World News

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/43813414

• Cutting costs, firms aim to trim work days, not jobs
• Railway, construction, auto and mining sectors affected
• Move highlights pressure on Russia's war economy
• Non-military sectors shrank 5.4% since January

From railways and automobiles to metals, coal, diamonds and cement, some of Russia's biggest industrial companies are putting employees on furlough or cutting staff as the war economy slows, domestic demand stalls and exports dry up.

The efforts to reduce labour costs show the strain on Russia's economy as President Vladimir Putin and the U.S.-led NATO military alliance square off in Ukraine, Europe's deadliest conflict since World War Two.

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Russia's Center for Macroeconomic Analysis and Short-term Forecasting - an influential research non-profit - said sectors of the economy not connected with the military had contracted by 5.4% since the start of the year. The Center forecasts a major slowdown in GDP growth to 0.7%-1.0% this year.

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Russia's nominal GDP is now $2.2 trillion, about the same level it was in 2013, the year before Russia annexed Crimea.

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Russian Railways, which has 700,000 employees, has asked staff in its central office to take three additional days off per month at their own cost, in addition to normal holidays and non-working days, two sources told Reuters.

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Across plants in the metals, mining, timber and coal industry there have been cuts to the working week, staffing or production, according to industry sources and company statements.

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Signs of stress are appearing in Russian state statistics.

Overdue salary arrears in Russia at the end of August amounted to 1.64 billion rubles, an increase of 1.15 billion rubles, or 3.3 times, compared to the same period last year.

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The current economic strains have already forced the government to intervene across the economy, from shoe manufacturers to coal and metals, offering discounts on rail transport, deferral of taxes and targeted state support.

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In Russia's vast steel industry, too, there are signs of trouble. Russia is considering a moratorium on bankruptcies in the metals industry and a host of other measures, according to a protocol from the government's Financial Stability Commission meeting on August 28.

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Cross-posted from https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/43050512

Aziz Isa Elkun couldn't bear to watch footage of Chinese leader Xi Jinping celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region this week.

Livestreams from Chinese state media showed Xi receiving a red-carpet welcome as locals sang and danced in traditional Uyghur dress.

Elkun fled Xinjiang nearly three decades ago after being persecuted by the Chinese government.

"I couldn't dare to watch. It was just a second or two… and I stopped," said 56-year-old Uyghur poet, now based in London.

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Under Xi's rule over the past decade, mass detention and heavy surveillance of ethnic Uyghur groups have intensified in Xinjiang.

When faced with criticism from abroad, Beijing framed the clampdown in the region as counterterrorism.

During his three-day visit to Xinjiang this week, Xi called for "every possible effort to uphold social stability."

The Chinese president also met with representatives of all the ethnic groups, expressing hopes "that everyone would join forces and move forward together to build a beautiful Xinjiang," according to report by the Xinhua news agency.

At the same time, he also hailed the Communist Party's ethnic autonomy system as "entirely correct" and "effective."

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Byler told DW that the primary goal for Chinese authorities is to "make Xinjiang a space that's fully integrated with the rest of the country… a space that's sort of open for business."

"To get there," he added, "they want to turn Uyghurs into a productive workforce."

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Recent reports also accuse Beijing of running forced labor programs that move hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs from detention centers into textile, manufacturing, and agricultural work.

Cross-posted from https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/43044830

Archived

Russia is selling military equipment and technology to China that could help Beijing prepare an airborne invasion of Taiwan, according to an analysis of leaked Russian documents by a U.K.-based defense and security forum.

The Royal United Services Institute’s analysis is based on around 800 pages of documents, including contracts and lists of equipment to be supplied by Moscow to Beijing, from the Black Moon hacktivist group, which previously published some of the documents online. It does not identify its members but describes itself in a manifesto as opposed to governments that carry out aggressive foreign policy.

The authors of the RUSI report shared some of the documents with The Associated Press and say they appear to be genuine, although parts of the documents may have been omitted or altered. AP is unable to independently verify their authenticity.

The mix of completed and apparent draft Russian documents reference meetings between Chinese and Russian delegations — including visits to Moscow — and payment and delivery timelines for high-altitude parachute systems and amphibious assault vehicles. They suggest that Russia has begun work on the products to be delivered but don’t contain direct evidence from the Chinese side that Beijing has paid any money or received any equipment.

The authors argue the equipment could be used to invade Taiwan. Under President Xi Jinping, China has embarked upon a broad modernization program of its armed forces with the goal of transforming it into a “world-class” military by 2050.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/42921406

Archived

Chinese drone experts have flown to Russia to conduct technical development work on military drones at a state-owned weapons manufacturer that is under Western sanctions, according to two European security officials and documents.

The Chinese experts have visited [Russian] arms maker IEMZ Kupol on more than half a dozen occasions since the second quarter of last year. During that time, Kupol also received shipments of Chinese-made attack and surveillance drones via a Russian intermediary, according to the documents and two officials.

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Kupol had developed a new drone, the Garpiya-3, in China with the help of local specialists. Now the news agency is the first to report specific details of the extensive involvement of Chinese experts in tests and technological work on military-use drones inside Russia.

