World News

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/43056460

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Ukrainian children abducted by Russia are being forcibly sent to a summer camp in North Korea, a legal expert has said.

Kateryna Rashevska, a representative from Ukraine’s regional centre for human rights, told the US Senate that at least two young girls had been sent to Songdowon camp in North Korea.

At the children’s camp, the two girls – Misha, 12, and Liza, 16 – were “taught to ‘destroy Japanese militarists’ and met Korean veterans who … attacked the US Navy ship Pueblo”, she said.

Ms Rashevska made the comments at the start of the US Senate’s hearing on Russia’s mass abduction of Ukrainian children.

At least 19,546 Ukrainian children are believed to have been abducted from Russian-controlled territory and taken to Russia since the start of the invasion in Feb 2022.

They are often taken to re-education camps, where they are “militarised and Russified”, Ms Rashevska said, adding that the human rights centre had identified at least 165 such camps.

The Songdowon camp – located in Wonsan, North Korea – hosts around 400 children every year. It hosts a series of activities, including a water park, a football pitch and a large private beach.

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Russia is one of a handful of countries that is allowed to send children to the camp. A former attendee, Yuri Frolov, previously told CNN that he attended the camp when he was 15, and socialised with children from Laos, Nigeria, Tanzania and China.

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Earlier this week, Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, said only 1,859 Ukrainian children abducted by Russia had been brought back so far. Kyiv has made the return of stolen Ukrainian children a key demand during US-brokered peace negotiations with Russia, which are set to continue on Thursday.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/44734680

Archived

Experts have expressed fears that the Chinese government plans to increase the forced “harvesting” of human organs from people in Xinjiang, home to a large Turkic Muslim population.

The concerns follow the announcement by the Xinjiang Health Commission late last year that it was going to develop six new organ transplant institutions in the region in the period to 2030, among other measures aimed at expanding transplant services.

Xinjiang is a large area in northwest China where the Beijing government has been operating a campaign of oppression against the indigenous population of Uyghur and other Turkic people since 2014.

The United Nations has said the campaign, which includes a vast network of camps, involves serious human rights violations that may amount to crimes against humanity. “The announcement raises concerns about the ongoing procurement of organs through human rights abuses in Xinjiang, because there is no obvious reason why the new facilities are needed,” said Wendy Rogers, professor of clinical ethics at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.

[...]

Enver Tohti [a former surgeon in Xinjiang who now lives in London] said he believes the Chinese authorities are expanding their organ transplant facilities throughout China, and not just in Xinjiang. “Xinjiang is just part of a wider picture,” he said.

He believes the Chinese authorities began to collect biological data from people in Xinjiang in 2016 with a view to building a database that could be searched for matches when organs were needed for transplant operations. “People in inner China just disappear,” he said.

“Maybe they are accused of a crime and sent to prison. In Xinjiang, they simply take the person – say they are a terrorist.” In China, “if you are declared an enemy of the state, then an enemy is not a human being.”

[...]

Recently, at a military parade in Beijing, the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, was caught on mic discussing organ transplants with his counterpart from Russia, Vladimir Putin.

“Biotechnology is continuously developing,” Putin’s interpreter was recorded saying in Chinese to Xi. “Human organs can be continuously transplanted. The longer you live, the younger you become, and [you can] even achieve immortality.”

Xi could be heard responding in Chinese: “Some predict that in this century humans may live to 150 years old.”

Tohti said: “They are talking about organ harvesting. Organ transplanting in China is organ harvesting. They are not taking organs from volunteers. Every organ transplant is part of harvesting.”

In December 2014, Chinese State media reported that China was to stop using organs from executed prisoners in transplant operations. However, Tohti said such statements are just optics. “The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) never keeps its promises. They make laws to show to outsiders. They make a constitution to show to outsiders. Inside the country, it is completely different.”

[...]

cross-posted from: https://ibbit.at/post/84511

Israeli guards stripped humanitarian activist Greta Thunberg naked and wrote ‘whore Greta’ on her luggage after abducting her, and around four hundred other volunteer crew members, in a criminal attack in international waters on the Global Sumud Flotilla carrying baby food and other vital items to Gaza:

Greta Thunberg: multiple human rights violations by Israel

The fascist thugs’ violence toward Thunberg had already become known from other released crew, but the grim details of the appalling abuse are only now coming out.

