schools with ten-of-thousands of confirmed Palestinian civilian bodies. Even if there are human rights abuses in Xinjiang (which should be deplored were there condemnatory evidence), the US would still be morally assailable for its selective outrage.

    Blinken: “I encouraged China to use its influence to discourage Iran and its proxies from expanding the conflict in the Middle East, and to press Pyongyang to end its dangerous behavior and engage in dialogue.”

    Is the US militarily backing a genocide of Palestinians a “conflict.” Are US military maneuvers in the waters near North Korea “safe behavior”?

    Blinken responded to a question: “But now it is absolutely critical that the support that [China’s] providing – not in terms of weapons but components for the defense industrial base – again, things like machine tools, microelectronics, where it is overwhelmingly the number-one supplier to Russia. That’s having a material effect in Ukraine and against Ukraine, but it’s also having a material effect in creating a growing [sic] that Russia poses to countries in Europe and something that has captured their attention in a very intense way.”

    Are the ATACMS, Javelins, HIMARS, Leopard tanks, drones, artillery, Patriot missile defense, etc supposed to be absolutely uncritical and have no material effect on the fighting in Ukraine? And who is posing a threat to who? European countries are funding and arming Ukraine and sanctioning Russia not vice versa? It sounds perversely Orwellian.

    *****

    From Biden to Harris to Yellen to Raimondo to Sullivan to Blinken, US officials again and again try to browbeat and put down their Chinese colleagues.

    At the opening meeting on 18 March 2021 of the US-China talks in Anchorage, Alaska, the arrogance of Blinken and the US was put on notice by the rebuke of Chinese foreign affairs official Yang Jiechi: “[T]he US does not have the qualification to say it wants to speak to China from a position of strength.” It doesn’t seem to have sunk in for the American side.

    The Russia-China relationship is solid. China’s economy is growing strongly. Scores of countries are clamoring to join BRICS+ and dedollarization is well underway. Yet, the US continues to try to bully the world’s largest – and still rapidly growing – economy. This strategy appears to affirm the commonly referred to aphorism about the definition of insanity: trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

    The post Is US Officialdom Insane? first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • In an about-face, Xinjiang’s highest legislative body has issued a new regulation to protect Kashgar’s Old City — the heart of Uyghur culture — which they previously ordered to be destroyed and reconstructed, leaving only a small area as a tourist attraction.

    The measure, which take effect on May 1, prompted accusations of Chinese hypocrisy by experts on the far-western region, who say it’s meant to benefit investors in tourism and deflect criticism of Beijing’s persecution of the 11-million mostly Muslim Uyghurs. 

    The Regulation on the Protection of the Ancient City of Kashgar passed on March 31 aims to safeguard the cultural heritage of Kashgar’s ancient city, which was once a key trading post on the Silk Road between China and Europe.

    But starting in 2008, China has already demolished 85% of Kashgar’s ancient quarter and relocated thousands of residents to newer “earthquake-resistant houses,” according to a June 2020 report by the Uyghur Human Rights Project, or UHRP, on the destruction of the Old City.

    By the end of 2010, more than 10,000 ancestral earthen homes there had been destroyed, and shops near the 15th-century Id Kah Mosque were transferred to new buildings made to look like Uyghur architecture, according to journalist Nick Holdstock, who has written two nonfiction books about Xinjiang.

    “Above their doors are wooden signs saying ‘Minority Folk Art’ or ‘Traditional Ethnic Crafts’ in English and Chinese,” he was quoted as saying in the UHRP report.

    Now all that is left is about 15% of the Old City, which has largely been renovated into a Disneyland-like tourist center for visiting Chinese tourists and dignitaries.

    The supposedly ancient Kashgar gate that appears frequently in Chinese promotional material is actually a modern creation and doesn’t reflect traditional Uyghur design.

    China’s past actions appeared to be motivated by a “campaign to stamp out tangible aspects of Uyghur culture,” the UHRP report said.

    Cradle of Uyghur civilization

    This is particularly painful for Uyghurs because Kashgar is considered to be the cradle of their civilization, with two millennia of history. 

    Urumqi may be the political capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, but Kashgar has been the historic center of Uyghur statecraft, politics, art, music literature, trade, culture and religion. 

    Police officers patrol Kashgar Old City in northwestern China's  Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, May 4, 2021. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)
    Police officers patrol Kashgar Old City in northwestern China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, May 4, 2021. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)

    It was in Kashgar that in the 11th century prominent Uyghur Turkologist Mahmud Kashgari penned the “Diwan Lughat al-Turk,” the first comprehensive dictionary of Turkic languages, which also contains an early map showing countries and regions from Japan to Egypt.

    A strategic trading post along the Silk Road, Kashgar was visited by Marco Polo on his way to the court of Kublai Khan during the Mongol Yuan Dynasty in the 13th century, and before that had been the capital of the Uyghur Karakhanid Empire, a Turkic-Uyghur empire that lasted from 999 to 1211.

    It was also in Kashgar that the first East Turkistan Republic was declared in 1933, before China aided by the Soviet Union invaded and took control of the region in 1949 against the wishes of the people to remain an independent country.

    ‘Museumify’

    Now, after all the destruction China has wrought in the city, the new regulation calls for the preservation of the old quarter’s overall historical appearance, natural environment, historical buildings, ancient trees, traditional communities, streets, courtyards, buildings and other structures such as street-side pillars.

    It also will protect intangible cultural heritage, including historical events, figures, handicrafts, traditional arts and customs and rituals.

    “Any demolition, alteration or disruption of the architectural or landscape features designated for conservation is strictly prohibited,” the regulation says.

    But experts say the measures will hardly rectify the damage already done, and will only serve to turn what’s left of Kashgar’s vibrant culture into a tourist attraction.

    “It seems absurd in the present context to think that the Chinese government actually is concerned about the preservation of Uyghur culture,” said Sean Roberts, director of the Central Asia Research Project at George Washington University.

    “One of the dangers that Uyghur culture faces right now in China is being ‘museumified’ in a way that no longer reflects active lived culture, but reflects something that is packaged for tourists,” he said. 


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    More seriously, the move is likely meant to deflect attention from atrocities China has committed against Uyghurs in Xinjiang, Roberts said.