The officials, who asked that neither they nor their organisation be identified due to the sensitivity of the information, said the collaboration suggested a deepening relationship between Kupol and Chinese companies in developing drones - which have proven to be critically important to Russia's war in Ukraine.

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The documents, including business invoices and bank statements, showed that Kupol received more than a dozen one-way attack drones last year produced by Sichuan AEE, a Chinese drone maker.

The drones were supplied by Russian defence procurement company TSK Vektor, which is under U.S. and EU sanctions, according to the officials and documents. TSK Vektor and Sichuan AEE did not respond to requests for comment.

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DELIVERIES OF CHINESE ATTACK DRONES

A letter from TSK Vektor to Kupol reviewed by Reuters showed that in the second quarter of 2024 the procurement company billed the weapons manufacturer for more than half a dozen drones produced by AEE. The European sources requested that specifics of the letter, as well as the other documents shown to Reuters, be withheld, including their dates.

An AEE corporate document detailing shipments to TSK Vektor, seen by Reuters, confirmed the delivery of the A140 and A900 one-way attack drones. It also listed more than half a dozen other drones - the A60, A100 and A200 - due for delivery.

Kupol reports [...] describe flight tests of the A60, A100 and A200 drones at the Chebarkul military test site in Russia's Chelyabinsk region in the last quarter of 2024.

A group of Chinese experts visited Kupol's facilities in the city of Izhevsk to assemble the drones and train Kupol staff to use them, a Kupol document said. The experts then visited Chebarkul, it added.

Airline bookings seen by Reuters showed the Chinese experts were due to fly out of Chelyabinsk the day after the tests.

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SECOND CHINESE COMPANY SUPPLIED DRONES In another Kupol link to a Chinese drone manufacturer, a flight test report approved by the Russian weapons manufacturer and TSK Vektor assessed the performance of an HW52V drone - made by Chinese firm Hunan Haotianyi - in the third quarter last year.

The HW52V is a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) drone that can be used militarily for intelligence, surveillance and reconaissance, and as a strike drone, the European security officials said.

Air tickets seen by Reuters showed that Liu Mingxing, the CEO of Hunan Haotyanyi, and Artem Vysotksy, head of TSK Vektor's drone department, flew out of the Irkutsk airport in Siberia in adjacent seats in June following the last day of an event where the company's drones were displayed.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/42851967

Archived

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Xinjiang grows about 90% of China’s cotton, and at least one-fifth of the world’s, and Aksu prefecture is Xinjiang’s cotton-growing heartland.

As a result, many of China's most important textile companies, such as the Esquel Group, have set up farms and factories across Aksu.

But an enormous trove of evidence, compiled from eyewitnesses and survivors, government documents, state media reports, and social media footage, shows that a system of severe repression and forced labour underpins the region’s cotton industry.

Some, including Seanad Éireann, have described the system as a form of genocide. A landmark report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, published in 2022, concluded that China’s widespread human rights violations in Xinjiang could constitute crimes against humanity.

Uyghurs who have fled China recall discrimination as being ever-present throughout their lives, but, under President Xi Jinping, the system of repression has escalated enormously.

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A system of state-backed forced labour, meanwhile, has seen millions of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities transferred to work both inside and outside of Xinjiang, with many thousands forced to work in the cotton industry.

State-imposed forced labour is intrinsic to the Chinese government's broader repression of the Uyghur people, and it facilitates forcible migration, familial separations, mass surveillance, land expropriation, cultural erasure, and resource exploitation.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/42851680

Archived

Civic space in China is still rated as ‘closed’ by the CIVICUS Monitor. China’s authoritarian state, ruled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), has systemically repressed fundamental freedoms. Human rights defenders and activists report harassment and intimidation; unfair trials; arbitrary, incommunicado and lengthy detentions; and torture and other ill-treatment for exercising their fundamental rights. Protests do occur but are quickly repressed, and critical civil society groups have been shut down.

In July 2025, human rights groups urged the EU to prioritise human rights in the forthcoming European Union (EU)-China Summit to be held in China from 24th to 25th July 2025. They urged the EU to condemn the Chinese government’s crimes against humanity and called for the immediate and unconditional release of human rights defenders who have been detained for their work.

In September 2025, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said at the 60th session of the Human Rights Council that the progress the UN has sought in China for the protection of the rights of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, as well as Tibetans in their regions, has yet to materialise.

Since June 2025, human rights defenders and activists have been arrested and prosecuted. Reports highlighted forced travel to disappear critics, and the use of spies by China to infiltrate overseas activist groups. Amendments to the cybersecurity law and new internet ID System increase restrictions on freedom of expression and reinforce censorship and surveillance. There has been an increase in transnational repression of protesters worldwide. Bullying triggered a mass protest and crackdown as protests increase across the country.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/42803448

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No one had heard from Dong Yaoqiong, a young Chinese woman, since January 2021. That was when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) forcibly locked her up in a psychiatric hospital for the third time.

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To this day, the CCP still uses psychiatric detention on their perceived enemies – petitioners fighting injustice in their villages, activists speaking out for freedom and rights. It is one of the most chilling ways the CCP uses to disappear critics – forced hospitalization in a mental facility without medical justification. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of victims.

