China

The Philippines and Vietnam will sign a defense cooperation agreement on Friday, August 30, the office of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said, a significant step by two countries that have long opposed China’s actions in the South China Sea.

[...]

Vietnam’s decision to enter into the agreement comes at a time when [...] the Philippines and China are sparring almost every week over the South China Sea, a row that has raged for more than a year.

China claims sovereignty over almost all of the strategic waterway.

[...]

Coast guards of the two countries earlier this month held their first-ever joint exercises in Manila, simulating fire-fighting drills and search-and-rescue exercises.

That came after Marcos visited Hanoi in January and signed deals that covered “incident prevention in the South China Sea” and “maritime cooperation”.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/2375220

Here is the original YT link

TLDW: Chinese official Victor Gao defends China's military buildup as "defensive" despite regional concerns by the country's Asian neighbours, and he insists on Taiwan's reunification. He also says that freedom of speech is rightfully dismissed and justifies the reality of China's totalitarian regime under Xi Jinping. He rejects claims of mass imprisonments and oppression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Mr. Gao happens to engage in whataboutism.

Over the past few decades, China has solidified its status as an economic superpower. But the country’s economic boom coupled with its increased military might has increased tensions in the region, including with Taiwan, where fears are mounting over a possible Chinese invasion.

Meanwhile, at home, China’s human rights record remains under the spotlight with severe curtailments on free speech and a continued hardline policy on the country’s Uighur community.

So what lies ahead?

Mehdi Hasan goes head-to-head with Victor Gao, the former translator for Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping and vice president of the Center for China and Globalization, on President Xi Jinping's rule, China's foreign policy and its clampdown on dissent.

Joining the discussion are:

Rayhan Asat – international human rights lawyer of Uighur descent and senior fellow at the Atlantic Council

Stephen Chan – professor of world politics at the University of London, School of African and Oriental Studies

Martin Jacques – author of When China Rules the World and visiting professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing

Archived link

"What happens in Mongolia is crucial to China's settler-colonial project in the borderlands."

Chinese authorities have launched a campaign to change the term that people use to refer to Mongolian culture and to the cultural and historical heritage of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (IMAR) in a move aimed at eroding Mongolian identity and sense of homeland.

The Chinese Communist Party’s new official term, bei jiang wenhua, meaning ‘northern frontier culture’, eliminates reference to Mongolians, one of China’s 56 officially recognised ethnic groups. Since July 2023, Inner Mongolia state media articles, official websites, party statements, party-organised children’s activities, and official social media posts have widely promoted the phrase. The party’s regional propaganda office has also founded an academic journal dedicated to ‘northern frontier culture’, and Inner Mongolia’s premier state-run academic institute has opened a ‘northern frontier’ research centre.

The adoption of the term appears to be part of the CCP’s growing campaign to weaken Mongolian ethnic identity and instead push a Han-centric national identity through the elimination of Mongolian language education and other measures.

Under Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the party has increasingly equated the culture and language of the dominant Han ethnic group, which comprises more than 90 percent of the country’s population, with being a loyal member of the ‘Chinese nation’ (Zhonghua minzu). It has aggressively pursued assimilationist policies throughout the country, especially in nominally autonomous regions including Xinjiang and Tibet, where the party views strong ethnic identity as a threat to its rule.

[...]

The CCP Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Committee, the region’s top political body, launched the ‘northern frontier culture’ campaign in July 2023. The party committee called for ‘forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation’ by ‘establishing the “northern frontier culture” brand, according to a meeting communique released on July 6.

[...]

The campaign has swept through the region’s museums, universities, institutes, schools, and even art shops.

[...]

Shops selling traditional Mongolian art and handicrafts seem to be a target for the campaign as well. In July 2024, the owner of a shop in Baotou selling Mongolian silver jewelry told the People’s Daily: ‘I want to do the utmost to showcase these exquisite works to more people, allowing them to appreciate the allure of northern frontier culture.’

The Chinese government has recently adopted similar terminology shifts in Xinjiang and Tibet.

[...]

Ethnic Mongolians comprise about 18 percent of Inner Mongolia’s population, with Han Chinese making up about 79 percent. While 18 percent might seem comparatively small, it amounts to more than 4 million people.

[...]

Language is a core part of the campaign—and not just when it comes to terminology. The CCP began rolling back minority language education in Xinjiang and Tibet in the 2010s. Inner Mongolia did not change its education policies during that decade, and Mongolian remained the primary language of education in many schools for Mongolian students in the region. But in 2020, the CCP expanded the plan for ‘national unified Chinese textbooks’—meaning the mandatory adoption of Chinese-language textbooks—to all regions with large minority groups, including Inner Mongolia. The change was met with the largest protests Inner Mongolia had seen in decades, which the government swiftly subdued.