    Besides the destruction of thousands of mosques and other structures significant to Uyghur heritage, Chinese authorities have suppressed Muslim religious practices.

    Since 2017, they have also detained an estimated 1.8 million Uyghurs in state-sponsored camps, where some have been subjected to maltreatment and forced labor, sterilization, contraception and abortion.

    China has denied committing atrocities in Xinjiang and says the camps were vocational training centers that have been shut down. 

    But the United States has determined that China’s actions against the Uyghurs constitute a genocide, while a U.N. report said they may amount to crimes against humanity. The parliaments of some Western countries also have deemed the actions a genocide and crimes against humanity.

    Benefiting Chinese developers

    The new regulation will benefit Chinese investors involved in tourism in the city, said Henryk Szadziewski a senior researcher at the Uyghur Human Rights Project.

    For example, Beijing-based tourism and property developer Zhongkun Investment Group Ltd. is involved in restoration efforts and tourism initiatives in the Old City, he said.

    Following earlier reconstruction work, the Old City’s neighborhood Communist Party committee leased the reassembled quarter to Zhongkun, which began marketing the area as a “living Uyghur folk museum” and established a “near monopoly” over Kashgar’s tourism, the UHRP report said.

    “The new Kashgar Old City has a different set of people who occupy that space — people who have interests in tourism and people who have interests in the exploitation of that,” Szadziewski told RFA.

    “To come up with this and to try to portray it as something genuine is quite a cruel irony for the Uyghur people,” he added.

    A woman cooks next to the remnants of neighboring houses demolished as part of a building renovation campaign in Kashgar Old City in northwestern China's Xinjiang region, Aug. 3, 2011. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)
    A woman cooks next to the remnants of neighboring houses demolished as part of a building renovation campaign in Kashgar Old City in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region, Aug. 3, 2011. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)

    The regulation comes 13 years after a European Parliament resolution urging China to stop the planned demolition of the ancient city of Kashgar and the forced resettlement of Uyghurs.

    Members of the European Parliament encouraged the Chinese government to consider including Kashgar in a joint application with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan for the Silk Road’s UNESCO Heritage designation. 

    But Beijing did not respond to the call.

    Among UNESCO’s priorities is the safeguarding of cultural expressions and the knowledge and know-how of local communities. 

    Preserving Kashgar will be impossible without its inclusion on UNESCO’s World Heritage List, given the instability of local policies and future plans, said Kahar Barat, a Uyghur-American historian known for his work on Buddhism and Islam in Xinjiang.

    Barat said he believes that for the Chinese government to genuinely safeguard the Old City it must ensure comprehensive cultural preservation, including the restoration of manuscripts, old madrassas and mosques.

    “Preserving the city’s appearance and traditional streets primarily caters to tourism, showcasing it to visitors,” Barat 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 Erkin for RFA Uyghur.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • In an about-face, Xinjiang’s highest legislative body has issued new regulations to protect Kashgar’s Old City — the heart of Uyghur culture — which they previously ordered to be destroyed and reconstructed, leaving only a small area as a tourist attraction.

    The measures, which take effect on May 1, prompted accusations of Chinese hypocrisy by experts on the far-western region, who say it’s meant to benefit investors in tourism and deflect criticism of Beijing’s persecution of the 11-million mostly Muslim Uyghurs. 

    The Regulation on the Protection of the Ancient City of Kashgar passed on March 31 aims to protect the cultural heritage of Kashgar’s ancient city, which is was once a key trading post on the Silk Road between China and Europe.

    But starting in 2008, China has already demolished 85% of Kashgar’s ancient quarter and relocated thousands of residents to newer “earthquake-resistant houses,” according to a June 2020 report by the Uyghur Human Rights Project, or UHRP, on the destruction of the Old City.

    By the end of 2010, more than 10,000 ancestral earthen homes there had been destroyed, and shops near the 15th-century Id Kah Mosque were transferred to new buildings made to look like Uyghur architecture, according to journalist Nick Holdstock, who has written two nonfiction books about Xinjiang.

    “Above their doors are wooden signs saying ‘Minority Folk Art’ or ‘Traditional Ethnic Crafts’ in English and Chinese,” he was quoted as saying in the UHRP report.

    1_ENG_UYG_Kashgar_04102024.2.jpg
    Police officers patrol in the old city in Kashgar, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China, May 4, 2021. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)

    Now all that is left is about 15% of the Old City, which has largely been renovated into a Disneyland-like tourist center for visiting Chinese tourists and dignitaries.

    The supposedly ancient Kashgar gate that appears frequently in Chinese promotional material is actually a modern creation and doesn’t reflect traditional Uyghur design.

    China’s past actions appeared to be motivated by a “campaign to stamp out tangible aspects of Uyghur culture,” the UHRP report said.

    Cradle of Uyghur civilization

    This is particularly painful for Uyghurs because Kashgar is considered to be the cradle of their civilization, with two millennia of history. 

    Urumqi may be the political capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, but Kashgar has been the historic center of Uyghur statecraft, politics, art, music literature, trade, culture and religion. 

    It was in Kashgar that in the 11th century prominent Uyghur Turkologist Mahmud Kashgari penned the “Divan Lugat-it Turk,” the first comprehensive dictionary of Turkic languages, which also contains an  early map showing countries and regions from Japan to Egypt.

    A strategic trading post along the Silk Road, Kashgar was visited by Marco Polo on his way to the court of Kublai Khan during the Mongol Yuan Dynasty in the 13th century, and before that had been the capital of the Uyghur Karakhanid Empire, a Turkic-Uyghur empire that lasted from 999 to 1211.

    It was in Kashgar that the first East Turkistan Republic was declared in 1933, before China aided by the Soviet Union invaded and took control of the region in 1949 against the wishes of the people to remain an independent country.

    ‘Museumify’

    Now, after all the destruction China has wrought in the city, new regulations call for the preservation of the old quarter’s overall historical appearance, natural environment, historical buildings, ancient trees, traditional communities, streets, courtyards, buildings and other structures such as street-side pillars.

    They will also protect intangible cultural heritage, including historical events, figures, handicrafts, traditional arts and customs and rituals.

    “Any demolition, alteration or disruption of the architectural or landscape features designated for conservation is strictly prohibited,” the regulation says.