Among the crimes Israeli guards and troops committed against Thunberg:

“Israeli soldiers hit, kicked, starved, and tortured me” – Greta Thunberg herself.“They placed a flag next to me, and anytime the flag touched me, they kicked me”.“Whenever I raised my head to look at Ben-Gvir, I was kicked”.She was filmed while stripped naked.She and others were kept in a prison cell at 40 degrees Celsius and deprived of water.Guards threatened to gas her and others, showing them gas cylinders.She and others were kept in solitary confinement for long periods in parasite-infested cell

Thunberg and others also reported that every time anyone looked up from the ground in the ‘stress positions’ they were forced to maintain on concrete floors, they were knocked to the ground and beaten. Thunberg was also tormented with an Israeli flag:

The flag was placed so that it would touch me. When it fluttered and touched me, they shouted “Don’t touch the flag” and kicked me in the side. After a while·, my hands were put in cable ties, very tight. A bunch of guards lined up to take selfies with me as I sat there.

They take my bag and throw away all the things they interpret as Palestine-related. They take each thing and stare into my eyes and at the same time pick up a knife and slowly cut them apart with it, while ten people take selfies.

You felt like you couldn’t “afford” to cry because you were so dehydrated. It was so hot, like 40 degrees. We kept asking: Can we get water? Can we get water?

In the end, people were screaming. The guards kept walking in front of the bars, laughing and holding up their water bottles. They threw the bottles of water in, in the garbage cans in front of us.

Thunberg also reported the support she received from other abducted volunteers – and the price they paid for it:

I needed to go to the bathroom and asked to. Then I needed to be led through where people were sitting and they saw me. A female member of the Swedish delegation said: “We are with you Greta.”

Then she was taken aside and beaten.

Israel is a terror state and a fascist, ethno-supremacist project. If this is how it will treat Thunberg and other foreign victims, imagine what it is doing every day to Palestinian hostages.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

From Canary via this RSS feed

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/44096080

Archived

When the Chinese government announced a new visa to attract young science and technology talent, it advertised the move as another step toward becoming the leading scientific power, one to which people from around the globe would flock.

To many in China, it was a gross mistake.

In the days before and since Oct. 1, when the visa was supposed to come into effect, commenters have accused the government of inviting foreigners to steal jobs from Chinese people, at a time when young people are finding it harder than ever to land work. They have suggested that foreigners are being blindly worshiped, a longstanding national sore point.

Prominent influencers have also stoked nationalism or xenophobia, claiming that China will be overrun by outsiders. After Henry Huiyao Wang, the president of the Center for China and Globalization, a research group in Beijing, praised the new visa, people on social media called him a race traitor, and their posts were shared thousands of times.

Platforms have been especially flooded by racist comments about Indians, after Indian news outlets reported on the Chinese visa as a possible alternative to the highly popular H1-B visa in the United States, which now comes with a $100,000 fee.

[...]

The public outcry suggests that China may still struggle to attract the world’s best and brightest scientists, even as the United States has cut research funding and pushed many prominent scholars to consider leaving.

Anti-foreign sentiment has grown in China in recent years, as the government has warned of hostile overseas powers and urged people to report potential spies. China has historically had minuscule levels of inbound immigration, and many cultural and legal barriers remain for foreigners seeking to remain long-term.

When the government proposed slightly loosening permanent residency requirements for foreigners in 2020, it eventually retreated in the face of a similar backlash. (China granted fewer than 5,000 permanent residency cards between 2004 and 2014, according to People’s Daily.)

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/43813025

Archived

On Oct. 8, the Black Mirror hacker group released the second part of an archive belonging to Russian state-owned defense corporation Rostec. This tranche contains more than 300 documents, including internal memos, contracts, and letters.

Most notably, a document addressed to Rostec CEO Sergei Chemezov includes a proposal to establish contacts with “a group of companies from the People’s Republic of China” for the development, production, and supply of electronic warfare (EW) systems.

The document does not name specific companies, but it notes that the group includes a manufacturing enterprise, a logistics firm, an insurance company, and, most notably, a research institute that is involved in developing modern EW technologies.

According to a file that appears to be based on a request from the Russian Defense Ministry, Chinese-made systems were tested during the war in Ukraine. Chinese scientists were also tasked with developing systems capable of detecting drones operating on 4G mobile communication frequencies and countering Starlink systems.

[...]

Cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/43530586

Archived

Chinese factory staff assembling Apple’s latest iPhone continue to face precarious conditions, working many hours of overtime, suffering wage delays and discrimination against ethnic minorities, according to a leading labour rights group.

China Labor Watch (CLW) found that more than half of the estimated 200,000 workers employed during peak season at the world’s largest iPhone factory run by Foxconn in Zhengzhou are seasonal staff known as “dispatch workers”. This is despite a Chinese law capping the use of such staff at 10 per cent of a company’s workforce.

US-based CLW, which specialises in undercover investigations of Chinese factories, also found that dispatch workers faced staggered payment schedules that withhold part of their wages to deter them from quitting during peak production.