‘At the start, they [the government] said they would be switching from Mongolian to Chinese for only a few select subjects, but that turned out not to be true,’ says Togochog. ‘Mongolian language is now taught as a foreign language once a week, Mongolian students and children are barred from learning any subject in Mongolian anymore.’

The plan’s roll-out was completed in October 2023, just a few months after the launch of the ‘northern frontier culture’ campaign.

‘What’s happening in Inner Mongolia,’ James Leibold said, ‘is crucial to understanding the intention of the party in continuing to carry out its settler-colonial project in the borderlands.’

Archived version

Naomi Wu has disappeared. Perhaps she has been disappeared. That’s not rare in China.

[...]

The proximate cause of her apparent disappearance, as Jackie Singh explains in detail here, was a discovery that Naomi Wu, an experienced coder, had made. It seemed that the cute little cellphone keyboard applications developed by the Chinese company Tencent, and used by just about everyone, were spyware. They could log keystrokes, and did it outside of even very secure applications such as Signal, so things that were sent securely could be “phoned home” by the keyboard app itself.

It seems, though the evidence is coincidental, that this was one too many cats let out of the bag, and the Chinese communist government of Winnie Xi Pooh acted quickly, with the results (probably understated) in the Tweet quoted above.

[...]

The silence has been deafening. People on the internet, especially young, enthusiastic websters, have long been thought unbelievably shallow, in it for whatever they could get out of it, and unwilling to take a stand on something important unless there was profit in it for them. We needn’t think that anymore — now we know it’s true.

What can be done? [...] Our government won’t lift a finger even for American citizens or very well known Chinese figures trapped under the thumb of the Disney-character’s evil lookalike, or the Uyghurs, unless there’s some political gain to be had, such as with the tattooed LGBT WNBA player who couldn’t be bothered to leave her dope at home during a visit to Russia.

[...]

China was afraid that silencing Naomi Wu would make the government there look bad. Let’s prove them right.

Thailand's Trade Policy and Strategy Office (TPSO) has expressed concern over the widening trade deficit between the country and China.

In the first six months of 2024, imports from China increased by 7.12% year-on-year, amounting to US$37.6 billion (roughly 1.33 trillion baht). This resulted in a trade deficit with China of $20 billion (about 720 billion baht), up 15.7% year-on-year.

[...]

"The reason why Thailand and other countries around the world have a trade deficit with China is the mainland can manufacture products at a lower cost than other countries because of low labour costs, the availability of suppliers, a fixed exchange rate controlled by the government, which helps in setting export prices, and subsidies from the Chinese government which lower the average cost," said Poonpong Naiyanapakorn, director-general of TPSO.

[...]

In 2023, the top 10 products which Thailand recorded a trade deficit with China were: smartphones ($3.31 billion), computers and parts ($2.81 billion), hot-rolled steel sheet ($2.56 billion), electric vehicles ($2.54 billion), machinery and mechanical components (copy.88 billion), iron and steel products (copy.85 billion), chemical products (copy.77 billion), electrical appliances and parts (copy.46 billion), plastic products (copy.25 billion), and electrical circuits (copy.17 billion).

[...]

TPSO has asked the government to enforce stricter import standards, especially for electronic and electrical appliances, regulate goods evading taxes, and rigorously apply domestic trade laws to ensure imported products meet health, environmental and safety standards.

The goal is to create an ecosystem that strengthens Thai businesses and the local supply chain for sustainable competitiveness, said Mr Poonpong.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/2345582

Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday hinted that Taiwan might join forces with the Philippines to protect navigational freedoms, days after Beijing blocked Philippine supply ships in the South China Sea.

The ministry made the comment when asked whether Taipei would be willing to join forces with the Philippines to protect the latter from increasingly aggressive activities by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy and China Coast Guard.

Taiwan “is willing to cooperate with any other nation with shared values in areas of common concern, including maintaining peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacfic region,” it wrote in a statement.

**China still has “many problematic laws and policies” regarding the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region two years after the UN human rights office, OHCHR, published a report on serious violations against the Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim communities, a spokesperson said on Tuesday. **

The 31 August 2022 report stated that violations had taken place in the context of the Government’s assertion that it was targeting terrorists among the Uyghur minority with a counter-extremism strategy, involving the use of so-called Vocational Educational and Training Centres (VETCs), or re-education camps.

In an update to reporters, OHCHR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and his Office have had detailed exchanges with the Government of China on critical issues.

Topics included counter-terrorism laws and policies, criminal justice, and other policies of concern that impact the human rights of ethnic and religious minorities, including in Xinjiang and the Tibet Autonomous Region.

Equality and non-discrimination, as well as national security and human rights concerns in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region were also addressed.

Ms. Shamdasani highlighted that a UN human rights team had visited China in June and engaged in dialogue with the authorities, specifically on counter-terrorism policies and the criminal justice system.