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In the summer of 2018, Dong Yaoqiong splashed ink on a poster of Xi Jinping in Shanghai, sparking a tragic chain of events that have left at least two people dead and another disappeared, presumed dead.

In her memory, the rights group Safeguard Defenders published an open letter ...

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You gained notoriety more than seven years ago when you splashed black ink on a poster of Xi Jinping in Shanghai, streaming it for all the world to see on 4 July 2018. At a time when the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] does not suffer any criticism, this was a truly courageous act. We believe you accomplished something which many longed in their hearts to do yet did not dare.

Overnight, you became famous. Did you know the world started calling you “ink girl” after that?

The video of that morning still exists, although its quality is grainy. We see a young woman, with long dark hair, and wearing a yellow t-shirt with the words “New York, New York” printed on the front. You speak firmly into the camera. You tell us it’s around 6.40 in the morning, then swing the lens round to show us a high-rise building in the background – it’s the HNA tower in Shanghai. Then you stand in front of a wall with a large Xi Jinping poster and your tone becomes more serious.

“I oppose Xi Jinping’s dictatorship, autocracy and tyranny. I oppose the Chinese Communist Party’s brain-control oppression against me!”

And then you walk over to the wall and from what looks like a red plastic jug you splash black ink over Xi’s face, while saying: “I hate him to the bone.”

That night police came to your home and disappeared you into psychiatric detention.

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What corporate North American media doesn't want you to know about! Apparently, they launched a 4-hour strike on Friday, have a 24-hour general strike today (Monday, 22nd), and I think another 24-hour general strike is planned for October 3rd. Solidarity against billionaires, fascists, and genocide supporters ✊

Italian trade unions have called a 24-hour general strike on Monday 22 September, involving the public and private sectors, to demonstrate their solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

In a joint statement, the CUB, USB, ADL and SGB unions said the strike is "against the genocide in Palestine" and the "supply of weapons to Israel".

The unions have demanded "unconditional support for the Global Sumud Flotilla mission" and "sanctions against Israel", denouncing "the inertia of the Italian and EU governments" in the face of the violence suffered by the people of Gaza.

Cross posted from https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/42671570

Archived

• China jails citizen-journalist for second time, RSF says
• Zhang Zhan initially jailed in 2020 after documenting COVID in Wuhan
• Zhang charged with 'picking quarrels, provoking trouble', group says

Zhang Zhan, 42, was sentenced on a charge of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" in China, the same charge that led to her December 2020 imprisonment after she posted first-hand accounts from the central city of Wuhan on the early spread of coronavirus, the international press freedom group, known by its French initials RSF, said on Saturday.

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"She should be celebrated globally as an 'information hero', not trapped in brutal prison conditions," RSF Asia-Pacific advocacy manager Aleksandra Bielakowska said in a statement.

"Her ordeal and persecution must end. It is more urgent than ever for the international diplomatic community to pressure Beijing for her immediate release."

Zhang was initially arrested after months of posting accounts, including videos, from crowded hospitals and empty streets that painted a more dire early picture of the disease than the official narrative. Her lawyer at the time, Ren Quanniu, said Zhang believed she was "being persecuted for exercising her freedom of speech".

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China's authorities have never publicly specified what activities Zhang was charged for.

Cross posted from https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/42669893

Archived

Chinese spies have been given a licence to operate in parliament after the ­decision to drop charges against two men accused of espionage, the Speaker of the Commons has warned.

Sir Lindsay Hoyle is weighing up ­whether to carry out a private prosecution against the two men accused of targeting the China Research Group of MPs.

Hoyle has written to Shabana ­Mahmood, the home secretary, amid concerns that foreign states will be able to act with impunity.

The decision by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to retract the charges has been criticised by the Home Office, which said it was "disappointing that they will not face trial given the seriousness of the allegations".

The prime minister's official spokesman said "any attempt by a foreign power to infiltrate our Parliament or democracy is unacceptable".

Sir Lindsay told the Commons that he was "very unhappy" about the decision, and said: "The fact that it has taken two years, until today, for somebody to withdraw this case is not good enough."

He told the Times: "I believe this leaves the door open to foreign actors trying to spy on the House. This door must be closed hard."

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Sir Iain Duncan Smith, former Conservative Party leader, said it was “more likely than not” that Chinese spies were active within parliament.

He told Times Radio: “We’ve seen them hacking into accounts, we’ve seen them already with these two accusations, but there have been more which have had no further pressure on them, and I think the problem about this is, if you operate an open parliament, which is, believe it or not, what democracy is all about, you always run a greater risk that they will use this as a backdoor into intelligence gathering.

“We’re living in la-la land at the moment in the government, thinking that somehow China will be all right. They are absolutely locked together. China supports Russia with weapons, for God’s sake. It’s got North Korea involved with them. Iran has been giving them these drones.

“They work together. They are an axis of authoritarian states, and everything they do is co-ordinated. now, and we are in a mess over in the West.”