These staff were not entitled to the same benefits as full-time employees, such as paid sick leave, paid holiday and social insurance that includes medical coverage and pension contributions. CLW also claimed that there is systematic discrimination in hiring certain ethnic minorities and pregnant women.

[...]

"Despite Apple’s repeated pledges to improve conditions over the past decade, our investigation finds that core labour issues remain,” said Li Qiang, founder of CLW and author of the report released on Thursday.

"Apple’s supply chain continues to depend on a vast, disposable workforce.”

[...]

Many of the workers interviewed added that conditions compared favourably with those of other local manufacturers, citing air conditioning, hot water, recreational facilities and canteen subsidies.

An economic downturn in China and rising youth unemployment have narrowed options for jobseekers. A 23-year-old who trained as a Chinese teacher said she had worked at Foxconn for two months: “If I can’t find another job, I might come back.”

But two of the people who spoke said Foxconn’s recruitment platform, which the agencies use to upload CVs, rejects applications from ethnic minorities, including Uyghurs, Tibetans, and Huis, who are not local to Henan.

[...]

One worker who had been at the plant for more than a month said that she typically worked two and a half hours of overtime each day, six or seven days a week. “Some managers have bad attitudes,” she said. “We work hard, but they keep pushing and squeezing us.”

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/43290509

[...]

Over the past 20 years, China has rapidly become the biggest trading partner of most African countries, and one of the most important investors. Its construction companies have built highways, ports, railways, soccer stadiums, presidential palaces and government offices across the continent – including the headquarters of the African Union and the parliament buildings of Zimbabwe, Malawi, Gabon and Lesotho.

But while the investment is welcomed by African state leaders, the dramatic growth of Chinese shopkeepers and small mining companies is increasingly controversial at the grassroots level, where the migrants are often accused of profiting from corruption, unfair competition, counterfeit goods and environmental damage.

[...]

In Angola, scores of Chinese shops were looted by angry protesters in August, triggering the shutdown of many factories and an exodus by thousands of Chinese nationals who fled the country. In South Africa, inspectors and vigilante groups have raided Chinese factories and shops, hunting for immigration violations and other infractions.

In Zimbabwe and Zambia, local media have exposed environmental disasters caused by Chinese mining companies, including poisoned rivers and razed hillsides, provoking public outrage. In Ghana, authorities have arrested dozens of Chinese migrants, accusing them of illegal mining, a phenomenon that has led to deforestation, soil degradation and toxic river pollution.

[...]

Several countries have taken the same step as Tanzania: promising stronger enforcement and regulations to crack down on Chinese activities.

In Zimbabwe, where China has long been welcomed, the government has recently become more willing to criticize, with one official accusing the Chinese of bribery, illicit financial activities, evading the banking system and even desecrating graves.

“We are noticing that some Chinese companies are digging up our ancestors’ graves to extract granite or gold,” said Tafadzwa Muguti, secretary for presidential affairs in Zimbabwe’s cabinet office, in a speech to a Chinese business forum. “They move the bones aside and begin digging. That is a deep sign of disrespect in any culture.”

[...]

Under a new Tanzanian regulation, approved in July, foreign nationals are prohibited from 15 types of business activities, including cellphone and electronics repair, mobile money transfers, beauty salons, small-scale mining, tour guiding, real estate brokering, home and office cleaning, crop buying and parcel delivery. Violators can be jailed, fined or lose their work visas and residence permits.

Tanzanian traders were pleased by the new regulation – until they discovered that the government had unofficially delayed its enforcement until after the Oct. 29 national election, seeking to avoid political turbulence.

“We were excited when this rule finally came out, but now I’m disappointed,” said Mariam Hussein, a 43-year-old mother of three who sells domestic utensils.

“It’s frustrating. It’s like fighting a ghost. Every day, we see the Chinese quietly at it again. They just change the shop name, or put a Tanzanian in front, while they stay inside organizing everything.”

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/43214126

Archived

The East Turkistan Government-in-Exile (ETGE) has strongly denounced China's commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, calling the event a political stunt aimed at concealing decades of repression and occupation in the region it refers to as East Turkistan.

In a statement issued on its office website, the ETGE described the anniversary ceremony, overseen by Chinese President Xi Jinping and top Communist Party officials, as a "staged gathering" that serves to legitimize China's control over the territory. The group claimed that Beijing's use of terms such as "autonomy," "unity," and "modernisation" is part of a broader effort to disguise systemic human rights abuses.

"There is nothing to celebrate, the 1955 designation of the 'Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region' was an attempt to mask China's military occupation and colonisation of East Turkistan." the statement reads.