    But experts say the measures will hardly rectify the damage already done, and will only serve to turn what’s left of Kashgar’s vibrant culture into a tourist attraction.

    “It seems absurd in the present context to think that the Chinese government actually is concerned about the preservation of Uygur culture,” said Sean Roberts, director of the Central Asia Research Project at George Washington University.

    “One of the dangers that Uyghur culture faces right now in China is being ‘museumified’ in a way that no longer reflects active lived culture, but reflects something that is packaged for tourists,” he said. 

    Deflecting criticism

    More seriously, the move is likely meant to deflect attention from atrocities China has committed against Uyghurs in Xinjiang, Roberts said.

    Besides the destruction of thousands of mosques and other structures significant to Uyghur heritage, Chinese authorities have suppressed Muslim religious practices and arbitrarily detained Uyghurs in state-sponsored camps, where some have been subjected to forced labor, sterilization, contraception and abortion.

    Since 2017, an estimated 1.8 million Uyghurs have been herded into concentration camps, where they are subjected to forced labor, mistreatment and human rights abuses.

    1_ENG_UYG_Kashgar_04102024.3.jpg
    A woman cooks in her house next to the remnants of other houses, demolished as part of a building renovation campaign in the old district of Kashgar, in Xinjiang province August 3, 2011. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)

    China has denied committing atrocities in Xinjiang and says the camps are actually vocational centers that have been shut down. 

    But the United States has determined that China’s actions against the Uyghurs constitute a genocide, while a U.N. report said they may amount to crimes against humanity.

    Benefitting Chinese developers

    The new regulation will benefit Chinese investors involved in tourism in the city, said Henryk Szadziewsk, a senior researcher at the Uyghur Human Rights Project.

    For example, Beijing-based tourism and property developer Zhongkun Investment Group Ltd. is involved in restoration efforts and tourism initiatives in the Old City, he said.

    Following earlier reconstruction work, the Old City’s neighborhood Communist Party committee leased the reassembled quarter to Zhongkun, which began marketing the area as a “living Uyghur folk museum” and established a “near monopoly” over Kashgar’s tourism, the UHRP report said.

    “The new Kashgar Old City has a different set of people who occupy that space — people who have interests in tourism and people who have interests in the exploitation of that,” Szadziewski told RFA.

    “To come up with this and to try to portray it as something genuine is quite a cruel irony for the Uyghur people,” he added.

    The regulation comes 13 years after a European Parliament resolution urging an end to the demolition in Kashgar and calling on Beijing to include the area in UNESCO’s Silk Road Protection Project.

    At the time, the European Parliament suggested that Beijing consider applying to add Kashgar city to the UNESCO cultural heritage list, alongside Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

    But Beijing has not responded to the calls.

    Among UNESCO’s priorities is the safeguarding of cultural expressions and the knowledge and know-how of local communities. 

    Preserving Kashgar will be impossible without its inclusion on UNESCO’s protection list, given the instability of local policies and future plans, said Kahar Barat, a Uyghur-American historian known for his work on Buddhism and Islam in Xinjiang.

    Barat said he believes that for the Chinese government to genuinely safeguard the Old City it must ensure comprehensive cultural preservation, including the restoration of manuscripts, old madrassas and mosques.

    “Preserving the city’s appearance and traditional streets primarily caters to tourism, showcasing it to visitors,” Barat 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 Erkin for RFA Uyghur.

    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.

  • ANALYSIS: By Marco de Jong, Auckland University of Technology and Robert G. Patman, University of Otago

    When former prime minister Helen Clark spoke out against New Zealand potentially compromising its independent foreign policy by joining pillar two of the AUKUS security pact, Foreign Minister Winston Peters responded bluntly:

    On what could she have possibly based that statement? […] And I’m saying to people, including Helen Clark, please don’t mislead New Zealanders with your suspicions without any facts – let us find out what we’re talking about.

    Pillar one of AUKUS involves the delivery of nuclear submarines to Australia, making New Zealand membership impossible under its nuclear-free policy.

    But pillar two envisages the development of advanced military technology in areas such as artificial intelligence, hypersonic missiles and cyber warfare. By some reckonings, New Zealand could benefit from joining at that level.

    Peters denies the National-led coalition government has committed to joining pillar two. He says exploratory talks with AUKUS members are “to find out all the facts, all the aspects of what we’re talking about and then as a country to make a decision.”

    But while the previous Labour government expressed a willingness to explore pillar two membership, the current government appears to view it as integral to its broader foreign policy objective of aligning New Zealand more closely with “traditional partners”.

    Official enthusiasm
    During his visit to Washington earlier this month, Peters said New Zealand and the Biden administration had pledged “to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests” in a strategic environment “considerably more challenging now than even a decade ago”.

    In particular, he and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken agreed there were “powerful reasons” for New Zealand to engage practically with arrangements like AUKUS “as and when all parties deem it appropriate”.

    Declassified documents reveal the official enthusiasm behind such statements and the tightly-curated public messaging it has produced.

    A series of joint-agency briefings provided to the New Zealand government characterise AUKUS pillar two as a “non-nuclear” technology-sharing partnership that would elevate New Zealand’s longstanding cooperation with traditional partners and bring opportunities for the aerospace and tech sectors.

    But any assessment of New Zealand’s strategic interests must be clear-eyed and not clouded by partial truths or wishful thinking.

    NZ Foreign Minister Winston Peters meets US Secretary of State Antony Blinken
    Traditional allies . . . NZ Foreign Minister Winston Peters meets US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for talks in Washington on April 11. Image: Getty Images/The Conversation

    Beyond great power rivalry
    First, the current government inherited strong bilateral relations with traditional security partners Australia, the US and UK, as well as a consistent and cooperative relationship with China.

    Second, while the contemporary global security environment poses threats to New Zealand’s interests, these challenges extend beyond great power rivalry between the US and China.

    The multilateral system, on which New Zealand relies, is paralysed by the weakening of institutions such as the UN Security Council, Russian expansionism in Ukraine and a growing array of problems which do not respect borders.

    Those include climate change, pandemics and wealth inequality — problems that cannot be fixed unilaterally by great powers.