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Ken McCallum, the director-general of MI5, had said that hostile states had tried to influence ministers, MPs and political candidates. McCallum has repeatedly spoken since about Chinese interference, warning that anyone working in the political, military or technology arenas, in cutting-edge scientific research or certain export markets is a potential target.

MI5 has also publicised more than 10,000 “disguised approaches” from Chinese intelligence to Britons on LinkedIn.

Cash and Berry were formally found not guilty after prosecutors said the evidential threshold was no longer reached. Both said they were innocent and should never have been charged.

But the affair has served as another reminder to MPs of the likelihood they are being targeted.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/42534372

Op-ed by Alicja Bachulska, policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, and Ivana Karásková, research fellow and China team lead at the Association for International Affairs.

Archived

• Under Chinese leader Xi Jinping, China places security above all other policy implications.
• The officially endorsed philosophy of the country’s statecraft heralds “great changes unseen in a century”. It assumes the decline of the West—but acknowledges continued American hegemony.
• In the international arena, this means that China’s relationship with Russia is its most important partnership as it faces off against the US.
• Win, lose or draw in Ukraine, Russia will continue to receive Chinese support. There is nothing in China’s strategic positioning to suggest Beijing would cease to extend this support to Moscow.
• No “reverse Nixon” policy by the West—to peel Russia away from China—is possible. Europeans should also resist any temptation to believe they can alter Chinese calculations vis-à-vis Russia. They must forge a new China policy on the basis that the country is deliberately prolonging war on their continent.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/42433684

Archived

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (Eppo) in Athens ordered the seizure of 2,435 containers in what has been described as the largest container confiscation ever carried out in the European Union. The goods, shipped from China and consisting largely of e-bikes, textiles and footwear, are valued at a minimum of 250 million euros.

The Calypso investigation is centred on criminal networks accused of managing imports from China to several European countries while circumventing duties and VAT. Six individuals are under investigation, including two Greek customs officers and four freight forwarders. The customs officials are accused of issuing false certifications that caused losses of more than 871,000 euros to the EU budget, while the forwarders are charged with repeated fraud and incitement to false declarations. One of them was arrested recently, while four others had already been detained in June.

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Following the June operation, Greek authorities report signs of improved compliance: similar goods are now declared at values closer to their actual market price, and in July 2025 Piraeus customs revenue reached 143 million euros, compared with 139.9 million in the same month the previous year. The operation was carried out with the involvement of the Eppo, the Hellenic Police, the Greek tax authority, the European Anti-Fraud Office (Olaf) and other enforcement agencies.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/42433145

Archived

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Poland took the decision to close its frontier with Moscow-allied Belarus ahead of joint Russian-Belarusian military exercises, codenamed Zapad 2025, which started on Friday.

Following last week’s Russian drone incursion into Polish airspace, officials said the border closure would be in force until further notice. Three freight rail crossings, one for cars and another for trucks have been shut.

The freezing of rail routes, especially, are expected to have an impact on Chinese imports to the EU, given that 90% of rail freight between China and the bloc passes through Poland.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/42354273

Archived

Here is an article about that: AI Assists Chinese External Propaganda

• Graphika identified a network of 11 domains and 16 companion social media accounts that laundered exclusively English-language articles originally published by the Chinese state media outlet CGTN. The identified accounts are active on Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads, and X.
• The assets almost certainly used AI tools to translate and summarize articles from CGTN, likely in an attempt to disguise the content's origin.
• The network assets disseminated primarily pro-China, anti-West content in English, French, Spanish, and Vietnamese. They also utilized AI tools to generate logos and text specifically designed to target different audiences, including young audiences in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe.
• The network’s social media accounts failed to receive any organic traction. On Facebook, we identified pages that are part of the network and ran ads to promote their content and increase their visibility. On X, posts from the associated accounts appeared in top search results for some topics.
• We could not attribute these domains and their related accounts to a specific actor(s) based on open-source information. We assess that the actor(s) behind the activity are very likely located in China based on the technical indicators of the domains and social media accounts.

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Cross posted from https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/42198513

TLDR:

• Taiwan increases patrols to protect undersea cables from sabotage
• Especially monitoring 96 blacklisted China-linked boats
• Taiwan shares intelligence with allies on suspicious vessels

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/42117154

[Op-ed by Dr. Tamás Matura, China-expert, associate professor at Corvinus University, Budapest, Hungary.]

Archived

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The reasons for the slowdown [of China's economy] aren’t only cyclical, but also structural. One of the country’s most important pillars of growth, the real estate market, is in crisis. An estimated 60-90 million unsold homes have accumulated in the sector that previously accounted for nearly a third of GDP, and giant companies such as Evergrande have gone bankrupt. With 40-70% of household wealth tied up in real estate, the collapse in prices has shaken consumer confidence. People are saving rather than spending, which is also blocking the recovery of domestic demand. Investment – the former engine of growth – has been fuelled by credit for years and is becoming increasingly ineffective: the economy is saturated and firms are heavily indebted.