The exiled government asserted that the Uyghur and broader Turkic population in the region has never accepted Chinese rule, emphasising that East Turkistan briefly regained independence twice in the 20th century before being brought under full Chinese control in 1949. Since then, the ETGE claims, the people of the region have continued to resist what they consider foreign occupation.

The group also accused the Chinese government of engaging in demographic manipulation, citing a rise in the Han Chinese settler population from less than 4% in 1949 to over 40% today. According to the ETGE, this shift has been facilitated by military-backed settlement programs and the activities of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

Beyond demographic changes, the statement highlighted ongoing allegations of human rights abuses, including mass internment, forced labour, surveillance, religious persecution, and cultural suppression. These actions, the ETGE says, amount to genocide and colonial domination.

"The people of East Turkistan are not a minority within China but a nation under occupation," the group states.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/43176835

A newly proposed law in China would provide a broad legal framework to justify existing repression and force assimilation of minority populations throughout the country and abroad, Human Rights Watch said today. Once passed, the law could be used to facilitate intensifying ideological controls, target ethnic and religious minorities including by erasing minority language rights, and foster control beyond China’s borders.

The 62-article draft Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress was submitted to the National People’s Congress, China’s legislature, on September 8, 2025. An official explanatory document states that the law “implements General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important thinking” on ethnic affairs and promotes “the common prosperity and development of all ethnic groups … along the path of rule of law.”

[...]

The draft law prescribes a rigid and uniform ideological framework for China. In its preamble, it asserts an unbroken historical continuity of the modern People’s Republic of China, established in 1949, as “a civilization with a history of over 5,000 years” that has forged “a unified multi-ethnic nation” under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Xi Jinping has increasingly emphasized this narrative and these specific phrases while adopting ethnic policies characterized by forced assimilation.

[...]

Under article 20(2), parents and guardians would be required to “educate and guide minors to love the Chinese Communist Party,” and “establish the concept that all ethnic groups of the Chinese nation are one family and shall not teach minors concepts detrimental to ethnic unity and progress.”

[...]

In Tibet, criticism of the government or party, such as championing language rights or raising concerns about mass relocations, is often construed as damaging “ethnic unity” and punished by imprisonment under existing laws.

In Xinjiang, the Chinese government has justified its cultural persecution and other crimes against humanity toward Uyghurs in terms similar to those contained in the draft law. Its abusive Strike-Hard Campaign targets anyone who “challenges … ethnic unity,” categorizing some peaceful expressions and behavior by Uyghurs, such as studying the Quran without state permission, as “ideological viruses.”

[...]

The draft law seeks to erase previously guaranteed rights of minorities to “use and develop their own language” as stipulated in the 1984 Law on Regional National Autonomy, emphasizing instead the dominance of Mandarin Chinese.

For example, the 1984 law states that government agencies in minority areas “shall … use one or several languages commonly used in the locality.” But article 15(3) of the draft law states that “if it is necessary to issue documents in minority languages and scripts,” agencies should accompany it with a version in Mandarin Chinese and that it should be clear that “the national common language” is “given prominence.” Such practices have already been required, at least in the Tibetan Autonomous Region.

[...]

In Tibet, Xinjiang, and Inner Mongolia, the authorities have already significantly reduced students’ access to education in their mother tongue, despite strong opposition and protests by students, teachers, and parents.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/43149989

Archived

In China’s digital landscape, even feelings can be subject to government regulation. On September 22, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) announced its latest “Clear and Clean” (清朗) campaign—this time targeting the “malicious incitement of negative emotions” (恶意挑动负面情绪) across social media, short video, and livestreaming platforms. The two-month campaign promises to crack down on everything from “group antagonism” to “excessive rendering of pessimistic emotions.”

How will run-of-the-mill negativity be distinguished from the incitement of negativity? Is feeling and speaking with positivity now the law of the land? The next enforcement step, naturally, will have to be vigilant policing of the use of extravagant positivity to maliciously poke fun at the leadership. Sound ridiculous? It is already policy elsewhere, in the Chinese Communist Party’s active posture toward “low-level red” and “high-level black” — more in this paper on the topic.

Just the latest absurdly overweening action by the CAC, the notice is a prime example of how political and legal enforcement operate under the CCP [Chinese Communist Party]. Rather than relying on consistent, transparent rules applied uniformly across platforms, China’s officials and regulators turn to sweeping “special actions” (专项行动) announced throughout the year, granting officials across the country’s vast bureaucracy broad discretionary power to pursue vaguely defined violations and make examples of bad actors — all with the goal of instilling fear and reshaping online discourse.

[...]