    Third, it is evident New Zealand sometimes disagrees with its traditional partners over respect for international law.

    In 2003, for example, New Zealand broke ranks with the US (and the UK and Australia) over the invasion of Iraq. More recently, it was the only member of the Five Eyes network to vote in the UN General Assembly for an immediate humanitarian truce in Gaza.

    Role of the US
    In a robust speech to the UN General Assembly on April 7, Peters said the world must halt the “utter catastrophe” in Gaza.

    He said the use of the veto — which New Zealand had always opposed — prevented the Security Council from fulfilling its primary function of maintaining global peace and security.

    However, the government has been unwilling to publicly admit a crucial point: it was a traditional ally — the US — whose Security Council veto and unconditional support of Israel have led to systematic and plausibly genocidal violations of international law in Gaza, and a strategic windfall for rival states China, Russia and Iran.

    Rather than being a consistent voice for justice and de-escalation, the New Zealand government has joined the US in countering Houthi rebels, which have been targeting commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

    A done deal?
    The world has become a more complex and conflicted place for New Zealand. But it would be naive to believe the US has played no part in this and that salvation lies in aligning with AUKUS, which lacks a coherent strategy for addressing multifaceted challenges.

    There are alternatives to pillar two of AUKUS more consistent with a principled, independent foreign policy, centred in the Pacific, and which deserve to be seriously considered.

    On balance, New Zealand involvement in pillar two of AUKUS would represent a seismic shift in the country’s geopolitical stance. The current government seems bullish about this prospect, which has fuelled concerns membership may be almost a done deal.

    If true, it would be the government facing questions about transparency.The Conversation

    Marco de Jong, lecturer, Law School, Auckland University of Technology and Robert G. Patman, professor of international relations, University of Otago. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to China on Wednesday, according to a senior State Department official, in a trip that comes as he and others in Washington accuse Beijing of “fueling” Russia’s war in Ukraine by helping to resupply its military.

    Blinken will travel to Shanghai and Beijing from Wednesday to Friday, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the plans ahead of time. The official said he could not yet confirm that Blinken would meet Chinese President Xi Jinping during the visit.

    The trip will attempt to build on recent diplomatic outreach to Beijing, the official explained, but would also necessitate “clearly and directly communicating [American] concerns on bilateral, regional and global issues” where China and the United States differ on policy.

    Among other issues, Blinken will raise “deep concerns” about alleged Chinese business support for Russia’s defense industrial base, the crisis in the Middle East and also in Myanmar, the issue of Taiwan and China’s recent “provocations” in the South China Sea, he said.

    But the official played down the likelihood of results, with many of the differences between Washington and Beijing now deep-seated.

    “I want to make clear that we are realistic and clear-eyed about the prospects of breakthroughs on any of these issues,” he said. 

    He also demurred when asked if Blinken would meet Xi on Friday, as is rumored. But he said more scheduling details will be released later.

    It’s safe for you to expect that he’ll spend considerable time with his counterpart … Foreign Minister Wang Yi,” he said. “We are confident our Chinese hosts will arrange a productive and constructive visit.”

    ‘Fueling’ the Ukraine war

    American officials have since last week accused Chinese businesses of keeping Russia’s war effort afloat by exporting technology needed to rebuild the country’s defense industrial base that supplies its military.

    Speaking to reporters on Friday on the Italian island of Capri ahead of the Group of 7 foreign ministers’ meeting, Blinken said U.S. intelligence had “not seen the direct supply of weapons” from China to Russia but instead a “supply of inputs” required by Russia’s defense industry.

    The support was “allowing Russia to continue the aggression against Ukraine,” he said, by allowing Moscow to rebuild its defense capacity, to which “so much damage has been done to by the Ukrainians.”

    “When it comes to weapons, what we’ve seen, of course, is North Korea and Iran primarily providing things to Russia,” Blinken said.

    “When it comes to Russia’s defense industrial base, the primary contributor in this moment to that is China,” he explained. “We see China sharing machine tools, semiconductors, [and] other dual-use items that have helped Russia rebuild the defense industrial base that sanctions and export controls had done so much to degrade.”  

    Beijing was attempting, Blinken said, to secretly aid Russia’s war in Ukraine while openly courting improved relations with Europe. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz met with Xi in Beijing on Tuesday, and Xi is set to meet French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris next month.  

    “If China purports, on the one hand, to want good relations with Europe,” he said, “it can’t, on the other hand, be fueling what is the biggest threat to European security since the end of the Cold War.”

    The G-7 group, which also includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom, also released a statement on Friday calling on China “to press Russia to stop its military aggression.” 

    The seven foreign ministers also expressed their concern “about transfers to Russia from business in China of dual-use materials and components for weapons and equipment for military production.”

    In an email to Radio Free Asia, Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, did not deny Blinken’s claims. 

    But he said China “is not a party to or involved in the Ukraine crisis” and that the country’s position on the war is “fair and objective.”

    “We actively promote peace talks and have not provided weapons to either side of the conflict,” Liu said. “At the same time, China and Russia have every right to normal economic and trade cooperation, which should not be interfered with or restricted.”

    Not the only tension

    Blinken’s trip will come amid a slew of other squabbles between the world’s two major powers bubbling since last year’s Xi-Biden talks.

    In a speech at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, on Thursday, FBI Director Christopher Wray repeated claims he made to Congress earlier this year that Chinese hackers were targeting key U.S. infrastructure and waiting to “wreak havoc” in case of a conflict.

    On April 11, Biden notably warned Beijing that the United States would come to the aid of Philippine vessels in the South China Sea if they were attacked by China, calling the commitment “ironclad.”

    On the economic front, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who herself visited Beijing this month, has slammed Beijing for what she says is over-subsidization of green technology, with cheap Chinese exports crippling development of competing industries worldwide.

    Xi also expressed concerns to Biden during a phone call on April 2 about a bill that would allow the U.S. president to ban the popular social media app TikTok, which U.S. officials have called a national security threat, if its Chinese parent company does not divest.

    China, meanwhile, on Friday forced Apple to scrub social media apps WhatsApp and Threads, both owned by Facebook parent company Meta, from its App Store, citing “national security concerns.”