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Cracks in the system from within

The biggest challenge for the Chinese economy is its accelerating demographic decline. Chinese society is ageing, the work ethic of younger generations is deteriorating and structural unemployment is rising, especially among graduates. There is a growing dissatisfaction, young people’s confidence has been shaken and the “Chinese dream” has lost its appeal. [...] This not only affects production but also threatens the entire welfare system. Although China has achieved spectacular results in certain fields of technology (e.g. e-vehicles, AI), the structure of its economy continues to be based on mass production and state investment.

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An asymmetrical relationship has developed between the EU and China: while Chinese companies [...] are more and more present in Europe, the access European companies have to the Chinese market is diminishing. Hungary is particularly exposed: although significant Chinese investments have been made in Hungary such as the CATL and BYD factories, these are largely accompanied by state subsidies and political gestures, reinforcing economic and diplomatic dependence. If China slows down or the EU tightens its policies or a conflict escalates, there can be serious consequences for Hungary. Diversification is therefore essential, particularly towards South Korea, Japan, the US and Western Europe. Today business success depends on three factors: risk management, partner diversification and geopolitical awareness.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/42001744

Op-ed by Tao Zhang, Senior Lecturer, School of Arts & Humanities, Nottingham Trent University.

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China’s embrace of digital technologies has always presented it with a dilemma: how to exercise control over this inherently expansive and unruly – yet economically indispensable – communications sphere. As the online world became the most important platform for change in China, giving rise to pro-democracy initiatives, environmental NGOs, human rights defenders and grassroots opposition, the state’s response has essentially remained the same.

Predisposed to top-down control throughout Communist Party history in order to maintain its grip on power, the Chinese state has never been capable of imagining political solutions. Rather, it has consistently fallen back on deploying technology in the suppression of opposing voices.

Hence the Great Firewall of China (also known as the Golden Shield), launched in the late 1990s, which combined censorship with multi-layered online monitoring. This was followed by Skynet, a mass video surveillance system introduced in 2005.

These technologies – later upgraded with big data, AI, facial recognition and cloud computing – were presented as tools against crime and foreign threats. But they have also been widely criticised, both inside and outside China, for silencing dissent and restricting press freedom.

By 2024, China had installed more than 600 million cameras – roughly one for every two adults – making it the largest video surveillance system in the world.

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It is the denial of freedom itself as a legitimate value by the state. Protesting Chinese citizens are not seeking adjustments to policy, but rather the recognition of their right to question, debate and express dissent.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/41952045

The Internet Coup: A Technical Analysis on How a Chinese Company is Exporting The Great Firewall to Autocratic Regimes -- [pdf download, 76 pages]

Archived

Summary

Over the past two decades, the Chinese government has been steadily refining their model of internet control using surveillance and censorship technologies domestically while promoting this approach to other nations under the banner of “digital sovereignty”. Through the export of these technologies, China is not only extending its global influence but also laying the foundation for a federated system of internet governance. In this system, Chinese companies provide the infrastructure and expertise for client governments to more easily monitor and control their own networks, while learning from these deployments and improving collective capacity for digital authoritarianism worldwide.

This research by InterSecLab uncovers evidence of the export of a suite of technologies resembling China’s Great Firewall by Geedge Networks, a private company linked to the academic entity ‘Massive and Effective Stream Analysis’ (Mesalab), a research laboratory at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Our team’s investigation identifies a pattern of commercialization of surveillance capabilities, with Geedge Networks offering a suite of products that enable comprehensive monitoring and control of internet users.

InterSecLab’s analysis reveals that Geedge Networks is contracted with governments in Kazakhstan, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Myanmar, and one other unknown country to establish sophisticated systems of internet censorship and surveillance. Furthermore, our findings indicate that Geedge Networks is also involved in developing similar systems deployed within China, including in Xinjiang and other regions.

Based on analysis of a leak of more than 100,000 Geedge Networks documents that was shared with InterSecLab, this research sheds light on the features and capabilities of Geedge Networks’ systems, which include deep packet inspection, real-time monitoring of mobile subscribers, granular control over internet traffic, as well as censorship rules that can be tailored to each region. The leak also reveals information about Geedge Networks’ relationship with the academic entity, Mesalab, as well as their interactions with client governments. The implications for data sovereignty are significant, and our findings raise concerns about the commoditization of surveillance and information control technologies.

This research examines the recent development of Geedge Networks’ systems in various countries, including what is known about their deployment timelines. By analyzing the company’s internal documentation, InterSecLab was able to chronicle the expansion of commercially available national firewalls and speculate about the implications for the future of the global internet considering the spread of such systems.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/41935066

Archived

The body camera hung from the top of the IV drip, recording the slightest twitch made by Yang Guoliang as he lay bloody and paralyzed in a hospital bed after a police beating with bricks.

By then, surveillance was nothing new for the Yang family in rural China, snared in an intricate network based on U.S. technology that spies on them and predicts what they’ll do.

Their train tickets, hotel bookings, purchases, text messages and phone calls are forwarded to the government. Their house is ringed with more than a dozen cameras. They’ve tried to go to Beijing 20 times in the past few years, but masked men show up and grab them, often before they depart. And last year, Yang’s wife and younger daughter were detained and now face trial for disrupting the work of the Chinese state — a crime carrying a sentence of up to a decade in prison.