And fear is the point — whether we are speaking about the ethos of the regulators themselves, or about their tactics. Fear is the fundamental tool applied by agencies like the CAC and offices like the Central Propaganda Department to enforce political controls. A fearful journalist or editor, unable to see the red lines, will think twice. A fearful platform, like RedNote or Bilibili, will turn up the pace on deletions and account suspensions to ensure they “comply.”

[...]

Cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/43104419

Archived

Article 1 of North Korea’s Reactionary Ideology and Culture Rejection Act, passed in 2020, outlines why Pyongyang believes the legislation is necessary: The law “contributes to the strengthening of our sense of ideology, revolution, and social class by launching a powerful battle to obstruct the inflow and distribution of reactionary ideology and culture and anti-socialist ideology and culture.” Article 7 adds that strict punishments, including the death penalty, will be applied to any citizen “bringing in, viewing, and distributing reactionary ideology and culture, depending on the severity, regardless of the reason and the offender’s social class.”

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/41381331

Archived

• Recommendations from United Nations report ignored by China
• New testimony reveals Muslim ethnic minorities in Xinjiang still suffering repression
• “Families of detainees continue to seek truth, justice and freedom for all those suffering in the Uyghur region” – Sarah Brooks

Families of detainees in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region have told Amnesty International of their continued suffering, three years after a major UN report said China was responsible for “serious human rights violations”.

On 31 August 2022, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released a historic assessment concluding that serious human rights violations in the Uyghur region “may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity”. In a major report published in 2021, Amnesty International also found that China’s treatment of Muslim ethnic minorities in the Uyghur region amounted to crimes against humanity.

However, the international community and the UN has yet to act on these findings. The Chinese government also continues to intimidate and silence victims’ families, and maintain repressive laws and policies in the region.

"Lives have been ruined, families separated and communities dismantled by the Chinese authorities’ continuing cruelty," says Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s China Director.

“Every day without action means more families are torn apart.”

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/40820876

The Center for Uyghur Studies (CUS) has released a new report, “Exposing China’s Propaganda Campaigns in MENA”, which documents how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is conducting coordinated propaganda and influence operations across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The report reveals how Beijing’s state media, diplomatic networks, economic leverage, and cultural outreach are systematically used to reshape regional perceptions, silence criticism of its human rights abuses, particularly against Uyghur Muslims, and promote narratives favorable to the CCP.

The study finds that China’s propaganda strategy in MENA is not limited to promoting trade or diplomatic goodwill, but is part of a deliberate effort to whitewash its record on mass internment, surveillance, forced labor, and religious repression in the Uyghur homeland.

Tactics include Arabic-language state media broadcasts, content-sharing agreements with local outlets, the recruitment of regional influencers, coordinated social media manipulation, and the export of Chinese surveillance technology. These influence operations are reinforced by cultural and educational channels, such as the rapid expansion of Confucius Institutes and scholarship programs, and framed around themes of anti-colonialism, non-interference, and supposed solidarity with the Muslim world.

[...]

“China’s propaganda in the Middle East and North Africa is sophisticated, well-funded, and increasingly effective in shaping perceptions while erasing the truth about the Uyghur Genocide. At the same time, China is also bringing massive corruption into the MENA region.” said Executive Director Abdulhakim Idris, “If the atrocities against Uyghur Muslims continue to be ignored in the Muslim world, it will represent not only a failure of diplomacy but a profound moral betrayal. This report is a call to action for governments, media, and civil society to defend truth and justice.”

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/39451341

Archived

A visiting US-based Chinese human rights advocate on Sunday urged Taiwanese to better understand authoritarianism in China, after observing the outcome of Saturday’s recall elections against 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers.

Sophie Luo Shengchun (羅勝春), the wife of jailed Chinese human rights lawyer Ding Jiaxi (丁家喜), said that witnessing the elections firsthand reminded her of how precious and resilient Taiwanese democracy is.

“If people do not understand China’s authoritarianism, they cannot truly appreciate Taiwan’s freedom,” she said, recounting her experience of being forced to flee China due to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution of her husband.

[...]

The CCP’s “suppression of free speech, arbitrary detention, torture and acts of genocide are serious threats that the democratic world should remain highly vigilant against,” she said, urging Taiwanese to gain a deeper understanding of the situation in China.

[...]

Wester Yang (楊若暉), public affairs director of the overseas Chinese student group Assembly of Citizens, said Taiwan’s open environment shows how valuable freedom is.

“Even the air here feels fresh,” he said, adding that China’s influence operations in Taiwan is not fictional, but a “bloodless yet profound silent war.”

Yang called on Taiwanese to remain vigilant and to support global efforts for human rights and democratic transformation in China.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/38587333

Archived

[...]