[...]

“In particular, on Xinjiang, we understand that many problematic laws and policies remain in place, and we have called again on the authorities to undertake a full review, from the human rights perspective, of the legal framework governing national security and counter-terrorism and to strengthen the protection of minorities against discrimination. Allegations of human rights violations, including torture, need to be fully investigated,” she said.

[...]

The Office also continues to closely follow the current human rights situation in the country “despite the difficulties posed by limited access to information and the fear of reprisals against individuals who engage with the United Nations.”

Australia said Pacific Island leaders meeting at a summit in Tonga endorsed a contentious regional policing plan Wednesday, a move seen as trying to limit China's security role in the region.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said leaders had agreed to establish up to four regional police training centres and a multinational crisis reaction force.

Under the plan, a corps of about 200 officers drawn from different Pacific Island nations could be dispatched to regional hot spots and disaster zones when needed and invited.

"This demonstrates how Pacific leaders are working together to shape the future that we want to see," said Albanese, hailing the agreement.

He was flanked by leaders of Fiji, Palau, Papua New Guinea and Tonga -- a symbolic show of unity in a region riven by competition between China and the United States.

[...]

China's regional allies -- most notably Vanuatu and Solomon Islands -- had voiced concern that the policing plan represented a "geo-strategic denial security doctrine", designed to box out Beijing.

[...]

Australia and New Zealand have historically been the region's go-to security partners, leading peacekeeping missions in Solomon Islands and training in Nauru, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.

Policing, however, has increasingly become a cornerstone of Beijing's efforts to build Pacific influence.

China tried and failed to ink a region-wide security pact in 2022, but has since been plying some under-resourced Pacific police forces with martial arts training and fleets of Chinese-made vehicles.

Australia and longtime ally the United States were caught napping in 2022 when China secretly signed a security pact with Solomon Islands -- the details of which have not been made public.

China now maintains a small but conspicuous police presence in Solomon Islands, sending a revolving cadre of officers to train locals in shooting and riot tactics.

Archived version

The co-publisher of hit Chinese video game "Black Myth: Wukong" this week sent guidelines to foreign streamers urging them against discussing politically touchy topics like Covid-19 or feminism, players said.

Released globally on Tuesday, "Black Myth" rapidly became one of the most successful Chinese-made games ever, as measured by the number of players on gaming platform Steam.

[...]

But in the run up to the game's release, video streamers reported receiving a document from co-publishers Hero Games warning them to avoid topics including "feminist propaganda" or "politics" when they received a passkey to play the game, an email exchange seen by AFP showed.

Gamers were also warned against any reference to "Covid-19", "isolation" or "quarantine" -- likely a reference to China's pandemic-era policies that placed millions under arbitrary lockdowns and sparked civil unrest.

[...]

Benoit Reinier, a French video game content creator, confirmed [...] that he had received the guidelines and shared his email exchange with the firm's representative.

In a YouTube video, Reinier said he would not stream the game on his channel in response to the guidelines, he described as "censorship".

"I have never seen something so shameful," he said in the video.

"It is very clearly a document which explains to us that we must censor ourselves and we must not talk about subjects considered negative such as politics."

[...]

But Chinese gamers have rallied to the game's defence, with some painting any criticism of China's first "Triple A" title -- some of it focusing on the lack of diversity in the game -- as evidence of foreign bias.

"Feminists have always tried to achieve their anti-China goals by smearing and suppressing traditional Chinese culture, but I believe they will definitely fail," read a post on Weibo, an X-like platform, which defended the game on Wednesday.

Other Chinese social media users also targeted reviews by foreign media that awarded scores considered low.

A review by Canada-based Screen Rant was ridiculed for marking the game down for "lacking in inclusivity and diversity".

"How can it be lacking diversity when it has so many monsters?" read one Weibo comment under a post about Screen Rant's score of 3 out of 5.

[...]

Another post accused foreign gaming review platforms of "joining the ranks of those smearing China".

"Seeing that China has released a hugely successful game, they start relentlessly pushing ideologies like LGBTQ and feminism," the user added.

Japan has accused a Chinese spy plane of breaching its airspace, in what would be the first known time that a Chinese plane has directly violated Japanese airspace.

Japan scrambled fighter jets after a Y-9 surveillance plane "violated the territorial airspace" of Danjo islands at 11:29 local time Monday (02:29 GMT).

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary called the breach "utterly unacceptable" and summoned a Chinese embassy official in Tokyo in protest.

The incident comes as tensions rise in the region, where China competes for influence against the US and its allies, including Japan.

[...]

Japan has also recently flagged the presence of Chinese ships in the Senkaku islands in the East China Sea, which is claimed by China and which Beijing calls the Diaoyus.