    Blinken will be joined on his trip by Liz Allen, the under secretary for public diplomacy and public Affairs; Daniel Kritenbrink, the assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific; Todd Robinson, the undersecretary for narcotics and law enforcement; and Nathaniel Fick, the U.S. ambassador-at-large for cyberspace and digital policy.


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor in Honiara

    Solomon Islands’ incumbent prime minister Manasseh Sogavare has been re-elected in the East Choiseul constituency.

    It is the opening move in the political chess match to form the country’s next government.

    Returning officer Christopher Makoni made the declaration late last night after a day of counting, according to the national broadcaster SIBC.

    Counting continues today in provincial centres across the country.

    Solomon Islands chief electoral officer Jasper Anisi told RNZ Pacific on Tuesday all systems go
    Solomon Islands chief electoral officer Jasper Anisi told RNZ Pacific on Tuesday all elections materials have been distributed and the country is ready to go to the polls. Image: RNZ Pacific/Koroi Hawkins

    So far at least four members of Sogavare’s former cabinet have been re-elected.

    But it is still early days as the first upset of the election also took place overnight, with George Tema unseating Silas Tausinga in the West New Georgia-Vona Vona constituency.

    According to the Electoral Commission’s political party breakdown of the election results received so far, Sogavare’s Our Party was leading with 34 percent of votes counted on Saturday morning, followed by former opposition leader Matthew Wale’s Solomon Islands Democratic Party which had 26 percent.

    Independent election candidates rounded out the top three with 23.4 percent of the votes counted so far. There was then a sharp drop-off to the fourth-placed People’s First Party on 8 percent.

    Once all 50 members of Parliament have been officially elected, they will be whisked back from the provinces to the capital, Honiara, where lobbying camps are already being set up in hotels.

    One political party leader and election candidate, whose result has yet to be declared, told RNZ Pacific the first of those camps would be at the Honiara Hotel, and that coalition talks were already underway.

    Fewer women MPs
    There are also likely to be less women in Parliament after another incumbent woman MP, Lillian Maefai, was ousted by Franklyn Derek Wasi in the East Makira Constituency.

    Two other incumbent women MPs, Lanelle Tananganda and Ethel Vokia, did not re-contest their seats in this election, making way instead for their husbands — who had formerly lost the seats because of corruption convictions — to stand.

    That left Freda Soria Comua, as the last of the four women MPs in the former parliament, still with a chance to make it back into the house.

    There are 20 women among the 334 candidates contesting this election.

    It is very rare for women to be elected in Solomon Islands’ male-dominated political sphere. Three out of the four women in the last parliament came into the house as proxies for their husbands.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • COMMENTARY: By Eugene Doyle

    Helen Clark, how I miss you.  The former New Zealand Prime Minister — the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory — gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held in Parliament’s old Legislative Chambers yesterday.

    AUKUS (Australia, UK, US) is first and foremost a military alliance aimed at our major trading partner China. It is designed to maintain US primacy in the “Indo-Pacific” region and opponents are sceptical of claims that China represents a threat to New Zealand or Australian security.

    The recent proposal to bring New Zealand into the alliance under “Pillar II”  would represent a shift in our security and alliance settings that could dismantle our country’s independent foreign policy and potentially undo our nuclear free policy.

    Clark’s assessment is that the way the government has approached the proposed alliance lacks transparency.  National made no signal of its intentions during the election campaign and yet the move towards AUKUS seems well planned and choreographed.

    Voters in the last election “were not sensitised to any changes in the policy settings,” Clark says, “and this raises huge issues of transparency.”

    Such a significant shift should first secure a mandate from the electorate.

    A key question the speakers addressed at the symposium was: is AUKUS in the best interest of this country and our region?

    Highly questionable
    “All of these statements made about AUKUS being good for us are highly questionable,” Clark says.  “What is good about joining a ratcheting up of tensions in a region?  Where is the military threat to New Zealand?”

    Clark, PM from 1999-2008, has noticed a serious slippage in our independent position.  She contrasted current policy on the Middle East with the decision, under her leadership, of not joining the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

    Sceptical of US claims about weapons of mass destruction, New Zealand made clear it wanted no part of it — a stance that has proven correct. Our powerful allies the US, UK and Australia were wrong both on intelligence and the consequences of military action.

    In contrast, New Zealand participating in the current bombardment of Yemen because of the Houthis disruption of Red Sea traffic in response to the Israeli war on Gaza is, says Clark, an indication of this change in fundamental policy stance:

    “New Zealand should have demanded the root causes for the shipping route disruptions be addressed rather than enthusiastically joining the bombing.”

    “There’s no doubt in my mind that if the drift we see in position continues, we will be positioned in a way we haven’t seen for decades –  as a fully-signed-up partner to US strategies in the region.

    “And from that, will flow expectations about what is the appropriate level of defence expenditure for New Zealand and expectations of New Zealand contributing to more and more military activities.”

    Economic security
    Clark addressed another element which should add caution to New Zealand joining an American crusade against China: economic security.

    China now takes 26 percent of our exports — twice what we send to Australia and 2.5 times what we send to the US.  She questioned the wisdom of taking a hostile stance against our biggest trading partner who continues to pose no security threat to this country.

    So what is the alternative to New Zealand siding with the US in its push to contain China and help the US maintain its hegemon status?

    “The alternative path is that New Zealand keeps its head while all around are losing theirs — and that we combine with our South Pacific neighbours to advocate for a region which is at peace,” Clark says, echoing sentiments that go right back to the dawn of New Zealand’s nuclear free Pacific, “so that we always pursue dialogue and engagement over confrontation.”

    Eugene Doyle is a community organiser and activist in Wellington, New Zealand. He received an Absolutely Positively Wellingtonian award in 2023 for community service. His first demonstration was at the age of 12 against the Vietnam War. This article was first published at his public policy website Solidarity and is republished here with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • The skin toasted Australian Minister of Defence, Richard Marles, who resembles, with each day, the product of an overly worked solarium, was adamant.  Not only will Australians be paying a bill up to and above A$368 billion for nuclear powered submarines it does not need; it will also be throwing A$100 billion into the coffers of the military industrial complex over the next decade to combat a needlessly inflated enemy.  Forget diplomacy and funding the cause (and course) of peace – it’s all about the weapons and the Yellow Peril, baby.