China’s growing joint operations with Russia also pose serious security concerns to Japan, along with increasing tension around Taiwan and threats coming from North Korea, the Defense Ministry said in an annual military report submitted to Cabinet on Tuesday.

“The international society is in a new crisis era as it faces the biggest challenges since the end of World War II,” the report said, citing significant changes to the global power balance while raising concerns about an escalation of the China-U.S. rivalry.

The security threats are concentrated in the Indo-Pacific, where Japan is located, and could get worse in the future, the report said.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/38367381

This is an op-ed by Amalendu Misra, Professor of International Politics, Lancaster University.

The Brics group of nations has just concluded its 17th annual summit in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro. But, despite member states adopting a long list of commitments covering global governance, finance, health, AI and climate change, the summit was a lacklustre affair.

The two most prominent leaders from the group’s founding members – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – were conspicuously absent. Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, only attended virtually due to an outstanding arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court over his role in the war in Ukraine.

China’s Xi Jinping avoided the summit altogether for unknown reasons, sending his prime minister, Li Qiang, instead. This was Xi’s first no-show at a Brics summit, with the snub prompting suggestions that Beijing’s enthusiasm for the group as part of an emerging new world order is in decline.

[...]

The Brics group is a behemoth. Its full 11 members account for 40% of the world’s population and economy. But the bloc is desperately short of providing any cohesive alternative global leadership.

While Brazil used its position as host to highlight Brics as a truly multilateral forum capable of providing leadership in a new world order, such ambitions are thwarted by the many contradictions plaguing this bloc.

Among these are tensions between founding members China and India, which have been running high for decades.

There are other contradictions, too. In their joint Rio declaration, the group’s members decried the recent Israeli and US attacks on Iran. Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, also used his position as summit host to criticise the Israeli offensive in Gaza.

But this moral high ground appears hollow when you consider that the Russian Federation, a key member of Brics, is on a mission to destroy Ukraine. And rather than condemning Russia, Brics leaders used the Rio summit to criticise recent Ukrainian attacks on Russia’s railway infrastructure.

[...]

Brics declared intention to address the issue of climate change is also problematic. The Rio declaration conveyed the group’s support for multilateralism and unity to achieve the goals of the Paris agreement. But, despite China making significant advances in its green energy sector, Brics contains some of the world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases as well as several of the largest oil and gas producers.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/38298775

Archived

• Massive industrial overcapacity in China – driven by aggressive state subsidies – is pushing down prices and profits, particularly in the auto sector.
• Beijing is trying to rein in «disorderly price competition» by tightening controls and guiding the orderly shutdown of uncompetitive firms.
• Analysts warn of looming bankruptcies, deflationary pressure and potential social unrest, as heavily indebted giants like BYD and Nio come under growing scrutiny.

China’s leadership is struggling to rein in the forces it helped unleash. For years, President Xi Jinping has championed industrial expansion, urging Chinese companies to ramp up output, especially in strategic sectors like solar energy, electric vehicles and battery manufacturing. In the Communist Party’s official terminology, this is known as «high-quality development.»

Local governments, tasked with driving economic policy on the ground, eagerly answered the call – pumping vast subsidies into industrial buildouts. But the result is becoming hard to ignore: Across a range of industries, China is now grappling with massive overcapacity. The glut is driving down prices and eroding profits. In May, industrial earnings dropped 9.1% compared with a year earlier.

Now, the central government is hitting the brakes. Over the past ten days, the state-run People’s Daily has published two commentaries on the issue. One blamed a «volatile external environment and weak domestic demand» for «distorting the market mechanism» across several industries. A «race to the bottom,» it warned, is already underway.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/38235953

Archived

China’s ambassador to Manila was summoned after Beijing imposed sanctions on a former Filipino senator who has been critical of China’s aggressive actions in the disputed South China Sea, Philippine officials said Tuesday.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said last week that it was indefinitely prohibiting former Philippine senator Francis Tolentino from entering China and its territories of Hong Kong and Macao.

The ministry alluded to Tolentino as being among anti-China politicians who have resorted to “malicious words and deeds” that have harmed China’s interests and undermined China-Philippines relations.

“The Chinese government is determined to defend its national sovereignty, security and development interests,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.

Philippine officials said the barring of Tolentino was “inconsistent with the norms of mutual respect.”

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/38133646

Archived

China is to triple the number of facilities [in the Xinjiang Region] it uses to forcibly harvest the organs of detained Uyghur people, it has been claimed.

Experts have raised the alarm after it emerged that the Xinjiang Health Commission, a branch of China’s national health authority, plans to build six new medical centres by 2030, bringing the total in the region to nine – more than any other province in the country.