China has become increasingly assertive in the region, in its claims over Taiwan as well as the South China Sea.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/2261331

Archived link

Hungarian media outlet 444 has compiled a list of the outstanding debts of the state of Hungary, primarily using data from the Public Debt Management Centre (ÁKK). Their findings show that in just three years, the Hungarian government has accumulated considerable debt to China. By the end of the second quarter of this year, Hungary owed HUF 71.79 billion (EUR 182 million) to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, a debt first incurred in the last quarter of 2022.

Earlier, in the second quarter of 2022, Hungary secured a loan for the construction of the Budapest-Belgrade railway line. So far, they have drawn down HUF 341.6 billion (EUR 866 million) for this project. The total investment for the railway amounts to HUF 750 billion (EUR 1.9 billion), of which 85% is being financed by loans and 15% by co-financing. Additionally, in the spring of this year, Hungary requested a loan of EUR 1 billion in complete secrecy by the end of the second quarter, according to the ÁKK’s accounts.

On top of these loans, Hungary also has CNY 3 billion worth of foreign currency bonds due for repayment to Chinese investors this year and next, which equates to around EUR 380 million at the current exchange rates. In total, 444 estimates Hungary’s debt to China now exceeds HUF 1,000 billion (EUR 2.536 billion), although they caution it could be even higher.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/2260155

The US encourages “all countries to expand engagement with Taiwan,” a US Department of State official said on Saturday, after Palau’s president said that the Micronesian nation has faced economic coercion from China over its ties to Taiwan.

“Taiwan is a reliable, like-minded and democratic partner, and its partnerships — official and unofficial — around the world provide significant and sustainable benefits to the citizens of those countries,” a State Department spokesperson said. “We encourage all countries to expand engagement with Taiwan.”

Earlier this month, Washington condemned Beijing’s “predatory economic activities.”

Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr on Aug. 14 said that “China has openly told us [Palau’s relationship with Taiwan] is illegal and we should not recognize Taiwan.”

The new government in Thailand is being urged to urgently address the perception that Chinese products and investments pose a threat to Thais before the issue escalates and negatively affects Thailand's exports and tourism.

Sompop Manarungsan, president of the Panyapiwat Institute of Management and a specialist on the Chinese and US economies, said Thailand and China should cooperate to create a win-win trade model.

"Negative sentiment has been growing to the point where even a Chinese fried chicken brand that recently set up franchises in Thailand is seen as a threat. There are numerous Japanese and Korean restaurants in Thailand, while Chinese fried chicken shops are relatively few," he said.

"If perceptions and attitudes towards Chinese investment and trade are not resolved quickly, it could lead to a trade confrontation with China, which would negatively impact Thailand's export and tourism sectors."

[...]

Mr Sompop acknowledged Chinese investment and the influx of Chinese products into Thailand do have some negative impacts on local businesses, but he said there is another side to the coin.

[...]

Chinese trade and investment have benefits and drawbacks, as most factories in Thailand use low-cost components or raw materials from China.

[...]

China has not yet reduced its production capacity, causing a surplus of Chinese goods to flow into developing countries, said Mr Sompop.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/2235521

Archived link

Some have argued that Yabo (aka Yabo Sports, Yabo Group) and its many constituent brands comprise "the biggest illegal betting operation targeting Greater China." You probably haven't heard of it before, but you may have come across it unknowingly in passing, hundreds of times, if you watch European football, aka soccer in US parlance. The operation enjoys multimillion-dollar partnerships with some of the world's biggest clubs, like Manchester United and Bayern Munich.

Less visible to the public are Yabo's modern day slaves, forced to staff the debt-fueled pyramid scheme underpinning its gambling empire.

[...]

"Often, as a culture and as an industry, we separate technical stories from real life," Dr. Renée Burton, head of threat intelligence at Infoblox, says. "But these are monumental human crimes that are occurring [in] human trafficking and money laundering. It's the most interesting research I've ever been involved with."

[...]

On paper, Yabo Sports shut down in 2022 amid media scrutiny. But it fact it actually passed on through other brands like Kaiyun Sports. Kaiyun's logo has featured prominently on the sleeves of Aston Villa and Crystal Palace kits, or uniforms, in recent seasons, and the front of Nottingham Forest's (all England). Kaiyun reportedly also has a partnership in place with the world's biggest club, Real Madrid.

[...]

As Burton tells it, "Essentially, they use a ton of shell companies in multiple places around the world. And then they'll come up through these white label providers in the UK, like TGP Europe, which was linked by journalists to [gambling organization] Suncity, which has been accused by the Chinese government of money laundering. So it obfuscates those [groups] which are already obfuscated. It's just this ridiculous chain of false identities."

[...]