Yet the Yangs say they are not criminals. They are simply farmers trying to beg Beijing to stop local officials from seizing their 1 1/2 acres of land in China’s eastern Jiangsu province.

“Every move in my own home is monitored,” Yang said, sitting behind black curtains that block him from the glare of police lights trained straight at his house. “Their surveillance makes me feel unsafe all the time, everywhere.”

[...]

Over the past quarter century, American tech companies to a large degree designed and built China’s surveillance state, playing a far greater role in enabling human rights abuses than previously known, an Associated Press investigation found. They sold billions of dollars of technology to the Chinese police, government and surveillance companies, despite repeated warnings from the U.S. Congress and in the media that such tools were being used to quash dissent, persecute religious sects and target minorities.

Critically, American surveillance technologies allowed a brutal mass detention campaign in the far west region of Xinjiang — targeting, tracking and grading virtually the entire native Uyghur population to forcibly assimilate and subdue them.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/41892362

Archived

• Publicly, China has feigned neutrality when it comes to Russia’s invasion. But its supply of drone parts suggests a strong military partnership between Beijing and Moscow.
• Chinese companies directly supplied parts and materials worth at least £47m [EUR 54m] to Russian firms sanctioned for producing drones, from 2023 to 2024, a period when Moscow was building large-scale logistics infrastructure for its domestic drone programme.
• Goods directly exported by China to Russia included aircraft engines, microchips, metal alloys, camera lenses, fibreglass, emulsion binders for fibreglass, and carbon fibre yarns – all key components to produce the drones that wreak nightly havoc on Ukraine. The investigation identified 97 Chinese suppliers.

[...]

A positive bilateral relationship is “critical for their economic survival”, said Andrea Ghiselli, a lecturer who specialises in China’s foreign policy at the University of Exeter.

“One has a very important interest in the survival of the other; this is not going to change. It’s a simple, geographic fact,” he said, as the two countries share a 2,600-mile border.

This approach gives Beijing room to accuse the West for being the ones to foment war by dispatching weapons systems and military support to Ukraine.

“It gives them the possibility to say, ‘we don’t support Russia; no, we don’t provide military support’,” Mr Ghiselli said. “It’s a fig leaf, but it’s deniability, and that’s important.”

[...]

Chinese firms including Changzhou Utek Composite, Taishan Fiberglass, Jilin Hongsheng Trading, Yongji Rongdu Commercial and Trading, and Hebei Jigao have supplied a range of fibreglass and carbon fibre products, such as yarns, binding agents, processing components and glass fibre powder – all sent directly to Russian firms operating in Alabuga involved in the production of Geran/Shahed drones.

Harbin Bin-Au Technology, Jinhua Hairun Power Technology and Shandong Xinyilu International Trade have also supplied aircraft engines and components worth at least £860,000 to Drake LLC, which operates in Alabuga.

Over just three months in 2023, China’s Ningbo Peak Cloud Import and Export sent aircraft and aircraft engines worth £3m to Russia’s Ural Civil Aviation Factory, sanctioned for manufacturing combat drones, including the Forpost, used to monitor troop movements and strike critical infrastructure.

The Telegraph has also identified five Russian firms, all globally sanctioned, that are responsible for importing components from China, and directly source a large share of Chinese parts used in drone manufacturing.

Those Russian firms – Ural Civil Aviation, Akmetron, PT Electronic, PT Elektronik and Radioline – have purchased a range of components from Chinese suppliers, such as Asia Link Shanghai International Logistics, which has sent everything from metal products to electronic chips.

[...]

China has gone so far as to reportedly allow Russia to establish a weapons programme on its soil to develop and produce long-range attack drones – specifically the Garpiya-3 – and to deliver finished systems to Moscow, as described by intelligence sources to Reuters in 2024.

None of the companies contacted by The Telegraph replied to requests for comment; not all firms could be reached.

At a time when Western partners have cut ties with Moscow after its invasion of Ukraine, China has come to the rescue, filling the trade gap by buying Russian oil and selling everything from cars to electronics.

[...]

Getting directly involved in the war by sending military hardware or troops – as North Korea has done – would be far too risky to China’s own strategic interests.

Beijing has therefore supported Moscow from the sidelines by allowing Chinese firms to export goods with dual commercial and military purposes, pushing bilateral trade to a record £210bn in 2024.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/41884998

Torture and severe ill-treatment are rampant within the Liuzhi system. Indeed, the system of enforced disappearances and incommunicado, solitary confinement, detention for up to six months is defined as torture in and of itself under international law.

[...]

Official statistics from the Central Commission on Discipline Inspection (CCDI) show a rapid increase in the number of disciplinary investigations, punishments and incommunicado detentions in 2024. Comparative data from 2018 to 2024 shows that after remaining stable over the course of the years, the number of disciplinary investigations grew by 40% during 2024.

[...]

CCDI - also known under its state front National Commission of Supervision (NCS) - is the Chinese Communist Party police force or “disciplinary watchdog”. It has the power to take people off the streets and hold them incommunicado at secret locations for up to 6 months (or even more). Its operations are not part of the formal legal system in any way. Once inside Liuzhi, there is no external oversight, no right to access legal counsel, no external appeal body, and no way to communicate with the outside world. Regulations do not oblige the CCDI to inform families of target’s whereabouts or that they’ve even been taken at all.