    On April 18, Marles and Defence Industry Pat Conroy barraged the press with announcements that the defence budget would be bulked by A$50.3 billion by 2034, with a A$330 billion plan for weapons and equipment known as the Integrated Investment Program.  The measures were intended to satisfy the findings of the Defence Strategic Review.  “This is a significant lift compared to the $270 billion allocated for the 10-year period to 2029-30 as part of the 2020 Defence Strategic Update and 2020 Force Structure Plan,” crowed a statement from the Defence Department.

    Such statements are often weighed down by jargon and buoyed by delusion.  The press were not left disappointed by the insufferable fluff.  Australia will gain “an enhanced lethality surface fleet and conventionally-armed, nuclear-powered submarines”, an army with “littoral manoeuvre” capabilities “with a long-range land and maritime strike capability”, an air force capable of delivering “long-range intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance” with “an enhanced maritime, land and air-strike capability” and “a strengthened and integrated space and cyber capability”.  The glaring omission here is the proviso that all such policies are being essentially steered by Washington’s defence interests, with Canberra very  much the obedient servant.

    The defence minister was firmly of the view that all this was taking place with some speed.  “We are acting very quickly in relation to [challenges],” Marles insists.  “I mean, the acquiring of a general-purpose frigate going forward, for example, will be the most rapid acquisition of a platform that size that we’ve seen in decades.”  Anyone who uses the term “rapid” in a sentence on military acquisition is clearly a certified novice.

    The ministers, along with the department interests they represent, are certainly fond of their expensive toys.  They are seeking a fourth squadron of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters as replacements for the F/A-18 Super Hornets.  The EA-18G Growler jets are also being replaced.  (That said, both sets of current fighters will see aging service till 2040.)  Three vessels will be purchased to advance undersea war capabilities, including the undersea drone prototype, the Ghost Shark.

    The latter hopes to equip the Royal Australian Navy “with a stealthy, long-range autonomous undersea warfare capability that can conduct persistent intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and strike.”  Importantly, such acquisitions and developments are always qualified by how well they will work in tandem with the imperial power in question.  The media release from the Department of Defence prefers a more weasel-worded formula.  The Ghost Shark, for instance, “will also enhance Navy’s ability to operate with allies and partners.”

    The new militarisation strategy is also designed to improve levels of recruitment.  Personnel have been putting down their weapons in favour of other forms of employment, while recruitment numbers are falling, much to the consternation of the pro-war lobby.  A suggested answer: recruit non-Australian nationals.  This far from brilliant notion will, Marles suggests, take some years.  But a good place to start would be the hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders resident in Australia.  Sheer genius.

    The announcement was also meant to offer budget trimmers a barely visible olive branch, promising “to divest, delay or re-scope projects that do not meet our strategic circumstances.” (They could start with the submarines.)  A$5 billion, for instance, will be saved from terminating naval transport and replenishment ships intended to refuel and resupply war vessels at sea.

    Hardly appropriate, opined some military pundits keen to keep plucking the money tree.  Jennifer Parker of the National Security College suggested that, “The removal of the Joint Support ship means there is no future plan to expand Australia’s limited replenishment capability of two ships – which will in turn limit the force projection capability and reach of the expanded surface combatant fleet if the issue is not addressed.”

    The focus, as ever, is on Wicked Oriental Authoritarianism which is very much in keeping with the traditional Australian fear of slanty-eyed devils moving in on the spoils and playground of the Anglosphere.  Former RAAF officer and executive director of the Air Power Institute, Chris McInnes, barks in aeronautical terms that Australia’s air power capability risks being “put in a holding pattern for the next 10 years.”  Despotic China, however, was facing no such prospects.  “There is a risk of putting everything on hold.  The People’s Liberal Army is not on hold.  They are going to keep progressing their aircraft.”  (The air force seems to do wonders for one’s grammar.)

    China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian was cool in his response to the latest promises of indulgent military spending Down Under.  “We hope Australia will correctly view China’s development and strategic intentions, abandon the Cold War mentality, do more things to keep the region peaceful and stable and stop buzzing about China.”  No harm in hoping.

    The post The Australian Defence Formula: Spend! Spend! Spend! first appeared on Dissident Voice.


    This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Binoy Kampmark.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • China’s top diplomat met the outgoing Indonesian president and his successor in Jakarta on Thursday, as Beijing deepened its engagement with future leader Prabowo Subianto, amid a competition for regional influence with the United States.

    The meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was part of a joint commitment to advance the partnership between the two countries, said Prabowo, who visited Beijing in early April after his landslide win in the February general election.

    “It is a great honor for me to welcome him [Wang] today. Thank you for the kind reception I received in Beijing a few weeks ago,” Prabowo said, according to an Indonesian defense ministry statement.

    Chinese President Xi Jinping had invited Prabowo to visit, and the latter accepting the invitation raised eyebrows in Indonesia because no president-elect had made a foreign visit such as this one without being sworn in. China is Indonesia’s largest trading partner.

    Wang, too, mentioned Prabowo’s Beijing trip, according to the same statement.

    “We really appreciate and welcome Defense Minister Prabowo’s visit to China,” he said.

    “We are committed to continuing to increase bilateral cooperation with Indonesia, both in the defense sector and other fields such as economic, social and cultural.”

    Wang is scheduled to go to East Nusa Tenggara province on Friday to attend the China-Indonesia High-Level Dialogue Cooperation Mechanism, a process to support more effective bilateral cooperation. His Jakarta stop was the first of a six-day tour that also includes Cambodia and Papua New Guinea.

    Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (left) and Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi attend a press conference after their meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jakarta, April 18, 2024. (Eko Siswono Toyudho/ BenarNews)
    Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (left) and Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi attend a press conference after their meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jakarta, April 18, 2024. (Eko Siswono Toyudho/ BenarNews)

    Prabowo and Wang discussed cooperation in the defense industry and sector, with potential measures such as educational and training collaboration, as well as joint exercises, said Brig. Gen. Edwin Adrian Sumantha, spokesman at the Indonesian defense ministry.

    In fact, the ministry statement said that “China is Indonesia’s close partner and has had close bilateral relations, especially in the defense sector, for a long time.”