"So it draws people [into the sites]," Burton explains, "and they're browsing around a little bit. You've got your Manchester United logo. Then it starts popping up: these lures for you to come gamble." The sites include images of scantily dressed women and live chats with purported customer service agents. If a user stays idle for a period of time, the site might offer financial incentives, like a sliding scale of up to $1,500 free for any user who deposits up to $70,000 in a week.

"It draws you in further, and eventually you're losing. Now you're in debt, and you move into servitude. It's essentially a pyramid scheme: you have to go recruit people to gamble, then you get a portion of those people's losses to go against your debt," she says.

[...]

A 2023 report from the Asian Racing Federation (ARF) Council on Anti-Illegal Betting and Related Financial Crime described how Yabo betting sites are also staffed by physically imprisoned individuals:

The walled-off complexes have apartments, offices, supermarkets and other facilities, and are guarded by armed security whose job is to keep people in, according to reports in Chinese state media and elsewhere.

[. . .]

According to victim testimony, staff must work 12 hours a day, six days a week and cannot leave without a ransom. Staff are sold between operators, with ransoms increasing on each occasion. Videos and photographs online in 2021 showed people being physically threatened, beaten with sticks, and struck with electric batons.

[Edit: Deleted tautology in the title.]

“Authoritarian legality:" China’s oppression, mass imprisonment of the Uyghur minority amounts to "genocide" the world "has not seen since World War II", study says

Here is the study: Uyghur Race as the Enemy: China’s Legalized Authoritarian Oppression and Mass Imprisonment (pdf)

Chinese authorities sentences Uyghurs -a minority in Nothwestern China- to prison for an average of 9 years, including for "offences" such as wearing a hijab or sending money to family abroad.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) seeks to “legalize” and “normalize” Uyghur persecution by incorporating it into the pre-existing criminal justice system "undermining the possibility of a life of dignity, prosperity, and freedom for future generations as well," the researchers say.

• Evidence indicates that trials against Uyghurs, if they happened at all, have been cursory and performative rather than substantive.There are countless documented arrests that were almost immediately followed by formal imprisonment in less than a month.

• The Uyghur population is currently set to suffer from a cumulative total of 4.4 million years of imprisonment, "undermining the possibility of a life of dignity, prosperity, and freedom for future generations as well," the researchers say.

• Almost 90% of criminal records in Xinjiang are not public, even though legal records in other Chinese regions are, meaning that records of hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs who are known to be imprisoned were unavailable for the context of this particular analysis.

• Additionally, the limited data available does not provide substantive information on incarcerations. There exist 13,088 entries for which no official reason for arrest or incarceration was made available to anyone, including families and loved ones, with 3,849 of those in- dividuals known to be incarcerated and 9,059 of those individuals whose status remains unclear.

• 25,155 entries [in the official the database] do not even have sentencing data, and most entries provide only unclear reasons for indictment, such as “Flagged by autonomous-region IJOP (一体化推送人员)” or “Four lines (meaning unclear) (四条线).”

The victims’ families were left in no better position when it came to transparency and communication of the victims’ status, in some cases being left oblivious to their family members’ imprisonment for years. The report cites case of Mr. Abdurahm Tohti’s family:

Mr. Tohti was living in Istanbul when he lost contact with his wife and two kids—the youngest being only five months old.31 Mr. Tohti’s entire family was sentenced to a total of 90 years after their disappearance 7 years ago, but only recently did Mr. Tohti learn of the sentencing through other locals. Mr. Tohti still does not know what his wife or kids were charged with. In another case, Uyghur professor and ethnographer Rahile Dawut’s daughter lost contact with her in 2017. Her daughter, who lives in the United States, did not hear any news regarding what had happened to her mother until four years later, in 2023—only to find out that she had been sentenced to life in prison. She has not spoken to her mother since, and is unable to ask anybody in Xinjiang for more details. This opaqueness has led to immense frustration and caused tremendous pain for Ms. Dawut’s daughter.

"These are merely emblematic examples. Many families have endured a similar fate, not knowing what happened to their loved ones after they disappeared," the report says.

- There is growing resentment across Southeast Asia against Chinese e-commerce firms.__

- Import tariffs can create tensions and hurt some local businesses.__

- Southeast Asian nations are also pulling out all the stops to welcome Chinese electric vehicle makers such as BYD and GWM, with subsidies and other incentives to set up manufacturing plants, due to growing trade deficits with China.__

Indonesia is Southeast Asia’s largest e-commerce market, accounting for nearly half the gross merchandise value of the eight top platforms, according to advisory firm Momentum Works. The value of e-commerce sales in Indonesia hit $77 billion last year, authorities say.