[...]

Recent public reporting cites at least five entrepreneurs known to have been taken into the system in mid-August alone.

• Pi Yu (皮宇), director and general manager of Dameng Data, was placed into Liuzhi sometime before the company announced it on August 19. On August 21, the same company announced another senior manager, Chen Wen (陈文), had also taken.

• Liu Jiande (刘建德), director and ultimate beneficial owner of Kesi Technology, was placed into Liuzhi, according to information provided to the company by his family on August 19.

• Yue Yamei (岳亚梅), general manager of Xiling Information, was placed into Liuzhi by the supervisory commission in Alashankou on August 20.

• Chen Baixiao (陈柏校), chairman of Guotai Environmental Protection, was placed into Liuzhi by the supervisory commission in Linping District, Hangzhou, on August 17.

[...]

Official CCDI data from 2023 and 2024 suggest a just above 4% average of all investigations – 4.15% in 2023 and 4.33% in 2024 – included the use of Liuzhi. Insufficient disaggregated data is available to make any firm estimates for separate target categories, such as the entrepreneurial sector.

However, if official CCDI data states at least 171,000 individuals were effectively sanctioned (e.g. following investigation), it stands to reason that the number of entrepreneurs placed in Liuzhi during 2024 likely runs in the upper thousands.

Death by Liuzhi

The Jianghan District Supervisory Commission in Wuhan placed Wang Linpeng (汪林朋), chairman of Easyhome, into Liuzhi on April 17.

On July 23, Wang was released from Liuzhi, ‘pending investigation’.

On July 27, Wang jumped to his death.

Similar cases include Zeng Yuzhou (曾育周), founder of L&D Home, who died on July 17; Liu Wenchao (刘文超) of Xizi Elevator, who died on June 2; and Bi Guangjun (毕光钧), founder of Shaoxing Jindianzi Textile, who died on April 16.

All committed suicide shortly after their release from Liuzhi.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/41831078

Reuters News on Friday withdrew a four-minute video containing an exchange between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussing the possibility that humans can live to 150 years old, after China state TV demanded its removal and withdrew the legal permission to use it.

The footage, which included the open mic exchange from the military parade in Beijing marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two, was licensed by the China state television network, China Central Television (CCTV).

The clips were edited by Reuters into a four-minute video and distributed to more than 1,000 global media clients including major international news broadcasters and TV stations around the world. Other news agency licensees of CCTV also distributed edits of the footage.

Reuters removed the video from its website and issued a "kill" order to its clients on Friday after receiving a written request from CCTV's lawyer. The letter said the news agency exceeded usage terms of its agreement. The letter further criticized Reuters "editorial treatment applied to this material," but did not specify details.

Reuters said in a statement that it withdrew the videos because it no longer held the legal permission to publish this copyrighted material.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/41695929

The evidence Amnesty International has gathered provides a factual basis for the conclusion that the Chinese government has committed at least the following crimes against humanity: imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law; torture; and persecution.

>"I was there… The police would take people out of their houses… with hands handcuffed behind them, including women… and they put black hoods on them… Nobody could resist. Imagine if all of a sudden a group [of police] enters [your home], cuffs you and puts [a black hood] over your head… It was very sad… [Afterwards] I cried… That night we made 60 arrests… That was just in one district [of many where people were being detained]… Every day they arrested more people."

Summary

Since 2017, under the guise of a campaign against “terrorism”, the government of China has carried out massive and systematic abuses against Muslims living in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang). Far from a legitimate response to the purported terrorist threat, the government’s campaign evinces a clear intent to target parts of Xinjiang’s population collectively on the basis of religion and ethnicity and to use severe violence and intimidation to root out Islamic religious beliefs and Turkic Muslim ethno-cultural practices. The government aims to replace these beliefs and practices with secular state-sanctioned views and behaviours, and, ultimately, to forcibly assimilate members of these ethnic groups into a homogenous Chinese nation possessing a unified language, culture, and unwavering loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

To achieve this political indoctrination and forced cultural assimilation, the government undertook a campaign of arbitrary mass detention. Huge numbers of men and women from predominantly Muslim ethnic groups have been detained. They include hundreds of thousands who have been sent to prisons as well as hundreds of thousands – perhaps 1 million or more – who have been sent to what the government refers to as “training” or “education” centres. These facilities are more accurately described as internment camps. Detainees in these camps are subjected to a ceaseless indoctrination campaign as well as physical and psychological torture and other forms of ill-treatment.

The internment camp system is part of a larger campaign of subjugation and forced assimilation of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang. The government of China has enacted other far-reaching policies that severely restrict the behaviour of Muslims in Xinjiang. These policies violate multiple human rights, including the rights to liberty and security of person; to privacy; to freedom of movement; to opinion and expression; to thought, conscience, religion, and belief; to participate in cultural life; and to equality and non-discrimination. These violations are carried out in such a widespread and systematic manner that they are now an inexorable aspect of daily life for millions of members of predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.