    Of course, China has also invested billions of U.S. dollars in infrastructure projects in Indonesia, including as part of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative – the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed train, which began commercial operations in October 2023, is one such BRI project.

    The two countries have drawn closer during outgoing President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s two terms, and Beijing would like that to continue as the U.S. tries to catch up with China’s gargantuan influence in Southeast Asia, analysts have said.

    Indonesia, China call for ceasefire in Gaza

    Both Indonesia and China shared the same position on Israel’s devastating attacks on Gaza, said Wang’s Indonesian counterpart, Retno Marsudi.

    Israel’s air and ground strikes have killed more than 33,000 Palestinians following the Oct. 7 attack on the Jewish state by Palestinian militant group Hamas, which killed around 1,100 Israelis.

    “We … have the same view regarding the importance of a ceasefire in Gaza and resolving the Palestinian problem fairly through two state solutions,” Retno told reporters in a joint press conference after meeting with Wang. 

    “Indonesia will support full Palestinian membership in the U.N. Middle East stability will not be realized without resolving the Palestinian issue.”

    For his part, Wang slammed Washington for repeatedly vetoing resolutions calling for Israel to end the attacks on the Palestinian territory it occupies.

    “The conflict in Gaza has lasted for half a year and caused a rare humanitarian tragedy in the 21st century,” Wang told the media at the same press conference, according to the Associated Press.

    “The United Nations Security Council responded to the call of the international community and continued to review the resolution draft on the cease-fire in Gaza, but it was repeatedly vetoed by the United States.”

    The conflict in the Middle East offered a strategic opportunity for China to further expand its influence in Southeast Asia, said Muhamad Arif, a lecturer in international relations at the University of Indonesia.

    “China is trying to strengthen its position as a key player in the region,” Arief told BenarNews.

    China could present an alternative approach to the conflict in Gaza, he said, which may find approval in Southeast Asia’s largest country, Indonesia, and other Mulism-majority states in the region, such as Malaysia and Brunei.

    BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Tria Dianti and Ismira Lutfia Tisnadibrata for BenarNews.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • China’s government has turned the country’s tech companies like Huawei and ZTE into its “proxies” and uses their dominant market share in developing countries around the Indo-Pacific region to export its authoritarian model of the internet, according to a new report.

    In countries such as Cambodia, Malaysia, Nepal and Thailand, the dominance of the Chinese companies in building digital infrastructure has meant Beijing’s controlled version of the internet is expanding, leading to a fragmentation with the West’s open web, it says.

    The report is titled The Digital Silk Road: China and the Rise of Digital Repression in the Indo-Pacific and was released Wednesday by Article 19, a London-based internet-freedom advocacy organization.

    The group says the cut-price internet infrastructure being offered by companies beholden to the Chinese Communist Party “has benefited” countries that otherwise would be stuck with outdated infrastructure. 

    But that assistance comes with a catch, it says.

    “China has packaged its model as the prevailing best practice, often masked as support for innovation centers, exchanges or broader digital diplomacy initiatives, especially on issues relating to cybersecurity,” the report says, adding that the result is further “digital repression.”

    “This is intended to tip the scales in global adoption to influence more states to employ Chinese norms, accelerating internet fragmentation.”

    Cambodia’s ‘Great Firewall’

    The report points to Cambodia, where it says “China is present at virtually every layer of the digital ecosystem,” which it says has been marked by a “shift towards China-style digital authoritarianism.”

    Firms like Huawei and ZTE have played “a leading role” in laying out infrastructure, it says, to the point where Cambodian telecoms companies only offer the two companies’ internet routers. 

    ENG_CHN_InternetReport_04172024.2.jpg
    Hip-hop artist Kea Sokun listens to one of his songs online at a cafe in Phnom Penh, Cambodia January 29, 2022. (Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP)

    Huawei is also Cambodia’s only authorized cloud service provider and is responsible for much of the country’s 5G network, it notes, as well as its terrestrial and submarine internet lines and data centers.

    But it says China’s influence extends beyond infrastructure.

    “Alongside infrastructure-level cooperation, the shadow influence of China’s internet governance model has loomed large over Cambodia’s embrace of digital authoritarianism,” the report says, terming China’s influence on internet norms a form of “digital diplomacy.”

    In some areas, that has improved network engineering, the report says, but it also includes provision of “the technical knowhow for Cambodia to better emulate China’s digital authoritarian model.”

    The report blames such digital diplomacy for Cambodia’s National Internet Gateway, a system akin to China’s “Great Firewall” that allows the government to monitor and control all internet traffic.

    Phnom Penh has not said who is building the system, “but experts in Cambodian civil society believe it is Huawei or ZTE,” the report says.

    China alternatives

    The report recommends Western governments seek to work further with Taiwan and its technology sector to develop the self-ruling island further as a “counterweight” to China’s digital influence.

    ENG_CHN_InternetReport_04172024.3.jpg
    A technician stands at the entrance to a Huawei 5G data server center at the Guangdong Second Provincial General Hospital in Guangzhou, in southern China’s Guangdong province on Sept. 26, 2021. (Ng Han Guan/AP)

    Taiwanese companies could help export infrastructure more friendly to the open web, it says, and countries like the United States could provide “greater financial resources” to civil society groups in the affected countries to push back against digital authoritarianism. 

    But it warns against casting too wide of a net in searching for alternatives to Chinese-built infrastructure and internet norms.

    Specifically, “while greater regional cooperation is necessary,” it says, “uncritically embracing countries with their own records of digital dictatorship, such as Vietnam, will ultimately be counterproductive.”

    Edited by Malcolm Foster.


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor in Honiara

    After a relatively well organised and peaceful day of voting in Solomon Islands yesterday, the electoral commission is working with donor partners to safely transport ballot boxes from polling stations all over the country to centrally located counting venues.

    It is a massive exercise with more than 200 New Zealand Defence Force personnel providing logistical support across the 29,000 sq km sprawling island chain to ensure that those who want to vote have an opportunity to do so.

    Chief Electoral Officer Jasper Anisi said there were some preliminary processes to be completed once all ballot boxes were accounted for but he expected counting to begin today.

    “Mostly it will be verification of ballot boxes and ballot papers from the polling stations. But once verification is done then counting will automatically start,” Anisi said.