The expansion has heightened concerns over China’s treatment of Uyghur people, against whom the government already stands accused of genocide.

Beijing has also been accused of forcibly harvesting the organs of prisoners from minority groups and, in some cases, selling them to wealthy recipients willing to pay the equivalent of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of pounds.

[...]

An international tribunal, conducted in the UK in 2019, found that as many as 100,000 organ transplants had been carried out in China annually – nearly three times the number that its government reported to the international register.

Sayragul Sauytbay, a Kazakh doctor who was previously detained in Xinjiang, has spoken publicly about camp-wide “health checks” where detainees had their blood tested and, depending on their results, were then sorted into groups.

She began to notice that those who were given a pink check mark would soon disappear, concluding it was because of “organ harvesting”.

While the decision to build the new facilities was made in December last year, the plans have only recently been made public by End Transplant Abuse in China (ETAC), an Australia-based campaign group.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/38115904

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This is an op-ed by Chen Kuan-ting, one of Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party legislator and a member of the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. Sana Hashmi is a fellow at the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation.

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For years, Taiwan has weathered economic coercion, military threats, diplomatic isolation, political interference, espionage and disinformation, but the direct targeting of elected leaders abroad signals an alarming escalation in Beijing’s campaign of hostility.

Czech military intelligence recently uncovered a plot that reads like fiction, but is all too real. Chinese diplomats and civil secret service in Prague had planned to ram the motorcade of then-vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and physically assault her during her visit to the Czech Republic in March last year.

Taiwanese officials have rightly labeled this as “transnational repression.” We should call it what it is: endangering the life of a democratically elected leader. Although Czech authorities thwarted the plot, the warning is clear: Beijing is willing to cross any line to threaten and silence Taiwanese leadership. This cannot be allowed to become the new normal. In a world that claims to be governed by a rules-based international order, this was nothing short of a planned political attack, one that must not be dismissed or normalized under the cover of the “one China” policy.

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The Prague incident marks a new threshold: What was once intimidation is now premeditated violence. This is not diplomacy; it is state-sponsored coercion.

This is happening now because Beijing’s traditional tactics are faltering. Taiwan has grown more resilient, deepening its partnerships across Europe and Asia, and garnering broader international support. As diplomatic poaching yields diminishing returns, China is resorting to more extreme measures to intimidate Taiwanese leaders and deter others from engaging with Taipei. The strategy is plain: To keep Taiwan off the international stage and isolate it by any means necessary.

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If the world is serious about upholding a rules-based order, now is the time to draw firm boundaries and stand together in its defense.

“Taiwan will not be isolated by intimidation,” Hsiao said.

Indeed, Taiwan will neither be intimidated nor silenced. However, the international community must do its part: Support Taiwan’s right to exist, engage and remain secure. A stable Indo-Pacific region and a functioning international order are impossible if Taiwan is left vulnerable to violence, coercion and repression.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/37947475

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THE Centre for Natural Resource Governance (CNRG), a civil society and human rights organization, is pleading with the government of Zimbabwe to urgently rein in the operations of a Magunje-based Chinese miner over a web of human rights violations.

alleged that China-based West International Holdings, in partnership with local Labenmon Investments, following documented human rights abuses, forced displacements, and environmental destruction linked to the Magunje cement and mining projects, has presided over gross human rights abuses.

CNRG said the two companies are jointly investing US$1 billion to construct a cement plant in Magunje, Mashonaland West, with a production capacity of 900,000 tons of cement per year, and 1.8 million tons of clinker, supported by a 100MW captive power plant. The investment is also expected to generate 5,000 jobs.

"However, the promise of economic opportunity is being undermined by allegations of land grabs, community exclusion, and rights violations in the host area.

"Following growing distress calls from the community, CNRG visited the area and documented overwhelming evidence of land dispossession, intimidation, pollution, and labour exploitation in the name of clean energy and development," said CNRG.

Part of the findings was that families were uprooted from their ancestral land without compensation after the companies took advantage of fraudulent consultation exercises.

The organisation reported that eight villagers from Kapere, including the Headman, were arrested for protecting their land and have been repeatedly appearing in Karoi Magistrate Court, despite the absence of the complainants.

CNRG staff were also threatened by armed Zimbabwe National Army personnel at a mining site in Kemapondo village.

Magunje Dam, a vital source of water for thousands of residents, is allegedly being polluted by effluent discharge from the cement plant, leading to the destruction of farmlands and gardens following fires ignited by the company during a land-clearing exercise.

The mining rights-based organisation said workers employed by the companies are operating under unsafe conditions, political discrimination, lack of contracts and low wages that are pegged below the National Employment Council (NEC) agreed rates.