The government of China has taken extreme measures to prevent accurate information about the situation in Xinjiang from being documented, and finding reliable information about life inside the internment camps is particularly difficult. Between October 2019 and May 2021, Amnesty International interviewed dozens of former detainees and other people who were present in Xinjiang since 2017, most of whom had never spoken publicly about their experiences before. The testimonies of former detainees represent a significant portion of all public testimonial evidence gathered about the situation inside the internment camps since 2017.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/41643884

As the Chinese government celebrated the 80th anniversary of China’s victory in World War II and the country’s military might this week, criticism of the Chinese Communist Party’s human rights record is building.

For 50 minutes on August 29, large slogans projected on a building in Chongqing, one of China’s major cities, urged the Chinese people to “rise up against fascism” and “take back our own rights.” The cleverly executed feat was unprecedented—the activist had already fled China before remotely projecting the slogans—while the swift police response against his family was not. Yet the real significance lay in the continued willingness of fearless citizens to boldly and publicly criticize Chinese leader Xi Jinping and call for democratic reforms in the face of ever-growing government repression.

The current trend can be traced to a man known as Peng Lifa who hung large anti-Xi and pro-democracy banners on a bridge in heavily secured Beijing ahead of the Chinese Party Congress in October 2022. “Bridge Man’s” act seems to have emboldened others in the wake of the government’s draconian Zero Covid policies, which for many in China recalled harsh and oppressive Communist Party decrees as happened during the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward.

[...]

This week’s military pageantry in Beijing masks the underlying weakness of the Chinese Communist Party’s repressive policies: that after over 70 years in power, the Party should most fear its own people, simply for their acts of courage in their calls for human rights and democratic reform.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/41571894

Before fleeing China, an activist in Chongqing staged an elaborate one-man demonstration against the Communist Party that doubled as performance art.

Archived

On the eve of China’s grand military parade, an activist in a city with 30 million people staged a protest that doubled as performance art, proof that defiance can still surface, and survive, even in one of the world’s most surveilled states.

At 10 p.m. on Friday in Chongqing, a large projection on a building lit up the night with slogans calling for the end of Communist Party rule. “Only without the Communist Party can there be a new China,” read one. Another declared: “No more lies, we want the truth. No more slavery, we want freedom.”

[...]

By the time the police arrived, Mr. Qi had already left China nine days earlier with his wife and daughters. He had turned on the projection and recorded the police’s response from a remote location in Britain.

Technology has strengthened the Chinese government’s ability to control its people. Mr. Qi illustrated how the same tools can enable resistance.

“Qi Hong outwitted the police, outmaneuvered the state machinery — and there was little they could do about it,” said Li Ying, who runs perhaps the most influential Chinese-language X account and often posts protest footage. “It was incredibly cool.”

Mr. Li called the act “a serious blow” to the authorities who had poured enormous resources into ensuring stability ahead of the parade on Wednesday. “His action showed that the C.C.P.’s control isn’t airtight. It’s not like we can’t do anything,” he said.

[...]

Mr. Qi said he had never thought of his act as art or even bravery.

“My only intention was to express myself,” he told me in his first media interview. “The party installs surveillance cameras to watch us. I thought I could use the same method to watch them.”

Many people online called him a hero and offered their thanks. Some commenters said Mr. Qi’s ingenuity in using technology had inspired them.

[...]

Mr. Qi insists he is not courageous. Soft-spoken, he said he felt compelled to share what he thinks and to urge more Chinese people to see what he called the brutality and absurdity of the Communist Party’s rule.

[...]

Mr. Qi worked as an electrician and grew more politically aware. He bristled at the propaganda in his daughters’ textbooks, the government’s stoking of nationalism and the suppression of free speech. “I was dissatisfied with the government, but I didn’t dare to speak out,” he said.

He turned to books for answers. He read “1984,” “Animal Farm” and “Brave New World.” “I was terrified that they’re still ruling us the same way,” he said.

His WeChat posts became more pointed. On the 33rd anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre in 2022, he wrote: “The pursuit of light is something every thinking human should strive for. Light of wisdom, light of civilization, light of humanity, light of democracy.” His New Year wish for 2024 was simple: “May everyone have freedom from fear.”

In May, he posted what he assumed would get his WeChat account deleted, “We want democracy, not dictatorship!” Nothing happened. But for him, the words were a turning point.

By July, with news of Mr. Xi’s planned military parade, Mr. Qi decided it was time.

He surveyed locations and chose a busy section of Chongqing’s university area. On Aug. 10, he checked into a hotel, spent 10 days practicing laser projection on a nearby high-rise and prepared the slogans he would beam into the night sky. To test, he beamed harmless phrases like “be healthy” and “be happy.” Then he and his family left China.

On Aug. 29, he switched on the projector remotely. He clipped together footage of the slogans and the police raid, shared them with influential people online like Mr. Li and watched as they spread across the internet.

The state struck back. The police detained one of his brothers and a friend, and interrogated his mother outside her home. He had told no one about his plans except his wife and daughters. The Chongqing police did not respond to my request for comment.

Mr. Qi says he’s stunned by the reactions online and is unsure of what lies ahead.