Chinese imports had enjoyed low, or zero, duties in Indonesia under regional trade agreements. But as sales of cheap clothes, shoes, and electronics surged online, the government stepped in to protect local businesses. President Joko Widodo has repeatedly raised concerns about low-priced Chinese-made goods, and urged consumers to shun imported products. The country has imposed the strictest curbs on cross-border e-commerce sales in the region. It set a de minimis limit — the threshold below which goods are not subject to import duties — at $100, then lowered that to $75, and then to $3. Authorities also banned shopping on social media platforms last year, forcing TikTok Shop to close. But the platform was back online after about two months, saying it had met the requirements.

Across Southeast Asia, other governments are also cracking down with higher import duties and outright bans on some goods. Malaysia has a 10% sales tax on imported goods priced below 500 ringgit ($106), while the Philippines has imposed a 1% withholding tax on online merchants. In Thailand, the entry of Chinese e-commerce firm Temu has sparked calls for higher tariffs on some imported goods. More taxes and curbs on e-commerce firms may be imminent across the region, Simon Torring, co-founder of research firm Cube Asia, says.

[...]

While Southeast Asian nations are trying to rein in Chinese e-commerce firms, they are also pulling out all the stops to welcome Chinese electric vehicle makers such as BYD and GWM, with subsidies and other incentives to set up manufacturing plants. Indonesia has a trade deficit with China, but authorities were forced to roll back some import restrictions earlier this year after complaints that they led to a slowdown in manufacturing.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/2159530

Chinese fast fashion giant Shein says it found two cases of child labour in its supply chain last year as it tightens scrutiny of the companies that make the clothes it sells.

The firm says it temporarily suspended orders from the suppliers involved and did not resume business with them until they had stepped up efforts to tackle the issue.

The revelation in Shein's 2023 sustainability report comes as it is understood to be planning to sell shares on the stock market.

The company has been criticised for the conditions faced by workers at factories in its supply chain.

[...]

The firm said the two cases were uncovered during the first nine months of 2023 and none were found in the last quarter of the year.

It comes as the company lays the groundwork for a potential sale of shares on the stock market.

In a disturbing show of complicity, a delegation of prominent Chinese tech companies recently visited Xinjiang (Uyghur homeland) as part of a government-organized propaganda tour. The delegation, under the banner “Red Homeland Xinjiang Tour of Beijing Internet Enterprises” (北京网络企业红色故土新疆行), was welcomed in Urumqi by key Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials, including Xinjiang Party Secretary Ma Xingrui (马兴瑞) and Chairman Erken Tuniyaz (艾尔肯·吐尼亚孜). This visit, framed as an exploration of economic cooperation and digital development in the region, is yet another attempt by the CCP to whitewash its ongoing genocide against the Uyghur people.

Xinjiang’s Party Secretary Ma Xingrui requested their support for Party efforts in Xinjiang, Xinjiang Daily, the party mouthpiece of the so-called Xinjiang government, reported on August 14, 2024.

The tour’s participants include influential tech giants like Sohu (搜狐), iQIYI (爱奇艺), Weibo (微博), JD.com (京东), TikTok (抖音), Kuaishou (快手), Meituan (美团), Huawei (华为), Tencent (腾讯), Baidu (百度), Xiaomi (小米), and Alibaba (阿里巴巴). These companies, with vast economic power and global reach, are playing a crucial role in supporting the CCP’s narrative, attempting to portray Xinjiang as a region thriving under China’s control, while ignoring the brutal repression and cultural erasure occurring within its borders. Propaganda in the Face of Genocide

The so-called Xinjiang government has intensified its efforts to counter international criticism by inviting high-profile Chinese companies to the region, using their public influence to push its “Beautiful Xinjiang” propaganda campaign. The reality, however, is far from beautiful. While Uyghurs continue to face mass detention, forced labor, and cultural genocide, the CCP is desperate to repair its tarnished global reputation and mitigate the economic fallout caused by its human rights abuses.

The presence of these tech firms in Xinjiang is particularly alarming given their deep ties to China’s economic landscape and public influence. By participating in this tour, they are aiding the CCP’s strategy to obscure the reality of genocide and present a façade of stability and prosperity. The government’s rhetoric about “economic opportunities” and “high-quality development” in Xinjiang is a thinly veiled attempt to distract from the atrocities being committed against the Uyghur population.

Chinese workers may soon have to work just a little bit longer.

In late July 2024, China’s ruling Communist Party adopted a resolution that would see the country’s statutory retirement age gradually rise over the next five years.

This would put the country more in line with other large economies, including the U.S. At present, China has one of the lowest retirement ages in the world, at 60 for men, and 55 for women in white-collar jobs or 50 if they are in blue-collar jobs.

[...]

The apparent urgency now reflects growing concern over the impact that a shrinking – and aging – population will have on the country’s dwindling pension pot.

Funds set aside to cover retirement costs in China look set to be completely used up by 2035, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences projected just a few years ago.

[But raising the retirement age] will not be a permanent fix – and it does nothing to address the serious underlying demographic problems that China faces.