    Solomon Islanders queuing up to cast their ballots in Honiara. 17 April 2024
    Solomon Islanders queuing up to cast their ballots in Honiara yesterday. Image: RNZ Pacific/Koroi Hawkins

    The big issues
    So what were the big election issues for Solomon Islanders at the polls yesterday?

    A lack of government services, poor infrastructure development and the establishment of diplomatic ties with China are some of the things voters in the capital Honiara told RNZ Pacific they cared about.

    Timothy Vai said he was unhappy with the former government’s decision to cut ties with Taiwan in 2019 so it could establish ties with China.

    “I want to see a change. My aim in voting now is for a new government. Because we are a democratic country but we shifted [diplomatic ties] to a communist country,” Vai said.

    Another voter, Minnie Kasi, wanted leaders to do more for herself and her community.

    “My voting experience was good. I came to vote for the right person,” she said.

    “Over the past four years I did not see anything delivered by the person I voted for last time which is why I am voting for the person I voted for today.”

    Lack of government services
    While Ethel Manera felt there was a lack of development and basic government services in her constitutency.

    “Some infrastructure and sanitation [projects] they have not developed and they are still yet to develop and that is what I see should be developed in our country,” Manera said.

    This is the first time the country has conducted simultaneous voting for national and provincial election candidates.

    Anisi has said they would start by tallying the provincial results.

    “The provincial results we count in wards,” he said.

    “So wards have smaller numbers compared to the constituencies so you need to count all the wards in order to get the constituency number.”

    Some visiting political experts and local commentators in Honiara think delaying the announcement of the national election results might pose a security risk if it takes too long and voters grow impatient.

    But others say it is a good strategy because historically supporters of national candidates who win hold noisy public celebrations and if this is done first it could disrupt the counting of provincial results.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Paraguay is the only South American country that maintains diplomatic relations with Taiwan – which means it doesn’t have diplomatic ties with mainland China. But President Santiago Peña Palacios stated in March that this has not affected its commercial ties with China, citing its soybean exports as an example.

    However, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian denied these claims, saying on March 25 that official statistics prove China had not imported any soybeans from Paraguay in recent years. 

    Later that same day, Paraguayan presidential spokesperson Paula Carro reiterated Peña’s original claim at a press conference, saying: “China is one of Paraguay’s major importers, and our food products are often exported there through middlemen.”

    Both statements are true.

    While China has indeed not imported any soybeans directly from Paraguay, large numbers of soybeans originally grown in Paraguay and then shipped to ports in neighboring Uruguay or Argentina have then been exported to China.

    Paraguay is a major soybean producer – the world’s sixth-largest producer of soybeans and soybean oil. 

    China, meanwhile, is the largest world’s largest importer of soybeans, which are used to make tofu and a wide variety of food in Chinese cuisine.

    However, as one of only two landlocked countries in South America (the other being neighboring Bolivia), Paraguay must first ship its products by river to coastal ports — typically in Argentina or Uruguay — before shipping them abroad.

    Intermediary Trade Stops

    According to Chinese customs data, the top three source countries for the country’s imported 99.4 million tons of soybeans in 2023 were Brazil, the United States and Argentina. 

    1.jpg

    While China and Paraguay do engage in minimal trade (a little over $250 million total in 2023), statistics from Chinese customs and the Common Market of the South, or MERCOSUR — a South American trade bloc currently composed of full member states Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay – shows that China does not directly import any soybeans from Paraguay. 

    However, previous Paraguayan officials have made statements similar to those of Peña which clarify the roundabout trade route these beans take. 

    Former Paraguayan Minister of Industry and Commerce Gustavo Leite pointed out in a 2018 interview that Chinese agricultural firms import Paraguayan soybeans from ports in Argentina or Uruguay.

    Statistics on the MERCOSUR database show that soybeans account for more than 80% of Paraguay’s exports to Argentina, totaling about 6 million tons in 2023.

    Because of its location near both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, Argentina plays an important role as a transit point for South American soybeans leaving the continent.

    Leite explained that while not technically counted as direct trade between China and Paraguay, these exports still make up a substantial portion of Paraguay’s total soybean exports.

    State owned enterprises

    Argentina exported 16.05 million tons of soybeans to China in 2023. Although no publicly available data shows exactly what percentage of those exported beans originated in Paraguay, a report from the agricultural trade data platform Trace that the state-owned China Oil and Foodstuffs Corporation, or COFCO, was the fourth-largest exporter of soybeans from Paraguay in 2019, with more than 70% of those beans shipped to Argentina.

    2.jpg

    Of the Chinese agricultural companies operating in Paraguay, COFCO alone comprised nearly 10% of Paraguay’s soybean production following its acquisition of the agricultural division of the Hong Kong-based commodity trading company Noble Group in 2014, an enterprise that had been a long term key buyer and processor of Paraguayan soybeans.

    Accounting for nearly 12% of China’s domestic soybean market, COFCO’s official website states that it sources products directly from South American farmers and notes that it has barge facilities in Paraguay as well as ports in Argentina and Brazil. Exports from these ports have direct access to the Chinese market.

    Paraguay’s diplomatic dance

    China requires any country wishing to establish diplomatic relations with it to drop recognition of Taiwan as a separate country since Beijing claims it as its own – even though it doesn’t control the self-governing island. 

    While not completely shutting off trade with countries recognizing Taiwan, Beijing attempts to minimize such economic ties as a means to its end of diplomatically isolating Taiwan.  

    Paraguay’s diplomatic ties with Taiwan – and whether the country should recognize China to boost its economic prospects – is a hot topic at every election. 

    Peña, inaugurated as president in September 2023, has repeatedly said that Paraguay will maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but is open to strengthening trade with China.

    According to the Argentine media outlet La Politica Online, Peña met with senior Chinese telecom executives from Huawei during a visit to Spain in February 2024. 

    Translated and edited by Shen Ke. Additional editing by Taejun Kang and Malcolm Foster.

    Asia Fact Check Lab (AFCL) was established to counter disinformation in today’s complex media environment. We publish fact-checks, media-watches and in-depth reports that aim to sharpen and deepen our readers’ understanding of current affairs and public issues. If you like our content, you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and X.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Rita Cheng in Washington.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.