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Mining operations have long been fraught with environmental disasters and human rights issues. For China, the growing coverage of these issues increasingly challenges its framing of its operations as mutually beneficial and aligned with global green energy goals.

In 2024, President Xi Jinping said China's relations with Africa were enjoying their "best period in history". This view is echoed in China's media coverage, with focus on the successes and emphasis on the "win-win" narratives about its operations.

The "win-win" slogan was found to resonate in North African social media discussions, where users expressed greater trust in China than other Western or regional partners.

A timeline of rights abuses by Chinese mining companies in Africa by British broadcaster BBC presents a different perspective - one that is more prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa than it is in the north. It offers a glimpse into the steady negative coverage threatening China's image in its longstanding relationship with Africa.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/37905152

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The [Ukrainian] foreign ministry said that Russian use of anti-personnel mines since 2014, which increased after the full-scale invasion of 2022, has created an unequal situation that limits Ukraine’s right to self-defence.

In his nightly video address, Zelensky accused Moscow of “using anti-personnel mines with utmost cynicism” in Ukrainian territory and of seeking to “destroy life by all means at their disposal”. He also described anti-personnel mines as “often the instrument for which nothing can be substituted for defence purposes”.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/37845691

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The Philippines and Lithuania signed an agreement to build a security alliance resulting from their mutual alarm over what they perceive as growing aggression threatening their regions by countries such as China.

The memorandum of understanding signed Monday in Manila by Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. and his Lithuanian counterpart, Dovilė Šakalienė, would foster defense cooperation particularly in cyber security, defense industries, munitions production, addressing threats and maritime security, the Department of National Defense in Manila said.

Šakalienė described Lithuania’s alarm over an emerging “authoritarian axis” of Russia, China, North Korea and Iran, which she raised in an international defense forum in Singapore last month. The emerging alliance needed to be confronted by a unified response from pro-democracy countries, she said.

“What we see now is that authoritarian states are really cooperating very efficiently,” Šakalienė said at a news conference with Teodoro. “One of the worst results is the cooperation on Ukraine.”

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Šakalienė cited China’s actions toward Taiwan and Filipino fishermen in the disputed South China Sea, which Beijing has claimed virtually in its entirety. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have been involved in prolonged territorial standoffs but confrontations between Chinese and Philippine coast guard and naval forces have particularly spiked in recent years.

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The Philippines has adopted a strategy of shaming China by documenting Beijing’s assertive actions in the disputed waters, a key global trade route, to rally international support.

“We see these horrifying materials, videos of how they are threatening Filipino fishermen, how they are treating people who are simply making their living in their own waters, in their own territory,” Šakalienė said. “If they work together to threaten us, then we must work together to defend ourselves.”

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Šakalienė expressed support to former Filipino senator Francis Tolentino while in the capital for talks aimed at deepening defense ties between the two countries.

Tolentino was sanctioned by China on Tuesday for his strong criticisms of Beijing’s acts of aggression and for his work on two new laws, which demarcated Philippine territorial zones, including in parts of the South China Sea that Beijing claims.

Šakalienė said she and her family had also been sanctioned by China and banned from entering the country for her strong criticisms of China’s aggression and human rights record.

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Šakalienė said that in the Baltic Sea, Chinese ships and crew members have helped suspected Russian fleets damage undersea oil pipelines, and data and electricity cables belonging to rival European nations like Lithuania by dragging steel anchors on the seafloor. She warned that such acts of sabotage could also be carried out in Asia by China and Russia.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/37731125

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China's top diplomat Wang Yi heads to Europe on Monday seeking a closer relationship that can provide an "anchor of stability" in the world and act as a counterweight to the United States [...] but deep frictions remain over both the economy – including a yawning trade deficit of $357.1 billion between China and the EU – and Beijing's continuing close ties with Russia despite Moscow's war in Ukraine.

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The war in Ukraine will likely be high on the agenda, with European leaders having been forthright in condemning what they see as Beijing's support of Moscow.

China has portrayed itself as a neutral party in Russia's more than three-year war with Ukraine.

But Western governments say Beijing's close ties have given Moscow crucial economic and diplomatic support, and they have urged China to do more to press Russia to end the war.

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Ties between Europe and China have also strained in recent years as the EU seeks to get tougher on what it says are unfair economic practices by Beijing.

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Tensions flared this month after the EU banned Chinese firms from government medical device purchases worth more than €5 million ($5.8 million) in retaliation for limits Beijing places on access to its own market.

The latest salvo in trade tensions between the 27-nation bloc and China covered a wide range of healthcare supplies, from surgical masks to X-ray machines, that represent a market worth €150 billion in the EU.

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