[...]

With a fertility rate of 1.1 children per woman – way below the 2.1 births per woman needed to maintain a native population – and more deaths each year than births, China’s future is one of declining population, with an enormous increase in the numbers of elderly. Compounding the problem, China has long been hostile to the idea of supplementing its native population through immigration; just 0.1% of its population is foreign-born – that’s the smallest percentage of any major country in the world.

[...]

According to U.N. figures, in 2023 just under 20% of China’s population was in the current retirement bracket of 60 and over. But by 2100, this is projected to increase to an astounding high of over 52%.

[...]

The need for immigration

Many of the major countries of the world with very low fertility rates rely on international migration to provide young workers – and these young immigrants also have more babies than the local people. Compare, for instance, China’s low rate of 0.1% foreign-born with the almost 14% foreign-born in the U.S. and 18% in Germany. Even the East Asian nations of Japan and South Korea have higher foreign-born percentages than China, at 2% and 3.7%, respectively.

[...]

But it will not be easy to introduce and implement an active immigration policy in China, a country with little experience with immigration and a seemingly deep-rooted belief in racial purity shared by many leaders in the Communist Party.

[...]

If an active immigration policy is not implemented, by the beginning of the next century, China will be half as large as it is today and will be one of the oldest countries – if not the oldest country – in the world.

Beijing is already facing the strain of these trends, hence the need for pension reforms. But without the influx of a young immigrant workforce, the problems China faces will be far worse.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/2131571

Australian Senators said UN Resolution 2758 does not establish the People's Republic of China's sovereignty over Taiwan and does not determine the future status of Taiwan in the UN.

Taiwan's de facto embassy in Canberra has heaped praise on Australia after the Senate passed a bipartisan motion criticising China's attempts to use a 50-year-old UN resolution to claim Taiwan as part of its territory.

China's government has consistently tried to use UN Resolution 2758 — which recognises the People's Republic of China as the "only legitimate representative of China to the UN" — to advance its claim that it has sovereignty over the self-ruled island of Taiwan.

It has also repeatedly claimed that Australia accepts that Taiwan is merely a province of China, an argument which Australia rejects.

Under the agreement signed by both countries when they established diplomatic ties Australia recognised the PRC as the sole government of China but only "acknowledged" China's claim that Taiwan is part of its territory.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/2129805

Archived link

The 2024 Paris Olympic Games have also turned into a game field for rumors. Though there are some similarities, the rumors circulating in Chinese and English are somewhat different.

[...]

As pro-Kremlin and far-right sources promoted disinformation about potential terrorist attacks on the Paris Olympics and soaring street crime in Paris, Chinese social media echoed the Russian narratives with false stories of frightening crimes and attacks on Olympic athletes in Paris. For example, multiple clips on the Chinese short-video platforms Kuaishou and Douyin conveyed the same story: a boxing coach from an Olympic team was robbed and beaten to death. In a separate incident, the US team's portable air conditioners were stolen, causing an American athlete to suffer from heat stroke and eventually die in the Olympic Village.

As a matter of fact, no American athlete died from heat stroke, nor did a boxing coach have a violent encounter and lose his life to the robbery incident. During the Paris Olympics, a boxing coach from Samoa passed away, but the cause of death was due to natural causes.

[...]

According to the unfounded stories, French President Emmanuel Macron asked China to assist France with Chinese anti-terrorism technology and maintain security during the Olympic games. For the benefit of the entire world, the Chinese government dispatched 1160 anti-terrorism professionals and equipped the Olympic Games with satellite surveillance systems and facial recognition technology based on China's big data system. Due to the superior Chinese anti-terrorism team and technology, 120 terrorists were arrested in Paris. The French police were extremely impressed by China's advanced surveillance and facial recognition technologies. Even Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee, acknowledged China's assistance in keeping the Paris Olympic Games safe.

In reality, the Chinese police did not participate in the multi-national police team at the Paris Olympic Games. According to the Taiwan FactCheck Center's investigation, almost 1,800 foreign police officers from 40 countries were in France to help maintain security. However, China was not one of the 40 countries. As for the arrest of terrorists, the French authorities did arrest one Russian man for plotting an assault on the Olympic Games. However, there was no mention of more than 120 terrorists being arrested in France thanks to China's facial recognition technology.

[...]

The Chinese state media has also broken its silence in recent months, publishing articles questioning whether US swimmers used drugs during the Olympics. For example, CCTV produced an article asking "six shocking questions" about "US doping scandals." One of the questions concerned American swimmers' purple faces. The story stated that American media outlets purposefully changed the color of photos and made American swimmers' faces appear white (the original text is "美媒特意调了色，把自己运动员的紫脸P白了"). The piece then contrasted an "adjusted picture" from AP with one from Reuters.

[...]

In addition to Chinese-language coverage, the English edition of Global Times, China's state media famed for its tabloid-style reporting, published an article about the widespread suspicion caused by American swimmers' purple faces. Later, the Global Times published another item stating that the US Embassy in China had posted a color-adjusted photo on Weibo to congratulate US swimmers.

Until August 17, when this analysis was written, the US Embassy's Weibo account had posted a statement that the Embassy did not post photoshopped images. (The Taiwan FactCheck Center is still investigating the claim that the US media intentionally made American swimmers’ faces “look white.” [...]) However, social media posts written in English questioning whether the purple faces could be the result of doping appeared on websites such as Reddit, Quora, and TikTok. Some YouTube influencers interviewed experts to explain the causes of purple faces, but others disputed the explanation and argued certain drugs could cause purple faces. The statement from English-speaking YouTubers claiming the purple faces were caused by drugs was again translated into Chinese and quoted by Chinese netizens.

[...]

Making up part of the western Pacific Ocean, the South China Sea sits between southern China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Malaysia.

About a third of global maritime trade passes through the 3.5 million square kilometer (1.4 million square mile) seaway annually, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Around 40% of petroleum products traded globally are delivered via the sea every year.

In 2016, an estimated $3.6 trillion (€3.29 trillion) worth of goods and commodities traveled the seaway, according to the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)

. Another estimate put the figure as high as $5.3 trillion.

Researchers at Duke University in North Carolina calculated that total trade through both the South China Sea and the East China Sea — which lies between China, the two Koreas and Japan — is worth $7.4 trillion per year.

Tens of thousands of cargo vessels move through the South China Sea every year, carrying around 40% of China's, a third of India's and 20% of Japan's trade with the rest of the world, according to CSIS data.

Out of all of Asia, the three countries' economic security is most closely tied to the smooth running of the waterway. The South China Sea is a vital crossroads for both intra-Asian trade as well as for commerce with the rest of the world, especially Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Thirty-five years ago, the best chance at democratization in China in decades faded quickly when the powerful Tiananmen Square prodemocracy movement was brutally suppressed.

Hu Ping, a leading Chinese dissident, reflects on the mistakes that were made and what it will take to succeed next time.

"Since 2012, with the arrival of Xi Jinping as supreme leader and with new high-tech surveillance technology in his hands, repression has grown even stronger. The authorities are seizing every opportunity to patch their vulnerabilities and press on," Hu says.

"Still, their control cannot be flawless; there still are crevices within which an opposition can survive. The appearance of the White Paper Movement shows as much. The key issue that remains is that the number of participants is low. We need to build confidence in nonviolent resistance."

Russia has held discussions for years about the construction of the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline, which would bring 50 billion cubic meters of gas annually from northern Russia to China via Mongolia. However, the Mongolian government's 2024-2028 national development plan leaves out the ambitious project, the South China Morning Post reported on Monday.

A former official at the National Security Council of Mongolia told the newspaper that the pipeline project will likely be delayed.

"We are entering a long pause, where Moscow no longer believes it can get the deal it wishes from Beijing and will probably park the project until better times," Munkhnaran Bayarlkhagva said.

Archived link

Here is the study: Uyghur Race as the Enemy: China’s Legalized Authoritarian Oppression and Mass Imprisonment

(Archived link)

The U.N. and the foreign ministers of concerned democracies should prepare to mark the second anniversary of the OHCHR report by recommitting to the pursuit of justice for millions of Uyghurs.

[...] fresh information about ongoing, systematic, and widespread Chinese government atrocity crimes in the Uyghur region – where millions of people have been arbitrarily detained, tortured, separated from family members, and subjected to cultural persecution, simply because of their distinct identity – demonstrates strong support for the real trend of international accountability.

In a newly published analysis of patterns of incarceration and legal manipulation, scholars Rayhan Asat and Min Kim tallied the number of years of wrongful detention inflicted on Uyghurs: “a cumulative total of 4.4 million years of imprisonment.” Beijing’s genocide and crimes against humanity, the authors argue, also reflect a disturbing attempt at “authoritarian lawfare” – in effect, that the Chinese authorities have continued to try to justify their patently illegal conduct by calling it the opposite. The tactic is designed to minimize international scrutiny and discourage the pursuit of accountability.

[...]

Academics, journalists, and human rights organizations have compiled considerable evidence; the Xinjiang Victims Database is a grim trove of information for a prosecutor’s brief. But democracies continue to prioritize other perceived interests in their relationships with Beijing, refraining from deploying an approach that could have a transformative and deterrent effect.

[...]

Uyghurs and others inside and outside China need strong, coordinated steps toward investigations and prosecutions of Xi and others complicit in atrocity crimes. Those guilty of these heinous abuses should know they will not only face hard questions in the court of public opinion, but also in a court of law.